TL At .0 GLEANER July 26, 1983 INTERVIEW WITH KENNETH COX, JUNE 20, 1983 LEON H. DAVIS Communication Director NOTE.' Elder Kenneth Cox and his crusade team made noteworthy ac- complishments in the Worcester, Mass- On Monday, June 20, Elder Kenneth Cox, the principal speaker of the Ken- achusetts, Dimensions of Prophecy neth Cox Dimensions of Prophecy Crusade, met with me in my office. By then, evangelistic campaign, Highlighted in three-fourths of the Worcester evangelistic crusade was history, and God's this six-page feature are the following.. blessings were abundantly evident. An exceptional number of decisions for An interview with Kenneth Cox by L. H. Christ and commitments for baptism had been made. The difficult, yet satisfy- Davis done six days before the cam- ing, work of actually preparing the candidates for baptism was yet to be done, paign ended; a picture story of the bap- but Ken took time out to share his vision, program, and philosophy of evangelism. What follows is an interesting interview with a man, whom God tism conducted Sabbath, June 25; highlights of the crusade as noted by is using, and fascinating insights into evangelism. Geraldine I. Grout, Ed. D, Assistant LHD: Tell me about your background. Where are you from? Were your Editor; and the organization and involve- parents Adventists? ment of the pastors and church KC: I was born in Chicago, Illinois, and lived there until I was nine years of members by Sharon Benson, a member age. My family then moved to Oklahoma. My parents were not Advent- of the Northboro church. Appreciation is ists. I believe they were Baptists; although we had what I would call a expressed to Victor W. Collins, Com- nominal Christian home. They went to church Christmas and Easter. munications Director of the Southern When I was a teenager, my mother and I took Bible studies and became New England Conference, for his Seventh-day Adventists. assistance. LHD: Would you give a brief background of your educational training. Leon H. Davis KC: When I was 17 a minister took several of us young people to Keene, Editor Texas, for a Student Day, and I decided to attend. I had no backing, so I just left home and went down to the school. If I remember correctly, I had 200 in my pocket. I enrolled, worked all summer, as well as worked my way through all of our schools. I never received financial help in any way from my parents. LHD: When did you decide to become a minister? KC: I decided to become a minister in my senior year at academy. I think there are other things I could have done, but I could not be happy or live with my conscience doing anything else. That is basically the reason I am in the ministry. LHD: At what stage of your ministry did you become engrossed in evangelism? KC: I have done evangelism all the time I have been in the ministry. It has always been something I wanted to do. I pastored for eight years, did departmental work for two years and administrative work for two years. It was while I was in administrative work that I became convicted that I should be in evangelism (exclusively). July 26, 1983, Vol. LXXXII, No. 14. The Atlantic Union GLEANER (USPS 036-280) is published twice monthly by the Atlantic Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 400 Main Street, South Lancaster, MA 01561. Printed by Atlantic Graphic Services, Inc., South Lancaster, MA 01561. Second-class postage paid at South Lancaster, MA. 01561. Annual subscription price, $6.00. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Atlantic Union GLEANER, P.O. Box 1189, South Lancaster, MA 01561. LHD: Let's go back to 1982 when you came to set up the Worcester crusade. Pictures left to right: Immediately follow- I understand you were told that New England was different. The people ing the Sabbath morning sermon by were very conservative and that you would not get the results you did in evangelist Kenneth Cox, the candidates other cities. What was your reaction to being told this? Were you in- for baptism boarded several vehicles, timidated by it? including two buses, and were driven to KC: Most of what we heard was that the people up here were reserved; they Indian Lake where the rites of baptism weren't going to make decisions; we shouldn't expect it. So we came to were administered. New England, not intimidated, but yet not really sure what we were go- Accurate records were kept throughout ing to find. the campaign. Here Ellen Klinke, right, LHD: Now that the crusade is almost over, what are the facts relative to the of the evangelistic team, assisted by foregoing question? Janice Grant give an identification tag to KC: The facts are simply this. Our experience has shown us that NEW each candidate. ENGLAND IS NO DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER PLACE IN THE WORLD. From the statistics we have been able to put together here in The thirteen pastors participating in the Worcester, it certainly does not prove true. (That there is a New England baptismal service: Luis Badillo, Tim reserve.) People in North America and in New England are just as Berry, Victor Collins, Aleksander responsive to the Gospel as they are anywhere in the world. If you take Davidovich, Vashni Davis, William 1,000 people from North America and 1,000 from Inter-America and put Dudgeon, William Fagal, Wayne Gosling, them in the same meeting, you will get just as good a response from Johnny Johnston, Joaquim Miranda, those in North America as Inter-America. The church members here in Paul Peterson, Arthur Schumacher, and Worcester did more and were more active in getting their friends out to Max Thames. the meetings than any place in which we have had meetings so far. Pastors about to baptize a group of con- That, to us, is one of the keys—(To a successful campaign)—the verts. church members go out and invite their friends to the meetings and then bring them. They did that here, and it has been tremendous. So far, Elder Kenneth Cox administered the 1,020 non-members have attended the meetings. Of that number 341 baptismal oath before several hundred have made decisions to accept Christ; 169 have requested baptism and visitors and friends. 171 have accepted the Sabbath! LHD: How do these statistics compare with previous campaigns? KC: We keep very close statistics on all of our meetings. The meetings here have been better. The average attendance here has been one of the highest that we have had. So, I would say that attendance is better here than in most places. LHD: Are there any other statistics you can share with our constituency? KC: Seventy percent of the people who are going to be baptized will be be- tween the ages of 19 and 39 years of age. That is true in every place we go. Those evidently are the people who are looking for something that gives meaning to life. They are looking for something to build their homes on and so forth, so they are the ones who are making decisions. LHD: I note that some evangelists are concerned about preaching to certain classes of people. To whom is your message geared or directed? KC: We don't try to preach to any one class of people. We try to make our message reach all people, and specifically the class of people who are attending the meetings. Basically, they are generally just a little above middle class—financially speaking. We also get some who are in up- per, as well as lower income levels. Lord. I am not talking about one conference, I am talk- ing about all of us working together as a group—as a team. Over the years we have drawn lines and said, "This is our district and we will work in here and don't you cross this line," rather than saying, "We are going to move this city for the Lord." LHD: The Lord has blessed your ministry here in Worcester. But the work can't be finished with just the Cox Evangelistic Crusade team making one visit a year. What can you say to the Atlantic Union Conference staff of workers and ministers? How can we be involved to finish the work? KC: Well, I am going to walk out on a limb. I personally believe that the situation that we are in today is the greatest blessing that has ever happened to us. Let me explain. I find that we are in transition, where the whole basis of what we have built on is changing. For years Maurita and Kenneth Cox people lived in the rural areas. We are moving from that to an urban society. Also, over the years people in the LHD: One thing that has pleased me is to see various racial, United States thought of events in the context of religion. religious and ethnic groups respond to you and your Our concept in thinking was God-centered. That, too, is lectures—Whites, Blacks, Catholics, Protestants, and rapidly changing, and we are moving into a secular con- Hispanics have shown deep interest. This is evidence to cept. That sounds bad. But at the same time we find that me that the Lord is involved in your ministry. those are exactly the same conditions that existed in the KC: We try to make our meetings open to everyone. We do days of Paul, when the message moved with such rapid- not make any difference between people at all.