Dr. Elmer Towns: Goals and how to reach them

While many will do evangelism only as described in the Bible, one pastor said he would go a step farther and use any evangelistic method not expressly forbidden in Scripture so he could reach people with the Gospel. This includes (a) busing, (b) campaigns, (c) advertising, (d) cassettes, (e) newspapers, (f) newsletters, (g) radio announcements, (h) television, (i) flyers, and (o) billboards.

In 1971, I was Sunday School Superintendent at Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Virginia when Sunday School attendance averaged approximately 4,000 a week. Pastor Jerry Falwell set an attendance goal of 10,000, an unheard of record attendance. The goal was to saturate the city and surrounding counties. First, all 103 pages of the telephone book were distributed to 103 volunteers with the instruction to phone everyone and invite them to Sunday School. Twelve billboards surrounding the city invited visitors to the service. Sixty radio announcements were played on every station and 10 announcements on the I television station invited people to Sunday School. A flyer was placed under the windshield wiper of every automobile in town and 5,000 posters were tacked on trees, light poles, etc. Three mailings (a letter, flyer, and post card) were sent to every home in a 5 county area. Finally, 200 workers went door to door on the Saturday before the big day to invite visitors to Sunday School. As a result of saturating our "Jerusalem," 10,154 attended Harvest Day, 1972.

But by 1987, Dr. Falwell was qualifying his opinion on every phase of Saturation Evangelism. He said it didn't work as it used to work because of the high price of media. Falwell was exhorting "Back to Basics," which included visiting, contacting friends, working through Sunday School teachers, etc.

Dr. Elmer Towns is on e of the five of us on the All Star Sunday School team. The others are David Francis, Steve Parr, and Allen Taylor. We are just about to nail down meetings three and four--in Florida and Tenessee. For more information on All Star Sunday School Training, See http://allstarsundayschool.com/