======================================================================== PASTORAL OFFICE by Beebe ======================================================================== Beebe's treatise on the pastoral office, examining the duties, qualifications, and responsibilities of ministers of the gospel in caring for their congregations and fulfilling the sacred calling of pastoral ministry. Chapters: 28 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 00 - Pastoral office (b) 2. 01-The Significance of Worship 3. 02-Ideals of Worship 4. 03-Materials of Worship Music 5. 04-Materials of Worship Prayers 6. 05-Materials Worship Lessons, Announcements 7. 06-Materials Worship Sermon Benecdition 8. 07-The Sunday Evening Service 9. 08-Mid-Week Service 10. 09-Liturgical Service 11. 10-Importance of Organization 12. 11-Principales of Administration 13. 12-Plans of Organization 14. 13-The Administration of Worship 15. 14-The Administration of Evangelism 16. 15-The Administration of Religious 17. 16-The Administration of Service 18. 17-The Administration of Service 19. 18-The Administration of Service 20. 19-The Administration of Finance 21. 20-Church Records 22. 21-Church Publicity 23. 22-Church Buildings 24. 23-The Church Survey 25. 24-The Call To The Ministry 26. 25-The Minister's Study 27. 26-Pastoral Visiting 28. 27-Minor Ministerial Ethics ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 00 - PASTORAL OFFICE (B) ======================================================================== Pastoral Office: An Introduction to the Work of a Pastor Copyright, 1923, by JAMES ALBERT BEEBE All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian Contenido CHAPTER I THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORSHIP3 CHAPTER II11 IDEALS OF WORSHIP11 CHAPTER III24 MATERIALS OF WORSHIP MUSIC24 CHAPTER IV36 MATERIALS OF WORSHIPPRAYERS36 CHAPTER V50 MATERIALS OF WORSHIP LESSONS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, OFFERING50 CHAPTER VI55 MATERIALS OF WORSHIP SERMON AND BENEDICTION55 THE SERMON55 CHAPTER VII64 THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE64 CHAPTER VIII68 MID-WEEK SERVICES68 CHAPTER IX74 LITURGICAL SERVICES74 CHAPTER X83 IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATION83 CHAPTER XI86 PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION86 CHAPTER XII95 PLANS OF ORGANIZATION95 CHAPTER XIII98 THE ADMINISTRATION OF WORSHIP98 CHAPTER XIV101 THE ADMINISTRATION OF EVANGELISM101 CHAPTER XV113 CHAPTER XVI123 THE ADMINISTRATION OF SERVICE123 CHAPTER XVII130 THE ADMINISTRATION OF SERVICE130 CHAPTER XVIII147 THE ADMINISTRATION OF SERVICE147 CHAPTER XIX152 THE ADMINISTRATION OF FINANCE, As an administrative officer the pastor must give faithful attention to church finance. This cannot be left entirely to the laymen. He will not be officious or dictatorial, nor will he assume entire responsibility for raising the budget.152 CHAPTER XX164 CHURCH RECORDS164 CHAPTER XXII172 CHURCH BUILDINGS172 CHAPTER XXIII175 THE CHURCH SURVEY175 CHAPTER XXIV180 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY180 CHAPTER XXV189 THE MINISTER’S STUDY189 CHAPTER XXVI200 PASTORAL VISITING200 FOREWORD No apology is made for the elementary character of this book. It is intended to be not the last but merely the first word spoken to young men contemplating a ministerial career, an “Introduction to the Work of a Pastor,” as its title declares. While it has been written primarily for ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it is hoped that much in the book will be valuable for a wider circle. Moreover, an introduction should be comprehensive as well as elementary, bringing into view the whole task rather than emphasizing disproportionately certain special phases. The writer has attempted to present a balanced statement of the entire work of the church and the methods to be employed, not in the exceptional, but in the average community. Necessarily the treatment of each subject is brief. I have been encouraged in the task of composition by the Commission on Courses of Study, at whose invitation the writing was first begun. Individual members of the Commission have made valuable suggestions which have been incorporated into the volume. I am especially grateful to Bishop Edwin H. Hughes, D.D, LL.D.; Professor Harris Franklin Rail, Ph.D.; and Professor Lindsay B. Longacre, Ph.D, for having read parts of the manuscript, and to the Rev. Charles R. Bair, D.D, for detailed literary criticism of the entire composition. My debt is very large to nearly all the important contributions to the literature of this subject in English. I am grateful to the authors and titles mentioned in footnotes, especially to Washington Gladden’s The Christian Pastor, which stands as the most impressive description of the work of the Protestant minister in more than a quarter of a century. The patience and kindness, however, of five churches which I have served as pastor, 5 6 FOREWORD namely, Summerset, and Highland Park (Des Moines), Iowa; Newport, and Saint Paul’s (Manchester), New Hampshire; and Englewood, Chicago, have taught me more ’ than many books. J. A. B. Boston, April 1:1923. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORSHIP ======================================================================== CHAPTER I THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORSHIP MODERN communities will support generously only those institutions which serve them in a large way. Can the church justify its appeal for maintenance on this ground? It conducts “services” indeed, but is this “service”? To feed the poor, find work for the unemployed, provide lunches for underfed school children is service. But most churches do little of this. They merely gather people together for prayer, and praise, and instruction in religious subjects. And not a few arise to inquire if any vital need is met by such exercises. What can be said in reply to the charge that ministers and other religious workers are parasites on society who live off the labor of others without contributing to the common supply of wealth? Clearly, we must be able to assure ourselves concerning the value of public worship. We may remark, in the first instance, that worship is a necessary expression of man’s sense of the Infinite. Given a belief in God, prayer is man’s instinctive response to that belief. And this belief is universal. “Go back as far as history extends and man is religious... The pre-faistoric remains in Europe and elsewhere, as far as they prove anything, show man possessed of certain ideas and performing certain acts which give strong evidence of being religious.” 1 Worship then appears inevitable. By the very constitution of their being men relate themselves to the invisible world of spirit and power which lies behind the temporal order. They provide for worship as naturally and instinctively as they provide for supplies of water and food. This was noted long ago by a pagan historian, Plutarch: “You will, Edmund D. Soper, The Religions of Mankind, p. 27. 9 io THE PASTORAL OFFICE perchance, light upon cities without gates, without a theater, and without a palace; but you will find no city without a temple.” “As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God,” is ever the cry of man famished for the Infinite. That an exceptional person here and there seldom expresses this hunger for God does not affect the general fact. He only emphasizes the normal by showing how far he varies from it. Again, reflect upon the value of worship as a method of renewing moral and spiritual forces. Who has not grown weary in well-doing? Who does not know what it means to have his margin of self-control grow perilously narrow? Who does not find his confidence weakening in the worthwhileness of his finest ideals? Who has not lost his appetite for life through the monotony of life? Above all, who does not know the experience of remorse for sin and moral failure? “The internal decay of the incentive of work, the drooping of the sails of ambition, the falling out of humor with one’s own humor” this is a part of the history of every man’s inner life. And in searching for means of refreshing the weary spirit we must reckon with worship. It is not the only device by which something of the joy and zest of life may be recovered. A vacation, a favorite book, the companionship of men and women, an evening at the concert, an afternoon on the golf course may give the desired variation in the daily routine which is needful to “restore the soul.” There are two defects, however, which make it impossible for these ever to take first rank as means of spiritual renewal. First, they are purely external aids. One who depends upon them exclusively soon loses all power to refresh himself from the springs of his own inner life. Pity that multitude who find it necessary always to go outside themselves for relaxation and excitement, and who, in the absence of accustomed pleasure, are not only cast down but also destroyed! Moreover, these restorative measures have little power to affect the supreme cause of spiritual fatigue sin. They can only anaesthetize the THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORSHIP n troubled conscience by inducing a temporary f orgetfulnessv They are unable to remove permanently the sense of guilt, or create a consciousness of strength which will make victorious living possible in the future. But it is at precisely these points that worship attains to primacy among all other methods of recuperation. Its strength comes from within, and is independent of outward circumstances. One may not always be able to take a vacation from his work, but he may always pray at his work. When changes on the outside cannot be effected by prayer, one may change his attitude on the inside so as to rest himself while he works. And because he does it for himself he never becomes dependent upon outward aids. The great mystics affirm that worship will do all that friendship, amusement, food, medicine, or even sleep can accomplish for the refreshment of the spirit. Furthermore, it relieves the tension of overtaut nerves, not by inducing forgetfulness, but by creating the sense of Another Presence, AllLoving and All-Strong, who has come to help us face the facts of life and energize our weakened wills. In prayer the sin-tortured soul is soothed by the conviction that sin is forgiven and by the assurance that in future conflicts he shall have power to overcome sin. In worship as in nothing else “a self hitherto divided and consciously wrong, inferior, and unhappy becomes unified and consciously right, superior, and happy in consequence of its firmer hold upon religious realities.” 2 Thus the greatest American psychologist confirms the findings of an ancient prophet: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). Consider a third suggestion as to the value of worship. Men not only grow weary, but they become confused and lose their sense of direction. They require not only means of refreshing themselves but instruments for ascertaining their moral and spiritual bearings* The line be a William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 189. Reprinted by permission of Longmans, Green & Co. 12 THE PASTORAL OFFICE tw-een virtue and vice is very faint on occasion. A technique is in demand for sharpening such lines. Worship proves competent for this. Everyone who prays knows what it means to have a perplexed mind become quiet and assured in the act of prayer, forming judgments, reaching conclusions, taking new points of view as one worships. The writer of Ephesians had this in mind when he prayed “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (i. 17). A distinguished American physician understands it who affirms that to pray is to do what the woodsman does, who, uncertain of his whereabouts, climbs the highest tree to take a look around. 3 The mystics uniformly describe an experience which they call “the illumination of the soul” in which the ordinary powers of perception are heightened and insights deepened. Psychologists may refer all this to the “unconscious mind” out of which suggestion is supposed to come when the nervous system is relaxed. This does not satisfy the true mystics, however, who are philosophers in search of reality, and scientists describing their own states of mind, as well as devotees. They are convinced that the cause of these enlightening experiences does not lie wholly within themselves. They have a feeling of “otherness.” “Another” instructs, suggests, inspires, and guides. They are overwhelmingly sure that they have established communication with the Infinite Source of all life and being. The “unconscious mind” cannot be more than the organ of the Holy Spirit. Mr. H. G. Wells is not accustomed to defend traditional views in religion. But on this matter he writes very much like Saint Paul. “Then, suddenly, in a little while, in his own time, God comes. This cardinal experience is an undoubting, immediate sense of God. It is the attainment of an absolute certainty that one is not alone in oneself. It is 8 R. C Cabot, What Men Live By, p. 277. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORSHIP 13 as if one were touched at every point by a being akin to oneself, sympathetic, beyond measure wiser, steadfast and pure in aim. It is complete and more intimate, but it is like standing side by side with and touching some one that we love dearly and trust completely. It is as if this being bridged a thousand misunderstandings and brought us in touch with a great multitude of other people... The moment may come while we are alone in the darkness, under /Tthe stars, or while we walk by ourselves or in a crowd, or we sit and muse. It may come upon the sinking of a or in the tumult of battle. There is no saying when it P. may not come to us. But after it has come our lives are “ /changed. God is with us and there is no more doubt of God. Thereafter one goes about the world like one who was lonely has found a lover, like one who was perplexed and has found a solution. One is assured that there is a Power that fights with us and against the confusion and evil within us and without. There comes into the heart an essential and enduring happiness and courage.” 4 Now, the experience of the mystic does not differ in kind om that of all who genuinely worship. It differs only in ^Q degree. Everyone is a mystic to whom God is consciously ^^real as he prays. To worship is to go on a great adventure that brings up at last in the very presence of the Father, and in this adventure we acquire knowledge about God and our relation to him. Again, consider the contribution which worship may make /^toward the solution of our social problems. The most impressive fact about modern society is its high degree of U’ “mutualism.” Never were men dependent upon each other pJas now. Professor Ross describes this condition accurately, if imaginatively: “Nowadays the water main is my well, the trolley car my carriage, the bankers’ safe my old stocking, the policeman’s billy my fist. My own eyes and nose ’Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company from H. G. Wells, God, the Invisible King, p. 2$L The italics are the author’s. i 4 THE PASTORAL OFFICE and judgment defer to the inspector of food, or drugs, or gas, or factories, or tenements, or insurance companies. I rely upon others to look after my drains, invest my savings, nurse my sick, and teach my children. I let the meat trust butcher my pigs, the oil trust mold my candles, the sugar trust boil my sorghum, the coal trust chop my wood, the barb-wire company split my rails.” 5 He might have added that we look to others for the opportunity of earning a living as men never have done before. For the first time in human history the tools of industry are too expensive for the workers to own, so that the man who uses the instruments of economic production must ask the privilege of others. On the whole, this interdependence of each upon all and all on each has greatly multiplied our comforts and increased our happiness. It has increased also the number of friction points and thereby the possibilities of misery. Men are in each other’s power and at each other’s mercy to a degree altogether unprecedented. This is the very essence of “the social problem.” Now, we may safely assume that our social organization will never be less intricate than at present. On the contrary, it may become more complicated. The “solution of the.social problem” obviously calls for a higher degree of intelligence to administer this complex social organization. More imagination and more technical knowledge will help us greatly. But chiefly we shall need more good will. Our confusion is due less to lack of knowledge than to lack of brotherliness. A little selfishness now may work greater hardship than much selfishness in a simpler social order. A method must be found to generate altruism, to increase the sense of brotherhood and obligation to our human kind. In the search for an agent to accomplish this spiritual transmutation, we find nothing more promising than worship. Humility, reverence, affection, kindliness are all essential B E. A, Ross, Sin and Society, p. 3. Used by permission of Houghton MifBin Company. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORSHIP 15 to the prayerful frame of mind. The mood of worship cannot tolerate any sentiment of ill will. To worship is to love. To admit any unsocial feeling while one prays is to dispel the worshiping ftiood. As a generator of altruism worship has the very greatest social significance. No one is doing more to promote the spirit of brotherhood and increase the available supply of social sympathy than he who induces his fellow men to pray. Yet again, consider the significance of worship for physical health. The early history of the Christian Church is “permeated with a sense of conquest over sickness, disease, and moral ills of every kind.” Gibbon mentions “the miraculous powers of the primitive church” as the third cause for the spread of Christianity though personally he deemed it an unworthy cause. And while our theories of disease have changed radically, the history of the modern church supplies incontrovertible evidence of the therapeutic value of faith and prayer. Doctor McComb declares “that throughout later history the appearance of any great religious personality synchronized with an outburst of healing power. Francis of Assisi, Luther, George Fox, and John Wesley were not only great spiritual thinkers but also, by the strength of their faith, were able in certain cases to set up a powerful physical stimulus which resulted in the restoration of health to the sufferers; and whenever there has been a revival of religious life it has been accompanied by a more abundant sense of well-being both in soul and body.” 6 The explanation which modern psychology gives of the process of psychical healing is entirely acceptable to orthodox believers both in medicine and religion. Mind and body are one. Their relation is so intimate that each reacts upon the other definitely and promptly. Physical conditions affect the mind, and mental states in turn influence the body. Anxiety, worry, grief, fear, anger interfere with “Worcester, McComb, Coriat, Religion and Medicine, p. 299. Used by permission of Moffat, Yard and Company. 16 THE PASTORAL OFFICE the proper working of almost every organ in the body. On the other hand, faith, hopefulness, confidence, trust, love, good cheer stimulate helpfully every organ. Whatever will induce and make permanent thdte latter states makes for health and long life. Worship is such an agent. Practically every psychologist and physician agrees with William James in affirming that under certain circumstances prayer may contribute greatly to recovery from illness and should be encouraged as a curative method. This recognition of the restorative power of prayer in illness carries with it no approval of the extravagant claims of faith-healing cults which have sprung up outside the church, setting themselves against scientific medicine. In sickness one’s first duty is to consult a reputable medical man. We are insisting on no more than this that the sense of peace, and rest, and confident ’hope that is inspired through worship will greatly assist the physician in his work and facilitate the patient’s recovery. The failure of the church to recognize this value in worship has opened the way for certain religious bodies, usually regarded as outside the pale of the Christian Church, to grow powerful through capitalizing the idea. It is the one good thing in a blend of false philosophy, pseudo-science, and bad theology. By it “all these cults heal the sick, dissipate various kinds of miseries, afford moral uplift to the depressed, and create an atmosphere of faith, hope, and courage in which achievements are wrought that recall the early springtime of Christianity/’ Is it not time that the church should proclaim again her earliest message, since physicians and psychologists of first rank encourage her to do so? That message is contained in the following paragraph of Religion and Medicine, “The prayer of faith uttered or unexpressed has an immense influence over the functions of organic life. It is significant that a great English newspaper in an article on sleep recommended sufferers from insomnia to betake themselves to prayer. The advice was eminently sound, for in true prayer the mind is in a receptive attitude. It is open THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORSHIP 17 to the inflow of the divine forces that bless and heal. Now, the great hindrances to sleep are worry, anxiety, remorse, shame, sometimes fear of not sleeping. Prayer calms and soothes the soul, lifts it into a higher region than the earthly, and thus conduces to the state in which sleep becomes possible. Suppose, now, that our whole waking life were to be lived as Christ’s was lived, in an atmosphere of prayer; that is, in a sense of oneness with the Infinite Life, the Soul of our souls, so that we should become channels through which the thought and love of God might have unhindered course. Must not the body so closely connected with the soul feel a new uplift and virtue? This is especially true of all nervous disorders, because the mind has especial relations to the brain and nervous system.” 