The After-Meeting

There is no part of our work in which more care should be exercised than the after-service. If it becomes formal this at once lessens its eflFectiveness, and if it is too mechanical it immediately impresses those who may be somewhat interested as insincere. It is most difficult to suggest any rules by which the after-meetings should be conducted, but the experiences of others may be helpful and it is only with this thought in mind that this chapter is written.

While it is true that sometimes it becomes necessary to appoint an after-service unexpectedly because the impression made by the preaching is so deep, yet the rule is that the after-service must be carefully planned, must be made a subject of constant prayer, and those things must be done to bring people to decisions which 124 may be suggested to us by the Holy Spirit, for if we are in a receptive frame of mind he will most assuredly lead us. Those who are trained evangelists or those who are especially gifted as pastors in the winning of men to Christ will understand what is meant when we suggest that it is almost better to have no method to which we are wedded in order that the Holy Spirit may suggest to us some new plan for each meeting we hold.

It is said concerning the meetings of Major Cole who has won as many people to Christ as possibly any other man in the work to-day, that no two meetings are ever alike. Their variety is not only interesting but may be traced directly to the fact that the Major walks with God and is careful to follow his least intuition as to the particular line of action. However, while this is true, yet let it be said again that the after-meeting as a rule must be thoroughly planned out. It is comparatively easy to make an impression on an audience if one has a message and believes in the effectiveness of it; to gather the results from the preaching is quite another thing. Personally I do not know anything better to secure this than the inquirer’s card. When the cards are used the following may be adopted with profit.

Divide the church into as many divisions as would give one worker for every thirty or forty people. The following diagram represents a section of three rows, thirty-nine seats, the W being the worker who is expected to reach with cards the twenty people enclosed within the lines, the others being reached by assistants who may work from the aisles.

riOOOlOOOOOOOlOOO
ffiOOO OOOWOOO OOOg

<ooo ooooooo ooo<

The following inquirer’s cards have been used with success.

I have an Honest Desire Henceforth to
Live a Christian Life.

I am willing to follow any light God
may give me.

I ask the People of God to Pray for me.

Name

Residence...

Church or Pastor Preferred.
Usher’s Name

DECISION CARD.

Turning front all past sins, and trusting in the Lard Jesus Christ for salvation, I do hereby decide y God helping me to henceforth lead a Christian life. This I do, freely, fully and forever.

Name

Date

Please hand or send this oard to the pastor.

Provide the worker with a few of these cards and it might be well to supply lead pencils. These may be fastened to the cards with a little rubber band; when the sermon has been preached and you are sure there may be an impression, ask the workers to rise and turn quickly to all those who may be sitting near them offering to them the card which may be in their possession. Explain this card thoroughly to the people before the distribution begins; sometimes it is wise to sing a hymn softly while the work is being done, and sometimes the pastor may continue to urge upon his hearers the necessity of immediate decision while the work is going on. In some cases it is well to distribute the cards to every one before an explanation is made and then after each one has a card in his hand tell them just what you would like to have them do. The Christians in the congr^tion might take the card which they have received and use it either in the service or out of it with those who may not be Christians; those who are not members of the church should be urged to at least take this stand.

When the cards have all been collected they may be turned over to the minister and he will have before him a number of names of people who may be easily approached and in many cases quite as easily won to Christ

There are two things to remember about the Inquirer’s Card:

First: That it may or may not be a record of a decision, but in any case it is as valuable as if one should sit down in his home and write the minister a letter saying, “I have an earnest desire to live a Christian life. I am willing to follow any light if God will give it to me and I ask the people of God to pray to me.” If fifty such letters should be written to a pastor in a day he would think that certainly a great awakening had come to his church.

Second: The inquirer’s card is valuable in proportion as it is carefully followed up. It is a rare thing for one who has signed this card to seek out the minister for himself.

Following such a service as this it would be very easy to have an after-meeting and concerning this after-meeting the following suggestions may be made.

As a rule it is not generally considered wise to have the after-meeting in the same place as the preaching service, however, if this should be necessary it is a good plan to ask the people to rise and then state that you expect to hold an after-service, that those are invited who have not yet taken a stand for Christ, that all Christians are expected to stay who may feel the need of a deeper work of grace in their hearts and that those especially are asked to tarry who may be interested in the conversion of some friend or loved one.

Then state if? is necessary for any one to pass out they may have the privilege of doing so during the singing of this hymn. After the audience has been changed, if the auditorium is large, it is well to draw the people nearer together and then by the singing of a hymn, the offering of brief prayers and the statement again of the thought of the sermon which has produced conviction, you are ready for the after-meeting work. If it is possible to change the place of meeting then it is ordinarily wise to ask the people to rise and sing and then state that during the singing of a hymn the persons above indicated, that is those not members of the church, Christians desiring a deeper work of grace and those interested in the conversion of their friends or loved ones may pass into the other room during the singing of the hymn, asking all the others to wait until the benediction is pronounced. The advantage in this plan — rather than to close the meeting and let any one come in to the after-service who will, is two-fold.

