The "Success" Story Of The Herald Of Truth
Advertising issuing from the Abilene offices of the Herald of Truth has stated:
"We can open the doors of the church to 100,000,000 homes in America by accepting the Challenge of the Century. Carry the truth by means of the Herald of Truth." (Brochure)
A letter from the elders at Highland church in Abilene, dated October 14,1959 read:
"We certainly know the Highland church of Christ here in Abilene faces its greatest challenge--- the opportunity to preach the gospel over 775 radio and television stations reaching the homes of better than 100,000,000 souls, This means it could be possible to reach, in one week, more souls than all our individual pulpits are reaching in 65 years."
Now, many good brethren with evangelistic zeal and a compassion for the lost have been led to believe these extravagant claims of the sponsors of the Herald of Truth, and have turned wholeheartedly to the support of the Herald of Truth as the means the churches have long needed to convert the masses, and especially the teeming millions in our huge cities, New York City has by far the greatest population of all our cities. It was an early target for the Herald of Truth following the birth of the Herald of Truth in February, 1952, In 1950 New York City had a population of 7,891,957. It was 7,781,984 in 1960. The consolidated area (New York City and its suburbs) had, according to the census, a population of 12,911,994 in 1950 which increased to 14,759,429 by 1960. The 1960 consolidated population of Chicago was 6,794,461, and so New York City and its consolidated area is over twice as large as the city in second place.
Metropolitan New York had nearly one-tenth the population of the United States in the decade 1950-60. It should be an adequate sample to test the "success" of the Herald of Truth as a means of effectively reaching and converting souls to Christ.
In 1954 brother Burton Coffman moved to New York City to begin his work with the Manhattan Church of Christ, where he still remains. After these many years working in the very midst of these teeming millions brother Coffman has said:
The delusion of the short-cut tempts every generation of men. When printing was invented some supposed evangelism had reached the end of its use-fullness. But books are hardly the answer to man's crying need of salvation...
Then came radio.... Wonderful as our programs may be in this field, only a blind man can shut his eyes to the colossal fact that people are simply not listening to us. In ten years in New York City, we have baptized only five people as a result of our own radio programs and those of others (This would include the Herald of Truth broadcast there, E. L. F.); and of these five (baptized), only one is, of this date, still faithful, and even here the issue is not finally determined....
The same thing is true of television.
One more example will suffice. One of our latest short-cuts is an exhibit at the World's Fair, or other fairs, when it is supposed, that by expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars some magnificent harvest of souls can be achieved for his name's sake. Oh, how I wish that it were true. If only there could be some short-cut to tell the dying millions of the Blessed Savior's love; but here again, we find no substitute for preaching the gospel. As a result of these visiting the Fair last summer, we received some three thousand names of so-called prospects, representing the end result of a vast expenditure and coming down to a batch of cards which we of the Manhattan church of Christ have faithfully tried to process and convert to tangible and meaningful results. Printed personal invitations were sent to the whole list and we are in the process of visiting all of them. After months of effort and expenditure, we can report that eight people have attended church at least once; and of the entire total none has accepted Christ. We are not giving up, but have found out that mass conversions are simply not going to result from any deployment of men and money such as this. One rather poor evangelist, full of his message, with a tent on a back street in an obscure village could probably have achieved as much in a ten day meeting ....Not long ago, at a sales meeting of one of the greatest life insurance companies in the world in New York City, the president addressed the representatives of his giant insurance empire, and said, "Today there are a hundred million policyholders in our company, and every single one of them was sold one at a time!" There was a message and a messenger, and these are the two prime ingredients of evangelism.
(Burton Coffman, Gospel Advocate, March 17, 1966, p.165)
I'm glad brother Coffman stated these facts, for perhaps some ardent Herald of Truth supporters may listen to him and begin to open prejudiced eyes as they face "colossal facts" he presents---the Herald of Truth is an extravagant waste of money; it is a failure in converting souls (five in ten years in N. Y. C,, and one of these barely hanging on now, according to Coffman. Remember! Five baptisms in ten years amidst one-tenth the population of the U. S. A. Five baptized in ten years amidst 14,000,000 souls, and one remains faithful). H. O. T. is not only an unscriptural arrangement; it is a colossal failure. It is a short-cut that fails in getting the job done, says brother Coffman, who is in a position to know firsthand.
And the World's Fair fiasco! Literature from the Queens Church of Christ, the sponsoring church (an unscriptural arrangement) in soliciting funds for the second session of the World's Fair, paints a glowing picture of success for the first session---850,000 visitors to exhibit, 18,444 enrolled in Bible Courses, other registered contacts, 23,802, etc. ---and 12 baptized by a working force of 154 workers in 180 days, and an expenditure "of hundreds of thousands of dollars", as Coffman reports it. The reports cites baptisms in three other specific places.
With Coffman reporting that Manhattan church of Christ received 3000 cards bearing names of "prospects" that means Manhattan received just about one-tenth of all the "registered contacts" issued from the World's Fair Exhibit by the churches of Christ. Is his as glowing a report as that of the sponsoring church? Hardly! After sending printed personal invitations to these 3000 persons the Queens church reported "impressed" with the teaching concerning the church of the New Testament, Coffman reports that only 8 of these persons have attended a single service and NONE have accepted Christ! And yet, the Queens church asks the churches to send her at least $350,000 to repeat this performance the second year of the Fair! Coffman is not attacking the scripturalness of H. O. T. or The World's Fair Exhibit, but rather the expediency of such methods in evangelization. I would attack them upon both, but even if expediency were the only premise, the churches could use their money more wisely and effectively in evangelization, and as a by-product, cease to push conscientious brethren out of churches and sow discord among the brethren.
Brethren, let us return to scriptural arrangements in evangelizing. And let us return to sanity, ceasing to make such wild, unfounded claims as H. O. T. reaching 100,000,000 homes in U.S.A. Even as late as 1964 the U. S. Census reports only 57,251,000 homes in the U.S.A. (World Almanac, 1966). How can H.O.T. reach 42,829,000 homes that do not yet exist? If they say "We meant 100,000,000 souls!" the statement still is irrational, senseless, No one reaches such an audience; program, no Kennedy, no Johnson, no game and no preacher. Heed brother Coffman!
-Eugene, Oregon