Whatever the Lord calls us to do, our first duty is to go to the Spirit of Prophecy counsels and study out the Blueprint for that calling! If we are to cook and care for the home—then the Blueprint of how God wants us to do it is there. If we are to care for the sick; the Blueprint is there. If we are to preach, teach, do business or minister; the Blueprint is there. AND the Blueprint is there as to how to do the Colporteur Ministry work as God would have it done! We recommend a prayerful study of the book ‘Colporteur Ministry’, and we are also providing this information from the late Al Wolfson’s own experience as a Colporteur for your consideration and encouragement. Please note: references to Colporteur Evangelist can be found in the Colporteur Ministry which replaced it in the 50s.
“When God called me into the Colporteur work, I was just out of Aircraft Engineering and I said, “I will do what God says. God has called me into the Colporteur work. Where’s the Blueprint?”
“Oh”, they said, “we’ll tell you what to do.”
I said, “That’s fine, you tell me what to do.”
“Well”, they said, “You dress up in a nice suit of clothes, you get some better clothes than what you got—a nice suit and necktie and polish your shoes and a nice white shirt—a good nice dress shirt. You walk real snappy and we’ll tell you what to say and you’ll say a lot of things that I don’t agree with. Then you go and you write up contracts and get the people to sign contracts.”
I said, “OK, Now I hear what you have said very clearly—now where is God’s Blueprint for a Colporteur?”
“Oh, err Well, What do you mean?”
“Well, doesn’t God have a Blueprint for what we are to do? In Aircraft I am required to listen to anybody and THEN check it with the Blueprint to see if it is correct.”
“Well,” they said, “Here’s ‘Colporteur Evangelist’ and here’s some other books here that Ellen White wrote and Matthew 10 in the Bible gives instruction and the Desire of Ages…”
So I read everything very carefully and brothers and sisters, if we were dealing with aircraft type of work, I’d hang a red tag and ground every institution and plane—I wouldn’t let the planes fly—I wouldn’t let the institution go! It is not fit!
Now in aircraft, if we make anything, and it’s not according to the Blueprint, when that plane falls and people are killed and the airplane crashes, we are subject to fine and imprisonment and even the death sentence for committing murder because of neglect to follow the Blueprint. Isn’t it more important that we follow the Blueprint when souls are at stake—eternal life and eternal death? Brothers and sisters, it’s time we dug out the Blueprint, find out what God says—and do it!
Now in the Colporteur work, it says to go out two by two. Nearly all are sent out one by one. Read Desire of Ages comments on Matthew 10—Christ sent them out two by two and they were never sent out alone. Later the same instruction was given to the Seventy when God sent out them. How are you supposed to dress? I was hugging the Blueprint very closely—how are you supposed to dress as you go out as a medical missionary? That’s what we are supposed to be and they’ve kind of reduced it down to colporteur. The true medical missionary is a colporteur that takes care of sick people and helps everyone and really spreads the gospel. Now they’ve even taken the medical missionary work away from a colporteur and even the Bible studies away from a colporteur. I’ve been there I know.
And then they tell them to memorize a canvass—I looked it all up.
First the dress—how are you supposed to dress? Desire of Ages says it very clearly. You are not to dress as a preacher and you are not to dress as a doctor. You are to dress as a common laboring man. Now that don’t mean you have to be dirty, any Christian laboring man can be clean and neat.
So I dressed in a plain simple shirt and a plain pair of many times washed overalls and a pair of shoes that were workable but clean. My face washed and cleaned up, my sleeves rolled up and no necktie on and shirt-top open, and I went that way.
They said “Oh! Brother! That’s no way to go—you can’t dress that way!”
I said, “How would you dress as a common laboring man and fulfill the requirement in the “TO book” the technical order of aircraft—and do what God says?”
They said, “Alright, but now we want to tell you what books to sell. Now we want you to sell this and that book and Modern Medical Counselor. .” —but about all it says in there is “this is possibly your condition and symptoms—now go to your doctor!” and as I had one lady tell me, “Do I have to buy a high-priced book just to tell me to go to the doctor? Anybody has brains enough if they’re sick and don’t know what to do, to go to a doctor. What does it tell me to do?”
Now I looked up what books are we to sell. It says in the Blueprint to sell Patriarchs and Prophets, Desire of Ages, Great Controversy, Ministry of Healing, Christ’s Object Lessons, and Daniel and Revelation. What God says about Daniel and Revelation is to take the Bible—tear out the books of Daniel and Revelation and put them together and put them together in one little pamphlet—that has been squelched through the years. (Harvestime has just released an attractive paperback that has these two Bible books together with simplified and compact comments, with B&W charts and illustrations—you can get it in case lots at about 65 cents per book.)
I was to go to the door and they’ll tell me what to say. You memorize a great big long canvass and sound like a parrot with your head rattled. You go up there and it don’t sit at all and they think you’re Jehovah’s witnesses with their little photograph they used to carry around and did a better job of it because at least it was correctly put on the record.