First: If one moves out of a congregation for an after-meeting he has taken a long step towards Christ.

Second: If he waits until the audience passes out of the church, is slightly impressed or even has a deep sense of conviction, this may be dispelled and he be swept along with the crowd, and before he realizes it, is out of the church and on his way home. If the change in the place of meeting is thus made, again we are ready for the after-service. The following principles always hold:

In the conduct d a successful after-meeting, the invitation to those who may take their stand for Christ must be given with a kind of holy boldness. The least action of timidity or fear on the part of the leader will defeat his plan. When there is not the very deepest impression, then ask the people to do the easiest thing first, that is, call upon the Christians for some decision, suggest that those who desire to be remembered in prayer for their own growth in grace or in behalf of their friends should rise or lift their hands. If the impression is deep and you know it by intuition, then you may ask those present to do the most difficult thing, and sometimes the more you ask them to do the more willingly do they follow your suggestions.

There are four methods which have usually been adopted in after-meetings.

First: Those interested are asked to lift their hands, sometimes while all heads are bowed (but this is not necessary). After the hands have been lifted they are dealt with personally.

Second: They are asked to stand and speak out boldly their determination to come to Christ.

Third: They may be asked to come to the front and kneel at an altar or one which may be improvised by the placing of chairs in the chapel or church.

Fourth: They may be asked to come to the front and take the minister’s hand if they are ready to profess allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ The minister if he has had any experience at all will very soon know which one of these plans he may follow or he may feel that it is not wise to adopt any of them, for there may be suggested to him something very much better.

After the first step has been taken then we are ready for our dealing with the inquirer. This work may be both general and particular. If the leader of the meeting holds the service in his own hands, humanly speaking, it is well for him to state fully the plan of salvation. One cannot be too particular about this. Sometimes we err in the fact that we imsine the story is so well known that we need not repeat it, but this is frequently a fatal mistake. It is well to make frer quent use of good illustrations which aptly illustrate the truth you are presenting. Sometimes the audience may be appealed to for the sake of securing emphasis upon some principle which you have stated, although this is not infrequently dangerous, for injudicious people may sometimes undo the whole effect of the sermon and the appeal. If the congregation should be appealed to then let it be explicitly stated that the remarks are to be brief and entirely to the point.

I once heard the late Dr. Maltbie Babcock relate an illustration in which he was telling how easy it was to be a Christian if we would but follow God’s plan. He said that Harry Moorehouse, the distinguished evangelist, was a guest in his father’s house and that one evening while he was waiting to preach his sermon a child of the household came to the door and opened it; as the evangelist heard the door open he turned to look and the door closed again and no one appeared. Then he heard the sound once more, and without turning said, “Come in.” The child came into his presence and said, “Mr. Moorehouse, I want to be a Christian.” “Well,” said he, “you may be, for it is very easy,” and he asked her to turn to the fifty-third chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah and read the fourth and fifth verses, only he told her to make them personal, and she read them in this way. “Surely he hath borne my griefe, and carried my sorrows, yet / did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for my transgressions, he was bruised for my iniquities, the chastisement of my peace was upon him and with his stripes,” and as she came to this part she suddenly stopped, her eyes filled up with tears and the minister said, “Read on,” and she read, “/ am healed.” <’ It is just as easy as this,” said Mr. Moorehouse, and the child went away believing. If the dealing is particular and individuals deal with individuals, then make a free use of the Word of God, although of course this is not to be neglected in the general work. Such verses as John 5: 24, should be frequently used. “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” And note especially in this verse Jesus states that if we believe on him we shall not come into judgment and we have the immediate possession of eternal life.

The sixth chapter of John and the forty-seventh verse is also most useful, “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” But perhaps there is nothing better than John 3: 16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

A distinguished minister told me that he lived when a child in a home, every member of the household being as he expressed it, a perfect battery of emotion. They insisted that he could only be saved in their way and he tried again and again without success to find Christ. At last he gave up in despair. One afternoon when a student he was sitting under a tree on the campus and he began to read this verse, in John the third chapter and the sixteenth verse, which Luther has called the gospel in a nut shell, and he said, “Why this seems plain; ’ for God so loved the world,’ then he must have loved me for I am part of it; * that whosoever believeth,’ that is a plain statement, and certainly does not pass me by for I am one of that company. If therefore this is his word and I accept it, then according to his word I am saved,” and suddenly he said, “I rose to my feet, clasped my Bible and said as I looked up, * Lord God I expect to stand upon this promise, I will hold on to it through time and I will take it with me into thy very presence at the judgment and then I must be saved or it will go hard with the Book, and almost immediately,” he said,” there came a perfect rush of joy and I have had the consciousness ever since that I was accepted of him.*’

No after-meeting should close without all being urged to take a definite stand for Christ not only in the meeting but to take immediate steps towards being identified with some church, for it is literally true that it is impossible to find a joyous, successful, fruitful Christian in one who willingly neglects church membership.