1. Free As Sons
   
2. Does "Go Ye" Mean "Go Me?"
   
3. Are We Really Born Again?
   
4. The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel
   
5. Silence Says Something
   
6. Body Language
   
7. Repentance Before Faith
   
8. I Wonder
   
9. Can I Know?
   
10. Ultimate Logical Conclusions
    
11. Errors in Peter's Sermon
    
12. Did Timothy Need Admonition?
    
13. Jesus' Youth Sermon For Adults
    
14. Why Didn't Paul Reform?
    
15. Christmas
    
16. Let The Unmarried Marry
    
17. A Dialect of Division
    
18. Our Traditions
    
19. Adding Our Safeguards
    
20. According To The Pattern
    
21. A Creed In The Deed
    
22. Samuel Did Not Know The Lord!
    
23. Response From Our Readers
    
24. Cries Of A Troubled Church
    
25. Sharing Without Fellowship
    
26. I Joined A Church
    
27. Open Membership
    
28. Another Last Will And Testament
    
29. Sad Thoughts About Church Growth
    
30. My Four Retirement Homes
    
31. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

DOES "GO YE" MEAN "GO ME?"

Does the "Go ye" of the Great Commission demand that each disciple of Christ join in evangelizing the world? Our "personal evangelists," "soul winners," and campaigners make this an inescapable obligation for each of us. They make us feel so guilty about it that we are swept into their systems and programs, whether we are capable or not.

The unsaved must be evangelized, but all disciples are not equipped for that task. Paul informs us in First Corinthians 12 that there are various gifts and functions in the body and that all are not the same member, whether a hand, foot, eye, or ear. He assures that "God arranged the organs of the body, each one of them, as he chose. " He did not choose all of us to be teachers. Paul emphasizes this point by his rhetorical questions: "Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?"

Notice that Paul did not write, "And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, everybody evangelists, some pastors and everybody teachers." (Eph. 4:11). Neither did Paul urge, "What you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to each disciple who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2).

While many well­meaning men have taught the truth about the differing gifts and functions in the context of these passages, they have conveniently twisted the scriptures and contradicted themselves in order to involve us all in their programs of evangelism. They tend to make anyone feel guilty who does not become active in evangelism. They also use Proverbs 11:30 as a text for "winning souls" without considering that the Law of Moses was not evangelistic, nor did it save souls, and that the passage teaches nothing kin to soul winning, except as it is misstated in the King James Version.

Am I making light of evangelism? My career has been spent in efforts to save my fellow sinners, and I am not making light of that. There is a misdirection that I am trying to correct, a misdirection that would identify the body as the local assembly with its members being the eyes, ears, hands, and feet. All of the expressions of these differing gifts are brought under the systematized program of the group, planned and overseen by its elders. Any member who does not work in and through the system is made to feel disloyal and nonproductive and to be resisting the elders. If anyone uses his "contribution money" in private ministry, he is thought to be robbing God, for his money must be given to the church (elders) so it can be used "in the name of the church" so God will get the glory!

In line with this, we hear much about the work of the church, meaning, of course, the local organized work. Seminars are conducted on how to build a strong church, which is the local corporate group. Ministries are defined, departmentalized, and organized for corporate action headed up by one person who may be a professional minister. So, letterheads and bulletins of the church list the recognized, and often hired, ear, eye, hand, and foot of the local body. Organization often bottle­necks and frustrates in some areas for assignment is made to persons with no gift in that field. A group which meets together must necessarily have some organization, but it is preposterous to think that elders, deacons, or committees may choose and assign and oversee your life ministry for you.

This developed concept denies, or at least minimizes, that God gives us private ministries. We are members of the body at large. As members of that body, God has given each of us a gift, or gifts a ministry, or ministries. Each person should recognize his or her own gift and use it to the fullest in individual ministry. This does not mean that one should be disloyal to the local group, work against its interests, or fail to bear some of the financial responsibility for its essential needs.

A person may accept evangelism for his or her ministry. He may serve by proclaiming the gospel, by writing, by correspondence courses, or by use of the media. He does not have to ask anyone for permission, report to anyone, ask for money from the church, or operate under a church program. It becomes his own ministry into which the Spirit has directed and enabled him. If others wish to help enlarge his opportunities by support, that is their privilege.

A person's talent may be in a vocational or business field. Through it, or its rewards, that person can develop a life of private service. God can use us where we fit in our circumstance of life. To use our circumstance to increase our wealth and pleasure, even while tithing to the system, is to misappropriate the gift that God gives us.

A family, having a special love for children, may take homeless children as their own as their life's ministry. They involve their whole beings in providing the proper care and upbringing of these children. Their money is not put into the church treasury to be sent to an orphanage so the system can perform the ministry, but they fulfill their God­given ministry. Their "contribution money" is used directly, and no apology for doing it is due the local assembly, the elders, or anyone else.

For years the church here has been sending a token monthly amount to three children's homes and Christian Home of Abilene. Last year a couple was assigned to represent the interests of each home to the congregation. Because of their special interest in Christian Home of Abilene, one couple chose to work in its interest. The home needed a van. This couple wanted to raise money to help in its purchase by selling home­crafted products. The church program did not readily allow for such. So, they enlisted the help of other interested persons and, in a few months in a private ministry of making and selling those products, they were able to deliver a brand new Ford passenger van to the home. Depending upon a church organized, sponsored, and supported program, the home would have continued to get the token amount as usual. In this private ministry the church did not have to enter the picture either for approval or finances. In such a loving way our gifts can be used most effectively.

God has given you a ministry which can be totally free of church-related tensions. Oh, that I had realized that forty­five years ago! In this life of service, you are accountable to God. You may use your time, money, and abilities in doing what you are most at ease in doing. Yours may be serving the poor, correcting social ills, teaching, evangelizing, writing and distributing free literature, caring for an invalid (whether kin or not), serving the mentally ill and handicapped, helping with problem children, reaching those in prison, rescuing those addicted to alcohol or drugs, serving the aged, shepherding, or encouraging and supporting others in their ministries. The field of service is as broad as the needs of humanity. Any of these, or a combination of them, can be your private field of service. When you give yourself to it, you need not feel guilty because you cannot do all of them, or even the one your best friend does. To become "jack of all trades, but master of none" is not the most sensible course.

Although I have enlisted many children for bus routes and Vacation Bible School by cold canvas door­knocking, I do not recall ever having converted one adult in my countless such efforts. I no longer feel guilty because I do not go on such door­knocking campaigns since admitting that God did not give me that gift. Some persons have that gift; let them serve God by it without making others who do not have it feel guilty or inferior.

While my career ministry in the framework of the system and its program has not been dismally ineffective, it has been filled with the frustration of failure due to working in areas where I had no gift, the tensions in trying to please the system, the conflicts of not meeting the demands of those in charge, and self­reproach for not being effective in all aspects of the spectrum of programmed activities.

Since retiring from church programmed ministry, the Lord has given me a private ministry through writing. Perhaps, such was meant for me from my youth. Through my first book alone, in the last two years, I have taught an average of 450 person­lessons per day lessons which were not readily acceptable in my pulpit. I can do this without asking anyone, without answering to any but God, and free from the tensions inherent in the congregational ministry. I did not know before that life could be without tensions! This is the type of happiness and joy of service that the Spirit intended for us to have through use of his gifts in individual ministries. Most of our tensions about religion relate to our participation in the organized program of the church.

Yes, "Go ye" means "Go me," but only in the ministry into which God called me. Through it, hopefully, others may see my good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Such works may be more convincing to the lost than our doctrinal argumentation. And that is evangelism also.