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Title: Personal adventuring for Christ: a statement of the principles of youth evangelism, with particular reference to the conditions affecting young people to-day
Author: Greenberg, Len J. (Len Joseph)
Published: Youth Committee, N.Z. Council of Religious Education, Wellington, N.Z., 1934
PERSONAL ADVENTURING FOR CHRIST
A statement of the principles of Youth evangelism, with particular reference to the conditions affecting Young People to-day
By LEN. J. GREENBERG
Secretary, Youth Committee, N.Z. Council of Religious Education; General Secretary, Y.M.C.A. Secretary, Boy Employment Committee; Hon. Organiser, Christian Youth Council; Wellington New Zealand.
With Foreword by
The Rev. F. W. NORWOOD, D.D.
Minister, City Temple, London.
THE YOUTH COMMITTEE, N.Z. COUNCIL OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.
150 WILLIS STREET. WELLINGTON, Cl., NEW ZEALAND.
WHITCOMBE & TOMBS LIMITED
Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Wellington, N.Z. Melbourne, Sydney and London.
PERSONAL ADVENTURING FOR CHRIST
Written at the request of
the Youth Committee
of the N.Z.
Council of Religious Education
and dedicated
to the Young Men and Young Women
of the Bible Classes and
kindred Christian Youth
Movements.
Foreword
I WISH Godspeed to this timely little book, written by an old and tried friend.
It is directed primarily to the giving of inspiration and guidance to the Christian Youth Movements of New Zealand, about which I hear encouraging things. But it would do the same for other similar movements in other lands. I hope it may have a wider ministry than its first commission suggests.
Youth is organising itself, or being organised from without, in almost every country in the world to-day. In most cases it is being devoted to nationalistic ideals , too narrow to meet the need of the world, but with objectives tangible enough to arouse enthusiasm and concentration of purpose.
In Christ we have a better programme, but it is one that must be "put through.” It is not enough to give it sentimental approval. There must be definite association, and a revival of personal evangelism. If we have "Good news,” we must tell it. If we believe that Christ can save the WORLD, His power should be manifested in individuals who comprise it. Men and women cannot be "won” without first being "sought.”
A vitalised and vitalizing Christian Youth Movement would be the finest possible contribution to the need of the world in this hour.
May this book help to bring it about—in New Zealand and elsewhere.
12th June, 1934.
Contents.
Page
Introductory Note 7
1. The Great Adventure 9
2. Youth and the Present Crisis 12
3. Sharing Through Friendship 12
4. Witnessing Through the Group 20
5. The Fellowship of Service 23
6. Christ’s Method of Extending the Kingdom 27
7. The First Essential 30
8. Meeting Actual Conditions 34
9. Confronting Youth With the Living Christ 38
10. Solving Intellectual Difficulties 42
11. Life-Changers 47
12. The Eternal Whisper 51
Questionary 54
New Testament References 63
Introductory Note.
THESE studies very inadequately express the author's fervent desire to enlist the Young People of the churches and kindred Christian Organisations, in the crusade of winning their fellows to Christ and to his programme for their lives. This task is one of utmost urgency and no field of opportunity open to the Church in these difficult days promises so well as this sphere of Youth's campaigning for Youth. Here we touch life at its freshest and most responsive period. Here we may obtain results for the Kingdom, more far-reaching and satisfying than in any other sphere of Christian activity. The emphasis in these pages is on personal evangelism on the part of Youth for Youth, and this Christian contacting of one young life with another, and this overflowing of consecrated personality, we believe to be the Divine Master's own preferred way of working.
The studies will be found of general application to people of all ages, but the term "Youth" used so often in these pages is meant to apply to young people from sixteen years onward. While there is a unity running right through the book, each section, nevertheless, may be used as a study complete in itself, and with the aid of the questions at the end of the book, may be found provocative of much personal thought and group discussion.
The views expressed and the methods advocated do not necessarily reflect the views of the Youth Committee of the Council of Religious Education or of the affiliated bodies.
The writer is indebted to many authors whose works he has drawn upon quite freely, and also to Mr. M. A. Tremewan, the Chairman of the Youth Committee, for his helpful advice and for the perusal of the studies before publication.
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It is usual to write the pronouns referring to God and Christ with a capital letter. In this booklet, however, the writer has preferred to follow the tradition of the authorised and revised versions of the Bible.
The writer is conscious of the many short-comings of his effort, and trusts, now that the subject has been introduced in this way, that a more expert pen than his will extend the field of research and give to the Youth of New Zealand something really worthy of the tremendous task so inadequately dealt with in these pages.
L.J.G.
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Chapter I
The Great Adventure.
WELL, here we are!" Four plain ordinary words made famous a few years ago by young Lindbergh as he leaned out of his aeroplane cabin in France and exchanged greetings with those waiting for him. This youngster in his solo hop across the Atlantic had achieved what seemed to be the impossible. Experienced men had doubted. Old age cried "Foolhardy!" Friends feared. The world wondered. But Lindbergh the "Lone Eagle" arrived. He had "bridged" the Atlantic. He brought the pulsating life of two great continents closer together. Lindbergh's effort represents an epic in sheer individual adventure, and his consistent modesty and absence of financial motive greatly enhanced the achievement.
In this hazardous mission of goodwill, Youth had ventured and had achieved. It is in the spheres of adventuring and achieving that Youth stands predominant. I have yet to be convinced that our young people could not achieve almost anything if given the right incentive, adequate leadership and a worthy enough objective—and this applies particularly to the main problems of existence and the great challenges of life which are closer to the experience of everyone of us than feats of physical exploration—on the land, on the sea or in the air.
It has been said that we live in one of the most needy and critical generations in history, when a shaken civilisation is trembling on the brink, and when in a world of confusion and transition sensible young people
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are trying to find something tangible to hold on to, something real to believe in, and a way wherein they may follow. And here at least are spheres of achievement which are open to Christian Youth. It is quite obvious that these great enterprises of the Spirit are with young people more than they are with the older folk, however much we may admire and appreciate the achievements of those who have borne the heat and burden of earlier days. The necessary leadership of these Younger people, however, I believe, must still be, to a certain extent, with those of more experience and maturity.
The proposition I wish to put forward in these pages is that which re-emphasises to all young men and women who profess allegiance to Christ, the responsibility of extending adventurously the frontiers of their Faith. Christianity is, of course, personal adventure in the Christian way of living, and the promulgation of the gospel comes by way of individual daring, as well as by that of the group. The faith "that removes mountains" and which is the "victory that overcomes the world" is the dynamic of the gospel, not merely to be proclaimed in class rooms and churches, but really to be demonstrated in individual walks of life.
What a tremendous thing it would be if the Youth of our day could recapture for themselves and the Church something of the challenge and venturesotneness of those lusty young Galileans, who. in the face of tremendous odds, grouped themselves around Jesus and with great individual heroism pioneered the Christian gospel. Surely there never was heroism like theirs—and surely there never was such an opportunity to reproduce that heroism as there is in the needy world of to-day. It has been said quite truly that precisely the greatest task of the Church is to inspire her Youth to go forth to win other Youth. It is said, quite truly, too, that while our young people may not be responsible for the mistakes and delinquencies of past generations, they simply must share responsibility for the present and feel the burden of the future. It is obvious that in the stupendous tasks of Christianising life in this twentieth century, and
in
of making the world a better place to live in, the ultimate victory and indeed the more immediate response, will come from the younger generations just moving into spheres of responsibility in life. Significantly enough, Christianity itself, is in essence the religion of the young. Its Founder was a young man who died without any experience of middle life or old age. His comrades and disciples were young men. The adventure of the gospel has been such as to appeal to the young, the sturdy and the strong-hearted. David Christie, in that challenging little book "The Service of Christ," gives us this portrait gallery of youthful leaders:
"John Wesley was a student at Oxford when he formed the Holy Club. Martin Luther was twenty-seven when he climbed the Santa Scala at Rome. John Calvin, in his early twenties, was already proclaiming his distinctive doctrines. George Whitfield, at twenty-one, was moving England. Jeremy Taylor, at eighteen, was holding men spellbound in St. Paul's London. Dwight L. Moody, in his twenties, was doing marvellous work as an evangelist. Charles H. Spurgeon, at twenty, was preaching in the great London Tabernacle. Francis E. Clark, in his twenties, founded the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour. George Williams was twenty-three when he founded the Young Men's Christian Association. David Livingstone, at twenty-three, was spending himself for Christ in darkest Africa."
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Chapter II
Youth and the Present Crisis.
WE live in a time of crisis, is an oft-repeated truism, but few people who make that remark ever realize what a really crucial time it is for young people. That great leader of men, Dr. John R. Matt, once said:—
"As a life-long student of history and of the achievements of men, I "know of no generation which has been exposed to such intense influences; calculated to affect and change profoundly the psychology, the outlook, the conviction, the purposes, the way of life of young men and boys. It involves the revaluation of everything. including life itself."
Young people, in their twenties, are restless and have become involved in the great ferment of our time. The thinking elements among them are seeking a better order of life, they feel the drift from the anchorages of the past, and are conscious of strange forebodings regarding the future. They feel the thrill of living, but are unable to understand the problems, the conflicts, the enigmas of the strange new world which is breaking in upon them. They are frankly confused. The thinking elements among our young people to-day are certainly awake. The unthinking elements, however, are asleep, and in many cases having drunk of the deep draught of life are bored stiff with their existence before they are thirty years of age.
The most staggering fact in New Zealand at the present time, from the Christian point of view, is the mass of young people in their teens and twenties who are untutored in the things that count for most, and who care little for any considerations outside themselves and their own material
12
interests. These splendid young people are. in the mam, frank and fresh and free, but through earlier misdirection or neglect, on the part of parents and others, the Divine urge within them remains dormant, while every material aspect of life finds ready and urgent expression. Herein is the new paganism.
