METHODS OF WORK

1926 will prove, we believe, a great year of witnessing. Many homes are to be reached with literature. Many homes are anxious to have it. But we believe that many homes are not reached with the literature, often because the plan of presenting the literature to the people is not so thoroughly understood as to allow intelligent cooperation. The March Bulletin recommended a method of work known as the Selected Prospect method. We recommend that workers give close attention to the outline of this work in order to become acquainted with the plan of procedure and the necessary instructions to make the plan successful. Those who are privileged to engage in the service should endeavor to increase their ability to present the message; and this ability can be increased by a sort of schooling, trying out the canvass in your neighborhood or in territory that is very easily reached.

How Are You Met?

The particular interest in the Selected Prospect canvass is in the results that it obtains not only in noting the people who are good prospects for the sale of Studies in the Scriptures but also in noting the effect that the canvass you have given has made upon the people. We would like the workers to report to each other in the workers’ meeting as to the attitude of the people : How many of them have a changed expression, a better outlook, and who he believes have been comforted as a result of just hearing the canvass. During the next two months we would urge workers to attend the workers’ meeting and to participate in the discussions so that for the territory assigned to your Class a well-laid plan might be outlined for the coming year.

“Selected” W'ofccrs Method '

A brother who has been quite successful in the Selected Prospect canvass has used the following canvass^ His method of approach is to try to overcome the feeling that people generally have toward filling the bookcase with much more reading matter than they already have. Hence in the canvass following he tries to lead the person being interviewed gradually to the booklet first by the mention of the author, next by the service that is being rendered over the radio, and then by the interest that great cities manifest in his lectures. The booklet is then presented when the interest has been roused. This brother has in twenty-four service days sold 2397 booklets, and the back calls upon these sales have resulted in many sales of Studies in the Scriptures. The following is the canvass he is using at present:

Canvass

Good afternoon. I represent Judge Rutherford, broadcasting every Saturday night and twice on Sunday from W B B R on a wave length of 273 meters. No doubt you have heard some of the Judge’s lectures. He is one of the few men who ever filled Madison Square Garden. 14,000 came out to hear him there, and 35,000 at the Stadium in Los Angeles; so he is a man well worth listening to.

Some of the Judge’s lectures are to be had now in permanent form. This one entitled The Standard for the People is just what its name implies. In it the Judge shows just how, when and why Peace, Prosperity, Life, Liberty, Health and Happiness, man’s heart desire, will come to the people. It is the most optimistic little book in the world.

The entire lecture, as you have it there [or, as I showed it to you— depending on whether they received the book when first tendered them] is sold in lots of three for a quarter. The idea is that you W’ould read one of them yourself, and pass the other two on to some that are sick or out of work or in need of comfort; and surely the world is in need of a lot of comfort at tlris time.

I would like to leave a set of these with you. The set includes these three different books [show three different booklets], all treating the same general theme from different angles, or you may have all Standards, if you wish them. This little book will not only bring a great personal blessing to yourself, but a blessing to every one to whom it may come. And a quarter is not a large investment for something that will bring you lasting joy and prove a blessing to others.

Special Attention to Hurals

Past years have seen much work in the larger cities, but for 1926 we have recommended to Directors that they plan to concentrate efforts in the rural sections, especially the smaller towns of the Class assignment. Results, however, are with the worker. This means that if the, pl an is to be successful workers will have to plan to get into these smaller towns and rural sections at an earlier date this year than in past years. There are some things that almost make this impossible for many; home duties, children still being at school, etc., seem to require one’s presence in the home during the early part of the year. However, we have asked Directors to plan to canvass their rural sections during the months of April, May and June, and to repeat this canvass during the months of July, August and September; and then concentrate their efforts in the winter months of the year in the cities.

The Selected Prospect method of canvassing reduces the amount of time that a worker needs to spend at each call; and this conserving of the workers’ time should enable them to have more time to reach territory that has not been witnessed to so extensively. The complete set of Studies in the Scriptubes seems to be more in demand each year, and we believe that favorable conditions of 1926 present good prospects for placing a number of sets of Studies in rural sections. ■

A Reading Populace

The rural districts in isolated territory generally contain many people who are hungering for the truth. These people are not so closely in touch with the life of the larger cities; and their territory cannot be reached during the winter months of the year, the season when the rural people have the most time for reading. The object for urging a canvass of the rural sections the first three months is to awaken an interest which can be taken advantp'¹"' of in the succeeding three months; and this interest we believe should be taken advantage of before it has cooled, and while the people feel a need for the literature. After the territory has been gone over the first time there will be prospects to be called upon for the Studies in the Scriptubes; but this call reaches only those who have been favorably impressed with the canvass and who manifested their interest at the time of the canvass. The others who purchased the books or booklets as well as those who merely heard the canvass are the ones that we would like to see called upon during the months of July, August and September. It is this interest that is continually reported from the rural districts that we would like to see developed and encouraged during W26, interest such as the following letter reports:

While canvassing a rural district here at noon I came to a Polish home. The mother bought the Harp and small booklets for a son of hers about fourteen years of age, a schoolboy. After I had gone down the road a way, the little fellow came up to me and said that the school teacher wanted to see some of these books. (The little fellow had told her about them in the meantime.) Later, on the way back, I stopped at the small country schoolhouse, rapped on the door and was asked in, canvassed the school teacher, and had about twenty minutes for questions and answers with a class of thirty-two, ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. And, oh, how they just loved it! I -would have liked to stay there the rest of the -Jay. but on account of its hemg school hours it was impossible. One little fellow (by his mother having the books) was able to answer a good many questions. I thought at that time how those children would love and study the truth if it were taught to them. After our little meeting I closed the canvass with the teacher and found she already had the books in her home, but really had not as yet studied them. She said then that at her first opportunity she would read them. May the Lord bless her and those dear children! To myself it is something that I shall never forget, that opportunity of advertising the King and the kingdom in the country schoolhouse under our King’s guidance.”

Your fellow servant,

Vivian S. Storm, Colporteur

We have asked the Director to report upon the results that are obtained from the new method of work as quickly as possible, and we urge the workers to employ this plan and to discuss t freely at the Workers’ Meetings so chat the Director might have a full report to forward to this Office. It will be from these reports that a final plan will be formulated, and we believe that with the transfer of suggestions, not only by workers in the Class, but by one Class with another through the Bulletin that the work itself will be better advanced.

May you then as you strive to advance the interests of the Lord’s cause be blessed with much of His spirit, and ■we know from His Word that He will sustain you -with much of His grace .■■md strength in your times of need. ; With Christian greetings, we are ,■ ..       . Watch Twer Bible & Tract Society