THE VALUE OF ORGANIZED PERSONAL WORK—By Leroy Brownlow

THE VALUE OF ORGANIZED PERSONAL WORK---By Leroy Brownlow THE VALUE OF ORGANIZED PERSONAL WORK
Leroy Brownlow

I have five minutes in which to discuss “The Value of Organized Personal Work.” My subject is not “The Value of Personal Work,” but the value of its being organized. In the time allotted to me, I can do very little more than merely mention these values.

Through years of experience with organized personal work, I have learned that it presents some problems and dangers; of course, that is true of every thing in church work that is good. But such threatening problems can be watched and guarded against. However, that is not my subject. I shall discuss the values of it.

1. Its value is found in that it makes for a more systematic program of personal work. It takes this phase of the Lord’s work off the hit-and-miss basis and gives it system, order, and coordination. It takes the performance of some of our personal labors off the basis of chance and puts them on a planned, purposeful program.

2. Another value of organized personal work is that it assures action. When there is no planning behind our personal work and it is left to the self- initiated activity of each member, the chances are that much that should be done will not be done. This is true because “what’s everybody’s business is nobody’s business.” But on the other hand, when the personal work is organized, you may rest asured that some of the things you want done will be accomplished, for instance: weekly visits to the sick ana shut-ins, contacting the visitors who attend the services, calling on newcomers to town, distributing literature, taking census, encouraging the faint-hearted and calling on new members.

3. Another value of organized personal work is that it enables us to better cultivate the prospects. The visits can be rotated. The prospect can be cultivated just like a farmer cultivates a crop. The records that are kept in such a program will help you to constantly keep the prospect in mind. It may take years to reach the person, but you never lose sight of him. As an example, last Lord’s day a man whose name has been in our prospect file for years responded to the invitation. We have had different ones to visit him over a long period of time. We never lost sight of him.

4. The worth of organized personal work is also found in that it makes for supervision. Unorganized personal works have no supervision. Any work in any field which is properly supervised is more profitable than that which is not supervised.

5. Another great value derived from organized personal work is that it helps those who participate. It enables them to have a job and to feel that they are a part of the team and are cooperating in a program of work to reach souls and strengthen the church. It will keep the church from being so dead.

6. Its worth is also seen in the results accomplished. This is the test of every endeavor—what about the results? “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” The results have been gratifying in every church of which I have any knowledge that has tried organized personal work and worked at the job. As long as the plan is worked, it brings forth fruit. For examples: In Brother Otis Gatewood’s book, “You Can Do Personal Work,” he states that in 1944 he spent two months working with the Broadway congregation in Lubbock, and that the class attendance on Sunday morning was 225. They planned a program of personal work and hoped to double that attendance in one year. The result: they doubled it in two months. Now, according to a recent bulletin of theirs, they are aiming at 1500. A little over two years ago we began a new congre-gation in which nearly two hundred members were taken from the Polytechnic church. Most of them attended Bible classes; so we lost them, together with many children who were not members, from the Bible classes. We put on a special drive of organized personal work to take up the slack that would be caused by the loss of those who would go to the new congregation. The classes averaged 636 per Sunday for the month before the new congregation was started. The Sunday the new congregation began, our class attendance was 760. Instead of a 200 decrease, we had a 124 increase; and the average for the month was 712.

I am inclined to think that the gospel meetings in recent years in which we have had the largest number of additions are the ones where churches had organized personal work.

Yes, the results have been wonderful.