7 In the light of all this, the need for prayer is imperative. It is not quite evident, however, that a community is under obligation to provide facilities for social prayer. Is not individual prayer adequate for all spiritual needs? Great souls in all ages have nourished their spirits on private devotion. Jesus bade us enter into our chambers and pray in secret, and was himself accustomed to go into the mountain and the solitary place apart for prayer. What legitimate demand is there for public worship? We answer, “The demand of the social nature which caused Jesus to form the habit of joining his prayers with his fellow men in the synagogue as well as going into a secret place for solitary communion with God.” He took upon himself the form and nature of a man and man was not made for solitude. It is impossible for him to develop normally except in the midst of his kind. Companionship is quite as necessary in his worship as in his work. Private devotion alone cannot satisfy his total need. The lonely soldier on outpost may hold himself heroically to a proper performance of his duty in spite of the terrors that fill his imagination. But his steadiness and clear-sightedness and, in Worcester, McComb, Coriat, op. cit, p, 312. Used by permission of Moffat, Yard and Company. 18 THE PASTORAL OFFICE cidentally, his usefulness will be greatly increased by the presence of comrades in arms. With insight Doctor Cabot remarks that it means as much for believers as for soldiers to touch elbows. The benefits of private prayer are magnified many times by social worship^ which exposes us to the contagion of other men’s faith. An atmosphere of belief is created in which our own faith is strengthened through the realization that others share enthusiastically in those beliefs. Moreover, fellowship in prayer is the only corrective for eccentricities of belief which inevitably characterize those who do not join with others in prayer. On our Western ranges may be found the sheep-herder who lives alone so much that he becomes unlike other men in some essential respects. An air of detachment and aloofness distinguishes him in the centers of population on the occasion of his rare visits. A similar difference is seen among believers. One who lives in religious isolation may be genuinely devout, but he will almost certainly be “queer” in his devotion, varying from the normal in doctrine and belief. For the standard for faith must be set by the worshiping group rather than the worshiping individual. It must follow, then, that to “conduct services” is to render service of the highest sort. It need not be a serious fault that the church does nothing except gather the people for worship and instruction, provided it does this effectively. It may well be that some churches should close their doors, but never those which create an atmosphere quickeningly religious in -the place of public prayer. To such churches men will ever turn as to their best friends for inward comfort and strength. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY* R. C. Cabot, What Men Live By. Part IV. Worcester and McComb, Religion and Medicine. 8 Any desired book in these lists at end of chapters may be secured from your own publisher. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORSHIP 19 Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor, Chapter VI, Harry E. Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer. E. Herman, Creative Prayer. B. H. Streeter, et al. t Concerning Prayer, Chapter XI. H. S. Coffin, What Is There in Religion? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 02-IDEALS OF WORSHIP ======================================================================== CHAPTER II IDEALS OF WORSHIP IT may be that the lack of popular interest in public worship is not due primarily to the religious indifference of the community, but rather to the failure of the churches to conduct worship effectively. Only rarely does one find a service characterized by an atmosphere genuinely devout or quickeningly religious. This applies to large churches as well as small, to those which use “prescribed prayers” as well as those which enjoy “free worship.” On the one hand, mechanical orderliness and ritualistic decorum are emphasized at the expense of life. On the other, freedom has admitted slovenliness and irreverence to the sanctuary. Under both circumstances one misses the dynamic quality which is associated with reality in spiritual things. It is inexcusable that a church or minister should do little else than conduct services of worship, and yet do that so unimpressively that the weary spirit finds no rest in collective prayer. i. IDEALS OF WORSHIP. This ineffectiveness is due to the control of false ideals of worship. One of these is the sacerdotal conception of public worship as “Divine Service,” or a way of serving God. Doubtless there is a measure of truth in this view. If God covets the fellowship of men, as the New Testament represents, men render him a service when they give themselves to him in love. But this thought is obscured by undue regard for the exact performance of the ritual which in the end implies that God is primarily interested in the manner in which men offer their worship. With true religious insight Doctor Fosdick has suggested that public worship is not divine service but preparation for divine service in daily living. Again, the (esthetic ideal is sometimes in the ascendant. Public wor 20 IDEALS OF WORSHIP 21 ship is not distinguished from public entertainment. The aim is to give pleasure to the congregation rather than to induce the people to pray. The musical numbers are professionally excellent. The prayers are rhetorically perfect. The sermon is oratorically effective. One may depart from such a service in the pleasant frame of mind in which a good concert leaves him. But it is not a worshipful frame of mind. God is not necessarily in his thought, though the sermon, the music, and prayers may have dealt with religious themes. More commonly, however, the homiletical ideal controls in evangelical communions. The sermon is exalted to the place of primary importance in the service. Everything else is incidental. Historically the reformers of the sixteenth century who substituted the sermon for the sacrifice of the mass, and, in their reaction against everything Roman, either abolished from the public service that which appealed to the aesthetic sensibilities or assigned it to a distinctly subordinate place, are responsible for this “sermonolatry.” The influence of this ideal is still powerful, as the common custom witnesses of announcing services of worship as “preaching services.” Under this ideal the pastor permits himself to become absorbed almost exclusively in the preparation of the sermon, giving little or no attention to the music or public prayers. These are regarded as unimportant “preliminaries” to the real means of grace. The congregation too regards them in like manner and is satisfied if it is finally assembled by the time the sermon has begun. Under this ideal the value of the service is determined by the accident as to whether or not the sermon is “good.” Each of these ideals emphasizes something that deserves careful consideration. There should be enough of ritualism in public worship to make the service reverent and orderly. There.should be sufficient respect for aesthetic values that the sensibilities of the ordinary person shall not be offended. And the educational value of the sermon should be appreciated to the extent that the minister shall always put into 22 THE PASTORAL OFFICE it his best thought and effort. But to emphasize unduly any one of these admirable qualities defeats the end of social prayer by substituting a subordinate for a primary aim. This aim can never be to teach correct ritualistic action, or to affect pleasantly the aesthetic feelings, or to impart knowledge of religious subjects. It is nothing less them the development of proper attitudes of soul toward God and men to induce the great worshipful moods and give them stability. In his excellent volume on Worship in the Sunday School* Professor Hartshorne groups the more important Christian attitudes under five heads: Gratitude, Good Will, Reverence, Faith, and Loyalty. Each of these is a composite emotion including many others which in themselves are legitimate ends of worship. For example, gratitude is compounded of joy, tenderness, and the feeling of obligation. Good will embraces joy, pity, sorrow, forgiveness, and kindness. Reverence is a blending of fear, wonder, admiration, tenderness, respect, dependence, love, and penitence. Faith is made up of hope, assurance, joy, freedom, aspiration, confidence, and trust. Loyalty involves the sense of ownership, devotion, and self-surrender. The problem that is set for the leader of public worship is to conduct himself in such a manner and lead the people in such exercises as will arouse one or more of these emotions. Whatever other values the service may possess, if it fails to do this, it cannot properly be called “public worship/’ 2. PSYCHOLOGY AND WORSHIP. The leader of worship should be a student of modern psychology. Educators have long understood the value of this science and no one can be regarded as equipped for the work of teaching who is not familiar with its principles. But Professor Gardner’s comment on the relation of psychology to preaching applies with equal force to the whole matter of public worship: “The works discussing the preparation and de *Pp. 50-58 IDEALS OF WORSHIP 23 livery of sermons rarely, if ever, approach the subject from the standpoint of modern functional psychology. The psychological conceptions underlying most of these treatises belong to a stage of psychological thought long since past. But there seems to be just as much reason for applying the principles of modern psychology to preaching (or worship) as to teaching.” 2 The minister who desires to become skillful in the art of conducting social worship will take into serious account the literature of this subject, especially that part of it which treats of the psychology of the crowd. His first task is to create mental unity, induce the people to think and feel together. This suggestion may be resented by those who believe that the “crowd mind” is hopelessly inferior in every way. 3 But Gustave Le Bon, the great pioneer in this field, insists that while the crowd is intellectually and volitionally inferior to the individual, emotionally it may be worse, or better, according to circumstances. If human nature sometimes degrades itself in collective action, it likewise, on occasion, glorifies itself thus. /’Doubtless a crowd is often criminal, but it is also often heroic,” says Le Bon. “It is crowds, rather than isolated individuals, that may be induced to run the risk of death, to secure the triumph of a creed or an idea, that may be fired with enthusiasm for glory and, honor, that are led on almost without bread and without arms, as in the age of the crusades, to deliver the tomb of Christ from the infidel, or, as in ’93, to defend the Fatherland. Such heroism is without doubt somewhat unconscious, but it is of such heroism that history is made. Were people only to be credited with the great actions performed in cold blood, the annals of the world would register few of them.” 4 a Reprinted by permission of The Macmillaa Company. Part in parenithesis the author’s. Charles S. Gardner, Psychology and Preaching, Preface. “See Martin, The Behavior of Crowds. 4 Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd, p. 37** 24 THE PASTORAL OFFICE If it is possible to lift one to higher levels of feeling and acting in the crowd than he is likely to reach as an individual, surely it is entirely legitimate to manipulate the crowd to that end. This is the justification of many revival campaigns which are open to criticism from other points of view. After all the objections are entered, the fact remains that for a little while men thought, felt, and acted on higher levels than they were wont to do in “cold blood.” It may be helpful to summarize the essential characteristics of the crowd mind. A multitude need not be a psychological crowd. It is not, so long as its component individuals think and act for themselves. On the other hand, widely scattered individuals may display the marks of a crowd. You do not have a crowd until mental and emotional fusion has taken place and the individual mind is sunk in the collective mind. This group mind is not a mere summing up of all the individual minds composing it. “What really takes place is a combination followed by the creation of new characteristics, just as in chemistry certain elements when brought into contact combine to form a new body possessing properties quite different from those of the bodies that served to form it.” 5 In quality this collective mind resembles the “primitive” or “barbarian mind.” It is impulsive, credulous, unstable, mobile, highly suggestible. It does no critical thinking, and quickly transforms feeling into action. The consciousness of numbers gives it a sense of power, and the disappearance of self-conscious individuality creates a condition in which ideas and feelings are very contagious, running quickly from person to person. In these qualities we find the secret of a crowd’s intolerance and also of its generosity, of its distrust and its faith, of its irritability and its patience. The leader of worship must understand the nature of the crowd mind, utilizing its suggestibility to make higher moods and thoughts contagious. His first task is to create ’Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. Le Bon, op. cit.^p. 30. IDEALS OF WORSHIP 25 mental unity, induce the people to think and feel together. In the beginning of the service there is always a high degree of “self-conscious individuality” in the assemblage. The people are gathered in one place, but they are not of one accord, or one mind. Each is concerned with his own special interests and there is little common feeling. Some are coldly critical, others relaxed and drowsy, while still others permit their attention to wander uncontrolled among ^their personal affairs. 6 The minister must fuse the people mentally so that he can direct their thoughts and feelings into the desired channels. It would be too much to assert that there is no common feeling at all at the beginning of the service. That would be true only of an assembly which had gathered accidentally. In the ordinary service the fact that persons have come together impelled by a common purpose gives somewhat of psychical unity to start with. 7 This sense of oneness is intensified if the assembly gathers within four walls, and is thus protected from distracting influences from without. The degree in which physical segregation helps to unify the congregation intellectually and emotionally may be realized by holding an out-door service occasionally. Furthermore, if the architecture, decorations, and symbolism of the room are attractive and suggestive, and the organist is playing softly, the sense of unity is deepened. 8 But at best the state of psychical fusion in the beginning of the service is low, and the problem is to increase it to the point where the congregation will receive uncritically the ideas of the leader. 9 Let it be said that absolute fusion is neither to be expected nor desired. This is accomplished only when “the crowd” becomes a “mob” in which the individual ceases to exercise his mental or volitional powers and responds in “Gardner, op, cit, p. 240. T Gardner, op. cit. f p. 237. “Cutten, Psychological Phenomena of Christianity, p. 395 9 Gardner, op. cit, p. 210. 26 THE PASTORAL OFFICE stinctively to the influence of crowd-suggestion. To suppress entirely the personality of the individual would be immoral, though it has been done repeatedly in religious revivals and regarded as evidence of the power of God. The leader may attempt nothing more than to secure the interest of every person in the congregation without robbing any of his intellectual independence or paralyzing his will. As a matter of fact this is all that can be accomplished any way except in case of the purely passive. Persons of good mental equipment will resist immediately any unwarranted attack upon their individuality. Many ministers untutored in the principles of psychology have employed with great skill the methods best suited to promote the process of mental fusion. Great revival preachers have always been masters of applied “crowd psychology.” First, the scattered congregation is brought close together. When people are near each other, ideas and feelings are more readily communicated from one to another because the subtle physical changes of body and countenance are more easily recognized. Close crowding restricts freedom of bodily movements than which nothing tends more to depress the individual self. Professor Ross observes that “the strength of multiplied suggestion is at its maximum when the individual is in the midst of a throng, helpless to control his position or movements... Often a furious, naughty child will become meek and obedient after being held a moment as in a vise. On the playground a saucy boy will abruptly surrender and ’take it back* when held firmly on the ground without power to move hand or foot. The cause is not fear, but deflation of the ego. Here is the reason why individuality is so wilted in a dense throng, and why persons of a highly developed but somewhat fragile personality have a horror of getting nipped in a crowd.” 10 After bringing the people close together, the leader will “Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. E. A. Ross, Social Psychology, p. 43f. IDEALS OF WORSHIP 27 require them to act together. A hymn is announced, and the request is made, “Let all stand and join in the singing.” The creed, recited by all, follows the hymn. After the prayer, the congregation unites in repeating the Lord’s Prayer, minister and people kneeling. And later in the service other provision is made for concerted action on the part of the worshipers. This has the same tendency to wilt the individual self as close crowding. “If all stand or leap or shout or kneel,... or do anything else which may occur to the leader, it develops a consciousness of oneness and breaks up the personal isolation in which the sense of individuality is at a maximum.” 11 Furthermore, if the bodily posture is related to the feeling which the leader desires to awaken, it tends to produce that feeling, or to intensify it, if already present. It is hard to be sad for long if one forces himself to smile. To fall into the physical attitude of prayer tends to create the desire to pray. 12 The emotional unity produced by crowding and concerted action is unstable. The mind instinctively begins searching for some object, or thought, or experience which will justify the emotion that has been induced. If no such object can be found, the sense of individuality begins to rise again in the congregation, and the leader has “lost his crowd.” The skillful minister will see to it that there is no delay in presenting to the congregation those religious ideas upon which he desires them to fix their attention and which correspond to the mood that has been induced. This he may do by following the organ voluntary or the opening hymn (chosen for its rhythmical qualities which promote mental fusion) by an invocation in which there is expressed briefly the desire for the sense of God’s presence, or by a recital of the creed which directs the attention of the believer to the great affirmations of his faith. The hymns, the prayers, the anthem, and the sermon will be used likewise to direct the thought of the worshipers toward those spiritual subjects M Gardner, op. cit, p. 250, “Cutten, op. cit, p. 395 28 THE PASTORAL OFFICE that are related to the feelings which have been aroused, and which will deepen them. Only thus can the condition of psychical unity be maintained and filled with religious significance. 