A new approach to evangelistic outreach has left church leaders and members in Minnesota, United States, struggling to keep up with a flood of requests for Bible studies.
A new approach to evangelistic outreach has left church leaders and members in Minnesota, United States, struggling to keep up with a flood of requests for Bible studies. In November last year, the Midwestern state was the target of a mail campaign that aimed to send to each home a special issue of the Seventh-day Adventist Church-affiliated Signs of the Times magazine. The edition was entitled “Where Was God?” and dealt with issues surrounding the September 11 terrorist attacks. Financed by a Minnesota layperson, the mailing also included a response card offering readers correspondence Bible studies. So far, some 6,000 cards have been sent in by state residents.
Adventist world church president, Pastor Jan Paulsen, has taken note of the Minnesota initiative. “It strikes me as remarkable,” he says, “that this is happening in an area where growth is virtually stagnant, and through one initiative, interest has come alive.
“The challenge has become not ‘How do we reach the public?’” adds Paulsen, “but ‘How can we meet the interest which has been generated?’”
Each church group has set up a branch of Discover Bible School, a correspondence Bible study center. Church members volunteer to mail the lessons and grade completed studies. Members are also trained to go out and visit people and begin the process of doing Bible studies.
William Miller, Minnesota Conference president, says church members are lining up to help.
“There’s been a large response from laity saying, ‘Hey, this is something we can do.’” He says half the congregation in several churches have turned up to help. “In most of our churches we’ve had more people respond than we can even use.
“This has been a success because of the casting of visions, from our pastors to the laypeople, about how they can in very simple ways help. People have really caught onto it,” says Miller.
Forty-six percent of ZIP codes in Minnesota do not have one Seventh-day Adventist. Many more only have one Adventist household living there.
One church with a membership of 29 and attendance of around 12 has received 56 requests for Bible studies. “Some members in that rural church are driving for an hour to give Bible studies,” says Miller. Church members had been praying for God to do something. “Guess what,” says Miller, “God answers prayer.”
One pastor is using each of the cards he is receiving as the basis for making contact for a new church plant. There are about 200 interests. He plans to personally invite each one to be on a mailing list and then continue conducting Bible studies to nurture them to church.
Several churches are using the project to continue building awareness in their communities about the Adventist message. These churches are sending out another mailing and placing advertisements in newspapers with the cover of the Signs magazine as the point of connection.
One church with a membership of 100 and attendance of about 55 has received 381 requests for Bible studies. Although they currently have no pastor, the church members have decided that since these requests are in their area, they need to respond. Miller says they are excited about the project.
“I just received a card yesterday,” says Miller. “A gentleman wrote on it saying the magazine and invitation to Bible study was an answer to prayer.”
One woman wrote and requested 10 extra lessons for her youth group. Another woman was struggling to find good material for a Bible study group that she was conducting with unwed mothers. She filled out the card and sent it in. She received the first of the Bible studies and was so excited that she wants to use it as the basis for her Bible study group with unwed mothers.
One man who responded to the mailing was once a regular visitor at his local Adventist Church but had recently stopped going. When he received the special Signs edition he noticed the return address was of the church he previously attended. He started attending church again and wants to be baptized.
Miller was at first overwhelmed by the volume of response to the Signs mailing. He wrote to church members in Minnesota in a newsletter saying, “I’m sure you are thinking that this is not a gift—that it is a huge responsibility, but it is God’s gift to us.”
Miller says the church officers still have no idea of what the final response or results of the Signs of the Times mailing will be. “One thing we are sure—God is already using it to change lives for eternity.”
