Great Soul-Winning Churches - Elmer Towns

superintendent got the message and began making plans and making decisions. On a good day
that superintendent, Mrs. Maxine Kelley, will now have more in her junior department than once
attended in the entire Sunday School. Sunday School workers are not reluctant to make decisions
for fear of making - a wrong move. Many times Pastor Hand has publicly defended teachers and
superintendents and then privately helped them to plan the work in such a way that criticism
could be avoided.
4. Positionizing the church. Several years previously, ten acres of ground on the other
side of town had been given to the church. Before Pastor Hand came, there was disagreement in
the church-some wanted to move; some didn’t. He knew that he had to positionize the church
location in the minds of the community and stabilize his people. He believes that the location of
the church is not the important factor in determining if God can use it to win souls. Dr. Hand led
the church to borrow $60,000.00 to air condition the auditorium, rearrange the Sunday School
classes and blacktop the parking lot. It was a way to state, “We are not going to move.” The
financial outlay proved to the community he meant business. Before Dr. Hand had assumed the
pastorate, the church had invited a church survey company to run a survey to determine the
church’s future location. They recommended moving, stating that Emmanuel Baptist Church
could never contain more than 1 percent of the city in that building (their estimation, 380 in
church). An expert from the firm came by after Dr. Hand had been pastor about a year and
opened his conversation by saying, “When are you going to move? Remember you can’t run
over 1 % of your city here in these buildings.” Dr. Hand closed the conversation by saying,
“That’s strange, we had over 2% of our city in Sunday School last Sunday.” Pastor Hand says his
is not the traditional American church but a soul-winning institution.
5. Calling a full time music director. In January, 1971, Pastor Hand discussed with the
deacons the possibility of calling his son, Mike Hand, as music director. Young Mr. Hand had
graduated from Tennessee Temple Schools in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a degree in music.
The deacons voted to recommend that the church call him as music director. A few opponents of
the new church program saw a way to rid themselves of the pastor and program. The night of the
vote brought people who had not been in church in months and even people who were not
members of the church came to try to cast ballots against the proposal. The proposal carried a
majority of the votes cast but not the percentage the church Constitution specified to effect a call.
There were mixed emotions that night as the congregation filed out of the building. Those
opposing the new church program were sure Dr. Hand would leave. Those for the new program
prayed he would not leave but wondered how he could stay. Pastor Hand wondered what
Scripture he would preach from the next time he stood before his people. The vote had been a
disappointment. For the following Sunday morning message, God gave him a message from
Ezekiel 24:18,”At even my wife died and I did in the morning as I was commanded.” The title of
the sermon was “What Should I Do if I Am Deprived of Something I Need to Do a Job for God.”
The gist of the message was that the work would continue but people would lose a blessing. In
this case he meant the church would lose graded choir programs, a great church choir, etc. That
morning Dr. Hand won the hearts of his people. They realized their pastor came to win souls and
to lead the flock. Discouragement or deprivation could not drive him away. Those who voted
against Mike to retaliate against the pastor and his program had their pettiness revealed and they
left the church. The following September the church, by unanimous vote, called the same Mike
Hand as music director. The church choir at this writing averages between 50 and 60 which
indicates the ability of young Mr. Hand and his esteem by the people.