Recruiting and Training Volunteers
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themselves. When an effort is made to present our faith to unbelievers,
the members of the church too often stand back, as though they were
not an interested party, and let all the burden rest upon the minister.
For this reason the labor of our most able ministers has been at times
productive of little good. The very best sermons may be preached, the
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message may be just what the people need, and yet no souls are gained
as sheaves to present to Christ.
In laboring where there are some already in the faith, the minister
should at first seek not so much to convert unbelievers as to secure his
army of workers. Let him labor for the members of the church individ-
ually, seeking to arouse them to gain a deeper experience themselves,
and to work for others. When the members of the church are prepared
to sustain the minister by their prayers and labors, greater success will
attend his efforts.—
Gospel Workers, 196
.
Vocational Witnessing
Every member of every vocation has as much responsibility to
advance the cause as does the minister—When a minister who has
labored successfully in securing souls to Jesus Christ abandons his
sacred work in order to secure temporal gain, he is called an apostate,
and he will be held accountable to God for the talents that he has
misapplied. When men of business, farmers, mechanics, merchants,
lawyers, etc., become members of the church, they become servants
of Christ; and although their talents may be entirely different, their
responsibility to advance the cause of God by personal effort, and
with their means, is no less than that which rests upon the minister.
The woe which will fall upon the minister if he preach not the gospel,
will just as surely fall upon the businessman, if he, with his different
talents, will not be a co-worker with Christ in accomplishing the same
results. When this is brought home to the individual, some will say,
“This is an hard saying;” nevertheless it is true, although continually
contradicted by the practice of men who profess to be followers of
Christ.—
Testimonies for the Church 4:468
.
Faithful members minister through their vocations—We must
be full of Christ and then we shall estimate worldly things in the
light of God, and when at work upon your farms, when engaged in
your business vocations, you are not separating your souls from God,