Danskeren. [volume] (Neenah, Wis.) 1892-1920, 1915-09-15
THE PROPER EvANGELIsTIc METHODS
OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH
So. Long
S P Lone

- t11a1Nr NEAHL W. ny
1915, DIR. G. H. Gerberding wrote to one Of
his friends, saying: "0h, how | wish that
the Lord would open the way for You to
spend 1917 IN the greatest Lutheran city in
the world aud Of the largest number of I'M
churehed Lutherans in the world! II the
Church could win Chicago. it would mean the
West and that would mean the winning OF
America !' In the same month and about the
same time the Rev. H. Douglas Spaetl in
an article on The Lutheran Church and
Modern Evangelism in the American Iuth-
eran Survey, after a very able analysis, con
cludes with this paragraph:
4 have longe felt that both for the
quiekening of the spiritual life Of our own
members and for the eyangelization Of the
great mass Of the unehurehed about Us, meth
DDS considerably more vigorous and emerge
tic than any we er m the habit of employing
ought to be set into operation. Surely there IS
nothing against the spirit and genius Of our
church, surely nothing uneyangelical, n ar
ranging for special missions in our respec-
tive communities, IN which at services con
tinued during the week, and perhaps for
weeks at a time, the fundamentd doctrines
of God plan of salvation shall be set forth
with simplicity and power. Such missions
are actually being held during the Lenten
season in som Of our larger cities with the
cooperation Of all the churches of our faith
in the immediate vicinity. They should be
held wherever at all practicable, and at fire.
quent intervals. They should be made as at
~tractive as can be to the general public. they
should encourage inquirers, who seek further
instruction. Their existence and purpose
should be made known IN every possible
way to the general public, by personal invi-
tation and public advertisement A way
should be found to secure our strongest, mos
attractive preachers, to conduct them, and
the day may yet come, and ! for one would
welcome it, when our Church will train and
call men for this specific work, who shall be
evangelists pure and simple, rather than pa
stors, fishers of men rather than shepherds Of
gathered flocks, just as it now does, tram and
call men for the work Of inner missions and
for italize among the men in our colleges
and universities. In the same sense in which
st. Paul proclaimed and practiced i am be
come all things to all men if by any manner
might save some, we too ought to be vii
ling. and eager TO become all things to all
men that we may bring the true Eyangel
to all. This would be a consistent attitude
as welle as a convincing answer to Modern
Evangelism"
The General Convocation Of the Episcopal
Church appointed a commission to send out
a call for a Nation Wide Preaching Mis-
-. - 1u-.a s-, 49,. tM. lapViar the fart that
there has been som wrong with all three
branches of the Church on earth. The Ro-
man Catholic Church has done very little
for those parts of the world in which She mas
had her greatest sway except to keep her
people in ignorance. The Reformed division
has SO split itself mp into splinters Of sec
tarianism and has so revived itself TO death
that the catechism has been lost and the
mourner's bench set back. and the storms,
external and internal, have met and pro
duced such a cyclone that there is not much
Cd the saw-dust trail left. Aand with all our
b|oasting Of die refine Lehre" and The
true Lutheran Church and Gods
true visible Church on earth, y let MS be non
est enough to ask the question and answer
it: esWhat would be the condition Of tins
world to-day, if there were no other church
on earth than any one self-righteous Luther
an synod. or all the Lutheran synods unit
ed7" With all our Boosting OF numbers,
what would become Of this poor lost world,
if we Lutherans had all the preaching to DO
and did not work harder at it in the future
than we have in the paste What are we DO
ing to gather up our unchurehed Lutherans
in our large cities7 What is to become OF the
whole world which is increasing faster IN mum
bers than the whole Christian Church, II we
do not wake up soon and put to practice what
we believe and teach with an overwhelming
power the wonderful Gospel Of Christi 1t
NAV be humiliating, but it is true, that there
is something wrong with us. We have the
truth which the world needs, but we have
not done our duty 10 reach the masses. Men
like Gerberding and spaeth feel the truth
~ this.
In view of these facts, let us proceed to