It would seem that, despite our splendid institutions and our boasted citizenship in what has been described as "God's own country," juvenile life in the Dominion, is. with certain exceptions, growing up without spiritual nurture and without any religious affiliation or background. The fact that only one-third of our young people between the ages of 14 and 25 years can be accounted for in the churches of the various denominations, and that only ten per cent, of our youth are in Bible Classes or kindred Christian groups, constitutes a positive menace for the future. Religious leaders speak of their contact with lads from comparatively good homes, who have never had any religious training. Strangely enough, many of these lads in this so-called Christian country have never heard the name of Christ except in a blasphemous way, and there are boys and girls lacking religious background, who seemingly present no inroads of understanding along which a leader could make spiritual contact with them. How really culpable are the parents who have proved themselves delinquent in these things, and how cruel is the hardship inflicted upon any child who must face the rigours of modern life without a sense of the immanence and beauty of God, or an understanding of the victorious way of life. This, indeed, represents the great betrayal of our Youth! All of this, of course, presents a distinct call not only to Christian organisations, but to individual Christian Youth who really have the better opportunity of influencing their fellows through friendship, and the normal contacts of life.
It is characteristic of the young men and young women of this country, that no mass emotion has as yet captured them, such as is the case with the Youth of other countries. This makes the individual approach all the more important. It is certain, however, that sooner or later, many of the Movements —some of them anti-Christian —which are
16
exercising the minds of the Youth in other lands, will come to our shores. In the meantime, it is significant that the only dominant Youth Movement that we have in this country is a Christian one, and possibly in this respect New Zealand holds quite a distinctive place among the countries of the world. What a wonderful opportunity this presents! The foundations for future extension are here. We have the machinery. We have the personnel. But have we the spirit to go ahead? Are we true enough to our own convictions to enable us to venture? Do we really know Jesus and the urgency of his cause? Are we deeply concerned about the welfare of our fellows? What would certain political organisations do with an organisation of Youth such as we have in the Bible Classes? What could Jesus do with a working force of thirty thousand youths and maidens if they were ready to devote themselves to His Cause? Radek, the chief of propaganda in Moscow, speaking to Sir Philip Gibbs once said, "This Communism you see is a religion. Our young men must preach its gospel. They are willing to die for it." What a difference it would make if we were moved by that same irresistible constraint.
There are tremendous implications for the Christian Youth of New Zealand in those cataclysmic changes which are taking place in the political and social life of many countries of the world. In Russia young people are prepared to strain every nerve to get into the ruling Communist party, and they pursue, with what amounts to spiritual passion, the purely materialistic ideals which have been set before them. They discipline themselves. They deny themselves. They commit themselves to live cleanly and actively, and at all costs to uphold and fulfil the tenets of Lenin. They signify their willingness to go anywhere they are sent, and to give their lives for the Soviet Union. In Germany, the splendid Youth who used to go singing and tramping over the hills and along the country lanes are now in the forefront and form the mainstay of Hitler's millions. We are told by a recent writer that those natural groupings of German Youth became the incubating cells for that belief in discipline, leadership, self-denial, unselfish devotion and public service
17
which is so strikingly characteristic of the new regime in Germany. It is said that “without that nation-wide movement of the younger generation which had prepared the ground, Hitler could never have achieved the rapid spread of his party and its eventual rise to dictatorial power.”
That keen observer of trends in the life of the world’s Youth, Basil Mathews, informs us that the secret of the success of Fascism in Italy and its hold upon Youth to-day is the tremendous devotion of the Youth of Italy to Mussolini as their object of hero-worship, and the enthusiasm of these young people for the State, which commands their all. The Duce’s sense of the importance of movements of Youth among his people is indicated in the fact that in 1928 various Youth organisations in Italy were suppressed by law and an attempt made to draw them all in under the official Fascist Youth Movements.
Many have asked: "What will happen to these countries at present under dictatorships, when the dictators die?" Someone has made the effectual reply: "The dictatorships will continue to live, chiefly because the spirit of the dictator has become enshrined in the hearts of the young people who know only one loyalty and whose devotion, discipline and willingness to sacrifice themselves in a great common cause provide the spiritual elements of permanency in that cause."
Now if the young men and women of these countries are willing to give themselves in pursuit of purely nationalist and materialistic ends, what measure of devotion should we expect from those who, in the splendour of their youthful years, have heard the greatest call, and have accepted the most tremendous challenge, ever given to the world. Here is a philosophy of life and a way of living which transcends all political schemes and human devices, and which has no less an objective than that of establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and here is a Person more devoutly to be followed than any who have offered themselves to the loyalty and devotion of men. Certain it is that the time is not far distant when the Youth of New Zealand will be called upon to decide big issues for themselves. Already
18
contending philosophies of life clamour for their loyalty. In the meantime the young people of the Christian groups constitute the only great Movement of Youth which has any kind of organisation, and whose members have any vision at all. These small groups of young people scattered throughout the country may become spiritual dynamos enereising the Churches and generating new power in the life of our country. At the present, what they need more than anything else is authoritative guidance and such essentials as, a sense of direction, a captivating objective, a missionary motive and a sense of oneness with all groups of similar nature. What the members need individually is a heart all aflame for Christ; a merely saluting acquaintanceship with him will not do.
The times in which we live are serious, thrilling, dangerous. Basil Mathews points out that "A spiritual Armageddon is being fought on the plains of contemporary history. That world fellowship, the Christian Society, faces to-day an historic hour: The clash of the titanic forces of nationalism, atheistic communism, and mechanistic materialism has created a world crisis. Into that arena all of us—no matter to what race or nation or class we belong, or in what continent or island we live —are irresistibly drawn. From the consequences of this clash, whether disastrous or glorious, none of our children will escape. Amidst all the confusion the supreme issue becomes clearer; we are moving toward the hour when we shall see only Christ and Mammon facing each other on the earth."
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Chapter III.
Sharing Through Friendship.
IT would be a wonderful thing if young people could be induced to share their Christian experience with friends and acquaintances. What a tremendous impact it would make, if, as a beginning every consecrated Christian young person would by means of some cherished friendship or valued acquaintanceship, seek to win that friend or acquaintance to Christian understanding and acceptance! Here is the greatest task of all—the Christ-life within us overflowing its individual boundaries, and with a sense of power, touching the life of some other young person who may be longing for the very thing we have to offer. The personal recommendation of Christ on the part of one friend to another is the most natural, and by far the most effective way of extending the Kingdom. By this means we approach our friends not with the idea that we are in any way superior to them, nor with any thought of self-righteousness, but in the spirit of love, and quite unobtrusively, with the one soul-possessing idea of doing them some supreme good, such as we, ourselves, would appreciate under similar circumstances. We introduce to them, not a code of conduct, nor a schedule of beliefs, but a programme for their lives, inspired and directed by the living Personality of Christ.
This programme of victorious living involves an experience of the thrill of keeping physically, mentally and spiritually fit, and the adventure of doing good. The pursuing of' it awakens new enthusiasms, presents new interests, touches new friendships, and adds fresh resources of strength and encouragement to the life. It introduces a stabilising factor in personality, yet robs life of none of its joys. Above all, it brings to the conscious experience, that richest experi-
20
ence of all, the Friendship of the Eternal Youth, the Christ, whose Silent Companionship is with us all along the way.
The best things of life are communicated through friendship. We like to introduce our friends to one another. How proud we are to introduce our best friend! If Christ were here in the flesh, and we had that sacred privilege of knowing him as we claim to know him now in spirit, how natural it would be for us to introduce him to our friends! But he is no longer with us in the flesh.
He left us in order that he might become even more real to us. With a faith and daring which were divine, he entrusted his friendship and his work to those who should come after him, and who, for love of him, and for what they themselves found in him, should carry on his work. In the silences and amid the crises, Christ breaks into many a life, although significantly enough his chief means of entry into individual personality still seems to be that of the communication of one life to another. If Christ means anything to us at all, we surely cannot mistake the impulse nor escape the responsibility of recommending him to others. It is a fact worthy of realisation that young men and young women may not read books about Jesus, nor will they go to Church to hear about him, but they simply must take notice of what a friend says about him, when the life-quality of that friend is in itself a recommendation. In fact, it may be reasonably assumed that many will never hear the gospel except through friendship.
It is a mistake to think that we are intruding upon the intimacies of another's life if we broach the subject of religion; rather are we seeking the highest good of that life. Everything depends, of course, on the manner and the motive of the approach, and on the realisation that it is not so much a matter of hard business ("Soul-saving," as someone has called it) as it is the winning of the confidence of our friends through the unfolding processes of friendship.
It is a fact to be remembered, also, that our friend or acquaintance may be expecting an approach from us. Leslie Weatherhead relates the following story recently told by
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Provost Erskine Hill, of St. Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen: "Two men had been partners in business in one of the great cities. One man was a regular attender at Church; the other professed no religion at all. It was a Sunday morning and they met in the same tram, the one on his way to church, the other to play golf. As they separated the latter said to his companion: "Look here, so-and-so, when are you going to give up all this hypocrisy about religion and churchgoing?" "I don't understand you," said the other. "I mean just what I say; when are you going to give up this hypocrisy?" Much offended his companion answered: "What right have you to call my religion hypocrisy?" "Well." said the other, "we have been partners for twenty years. We have met and talked together every day. You know quite well that if what you profess to believe is true, it is a very hopeless case for me, and yet you have never said one word to help me to be anything different."
Our friendships and daily associations are the normal channels through which we give expression to the Christ-life, within us. It might be well to interpose here, Emerson's description of friend: —
"Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great. There is sublime attraction in him to whatever virtue there is in us. How he flings open the door of existence! What questions we ask of him ! What an understanding we have! How few words are needed! It is the only real society. A real friend doubles my possibilities and adds his strength to mine, and makes a well-nigh irresistible force possible to me."
It was as a friend after this pattern that Jesus came to men, and it is friendship of this kind that he enables us to bring to the experience of our fellows.
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Chapter IV.
Witnessing Through the Group.
WHERE the young Christian does not feel confident enough to make a direct approach for Christ—although it is desirable that in the process of intensifying discipleship and experiencing friendship he or she should learn to do so —there is a secondary method which is worth attempting, and that is the extending of an invitation to a friend to attend a Bible Class or similar Christian group. If the spirit of fellowship in the class or group is right, then the stranger may be won first of all to attendance at the group, then to membership and eventually to discipleship in Christ. What a profound opportunity for recruitment each Bible Class might present! What a difference it would make if each class became an experimental missionary centre, in which problems of human personality were studied in relation to the winning of outsiders for Christ, and each member went out during the week with the determination to introduce some new fellow to the class!
