A young man in his late teens left Oklahoma and journeyed
to California, the land of gold and sunshine, to seek his fortune.
Once there, he prospered in everything he did and finally became
a highly successful businessman.
Some years later his younger brother
back home called and told him that their father had passed away.
The California businessman replied that he was in the middle
of the biggest business deal of his lifetime and couldn’t
possibly leave to attend the funeral. But, he said, “You
bury Dad in style and send me the bill. I will be glad to pay
it.”
Sometime later he got a bill for the
funeral. It was far more than he expected, but since he had
promised to pay it, he did.
The next month he got a bill for $48.50.
He was surprised and wondered what it was for, but he paid it.
The next month he got another bill for $48.50.
Finally, he called his brother and
said, “I got the bill for the funeral. I hadn’t realized
that a funeral could cost so much but since I couldn’t
be there, I was glad to pay it. But I have been getting billed
for $48.50 a month. I am at a loss to know what in the world
this is for.”
His brother explained, “Well,
you said to bury Dad in style, so we rented a tuxedo.”
You see, it takes money to go - especially
if you go in style.
And the world is going in style today.
Every business that is of any importance today has the most
modern buildings, the latest equipment, the best personnel,
and adequate room for parking.
"If God has called you, there is always a way to get the
job done"
Larger and more luxurious shopping
malls are replacing older ones that are outdated for the age
in which we live.
It’s a fact: If you want to keep
growing, you have to keep paying to keep up with the times.
This is as true in the church world
as it is in any other business. If the buildings aren’t
adequate, modern and attractive, with well-staffed capable people,
it goes the way of other businesses that do not keep up with
the times.
National polls tell us that after a
church grows to 85 percent of its occupancy space, it is impossible
to hold the growth at that level. It will surge up for a time
and then stall like an overloaded airplane. Then the growth
cycle has to be repeated again. One of the cardinal rules for
church growth is adequate room.
In a recent poll of 10,000 churches,
90 percent said they could not enlarge because of lack of finances.
As a result, they had decided to limit their work in their community
to the size of the facilities they were presently occupying.
Making the decision to build is always
difficult and demands serious scrutiny. Even Jesus said we should count the cost before we start to build.
(See Luke 14:28-30.)
On the other hand, sometimes we make
the mistake of trying to solve all the problems before making
a decision. This, too, is difficult, if not impossible to do.
If you make the right decision, you
can always solve the problems arising from having made that
decision - no matter how many obstacles you face.
There will always be a risk factor
involved in any decision we make. I wish it wasn’t that
way, but it is.
In fact, you will never know just what
you can do until you face a situation where you just have to
do it.
This idea is illustrated by the story
of an old Texas rancher who had a “coming out” party
for his sixteen-year-old daughter on her birthday. He had the
biggest barbecue, the largest band, and the best entertainment
- a party to end all “coming out” parties.
When everyone had been wined and dined
and entertained to the very ultimate, he said, “Now I want
to show you something you will never see on another ranch in
Texas.” He led the party-goers out back of the barns to
a well-lighted area where there was a giant swimming pool full
of alligators.
"If you make the right decision, you can always solve the
problems arising from having made that decision" He said,
“For seven years I have had a standing offer of $100,000
to anyone who can swim across that pool. It has never been claimed.”
Just then there was a splash, and a
young man started swimming frantically, over one alligator and
under another. With their huge jaws snapping all around him,
he swam, miraculously escaping every one of them. As he finally
reached the other side and pulled himself out of the pool, two
big jaws just grazed his feet.
The old Texas rancher was waiting there
to help him out of the water. He was so excited he said, “Man,
I never saw such swimming in my entire life. You’ve earned
the $100,000. You can have it in cash, in cattle, in stocks,
in bonds - anything you want. You have earned it. Tell me, how
do you want it?”
The young man could hardly get his
breath, but when he could, he ignored the rancher’s question
and asked, "All I want to know is - who pushed me?"
During my life, I have been pushed
a few times and had to make the most of the situation. Most
ventures in life are risky, however, and it is still best to
get our orders directly from headquarters before making the
plunge.
Before I get involved in any kind of
ministry or fundraising effort, I make sure it is one to which
God has called me. In fact, I have made it a rule never to go
anywhere to serve the Lord or to raise money unless I am sure
God has called me there. I do not believe God would call me
somewhere to do a work for Him and then not help me to do what
He had called me to do.
