Vol. 38, No. 4
Triple Ingathering Blessings
Nothing is more thrilling to one who
really believes in the soon fteturn of Jesus
than to be united with a church that is
placing unrestrained emphasis on soul win-
ning and seeing the results that obviously
follow. To be part of a divinely directed
movement that takes the great commission
to heart gives a soul-satisfaction that is
elsewhere unknown.
This year our emphasis has been placed
on Field Adventuring, and through the
promotion of this phase of the work new
soul winners are joining the ranks of God’s
militant army of truth beaters,
Field Adventuring is really nothing new,
for we have had a host of loyal workers and
laymen adventuring for God for a long,
long time,
One of the greatest modern-day adven-
turers was Jasper Wayne. His heart was
warm with a desire to win souls for God’s
kingdom. He had faith and willingness to
try an adventure, and God blessed his ad-
venture and made it a success. With a supply
of message-filled papers he set out to dis-
tribute them and in return receive freewill
gifts for God's ever-expanding work on
the earth. As a result of his adventure,
today we have the world-circling, triple-
blessing Ingathering campaign.
In North America we have come to look
at Ingathering through needs of a world-
wide program of expanding missions. Some-
times we have felt rather remote from the
soul winning that Ingathering made possible
in other lands. Today I am writing these
lines from one of these remote places which
in North America we term a mission field.
It is a field where last year 1,366 new be-
lievers were baptized into the church. In-
gathering funds made possible educational
facilities, public evangelistic programs, and
health institutions, which are the backbone
of soul winning in these parts. We have
just completed our annual meetings here;
and with an even larger budget at our dis-
posal this year, we find that the prospects
are for a much greater harvest of souls.
Many of these souls are reached by funds
made available through Ingathering dollars.
Yes, your  Ingathering dollars are soul-
winning dollars,
Another; and perhaps more important,
among the triple-blessing results of In-
gathering is the Christian visits that we
ate privileged to make. In homes that ate
bathed in the atmosphere of worldliness, the
Christian worker pauses on his heaven-
ordained mission to give the occupants an
opportunity to hear what the great God is
doing in a world not wholly under Satan’s
influence, and to make a financial invest-
meat in that work, Many times we have
felt a warm handclasp and heard the words,
THE CHURCH OFFICERS GAZETTE
“I'm glad you came to my home. Come
again.”
A worker often gains access to the office
of a busy industrial executive who has many
opportunities to give to charitable causes,
and who is sometimes annoyed by such
petitions. But with prayerful lips and ac-
companied by an angel messenger, the
Christian wotker brings to that office the
atmosphere of heaven; and another oppor-
tunity is afforded the Holy Spirit to work
on the heart of one whose life otherwise
may be wholly absorbed in the lust for
worldly gains. Such contacts often lead the
conversing parties to their knees in prayer
and result in starting a soul toward the
kingdom.
We have many different ways of contact-
ing people in Ingathering. They all may be
soul-winning contacts if we make them so.
Somehow Ingathering seems to have a force
to lead us to make interviews that we might
otherwise never make. The third of our
tri-blessings comes to the individual worker,
not to the needy mission field, not to our
Michigan Ingathering Makes
Friends
The Ingathering campaign in Michigan
is considered our greatest single missionary
enterprise. The thought in this statement
has been attributed to Elder Spicer; and,
we believe, it is worthy of strong emphasis.
Ingathering contacts should be the means of
making friends for the church and friends
for God. Of course the receiving of funds
is important; but it should be the purpose
of every minister,and every layman, as he
makes calls for funds, to leave the donot
as a friend. Better to leave him as a friend
though no offering is received than to get
an offering and leave ill will behind.
We try to get everyone to take part in
the Ingathering. Our Home Missionary
Department, under the leadership of §. M.
McCormick, has promoted this “missionary
enterprise” among our churches on the
basis that evety bit of territory must be
worked and as far as possible every human
being contacted. This is to be done whether
an offering is received or not. It is also
planned that a piece of literature be left
with every call.
There has been a good response on the
part of the public and the friends of
Seventh-day Adveatists in Michigan toward
the Ingathering. Money received in 1947
21
confused and bewildered neighbor who is
contacted, but to the worker of God who
is sent by divine commission to do this
work. Life eternal is a gift of God given
freely to all who accept, but we must keep
that gift when we have received it; and
strange as it may seem, the only way tw
keep it is to give it away—to share it with
others. The only way that a Christian can
keep his own spiritual vigor is to share
salvation’s story.
And so it is that the Ingathering worker
keeps aglow the love of the message by
giving to others.
With these tri-blessings ever evident in
our great Ingathering missionary enterprise,
it would seem that this were in some ways
the most efficient single soul-winning agency
that we have. Let us ever remember that
the church was established to evangelize,
and our evety endeavor then should be
directed toward that end. “He that winneth
souls is wise.”
—FE. C. WEBSTER, JR.
amounted to $84,121.17; in 1948, $107,-
405.00; and in 1949, $135,474.16, and in
1950, $141,823.07. The per capitas also in- |
creased from 1947 two 1950 as follows:
1947, $6.99; 1948, $8.97; 1949, $11.26;
1950, $11.73.
It has no doubt been the habit of most
of our people through the years to say to
the ones on whom they call that our visits
are made but once a year. We have tried
to forget this phraseology. Some different
thinking has been impressed upon us by
some on whom we call. When a visit was
made on a businessman some time ago,
we told him we call just once a year. He
asked how many churches we had in that
particular city, and we told him three. He
then remarked that he supposed we had one
campaign for each of the three churches
once a year. We were surprised and told
him No, it is just one campaign for all of
them. This was interesting to him, for he’
had taken for granted that it was a single
campaign for each church. He then informed
us that they had seveateen Catholic churches
in that area, and they put on a campaign
for each of the seventeen churches. From
this and other experiences we learned that
it is not too difficult to go back over the
same territory in the course of a year or
to go for a school and a church over the
same territory with a few weeks interval.
It is really necessary to call oftener than once