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I apply to myself what the Lord has said to His disciples in Matthew 10:16. (Emanuel Swedenborg quoted by Donald Rose, "Swedenborg's Missionary Work," New Church Life, 1964, p. 262.)

Does the church organization exist for itself alone, only for the sake of its members? Is cooperating with the Lord in the regeneration of its own members the sole end in view of the church? If it is, it is not practicing the doctrine of charity that it teaches. The church exists for the sake of others outside its own borders. The regeneration of its own members is but a means to that end. (Douglas Taylor, "The Academy's Contribution to Evangelization," New Church Life, 1983, p. 384.)

As with every work, missionary work may be viewed spiritually or naturally. Viewed naturally, it is a work performed by a church or a religious institution and its delegates for the promulgation and the propagation of its doctrines. The natural end is to make proselytes, to gain new adherents to the doctrines, and to increase the membership of the institution. This natural end is good in itself, but it will be evil if the love inspiring the work is evil, or if the methods which are made use of are evil or contrary to the Divine Order.

If the love inspiring the work is devoid of selfishness, if the desire for increase in members is subordinated to the true end of missionary work, which is spiritual, and if the methods used are not against order, then this natural end will be good and the institution may congratulate itself and rejoice over the external results of its missionary work...

Missionary work considered spiritually has for its end the salvation of souls, and ipso facto the increase of the Lord's Kingdom. . . . The love which inspires the work is love to the Lord - the love of doing the Lord's will, which is the salvation of the souls of men, and love towards the neighbor. (Ernst Deltenre, "Missionary Work Viewed Spiritually," New Church Life, 1920, pp. 554, 557.)

It is clearly taught in the Writings that the New Church is to have its beginning with the simple, and that few, very few, of the learned will receive the interior things of the Word now revealed. Still this is a truth not yet recognized by the members of the New Church at large and some have even contended that the Doctrines are not in a form accommodated to the unlearned; indeed, we might conclude that this is the prevailing belief , since our missionary effort has been in the main directed toward the learned, or higher classes of Christendom, to the neglect of the lower. This, we fully believe, accounts for the barren results heretofore obtained. (William F. Pendleton, "The New Church to Be Established With the Simple," New Church Life, 1885, p. 5.)

And there is a need, a great need [in the world for the truths of the New Church]. It may be felt, if not always seen. Is there not a longing, often mixed with despair, in the hearts of men, even when they seem to laugh? Is not much of that laughing, and the frenzied search for pleasure, just an endeavor to hide the emptiness that is felt, to silence the voice that so often ends with the taking of one's own life in utter despair? Is not there a longing for something, a looking for something, something of a lost paradise? (Gustaf Bęckström, "The Responsibility of the Church in Evangelization," New Church Life, 1930, p. 594.)

The first essential to evangelistic success is the conviction that the promises of the Lord to the effect that the Gospel of the New Church will be received universally are literally true, and that there is no reason why we in this generation should not live to see at least the beginning of this great conversion to the New Church. Without this conviction success will be impossible. Without this conviction there will not be any reserve energy and enthusiasm to carry the workers through that period of discouragement which in reality is sent us only to prove and test our strength, and to ascertain whether we are worthy instruments to aid in the accomplishment of this great work. In Isaiah 11:9 we read that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." It must be our conviction that this prophecy will be literally fulfilled, and that the time is at hand for everyone to take part in starting it. (K.R. Alden, "Evangelization," New Church Life, 1918, pp. 400-401.)

Invite the stranger to your home and fear not. (Andrew R. Klein, "The Tools of Evangelization," New Church Life, 1945, p. 397.)