Here
are my rules for successful living:
1. Be sure God has called me.
2. Find out what He wants me to do in that place.
3. Find out when He wants me to start.
Once these three items are settled, I know if I carefully and
prayerfully seek to follow God’s leading, He will help
me accomplish what He has called me to do.
These three principles have kept me
from making a lot of mistakes and from biting off more than
I could chew. It’s a good thing because everything God
has called me to do has demanded that I raise money.
I have always heard that success in
life is largely made up of making right decisions. Looking back
over my own life, I have had to make many major decisions. I
know I would probably have made the wrong choice in many instances
if God had not directed me.
One situation in particular stands
out in my mind.
In 1933, I was spending the summer
with C. E. Thurmond, who was the pastor of the church in Watertown,
South Dakota. “Although I had only been a Christian for
18 months, I had definitely felt the call of God to preach the
gospel.
During that summer, Pastor Thurmond
and I traveled to Lake Geneva Camp in Minnesota and met A. A.
Anderson there. This evangelist told us about a meeting he had
conducted in Moran, Michigan out of which a group of believers
had come together. He needed someone to go there and build a
work.
Pastor Thurmond said to me, “You
want to preach. Here’s your chance. This is an opening.
If you want to get into the ministry, go for it.”
At the time, I had been traveling with
a musical group and teaching school. I didn’t want to go.
I knew very little about starting or pastoring a church. It
was so far away. In fact, there was no “Assembly of God
church in that district within 200 miles.
Without praying about it, I told the
Lord I didn’t have the money to make the trip.
A check came in the mail.
I still didn’t ask God what He
wanted me to do; I just decided not to go.
The Lord spoke to me anyway.
I had a dream in which God made it
clear He wanted me in Moran.
What else could I do?
I packed my bags and went to Moran,
Michigan.
During the two and one half years I
pastored in Moran, I gained a knowledge of God’s Word I
had never known before and started a self-supporting church.
It was the most valuable experience of my life up to that time,
and the Lord taught me not to make hasty decisions about any
opportunity presented to me.
"Success in life is largely made up of making right
decisions"
“After I left Moran, I felt the
Lord leading me to preach “revival meetings.” I decided
that I would not ask for meetings but wait for pastors to ask
me. That method worked.
In my two and one half years as a traveling
evangelist, I never lacked for invitations and always had meetings
booked ahead.
In spite of the lesson learned at Moran,
I still almost missed the most important meeting of my life.
A pastor by the name of Greyell of the Bible Standard church
at Dunning, Nebraska asked me to come for a meeting. I was reluctant.
It was a small town and a little church, and it was not of our
denomination. Every road block I put in the way of my going
there, God removed. I finally had to go.
The first night of the meetings in
Dunning, we started with a small crowd of about a half dozen
people. Some of the church leaders had received a revelation
that God was through with Dunning, and there would never be
a revival there again.
I found that hard to believe, and the
next day, I delivered flyers to every business place in town
- even the bars. Then I went from door to door inviting the
people of the town to our meetings.
On the fourth Sunday night, the church
was completely filled. People began finding God. Some had unusual
visions. Many were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Having outgrown the church, we moved
the services to a large tent located midway from five towns.
The tent revival continued for 13 weeks, and hundreds of people
experienced the power of God manifested in ways I myself had
never seen. People were saved, healed, and filled with the Holy
Spirit.
It was during those meetings that I
met my life partner, Estella - the greatest earthly blessing
that has ever come to me. “And to think I almost missed
her.
After we married and were settled for
a time, Estella and I decided to leave Ord, Nebraska, where
we had been pastoring, and go into evangelistic work. We already
had about 18 months of meetings lined up.
In the meantime, the district superintendent
of our denomination had recommended us as pastors to the “Assemblies
of God Church at South Sioux City.
When a lady from the church called
and asked us to come and preach over a Sunday as candidates
for the pastorate, I told her that we had previous engagements.
We finally agreed on a date for three weeks later.
When we arrived in South Sioux City
late on a Saturday evening, the lady we were to contact told
us, “Another man has recently been here to preach. He was
out of a job, and most of the church people have already decided
on him. But some people thought we should try out several pastors.”
I felt like turning right around and
going back home. I hadn’t asked for the church. They had
asked me.
When we got to the deacon’s house
where we were to stay for the night, Estella and I were given
a very cold reception. I did not sleep a wink and had to force
myself to stay in that house until the next morning.
