By J. B. Chapman, 1946
I want to propose “All Out for Souls” as a battle cry. I was born in the fire, and I cannot endure the smoke. I am a child of the bright daylight: mists and fogs and depressing gloom are not to my liking. I want to go all out for souls.
I know we have some matters of policy to think about in this conference, but I wish these matters might take their places as spokes in a wheel, the hub of which is soul passion, soul burden, souls! Souls! Souls that are lost! Souls for whom Christ died! Souls that are near and dear to us! Souls for whom we care and for whom we pray! Souls for whom no one cares and for whom no one prays! Souls! All out for souls!
I glory in our denominational history. Even with its setbacks, it is a romance all the way. I am glad we have a big Manual, even though there are now so many rules and regulations that I am not always sure I know what they all imply. I am glad for our departments. I am heartily in favor of good church buildings and parsonages and Sunday school equipment.
I am glad for our world-wide mission, for our Publishing House and the periodicals that it sends out, for our district organizations that keep our people united and efficient, and for our denominational headquarters, the Seminary, the radio, and everything that, by the help of the good God, we have been able to gain.
I think we have gone about far enough on at least some of these lines. I hope our legislative and judicial systems will become static at about their present level…After a certain point, organization, like added belts and pulleys, becomes a hindrance to efficiency and unity, and I think the history of denominations shows that some bodies have carried on their changes in the interest of static existence, rather than in the interest of vital life and true progress.
In other words, I do not believe there are many more worlds for us to conquer in the way of order, organization, and law. Let us stop now with the gains we have made on the matters of order, organization, and law, and let us turn to the fields of vital accomplishment where are new and larger worlds to conquer than either our fathers or we have known.
I propose that we get down before God in sackcloth and dust and ashes, and that we pray until we pray. That we then preach until we preach with unction, and that we win the victory for God and for souls.
I want a revival that, like a summer shower, will purify the atmosphere of our churches everywhere, and that will awaken the dormant forces of our people young and old. I want something so general and so divine that it will be uncontrollable. I want something that will re-emphasize old-time moral and spiritual conditions. Something that will reform and regenerate drunkards and save respectable worldlings. Something that will bring in the youth and the little children. Something so attractive that it will break over into the circles of the pleasure loving.
I want a revival that will set people on their back tracks to make restitution for wrongs committed. Something that will bring God to bear upon our domestic problems to save our people from the twin evils of divorce and race suicide. Something that will inject honesty, veracity, purity, and other-world-mindedness into our preachers and people. Something that will make this namby-pamby, soft-handed, compromising, cringing sort of holiness as obsolete as Phariseeism was on the Day of Pentecost. Something that reveals a man's credentials by means of souls saved and sanctified and established in Christ Jesus.
It will take a changed leadership to bring it about, but that change can come in the present personnel as well as it could come by a change in personnel. Our churches need new pastors. God grant that the men who have charge of the churches now shall become new men! We need new general and district superintendents. May the good God grant us new ones, either by making us, who now encumber, over new or by replacing us with the type of men God designs us to be!
Some of our large local churches have shown no growth in membership within a period of years. Some of our strongest districts make a very poor showing in terms of souls saved and members gained. The fault is deeper and more fundamental: there is not enough heartbreak over the lost, not enough soul burden, not enough groaning and weeping and fasting and crying.
John Knox was a great preacher. But Queen Mary admitted that it was his prayers she feared. John Wesley was a scholar, but he would sooner preach without intellectual than without spiritual preparation…. He feared there would be a time when (the denomination) would build institutions and initiate programs that would require the help of the rich, and that they would then tone down their message so it would not offend the rich, and the movement would become decadent.
John Wesley said that no revival could well be permanent, because the fruits of a revival have a way of devouring the revival itself. He said that a revival requires such devotion on the part of those who promote it that it must find its promoters among the poor and humble. But when people become true Christians, they become industrious, frugal, and provident, and these are the prime conditions of prosperity. Converts of the revival become trustworthy and efficient; these are the elements that rightly lead to promotion.
Then, the converts of the revival, within a short time, become well to do and are promoted to places of responsibility and honor. They become careless about prayer and sacrifice, and soon the conditions for revival are wanting, the revival itself passes, and the conditions go back to the place where the revival is needed, but is not forthcoming.
Dr. P. F. Bresee was a seraphic pulpiteer and a wise leader. He came to the pulpit with shining face because he, like Moses, had spent his time in the mount with God; and his successful altar services in practically every Sunday morning service were not accidents, but were the logical sequence and consequence of a day and a night spent in groaning and tears before the Lord.
We speak not only of the unfinished task of Christianizing the world, but of that other task which Dr. Bresee called "Christianizing Christianity." For we have, in addition to the task of preaching Christ to those who have not yet found Him, the further task of bringing the people of God into the grace and blessing of Bible sanctification. We preach holiness, but we must also be holy and help others to become so.
I know you can organize churches. I know you can help fit pastors and churches. I know you can operate the machinery of the church, and I want you to do these things. But I would not make these the standard to measure your fitness for your present task. I ask you, “Do you love souls? Do you find it possible to pray for souls with heartbreak and with tears? Do you preach with passion and unction and do you make souls your aim? I know you ask our evangelists to do these things. I know you want the pastors to be like that.” But I ask you, “Are you like that? How long since you have gone through the throes of birth pains for the deliverance of the ungodly?” And I must not excuse myself.
For a general or a district superintendent to interpret the principal responsibility of the office in terms of business meetings and the improved functioning of machinery is to demote the office to a position unworthy of the time of a God-anointed preacher of the gospel. Let the name continue, but make the office imply intercession with God more than tact with unspiritual church bosses and lame encumberers of the ministerial office.
Is it possible that we can be content to raise money, make pastoral arrangements, conduct district assemblies, and yet suffer the spiritual leadership and soul-saving success of the movement to atrophy before our eyes and pass away forever? Is there no one that can wake us up? Is there no way to start a fire in our bones that will cause enough heat to make the water of our concern boil and become powerful steam?
We have done good things, but we have made a poor showing with the best things. We have been occupied with the means, and have not in sufficient measure reached the end. We should have done what we have done without accounting it the purpose. We should do these things again, and better, but should turn more definitely to the one thing that can keep us from becoming just another denomination. Just a people with a circle of influence, and a nest of static contentment!
The greatest lack there is among us is our want of life-shortening soul passion. And even when we champion the cause of soul burden and revivals, we do our chore principally in talking. It is our complacency that agitates me. Our hearts are really broken. We are taking the matter to heart. Our eyes are fountains because of it.
Men and movements backslide in heart before they deteriorate very far in practice. What, then, is the great need in the Church of the Nazarene? Is it the enactment of more legislation? No, we have a workable system. Is it for more organization? No, we have ample machinery for much more work than we are doing. Is it for better talent, improved art in service, or better standards of ethical practice? Even these things we would allow to rest for the moment in order that we may lay our emphasis on the one indispensable point—a passion for the souls of men.
J. B. Chapman (in 1946)
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