Converting the World

Converting The World
David Lipscomb
Gospel Advocate, Vol. 52, No. 3 (January 20, 1910): 77

The world can never be converted to Christ in the meetinghouses or by the regular or professional preachers. There are not enough preachers to reach the masses of the common people. Nor can they be carried to the meetinghouses to be converted. The Bible with its teachings must be carried to them at their homes and amid their family associations. It must be carried there by people who can make themselves familiar with them and in their surroundings. The preachers who depend on the congregations for a support cannot do this work. Men doing this work should be helped by the congregation in many ways. Personal help and assistance, where it can rendered, is better both for the helper and helped. It is better for a Christian to visit and to help a sick person than for him to send others to help him and stay away himself. All his service cannot be so rendered; but personal attention, a visit to a sick man, helps both parties, the visitor and the visited. A few persons in a community starting in an earnest way to worship God and to interest all they can is the surest way to build up a church I know. There are more Christians and churches in Nashville than in any city of its population in the world. They were made through the private members studying themselves and teaching the word of God in various neighborhoods. Very frequently these private members become earnest and effective preachers. South College Street, Green Street, Carroll Street, and Flat Rock were built up in this way; and in West Nashville, North Nashville, and East Nashville the same was true. Brethren that go to work when first converted, to learn and teach, grow by teaching and continue to spread and multiply.

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Another paragraph worth hearing from Uncle Dave's pen. Terry Gardner called this to the attention of the Stone-Campbell email discussion list. I thought it worthy of passing along.