I remembered what I learned at Moran,
Michigan: Don’t make hasty decisions. “All night God
kept reminding me, “Don’t make hasty decisions. Stay
and see what happens.”
With an open mind, I decided to make
the best of a tense situation. To my amazement, when I walked
into that church the next morning, I felt like I had been there
all my life.
I began my message by telling the congregation,
“You don’t know if you would want us as pastors. We
don’t know if we want you as a congregation. Let’s
forget about all that and just enjoy the day.”
Both the morning and evening services
were filled with the joy and presence of the Holy Spirit. I
couldn’t remember when I had been in services more exciting.
Estella and I were blessed to be a part of them.
After the evening service, the church
board asked, “If you are voted in, will you become our
pastor?”
I said, “After all that has happened
here I feel if the people want us, it would have to be God’s
will.”
The church voted the following Tuesday
and later told us we received more votes than any pastor who
had ever been there.
During our four years of steady growth
and revival at South Sioux City, God began to challenge me in
a new and different way.
We were able to get our radio program
on the Yankton station. “At that time, WNAX had the tallest
antenna in North America, reaching out to nine states and three
provinces in Canada. “Air time was quite expensive.
Our church, however, wasn’t interested
in sponsoring a program on the station, so our family underwrote
it. The station trusted us implicitly - as long as we paid cash
in advance.
One Sunday I was depending on the morning
offering to help us pay for that week’s program. It was
the policy in that church to pay the pastor’s salary from
the offerings received.
The blessing of God moved in the service
from the very beginning, and there was no appropriate time for
an offering. I felt I could not interrupt what God was doing
among the people.
That night the Baccalaureate ceremony
was being held at our local high school, so we had canceled
the evening service.
I wondered what I would do. I had always
had the money for the station up to this time. Since there had
been no Sunday offerings, I had received no money for the week.
I went by the post office on my way
home to find two letters in the mail box. Usually, an envelope
might contain a dollar or two. I opened them there in the post
office. One had a money order for $70. This would pay the radio
bill. The other had a check for $10.
I immediately thought of that old song,
“God Is Still Mindful Of Me Each Hour.”
That experience taught me about God
and His faithfulness. I was beginning to learn to trust Him
financially in a different way.
During this time, the church in Scottsbluff,
Nebraska asked me to come and “try out” for the pastorate.
I was hesitant, but the district superintendent of our denomination
urged me to consider their offer.
He did give this word of caution, however:
“It would be best for you to refrain from getting too interested
in raising money to build a new church,” he admonished.
“Ministers in the past who have let this happen to them
have regularly been voted out of the church.”
Our family traveled to Scottsbluff
where I was to preach on Sunday. When we arrived, I couldn’t
help but notice that the old church building was tied together
with steel rods at the roof level. “All through my sermon,
I kept looking over my head expecting the swaying roof to collapse
with the slightest gust of wind.
In spite of the fact that the restrooms
were under the floor in a small space just big enough to contain
them, the people seemed very satisfied with the building. It
was evident they did not want anything changed.
After I got back home, I phoned the
church’s search committee and told them we didn’t
feel led to accept the pastorate.
I thought that would be the end of
it, but the church got back in touch with us and wanted us to
reconsider.
I told them I would pray about it,
and when I did, God let me know I was to go there even though
it was a smaller church, paid less salary, and the people didn’t
want to build.
After six months of pastoring in Scottsbluff,
I came to the conclusion that I was wasting my time, God’s
time, and the people’s time. That church would never grow
without new facilities.
On the first Monday night in February
1946, I brought up the idea of a new building at the church
board meeting. To say they were stunned would be an understatement.
When they finally recovered from my suggestion, I still couldn’t
see a friendly face in the group.
The meeting lasted until after midnight.
Usually nothing good happens in a board meeting after midnight,
but they finally agreed that if I could raise $3,000 they would
bring it before the congregation for a vote.
I felt an urge to say, “My wife
and I will give $500,” but I didn’t. My first reaction
was: Surely that can’t be God. He knows I only get about
$27 a week. I couldn’t even borrow that amount of money.
But again I felt the impression, only
stronger this time. I knew it was God speaking to me, and I
immediately spoke up and said, “My wife and I will give
$500.”
When I simply said what God told me
to say, the walls began to crumble and the victory started.
At that time, I didn’t know that
I had just fulfilled two of the cardinal rules of fundraising
- both of which required God’s intervention in order to
succeed:
First,
I did what God impressed me to do.