3. PRINCIPLES OF WORSHIP. The attention of the congregation must be held once it is won, and such direction must be given their collective thinking as will intensify the higher emotions and increase the will to goodness. In order to do this, the leader must have regard for certain great principles which always control social worship when it is conducted skillfully. a. The first of these is unity. It implies that all the several acts of worship shall be subordinated to the control of a single purpose and filled with a common spirit. This does not mean that the sermon is to be preached repeatedly in the hymns, prayers, and anthems before the time for the sermon itself arrives. It will be enough if the thought and feeling induced by the music and prayers shall accord with the spirit of the sermon, and nothing incongruous shall be admitted to set up a countermovement of feeling. Great variety of intellectual content may be entirely consistent with this kind of unity. Let us suppose that the aim of the service is to lead the congregation into a deeper love for Christ. Love, we have noted, is a composite emotion in which adoration, respect, tenderness, reverence, joy, trust, and devotion are blended. The service, ideally, should awaken all these feelings, and they are sufficiently varied that hymns, anthems, and prayers may make their respective contributions without duplicating in the least that which is made by the sermon. The music need not deal directly with the subject of Christ so long as it evokes some of the emotions associated with love. Or, again, the subject is so many-sided that every act of worship may deal directly with it in some aspect without making the service monotonous. b. The second great principle is variety. The occasion for it is twofold. The congregation is a heterogeneous group IDEALS OF WORSHIP 29 composed of old and young, children and adults, men and women, cultured and uneducated. It is not to be supposed that these diverse elements can be interested in the same thing or, at least, to the same degree. Yet each person in the congregation has a right to get something out of the service. If the sermon does not appeal, then the hymns, the Scripture, or the prayers may. But more important, the psychical nature of ev&ry person in the congregation demands variety if his attention is to be held throughout the service. The attention cannot be focused for long upon a single object It is impossible for me to hold my thought to the desk upon which I write unless I break up the one object of thought into many by considering it from different points of view. By directing the attention now to this aspect and now to that, it is possible to make the desk an object of interest for a long time, but in no other way. Of what material is it made? What is its shape? What are its dimensions? How much drawer space does it contain? Is it preferable to a roll-top desk? Only thus can I keep the desk long in my thought, for it is the nature of attention to wander from one object to another. The skillful leader of worship must present varying objects to the attention that will gratify its appetite for change and at the same time keep it close to the main matter. Only so may the thought of the congregation be controlled. And this is as true for every part of the service as it is for the service as a whole. The preacher will soon lose the attention of the congregation during the sermon unless he passes swiftly from one phase of his theme to another. The hymns will grow uninteresting if all are of the same type. It is better for the choir to sing but one number than two which produce the same emotional effect. c. In applying the second principle we are limited by the first. This gives us a third, progress. In seeking variety we are not permitted to seek merely “something different.” It must be that particular different something which will assist the movement of thought and feeling in the desired 3 o THE PASTORAL OFFICE direction. Conceivably it might be so different as to be incongruous, and divert the service entirely from its proper channels. The demand here is precisely that which we make upon a story for movement and action toward some welldefined end. d. The foregoing principles combine to suggest a fourth. The service should have a definite plan. The leader should know exactly what is to be accomplished by the service as a whole and just what contribution each act of worship will make to the realization of the plan. He will not go to the service without giving the most careful thought to every detail. Hymns, prayers, Scripture, music, and sermon will be woven “into a harmonious whole which shall in its total effect induce the desired change in the minds of the audience.” 13 e. A fifth principle which must control, at least in Protestant worship, is democracy. The Roman Catholic theory is that the clergy, especially the bishops, constitute the church. The laity are admitted only to a position of passive obedience. Participation in worship is the exclusive privilege of the clerical orders. The laymen are only onlookers. The Reformation, however, democratized the priesthood by regarding all true believers as priests. The effect of this upon public worship was revolutionary. Worship became immediately the prerogative of the congregation, and congregational singing was substituted in large part for the chanting of priests. Congregational prayers were introduced, and the whole service was conducted in the language of the people. This was a return to the ideal of the early church, in which all with one accord and one mouth glorified God. 14 The Protestant theory of public worship is that all the action in the service is the collective action of the congregation. In the special musical numbers the choir represents 18 Hugh Hartshorne, Worship in the Sunday School, p. “Romans in. 6. IDEALS OF WORSHIP 31 the congregation. Likewise the prayers of the leader are, in fact, congregational prayers uttered by him in a purely representative capacity. He is only the mouthpiece of the people expressing for them their praise and petitions. But the representatives of the congregation should never overshadow the congregation itself. The leader should hold up continually the obligation of the whole assembly to participate heartily in the many parts of the service designed for collective use creed, hymns, prayers, etc. No congregation should permit the minister and the choir to monopolize the service. Its rights in this regard are very precious and were won at great cost. We should be warned that democracy is threatened by mediocrity of taste and standards. Under an aristocratic ideal the service is in danger of becoming mechanical and unreal from excess of ritualism. Under a democratic ideal it is menaced by disorder, irreverence, extemporaneousness, unwarranted assertion of individuality by minister and members of the congregation, maudlin sentimentality, general cheapness in tone and ideals. One of the chief problems of the leader of social prayer is to open the door for the many to participate in worship without loss of dignity and impressiveness in the service. /. Finally, public worship should be beautiful. God is the source of all beauty, and in his worship “tasteless and misshapen” forms should have no place. This applies, first of all, to the place of worship. It is difficult for a congregation to worship in an environment that offends the aesthetic sense. Unlovely surroundings will continually obtrude themselves upon the thought of the worshipers, heightening the self-consciousness of the individual and tending to destroy the psychical unity that is essential to social worship. Yet how commonly are things tolerated in the place of prayer which are unfriendly to the spirit of worship architectural styles that are pagan rather than Christian, bad acoustics, poor ventilation, improper lighting, crude attempts at interior decorating, and often un 32 THE PASTORAL OFFICE cleanliness! Such things “impede the spirit’s upward aspiration.” Our churches need not be unbeautiful because we believe in the simplicity that goes with democracy. In reacting from the Roman type of architecture we need not revert to the Greek temple. In protesting against the Roman use of symbols we need not make our places of worship resemble concert rooms. If we do not introduce anything into the environment that suggests religious thoughts, at all events we can see to it that nothing in the surroundings shall offend the good taste and peace of mind of the worshipers. Moreover, regard for the principle of beauty has to do with orderliness and reverence. There is something very pleasing in a service which begins promptly at the appointed hour and in which it is at once evident that everything has been anticipated and nothing left to haphazard ministers, lay assistants, choir, ushers, and sexton cooperating together with perfect understanding. Furthermore, the service should be radiant with the beauty which inheres in reality in worship worship that is “in spirit and in truth.” Whatever else may be true of it, unless the service is electric with the Divine Presence and worshipers are made to realize the nearness of an invisible world of spirit and power, it cannot be “a beautiful service” in the highest sense of the term. 4. PRESCRIBED vs. FREE WORSHIP. 15 In applying the proper ideals of collective worship, some communions provide an order of service in which every element is prescribed by ecclesiastical authority, and nothing is left to the individual judgment of the leader of the congregation or to the congregation itself. Others delight in free worship, which permits the leader to determine for himself what shall go into the service. The Methodist Episcopal Church “This section Is little more than a digest of ithe chapter on “Free Worship versus Formularies” in M. P. Tailing’s excellent book Extempore Prayer, p. 2ofL Used by permission of Fleming H. Revell Company. IDEALS OF WORSHIP 33 uses both types of service, and her ministers should understand the values of each. A ritualistic service is justified for some by their view of authority in religion. They regard the priesthood as the “exclusive channel of regenerative grace.” The laity are incompetent to think for themselves or to express themselves in religious matters. Hence the need of fixed formularies in which the exact words of prayer, and praise, and instruction are set down for the leader and congregation to repeat according to specific directions. But “prescribed worship” is found among other communions who disavow this notion of authority. Theology ’has little to do with forms of worship. “Any church of any faith might adopt without modification of its tenets a fixed order of worship.” In the Established Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States may be found great variety in theological points of view. These differences seldom manifest themselves in public worship, however, for every priest, whether conservative or progressive, uses the same order of worship. Perhaps this is the reason why a proposal to alter or amend the Book of Common Prayer is regarded as much more momentous than a charge of theological errancy. a. Tailing states the case for a liturgical service as follows: 16 (1) It has a certain stateliness of thought and charm of style which satisfy the ear and cling to the memory. (2) It makes the worshipers independent of the officiating clergyman, so that his faults do not hinder their devotions. (3) Affording a common and uniform w&ans of worship f it serves to bind together all the members of the church into one fellowship and loyalty. This unity embraces the past as well as the present. For persons who possess a strong historical sense, the thought that they are using the very same words of prayer and praise that have been found upon the lips of believers in all generations is profoundly inspiring. ““Extempore Prayer, p. 2of. Used by permission of Fleming H. Revell Company. 34 THE PASTORAL OFFICE (4) It is especially suitable for old people, because of its unchanging form of words,... and for young people, because their interest is sustained and they have some part in the worship. (5) Nonliturgical or free worship possesses no uniformity, and the people take but little part in the service, and are exposed to the doctrinal bias and personal peculiarities of the minister. (6) Free worship is in great danger of suffering from the unchastened promptings of the mind and uncorrected effusions of the heart. b. The case for free worship is summarized thus, (1) Prescribed worship makes overmuch of method, failing to distinguish between the spirit and the form we pray for Thy Church, which is set to-day amid the T From A Pulpit Manual, James Burns, p. 48. Used by permission of The Pilgrim Press. “From Prayers of the Social Awakening t by Walter Rauschenbusch, published by The Pilgrim Press. Used by permission. 68 THE PASTORAL OFFICE perplexities of a changing order, and face to face with a great new task. We remember with love the nurture she gave to our spiritual life in its infancy, the tasks she set for our growing strength, the influence of the devoted hearts she gathers, the steadfast power for good she has exerted. When we compare her with all other human institutions, we rejoice, for there is none like her. But when we judge her by the mind of her Master, we bow in pity and contrition. Oh, baptize her afresh in the life-giving spirit of Jesus. Grant her a new birth, though it be with the travail of repentance and humiliation. Bestow upon her a more imperious responsiveness to duty, a swifter compassion with suffering, and an utter loyalty to the will of God. Put upon her lips the ancient gospel of her Lord. Help her to proclaim boldly the coming of the kingdom of God and the doom of all that resist it. Fill her with the prophets’ scorn of tyranny, and with a Christlike tenderness for the heavyladen and down-trodden. Give her faith to espouse the cause of the people, and in their hands that grope after freedom and light to recognize the bleeding hands of the Christ... Make her valiant to give up her life to humanity, that like her crucified Lord she may mount by the path of the cross to a higher glory. Walter Rauschenbusch. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY M. P. Tailing, Extempore Prayer, pp. 13-219. Arthur S. Hoyt, Public Worship in Non-Liturgical Churches, pp. 49-104. MANUALS OF WORSHIP Walter Rauschenbusch, For God and the People. W. E. Orchard, D.D, The Temple. D. R. Porter, The Enrichment of Prayer. Karl R. Stolz, The Psychology of Prayer. M. P. Tailing, Extempore Prayer, pp. 220-293. James Burns, M.A, A Pulpit Manual. George W. Coleman, The People’s Prayers. Samuel McComb, A Book of Prayers. W. A. Quayle, The Climb to God. W. P. Thirkield, Service and Prayers. Prayers Ancient and Modern. The Book of Common Prayer. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 05-MATERIALS WORSHIP LESSONS, ANNOUNCEMENTS ======================================================================== CHAPTER V MATERIALS OF WORSHIP LESSONS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, OFFERING i. READING the Law, and later the Prophets as commentaries upon the Law, was an important part of public worship among the Jews from the time of Moses and Joshua (Judges 8:34; Deut. 29). This custom was adopted by the early Christian Church, which soon added the Gospels and Letters to the Hebrew Scriptures. It has been approved by all important branches of the modern church, except the -early Puritans of New England, who countenanced no liturgical use of the Scriptures down to a comparatively late period. Gladden quotes from the diary of the Rev. Stephen Williams, a Congregational minister of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, under date of March 30, 1:75S: “This day I began to read the Scriptures publicly in the congregation.” His biographer notes that this was a bold innovation which was sustained in that parish with great difficulty. 1 The approved method of using the Scriptures publicly was to read a portion, expounding it section by section, leaving nothing to private interpretation. Increase Mather declared: “It cannot be proved that Dumb Reading, or Public Reading of the Scriptures without any explication or exhortation is part of the Pastoral Office.” This smacked too much of the popishness from which New England Puritans had fled. 2 At the present time Scripture reading occupies a prominent place in the worship of all Protestant bodies. The Methodist order provides for two lessons one from the Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor, p. 150. Used by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons. a T. Harwood Pattison, Public Worship, p. 147. 6 9 70 THE PASTORAL OFFICE Old Testament, generally from the Psalms, read responsively, and the other from the New Testament, read by the leader to the congregation. The first lesson affords an opportunity for the congregation to express its collective praise directly. Only the poetical parts of the Scriptures are adapted to this manner of reading the portions in which thought answers to thought and the words are arranged in balanced phrases. The congregation is limited practically to the Psalms, parts of Job, the Prophets, and occasional lyrical passages in the New Testament for such lessons. In The Methodist Hymnal the Psalter is arranged with readings for morning and evening worship of each Sunday in the year, and also for certain special days like Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. The imprecatory psalms have been omitted, and David speaks, for the most part, “like a Christian.” The leader is not obliged to use this Psalter. He may use any lesson from the old Testament. But the Psalter will be used regularly by the pastor who appreciates the value of democracy in public worship. Any lesson may be used on any Sunday, but to avoid the monotonous repetition of a few favorite selections and to enlarge the acquaintance of the congregation with the devotional literature of the Scriptures, the lessons should be taken in order, beginning preferably with the first Sunday of the calendar year. If the Psalter is used regularly in only the morning services, the evening lessons may be used appropriately for morning worship on alternate years. No direction is given in the order concerning the posture of the congregation in using the Psalter, and practice varies on this point. The psychological result is better if the congregation shall stand. The signal for rising should be as inconspicuous as possible. Certainly no bald request need be made by the leader, nor awkward upward gesture with the arms. It may be generally understood that the rising of the choir is the sign for the congregation to stand. Or, having allowed sufficient time for each person to find the selection after the announcement has been made, let the MATERIALS OF WORSHIP 71 announcement be repeated, at which time the congregation will stand. For example, “The lesson in the Psalter for the morning of the twelfth Sunday/’ Time. “The lesson for the twelfth Sunday.” Congregation stands. Or, after announcing the selection, let the minister be seated. When sufficient time has elapsed for all to find the proper page, let him stand to read, and his rising will be the signal for the congregation to rise. An organ interlude might serve the same purpose. The manner in which the Psalter is used varies greatly. Some communions favor chanting by the congregation in unison, or by the congregation or the choir and the minister antiphonally. Generally, however, the reading is responsive the leader reciting the verses with odd numbers and the congregation those with even numbers. The reading on the part of the congregation should be characterized by unity and strength of volume, in which, nevertheless, the spirit of thoughtfulness and devotion appears. On the part of the minister there should be intelligent expression no intoning or mechanical chanting of the words which will call forth a proper response from the congregation, but nothing in voice or manner that will attract especial attention to himself. He is acting as a part of the congregation in this exercise and should perform his duty in the light of that fact. The second lesson is read aloud by the leader alone. The aim is didactic to impress some truth or duty upon the congregation rather than to express worshipful feelings, though, of course, both these ends may be served. It is the custom of many pastors to select a lesson connected with the text of the sermon. This is done when the sermon is regarded as the primary event in the service, to which everything else is subordinate. But we have seen that the controlling ideal should be worship, not preaching, and under this ideal the lesson is coordinate with the sermon and may be independent of it. It need not teach the same truth expressed in the sermon. Indeed, in the interest of variety 72 THE PASTORAL OFFICE it is better if it shall express some other truth. And in the course of a year’s ministry all the important Christian truths should be presented through this medium. The Anglican and Episcopalian communions accomplish a comprehensive presentation of biblical teaching by arranging the lessons in such a way that the Old Testament may be read through once and the New Testament twice each year in public worship, provided worship is conducted daily. John Wesley provided for the same complete instruction in the “Sunday Service” which he arranged for American Methodists. This service has never been popular, however, and each pastor selects his own lessons. As a result there is no such symmetrical teaching of biblical doctrine through the reading of the Bible as is true of those churches which use a liturgy. ’ To accomplish this without a liturgy the minister must give much more careful attention to the selection of his lessons than many do. To guard against a narrow range of choice, let a record be kept of all the lessons used during the year, and plan deliberately to read from the less familiar portions of the Bible as well as from the Psalms and the New Testament. Many in the congregation hear little, if any, Scripture outside the church service. How shall the lesson be read? Certainly not in the mechanical fashion that too frequently mars Protestant worship, whether liturgical or nonliturgical, nor dramatically after the manner of elocutionists. It is obvious that the reading should interest and instruct the congregation. Yet how rarely does it compel the attention of the worshipers! It is essential, first