What would this mean in figures? Suppose in a group of 10 members, each member should win one person per week; this would mean 520 people won in the year. Some one says "Ridiculous!" Well, then, suppose that one-half of the membership in that group of 10 should win one person a month, this would mean 60 won by that group, or the membership increased to six times its original number within one year. Even then fifty per cent, of the group might be doing practically nothing in this extension service. So that if every member in the group enlisted just one new person in the year, then the group would double itself within that period. If we were to place alongside of these suggested results, an appreciation of other values gained by such enterprise, we would need to find a place for the increased individual joy in service, the enhanced influence of the class, and all the good that such gains would bring both to the members personally and to those coming in. The difference
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between a missionary-spirited class and one whose membership has stalemated is like unto the difference between the depths of the harbour opening on to the sea and the shallows of the land-locked lagoon. Adventuring on the part of the group becomes necessary for its own sake. Some of the greatest existing manuscripts of the Bible and many of the greatest of the Church fathers were the product of sections of the early church which later became moribund and eventually almost ceased to live. These sections lost their missionary zeal and were consequently unable to withstand barbaric or Mohammedan invasion or cope with the evil of their day. Thus it is that once the group becomes entirely concerned with its own salvation, or settles down to a circumscribed and self-satisfied existence, it eventually loses its power, outlives its usefulness and becomes merely a relic of earlier days.
Missionary enterprise, however, means more than merely introducing new people to the group and then leaving it at that. Little would be gained ultimately unless they were absorbed into the fellowship and membership of the group and won to Christian discipleship. This is the reason why occasional outbursts in the form of membership increase campaigns and similar "stunt" efforts, while stimulating in themselves, are not the most effective means of building a group.
The building up of the recreational aspects of our institutions and the introduction of numerous social adjuncts do not always attract "outsiders" to the higher interests of the group, and in many cases their power of attraction is confined to themselves. This may be good up to a point, and the social and recreational aspects should have a prominent place in every Christian group, but it is unwise for a leader to place too much confidence in these things, for they do not always prove "means to an end." This is an argument for the winning of the individual to the main interests first; making him feel that his essental moral and spiritual needs are being influenced by the group; and that there is real joyousness and good fellowship in the pursuit of those things which make for personal goodness and the doing of good to others.
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It is a pity to prejudice the missionary usefulness of a Bible Class or Christian Study Group by allowing it to lapse into slip-shod methods. People will only be attracted to the group if it is atmosphered in sincerity, and if the programme on Sundays and on other occasions is kept bright and sparkling, and filled with concerns of real human interest. It is Christian service we are trying to render, and it is to Christ and his Society on earth that we are trying to attract our fellows—therefore nothing but the best will do. Manly and womanly individuals with a sense of self-respect, and of the fitness of things, will not be bothered with little cliques of people whose priceless privilege of meeting Sunday by Sunday to consider the eternal verities is merely an occasion for idle jesting, abstract and purposeless debate, or of merely pretending to be good. The question as to whether we win and hold young men and young women to Jesus Christ, often depends on where and to what we introduce them first of all; and this calls for vigilance on the part of all leaders of Christian Youth.
It should be remembered that the Bible Study period of a class represents just one hour in the week—and what a precious hour this should be. Into this brief period should be introduced only those essentials which make for more intensive Christian fellowship, a clearer understanding of the mind and purpose of Christ, and a deeper appreciation of God through worship. These essentials must, in themselves, prove attractive and helpful to those whom we introduce to the group.
A new member in the class should never be just taken for granted and his welfare in the group left to the member who originally introduced him. Once the new recruit is admitted, then he becomes a fellowship responsibility on the part of the entire group. Members in a class are generally known to one another, they have a certain community of interest, they share each other's interests, but they may overlook the fact that the new member just coming in has not the same interest in the beginning, and unless care is taken he may feel "out of it," and eventually be "frightened off."
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Chapter V.
The Fellowship of Service.
ONE of the most wonderful forces in all the world is the compelling power of fellowship. We either influence or are influenced by the company we keep, or both. The fellowship or group which is closest to us, and of which we are a part, serves as the source and inspiration oi much that we do. Some of us shared in that Great Adventure overseas during the years 1914-1918, and we are constantly reminded that the one factor which more than anything else gave the Anzac his fighting genius and his zest for the fray, was not force of discipline, love of war, or hatred of the enemy, but merely this—the compelling power of fellowship. His "cobbers" were in it so it was good enough for him. Returned soldiers speak of the intense loneliness they experience when they think of their comrades in that Great Adventure, and time and again, they find themselves longing for a renewal of that peculiar sense of comradeship which was theirs during those terrible years.
there is the secret of eternal comradeship—the ing in some worth-while adventurous task, but doing it along with our pals, so that in the doing of it there will be a sense of comradeship and a realisation of fellowship in service. What a wonderful medium for such effort we have in the Bible Classes and kindred Christian Youth Movements of the Dominion —thirty thousand strong, distributed in small friendly groups throughout the country! What a tremendous thing it would be if the members of these groups, moved by the dynamic of Christ, were to become intensely concerned about the great mass of Youth outside the Christian Church, and each group were to become a missionary centre for the winning of other Youth. The Movement would then
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become an ever-expanding fellowship in the face of which no ChristiaA young man or young woman in this Dominion would fight a lone battle, and no "outside" youth in workplace, club, school or centre of recreation could evade the impact of such a force of consecrated people. By this means we could spread a net over the whole of the Dominion's Youth life, through which few could escape the challenge of Christ.
The impulse and inspiration for the personal winning of our fellows should start in the Bible Class, or similar Christian group. When this, greatest of all tasks, is carefully planned for, and discreetly but deliberately carried out, then a new sense of fellowship will come into our classes and a new passion will be experienced by many young people who are waiting for some soul-absorbing avenue of service to which they can relate their Christianity and through which they can release their energies.
The early, pioneering, pathfinding days of our Faith were characterised not only by great individual daring, but also by a profound unity and fellowship. As a matter of fact, that sense of fellowship made the individual daring possible. When the forces of public contempt, opposition and persecution hammered against their little groups, those early Christians simply had to hold together, and with it all, we are told, great grace was upon them all and they served with a great courage (Acts 4/31-33).
In these days of modern Christianity when there are material resource, organisation and power at the command of the Church, it is good for us to remember that the gospel originally was cradled in fellowship, it sounded the call to fellowship, it derived its strength through fellowship, and it has survived only because this fellowship has been preserved not merely in cathedrals, chapels, councils and assemblies, but in the simpler "households" of the Faith. It is this spirit, and fortified by the power of this fellowship that young men and young women may continue to go out and serve.
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And to-day Christianity faces the task of. introducing fellowship and vindicating brotherhood in a world where conflict and ruthless competition between individuals and groups continually deny the Christian testimony.
It is suggested that even as the young men in the first Christian group were sent forth two by two with power to serve, so the reliable members of our groups to-day might be encouraged to keep an intimate personal list of people whom they may be seeking to influence for Christ. They would be encouraged by the leader to go out and bring these "prospects" to the class or in some other way serve these young people with a view to winning their interest and response. The responsible members chosen for this "look out" service might confidentially exchange notes on their experience (always with due discretion) and at appropriate times join in the fellowship of prayer on behalf of one another and the young people they are trying to win.
This form of personal service would greatly enrich the programme of the class and intensify the interest of the members, and if properly directed, it would become a most fascinating feature of the work. The question is often asked as to why so many Christian groups are content with gathering in, as a natural increase for the group, those who merely transfer from other districts and are already interested, or those who belong to favoured families who are already in the church. The great field white with harvest is among the splendid youth "outside." the majority of whom are not in any way opposed to the things we stand for, but are merely not interested, for the reason that they have never been attracted to spiritual interests either by word or invitation, or by the kind of life we live among them. Many, on the other hand, are extremely lonely, and, conscious of a sense of discouragement or defeat in their lives, long for the friendly touch of some other fellow. It is our privilege as Christian men and women to register this touch whenever and wherever possible. The realisation that many in the same group are doing this at one and the same time increases the sense of fellowship and community of effort.
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"And Jesus, when he saw the multitudes, was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith He unto His disciples; the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into this harvest."
(Matthew 9/36-38.)
Dr John R. Mott recalls certain interviews he had with the late Sir George Williams, the revered Founder of the Young Men's Christian Association. The first of these interviews took place in the little room, known to so many Y.M.C.A. men, where the first Association was organised — the room in that great commercial establishment by St. Paul's Churchyard 'in London. As the conversation was drawing to a close, Dr. Mott ventured to ask this question: "Mr. Williams" (as he was then), "what was in your mind and in the minds of your colleagues which led you to form the first Young Men's Christian Association?" Quickly the veteran leader replied, "We had only one thing in mind and that was to bind our little company together in order that we might the better lead our comrades to Christ, and in order that we might share with one another our personal experience of Christ." And here was the original motive of this world-wide organisation.
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Chapter VI.
Christ's Method of Extending the Kingdom.
CHRIST wrote no book in which he set forth his teaching. He built no monuments to commemorate his deeds. He left no organisation in the sense that we know organisations. And yet Jesus confidently expected that his rule in the hearts of men would continue to grow until he had universal dominion. And how did he expect this to be done? He left it to his friends. He took twelve men to be with him. He taught them out of his own experience. He helped them to catch something of the dynamic of his own life, and the meaning of his mission, and then he sent them out to bear testimony to their experience. He chose a group of disciples —active and devoted learners —and anticipated that they in turn would report their experience to others. The Great Master of our lives expected each Christian man to become a competent witness as to the reality of the God friendship, and by this means the Kingdom which he came to establish, and of which the gospel was the heralding of the good news, was to be built up; and this, mainly through the contagion of Christianised personality. We may conclude that in the method of Jesus the real growing points in the propagation of the gospel were the points of living contact between persons; between, let us say, the leader with his group and in turn the personal relation of members of the group with one another and with others. What a delightful experience it is for us, by means of consecrated imagination, to accompany Jesus on his walks through the towns of Juda?a. along the roads of Samaria and amid the hills and the lake country of Galilee. At times we hear him addressing the multitudes and at other times we catch a glimpse of him seeking the
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solitude of the hills. A very large part of the time however we find him contacting with individuals, and how profoundly impressive must have been his talks with Nicodemus, Zaccheus, Andrew, Peter, John, Mary, Martha, the Woman of Samaria, Mary Magdalene, and the two whose hearts burned within them as he talked with them on the way to Emmaus. How wonderfully sympathetic and effective was his contact with individual needy folk; the blind, the leper the impotent man at Bethesda, the nobleman's son Jairus' daughter, the woman taken in sin, the bereaved sisters of Lazarus, the demoniac child, his own Mother at the Cross. These and many others were sent on their way with a new sense of God and with the experience of the personal touch of Christ upon their lives.
