Doing Something More For God – From Down Under!

As many will know, Mr. Robert Campbell (a licentiate minister with the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster) is providing pulpit supply for our congregation in Kingston, Tasmania, for a 6-month period.

Prior to his departure for 'Down Under,' he was heavily involved behind the scenes in our Gospel Advertising Crusade. He retains a strong interest in the progress of this Campaign - in fact I was chatting to him for 1 hour + today, and a significant portion of our conversation involved me giving him further detailed updates on the Campaign.



Recently he has preached a message on the theme of our Campaign – 'Doing Something More For God.' Please listen in.

Time To Finalise The Banners

Over the course of the past few weeks, Rev. David Smith has been busy contacting ministers in order to ascertain:

a) What size of a banner they would like for their church/locality – small (16 feet), medium (24 feet), or large (30 feet), and what extra message, relevant to their own church meetings in the Autumn, they would like to advertise on one line of the banner;

b) The number of tracts they wish to have for their congregation for distribution during September.

With all relevant details now finalised, the banners will soon be in production.

(NB. The banner shown is the 'small' size – 16 feet).

Prayer Bookmarks - Have You Got Yours?

I took this photograph of Naomi Baker and her daughter Lucy last Lord's Day evening ... but didn't notice until tonight that Naomi is holding a few copies of our bookmark for the 'Doing Something More For God' Campaign.

Have you got yours?

Please contact me if you wish to have some.

The Christian Commando Campaign, London 1947

"The Campaign lasted 12 days.

It was prepared for by intensive prayer, efficient organisation, and wide publicity.

The hoardings in London proclaimed for months beforehand that the 'Christian Commandos are coming', and the buses threaded their way through the traffic with the same announcement flashing on their sides.

The attack began on Monday, April 14th, with a mass meeting of 7000 people in the Royal Albert Hall. The Commandos (a war-time term for evangelists, which some people approved and others found offensive) numbered roughly 3000, though only a third of them were veterans of previous provincial campaigns. They included men and women, ministers and laymen, youth and age, scholars, professional men, Members of Parliament, students, and people who worked for their bread with their hands.

It was certainly evangelism as we are employing the word here, i.e., a resolute effort to reach the people outside the Churches with the offer of Christ. Even their critics admitted that the Commandos succeeded there. They penetrated almost everywhere ... and by invitation. It was part of the preparation for the Campaign to solicit invitations from employees and employers alike.

Factories, warehouses, offices, and stores; youth clubs and night clubs, the pubs, and the docks; schools, colleges, homes, and hostels; hospitals, canteens, transport centres, and sports' grounds; theatres, cinemas, boxing-rings, and dance-halls; wherever men and women congregated together, the Commandos gained an entrance and offered the people Christ. Behind all this ceaseless activity indoors, there were constant meetings in the open-air. Day and night the attack went on. Men working on night-shift met the Commandos as often as the men working on days.

Perhaps nothing terrestrial can truly stir a city of 8 million souls, but this Campaign came nigh to doing it. Hundreds of thousands of people to whom it had previously been comparatively strange heard the Christian Gospel during those 12 days. For the most part, the Christian case was put clearly, convincingly, persuasively. St. Paul's Cathedral was the scene of the final rally, but not even its vast length could accommodate (for standing room alone) the multitude who wanted to come. When the Cathedral was full, the people cascaded down the great steps outside.

Results?

Where, outside of heaven, can results of this work be tabulated? Many, many hundeds professed conversion and were shepherded into the churches. Not all of them stayed.

Of those who stayed, the majority were found to have some early religious training, and not a few could be classified as 'lapsed members'. No great access to the numerical strength of the Church was reported anywhere. The more enduring gains appeared in other ways.

It seems unquestionable that the community as a whole was impressed by the effort. For the most part, the feeling towards the Church was kind, and the attention paid to the message was close. Men learnt that there is a far better intellectual case for Christianity than many critics are aware. If the area the Commandos had invaded was not subjugated, it was, at least, 'softened up'.

But the gains appeared in the Church as well. Many a moribund ministry was revived by this effort. Ministers of religion, content for years with the dull discharge of duty, returned to their local work with new vision, new zeal, new daring, new freshness. The fruit of these revived ministries will continue to appear for a generation to come."

[ From: 'Let Me Commend' by W. E. Sangster; pp.69-71 ].

W.E. Sangster on Evangelism

Among a raft of other books, I've been reading W.E. Sangster on the subject of Evangelism while on holiday.

The title of his book is 'Let Me Commend,' the substance of a series of lectures Sangster delivered in 1948 at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia - 'The Sam P. Jones Lectures on Evangelism.'

The title of the book is drawn from a quotation by Charles Wesley ... "O let me commend my Saviour to you."

This is precisely what our 'Doing Something More For God' Campaign is all about ... commending our Saviour to others.

We want the people of our land to, 'CONSIDER CHRIST'!

Billboard Sites Secured

The link on this post should allow you to check out some of the billboard sites that we have secured for our 'Consider Christ' Campaign. These are in addition to the 8 already booked for Belfast.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110744468709387857921.00046cedacdf83496944d&ll=54.715895,-6.215515&spn=0.537829,1.229095&z=10

The vast majority of these sites will become active for us on Monday 7 September through 20 September. As a couple of sites we wanted were already booked for this advertising cycle, we have secured them to commence on Monday 21 September.

As you can see, a wide spread of billboards have been booked, ensuring that our campaign is truly provincewide.

It Is Christ! (Devotional)

I was much encouraged to read this devotional comment from 'Days Of Praise' this morning .... plus it dovetails with the theme of our Campaign – 'Consider Christ.'

It Is Christ
June 18, 2009

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8:34).

In our text, Paul asks if there is anyone who can issue a guilty sentence against believers.

In light of all Christ has done, and the fact that the Father "hath committed all judgment unto the Son" (John 5:22), only Christ has the authority to condemn. Will Christ condemn those for whom He died?

Obviously not, and Paul gives four reasons why the very suggestion is absurd.

1. First: "It is Christ that died."

He is the very one who left heaven to die as a substitute for us. True, "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), but "Christ died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3). Certainly, the one who bore condemnation for us will not turn and condemn us.

2. Second: He "is risen again."

He did not stay in the grave, but He rose victorious, proving that God the Father had accepted His sacrifice. Certainly "the firstborn from the dead" (Colossians 1:18) who desires "that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29) will not turn and thwart His own work and plan.

3. Third: He is even now "at the right hand of God" where He is, among other things, preparing a place for us (John 14:2-3).

He intends for us to join Him and will not condemn us. One would think He had done enough for us, but no.

4. Fourth: He "also maketh intercession for us."

As long as we, His "brethren," still live, He is interceding to God on our behalf. He asks the Father for our acceptance, not for our condemnation.

If the only one with authority to condemn will not condemn, then we have the assurance that nothing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39). JDM