Transcript

Multiplied thousands of what we call church school plants or Christian education buildings will be open today across this land. Millions of men and women, boys and girls will go to them. What is taking place in them? We are most interested in that question in our denomination this year. Specifically, we are emphasizing bringing people into our church schools because this is where they are trained religiously. You too, if you are a Christian and a church member, are interested in bringing people under the influence of Christian teaching. Not only did Jesus say, make disciples, but he emphasized teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. What is the supreme purpose of this Christian teaching? Why do all these church plants exist? Why do all these people, Sunday after Sunday, go to the trouble to go to Sunday school? What is the purpose of it all? Well, it should not be just simply a matter of getting together a large or small group to satisfy the gregarious or herd instinct in man. It should not be a matter of building up a church or a large enrollment or satisfying the ego of those who are in the leadership. Neither should it be on the part of those who attend simply a matter of going to see others or going to be seen of men or to satisfy some selfish or ulterior motive of the individual. It is a matter of the supreme purpose. What is it? It has been said that the supreme purpose of Christian teaching is to bring each person face to face with God, with Jesus Christ, and with a major commitment to him as Savior and Lord. That was the purpose of Jesus' teaching. He brought men face to face with God. Browning has said, the acknowledgment of God in Christ, accepted by thy reason, solves in thee all questions in the world and out of it. There are two things in the definition I have suggested. It would be folly for one to claim that these things are always done or that all attempt to do them. That is not true. But these are the goal. These have behind them the purpose. When we analyze what we are trying to do, it is just this to repeat, to bring people face to face with God and Jesus Christ and to a commitment to him as Savior and Lord. These are fundamental. Here is a supreme purpose. How do these aims relate themselves to you? Is there a need for you to be brought face to face with God? I am sure there is. I speak to some who are in need, to some who are afar from God, to some who are lost. Some are lost in one way and some in another. But to be brought face to face with God, that is a deep need of all our hearts. To see him through Christ, to await his command, to listen for his invitation, come follow me, to know his will for us, that is our need. That is fundamental with every one of us. But the point at which we fail is to give in. The psalmist says, be still and know that I am God. There is more there than just being still. One translation has it, give in and know that I am God. We may be still and listen, but giving in frequently, that is another proposition. But that is where we miss out. There was a man on a train out in the West. In college he had been one of the intellectual elite. The key on his watch chain proved it. For a while he began to mix in with his discussion some references to his love for drink. For some years he had been a tubercular patient. But now look the picture of health, though he said he had to rest every day. A man over six feet, weighing nearly two hundred pounds. As he talked along he began to curse. He had an extraordinarily extensive vocabulary in the field of profanity. He got more and more profane. Then he launched into politics. He said neither of the parties on the horizon could save us. But there was one thing that could. Then he became more serious. That is, he said, a genuine revival of religion. But he added, I do not see it anywhere on the horizon. He realized the need of coming face to face with God. That is a world's need of God. But he was not willing to face his own need. I believe, as he does, that that is a need. But I say to you that it is your need, as well as a world's need. And I do not hold out much hope for the individual, except as he comes face to face with God. And I do not hold out any hope for the world, except as individuals come face to face with God. I sat in probably the most important session of the United Nations last fall at Flushing Meadows, New York. Secretary of State Marshall was speaking. He was proposing his little assembly. I began to observe the delegate to whom he was speaking. It occurred to me that these are the men and women who have the responsibility for the peace of the world in their hand. What kind of people are these delegates? That is the important question. Who are they who represent us? And who are they who represent the other nations? That is an all-important question. But I declare to you that I had many fears as I looked around at the delegates. But another question is this. Who are the people who send them there? They represent us. What kind of people are we? People frequently say, just get the world converted and everything will be all right. Conversion is most important. Someone