Romans for Three Cents

He tried all the devices: newspaper ads, radio programs, give-away leaflets, mailing, even a coupon good for a sermon!

The first step in any kind of evangelism is to attract the attention of the prospect. Before attention has been captured, no dialogue is possible.

Over the years, I have tried practically all the devices commonly used to draw attention to the Christian message and to churches in which it is proclaimed. These devices have included newspaper advertisements, radio programs, give-away brochures and leaflets, weekly and monthly mailing pieces, and even a coupon good for a mimeographed copy of a sermon when presented at the church door!

Year in and year out, however, I have seen the most impressive results of all come from the use of low-cost Scripture portions. For programs of mass distribution, or for literature racks in motels, bus stations, or other public places, the name of the church is usually printed on the back cover of each piece. No imprint is necessary on Scripture selections that are distributed in an every-member church canvass or in pastoral calling.

From time to time, I have tried printing brief messages of my own in leaflet form and have used some of the give-away pieces available from supply houses. That God works through tracts is unquestionable. Yet even the best of tracts is in a different category from Scripture. Sooner or later such material wears thin; and once it has lost its impact for me, I cannot distribute it with enthusiasm.

But with pocket-size Scriptures it is different. My own favorite is the Book of Psalms in the King James Version. After years of passing out this piece, I am more enthusiastic about it than when I began. I have also enjoyed giving away other portions of Scripture. While preaching on the parables of Luke for more than six months in one pastorate, I bought copies of Luke’s Gospel in the Revised Standard Version and used them for calling cards.

Whenever I am calling, whether for evangelistic purposes or for visiting the sick and the bereaved, I have a few copies of the Psalms and a Gospel or two in my pocket. Sometimes I make a few notes on the flyleaf before handing the booklet to the person visited. At other times, I talk briefly about the way Scripture can communicate with us in every situation of need and urge a troubled man or woman, “Read this little book. Read it three or four or hall a dozen times, until you find a personal message in it.”

Two important responses are likely to follow.

In the first place, the person who is given a Scripture selection does not usually throw it away. Even though he may realize that it cost only three cents, he has too much respect for the Word of God to drop it in the wastebasket. And that is definitely not the case with elaborate brochures describing the facilities and program of a church! While such pieces may cost as much as fifty cents or a dollar each, only the person who is interested will keep them. A large proportion of such give-aways are discarded within hours of their receipt.

But I have handed out Scripture portions and found them prominently displayed months later. To be sure, there is no assurance that they have been thoroughly read. Some of them have not even been opened. Yet they have been kept, and their presence in homes and offices serves to remind persons that the Church is still in existence. Viewed on the lowest of all bases, as an advertising piece for a religious institution, low-cost Scriptures probably exceed all other materials in returns per dollar invested.

Sometimes there is, however, a second and far more important response. At least some of the persons who receive attractively printed portions of God’s Word will open and read them and will respond to their message. Not long ago I was dealing with a man suffering from severe depression. He was upright and moral but not a professing Christian. I gave him a three-cent copy of Romans and urged him to read it over and over until he found assurance. He took that booklet with him into the psychiatric ward—and he brought it back out. He says that it did more for him than the doctors and the shock treatments. Although he has not yet made his public profession of faith, he seems well on the way and is rapidly maturing in his willingness to let God do for him what he himself cannot do.

No one knows how many persons have been spiritually awakened as a result of the American Bible Society’s decision three decades ago to offer low-cost booklets for general use. “Penny portions,” actually priced at one cent, were best-sellers at the famous Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago. Individual books of the Bible are now published in brightly colored jackets of eye-catching design with titles aimed to capture the attention of persons who would never voluntarily open a black-bound Holy Bible.

Most pastors and religious workers are familiar with Scripture selections (one chapter or more) designed for use at special seasons or for particular needs. For example, the American Bible Society began experimental distribution of a printing of the Sermon on the Mount in 1946. Now published in more than forty languages and dialects, it has reached a total circulation of more than 15,000,000 copies.

As a result of the overwhelmingly good reception given this publication, other selections have been prepared. Some are designed for general distribution at Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas. Others, like “Lost and Found.” (Luke 15, New English Bible), were especially designed for use in revivals, house-to-house Scripture-saturation programs, and other mass-distribution efforts. In 1964, just before Easter, 4,000 Detroit young people took copies of “Lost and Found” to 600,000 homes and distributed the Resurrection story from St. John to another 200,000.

In the United States, the use of portions and selections accounts for the phenomenal rise in distribution of the Scriptures since World War II. The American Bible Society, whose sole objective is to make God’s Word available without note or comment at a price the average working man can afford, will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding next May. During the calendar year 1964, the society distributed 682,000 Bibles and 1,437,000 New Testaments in this country—as compared with 4,966,000 Scripture portions and 18,255,000 briefer selections.

A somewhat more expensive and less generally used evangelistic tool is the hand-marked New Testament. John Pollard, a plastics manufacturer in Dallas, Texas, was accosted by an employee who asked him how to be saved. Fumbling for a reply, Mr. Pollard picked up a Testament and opened it to Luke 18:13, where the publican prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” As a result of that experience, the manufacturing executive suggested that copies of the New Testament have underlined certain passages that answer vital questions about salvation. His idea proved so successful that it has been adapted for other purposes, such as the comfort of the bereaved and material for stewardship campaigns. Small Testaments (4¾″ by 2 ¾″) bound in blue simulated leather are available for only as little as twenty-two cents each. The real cost is the time expended in marking copies for distribution. But in congregation after congregation, the experience has been that persons who mark Testaments and then distribute them become personal evangelists in the best sense of the term.

There is no scarcity of materials, offered at prices so low that any congregation or Sunday school class can buy them in quantity. A complete catalogue is available from the American Bible Society (450 Park Avenue, New York City, 10022). Paperback New Testaments in either the King James or the Revised Standard Version are available for as little as fifteen cents each, and prices for portions and selections are much lower.

It would be false to suggest that enthusiastic large-scale distribution of the Scriptures will cure all the ailments of denominations and of individual congregations. Like every other program, this one is only as good as the persons who execute it in the light of the goals they have established under God.

But it is surely true that the fellowship in which the Scriptures are central—both for personal reading and for use in formal and informal evangelism—is likely to grow in grace and power as well as in numbers.

T. Leo Brannon is pastor of the First Methodist Church of Samson, Alabama. He received the B.S. degree from Troy State College and the B.D. from Emory University.

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