April 1, 2007

During dinner one evening a brother-in-Christ asked me about conducting gospel meetings. I was preaching in a meeting where he was a member. He wondered generally how successful gospel meetings were in 2007. He wasn’t asking because he was opposed to churches having meetings, rather his concern was focused on how churches can again have successful gospel meetings.

Regardless of the year in which we live (65 AD or 2007 AD) preaching the gospel is still the only means God uses to save the lost (1 Cor 1:21-24; Rom 1:16).

Gospel meetings are tools used by local churches to make concerted, intensive efforts to preach the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. These efforts have varied in length; some have lasted a few weeks, now many last only a weekend. Some churches have decided to diversify their purposes for these special meetings. Some focus on edification (building up the membership through gospel preaching), others concentrate on evangelism (reaching and teaching the lost with the gospel).

Regardless of the purpose of these meetings, the important thing is that the gospel is being preached. But the reality of the matter, as the brother intimated, not all gospel meetings appear to be successful. Why? Why do some succeed and others fail? Certainly the problem is not the gospel. The reason some are successful and some are failures can be found in the attitudes of the members of the congregation where the meeting is conducted.

“Oh no not another gospel meeting” is often the attitude of many members. Instead of being enthusiastic about a meeting many appear apathetic, even bored to tears, at the prospect of assembling to hear the Word of God preached.

There is no denying that some preachers are themselves less than enthusiastic. Some seem not to have any fire in their hearts for the Lord. Any preacher who has no zeal in

his preaching ought to step aside.

However, even the most passionate preacher cannot overcome a lackluster membership. Members who don’t want to attend, members who are spotty in their attendance, members who drag in late, members who rush out immediately at the final amen and members who come in, flop down and never greet a single visitor.

Note why the gospel had such success in the small hamlet of Berea; “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11). Excitement can almost be felt when one reads about these noble (fair-minded) Bereans. Despite their busy days, they made time for the preaching of the word. They searched and they accepted the precious gospel, and this they did daily.

Enthusiastic worship will help make any gospel meeting successful. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord,” (Col 3:16). We need not expect much when half of the members sit as stone statues during the song service or mumble through the songs barely moving the lips.

Three weeks from today we will have a gospel meeting here at Danville. L.A. Stauffer, an excellent Bible student and preacher, will be with us. His preaching will be designed to edify and build up this local membership. That means YOU.

Brother Stauffer has been with the church here several times in the past and all are familiar with his ability. As a matter of fact, it is my reasoned opinion that brother Stauffer just may be the best gospel preacher among us today.

Consider the possibilities of success if we couple congregational enthusiasm with the ability of brother Stauffer.

Let every one of us determine to clear our schedules so that we can be at each assembly. Let every one of us begin praying that God would ignite a fire of excitement in our hearts; an excitement that gets us here BEFORE the announcements are made, an excitement that causes us to greet one another and especially our visitors. Let us ask for an excitement that propels our worship, causing us to sing enthusiastically and actively take part in all aspects of the service.

Whether we wish to admit it or not, we can and do grow sluggish in our spiritual lives, and with that weariness we need to be pumped up. Our upcoming meeting is designed to do just that. As with any service rendered to God or man, success or failure is affected by attitude.

When this meeting ends we will be forced to examine how successful it was. That will

depend upon YOU. If you are approaching this meeting with enthusiasm and you intend to bring that enthusiasm with you – this meeting will be tremendously successful.

On the other hand, if you are apathetic toward it, it will be a complete failure. If it fails, we can trot out all the tired clichés; sermons were boring or too long, song leaders were dry and the selections were poor, we were too busy, kids in school, too much homework, too exhausted, but the fact will remain – the meeting failed because of MY lack of enthusiasm.

-- jrb

“What’s going on out there?” was the buzz throughout the community. What was going on was a gospel meeting. Several years ago while I was working with the Hickory Grove church of Christ in Cumberland County, Kentucky – we would have some extraordinary gospel meetings; one in particular stands out in my mind.

We had not been with the church long (seems I was still enjoying a “preacher’s honeymoon”) when it was time for the meeting. The visiting preacher came to town and the meeting began on Monday night and was to continue through Sunday.

We had worked hard to canvas the area, members had promised to attend and invite others, and this is something they did with passion.

As the week went on, the crowds began to be enormous. The nightly services started at 7:30 but if you wanted a seat in the auditorium you had to arrive by 6:45. The classrooms had to be used for the overflow crowd and some men stood on the porch in order to hear. By the end of the week, I would go throughout the auditorium and retrieve the children so adults could sit in the pews. I would then assemble the children around the pulpit on the floor. They would sit cross-legged on the floor at the front of the building. Fervor was begetting more fervor and people in the community wanted to know “What’s going on out there?”

One older man who had been a member of a denomination and had on occasion visited with his wife confessed Christ and was baptized. His obedience was also something that stirred a sense of excitement. There were others, both family and friends, who should be baptized.

When the meeting finally ended on Sunday night, a total of fifteen had been baptized. In the next few days after the meeting two more were baptized. Two things contributed to this phenomenal meeting and neither had to do with preachers, either myself or the man conducting the meeting. In looking back, the dedication and zeal of the members in attending and working to get others to visit is what produced such an environment of victory.

AS I SEE IT, if you couple dedication and zeal with the powerful gospel and you can’t help but have victory.

Success vs. Failure