of all, that the reader should re-create for himself in imagination the very thoughts and feelings which the author tried to express. This cannot be done except by much study of the lesson beforehand, study that will familiarize one with the circumstances under which the selection was written and reveal the purpose of the writer, awakening one’s sympathetic interest in that purpose. Suppose, for example, the minister should brood over Paul’s MATERIALS OF WORSHIP 73 defense before Agrippa until he sees before him the prisoner in chains, pleading in dignified and earnest fashion more for his cause than for himself, choosing carefully each word and arranging his argument with a view of making the best impression upon his judge, could he then recite that address in the lifeless or careless manner characteristic of many who read the Scriptures in public? When the reader enters sympathetically into the thought and feeling of the writer, that fact will show itself in the inflections and modulations of the voice. The preacher who uses his imagination thus will unconsciously make the reading of the second lesson an event in every service, for he will interpret the Scripture in a way to be remembered, and that without interrupting the reading by comments of his own, “as the manner of some is.” At the beginning of the lesson, let the leader announce where it may be found. At the conclusion, let him announce simply, “Here ends the reading of the lesson.” To exclaim, as some do, “May God add his blessing to the reading of his word,” is a pious affectation that grates upon the sensibilities of those who would avoid the appearance of unreality in worship. If the lesson shall have been read properly, be sure God will have already blessed it. If not, the reader has made it impossible for his prayer to be answered. On entering the pulpit, the “pulpit Bible” should be opened, even though one intends to read from his own personal copy. This is the most important part of the furnishings of the church. It contains the truth which is to be read and interpreted by the minister. From it radiates the light which is to illuminate the minds and warm the hearts of all who worship. In recognition of that fact, let it be opened at least symbolically, and remain open until the conclusion of the service, 2. ANNOUNCEMENTS. Nothing more seriously deflects the movement of thought and feeling in worship than a large number of announcements, especially if they are con 74 THE PASTORAL OFFICE cerned mainly with the social affairs of the church. An ideal time to make them would be before the opening hymn. The late arrival of many who should hear them, however, makes it necessary to give them at a later time. The next best place is just before the offering. When it can be afforded, the church should publish all announcements in a weekly bulletin. This bulletin should never contain business advertisements. When they are thus printed, there is no need of doing more than to call the attention of the congregation to them in the briefest manner. Where a bulletin is not used, the leader should have the announcements sufficiently well in hand that he can state the essential facts about each one in the fewest possible sentences. It is always his privilege to edit notices in the interest of economy of time and the best good of the service. Circumstances should be very extraordinary to warrant taking more than four or five minutes for this part of the service. It is better to use only two or three. 3. OFFERING. The offering need not retard the service, though some hypersensitive persons complain of it and seek a device which will do away with the necessity of mentioning money in public worship. On the contrary, if it be truly an act of worship, performed in a religious atmosphere as an expression of genuine devotion to God and his church, it may enrich the service. Giving is the very essence of all worship, and as long as it shall be necessary to maintain Christian institutions, it will be a part of true worship to offer material as well as spiritual gifts in the place of prayer. It is customary for the leader to make the offering the concluding announcement. If it is to be devoted to some special cause, that fact may be stated briefly. Then let the collectors come in a quiet and orderly manner to the communion rail to receive the plates either from the leader or some one of their own number. The minister may recite one or two appropriate verses of Scripture on delivering the plates to the collectors. On their return, let the leader make a brief prayer of thanksgiving and consecration, plac MATERIALS OF WORSHIP 75 ing the offering in some inconspicuous place within the chancel. If the plates are not to be returned, then the prayer should be made as they are distributed, the ushers waiting reverently until it is finished. The spirit of worship will be greatly stabilized if the organist shall play softly or a good soloist shall sing during this part of the service. Conducted in some such reverent manner, the offering can be made a genuine “means of grace.” The following are excellent models for the offertory prayer: 3 ACCEPT these our offerings, God, we beseech Thee, which now we seek to dedicate to the service of Thy Holy Church, and grant us ever to have grateful hearts, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. HEAVENLY FATHER, Who hast given us all things richly to enjoy, graciously deign to receive -these our gifts which now we lay upon Thine altar, and bless us both in the use and the giving of Thy mercies, for Jesus’ sake, GOD, who dost teach us by this act of worship /that it is more blessed to give than to receive, graciously accept these our offerings and give us the right spirit both in giving and receiving, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. In many churches the congregation consecrates the offering by rising and chanting Number 740, The Methodist Hymnal, “All things come of thee, Lord, And of thine own have we given thee.” BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Arthur S. Hoyt, Public Worship in Non-Liturgical Churches. R H. J. Newton, The Conduct of Public Worship, Chapters I-V. S. S. Curry, Vocal and Literary Interpretation of the Bible. R. W. Rogers, Book of Old Testament Lessons for Public Reading in Churches. “From A Pulpit Manual, by James Burns. Used by permission of The Pilgrim Press. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 06-MATERIALS WORSHIP SERMON BENECDITION ======================================================================== CHAPTER VI MATERIALS OF WORSHIP SERMON AND BENEDICTION THE SERMON i. THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. The sermon enjoyed no such unique distinction in the New Testament church as is accorded it in our time. In the beginning it was merely a footnote to the lesson or to a letter from some apostle which was read in the presence of the congregation a short comment to clear up an obscure passage or an exhortation suggested by something in the reading. It does not appear to have been confined to an official class, but was a privilege open to any who cared to volunteer. After the apostolic age, however, the sermon took on new importance. It became a formal discourse, or oration, pronounced by presbyters and bishops, and in the fourth century preaching even became popular as a kind of indoor sport. “Fashionable people in Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, and hundreds of smaller towns, began to speak (so Chrysostom intimates) almost as enthusiastically about the favorite preacher of the hour as they spoke of the favorite horse in the races or the reigning actor in the theater.” 1 After this century the sermon declined in importance until the period of the crusades, which marks another high point in the history of preaching. Again there was a decline, until the Reformation lifted the sermon once more to a place of overshadowing importance in public worship. This place it has succeeded in holding until now among those peoples most profoundly affected by the Reformation. In a general way the curve of popularity in the history of preaching follows the line of keen theological interest. “John A. Broadus, quoted by E. C. Dargan, History of Preaching, vol. ii, p. 64. MATERIALS OF WORSHIP 77 The sermon became popular in periods of doctrinal discussion because it was practically the only instrument available for exposition and propaganda. At times other influences affected it, such as imperial patronage, social favor, and the importance of rhetorical studies in education. But these are distinctly secondary to the doctrinal influence. Moreover, this curve follows the line of prophetic rather than priestly influence. In periods of calm, when doctrines and beliefs are fixed, the priest makes permanent ritualistic and ceremonial forms to contain them. Such instruction as he gives in worship is imparted chiefly through the symbolism of the service with which the congregation is familiar. But when the prophet appears with his demand for a restatement of faith and a revitalizing of religious interest, the old symbols and ceremonials are inadequate. They do not say what he wants said. He has no choice but to use a new symbolism of words and speech to express his new thought, and resorts to the sermon. Where the priestly restraints are too strong to be broken the prophet is silenced and the sermon all but disappears from worship, as in the Greek Church, in which preaching has had almost no history since the days of Chrysostom. To a somewhat lesser extent this is true of the Roman Church and the “High Church” wing of the Anglican and Protestant Episcopal Churches. Not that these have produced no great preachers, but that the importance of the sermon is minimized in public worship. Where the prophet has his way, as in the evangelical communions, the sermon is exalted to a place of primacy in public worship, even to the point of “sermonolatry.” 2. POWER IN PREACHING. As an instrument for expressing faith and imparting truth, the sermon, ideally, will never be superseded. Evangelicals are right in feeling that a service is not quite finished in which there is no* place for instruction or inspirational address. For a truth or a belief has little power to command others until it takes possession of a human life in such fashion that all instruments word, 78 THE PASTORAL OFFICE gesture, intonation, eye, posture cooperate to express originally and creatively what is felt in the deep places of the spirit to be true. The printed Word is potent. But only the spoken word “truth through personality” ever becomes omnipotent. Believing all this (i) that the sermon is indispensable to the intellectual life of religion; (2) that it has achieved and safeguarded religious freedom and liberty; (3) and that, potentially, it is our finest agent for expressing and propagating faith it must be recognized, nevertheless, that much which passes for preaching in our modern life fails to accomplish any of this, and the sermon is in disrepute to-day. As an act of worship the sermon must be religious. One of our great teachers of homiletics insists that much American preaching is not religious, “Power is absent from a large part of American preaching because that preaching is not religious. It is not essentially and vitally and experimentally religious. While we recognize much strong, noble preaching, for which we thank God and take courage, is there not also a large amount of preaching that could be put into the following categories, which are not mutually exclusive? (i) an unconvincing evangelicalism mere platitudes about redemptive doctrines without clear relation to human life; (2) a solemn pietism conventional appeals for consecration and separation from the world; (3) a weak sentimentalism pathetic stories, farfetched religious experiences, general unreality to the healthy-minded; (4) a dry intellectualism mere discussion of subjects, the sort of thing that can be done better in a magazine; (5) a belated controversialism fighting over old battles, tilting at windmills; (6) a shallow sensationalism catching the crowd by the methods of the vaudeville and the yellow press, anything for notoriety; (7) a bumptious egotism the minister carried away by the self-importance of his leadership, thrusting his views, his hobbies, his methods, himself, and even his family, upon public attention; (8) a shallow socialism the use of the pulpit for the presentation MATERIALS OF WORSHIP 79 of particular economic theories and partisan views with no great human appeal. Some of these preachings gain large audiences, even fill up the membership of churches, even secure conversions and reformations of life, but their influence taken as a whole is petty, cheapening to religion, and is not bringing God to men and lifting men to God. If all preaching were of such character, the days of the pulpit would be numbered.” 2 Power in preaching has been defined as “such a presentation of an intense religious conviction as shall tend to produce in the congregation an emotional experience of that conviction.” The final test of a sermon as an act of worship is just this power to evoke a sympathetic response from those who hear it. Can the preacher make the congregation feel and think about the theme as he himself does? The problem here is much the same as in public prayer. This kind of power is conditioned chiefly by two things (i) the degree to which the preacher has identified himself, in imagination at least, with the joys and sorrows, the victories and defeats of his hearers, and (2) the sincerity with which he speaks the convictions of his own soul. A Sundayschool lad remarked after hearing a simple, straightforward account of the attempt of a Kentucky mountain college to teach mountain boys that the heroism of Jesus is nobler than revenge, “It does make a difference when you hear a man who really believes what he says,” Professor Soares asks, “Can it be that congregations are sometimes dismissed asking themselves, Does he mean it, or was he only preaching?” 3 3. THE TECHNIQUE OF PREACHING. Yet it is not wholly a matter of deep feeling and spirit Many ministers who do not lack convictions, and who are intelligent and sincere, nevertheless are unable to preach effectively. They have not mastered the technique of preaching. This has to do “Reprinted by permission of The University of Chicago Press. University of Chicago Sermons, edited by T. G. Soares, p. 3** ’Id, p. 6. 80 THE PASTORAL OFFICE with the materials, the form, and the manner of the sermon. Admittedly they are secondary to conviction and sincerity. Probably more preachers fail, however, in the former than the latter. A whole volume would be required to treat these matters adequately. We venture to emphasize here very briefly only those things which are related to the liturgical values of the sermon. a. The Material of the Sermon. As an act of Christian worship, the sermon must express and interpret the Christian experience of the race. The principal record of this experience is found in the Bible. To explain this book helpfully is the minister’s chief business. He is expected to understand it as perfectly as the lawyer should understand the law and the physician his medical science. Yet how rarely do ministers create the impression that their judgment on a biblical matter will be confirmed in the court of scholarly criticism! Many reveal the fact that they know the English and American poets, that no popular books of fiction ever escape them, and that the Saturday Evening Post and, possibly, the Atlantic Monthly come regularly to their reading tables, but neither Hosea, nor Jeremiah, nor Amos, nor Isaiah, nor any other prophet becomes a living personality from anything they say. No one has ever preached commandingly who did not regard the 1 Bible its prayers, its biographies, its parables, its miracles, its poetry, its philosophy, its history, its letters as his primary source of sermon material. In the profound religious experience in which Ezekiel received his call to the prophetic office he was commanded to eat a book (roll) in which was written the message he was to deliver eat until he had filled himself with it! Could there be a more impressive dramatization of this idea that a preacher’s Bible is to be thoroughly masticated, digested, and assimilated? After the Bible, the next great record of Christian experience is found in the doctrinal statements of the church. Unlike the biblical text, these are constantly changing in their outward form. To interpret them helpfully the min MATERIALS OP WORSHIP 81 ister must know them in their history, and in their relations to the changing ideals of thought and life which modify them from age to age. To make sure that he covers the whole field of Christian teaching in the course of a year’s preaching, one should plan for himself some such calendar of themes as certain communions arbitrarily impose upon their clergymen for example, the Protestant Episcopal Church. Otherwise he will overemphasize some truths and underemphasize, or neglect entirely, others equally important. But it is a part of our Christian faith that God is still active in his world and in the hearts of men. We may know him at first hand for ourselves, and personally verify the findings of others, and add to them. Only as the minister thus lives again in his own experience the truths which others have affirmed can his preaching be self-revelation; and unless it is that, the sermon cannot be called worship. He will be interested, too, in the attempt of his contemporaries to know God, and in their fresh descriptions of religious experience. What latter-day poets, philosophers, essayists, and teachers of social ethics have to say about life and duty is legitimate sermonic material. One will gather the materials of preaching to little purpose, however, unless he is able to interpret them imaginatively. Masters of the art of ritualistic worship know well how to stir the imagination by the use of symbols which appeal to the eye or the ear. As an act of worship the sermon must likewise stimulate the imagination of the hearers, else it will have little power to affect their feelings and induce a worshipful mood. Who does not hold in memory a Scripture or a doctrine which once had no meaning but was made forever beautiful by a preacher who interpreted it with the simplicity and understanding that comes only from imagination? In emphasizing imagination as a primary source of power in preaching, we should distinguish imagination from fancy. The latter breaks with reality and is a source of danger. By it, the puerilities of the allegorical interpreter are per 82 THE PASTORAL OFFICE petrated, who always is able to make the Scriptures say what he wishes them to say. On the contrary, the constructive imagination, while it transcends facts, never loses its contact with them. The imaginative interpreter proceeds by the historical method. He is anxious to discover, not his own mind, but that of the writer. As illustrating the difference between the two methods, contrast the fanciful with the imaginative way of interpreting the parable of the good Samaritan. The former assumes that every feature of the parable is a symbol filled with religious meaning. For example, the man who fell among thieves stands for Adam; the thieves were the devil and his angels; the priest and the Levite were the Mosaic dispensation; the good Samaritan was Christ; the beast on which the Samaritan rode was Christ’s human nature; the inn was the church; the two pennies paid to the innkeeper represented the life that now is and that which is to come. A truly imaginative interpreter proceeds, however, by inquiring what were the circumstances under which the parable was spoken. He finds that a young man had asked for a definition of the word “neighbor.” “Who is my neighbor?” he inquired, and Jesus replied with this story of a neighbor in action in which it appears that neighborliness is not a matter of geography, nor race, nor patriotism, nor religion, but of mere human interest on the basis of human need. This is what Jesus put into the parable and this is what the imaginative preacher takes out. The allegorist misses it entirely. 