I took an early retirement in 2003, from a career of teaching in the public school system. By the following year, I was ready to volunteer my time to doing some kind of domestic preaching work. When checking into how to go about doing this by talking to members of the CBMA, they directed me to get in touch with brethren on the east coast of the U.S. who had many names and addresses of contacts through the A.S.K. (Advancement of Scriptural Knowledge) program. I got started by driving to Washington, D.C. and then spent the next four months going to various ecclesias on the east coast (I was at Echo Lake, N.J., on two different occasions). I stayed with a Christadelphian family each time and basically went out twice a day to look up contacts with the intent of talking to them and inviting them to a Bible class at the local ecclesia. Around half of the time there was a brother or sister who volunteered to go with me and direct me as to how to get to our destination — as well as assisting me in the preaching part. When that happened — for obvious reasons — it was a much better method than my “going it alone” (without GPS!). It was a wonderful experience to meet so many brothers and sisters and to view their willingness to provide for my needs as I tried to help their ecclesia. I never sensed any feeling of intrusion — although I must have interrupted plenty of schedules!
During a portion of my travels, I ended up traveling throughout West Virginia where Sis. Jean Cheetham of Moorestown, N.J. (the secretary of the Atlantic Coast A.S.K. Program) had corresponded with a number of contacts. There was one contact in the central part — Montgomery — that was so interested that I ended up going back to see her on several occasions. She was eventually baptized into Christ about a year later. That was, one could say, the tangible success story. But there was always a very good and satisfying feeling of “planting and watering” while knowing that it was God’s work to “give the increase”.
Before arriving at my first stop in Washington, D.C., I had gone from my home in Austin to northwest Alabama to meet with a very small group of brethren (three sisters in Christ and one man, the husband of one of the sisters, who was shortly thereafter baptized) at the request of a Christadelphian sister from Detroit who was related to all. I had gotten reacquainted with her at a Bible School earlier that year. On my way back to Texas at the completion of my Northern tour, I went to Alabama again and met with a brother from Detroit (Livonia) whose ecclesia supported the Alabama brethren and a brother from the CBMA to work out the details of my moving there. Soon after I got home and worked out some things there, I moved to Alabama in January 2005 and stayed through June 2007. It was a very rewarding experience since the “running” of the ecclesia was basically my responsibility. We did have four baptisms during the time I was there — all members of the original family by blood or by marriage. We tried any number of preaching activities during that time including two occasions — in different towns — of sponsoring the “Learn to Read the Bible Effectively” seminar and two consecutive summers where Truth Corps came and stayed for around two weeks. We did much door-to-door work to invite people to various Bible talks by visiting brethren. I finally left to return to Austin only when a married Christadelphian couple from Michigan agreed to come and take my place.
What did I learn from these experiences? Though it may sound like a cliché, it really isn’t — I learned to put my trust in God and to truly believe that He was with me and my brothers and sisters in Christ and would, in whatever was He saw fit, bless our efforts. Through both positive and negative experiences, I saw the benefit of what Jesus did in sending out his apostles two by two. In every way imaginable, going with a partner beats going alone. I also tried very hard to not impose my views on the local ecclesia but to listen to what they had to say and go about this work in the way that they wanted. The majority of the time, they were very open and willing to go about things in the way I suggested, but if they had other ideas, I was fine in doing it their way.
I believe it should be possible to enlist a couple of young brothers to do a similar thing to what I did. They would need to find a geographical area willing to sponsor them — say California or Ontario or Florida — where there were a number of ecclesias not too far from each other. They would need a car of their own (as I had); a goal — to look up contacts (e.g., from www. thisisyourbible.com), try to talk to them (using the Truth Corps flip-chart presentation would be one way) and invite them to a local Bible class, seminar, etc.; and a group of ecclesias who were willing to house them and take care of their needs and help in any way they needed. As Jesus told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2 ESV).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One