No—what does the Blueprint say? Oh yes, It says right here in Colporteur Ministry to—memorize a canvass?—No—it says the angels will go with you and they will teach you what to say at every house!
Now what are you supposed to say when they come to the door? “I’m from the Home Health Education Service”. Some big outfit that actually does not exist—it is purely fictitious!
“I am a health worker—and I’ve come here to tell you folks how to take care of your health.” Many times they actually pose as if they were a health officer from the State or something. I’ve actually heard them and seen them do it. I object!
It says in the Colporteur Evangelist; “I come to you in the name of the Lord, bringing you the glad tidings of salvation through keeping the Law of God.” That’s about what it says from the Colporteur Evangelist.
(Question: did anybody do it that way?)
No—I did—I followed it. Then the angel went with me. It says the angels will go ahead and prepare the people before you get there for the message—ready for the message to come.
I’d go up to the door; they said to sort of hide the brief-case set it to one side, so the people couldn’t see it—another form of deception! I don’t believe in any deception! They teach you to use sizzlemanship (they call it salesmanship but I think it’s a sizzle.) They teach you a lot of things to do—if a person says “No”, it don’t mean anything, but if a person says “Yes it’s a good day today”, that means they are ready to sign the order or something—it’s a lot of deception! I don’t agree with any deception.
When you follow God’s plan then the angel went with me—the angel went ahead of me. The people were waiting down the street from me because word of mouth had traveled faster than I could go and they were waiting. Like one lady expressed it so nicely, “You’ve been three days coming down my block. I’ve heard about you, I’ve heard about you coming and I wouldn’t dare go to the store or the post office to get the mail, because I was afraid you’d come while I was away and I wouldn’t be home.”
Here I was and hadn’t said anything yet—she knew all about me. She says, “Could we have a word of prayer and then we could visit?”
I tell you brothers and sisters, I would walk to the door and ring the door bell or knock on the door—the wealthy homes, the poor homes it was all alike. Here I was dressed just as a common laboring man and I’d say, “I come to you in the name of the Lord.” I wouldn’t introduce myself as Mr. Wolfson from the Home Health Education Service; I introduced myself as coming to you in the name of the Lord. My name don’t mean anything, I’m nobody. But the Lord I represent—I’m His representative—I come to you in the name of the Lord—that’s all.
Lot’s of them never did know my name—it doesn’t make any difference—that’s the least of my worries.
(Question: what about contracts, was your name on the contract?)
I never signed a contract. I never had a person to sign a contract. I filled up all my brief-case full—I had it ready. I delivered on the spot. While the Holy Spirit was there and before the devil had got in to upset the applecart, I delivered the book and got the cash. I didn’t want them to buy anything more than they could pay cash for. If they couldn’t pay cash—just take what they could afford and it was beautiful the way God arranged it.
“I come to you in the name of the Lord bringing you the good tidings of salvation through Christ and keeping the Law of God.” Big tears would swell up in their eyes, the power of the Holy Spirit was strong in the room or the door way. And they would quickly unlatch the screen door and by that time they couldn’t talk and neither could I, we were both choked up. The power of God was there, close, and they would motion for me to come in. They would point to a seat and that meant to sit down, and then one or a dozen people, whoever happened to be in the house, would pull up their chairs right close and the spokesman of the group would pull up right close in front and say something along the line of “What must I do to be saved?”
They would start asking questions thick and fast and the angel of God would force into my mind the answers, the texts of scriptures that applied to that situation. It would be them that would be glancing at the brief-case—which wasn’t too brief—it was a good sized one and packed full of books. I’d have to go to my car each time I left a house and reload the books into the little suitcase.
(Question: so you were alone?)
Yes, because they wouldn’t allow anyone to get contaminated with my strange ideas of obeying God and following the Blueprint. But the angel went with me, so I wasn’t alone.
And then they would say, “What’s in that suitcase or briefcase you’ve got there?” I’d say, “Books about what we are talking about.” And they would, even though the briefcase was right along side me, they would snatch the briefcase and open it up before I could. I always had Patriarchs and Prophets on top. I’d say, “This is the beginning of the story. This is where the story begins.”
Then I’d turn them over to—this is the beginning of the story, If you like to read a novel and see what the story’s all about and then turn over to see what happens in the end, and get the climax of the story. If you want to get this whole thing about God and heaven and hell and all that, just read the first few chapters of Patriarchs and Prophets and the last few chapters of Great Controversy. And then you can come back and get all the things in between. Then start with Desire of Ages, the Life of Christ, the most wonderful story ever written. Personally I have read the book over seven times and will read it many times more.
The people would take a book and I wouldn’t do a canvas. As they would take a book I would say, now that is the beginning of the story and this is about health and so on. They would browse through the book and I would just sit there perfectly quiet and say nothing and let them look. They would lay the book down and I would notice how they would lay the book down. Instead of laying the book down where I could take it back, they would lay it over beside them where I couldn’t put it back. I knew what they meant by that. So then they’d take another book and they’d take another book and they’d still lay it back out of the way where I couldn’t get a hold of it again.