6. The Form of the Sermon. Imagination is important, too, in expressing one’s insights, as well as in discovering them. It frequently happens that of two sermons equally above criticism as to materials, one will have power to command the interest of the congregation that the other lacks. Quite generally the explanation will be found in the literary form of the respective sermons. One preacher is a master in the art of organizing his material; the other is not. The first expresses his thought clearly from the opening sen MATERIALS OF WORSHIP 83 tence, and before six sentences have been spoken the congregation knows exactly what theme is to be discussed. In thirty minutes he has said (i) this, and (2) that, and (3) a third specific thing about the theme. Everything is easily grasped. It requires no effort to listen. Indeed, one cannot help listening. There are no digressions of thought. Nothing is put into the sermon which does not contribute directly to the main stream of interest. No stories are told for their own sake. No poetry is quoted to display the preacher’s acquaintance with the poets. If poetry is used, it is because some singer has said what the preacher needed to say at a certain point better than he can possibly do. All is compactly arranged and expressed simply and clearly. The sermon is a single organism, a perfect unity, and easily remembered. The other sermon is a multiplicity, a heterogeneous collection of statements, sentiments, poetry, and historical references gathered from everywhere with no inner coherence holding them together. If there is a main line of thought, it is difficult to find it; or finding it, to hold it, for irrelevant matter is constantly introduced which diverts attention from the principal subject Only by a conscious effort of will is the attention fastened upon the sermon at all* To carry away more than a fragment of such a sermon would require superhuman power. Yet these very same materials, organized more perfectly, would make a worthwhile utterance. And the only difference would be in the literary form. Some one has- remarked that while an arrow and an ordinary stick of wood may be made of exactly the same material, one may be hurled from a bow very much farther than the other. This difference in carrying power is due entirely to the difference in their respective shapes. One was formed to go far, cleaving the air with a minimum of resistance, and the other was not. And that explains the difference in the carrying power of sermons. Everything which has to do with literary style should receive the most conscientious consideration of the preacher 84 THE PASTORAL OFFICE throughout his ministerial life. Synonyms should be studied with a view of enlarging the vocabulary and using words more accurately. A sermon should be written completely each week, not with a view of reading from the manuscript, but for the drill of composing sentences which will express clearly and forcibly the exact thought that is in mind. The dictionary should always be at hand as one reads, and no unfamiliar word should ever be permitted to escape until its meaning is known. In planning the sermon as a whole one must keep in mind the great principles of literary composition which control all forms of effective discourse, whether spoken or written; namely, (i) unity, (2) coherence, and (3) orderly development toward a climax of thought and feeling. One would do well to read each year a good treatise on English composition to keep his ideas of style constantly fresh. Such a volume would be much more helpful than most of the textbooks on homiletics. c. The Manner of the Sermon. Though subordinate to material and form, the manner of the sermon is nevertheless highly important. Everyone can recall a public address which was ruined by awkwardness and self-consciousness on the part of the speaker; by action that was unrestrained or too much restrained; by a voice too big or too small; by pitch too high or too low, or that did not vary. These technical matters cannot be treated here at length. We may emphasize only their importance. This is illustrated in George Whitefield, who is said to have been able to make a congregation weep by the way in which he pronounced the single word, “Mesopotamia.” If that story be legendary, it is beyond all doubt true that a popular living American preacher produces the most astounding effects on the nervous systems of his hearers by the modulations and flexibility of his voice:. Another distinguished clergyman puts himself under the tutelage of a teacher of public speaking for a short period every year to correct bad habits of speech and action which he may have fallen into uncon MATERIALS OF WORSHIP 85 sciously. Every minister could wisely take himself in hand at this point. Ideally he should take a course of training under a competent instructor. If that is impossible, he may do much for himself by following the suggestions of such a text as C. Edmund Neil’s Sources of Effectiveness in Public Speaking. d. The Length of the Sermon. Since the sermon is only one of many elements in public worship, all of which must cooperate to produce a designed effect, the question of its proportionate length is important. Certainly it should never take more than half the time available for the whole service. Generally it should take less. More time must be spent in careful preparation if one is to preach only twenty minutes than if forty are at his disposal. But the appreciation of the congregation will be correspondingly greater. 4. THE BENEDICTION. The manner in which the service of worship is concluded will determine largely whether or not the impression made during worship is to be permanent to any degree. It is possible to dismiss the people in such a fashion that the results of the service shall be dissipated before they leave the church. The Methodist Order of Worship provides that the sermon shall be followed by prayer, the people kneeling, and this by a congregational hymn, the people standing. In a footnote it is suggested that this order of prayer and song may be reversed. If an invitation is to be given at the close of the service to unite with the church or confess discipleship, it is better to have the prayer precede the hymn, giving the invitation when the hymn is announced. In that event the Doxology may be sung and the benediction given, the people standing after the candidates have been received. If the invitation is omitted, or given during the hymn before the sermon, then the sermon may well be followed immediately by a hymn, the people standing, and this by a prayer, the people kneeling or sitting in a prayerful attitude. The value of this prayer will be increased if the congregation shall pray silently for a moment before the leader shall voice their collective prayer. If this 86 THE PASTORAL OFFICE order be observed, the benediction should be given while minister and people are in the position of prayer. It should be remembered always that the benediction is a part of worship, and not merely a signal that worship is finished. The apostolic benediction 5 prescribed in our order is a wonderful prayer that minister and people together may continually experience the redeeming power of Jesus Christ, and be constantly aware of God’s love for men, and walk in never-ending fellowship with the Holy Spirit. To recite this prayer mechanically is to make only a motion for the congregation to depart. Rendered in this way, it has no religious value whatever. But pronounced thoughtfully and reverently, it becomes the great prayer of the service, gathering up all lesser petitions into one final request for the highest blessing, fixing in the last moment the thought of the people upon the Great God in whom they live and move and have their being, and to know whom is eternal life. 5. THE USHERS. A most important post in the service of worship is that filled by the ushers, who are in charge of all matters which pertain to the physical comfort of the congregation. They should greet the people cordially, though quietly, as they enter the church, not with the professional air of a butler or theater attendant, but in the spirit of a man welcoming a guest to his own home. If a stranger enters, and time permits, the usher will ask a few courteous questions. If there is a choice of seats, he will ask the worshiper what his preference may be. At the communion service, the ushers may helpfully direct the movement of communicants to and from the chancel so that there may be no crowding or confusion. They will see to it that no belated worshipers take their seats during any act of worship, whether prayer, or anthem, or lesson, but only between these. They are the “aides” of the pastor for special errands. If the ventilation needs attention, the pastor should signal an usher to attend to it not leave *2 Corinthians 13:14. MATERIALS OF WORSHIP 87 the pulpit himself. If a visiting minister is seen unexpectedly in the congregation and the pastor desires his presence in the pulpit, whenever possible let him send his message by an usher. Once he enters the pulpit, the pastor should stay there until the service is over. The ushers should be elected by the official board, and where there are several, one should be “chief usher/’ directing the work of all the rest. That none may be overburdened, one set of ushers may serve at the morning service and another at the evening. In some churches the ushers are regularly organized and have delightful social occasions together. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY A. E. Garvie, The Christian Preacher. Charles S. Gardner, Psychology and Preaching. D. J. Burrell, The Sermon. L. O. Brastow, The Modern Pulpit. H. W. Beecher, Yale Lectures on Preaching. Phillips Brooks, Yale Lectures on Preaching. W. F. McDowell, Yale Lectures on Preaching. S. Parkes Cadman, Ambassadors of God. F. J. McConnell, The Preacher and the People. C. Edmund Neil, Sources of Effectiveness in Public Speaking. P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, Lecture III. Charles R. Brown, The Art of Preaching. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 07-THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE ======================================================================== CHAPTER VII THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE TWENTY-FIVE years ago Washington Gladden wrote: “In America, at least, the problem of the evening service is one of considerable difficulty... In most of our churches the service is thinly attended, and the question of its maintenance weighs heavily on the minds of the pastors. Where it has not been abandoned, various devices have been resorted to for increasing the congregation praise services, musical services, spectacular services with lanterns, and such like. 5 ’ 1 The problem has become much more difficult in the time that has elapsed since this distinguished pastor complained thus. Then the automobile was still a curiosity which thousands had never yet seen, not the familiar possession of every third family even in rural communities. Nor had the moving-picture industry yet made the theater the chief social and recreational center in every hamlet. When Gladden wrote, only pastors in cities were worried about the Sunday-night service. Now every country pastor, as well, anxiously considers what can be done to offset the enticements of the “auto” and “movie.” And the same two conclusions are still reached. An increasing number decide to abandon the service, while another growing multitude feverishly attempt to enhance its attractiveness by spectacular features, some legitimate and some highly questionable. He is rash indeed who presumes to dogmatize about that which is confusing to many. Nevertheless, there is always need to keep before us certain ideals whose validity is undisputed with reference to this service. i. The success of a service of worship is not to be me as *0p. cit. f p. 121, Used by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons. 88 THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 89 ured chiefly by the number of persons present. Great multitudes are seldom very important in religion. Let us be reminded often that Jesus was content to do his work with a small group and that he deliberately sought to keep his congregations from becoming “great.” Like Gideon, he seemed to regard a crowd as an embarrassment. Their unwieldiness, their instability, their fickleness, their irresponsibility, their quick response to an appeal to prejudice, their inability to think deeply or with discrimination make it impossible for mere numbers ever to give worth or distinction to a congregation. Catholics and Protestant Episcopalians, for whom the size of the congregation makes little difference in the success of the mass or the communion service, have much to teach non-liturgical churches in this matter. Of course, one must guard against complacency and contentment with inferior achievement. The normal pastor will covet as large a congregation as possible. His motive, however, will not be to get a crowd for its own sake, but to render spiritual service to all for whom he has responsibility. When this motive is in the ascendant one will not be unduly elated, or depressed, by the size of the congregation, if only the service itself shall possess inspirational value for those who are present. Let us not ask, “How many came?” but, “What was done for those who came?” 2. The function of the church is very different from that of the theater. Comparisons between the size of theater audiences and church congregations are not very impressive. For it is impossible to contrast things that have no common resemblance. The chief justification for the theater is that it provides for relaxation through amusement. But amusement is distinctly not the primary business of the church. Services should be beautiful and interesting indeed, but they are not conducted to entertain the congregation. One goes to the theater to “let down,” He goes to the church for instruction and worship, and this requires creative effort of the highest sort the very opposite from letting down. The “movie” makes no demand upon one’s 9 o THE PASTORAL OFFICE intellectual or volitional powers. The church taxes these faculties to the utmost. In the nature of the case the church can never be popular with that large element in the community which has little power to refresh itself from within and is drawn as by a magnet to that in its environment which promises the most excitement and the greatest number of thrills. Whenever the church resorts to the methods of the theater to “get a crowd/’ a distinct loss of respect usually follows; first, because the community feels that the church either does not understand its own peculiar mission or has lost confidence in it; and, second, because the theatrical manager is very much more expert in the show business than is the average pastor. It would seem to be better policy every way for the church to spend its strength on its legitimate task than to attempt to brighten its services by features that are purely diverting or amusing. Gladden’s findings twenty-five years ago have been confirmed, on the whole, by the experiments of thousands of perplexed pastors and official boards since: “It is not to the aesthetic nature that the services of the church make their appeal; and the moment it becomes evident that pleasure, no matter of how refined a sort, has been exalted in those services above serious thought, the power and the glory of the church are gone.” 2 It may be that on week days some church will conclude that a part of its task is to provide amusement, but “the use of its Sunday night services for this purpose is nothing less than the prostitution of a high office.” 3. The feeling prevails that it is generally unwise to conduct two services of exactly the same type on the same day. This suggests that the Sunday-evening service should vary in its aim and method -from the morning service. The latter should be more dignified and worshipful. The former may well be less stately, brighter in color, more rapid in action, and, while maintaining an atmosphere of worship, *Op tit, p. 122. THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 91 featuring certain matters as a rule unprovided for in the morning service. In every church there are persons thinking seriously upon the subject of personal religion, but who have never made public confession of their discipleship. These should have frequent opportunity to declare themselves before the congregation, and a service should be provided with an atmosphere warm with expectation in which they are frankly encouraged to make their decisions at once. To serve such the Sunday-evening service should often be made evangelistic. It may be the part of wisdom to do this without elaborate announcement beforehand, but let it be done as frequently as the leader feels there is any strong probability that anyone present would be glad for such an opportunity. There is an important educational service expected of the ministry at this time when the area of ethical obligation is widening to include the field of social as well as private relationships; and the Sunday-evening service, better than any other, can be devoted frequently to this purpose. No subjects are more fascinating to the present generation. And all come well within the scope of the minister’s business, for all sustain a vital relation to the spiritual life. Needless to say, “preaching of this kind makes unusual demands upon the intelligence of a minister.” He has no right to speak until he has prepared himself thoroughly. But the preacher who intelligently applies the great Christian ideals to the problems of industry, poverty, vice, delinquency, education, government, etc, keeping clearly in view all the while their religious bearings, will show himself a workman who has no need to be ashamed, and at the same time will find a way to make the service attractive without making it merely amusing. It does not follow that the Sunday-evening service should be converted into a “forum” for the presentation of these subjects from every point of view. The forum, as popularly known, while ethical, is not necessarily religious. Its atmosphere is one of debate rather than worship. There 92 THE PASTORAL OFFICE should be a place where every community may assemble to do what is done in the forum. But wherever possible it is wiser to meet in a public hall than a church. If the church is the only available meeting place, -the forum should be held at some other than an hour set apart for worship. Interpreting in modern terms the great doctrines of Christianity is also a part of the educational task of the minister. Neglect of this matter has resulted in filling our churches with a generation of Christians who neither know what to believe, nor why. Any babbler, with a positive air, can disturb them. The blame must fall upon a ministry which forgot to expound in untechnical language the fundamentals of Christian belief the doctrines of God, sin, redemption, immortality, biblical inspiration, revelation, and infallibility, and the like. Nothing will give stability to faith except clear thinking on these high themes, and for leadership in this the church has a right to look to the minister. Within recent months a “summer preacher” filled one of the most famous Methodist churches on warm Sunday evenings by preaching a series of sermons on these substantial and presumably unpopular subjects. A few years ago another preacher in another city maintained a strong Sunday-evening service throughout a whole summer by interpreting the message of one of the Old Testament prophets. Still another found that an unsuspected number were interested in Christian biography, as he spoke helpfully concerning the great personalities in modern church history. The experience of these preachers opens the way for believing that when the minister addresses himself earnestly and intelligently to the educational phase of his task, so far as it concerns his pulpit utterances, that fact will be appreciated by many. 4. Clearly, the maintenance of the Sunday-evening service calls for the most conscientious labor. It has failed often because it has had only fragments of time for preparation that remained after the minister had exhausted himself on the morning service. It is not well attended in many in THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 93 stances because it is not worth attending. The pastor must find a way to keep himself physically fresh for this service. A tired man is incapable of inspiring leadership. And he must keep fresh mentally. Study, study, STUDY must be the dominant passion of his life! How to do it all in view of the manifold demands upon his time may be a very great problem. But he must find a way or suffer the consequence -r-that is, a devitalized evening service. And the way may be found by the minister who puts his mind into his work. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor, Chapter VI. L. H. Bugbee, Living Leaders Judged by Christian Standards. H. S. Coffin, Some Christian Convictions. C. E. Jefferson, Things Fundamental. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 08-MID-WEEK SERVICE ======================================================================== CHAPTER VIII MID-WEEK SERVICES MANY Catholic and Protestant Episcopalian churches are open every day that individual worshipers may enter for rest and prayer. Some provide, in addition, one or more services of worship daily. The so-called evangelical churches, however, usually maintain but one service between Sundays, designated variously as the “midweek service/’ or the “prayer meeting,” or the “social meeting.” The service, as a rule, is not largely attended. Because of this, it is considered quite as much a problem as the Sundayevening service. As with the evening service, the first long step toward the solution of the problem is to understand clearly the proper function of the service. i. Two great reasons appear to justify a midweek meeting for the church. The first is the need of individual Christians for frequent conference concerning the spiritual life. Among Methodists this need has dominated the service so completely that only the name “prayer meeting” accurately describes its nature. Very properly it differs greatly from the more formal services of the Sabbath.)! The leader usually is the pastor, or one whom he has selected, who gives direction to the meeting without too much insistence upon a prescribed order. The customary features of the service are songs, prayers, a Scripture lesson, a brief address, and testimonies. The notable fact about!the meeting is its democracy. The songs, while “congregational,” are frequently chosen by persons in the audience; the prayers are generally extemporaneous prayers by the laity, both men and women; and the testimonies, having to do with the inner aspirations and longings, or failures and defeats, are made by devout men and women. 