Second, I expressed it publicly.
In a matter of one week, the people had pledged $3,000.
Within three months, my wife and I
were able to pay our pledge of $500 - the highest pledge anyone
made. I still don’t know just how we did it; somehow it
seemed easy.
Although all I had to go on was the
voice of God, I have learned that He never asks us to do anything
impossible.
While at Scottsbluff, I had become
a close friend to a local contractor who was a Christian. He
told me he would oversee the building of the church and donate
his time. In addition, he offered to charge us only when his
men worked. The men in the church volunteered their time, and
I also worked steadily on the building. It was a great education.
By the fall of 1946, we had a new brick
church to dedicate.
"Obedience To God Always Brings Great Blessing"
I have never forgotten the power that
comes when one person obeys God and leads in giving. In this
particular instance in Scottsbluff, a number of things happened
as a result:
1. We had a beautiful new brick
church - the first one in the valley after the war.
2. God sent a revival that more than
doubled the church in less than a year after moving into it.
3. We had the largest Sunday School
in the state in our denomination that year.
4. We had the first missionary convention
in our denomination ever held in the state of Nebraska as
far
as I
could learn.
5. We paid off the church debt in
three years.
Obedience moved us to a new plateau
spiritually, and we were never the same after that revival.
Unusual healings were the order of the day, and our membership
grew and grew. Whole families came into the church, received
the baptism in the Holy Spirit - and most of them tithed. In
fact, some of the men who were saved during that revival are
prominent ministers today.
God also blessed our family financially
in a way He never had before. We were able to purchase our first
new car and have been able to drive new cars ever since.
After we had been at Scottsbluff about
five years, we got a letter from Wilfred Brown, the General
Treasurer of our denomination asking me to consider taking the
job of director of the National Radio Department.
I had no interest in a job like that.
Besides, I didn’t know enough about radio to oversee a
work of that size, so I didn’t even answer the letter.
A year later I saw Brother Brown, and
he asked Estella and me to have lunch with him. He talked with
us at some length about the job and asked us to consider it.
We decided to make a visit to Springfield
to talk with our denominational executives. On the way home
from that meeting, the Lord spoke to me so definitely that I
knew this move was the will of God for us.
In the next seven years, I learned
more than during any other seven years of my life. With God’s
help, I had made the right decision.
"God never calls us to fail but to succeed in doing what
He wants done"
Diplomacy and compromise became a necessity
as I learned how to work around the “big wheels” in
our denomination - the General Superintendent, four “Assistant
General Superintendents, plus a General Treasurer and a General
Secretary - without getting my hands caught in the gears!
I also lost my fear of other preachers.
That happened when I learned that they are sympathetic to whomever
is preaching. “As a result, preaching to preachers became
my first love.
Two years after I took the job, the
radio department went from cutting records and sending them
out to about 50 stations to a live program on the ABC Network
with C. M. Ward as full-time speaker. This was a life-changing
experience for me and required the raising of extensive amounts
of money on an on-going basis.
First of all, we needed money to pay
a full-time speaker and the cost of air time for nearly 400
stations. Fortunately, I had learned about “direct mail”
from my experiences at WNAX, the station in Yankton, South Dakota.
At “Revivaltime” I wrote
all the promotional letters and built up the mailing list to
50,000, which became our best source of income.
A development director was never hired,
so I did the fundraising work as well, traveling all over the
nation preaching in churches, touring districts, preaching camp
meetings, and promoting “Revivaltime.” I discovered
that if I gave first in the offering and told my audience what
I had given, the offerings were always larger.
In order to sustain a consistent income
for the ministry, I talked with the pastors and board members
of the churches I visited and encouraged them to become monthly
supporters. “As an incentive, we offered a “Revivaltime”
sign that could be placed in front of each church participating
in regular giving to the radio work.
When Estella and I left in 1958 to
pastor Bethel Church in Quincy, Illinois, the Radio Department
was running well in the black.
I am sure God called us to the “Revivaltime”
ministry. He never calls us to fail but to succeed in doing
what He wants done.
"You will never know just what you can do
until you face a situation where you just have to do it"
"This is not a "get rich quick" scheme - quite
the contrary. Dr. Clark takes the revealed Word of the Lord
and clothes it in the nuts and bolts of life. "
Charles Cookman
Former
District Superintendent
[Assemblies
of God]
North Carolina District
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