Let me create a scenario for you. You have been an Adventist for several years now. The “car” of your religious life seems to be stuck in a rut. You feel life is a little monotonous; a broken record. You are tired spiritually, and probably physically, too. The same sermons have been rehashed dozens of times in dozens of ways. There have been countless appeals for money, help and prayers. You begin to question if you are loved and appreciated or are more like a commodity. Sound familiar?

It did for a group of students from SOULS West, an outreach evangelism training school located on the campus of Thunderbird Academy. About 16 of these students spent three weeks in Las Vegas as part of the canvassing (literature evangelism) work for the Nevada-Utah Conference. The spiritual conflicts in a canvassing program are a heavy drain on spiritual energies.

They, too, had heard the endless conversations about sales (money), the need for help (hard work), and prayer. Was life at the bottom? It seemed to be, and could have been, but they were about to rise to the top.

These 16 students decided that things needed to change, and church leaders gave them the opportunity to make a difference. What did they change? They decided to follow the pattern of the early church, given in Acts, chapter two, in their canvassing work.

Instead of each person getting paid for his or her own individual sales, they decided to pool the sales and split them evenly among all the students. They decided to have “all things in common” (Acts 2:44). They continued steadfastly in fellowship, prayer and praise (verses 42, 47) having both a morning and evening sharing session.

Students encouraged one another, wept with the sad, rejoiced with the joyful, prayed with and for one another, and even confessed personal struggles. It was a small, yet apostolic type of revival. And, they sold more than $3,000 worth of literature in one day.

Many young people would rather be Christian and work for Jesus than follow the world. They do not just want fun and games, but a very real, active, self-denying Christian walk. Apostolic unity can be achieved only as we labor together for Jesus. Churches must want this same unity for themselves. Imagine a church of young and old alike, denying self, walking the Christian walk, united together for the grand purpose of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Act 2:47).

SOULS West is a school organized by the Pacific Union Conference for the purpose of training future leaders and workers of ministry.