The Jones Legacy

Tonight I finished my little 120 page biography of the great 19th century evangelist from Cartersville, Georgia.  There are so many things which can be said about Sam Jones.  In the early part of his life, his first love was the bottle; however, after his father's death, his first love became Jesus.  One day he was looking at a bottle and the next day, he was looking at the Christ.  Sam Jones became a Methodist preacher.  His story makes me proud to be one as well.  He drew large crowds in meetings in large cities.  He was unafraid to preach sermons which confronted the evils of his day.  He was controversial.  He preached for conversions.    

The church and its preachers have changed in too many ways to count since the days Jones's voice thundered as the voice of the Lord.  In his day the church was timid in the face of evil which does not seem to have changed much through the century.  It still struggles to stand with it feet firmly planted in the authority of the Word.  Unlike Sam Jones, the church seems to have grown timid in preaching for conversion.  If there is anything which sounds like a death knell in today's church, it is the silence heard when the moment is calling for messages inviting people to repentance and the acceptance of Jesus in their lives.   

In so many places it seems that preachers and the church live and work with the assumption that everyone in the church has experienced the life changing work of conversion.  And, in even more places, all the energy of the church is directed toward keeping the membership happy to the point that those who are lost outside the church are going to stay lost.  Like Jesus, Sam Jones would shatter the comfort zone of many churches and preachers.  Sam Jones is in heaven and the history books.  May God raise up another and another and another.