Here was Jesus' own inimitable way of influencing life, and of extending the good news of the Kingdom; not in gilded temples or in sacred synagogues, but out ip the highways and byways with ordinary every-day folk. And later, through Paul 'and other pioneers of the early Christian church, the Jesus of the Galilean road became the Christ of the' great Roman highways. In those early pioneering days Christ's own method was persisted in. The man who found Christ was expected to find his friend or his family and bring them to Christ also, and so "the Lord added to the Church daily such as were being saved." There are several outstanding examples of personal work in the Book of Acts, such as the incident of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, and one can imagine St. Paul, in the Roman prison or confined in his own house speaking of Christ to many a soldier. He bore simple testimony to the power that came into his own life through contact with Jesus, and he did this courageously and without fear.
Coming up to modern times and quoting Dr. John R. Mott in his book, "The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions," we are told quite significantly that "It is probable that a larger proportion of Korean Christians have won others to Christ than of. those in the church of any other land." Often the test question in connection with church membership is "Have you led some other one to Jesus
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Christ?" Speaking of the same principle at work among the Christians of Honan, China, Dr. Mott says, "So fully have they accepted the practice of leading others individually to Christ, as a necessary work of genuineness on the part of the Christian, that they have decided not to baptise any person unless he has led some one to Christ."
And so it is, to be a Christian, is to know God and his messenger. Jesus Christ. To be a Christian is to be a friend of Jesus, and friendship with Jesus implies the introduction of him to our friends. The very essence of Christianity is to share with our brother that which we have in Christ. Here is the surest and most effective method of helping our fellow Youth and of winning them to happier and more elevated living. Indeed, without this method of sharing and of personal introduction many will never know Christ, for in the ordinary course they would not be attracted to church buildings or religious meetings. Christ's method was to go out after them, and this is the way also of his true follower. Like Lindbergh's effort in another sphere, personal work to the young Christian often means "the lone flight"; but in the effort of doing this, and in accordance with the measure of his sincerity, he is backed by the rich resources of God. In the experience of having ventured and of having "arrived," there are compensations of the spirit, which, for sheer personal joy and delightful satisfaction there is no equal in any other sphere of endeavour. Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull once said: "The greatest preaching in the world is the preaching to an individual. This is the most joyous of all preaching. The world is never going to be brought to Christ wholesale, but one by one. Men are not born collectively; they do not die collectively; they do not accept or reject Christ collectively. Reaching the individual is Christ's own preferred way of working, and it is the best way of reaching all the world in the end."
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Chapter VII.
The First Essential.
WHAT shall we tell our fellows? In the first place it is an axiom worth repeating that "actions speak louder than words." Witnessing for Christ is a form of sharing and we cannot share that which we do not possess ourselves. Before we can have a message on our lips we must have an experience in our hearts. And this experience shows forth in the kind of life we live before our fellows. Herein lies the first principle of good salesmanship; we ourselves, must be the recommendation of the goods we offer. This does not mean that we must not speak because of any sense of imperfection that we have. If that were so, then no one could speak, and the world would never hear the gospel. It does mean, however, that the first requirement of us is that we must be uncompromisingly sincere, and in downright earnest about the personal application of the principles of the gospel to our own lives. Not that we have attained, but that we are pursuing perfection—that is the real point.
The one who would win his friend to Christ or attract his fellows to the Bible Class must first of all have the experience of God in his own life. This is the first great essential. Christ's command to his friends was that they should launch out into the deep in order that they might more successfully ply their trade as fishermen; and following his direction, they did so, and we are told that despite previous failure, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes until their nets came nigh unto breaking point. By this incident Jesus demonstrated to them how they might become "fishers of men," and we are told that responding to the call to selfabandonment "they forsook all and followed Him." It was a question of "launching out into the deep." For too long
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now many of us have been dilly-dallying in the shallows of Christian experience—and we have wondered why our Christian life has meant so little to us and to other people. As Christian Youth we started out with high hopes and great expectations, but somehow things have not worked out just as we had expected. We lacked that abandonment of spirit which could have made all the difference.
"Have I not seen Jesus, our Lord?" These are the triumphant words of Paul. This experience was the motive power of all his service. It was Paul's sense of fellowship with Christ which gave him his sense of message. In earlier days, Amos, that wonderful shepherd prophet, who, amid the lonely hills of Tekoa had learned to know God, had a similar sense of message. Amos met God out there as he watched his sheep under the clear Judaean sky. He then could not refuse to speak. God had spoken to him within the intimate secret realms of his own life, and he must go up to Israel and try to win back God's people. Here is the motive power of service! The personal experience of God.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence;
And take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
And uphold me with thy free spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors thy way;
And sinners shall be converted unto Thee."
(Psalm 51, 10-13.)
Reporting our experience to others by way of personal witness, and with a view to winning our fellow Youth to Christ, does not mean that we assume airs of superiority. This would be fatal. We can, however, witness to the fact that something has come into our lives which we did not have before, and that that something has made a great difference. This testimony, however, must be backed by the essential quality and the down-right sincerity of the life we
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live amongVour fellows. The strength of our testimony will be the measure of our own conscious growth in the Christian life, and our modest demonstration of this fact in outward experience. We are conscious of the fact that once we were wrong, dissatisfied and unhappy ; but now we feel that the wrong has been forgiven and we have a new sense of Christ within, and the cross of Christ is not a mere figure, but has become the meeting point for God who really cares and our own soul's need. Once we found ourselves unable to achieve victory over temptation, but now we find it increasingly easier to overcome. We are conscious of new appreciations and new values coming into our experience. There is a growing sense of companionship with the Divine. We are developing a new and more intensive sympathy toward men. In the process of winning our fellows the experience of these things forms the background for our approach and the straightforward reporting of these things may be of tremendous help to those whom we desire to win. Personal evangelism, therefore, is the overflowing of the life which we. ourselves, are actually experiencing within. The essentials of successful personal evangelism include: (1) The personal experience of God; (2) A conscious growth in character; (3) The awakening of a new sympathy toward our fellows; (4) The faithful reporting of our experience; (5) The demonstration of a sincere Christian life; (6) A sense of urgency in the work of the Kingdom; (7) Humility.
And how may these things become real in our own experience? It means as a first essential, that we evolve our own technique of prayer, and that we give sufficient time to the spiritual cultivation of our own lives. This involves a method of regular Bible study and meditation along such lines as have been proved to suit us best.
Let us take, for example, the question of prayer! No young Christian can expect to grow spiritually without prayer, any more than he can expect to grow physically without food. How shall we come to know the purpose of God for our lives if we seldom take the trouble to discover that purpose? Thus prayer becomes not merely a matter
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of asking for things from God, but a time of thanksgiving, meditation, fellowship and spiritual discovery. Some find that early in the morning is the time for this experience of prayer, but where this is not possible, care should be taken to set aside a regular period for personal devotions at least once during every day. Some are helped by a book of devotions, some by writing out their prayers, and others again pray spontaneously as if they were communing with a trusted earthly friend.
Then on the question of personal Bible study! Here again one must evolve one's own method. There is the practice of merely reading passages without serious thought concerning their content. This method has very little value in the real culture of the soul or in the understanding of God's purposes. A more helpful method of approach is to take a short passage or incident, which is more or less complete in itself, and re-construct in the imagination the scene or circumstances of the saying or incident. Thus we try and live all over again with the persons concerned in the passage, we endeavour to understand their background, and to view the happening as if we were actually present at the time. This process of imaginative reconstruction will awaken within us an emotional response which will give life to our Bible study, and a new appreciation of its value. There must follow also, a sincere desire to get at the meaning of a particular passage and to discover in it any possible application it may have for our own lives. In pursuing such a method of approach to Bible study there are various helps available, a selection from which must always be in accordance with our personal tastes and convictions.
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Chapter VIII
Meeting Actual Conditions.
AS young men and women who have had some vital experience of Christ, we must be prepared to communicate that experience to others— but always when the spirit of fellowship is present. As Leslie Weatherhead suggests, in the ordinary course it would be extremely hard for us to break into the intimacies of another person's life and open a conversation about religion, but, he says, "When fellowship has been established and re-established, and we sit over a fire together and gradually open our hearts to one another, not in the spirit of one who is telling another what he should do, but in the spirit of those friends who exchange experiences, it does become possible to say things about one's own inner life, which, in another atmosphere, would be impossible to oneself and an outrage on other people. I do think the Christian is committed to this ministry."
It will be quite obvious that personal sincerity and vital experience, limited though that experience may be, are the primary essentials of our witnessing for Christ. It is a matter of equal importance that we enter sympathetically into an understanding of Youth. This involves the capacity of interpreting aright the conditions of life to which our young people are more or less unconsciously reacting to-day. It involves also patient listening to the other fellow's point of view. In contacting with our friend we should seek to touch such experience as he may have had and encourage conversation on what he already knows. We must "seek out" the centre of his scheme of things and come to know where his loyalties are and the influence these have upon him.