94 MID-WEEK SERVICES 95 t/ Non-Methodists are sharply aware of the weakness of this service. Of the “testimony meeting” Gladden writes, “Such a recital, if modestly and honestly made, by persons who are living serious lives, might often have great value; but it is greatly to be feared that those whose lives are most serious are least inclined to give absolutely truthful reports of their own spiritual states; and of that which is most intimate and vital it is hardly possible to tell the story. The danger is that ’experience meetings’ will degenerate into a recital of well-worn phrases which represent no real facts of the inner life. The mischief of such insincerity must be very great. When one who has scarcely thought of spiritual things during the week his mind having been wholly absorbed in the pleasures and strifes of the world goes into the weekly meeting and fluently expresses his deep interest in the great things of the Kingdom, and testifies that he is making steady progress in the religious life, the injury to his own character must be deep, and the effect upon the minds of those who know him well, most unhappy. To this insincerity the cut-and-dried experience-meeting affords a strong temptation. Everyone is expected to give some account of his own spiritual condition, and no one likes to give a discouraging report. It is too easy to assume a virtue which one does not possess, and to avow an interest which is optative rather than actual.’* 1 It is only fair to say that this does not represent Gladden’s whole thought of this type of service. In other connections he is very appreciative. Many Methodists will thank him, however, for his criticism, for he expresses precisely what they feel, yet hardly dare to say. If the prayer meeting could be rescued from the control of “ignorant, effusive, opinionated persons, who have no wisdom to impart and no inspiration to convey,... who only succeed in gratifying their own vanity or in confirming their own delusions, while they irritate and disgust the sensible people who listen to them,” doubtless thoughtful and substantial people would attend in larger numbers. % Op. tit, p. 24if. Used by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons, 96 THE PASTORAL OFFICE This constitutes the great problem of the prayer meeting to save it from the “prayer-meeting killer/’ and make it a source of spiritual power for the whole church, without destroying its democratic character or changing it into a pale imitation of a Sunday service. That the prayer meeting has survived the strain put upon it by its weak, ignorant, insincere, and sometimes pharisaical friends, suggests strongly that it is well designed to serve a fundamental need of the religious life. That need is found in the demand for verbal expression which is made by a genuine religious experience. The redeemed of the Lord ever have felt impelled to say so. Whenever God becomes very real, and the soul is filled with a sense of power, joy, and safety, from conscious fellowship with the Infinite, the lips will not be restrained. An attempt to suppress the feeling only turns it into a “fire in the bones” which threatens to consume one. If any fear that immodesty attaches to the expression of such intimate emotions, let Horace Bushnell, who cannot be accused of Methodist fervor, reassure them: “No one ever thinks it a matter of delicacy, or genuine modesty, to entirely suppress any reasonable joy; least of all, any fit testimony of gratitude toward a deliverer for deliverance... In the same simple way, all ambition apart, all conceit of self forgot, all artificial and mock modesty excluded, it will be the instinct of everyone who loves God to acknowledge him.” 2 And not only is testimony essential to him who knows the “joy of salvation,” but it is exceedingly helpful and interesting to those who hear, provided only that the note of reality appears all the way through. So long as the recital is simple, clear, and unaffected, having to do only with that which the speaker himself has verified or is trying to verify in Christian experience, it has power to encourage the hesitant and faltering as almost nothing else does. It should be said that there is no special virtue in num *In Sermons for the New Life, quoted by Gladden, op. cit fj p. 247. MID-WEEK SERVICES 97 bers of testimonies as such. One testimony of the right sort is worth many of the mechanical, rapid-fire, sentencetestimonies so much in vogue in young people’s meetings. And this applies to prayers as well as testimonies. They are too fragmentary and too lacking in reflection to be very valuable. On the other hand, there is little profit in the words of one or two individuals, blessed with “the gift of continuance/’ who take all the time available for this part of the service. After sincerity and reality, the average prayer meeting is in sore need of improvement at the point of its music. The songs, of course, should be simple, but they may be that without being silly and inane. It is not too much to say that a thoughtful Christian cannot join in the singing in many prayer meetings and keep his self-respect. There is an abundance of music in the Methodist Hymnal beautifully adapted to prayer-meeting purposes. One will lose nothing in passing by entirely all compilations which were prepared with an eye more open to the commercial profits of the publisher than the spiritual edification of the worshipers. “The vulgarization of the tastes and the depravation of the sentiments of worshipers through the use of sensational and sentimental prayer-meeting hymns and tunes has been a grave injury to religion in America.” And after the music, the next great need of many a prayer meeting is more conscientious consideration on the part of the pastor. If he does not regard it as deserving of his time and thought in planning and preparation, he cannot reasonably expect it to be attractive. In any case, scolding the people because they do not attend is not likely to draw them. Make the service as helpful and attractive in itself as possible, invite the congregation pleasantly and cordially, and then believe that where even two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, Christ himself will be in the midst. And those who do attend will always be glad to go again. 2. The second fact to justify a midweek service arises in connection with the work of the church as a corporate 98 THE PASTORAL OFFICE body. Larger use of the prayer meeting to serve this need has redeemed several midweek services in a notable manner. The work of the church requires trained lay leadership. The membership generally is uninformed concerning the great community problems philanthropy, public health, education, industry, etc. and the proper relation of the church toward them. The missionary task, at home and abroad, is unfamiliar. The Christian Bible is unknown, except in the most superficial way, to most Christians. These facts, and others, make imperative demands for consideration. When and how may the church intelligently address itself to them? There is no better occasion than the midweek service. So “Prayer-Meeting Night” has become “Church-Training Night” in many churches. The congregation assembles for supper at half-past six, coming directly from their daily labor. An hour is devoted to the meal and social fellowship. This is followed by three quarters of an hour of praise, prayer, and testimony. The company then breaks up into several study groups, the Sunday-school workers to consider their problems, the Epworth Leaguers theirs, others for Bible study, still others for mission study, and yet others for the consideration of community matters, each for another three quarters of an hour. The whole program is completed in two hours and a half. It is easy to see how prayer-meeting night might thus become a real event in the life of the church. This kind of program, of course, requires careful planning. The most important matter is the leadership of the several classes. No groups should be organized which cannot be provided with competent guides. Where the whole number is small, the pastor himself may take charge of them during the study hour as a single group, considering now one and now another subject. Some such combination of warship with instruction can be effected in any church f large or small. A few who do not like innovations may complain at first, but even they will be won at last by the success of the plan. MID-WEEK SERVICES 99 3. The class meeting, as a formal organization, has all but disappeared from American Methodism. This fact is an occasion for dismay to some, while others, of equal piety, regard it as natural and inevitable. It came into existence to serve a specific need, but in these days of complex organization, when other agencies do its work, it is no longer vital to the life of the church. In the beginning Methodism was only a “movement” within the Anglican Church. All Methodists were Anglicans, though not all Anglicans were Methodists only that portion of them who were stirred by Wesley’s interpretation of the doctrines of Christian experience, such as justification, regeneration, assurance, and sanctification. These came together in their respective communities for mutual counsel and fellowship after Wesley or his preachers had gone. One of the number was appointed to receive the contributions of the group for the support of the movement. Gradually this leader became a kind of subpastor charged with responsibility for the spiritual care of the society between the rare visits of a “traveling preacher.” Throughout Wesley’s lifetime “the class” was the unit of his movement, and the class leader was as important as the modern pastor. Likewise for many years in America “the class” and “the class leader” were indispensable elements in the life of the church. There were no “settled” pastors, such as Congregationalists and Presbyterians knew only “itinerant preachers” each of whom was in reality a bishop or superintendent who supervised a large number of classes grouped together into a “circuit,” called his “pastoral charge.” Though he traveled constantly, the preacher could visit each “point” on his circuit only a few times each year. Meantime he must depend upon the local class leader for that intimate pastoral oversight which settled ministers gave in other communions. And between visits of the preacher, this leader, chosen for his piety and good judgment, would meet the class weekly for prayer, interchange of experience, exhortation, and advice. Out of this simple form ioo THE PASTORAL OFFICE grew the complex organization known as the Methodist Episcopal Church. To-day the “circuit system” is being rapidly abandoned. At best it was only a makeshift, justified by the poverty of the settlers and the inability of the church to serve otherwise a rapidly advancing and widely scattered population. The ideal of the present is to appoint a trained pastor for each church just as rapidly as the individual churches become able to support them. Thus the pastor takes the place once held by the class leader, and under him a rather extensive corps of lay officials in charge of the several organizations within the church. The weekly prayer meeting affords the opportunity for spiritual culture once provided by the class meeting. The Finance Committee and the collectors receive the gifts of the people. So that, all in all, it would appear that the spiritual nurture of the membership of the church is adequately provided for, even though the class meeting has ceased to function in its old-time way. Recently the class-meeting idea was revived in the socalled “unit system,” which requires that every member of the church be assigned to a group of ten or twelve. One in the group is appointed “unit leader,” and he, in turn, assigns responsibility to other members for particular tasks. For example, one will distribute missionary literature, another will be stewardship secretary, and yet another will propagate the life-service idea. This was the class meeting galvanized into new life for a special emergency. The unwieldiness of the organization, however, prevents it being popular in a church already elaborately organized, now that the emergency has passed. The real “class” in Methodism to-day is the Sunday-school class, and the “class leader,” the Sunday-school teacher, who has all the responsibility of the former leader and more. In a few churches what is called “the class” in the older sense meets weekly, generally on Sunday before morning worship. This has great value for those who attend in preparing the mind and heart for the service which follows. MID-WEEK SERVICES* 101 It is likewise helpful to the pastor, who knows that this group of devout persons support him sympathetically as they pray. 4. The Epworth League came into being a third of a century ago to render a manifold service to the young life of the church. Within that period, the organized Bible class has made its appearance and now undertakes in many churches much of the work formerly done by the League. Nothing, however, has superseded the League as an instrument for devotional culture among young people. If it does no more in the local church, at least it conducts a young people’s prayer meeting, sometimes midweek, but more generally on Sunday evenings. Here immature believers receive most valuable training in expressing religious experience and in leading religious meetings. Besides this, the general organization conducts several score of Summer Institutes in every part of the country each year where delegates from almost every church are trained in the art of lay leadership. No society in the church is doing more to make an effective church in the future than the Epworth League. The wise pastor will bend every effort to secure a large attendance from his church at these summer conferences. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Committee on Conservation and Advance (pamphlet), Church Training Night. Dan B. Brtimmitt, The Efficient Epwortkian. Luccock and Cook, The Mid-Week Service. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 09-LITURGICAL SERVICE ======================================================================== CHAPTER IX LITURGICAL SERVICES THERE are occasional services of such nature and importance that the church has prescribed in great detail the lessons, prayers, and addresses which shall be used. Of course these are not commanded in the sense that a minister would be brought to trial for disregarding them, but it is expected that he shall use them in conducting the services for which they are designed, and any unauthorized departure therefrom is more likely to offend than commend itself to good taste. The originality of the minister may better show itself in filling these forms with life and power than by changing them. The ritual is for the most part adapted from the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church. Its history carries back directly to the First Prayer Book of Edward VI, which was generally used for the first time on June 8, 1549. This book was the work of the English National Church under Archbishop Cranmer when the leadership of the bishop of Rome was repudiated. The aim was to compile a Service Book from materials long in possession of the church, which would be free from the false doctrines and superstitious practices which characterized the several Roman liturgies in common use in England, and which would be in the language of the people rather than Latin. The book has been revised a number of times, but the present Book of Common Prayer is substantially the same as the First Book of Edward. John Wesley admired this liturgy greatly. The “Sunday Service” which he prepared for American Methodists is but an abbreviation of the Prayer Book. In the preface to that service he wrote, “I believe there is no liturgy in all the world, either in an IO2 LITURGICAL SERVICES 103 cient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational piety than the Common Prayer of the Church of England. And though the main part of it was compiled more than two hundred years ago, 1 yet is the language of it not only pure, but strong and elegant in the highest degree. Little alteration is made in the following edition of it.” In the use of these forms, crudities and carelessness of administration destroy their value, and every minister should learn to conduct them with such grace that the congregation will be impressed with a proper sense of their beauty and worth. i. BAPTISM. Baptism is recognized as a sacrament by all evangelical Protestant bodies except the Friends. Christianity adapted the rite from the Hebrews, who in common with other Semitic peoples used water freely in symbolic washings in worship. The act of baptism represents the Spirit of God as cleansing and renewing the spirit of man. At the same time it marks those who are included in the Christian fellowship, the church, and has done so from New Testament times. We do not believe in baptismal regeneration. The rite merely recognizes the inward action of the Spirit which takes place independently of the outward washing. Three modes of baptism are recognized by Methodists as equally valid immersion, sprinkling, and pouring. Since one is admitted into the church once for all, this rite is to be performed but once in the lifetime of a Christian, though we have no patience with the extreme teaching that “the act can never be repeated without sacrilege/’ 2 Since it is a sign of admission into the church, the proper place for the service is in the church, though, of course, it may be performed elsewhere whenever the circumstances seem to warrant. The real church is found where two or more believers are met together in Christ’s name. Methodists make no attempt to justify baptism by unordained laymen because Wesley wrote this in 1784. 3 E. L. Temple, The Church in the Prayer Book, p. 247. io 4 THE PASTORAL OFFICE they do not regard the performance of the rite as essential to redemption. They find it impossible to believe that the guilt or innocence of the soul is determined by this outward washing. Two forms of the service are provided one for infants and small children, and the other for persons of “riper years,” those who are capable of taking upon themselves vows. In the order for infants three great assumptions give character to the whole service. The first appears in the opening address to the congregation that little children are already within the kingdom of God and the church, and that God’s spirit is already given to them. The second is that the parents or legally appointed guardians are the natural sponsors of the child, and the major responsibility for his spiritual training cannot be transferred to godfathers and godmothers. Any number of persons may stand and take the vows with the parents, but no one can act as a substitute for them in this matter. In this respect our service contrasts notably with the Prayer Book. The third assumption is that the church publicly acknowledges its obligation to provide for the spiritual nurture of the child which belongs to it. Apart from these assumptions, the service is only a superstitious practice. He is a wise pastor who visits in advance the parents of children to be presented for baptism and makes sure that they understand the obligations which they are to assume. Except when administered privately, the service is usually a part of the public worship of the congregation. The parents and other sponsors are invited to present the child (or children) near the baptismal font, generally during one of the regular hymns. The minister, standing before them, addresses the congregation, inviting their prayers on behalf of the child to be baptized, and leads in that prayer. The address to the parents follows, in which a promise is exacted that the child shall be instructed in the meaning of the rite and given such other religious discipline as shall bring it to spiritual consciousness in due time. After the pledge LITURGICAL SERVICES 105 is given, the congregation rises while a short lesson is read, and should remain standing during the act of baptism unless the number of candidates is very large. Immediately after the lesson the minister takes the child in his own arms and, asking, “What name shall be given to this child?” dips up a little water in his right hand and pours or sprinkles it upon the head of the child as he repeats the Christian name only (for example, Charles Edward not Charles Edward Jones} together with the baptismal formula. Returning the child to the parents, he leads the kneeling congregation again in prayer, concluding with the Lord’s Prayer, in which all participate audibly. Dignity and impressiveness may be given to the service if the congregation shall join heartily in those parts of the service printed in heavy type. It is the habit of some ministers to kiss the baptized child before returning it to the parents. This affectation should be avoided since it adds nothing to the impressiveness of the service and is an unnecessary and sentimental assertion of the minister’s individuality. The minister should give the parents a certificate of baptism for the child and enroll its name in his own record of baptized children, whose status is that of probationers in the church. The order for persons of “riper years” differs from that for infants only in such respects as the difference in maturity and spiritual condition requires. The promises are exacted of the candidates themselves and have to do with matters of belief, ethical practice, and religious purpose. The baptismal formula is the same in both orders. Following the act of baptism the congregation kneels and repeats audibly the Lord’s Prayer, which may be followed by extemporaneous prayer. The answers to the questions are prescribed in the ritual, a copy of which should be in the hands of each candidate. If the candidate does not have the printed service, it is much better to let him frame his own answers than to tell him aloud what he is expected to repeat parrot-fashion. This inevitably produces a sense of unreality that jars upon the spirit of true devotion. It ap 106 THE PASTORAL OFFICE plies as well to the answers made to the questions asked of persons being received into the church. When performed privately, the service, in either of its forms, may be abbreviated according to circumstances, provided, of course, that the essential parts the interrogations and the formula shall never be omitted. 