Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

ways, even unto the end of the world," then Hisgrace is sufficient for us.II. God Wants All Christian Men to Serve Him.In a second passage in which Jesus speaks aboutthe great harvest the emphasis seems to be on theneed for a great many workers. In Matthew 9:35-38we read that Jesus went about to all the cities andvillages teaching, preaching, and healing the sick.There seems to be special emphasis on the fact thatthere were multitudes and on the fact that thesepeople were in dire need. "They fainted and werescattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."Today, around the world the need for the gospelis tremendous. Of the approximately three billionpeople in the world the majority are yet in darkness.In Japan alone two million die each year withoutChrist. With the population explosion this multitudeis growing greater each year.In the United States in the last nine years thepopulation has increased approximately 12.6 percent.But church attendance has declined from 49per cent in 1968 to 43 per cent in 1969. In 1968, asurvey of the influence of religion on American lifeindicated that 67 per cent of the people feel thatreligion is losing its influence in America. TheBible is not taught in the public schools and nottaught much in the homes. Young people don't knowwhere to turn. Despair creeps as a dark shadow overthe nation. "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley ofdecision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valleyof decision" (Joel 3:14).How many are there to minister to thesemultitudes? Missionary statistics are somewhatencouraging. The number of American and Canadianmissionaries increased from 27,219 in 1960 to33,270 in 1968, an increase of 22 per cent. In thesame period evangelical missionaries increased 28per cent, and a rapidly increasing proportion of allNorth American missionaries are evangelicals. Butstill, in a country like Japan there is only one missionaryto every 20,000 at best and in some areas,one missionary to every 200,000 people.What about theological students and ministers?Not long ago the principal of a theological schoolin Africa said, "We have a church of 50,000 baptizedbelievers, doubling every twelve years, and yet forthe last five years we have been graduating anaverage of only nine and a half ordained pastorsper year." In South America it is the same. Of 16,000Brazilian pastors less than a third have receivedany form of Bible school or seminary training. Inall of South America there are about 75,000 churchFEBRUARY 3, 1971leaders, but only one in five has had theologicaltraining.In America there was almost no increase in thenumber of students enrolling in seminaries lastyear. Many who did enroll attended liberal seminarieswhere they will not learn the truth.What about our own church's leadership? Dr.Willson kindly gave me some information aboutthe seminary. We have had 26 Covenanter studentsenrolled in the seminary in the last ten years. Ofthose fifteen have graduated. Two have gone toother denominations, two are in work other thanthe pastorate, and one graduate plans to do graduatestudy. This boils down to about ten ministers sentinto the pastorate in ten years. That is not enough!A rough count through the Minutes of Synod showsthat about fifteen congregations are without apastor. Cyprus and Japan are both calling for aminister. In Japan the staff is only a fraction ofwhat it used to be. Why don't we have enoughChristian leaders? We don't have enough elders,deacons, Sabbath school teachers, and just plainhard workers. Pastors are over-worked, Sabbathschool teachers would like to trade off and study awhile, all church officers feel the need for morehelp.The cause of this lack of leadership is that wehave not been earnest enough in our desire to havegood leadership. We have been too negligent aboutpraying for leaders who now lead and for morelaborers in the harvest. "Ye have not because yeask not." Communism comes like a great tidalwave, secularism engulfs the school, heathen religions,superstition, and spiritism begin to fill ourcountry but we haven't enough leaders to maintainthe present church as we should. What do we needin this country now? More money, more armament,more cars, more luxury, more industry? No! Theneed now is for more dedicated servants of Christwho will humbly and willingly deny themselves toglorify Christ. The harvest is great, but the laborersare few. I beseech you to love and teach and trainleaders of all kinds in the church. I beseech youevery one to develop your leadership abilities sothat you can serve Christ with all the talents Hehas given you.(To be continued)URBANA CONVENTION. From Page 7conference committed himself personally to Jesus Christ asLord and to the job of reaching the world with the Word olGod and the proclamation of the gospel. The conferenceended immediately after the communion service and one byone. the various chartered buses, trains and planes begancarrying students back to the real battle.9