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By this means we learn of the need of another, and doors and windows are opened through which may stream the light. Such experiences reveal certain facts which should encourage us in our work of personal evangelism. For instance, it will be revealed that most young people, despite their indifference to many things in which we are interested, are quite decent at heart and are capable of being interested in the more serious things of life. In certain moments they think and feel more deeply than their external demeanour would suggest, or more than they would care to admit. They have a certain instinctive (and in some cases almost superstitious) respect for God, but they are not in the least interested in our religious institutions, and are distrustful of some religious people. They appreciate the good, but are openly critical of the false and hypocritical. They are really not revolutionary, but in following their immediate elders they are just a warmer and more rapid current in the general stream of life. Most young people are shy when it comes to any expression of religion. Some, of course, are quite ignorant of even the elementaries of moral and spiritual well-being, and many are sin-seared and weak. The mass are outside the Church. All this, of course, calls for action, and action of an individual kind. Mass evangelism may seem alright at times, but it is only really effective when it'touches the life of the individual at the point where he actually lives, and even after the mass evangelist has done his work, there is the need for the individual follow-up.
In contacting individually with our fellows there is opportunity for a good deal of self-disclosure and this is all to the good, provided we listen long enough and with sufficient human understanding and sympathy to enable us to respond emotionally, as well as wisely, to their need. Considerations of age also enter here. The person we are seeking to influence may he young and in the emotional hero-worshiping stage; naturally, our approach to this person would be quite different to the one who in a later period of adolescence is experiencing doubt and mental chaos. Questions of earlier training, home background, working conditions, leisure-hour pursuits, companionship, education,
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vocational purpose, creative living or the lack of it, may all have to do with the condition of the life and its spiritual receptivity and appreciation.
Turning from individual characteristics to the more general social conditions, I would suggest that it is not an easy thing for a young person to be a Christian in the world to-day. The pull everywhere is against religion ; moral and religious sanctions have been challenged and have broker down over wide areas of life and conduct. Materialism, both as a way of life and as an intellectual system, ha= everywhere emerged as a force destructive of Christian belief, and often consciously and deliberately in opposition to it. Individual personality and initiative are being increasingly threatened by the mass conditions of the modern industrial community. In addition to these, there is widespread unemployment in which young people can find no place in life and are deprived of occupation and outlet for the creative instinct within them.
All this makes personal religious faith very difficult. In modern life we have a tremendous power over things, but do not know how to live. We have terrific speed over new and vaster distances, but without any sense of direction. We have widespread multiple organisation but no simple plan for living. We have unprecedented pleasure but no abiding satisfaction. We have made life so wonderful that we have long since ceased to wonder. We have mechanised everything, until our Youth, awakening to an automatic and mechanised notion of life, have caught the subtle idea of an automatic universe—a universe that runs itself, with God left out.
We have thus pictured for ourselves the modern background against which we must fulfil the greatest of our tasks to-day. This is our problem. But we cannot sit down under the load. The way out of a problem is always through it and while others are seeking to change the conditions, a e may influence Youth's reactions to them.
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Despite these conditions, however, and the thousand and one blatant voices calling for the attention and loyalty of Youth, the fact remains that in our modern, elusive, exuberant young people, there are elements of response, which, if impregnated with the Christian Gospel could mean so much to the life of our own day and the future years. There are manifest in many places a consciousness of spiritual hunger, and a new eagerness on the part of some, to heed and follow those who are able to speak to them with authority on the ultimate meaning of life, and to sacrifice themselves in the pursuit of such ideals.
Just a few years ago, we were told that Youth was free, free as the air he breathed, and if he had one desire at all it was for more freedom still. Now we see the younger men in many countries seeking and following authority. Thev are becoming part of the rank and file of great disciplined mass movements, and are responding to the call of sacrifice and leadership. This is somewhat suggestive of the fact that Youth is tiring of tepid and aimless freedom, and is yearning after some object of devotion. What a wonderful opportunity this presents for consecrated Christian leadership! Surely the biggest task before the Church in New Zealand, where our young people still are individually free to choose their objects of devotion, is the cultivation of Youth rather than the coddling of adults; and surely more of us should be willing to scrap almost everything for the sake of winning those who still remain in the freshest and most responsive period of life.
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Chapter IX
Confronting Youth with the Living Christ.
SOME of us have attended so many discussion circles that we have come to regard religion as a problem be solved rather than a life to be lived. There are many problems in the world. Men send up balloons and aeroplanes and go to the ends of the earth in order to solve the problems of the atmosphere. We do not. however, need to solve the problems of the atmosphere before we begin to enjoy the air. And we can have the same experience with God. We do not need to solve the problems of God before we can be enriched by Him. We do not need to know everything before we begin to tell others of what we already know. We do not need to be saints before we share with others the experience we already have. Chri>t came to the world, and Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick asks: ''Do we really mean that in his wonderful teachings that go before us like a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, we can see nothing but problems? In that luminous personality that incarnated them and made these teachingso beautiful, do we see nothing but problems? To do so," says Dr. Fosdick. "is to become pathologically problemconscious. It is like taking a Beethoven sonata and seeing nothing but a puzzle of date, composition, documentation, rendition, until that one thing is forgotten which is most worth remembering, that a Beethoven sonata is very beautiful and can enrich the life. Therefore," concludes Dr. Fosdick. "real religion, like real love, lies not at the end of a discussion, but at the end of the soul's adventure. In any realm, be it science, or art, or religion, nobody commends anything to anybody unless he first enjoys it. glories in it.
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depends upon it, is enriched by it ... . Wanted, therefore, Christians fearless and honest, to be sure, in facing problems, but so deeply enriched by their religion, so practically living it, that they commend it as a subject well deserving to be discussed."
In our approach to Youth, therefore, it is unwise to argue. We may persuade but we should never argue. We would be wise to remember that contacting with Christ is not merely a matter of the intellect —it involves the entire personality; awakens the intellect; stirs the emotions, and moves the will to the greatest decision that anyone can register. Our approach to others, therefore, must always be wise and warm-hearted, and with a very deep regard for the sacredness of another's personality. I prefer to believe that there is a sacred place in every personality, a kind of holy of holies, where in rare moments it may be possible for a friend or trusted minister of souls to enter. It is when allegiance to Christ becomes the dominant sentiment that the person really becomes Christian and begins to enjoy a richer, deeper, fuller life. We are contacting, thertfore, with live personalities and not merely with moral or mental targets. We are re-kindling an urge within and not merely tacking something on from without. We are confronting young men and young women with the Greatest Living Fact of all existence —the Person of Christ. It is not right that we should prejudice Him nor intrude upon the sanctity of another's life by any indiscreet methods of approach. There is a time and place for everything. It is not a question of involving ourselves in a kind of mechanical soul-saving complex, the exercising of which may prejudice any further and more helpful spiritual approach. It is God's business to save souls. It is ours to witness faithfully and bring about those human conditions, through the contact of one soul with another, as would enable the Divine to operate.
And what shall we tell our friends about Jesus? In the first place the real Jesus of the gospels should be set before Youth, and not that obscure funereal figure who often occupies a place in the conceptions of many people. To
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enable our friends to contact with the Jesus of the gospels means that they must break through the jungle of their prejudiced and preconceived ideas —many of which are secondhand—and study him for themselves. Before we can trust Jesus or become enthusiastic about him, we must really know him—and we come to know him by learning of him and being taught by him. This precisely is the way of discipleship. No one who devoutly studies the record of the four gospels can escape the luminous Personality which they portray. First of all we walk with him along the roads and lakeside of Galilee, we meet the people whom he meets, we abide where he abides, we heed and try to understand what he says. In this way we try to reconstruct for ourselves the actual circumstances, for in consecrated imagination we are eye-witnesses of it all. Eventually we arrive at the most challenging event of all, the place of the Cross. No longer are we merely eye-witnesses now, for somehow we have become participants, and feel ourselves drawn by the compelling power of love toward that Supreme Figure who carried to that Cross the burden of God's concern for mankind. When men would not have him, he could not cease to love, and when they do their worst to him he must love them still. It is not the wood of the Cross or the wounds of Jesus that attract us so much as the conquering spirit of the One whose love is superior to all enmity, and who was willing to accept no easy way of escape from the road which He must follow in order to win men back to the fellowship of God. How terribly in earnest Jesus must have been!
It is not a difficult step from the mystery of the Cros; to the reality of the ultimate victory where we come tc know Jesus as the One Who still lives in a far deeper anc more significant way than if he were still on earth. He thus has become the eternal contemporary of even generation.
Every young Christian should cherish the possession of a good working copy of the New Testament with the gospels bearing pencil marks and finger prints as evidence of his own devotional study of the life of our Lord. A
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modern translation of the gospels is extremely helpful to the student as an auxiliary to the earlier and more generally accepted versions. A copy of his own favourite "Life of Christ" by an author who appeals to him is also helpful to the student. No better gift could be made to 1 a friend whom we desire to influence for Christ than either a modern translation or a popularly written "Life of Christ."
In presenting the real Jesus to Youth it is important that the guiding principles of his gospel should be related sympathetically to the spirit, the outlook, and the hungers of the new generation. That restrictive type of life in which many religious people are inclined to cover themselves with a lot of little scruples and petty self-denying acts and then seek to impose them upon others is hardly a good recommendation of Jesus. The Christian must be scrupulous, certainly, but scrupulous about the big things of life which influence, shape, make and direct the affairs and lives of men. The many details, over which the Christian must be scrupulous, will then follow in a positive way rather than appearing as a pack of negatives. The self-denials which Jesus practised were really part of one big self-renunciation in which he opened the door to a higher form of moral excellence and made possible a more vital open-hearted fellowship with the Father.
If Youth is going to be attracted to any religion at all, then it must be a religion into which they can place their whole manhood or womanhood without emasculation. It must not be a tame or mediocre affair, but must be challenging and far-reaching in its commitments. It must be warm and friendly; touching the deep hungers of life as well as giving authoritative guidance in all matters which really count in human experience. Surely it would be a tragic misinterpretation of the gospel for anyone to see anything less than this in the life and programme of Jesus.
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Chapter X.
Solving Intellectual Difficulties.
TN these days when men are facing tremendous moral and ■*■ spiritual issues, mere intellectual or academic speculations about religious truth is of little consequence except to those who are teachers of theology. In our spiritual contacting with Youth we must seek, therefore, those issues with which our young people are vitally concerned. Life, romance, adventure, personality in action, are some of the things in which Youth is interested, and religion to them must somehow touch these interests. The merely passive, inert, or negative elements in religion make no appeal. The young people of later adolescence, however, do seek an intellectual basis for their faith, a kind of reason for the hope that is within them—and consequently they experience doubt and intellectual unrest. It is unwise to over-emphasise the importance of these doubts, but they should at least be faced honestly.
