"Not the Least Stroke of a Pen": The Anatomy of a Gospel Tract and The Challenge Every Tract Writer Faces, Part 1
This is the first part of a three part series of my research paper that I did for my online English college class, English 101, through Taylor University Online. Much thanks to Professor Jones who always pushed me to research well and write properly and clearly. This is perhaps my favorite memory and accomplishment while with TUO. I hope this blesses you as you see that the Gospel is worth all the dignity and time we can bestow upon it, both in our words and actions. I pray this encourages you to faithfully continue to reach others for the Gospel where you live, or even to pick up a pen or sit down at your laptop and start writing for Him.
Rebecca Jefferson
Professor Jones
ENG 110E M4 D1 Research Paper
November 19, 2011
"Not the Least Stroke of a Pen": The Anatomy of a Gospel Tract and The Challenge Every Tract Writer Faces
Anton Chekov was a very stoic playwright who did not let his personal opinions or commentary bleed through his writings. He instead let his characters speak for themselves. On a rare occasion, however, he let his artistic self show and revealed his reasons behind his writings when he expressed:
All I wanted was to say honestly to people: "Have a look at
yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!" The
important thing is that people should realize that, for when they
do, they will most certainly create another and better life for
themselves. (Chekov qtd. in Macrorie 487).
A similar desire ails me. I want to done day become a Christian missionary, and, much like Chekov, I too want people to "have a look" at themselves. I want people to see clearly that their continuous inability to escape their sins and their constant lack of joy comes from their conscious rejection of Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of their lives. The need is overwhelming, with an estimated 107 people passing through death's broad doorway every minute (CIA), all losing any further chance to repent of their rejection.
I desire to be a part of this enterprise of saving souls, and I know many of you reading also have the same unction. I want to explore how to write gospel tracts well by showing what a good gospel tract is and is not and what we should and should not let influence us as tract writers. I hope my readers will enjoy from my observations of how to (and how to not) present the plan of salvation through Gospel tracts.
There are many avenues to alert people to this rejection and to the ultimate consequence of it according to the Bible, Hell. One low-profile yet remarkable way of doing so is the gospel tract. Call it a pamphlet, a leaflet, or gospel literature, the tract has been instrumental in the salvation of many souls. J. Hudson Taylor, who lived in the 1800s, was one of those people who was brought to Christ because of a gospel tract. He recalls the impact one tract had upon his life in his memoir, A Retrospect:
One day which I shall never forget, when I was about
fifteen years of age, I had a holiday, and in the afternoon looked
through my father's library to find some book with which to while
away the unoccupied hours. Nothing attracting me, I turned over a
little basket of pamphlets, and selected from amongst them a
Gospel tract which looked interesting[.]
[W]hile [I was] reading it [I] was struck with the sentence,
"The finished work of CHRIST." Immediately the words "It is finished"
suggested themselves to my mind. What was finished? And I at
once replied, "A full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin:
the debt was paid by the Substitute; CHRIST died for our sins and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Then
came the thought, "If the whole work was finished and the whole
debt paid, what is there left for me to do?"
(Taylor, 4, 5).
Faced with this revelation, Taylor surrendered his life to Christ and later went on to become a missionary to China. There he launched the China Inland Mission, now the missions organization OMF International.
Taylor's experience is just one testimony to the effectiveness of the tract. Other notables who were regenerated because of tracts include Moishe Rosen, founder of the evangelistic ministry Jews for Jesus, and Mitsuo Fuchida, leader of the Japanese bomber squadron who attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Despite these and many other success stories, some doubt the usefulness of the gospel tract or its place in modern culture. In answering the question of whether or not tracts are effective, Christian Smith, sociology professor at Notre Dame University, replied, "Very rarely. Most people become Christians through relationships, not by being handed pieces of paper" (Moon). To the same question, William Martin, a religion and public policy senior fellow at Rice University, answered, "These measures have very little positive effect, but considerable potential for irritating their targets" (Moon). After giving a brief overview of the negative experiences of two separate Christian ministries concerning gospel promotion, Martin continued,
I doubt that fliers containing a brief gospel message have much
impact. Tracts may be useful in addressing specific questions
that an unconverted person might have, but the chance of
matching the specific question with people receiving tracts on the
street seems rather small (Moon).
I would argue, however, that not single tract needs to attempt to answer the unlimited amount of questions concerning life and eternity that human beings may ask, for that would be the only way to solve Martin's proposed dilemma. Of course, there are questions central to the Gospel that a proper tract must answer. Later, I will review the qualifications of what makes a well-written, sound gospel tract. For the moment, though, what is the most vital question the tract must seek to answer, and thus, what is the most important point the tract must express?
I feel the Bible answers the former question when Luke, the physician of antiquity who authored the book of Acts, relates the incident of when his companions Paul and Silas were in prison after having preached and, consequently, suffered for the Gospel. They were singing hymns to the Lord when an earthquake rattled the jail. All the prison doors containing the residing prisoners flung open. The jailer saw the open doors, which was all he needed to observe for him to attempt suicide. Paul then alerted the jailer, telling him that none of the convicts had escaped. In desperation and fear, the jailer fell to his knees before Paul and Silas and asked, "'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'" So they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved- you and your household'" (Holman Christian Standard Bible).
This simple answer given by Paul and Silas is in keeping with what many would refer to as the crux of the gospel, John 3:16, which says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (King James Version). The tract should center around this fact alone- that God saves his inherently sinful, rebellious human creation from a well-deserved, eternal punishment through belief in His only Son whom he willingly gave to die for the sinners. A question of such simplicity and depth as the Philippian jailer's deserves an answer of equal depth and simple truth. The answer to that single question is the sole purpose of the evangelistic gospel tract.
