Was This Written in 1962 or 2012?

“The thoughtful Christian will admit that in these days the church is not leading the number of people to Christ that it should…Is there a cause for this failure? Can we find a [solution]? Surely there must be both…The failure is due to a lack of effort after any method. The solution must be found by a restudy of Bible methods of reaching people with the gospel and in the application of those methods to our present day evangelism. Every member of the church must become a ‘workman approved of God,’ prepared in heart and training to lead others to the knowledge of the truth…

There is no more urgent need in the church today than for Christians who can and will talk to people about their soul’s need and about the Christ of the gospel who satisfies that need. Little of the burning passion for men’s souls as seen in Jesus and the early Christians is to be found among Christians today. In building the church, work is too often motivated by the competitive spirit of [vanity] which desires to see a work we are doing succeed because of a selfish interest rather than from an intense desire for men to be saved because they are lost…

The invitation of Jesus was, ‘Come…and learn of me.’ The charge that followed was, ‘Go and teach.’ Upon every one who has learned, the Lord has placed the responsibility of telling others what he has learned. When to the apostles He said, ‘Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you,’ the command to ‘go’ was passed on to those who should obey the gospel. From that moment it has been the responsibility of the baptized disciple to follow that command. The vast majority of Christians have never dreamed that the command is personal.”

I am sure some of the language gives it away. This is from Homer Hailey’s 1962 book “Let’s Go Fishing for Men.” There are parts of this book that sound like something that would have been written in the last few years. The problems are the same and the solutions are the same. People aren’t taking Jesus’ command seriously and we must go to scripture to find our methods of reaching the lost. Same yesterday, today and until the Lord returns. The world needs Jesus and God has asked us to spread the word. Many Christians refuse to do that and we must be reminded that Christ really did mean for us to take his command to “go” seriously and personally. This book is pretty old school but I will say it does offer some concrete approaches to take in talking directly with people about God and salvation.