The dissolving of doubt is not nearly so important as the question of dealing with those elements of personal sin which hinder young people from accepting the challenge of the gospel. Wherever possible, it would be wise to change the grounds of our approach to Youth from the merely speculative side to the moral and more definitely human aspects. The writer must confess that once he was concerned in proving to young men the existence of God. and the fact that Jesus really lived, but now, he is more concerned about showing them how they may embark on the great adventure of faith and come to know God as their real Heavenly Father and Jesus as their Elder Brother.
We must encourage our friends to experiment in those realms of religion where they cannot comprehend or where
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we cannot fully explain. There is real value in the following words addressed recently to young enquirers for Christ:—
"We want you to be genuinely Christian. But as precedent to that, the question is, What do you see in Christ? Surely you see something to challenge your life, stir your conscience, summon your devotion! Will you start with that, follow that as far as it carries you, and then go on as you see more ? Interpose no objections based on your disbelief in this theological theory or that. Start where you are, and follow what you do see. Christianity is an adventure. Like friendship, it is capable of being intellectually formulated, but primarily it is an experiment in living to be tried. If the Master Himself saw you perceiving in Him no more than you do perceive, but wanting to try the venture of following Him and applying His principles to life, He would rise on you like the sun in His encouragement, saying, 'Start where you are; I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Follow Me.' "
Reverting to the intellectual aspect. There will be problems about prayer, but that is no reason why one should not follow the urge within him to pray, and respond to the deep calling unto the deep of his own soul. There will be problems about the Bible, but that is no reason why a person should relegate the greatest religious literature of mankind to the literary scrapheap. Surely if one does not understand all the Bible, he can make something worthwhile out of that which he does understand. There will be problems about Christian living, but that is no reason why anyone should neglect Christianity; for whatever problems there may be, there is positive and practical Christian living which a man could undertake if he really wanted to. There will be problems about the Church. They say it has failed. But the same can be said about all institutions having to do with our erring humankind. Politics has failed. Education has failed. Medicine has failed. Money has failed. Patriotism has failed. Democracy has failed. The home has failed. But this is no reason why we can afford to neglect or disregard these things, and the same can be said
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concerning the greatest of all institutions, the Church. The Church is still the custodian of the greatest truths ever given to men, and is still the most potent single influence in the life of the civilised world. It is hard to imagine any young Christian adventuring for Christ or making a success of his Christian life without the inspiration and fellowship of the Church.
In the earlier adolescent years religious interest and allegiance centre in persons. It is the hero-worshipping stage, but later on this aspect gradually merges into the period where the younger man or woman begins to evolve for himself or herself a kind of working philosophy of life. This working philosophy is all-important for it often contain? the individual's ONE BIG GUESS in religion. By "one big guess" is meant that working hypothesis which we have evolved for ourselves and through which we venture by faith into the Unseen. This is the kind of reasoning we might try to "get over" to the young person whom we are trying to influence "intellectually" for Christ.
By faith we mean that capacity we have for trusting reality in the Unseen. There are things which we can never "see," explain or understand, yet by faith we use these things and assume their reality. If we were to wait until we entirely comprehended or even understood, then we would never make any progress. In this busy, speedy complex world there is still room for exercising what has been described as "simple, potent, old-fashioned faith." In fact, in the ordinary concerns of our life, without the exercising of faith, we would grow into a miserable helplessness and simply succumb to starvation, fear and perplexity. In the realm of religion we must make our own Big Guess of Faith and trust to God and experience for the rest. Spiritual things do not yield to analysis so much as to experience. They are known by their availability and efficacy.
We must encourage Youth to face his questionings, but it should be realised that there is no human answer to many of our problems about God and the universe. One can almost hear someone saying that if there be no human
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answer to our problems about God and the universe, why then worry about them at all? Why not relegate them to the bottomless pit of the great unanswerable? Why not have a good time while we live and leave these problems alone? In answer to these objections it is suggested that if we are to be true to the best within us, we cannot logically follow the "eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow we die" course, for everyone of us, by the very make-up of his or her own being, must discover a working hypothesis for life. This hypothesis is what we live by, and it is essentially of a religious nature, although at times we may not recognise its religious content. To fail to embark upon a voyage of Divine discovery is to deny the best that is within us and darken the fairest prospects of life. While we may never hope fully to answer our religious and philosophical questionings, we can at least seek a working basis for our own lives, and in so doing, develop ourselves, and, by faith, find God. It is a question, very largely, of embarking on what we already know, trusting where we feel we are right but cannot explain, and relating the little that we know and the best that we have, to life and conduct.
Youth should be encouraged to study and trust authorities. Law works on its great precedents, inspiration in art and music finds its source in the great Masters; medicine gets its authority from the great treatises on medicine; literature treats with the classics, and we measure our standards by these classics. All this means studying and respecting authorities. In the realm of religion, morals and conduct, and in facing the intimate personal problems of life, the source of our authority is Christ. HE KNEW the way of life and frankly told us of what he knew. He revealed to us the purposes of God as "never man spake" before. He made his own big venture into human experience and demonstrated his affirmations by his sinless life, and in what we see of him in his living contact with God, the Heavenly Father.
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Canon H. Watson in a recent address to Youth Leaders in Wellington stated:—
"Jesus has so fully revealed the unseen God that he could say "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." (S. John XIV. 9). Now we know what God is like. He has been personally revealed in the person of Jesus. Lack of knowledge is no longer a hindrance to the divine friendship. And Jesus has taught us the true relationship between God and man. It is that of father and child. He has taught us too that God is a Father of infinite, individual and impartial love. Then we are not too insignificant for His notice. Such a Father could never forget, ignore or neglect His child. Always and for ever He is our Father. Always and forever we may claim His friendship. Whatever be our sin, the way is always open for our return and we can go to him with the words of the prodigal on our lips, "Father, I have sinned." Here we have the foundation truth upon which the Christian gospel stands —God is our Father. Religion, then, may actually become friendship with God, a loving intimate friendship, such as can exist between a father and his child. That is what religion was to Jesus. That is what He wishes it to be for all men."
Hence we can reasonably say to our own souls "Until I can find someone who knows God better than Jesus did and until I excel his righteousness and am possessed by God in a way and to an extent surpassing Jesus, I am bound by every constraint of loyalty to truth, to accept Him as my supreme authority. There may be others whom I can admire but none I can trust like Jesus." As the Reverend J. R. Blanchard in speaking on this subject once said: "The world may declare otherwise, but until the world can produce something that surpasses His example and somebody that outmatches Him, we must accept the word of Jesus."
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Chapter XI.
Life-Changers.
TT would seem that no treatise on the important subject -*- of "Personal Adventuring for Christ" would be complete without some reference to what has been described as the most significant spiritual movement of our time —I refer to the Oxford Group, and incidentally to other group movements which are operating in Great Britain and other parts of the world. As far as the Oxford Group Movement is concerned one can read of the beginnings and the development, the significance and the methods of this movement from several well-known books, which are now available in our country at a low cost. In addition many of our friends are returning from abroad having had actual contact with one or other of the Groups and are able to speak from personal experience. For the purpose of these present studies, it would be sufficient for me to emphasise certain salient features about these groups with a view to stimufurther interest and enquiry.
Xow it would seem that with each rapidly-changing age, God has not left himself without some new and distinctive witness in the world. Indeed, it would appear that when times have been difficult and men seemed to lose their faitn and arrive at the end of their resource, there is sound historical evidence of GOD BREAKING THROUGH.
It is the conviction of many thoughtful people that the highly organised materialistic order of which we, in these days, are a part, has reached its zenith or turning point, and that we are fast approaching one of those strange turns in the road where something is going to happen. And the question in many minds, measured by heart beats rather than by mere mental speculation is, "What do these signs
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portend? Is it for better or for worse?" It is in the light of such a situation that Christian men and women should be on the tip-toe of expectancy, waiting for the breaking through of God, and actually preparing for his intervention.
As we view the world situation to-day, and as much of it breaks in upon our own lives, we realize that it is not only bread, work, money, economic stability and material certainty that men need. Given these things and a fair measure of prosperity as well, they still may be lonely wanderers on the face of the earth, miserable with themselves and at logger-heads with their fellows. What they need supremely are: a new sense of direction; relief from the material grind of things; the elimination of the elements of fear, distrust and bad temper in the world; and a restoration of the sense of God in their hearts. These things, of course, are fundamentally spiritual.
Into these conditions there comes the Oxford Group Movement, the advent of which is one of the most encouraging signs of our time. To Dr. Frank Buchman, his friends and the members of these groups, the unconditional surrender of everything between them and God, represents a throw-back to earlier New Testament Christianity and the experience of the greatest adventure of all times —adventure in an unadventurous age blighted by dull poverty, depression and monotony. Many in the groups have thrown themselves upon God for the means of sustenance, living hour by hour on faith and prayer and exposing themselves to ridicule and misrepresentation both inside and outside the churches. To them, all this means measuring up to every challenge of the gospel, no matter what it costs. Moreover, they are involved in a relentless crusade to induce other men and women, not only to believe in the possibility of living the victorious life, but to actually live it. A. J. Russell describes the group in the following terms: —
"They have founded a new community of saints always ready to be fools for Christ, always care-less and care-free in an age of worry and fear and of blank and blind materialism. They have called together an
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interdenominational host of lay friars, spirit-guided and controlled, who would roam the world living on God's manna as God's warriors, while out-living, out-loving, out-laughing all. in a glorious New Crusade to redeem the world from the thousand enticements of sin in a luxury-loving, security-seeking sensual civilisation."