asked a person how he knew that he had been converted. His reply was, I was there. But to keep one converted, that is another problem. Every area of man's life needs conversion. This spiritual work must go on in a man. Call it what you choose. Christian nurture, growth in grace, scriptural sanctification, a good term which has had bad usage, or Christian education, whatever it is, one should go on to perfection. Every area of life needs conversion and nurture. Growth is primary in a person's spiritual experience. In the words of George Herbert, teach me, my God and King, in all things Thee to see, and what I do in anything to do it as for Thee. To scorn the senses sway while still to Thee I tend. In all I do be Thou the way, in all be Thou the end. It is a claim of Christ that he will draw all men unto him. It is a claim of Christ that his kingdom shall come. It is Christ's way that we proclaim as a hope of mankind, and without him there is none other. And today if you do not claim allegiance to Christ, he is the one to whom I wish you would give in. That is the second thing in the supreme purpose of Christian teaching, to lead you to make your commitment, not only to come face to face with Christ as a way, the truth, and the life, but to become Christ-man, or Christ-woman, or Christ-boy, or Christ-girl. In the Methodist Church for four years now we have been in a movement we call the Crusade for Christ. We set out to raise in cash in 14 months $25 million for world relief and reconstruction. We raised nearly $27 million in cash in that time. Since then more than the $27 million has been paid. After this had been done we launched an effort to bring in about the same length of time one million people into our churches, 600,000 by profession of faith and 400,000 by transfer. This was done. We also set out to emphasize stewardship in our Stewardship of Life program. The goal was 10,000 volunteers for full-time service. Over 13,000 volunteered, more than 4,000 for the ministry, and more than 9,000 for other full-time service, such as missionaries, religious education workers, nurses, and others. During the three years of the Crusade, for which statistics are now available, in addition to the Crusade giving, the total giving of the Church has increased from $113 million in 1944 to more than $163 million in 1947, a gain of over $50 million, or 44%. The increase in giving to all benevolences for this same period was over $11 million, a gain of 61%. We have had more than 1.5 million net increase in the Church school enrollment. These have been significant gains, but goals and gains are not the chief thing. The chief thing is to bring people face to face with God and a commitment to Christ. If we have failed there, we have failed all along the line, and we are failing too often in our teaching. The religious illiteracy in America is appalling. If you do not believe it, listen to the religious questions which are asked over the radio. Frequently, those who ask the questions do not know the answers. They say, that is fine, when there is nothing fine about it. A boy in a class in religion in college said the other day that one of the books in the New Testament was Cromwell's letters. There are many boys being brought up in America, and girls too, who know nothing about Jesus except to use a name in profanity. No one of us knows enough about God, and about Christ, and about the Bible, and about the Christian way of life. It follows as a night the day that the supreme purpose of Christian living is to live a life that is Christ-like. To be like Christ is the most important thing. The essence is to make disciples, not simply converts, disciples who create cells around them, homes, communities, where Christ dwells and where those around live the abundant life, making that cell a brotherhood, a brotherhood socially, economically, religiously, to put it in a nutshell, to make it Christian as Christ would have it Christian. That is the only way I know to make a Christian world. During the war, I married a young West Point Army pilot to a very fine girl, shortly after he was shot down in a mission over Germany. In his last letter to his wife, he described graphically the misery and destruction he had seen. He said, just tell any of the optimists you see around that the final victory of arms will only be the beginning of the end of this war. God, what a mess. There must be a solution. The more I see, the more I think, it is beyond the power of any Democrat, Republican, Prime Minister, Premier, or any other person or person. There is a crucifix hanging in front of me in this shattered Belgian farmhouse. I can't help feeling that the figure hanging there upon the cross is the answer. Well, I know of no other answer. Let me urge you this morning to line up with the forces of God's men, of Christ's Church, of Christian education, to help in making a world that is Christian. Lay yourself open to the teachings of Christ, and may the supreme purpose of Christian teaching so apply itself to you, that you may live so close to Christ, that you may see him face to face, and make a daily commitment of your life to him.