I knew why, they intended to buy it. I didn’t say a word about selling it though. Then all of a sudden after the pile got so high, they’d say, “Say, how much is this going to cost me?” I knew that question would be coming up so as they would take one book at a time, I would add up on my little piece of paper how much it was. And I would say, well that’s going to cost you about $
They’d take some more then they would say, “Now how much is it?” I’d say it’s about $---. And they’d say, “Well that’s about all I can take for today.” And they’d step off and get the cash and pay with the cash and they have the books already. No problem there, no contract, no deliver later—no chance for the devil to get in and put a stop to all this, because he will if he gets a chance. And then they would stop, they’d asked a lot of questions and then they’d have one more question and they would hesitate and I’d just wait until they would get ready to ask this hard question. What do you suppose the question would frequently be?
(Voice: What church do you go to?)
No. “Could we have prayer before you leave?”
I didn’t ask them, they asked for prayer.
I’d made a failure of the Colporteur work twice doing it man’s way and then I did it once doing it the way God says to do it—according to the Blueprint. They told me that the sales were the highest in the Union, selling more books than anybody else.
Many people start out and say they are going to have a blueprint ministry but they don’t know the blueprint! They don’t dig it out. They get what somebody else has written or somebody else has said the blueprint said. That’s not good enough. Dig out the Blueprint. Read it and card-file it for yourself. You’re going to have to sign your name on this before the God of heaven that you have done it according to the plan shown in the mount.
When God gave the plans, the blueprints to Moses in the Wilderness on Mount Sinai, He said, “Make everything according to the plan shown you in the mount.” And if you don’t make it according to that plan—there is something wrong.
End of Wolfson’s Testimony
What about the importance of prayer for the Colporteur? Of course, prayer is always important—but equally important, or in some ways even more important, is being in a position where God will hear and answer our prayers.
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” Psalm 66:18
What does it mean to ‘regard iniquity’? Is there any sinful practice or indulgence that is so important to you that you have refused to allow the Holy Spirit to give you victory over it? Do you excuse certain habits or practices in your life that you know God does no sanction? Then the only pray God waits to hear from you—is a prayer of confession and sincere repentance.
In the colporteur work, if we neglect to search out and learn God’s Blueprint for doing the work and instead follow man’s teachings, use worldly ‘salesmanship’ concepts, take courses to learn how to manipulate people’s minds using NLP or forms of Eriksonian Hypnosis—often taught in high pressure selling methods—God will not and can not bless our efforts. There is no way you can ever get the God of heaven to work buddy-buddy with Satan. He will not bless what He has not commanded. And He certainly will not bless what He has forbidden.
There is no super-salesman-methods that can ever do for you what God can do through the power of the Holy Spirit—therefore it should be your first work to put away anything that would short-circuit this blessing. Angels working with you will prepare your way, going ahead and opening hearts, showing you where to go, guiding you to know just what to say in each situation, bringing to your memory the right text or passage for all occasions. God also will protect his colporteur from harm intended against him by evil men, demons or dogs. There is no training course method that can give you this! No memorizing of canvases can hold a candle to this on the spot guidance.
God will not hear false-fronted self-serving prayers either—if you are full of the idea of making big money and the people’s cash is more important to you than the people’s souls, then leave this work and go sell cars, or vacuums or anything else, because God cannot bless with His Spirit any selfish enterprise, and without God’s blessing you are a sitting duck for Satan to snare you and bring you to spiritual ruin. Search your heart and see if there be any ways there that contain the least amount of deception or manipulation in your methods. God will never sanction a false front or any kind of pressure being put on to influence a sale. Worldly methods are never God’s methods.
The best way to succeed in doing true colporteur work is to first make sure you are truly Born again and all your heart is the Lord’s property. With Jesus, it is all or nothing—we are either all His or we are not His at all! You do not become truly converted by sitting in a pew once a week, or getting your name on the rolls of a church. It is a supernatural happening between you and God through Jesus Christ. If you don’t know for sure that you are born again—make it your priority to seek the Lord and your Bible until you do know it—for sure!
The second step dovetails with the first, we must search the Inspired writings until we know and understand the Blueprint for this work—how to truly do it God’s way.
Select carefully with much prayer the material you plan to sell, the tracts you will give, and make sure it is what God is inspiring you to carry. Then read carefully from the books and tracts to make sure you know the message in them well and can see the importance of it. A memorized canvass—repeating someone else’s words like a parrot, will never make as good an impression as knowing a book well and being able yourself to see its value, how it speaks to your own heart and so open it before the people as something worth having.
Then and only then will the fervent, righteous prayer of the righteous colporteur fly straight to the ear of the Lord and hell’s battlements will tremble as we go forth carrying the Present Truth message to a dying world. pgt.