The favourite medium of fellowship in the Group is the house party. These house parties are said to be the issed feature of religious life in England. They are quite informal and unconventional, they are frankly social as well as intensely spiritual. The house party may be quite small in membership (which is by invitation) or it may run into hundreds; it may last for a week-end or any period up to ten days. The object of the house party is "to relate modern individuals to Jesus Christ in terms which they understand." The programme at these Group Conferences, according to a recent writer who attended one of the groups, includes opportunity for a corporate "quiet time" in which the mind is concentrated upon God, in the conviction that He can, and does, make known his will to those eager to discover it. There are talks about sin, conm and guidance and a free, frank, informal sharing of spiritual experiences; there are discussions in smaller groups, on particular problems; there is Bible study; there is fellowship. Much of this, of course, is reminiscent of the methods of Jesus and the Apostles: (1) The Group. (2) The informal fellowship. (3) The sharing. (4) The witnessing. (5) The courage. (6) The absolute dependence upon God. (7) The spirit of adventure.
Anions the many excellent features of this movement, there are three principles which enter prominently into the life-changing processes of the Groups. There is the call to SURRENDER, with the affirmation that if Christ were really the Son of God then he must be taken at his word; his programme must be the greatest adventure on earth; and nothing short of complete surrender will bring individuals into line with his purposes. There is the call to SHARING, which affirms that even as men are willing to share the secondary and trumpery things of life, the
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Christian must share HIS BEST. If Christianity is really an intense worth-while experience to a person then that person will want to share that experience—and where there is not the disposition to share, there is something wrong with one's Christianity. There is the call to GUIDANCE, with the insistence that God, the Heavenly Father, whom Jesus revealed, does really guide the lives of men when they give him the chance of doing so. This, they say, involves the cultivation of the habit of "listening-in" to God. There is guidance in specific personal problems as well as guidance in the winning of others to Christ.
The Movement is primarily concerned with personal lifechanging and the record of changed lives is somewhat reminiscent of the stories in Begbie's "Broken Earthenware" and "In the Hands of the Potter," except that these mostly had to do with the "down-and-outs" of life, while the groups deal chiefly with the "up-and-outs." The genius of the Movement is, that it seems to get at the fundamental problem in every life, and offers a real solution. I would suggest that this amazing movement, with its magnetic personalities, its unconventional house parties, its remarkable conversions, its Christian realism, its absolute downright honesty, its challenge, its personal adventuring for Christ, may be one of the means of God breaking through in our own time. In the meantime, while we learn more of this Movement and seek to transfer some of its dynamic to our own Christian groups, we might share the expectancy that something worth-while in the realm of the Kingdom of God is going to happen, and perchance it may happen even through us.
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Chapter XII.
The Eternal Whisper.
"There's no sense in going further —it's the edge of cultivation,"
So they said, and I believed it —broke my land and sowed my crop—
Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station
Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop;
Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes
On one everlasting Whisper (day and night repeated) so:
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges—
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. GO!"
THERE is something of the spirit of eternal Youth in that poem of Kipling's—"The Explorer." The opening stanzas of the poem introduce the pioneer-settler having settled for a time on what Kipling descnhes as "the edge of cultivation." But an awakening voice disturbs his complacency. The settler could not settle. The voice was but a whisper within his own soul, yet it was clear, emphatic and insistent—"Something hidden, go and find it." He must go further and break into the great silence beyond the ranges—the urge was for him to go and look for "something lost beyond the ranges."
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This portrays in a beautiful way the feelings of many of the hardier and younger Christian spirits of our day. They are not content to settle complacently in a world filled with a thousand heroic urges of the soul. Looking unto distant horizons they are wanting to strike camp and move over the ranges of a more extended experience; ever responding to the eternal whisper—"Go and find."
Twenty centuries ago, this urge was felt by the young men who lived and earned their livelihood on the shores of the Galilean sea. And they responded. To them it meant a committal, a devotion, a loyalty, a self-sacrifice. It meant taking Jesus in earnest and facing, at the cost of dear life itself, the tragedy, the inequality, the discontent, the need, the sin of that old pagan world.
And this precisely is the situation which confronts many of us to-day. Are we prepared merely to settle down to the routine of nominal Christian living or are we going forward no matter what it may cost? Some of us have promised ourselves, time and again, that we would come "right out into the open" and really do something worthwhile for Christ. We have been disappointed with the apparent "tameness" of our Christian mode of living, and we have longed for the opportunity of a more decided witness and the experience of some high adventuring in the Cause of Christ. The opportunity is here. But we must listen for the Eternal Whisper.
In the sphere of personal adventuring for Christ the Eternal Whisper may come to any one of us in the silences of our own life. The trouble is that in this busy, speedy, noisy world we seem to have little time for silence, and thus we miss those promptings of the Divine which so necessary in the work we have to do and the lives we have to live. It must be a source of inspiration to us to follow Jesus in his times of retreat. There are eternal values available for the youth who will seek a trysting place for his soul and the Spirit of God. In such a place we may find spiritual refreshment, renewed courage, specific guidance and Divine leading. In the work of personal evangelism, God may reveal
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• the identity of some friend to whom we should go, he may prompt us in the going, tell us what we should say, and prepare the way while we go to that friend. But here we must listen for that Eternal Whisper. Within the it urge may come to us, "Go and find! Someone lost beyond the ranges! Go and find him!"
"Anybody might have found it but —
His whisper came to me."
A recent writer tells us that "there are rivers flowing beneath the streets of the ancient city of Shechem. But during the hours of the day you cannot hear them for the noise of the narrow streets and the bazaars; and then the night falls, and the clamour dies away, and the dews of kindly sleep rest on the city; and then quite audible, in the hush of the night, you can hear the music of the buried streams." There are many voices like those hidden waters. You never can hear them save when things are still. There are whisperings of conscience in the bosom which a very little stir can easily drown. There are tidings from the Eternal Spirit who is not far away from any of us—tidings that will come and go unnoticed unless we have won the grace of being still.
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Questionaty.
THESE questions are intended for group discussion or personal meditation.
Chapter I
THE GREAT ADVENTURE.
1. In what sense is the embarking on the Christian life an adventure?
2. To what high points of adventure did Jesus call his Disciples ?
3. To what extent do modern conditions help or hinder a young Christian in abandoning himself to the call of Christ?
4. Which has the greater influence, the quiet consistent life or active agitating and adventuring in the name of the Gospel ?
5. To what objective should our adventuring be applied to-day ?
6. Discuss the statement "that the new opportunity is with Youth rather than with the older folk."
Chapter II
YOUTH AND THE PRESENT CRISIS.
1. From the religious point of view, is our age really different from any other?
2. Is it likely that New Zealand Youth would respond to the call of Christ in large numbers? If so, what are the means to be employed to ensure such a result? If not, suggest the alternatives?
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3. What are the causes of religious apathy and indifference among young people? Are they any worse because of it?
4. Was the mass of the people attracted to Jesus in his day or did he win merely individuals and isolated groups ?
5. How did Jesus and the Apostles (including St. Paul) meet indifference?
6. Do certain modern Movements —political and economic —help or hinder the propagation of the gospel?
Chapter III
SHARING THROUGH FRIENDSHIP.
1. Discuss Emerson's description of a friend.
2. What is there in the gospel to share?
3. Is it a breach of friendship to try to introduce your friend to Jesus Christ?
4. Did Jesus limit his "sharing" to his friends? Give instances.
5. How would you help a person who says God is not real to him?
6. What do our friends, acquaintances and associates expect of us as Christians?
Chapter IV
WITNESSING THROUGH THE GROUP.
1. What influence did the early Christian groups have upon their immediate environment?
2. What can a Bible Class do to make the world a better place to live in?
3. Discuss the Christian Group described in Acts, 4, 31-37. What were the characteristics of this group? To what were the characteristics due, and what effect would they be likely to have upon anyone introduced into that group ?
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4 What means can we take to vitalise a group which has become inactive and indifferent to its responsibilities i
5. Can the recreational and social aspects be used or regarded as adjuncts to the spiritual life of the Bible Class or religious group?
6 How does the average "outsider" view our Christiar Group? Is he attracted? How can he be attracted?
Chapter V
THE FELLOWSHIP OF SERVICE.
1. Discuss the phrase "The compelling power of fellowship."
2. What are the tasks which are generally set before the Christian Youth of our Dominion, individually and in their groups? Are they big enough or challenging enough ?
3. Are there any lonely young people? If so indicate the causes, the methods of approach, and the treatment.
4 To what extent did Jesus depend on the individual, and to what extent on the group, for the propagation of his gospel ?
5. Is there such a thing as a true Christian who does not desire fellowship, or a true fellowship that does not express itself in service?
6 To what extent do we experience true fellowship in (a) Our Churches; (b) Our Bible Classes; (c) Our Homes; (d) Our Sports; (e) Our Social Clubs?
Chapter VI
CHRIST’S METHOD OF EXTENDING THE KINGDOM.
1. Analyse the various phases of personal work demonstrated in the story of the call of the first disciples
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John, 1, 35-51. Notice the different types of men to which Jesus here appealed and the methods of approach to each.
2. Take two or three instances of Jesus' personal contact with individuals, e.g., Nicodemus, the Woman of Samaria, etc.. etc., and describe the steps by which Jesus won them.
3. How would you open up with a friend a conversation about Jesus?
4. "No words are needed. The life will speak for itself." Is this always true, or does it suggest cowardice?
5. Discuss _Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull’s statement, “The greatest preaching in the world is the preaching to an individual.”
6. Would it be possible to apply to New Zealand the tests for Church "membership as applied to the Churches in Korea and Honan? Give reasons for your answer. What difference would it make to the effectiveness of the Church if we did?
Chapter VII
THE FIRST ESSENTIAL
1. Why should a sense of unworthiness not prevent us from personally witnessing for Christ?
2. In what respects have you found your Bible Study helpful and what methods have you found most useful?
3. What is the value of each of the following types of prayer: Intercession, thanksgiving, meditation, and communion? What methods of prayer have you found most helpful?
4. In what ways were the lives of Jesus' disciples and friends changed before he sent them out to witness? Studv instances.
5. What should we tell our friends about Jesus? How far should we go in revealing our own intimate personal religious experiences?
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6. To what extent was Paul a personal worker? Give instances of the type of personal work he carried out. Consider his methods.
Chapter VIII
MEETING ACTUAL CONDITIONS.
