Do You Care to Preach the Gospel?

Many Servants’ News readers have been baptised for 10, 20, 30, 40 or more years. Some have kept the Sabbath all of their lives. Nearly all of them understand that they are now in training to be kings, priests, and teachers in the Millennium. But how many are striving now to learn how to preach the Gospel to others?

Servants’ News receives many articles on doctrinal subjects from individuals. Are these writings from people who are practicing preaching the Gospel to others—hoping to get better at proclaiming the basic truths of scripture? Unfortunately, only a very few are. We have presented some of those this issue. But most of the papers we receive are on rather complex technical issues. Too many writers seem to take this approach: "Since I understand this doctrine and nobody else does, God must be working with me and people ought to be coming to me for their spiritual understanding."

We realize that writing is not everyone’s gift, but of those who are writers, it seems that not enough are interested in basic subjects. We also realize that there are many people who do not consider themselves writers, but whom the Eternal might use. (If this example will help anyone: when Norman Edwards was in school, writing and related subjects—especially spelling—were his least favorite and, with the possible exception of "Physical Education," were the area in which he received the worst school grades.) This writer believes there are many people whom the Eternal could use to write and teach, but they simply have never believed that He could use them (possibly because they were not "ordained.").

We must also realize that the ability to do research, the ability to explain an idea once it is reasearched, and the ability to write with proper grammar, punctuation and spelling can be separate gifts. Producing attractive booklets or tracts from already-written articles is yet another skill. Some people can do it all, but many more can do only one or two well. Servants’ News would like to help individuals with diverse gifts work together. We will serve to print and distribute literature that appears worthwhile.

Obviously, the research must come first. If you need someone to help you in the latter stages of production, we will try to help you. We would love to receive research, rough manuscripts, polished manuscripts, or finished booklets on these subjects:

 

Why do we need all new booklets on these subjects? Why can we not simply use the basic literature already produced by other groups? In some cases, we can. But unfortunately, this literature often points people to a specific organization. Other literature contains references to unusual doctrines, which we may consider inaccurate or certainly inappropriate to teach in introductory material. Also, most literature like this is copyrighted and the right-holder will not allow someone else to copy it and remove the references to their organizaiton or distinctive doctrines.

We hope some of our readers (soon to be writers) will take this challenge to heart and begin doing research or writing on some of these basic subjects. Specific points to keep in mind are:

1. Stick to basic subjects (see above list). Resist the temptation to explain the Sabbath and Holy Days in a book about Marriage.

2. Use today’s language and examples. Avoid King James English, Church of God examples, or references to radio/TV programs that are more than 10 years old.

3. Do not promote a specific church organization or ministry. Leave a place for a local group to put its own name/adress stamp.

4. Include the name, and preferably contact information (address, phone, or e-mail) of the person(s) who wrote the item. People often do not feel comfortable reading an anonymous work, even though they will make no effort to contact the author.

5. Make sure the items says it can be freely copied.

If two people write a booklet on the same subject, that is not necessarily bad. Not everyone is going to agree with every piece of literature that everyone writes. Also, an approach that works well for one person might not work well for someone with a different background, that is why Paul had to be a Jew to the Jews and a Greek to the Greeks. Two or three different approaches to the same topic are not too many.

We believe that such booklets would be used in many places. Shelter in the Word readers would like them. They would be useful in numerous other evangelism projects. May the Eternal guide many in this! —Norman S. Edwards

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