I am writing the present essay out of experience and the resulting personal conviction. Sometimes when you've been through something yourself it helps others. If this discussion has helped you, let me know your thoughts. I don't promise to respond but it might enlarge my understanding.

During the last few years we have had a flap in our church over evangelism— "getting people saved." Ours is a teaching church with a burden to build up the members of the Body of Christ. Many of the people around the world who get our books and tapes are evangelists, chaplains, pastors and so forth who are busily engaged in evangelism. So we feel we are helping in that direction.

However our commission is to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to keep God's commandments. This precisely is what we are doing with our tapes and books in, the Philippines, several countries of Africa, Israel, India, Nagaland, the United States, Canada, England, Hawaii, Guam, Denmark, and in other places I can't remember because I don't have our map with the flags on it in front of me.

Some time back strong people of our assembly arose and said everybody is supposed to be an evangelist and our church should be converted into an evangelist center.

Our response to the leader of these individuals was to appoint him Minister of Evangelism and offer to assist him in whatever program of saving souls he wished to undertake. "But," we said, "we know God has called us to do what we are doing. Our ministry is bearing fruit worldwide and we are not going to change until we hear from God."

This was not enough. Our evangelist and his followers, in a professional and thoughtful manner, to spare our feelings I am sure, went around the corner to a neighboring church that may have more of an evangelistic thrust.

I wonder sometimes if those with a gift of evangelism have tunnel vision such that they cannot see the other ministries of the Body!

Recently we had a meeting of our teaching elders and officers to discuss the fact that the continued contact of the followers of our former Minister of Evangelism with the present members of our assembling was producing an uncertainty whether we actually should be pressing on the congregation to "get out and save souls." It appears our good middle-class members, being friendly and nice people, find it difficult to obey the Bible commandment to mark those who cause divisions among you and avoid them. I wonder if the saints had the same problem of social contacts in the days of the apostles when creative people left the assembling and went to the church around the corner.

To be continued.