1. Portray an ideal setting for a personal conversation about Jesus.
2. Do young people think deeply or actually concern themselves about religion? Are they conscious of spiritual hunger ?
3. What influence have speed, mechanisation, mass movements, pleasure seeking, unemployment, leisure, on the lives of young people? What can the Church do to Christianise the influence of these factors?
4. What are the differences and similarities between the conditions of Youth life to-day and the circumstances which Jesus and his disciples had to face?
5. Do the different periods of adolescent life demand a different religious approach? In a few words describe any distinctive characteristics you may have observed in each period. How would these characteristics help or hinder your approach?
6. In what ways can a Church strengthen its outreach to the Youth in its own locality?
Chapter IX.
CONFRONTING YOUTH WITH THE LIVING CHRIST.
At a Y.M.C.A. Conference some little time ago. Dr. Robert E. Speer gave a wonderful summary on the subject of "What Jesus does for me." This catalogue of personal Christian essentials, verified by experience, are presented herewith. Examine them personally. Discuss them in the Group. Check the list with your own experience. Eliminate
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from the list those results which you have not as yet experienced. Add others. Rewrite them in your own phraseology. Share with the Group what you already have experienced in Christ. Pray often and earnestly that you may enter into a fuller, richer life, always keeping in mind the item? on the list which are not as yet part of your own life:
-WHAT JESUS DOES FOR MI-:."
By Robert E. Speer.
1. He gives me a clearer moral vision and the courage to try to live by that vision. 2. He gives me the desire to work in the world as intensely as he worked.
3. He kindles me, when I grow sluggish or indifferent, to a positive and aggressive antagonism to evil within and without.
4. He gives me confidence in the truth and so helps me to t, no matter what happens in the world, because I know that God and the truth must prevail.
He counterbalances, as I cannot, the variable circumstances and unequal conditions of life, and takes care of the excesses that are beyond me.
6. He gives me grace and strength to try, at least, things that I know are impossible, and to attempt, first of all, the things that are hardest to be done.
7. He helps me refuse to do good when I know that something better can be done.
8. He helps me to keep on when I have to, even though I feel I cannot.
9. He helps me to keep the central things clear and not be fogged and broken down by the accessories and secondary things.
10. He gives me a new and inward living principle. I believe that he is this principle, and that there is another personality inside my personality that would not be there if it had not been for him and if it were not for him to-day.
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Chapter X.
SOLVING INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES.
Some time ago the Student Christian Movement published in their journal "Open Windows" a somewhat stimulating and thought-provoking letter from "Bill" to "Donald." This letter is now reproduced with the recommendation that personally and in the group you might consider the reply that you would send if such a letter were addressed to you.
“Dear Donald,
“My mind seems to have been in a hopeless tangle for the past few months, on everything to do with religious and spiritual affairs. I seem to do nothing but doubt. The truth is this I think, I’ve never had any definite experience of the reality of God or of Jesus Christ. I’ve never felt any real relationship between myself and Him, or any sense or His presence. When anyone speaks of Christ as a personal friend or Saviour, or talks of communion with Him, I honestly can’t understand. They are talking of something that has never come into my experience.
"I think what Christianity means to me is simply a tremendous admiration and reverence for Christ as a man and an endeavour to follow His ideals. But what seems to be the central points of the Christianity of the Churches. I mean the Atonement, the remission of sins, the life everlasting, etc., don't seem to matter at all with me. I don't think its because I want to save my soul that I try to live decently, and try to follow the Christian ideals. To me, the life and teaching of Jesus seem to be worth following, as good things in themselves, and also as the only real means of bringing more of the spirit of the ''happy family" into men's relations with one another. I know there must be more than this in Christianity and from what I've read and heard, that something is a matter of a peculiar personal experience. I remember you telling me once that such an experience, whether you call it conversion or anything else, was a definite fact in life, and other men have assured meof its unmistakeable reality. My trouble seems to be that I've not yet been converted.
"The result is that all such factors of spiritual life as faith, prayer and the sense of communion with Christ, are lacking in some element that would make them real to me.
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And because of this lack of personal experience, I always feel reluctant to give any lead to others or to make any comment on religious activities. Religion is for me, mainly a question of doing good, or doing as far as possible what Christ did. It is a kind of morality. "I know that other men have much the same difficulty as I am experiencing. Can you, Donald, or anyone, give me some help? Can you tell something of the meaning of 'Conversion' or whatever is your name for the peculiar personal experience of Christ's reality and presence. Is such an experience essential to a full Christian life and is there any means, other than one's own intuition, of knowing and recognising it when it comes. "Sincerely yours, (Sgd.) "BILL."
Chapter XL
LIFE-CHANGERS.
1, What features of the Oxford Group Movement could we readily apply to our own class or group?
2. To the ordinary person of the work-a-day world what is involved in the idea of surrendering to Christ? What is involved for a Christian?
3. In what ways would the "sharing" of your intimate spiritual experiences help you and others?
4. What evidence have I that the Creator of the Universe is interested in my little life to the extent of giving me personal guidance in specific matters.
5. Is there a problem of fellowship in your local church? How far do we fall short of the apostolic idea of a Christian group? Make practical suggestions for the remedying of our short-comings in fellowship?
6. What has Jesus to say on (1) Surrender (2) Sharing (3) Guidance?
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Chapter XII
THE ETERNAL WHISPER.
1. How does God speak to men?
2. Is there an absence of personal contemplation and silence in the busy lives that we live? If so, is this a weakness and how can it be remedied?
3. What was the source of Jesus' power? Are the same resources available to us? To what extent? How can we avail ourselves of them? Give instances of the power of "Spirit-filled" men.
4. If I should desire to influence an individual for Christ, in what ways is it likely that God would prepare that individual for my approach?
5. Have we any actual experience of answers to Prayer? .. ~,. .. r . . .. A.i * ™„ *-„„, falling -n,.
6. What are the factors that prevent me from telling any friends about Jesus?
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Suggested New Testament References.
CHAPTER 1. THE GREAT ADVENTURE.
Mark Chapter 10. 13-23
Luke, Chapter 5. 1-11
Mark, Chapter 8. 34—38
Acts, Chapter 26. 1-32.
2 Corinthians, Chapter 11. 24—33.
CHAPTER 2. YOUTH AND THE PRESENT CRISIS.
John, Chapter 16. 1-33
Ephesians, Chapter 6. 10-18.
1 Timothy, Chapter 4. 1-16.
2 Timothy, Chapter 3. 1-17.
CHAPTER 3. SHARING THROUGH FRIENDSHIP.
John, Chapter 1. 35-51.
Acts, Chapter 18. 24-28.
Phillipians, Chapter 2. 19-30.
CHAPTER 4. WITNESSING THROUGH THE GROUP.
Luke, Chapter 10. 1-2.
Acts, Chapter 4. 29-37.
Acts, Chapter 11. 21-27.
Hebrews, Chapter 10. 19-25.
CHAPTER 5. THE FELLOWSHIP OF SERVICE.
John, Chapter 15. 9-17.
John, Chapter 17. 20-26.
Acts, Chapter 2. 37-47.
Romans, Chapter 15. 1-7.
CHAPTER 6. CHRIST’S METHOD OF EXTENDING THE KINGDOM.
Matthew, Chapter 9. 35-38.
Matthew, Chapter 10. 1-20.
Mark, Chapter 12. 28-34.
Mark, Chapter 2. 14-17.
John, Chapter 1. 35-51.
John, Chapter 4. 4-30.
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CHAPTER 7. THE FIRST ESSENTIAL.
Acts, Chapter 4. 13-21.
2 Corinthians, Chapter 4. 1-18.
2 Corinthians, Chapter 6. 1-10.
1 John, Chapter 1. 1-7.
CHAPTER 8. MEETING ACTUAL CONDITIONS.
1 Corinthians, Chapter 12. 28-31.
1 Corinthians, Chapter 13. 1-13.
Galatians, Chapter 5. 13-26.
Hebrews, Chapter 4. 12-13.
2 Timothy, Chapter 2. 2-15.
CHAPTER 9. CONFRONTING YOUTH WITH THE LIVING CHRIST.
Acts, Chapter 8. 26-35.
1 Corinthians, Chapter 15. 12-20.
1 Corinthians, Chapter 2. 1-5.
2 Corinthians, Chapter 5. 17-20.
CHAPTER 10. SOLVING INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES.
Luke, Chapter 1. 1-4.
John, Chapter 20. 24-31.
1 Corinthians, Chapter 2. 7-16.
Hebrews, Chapter 11. 1, 32-40.
Hebrews, Chapter 12. 1-2.
CHAPTER 11. LIFE-CHANGERS.
Matthew, Chapter 5. 13-16.
Matthew, Chapter 28. 16-20.
Luke, Chapter 19. 1-10.
2 Corinthians, Chapter 5. 17-21.
CHAPTER 12. THE ETERNAL WHISPER.
Matthew, Chapter 14. 22-23.
Luke, Chapter 6. 11-13.
Luke, Chapter 21. 36-38.
John, Chapter 14. 15-31.
Hebrews, Chapter 4. 14-16.
PRINTED BY WHITCOMBE & TOMBS LIMITED.
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Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/books/ALMA1934-9917503313502836-Personal-adventuring-for-Christ-
Bibliographic details
APA: Greenberg, Len J. (Len Joseph). (1934). Personal adventuring for Christ : a statement of the principles of youth evangelism, with particular reference to the conditions affecting young people to-day. Youth Committee, N.Z. Council of Religious Education.
Chicago: Greenberg, Len J. (Len Joseph). Personal adventuring for Christ : a statement of the principles of youth evangelism, with particular reference to the conditions affecting young people to-day. Wellington, N.Z.: Youth Committee, N.Z. Council of Religious Education, 1934.
MLA: Greenberg, Len J. (Len Joseph). Personal adventuring for Christ : a statement of the principles of youth evangelism, with particular reference to the conditions affecting young people to-day. Youth Committee, N.Z. Council of Religious Education, 1934.
Word Count
18,136
Personal adventuring for Christ : a statement of the principles of youth evangelism, with particular reference to the conditions affecting young people to-day Greenberg, Len J. (Len Joseph), Youth Committee, N.Z. Council of Religious Education, Wellington, N.Z., 1934
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