"MAKE AN ADVENTURE"

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 118, 15 November 1945, Page 8

"MAKE AN ADVENTURE"

. The Commission on Evangelism, in a major report, said it believed that the Church should make an adventure in Christian education through advertising on a nation-wide scale, with expert advice. Pointing to the success of the publicity methods used by a Government department such as the Ministry of Food, the commission stated that an adequate advertising campaign exerted a strong unifying influence. "There is no doubt about the immediate success of these modern methods both for practical results and raising prestige. ... In the advertisement columns of the Press we have a vehicle for a modern form of tract." The commission suggested as an interim expedient the addition of a publicity department to the Press and Publications Bureau of the Assembly The first stage envisaged was as a five years' development campaign, the expenditure on which, the commission is advised, should develop to about £200,000 a year, and that by the end of the first year the expenditure might reach half that amount. "We do not argue that evangelism by advertising will affect conversion. . . . We do believe, however, that evangelism by advertising may prove of incalculable value in the preliminary stage of preparing the soil for the reception of the seed . . . and can bring into touch with the Church unknown thousands now thirsting for spiritual strength and peace at heart." Extended use of the wireless, or cinemas and theatres, and of literature is also contemplated, and special attention is given to the possibilities of television.