2. THE HOLY COMMUNION. The value of this sacrament depends largely upon the way in which it is administered. The administrant may put so little of his individuality into it as to make it purely mechanical. Or, he may show in word and action such understanding of the significance of the rite, such appreciation of its beauty, such a sense of joy tempered by humility and reverence at the privilege of participating in it as to make it the chief means of grace to believers. To administer in this way involves, of course, much more than the mastery of the technique of the service. On the other hand, it cannot be administered effectively without this knowledge, and the mastery of these details becomes an important part of the duty of anyone who undertakes to use a ritual. The more important instructions are printed in the order. Certain minor matters, however, are overlooked which have much to do with the impressiveness of the service. In the absence of specific direction, we are to be guided, in part, it is assumed, by the practice and ideals of the Anglicans from whom we received the service, and in other part, by the preference of those among us who possess the most discriminating taste in such matters. a. Ordinarily the service is made a part of the regular worship of the congregation once every two or three months, the communion being preceded by the usual hymns, prayers, a short sermon, and reception of members. Before the hour appointed for worship it is customary to cover the table which stands behind the rail and in front of the pulpit with a “fair linen cloth,” upon which are set plates of bread conveniently cut into strips or broken into small pieces, and a pitcher of unf ermented grape juice, together with an empty LITURGICAL SERVICES 107 cup or a number of small individual cups. These in turn are all covered with another white cloth awaiting the moment when they shall be used. b. Inasmuch as the service is a memorial of the sacrifice of Christ, it is fitting that it should begin with a special offering on the part of the congregation, which is received by the collectors while the minister reads a number of hortatory verses selected from the Scripture. This offering is generally used for the relief of the poor in the church and the community. If time permits, it is well to use the Ten Commandments as a Litany (see Hymnal, Number 738) before the offering or as a substitute for the offering in the event that, for a good cause, it is omitted. c. After the offering the minister removes and folds carefully the cover which is spread over the bread and wine, laying it conveniently near for use again. He should then take his place at the right side of the table as he faces the congregation, 3 which is the station from which he is to administer the whole service, and read the Invitation to the standing congregation. Those who are to assist him should come within the chancel at this time. Then follows the General Confession, in which ministers and people participate audibly as they kneel, the ministers about the table facing toward the elements, d. It is customary for the administrant to ask his assistants to read the prayers which precede the Prayer of Consecration. Lack of familiarity with congregational prayers may make it necessary to urge the people at the beginning of the service to join heartily in the General Confession, the Collect for Purity, and the Ter Sanctus. The Prayer of Consecration is made by the administrant himself, who should take the plate and cup in his hand at the appointed places. e. After the Prayer of Consecration, the minister him *So the Anglicans and Protestant Episcopalians. See Samuel Hart, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 167. io8 THE PASTORAL OFFICE self receives the communion in both kinds before administering the same to his assistants* A mistaken sense of courtesy has caused some protest against this practice as being inhospitable. It becomes singularly appropriate, however, once it is understood that this is a symbolic act which suggests that he who would minister grace to others must first receive that grace himself. After serving his assistants, he resumes his place at the right side of the table, leading in the prayer and the Ter Sanctus, which is to be said or sung by the people. /. After the Ter Sanctus, the minister proceeds to serve the people “in order.” Presumably this means in an orderly manner. This must imply that only as many are to be allowed to kneel at the rail at one time as can be accommodated comfortably. Confusion and disorder result if the people kneel two or three rows deep. It is likewise in the interest of order that as the first retire, a second group shall come from the opposite side of the house. Ushers, properly instructed, may direct the movement of the congregation. The singing of devotional hymns and the playing of proper selections on the organ will do much to create an atmosphere of worship during this part of the service and stabilize the emotion of the congregation. The time may be most profitably employed in intervals of the service in meditation and introspection, for only as there is a conscientious endeavor to realize the spiritual aspects of the sacrament can one eat and drink worthily so that he “may live and grow thereby/’ In view of the ministerial character of their service, the choir probably should precede the congregation in communicating, though usually they are the last. On coming to the rail, each communicant should go to the farthest unoccupied space and kneel in an upright manner, the women with veils raised and hands ungloved. Persons may receive the communion, however, sitting or standing if there is good reason for not kneeling. It is the practice of Anglicans to break a small piece of bread from strips which LITURGICAL SERVICES 109 are held in the left hand, and drop this into the open palm of the right hand of the communicant. The prejudice which exists, however, in the minds of most people against handling food unnecessarily makes it more advisable to have the bread cut into small bits upon the plate and permit the communicant to help himself. For sanitary reasons individual cups too are to be preferred to the common cup. The empty cups may be collected in a tray provided for that purpose after all have been served. It is the common custom “to repeat the administrative formula for each element a number of times as it is passed. This is not always edifying, and since we do not hold, as does the English Church, that each communicant has an inherent right to an individual repetition, it is probably better to repeat the formula clearly and distinctly once each time the elements are served, and then pass them to the communicants in silence. There is no ritualistic authority for the time-honored practice of dismissing communicants with an exhortation. But some signal is needed for all to retire at once, and this may well justify the practice. Better than the impromptu exhortation, however, is a single verse of Scripture or a hymn, concluding with the formal dismissal: “Arise, go in peace. Amen.” Or, better yet, the dismissal itself is sufficient after a moment has been allowed for silent prayer and thanksgiving. g. As soon as all have been served and before the concluding prayers, the unused portion of the consecrated elements should be covered again with the cloth that was removed at the very beginning of the service. Then the minister and people kneel, joining together in the Lord’s Prayer and a Prayer of Thanksgiving, at the conclusion of which all stand to repeat or chant “Gloria in Excelsis.” The service concludes with the Benediction. 3. THE MARRIAGE SERVICE. Unlike Catholics, Protestants do not regard marriage as a sacrament. It is a most sacred service, nevertheless, and no minister should ever no THE PASTORAL OFFICE perform the rite without revealing in the manner of its performance his own sense of its deep sanctity. The form provided in the Methodist Episcopal ritual can hardly be improved, and the directions are too clear to need any supplementary statement. At a time when public opinion generally subscribes to a view of marriage contradictory to the teaching of the New Testament, the Christian minister should exercise scrupulous care lest he contribute to the destruction of the family by performing marriages where one or both parties have been divorced. At the most, Jesus allowed but one cause as sufficient warrant for breaking the marriage relation. And the Methodist Episcopal Church does not permit its ministers to remarry any divorced persons except the innocent party in a divorce on the ground of adultery. It may be embarrassing to refuse one’s services at times. This is a small matter, however, as compared with the stultification of oneself to avoid embarrassment or to earn a fee. Nothing is more significant of the power of the church in a materialistic age than the eagerness with which nearly all persons covet the blessing of the church in the hour of marriage and the hour of death. Marriages may be performed by civil magistrates. Most of them, however, are performed by ministers. And the church will keep the respect of the community by declining to adjust its views on matrimony to those of a gainsaying generation. He is no true minister of Jesus Christ who performs the marriage ceremony “for anyone who can secure a license.” In a courteous manner one may inquire whether either party has been divorced, should the license indicate a previous marriage, and why. If a divorce has been granted for any other than the cause allowed by Jesus, the minister may simply say that the law of his church forbids him to perform the ceremony. Moreover, if for any reason whatsoever he may feel that the proposed marriage is ill-advised the youth of the parties, or a frivolous view of matrimony, or unsound conditions of health or mind he should decline to perform the service, LITURGICAL SERVICES in though a license from the State be presented authorizing it. To consent on the ground that “some other minister will marry them if I do not” is utterly contemptible. “If I ever dare to marry, I should want Dr. B. to marry me,” said a woman professor in a large women’s college. “It was a solemn thing getting married by Dr. B. Groom and bride had to have separate interviews with him. They used to say the brides came out of his study tearful and the grooms sober- faced; but his marriages always turned out happy ones/’ 4 All marriages should be recorded carefully in the official records of the church as well as certified to the State in the blank usually provided for that purpose. Needless to say, all marriages should be properly witnessed. 4. THE FUNERAL. In time of death, as in marriage, most families covet the help that religion affords. However critical men may be of the church, they do not care to have those whom they love lowered into the earth without the prayers and blessing of the church. In such an hour the pastor has a supreme opportunity to render a spiritual service. If the deceased be a member of the church, the pastor will call on the family as soon as he is informed of the death, offering to be helpful in any way possible. In other cases he will call as soon as he knows that his services will be needed. On these occasions usually he may make preliminary plans for the funeral service, gathering such data concerning the deceased as he may care to use in the address. And within a few days after the service he should call again. In making these calls it is very much more important that he be a warm-hearted, sensible friend than an ecclesiastic doing and saying the professional things which he believes are expected of him. If the family is notably devout, it may be perfectly natural to offer the consolations of prayer. If they are not, or if there is confusion and distraction which would make the suggestion of prayer an embarrassment, he will render his largest service through being just humanly sympathetic. ’From an article in “The Christian Advocate,” July 6, 1922, p. 834. H2 THE PASTORAL OFFICE As for the service itself, the Methodist Episcopal Church provides a ritual that is solemn and beautiful, adapted from that of the Anglican Church. Frequently the service will consist only of the lessons and prayers of this service and nothing can be In better taste! More commonly, however, one or two numbers of special music and an address in addition are expected. A “funeral sermon” is almost never in order, even in the rural districts to-day. The address should not take more than eight or ten minutes, and the whole service should be concluded in a half hour, as a rule. Any biographical sketch of the deceased that may be desirable should be incorporated into the address, and while proper appreciation is ever in order, overstatement and eulogy are distinctly bad form. If the departed was a saint, that fact will be already widely known. If not, only embarrassment can follow from an attempt to “whiten a sepulcher.” Any effort to stir up the emotions of the company, particularly of the family, is reprehensible. Rather the service should soothe the harrowed feelings of those who mourn by its quiet tenderness. The proper material for an address at a funeral consists of the fundamental doctrine that God is love, and all other doctrines that are implied in it. Many things may happen that we cannot explain, but nothing can carry us beyond the reach of his love. Thus those who stay are safe, and those who go. “If we have such a Father in heaven as our Lord sought to reveal to us, then there are no sorrows that cannot be healed.” It is a commendable custom of many ministers to insert blank leaves in their rituals on which they may write, from time to time, verses, sentiments, and poems, gathered in their reading which may be appropriately used on funeral occasions. Selections from this compilation may be read as a part of the address, or a substitute for it. Methodist ministers are forbidden to charge a fee for burying the dead. Where one is put to considerable expense to render this service, it is assumed that the family will reimburse him. But if they should not do so, he could LITURGICAL SERVICES 113 hardly present a bill for it On the other hand, he is not forbidden to accept an honorarium if one is offered without solicitation. When the offer comes from a family not connected with the church, there is no good reason for declining it, if they can afford to make it. It is probably the only way in which they ever contribute to the support of the ministry. But if it comes from one of the families in the church, the minister will do well to return it with a brotherly statement that a good shepherd will not profit from the distress of one of his sheep. Undue readiness to accept gifts has ruined the usefulness of many ministers. 5. “THE LITURGICAL PERSONALITY/’’ It may appear that rather unusual emphasis has been laid upon the mechanics of public worship. But it has never been forgotten that “the best precepts with regard to liturgical matters run the risk of failing of their object unless powerfully supported by the liturgical personality/’ 5 Behind the pulpit decorum of the minister, the congregation must feel the throbbing of a heart that loves God devotedly and a spirit that is sensitive to the most appropriate means of expressing that affection. In free worship we speedily reach the point where no rule of action can be prescribed. The only safe guide is a sound liturgical instinct. In the development of such an instinct instruction in principles and methods of worship, the study of liturgical writings, conversation with skilled liturgists, all have an important place, but a place that is subordinate to the cultivation of the minister’s own spiritual life by private prayer and meditation. To give his life a “spiritual bent” must be the liturgist’s first concern. There should be “no day without special secret prayer, without definite reading and reflection on Holy Scripture, without, in a word, an inner laving in the refreshing and invigorating well-springs of a higher life/’ 8 In the interest of developing a “liturgical personality” we B Van Oosterzee, op rit. f p, 443. “/<*, p. 445 ii4 THE PASTORAL OFFICE do well to heed Spurgeon’s exhortation: “We cannot be always on the knees of the body, but the soul should never leave the posture of devotion. The habit of prayer is good, but the spirit of prayer is better. As a rule, we ministers ought never to be many minutes without actually lifting up our hearts in prayer.” BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY R. J. Cooke, History of the Ritual of the Methodist Episcopal Church. C. C. Hall et al, Christian Worship. W. P. Thirkield, Service and Prayers. Discipline Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920, The Ritual. SECTION II ADMINISTRATIO ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 10-IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATION ======================================================================== CHAPTER X IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATION THE essential fact in Christianity from the beginning has been an experience of fellowship between the individual believer and Jesus Christ. It was most natural that those who enjoyed this experience should have been drawn together into a brotherhood of believers. The mutual love which characterized the earliest Christians in their relations each to the other was a new thing in the world so unselfish and beautiful that they themselves explained it as a divine creation, the work of the Holy Spirit who filled the body of believers with his presence, binding the many together into a single organism. This fellowship dates from Pentecost, which was not the time, as some suppose, when the Holy Spirit first came into the world (God’s Spirit has been here since he brooded over primeval chaos), but the day when the Spirit created “the Beloved Community.” The atmosphere of good will which prevailed in the early church was very attractive to outsiders and very helpful to new converts, whose faith was fortified not only by the teaching of the apostles but by companionship with fellow believers. “They devoted themselves to the instruction given by the apostles and to fellowship, breaking bread and praying together” (Acts 2:42, Moffatt’s translation). The quality and strength of this corporate unity are suggested by the figures of speech employed in the New Testament to describe it “the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3:16), “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27), “a kingdom” (i Thess. 2:12), “a household” (Galatians 6:10). The essential idea in each instance is that the many, mutually related and dependent, were arranged into a systematic whole under the influence of a common spirit so that they lived and wor 117 n8 THE PASTORAL OFFICE shiped together with the greatest harmony. The church has kept this ideal o fellowship before it continually by thinking of itself throughout its history as “the communion of saints.” As time passed, problems arose within the brotherhood which called for solution. Moreover, it appeared that the Christian propaganda could be carried on more effectively by collective than by individual action. So the fellowship became formally organized with officers whose respective duties were clearly defined. The type of organization seems to have varied, in different localities, though generally the Jewish synagogue was the model. And from that day to this the organization has been increasing in complexity. It is quite the fashion to complain that organized Christianity has lost Christ’s vision of saving the world and is chiefly concerned these latter days with saving itself. The critics render a valuable service in so far as they merely warn us against the danger of permitting the organization to become an end in itself. When they suggest, however, that organization is inherently bad, they do violence to the truth. There is no important achievement in the history of the church that would have been possible to an unorganized Christianity. The critics should reflect upon the futility of certain attempts to bring in the Kingdom* which discounted the importance of organization. The contrast between the work of George Whitefield and John Wesley is familiar. The former was the greater preacher, judged by popular standards, and probably the more winsome personality. But his influence upon the English-speaking world was insignificant as compared with that of the latter, who organized his followers into “societies.” Less frequently is attention called to the difference between the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles.’ They matched each other in zeal and religious passion. But the former had very little influence upon their own generation, failing to avert the calamities which they saw impending; while the latter turned the Roman world upside down. IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATION 119 Humanly speaking, this difference seems to be due largely to the fact that the prophets were isolated voices, while the apostles, in addition to preaching, left organizations behind them in all the great cities of their day. One can imagine how little headway individual Christians would have made in the task of Christianizing the world, each attacking the evils of paganism in his own way without reference to what any other was doing. Just as little as a patriotic young man would make in fighting his country’s enemy with impetuous zeal, but refusing to join an organized body of soldiers! He would contribute more to the cause he loved by merging his identity with a group in which the many act as one. This principle holds to-day. We are still fighting against great evils. There is need of assistance from every high-minded man and woman in this war. But we shall make our blows more effective if all strike together rather than separately. We read that while one shall chase a thousand, two shall put ten thousand to flight. How? Obviously by careful cooperation in plan and effort. The difference between ten and two more or less fairly represents the difference in effectiveness between organized and unorganized effort. And the task of a pastor is the twofold one of (i) keeping in the church a spirit of divine fellowship, and (2) molding that fellowship into an instrument by which Christ can do his work in the world. The New Testament figure of the church as the body of Christ expresses both ideas a form which is filled with his spirit, and which puts eyes, ears, hands, feet, and voice at his disposal that he may coordinate their several activities and so increase the effectiveness of each. The Methodist Episcopal Church believes in organization to an unusual degree for a Protestant body. It has a highly centralized form of church government which invests its general officers with almost despotic power. Churches accept pastors, whose names they may not know, merely on the appointment of a bishop. Ministers sometimes find their pastoral reigns broken in one place and new ones 120 THE PASTORAL OFFICE established in another without their permission being asked. Great benevolent boards are trusted with vast sums of money and their executive officers clothed with extraordinary authority. In a way, it appears to be anachronistic “a church of the people, yet so autocratic!” But one does not create an autocracy by centralizing authority so long as those who possess power are held to a high degree of responsibility! The autocrat is accountable to no one. The agent of a democratic society, say the President of the United States, may for the time being have all the power of a Czar, but he is responsible to the people who conferred the power, and must make an accounting every four years. Similarly with the general officials of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They possess extraordinary power, but their work is subject to frequent review. Ministers and laymen trust them very far for the time being. But the day of accounting is always ahead. This keeps the church democratic its power, in fact, widely distributed but a democracy which believes in collective effort and is not afraid to delegate great authority temporarily to a few individuals. In this manner the church attains to something like the “efficiency” of an autocratic organization without sacrificing real freedom. Organization is as significant for the local church as it is for the general body. The pastor deals in the small with precisely the same problems that bishops and general secretaries face in the large. Therefore he must learn to approach them intelligently. He may not like them, but they are unavoidable. He may not withdraw from his prophetic office, but, in addition, he must acquire “the gift of administration.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 11-PRINCIPALES OF ADMINISTRATION ======================================================================== CHAPTER XI PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION THE principles of administration are the same for the church as for any organized group, whether commercial, industrial, social, economic, political, or religious. They are not arbitrary ideals laid down by general officials, but great laws of life which control human beings in group relations. i. The first is to conceive intelligently the proper function of the organization. The pastor must ask himself continually, “What is the whole business of the church in the community?” The answer which he makes will determine the form of the church organization. An organization whose function it is to make shoes will not be identical in every respect with one whose business is to wage war. One whose aim is to relieve distress will differ greatly from one whose purpose is education. This principle is often disregarded by those who insist that the church should be “run on business principles.” If that means only that the church should be administered intelligently in the light of the great ends to be served, it is good advice. But if it means that the church is to be run like a bank, it is bad counsel for the simple reason that banking is not the business of the church. The church will have its own methods because it has its own work. Broadly speaking, the ends toward which the church should move are worship, evangelism, education, and service. Necessarily the organization designed to serve these ends will be complex. To direct this work properly the pastor, ideally, should have expert assistance in the form of paid workers who are specialists in their respective fields. Practically, however, most pastors must do their work with volunteer helpers. 121 122 THE PASTORAL OFFICE 2. It is important that the members of an organisation shall be imbued with loyalty to a common ideal. Every high class organization is careful to receive and retain in its membership only such persons as are in sympathy with its aims and methods. Some organizations necessarily require certain physical and mental qualifications in their members. The church demands only moral and spiritual fitness. Do candidates for membership hate sin and love righteousness? Is God a reality to them and his will their highest law? Do their daily lives give evidence of these desires? Are their religious beliefs and ideals such as to make it possible for them to live and work harmoniously with other members of the church? The church should make its standards as broad and few as possible, but there can be no doubt as to its right and obligation to guard its membership against divisive and disintegrating elements. The “morale” of the church can seldom be built up or maintained by harsh disciplinary measures. Only in the rarest instances is it profitable to proceed against a member with formal charges and church trials (though one should not flinch if duty points clearly in that direction). Only the spirit of generous, patient, intelligent love radiated by the pastor in his life and words will fuse together the many with diverse minds and tastes into a unified “communion of saints.” After three years of fellowship with Jesus the Twelve sat down the last night in an irritable mood, their unity spoiled by distrust and jealous ambition. To unite different types into a brotherhood for unselfish service is still “the most stupendous and heart-breaking labor to which a minister of the gospel can set himself.” 1 3. No good administrator ever dreams of doing himself all the work of his organisation. The pastor who would become a competent manager of the church organization must depend upon the help of assistants. He should not do anything in the way of a minor task that can be delegated to others. Yet at this point many pastors fail hopelessly. Charles E. Jefferson, Building the Church, p. 76, PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION 123 Tasks are so numerous, competent lay workers are so few, and time is so short, that the impulse is strong to undertake everything oneself, or fill the important posts in the church with members of one’s own family. Times without number when the pastor removes to another charge, the church is stripped of practically all its leadership, for he takes with him in the parsonage household the Sunday school superintendent, several Sunday-school teachers, and the presidents of the Epworth League and most of the women’s organizations. The helplessness of Methodist churches without pastors is almost proverbial. This is not creditable to the type of pastoral oversight that has failed to develop lay leadership prepared to carry on the work in the absence of the pastor. Not only does the pastor do the church an injustice by assuming posts of subordinate leadership, but he renders himself incompetent to do effectively the work which only he can do: The life of bustling activity incapacitates him for the quiet study and brooding that is indispensable to effective preaching. Constant immersion in minor details lessens his power to see his task as a whole and to discriminate between the primary and the secondary. The church may foolishly applaud for the time being the young minister who acts as janitor, leader of the men’s class, Sundayschool superintendent, scoutmaster, choir leader, as well as shepherd and prophet. But in ten years that restless activity will smother the spirit of prophecy within him, and prophets are too rare to waste in this fashion. By middle life it will be clear that it would have been wiser to have secured and trained laymen to fill these lesser posts so that he might have had time to keep his intellectual strength from abating and his spiritual vision from growing dim. Many a pastor, who at thirty was an energetic youngster in great demand, has become a problem for district superintendents and bishops by the time he has reached fifty. In the beginning he did his work by a vast expenditure of physical energy. He was always “on the go” and was regarded as a 124 THE PASTORAL OFFICE “hustler.” But in every man the tides of physical life begin to run low at forty-five and it is necessary then to do by mental and spiritual power what was formerly done by physical. So it comes to pass that the pastor in middle life who has always been “too busy to study” is in some such position as a squirrel might be in midwinter who was too busy in the autumn to lay in a store of nuts. He has no resources to draw upon that will get him by the hard place. The problem of securing competent lay helpers is very much more difficult for him than for the manager of a business organization. He seeks volunteer and unsalaried service. The worker must find his reward in the doing of the work itself. It is easy, however, to exaggerate the advantage which economic power gives the entrepreneur in business. The successful manager is not always cracking the whip of authority over the heads of his subordinates. Rather he makes the same appeal which the pastor must make helps men to see that the work in itself is important, holds before them constantly the ideal which he cherishes for the enterprise, creates a sense of responsibility by delegating authority to them, and gives all consideration possible to their opinions. Even in business the pocketbook is not always the paramount consideration, and the best managers know this full well. But be this as it may, the pastor must prevail upon men and women to assume posts of leadership in the church without hope of financial reward. If he cannot get the persons he wants, he must take the persons he can get. And he must see to it that they become as efficient as possible under the limitations which are imposed. He will encourage them by words of commendation when it is possible to do so. He will offer helpful suggestions as to the way in which their work may be made more effective. He will meet them frequently for private and group conference. He will put into their hands the best literature on their respective tasks. And gradually he will build around himself a corps of teachers and assistant executives thoroughly imbued with his spirit and sharing his ideals. PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION 125 Having once delegated authority to some one for a particular task, the pastor should advise with that person with reference to all matters in his department. For example, he should not go over the head of the choirmaster in musical matters. If some special arrangement seems desirable, the leader should be requested to make it. If the pastor should make it himself without consulting the leader, that official would have a right to suspect that he was not trusted, and would be irritated. If the subordinate will not give cooperation, he should be removed, but as long as he is in charge, he should be consulted. 4. It is a weakness in much so-catted “scientific management 3 ’ thai the administrator takes an impersonal ’view of the human elements in the organisation. Men are regarded as so many mechanical parts of a gigantic machine which have no will of their own and act only at the command of the master. It is this treatment of men as if they were inanimate things that is the chief cause of unrest in industry. Workers care less about more wealth just now than they do about more freedom. And the most successful business executives are devising means whereby employees may make their voices heard in the management of affairs. If the despotic boss is undesirable in business, he is impossible in the church. Democracy in religion requires that every member of the church shall have an opportunity to express his view on any vital matter connected with the life of the church. It is not enough that the pastor should have a policy or a program. He is bound to win the enthusiastic consent of the church to it so that it shall be the collective program of the whole organization. There is no place in Methodism for the pastor who feels that the church must obey when he speaks simply because he has spoken. If the people adopt his judgment, it must be because it is worth adopting. He should never be satisfied with carrying a vote on any vital matter by a narrow majority. Any notable changes in policy should be made only when the judgment of the church as a whole is practically 126 THE PASTORAL OFFICE unanimous as to its wisdom. “Conference,” “discussion,” “education,” “respect for the people’s judgment,” are words with which the wise pastor will conjure. By them he will move the spirit of the congregation toward himself and command the cooperation of their wills. And if it be that they do not vote as he desires, it is supreme folly for him to complain childishly that the people will not follow his leadership. If his was a good cause, it can afford to wait for the hearty support of the church. If it was not, it should have been lost. In the development of opinion favorable to any project, it is important to win the approval of the men of sober wisdom in the organization whose views carry great weight with their fellow members. Every church has one such person, and some have several. If a majority of these will not indorse the plan, action should be deferred until such a time as their consent can be won. To force the issue prematurely may result not only in the defeat of the plan but also in arraigning the strong man against the pastor. Of course we are not suggesting unmanly servility, much less insincere flattery, in the effort to win others to one’s way of thinking, but only that Christian respect for the opinion of others which is always becoming in a brotherhood like the church, and which is essential in dealing with a group committed to democratic ideals. 5. Another principle for which the wise administrator must have great regard is that of properly coordinating the work of the several departments of his organization. It is not enough that an army commander shall be courageous on the field of battle. He must correlate the work of his staff so that all departments shall work together toward a common end. His army must be fed, clothed, and equipped, and all at the same time. If the quartermaster’s department gets up the clothing and the commissary department brings up the provisions, but the ordnance officers do not bring up the guns and ammunition, the army will suffer defeat in spite of the personal heroism of the general and PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION 127 his men. The responsibility for the disaster must be charged to poor staff work, which in turn is traceable to poor generalship. Similarly the wise pastor must correlate the work of the several departments of the church so that all will cooperate intelligently in working out a common purpose. He should endeavor to eliminate all waste and needless duplication of effort, and see that no department fails to function in the proper manner. In this connection attention is called again to the large number of organizations in many churches doing some form of educational work regardless of whether or not the same work could be done more effectively by another group. For the missionary societies, the Epworth League, and the Sunday school all to offer mission study courses, for example, is much as if the ordnance, commissary, and quartermaster’s departments should all provide the army with shoes. There is an oversupply of one article and an undersupply of others. 6. Every authority on business administration regards “system” as “the basic structure of organisation!’ It consists of a well defined routine for controlling the methods and processes of production. The wise manager, nevertheless, understands that while system is a good servant, it is a poor master. Impatience with “red tape” is thoroughly justified when system has become so elaborate or is so venerated that it retards the dispatch of business. Wherever it is possible, however, to turn work over to routine it will be wise to do so. The nervous system does exactly this when any form of conduct has become habitual, for habit is only another word for system. Proper system in church work is as desirable as right habits in religion. But it must be remembered that no hard-and-fast system can be brought in from the business world and applied directly to the work of the church. A workable system must emerge naturally from within the organization on the basis of experience. The work of the church should be done in orderly fashion, but the particular order will be its own. 128 THE PASTORAL OFFICE Every pastor can introduce system to advantage a. In his study. Where the pulpit is lacking in intellectual vigor, desultory reading and bad habits of study on the part of the minister are generally the cause. Too many pastors have no fixed hours for intellectual work and no permanent intellectual interests which control in the selection of books and periodicals. Regular study hours have been jealously observed by all great pastors. b. In pastoral work. The control of impulse is responsible for inefficiency in pastoral work quite as certainly as in the intellectual work of the study. Too many pastors call only as the mood for calling is on them. This may seem to be justified by the fact that to be helpful to people in our calling we must be at our best emotionally as well as intellectually. On the other hand, it is fatal to pastoral work that it should be wholly at the mercy of our moods. c. In evangelism. Inadequate results in the work of evangelism are more often than not due to the fact that the minister does not go about this work systematically. In another place particular programs of evangelism will be mentioned. For the present it is enough to say that at the beginning of each year every pastor should plan his evangelistic work very definitely for the whole year. He will understand that the people who are to be won are not people in general but particular men and women and boys and girls whose names and addresses he should have on a constituency roll or card index. He will know too that these people must be won by the people who are already interested in the things of the Kingdom, and he will likewise make a list of those persons who may reasonably be expected to do personal work. He will plan his special meetings both for the church and the Sunday school, and as the time arrives for particular services in his calendar he will give careful attention to every duty, seeing to it in so far as possible that nothing is left to chance. If this seems like reducing the work of soul-winning to mechanics, let us remember that God works through the ordinary and the natural pow PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION 129 ers of man quite as certainly as he works through the extraordinary and the unusual. d. In religious education and community service. The work of religious education and community service suffers, as does the work of evangelism, because it is not organized in a systematic fashion. Moods or impulses may render us impotent here as well as any other where. It ought to be obvious that the educational work of the church calls for the closest planning and the most consistent application of time and energy through a long period. And the church can render only inadequate service in solving community problems if its interest in those problems is occasional and spasmodic rather than permanent and intelligent. e. In preaching. As suggested above, no pastor is likely to present a comprehensive teaching of Christian truth from the pulpit unless he plans far in advance his themes and subjects. /. In church finance. Many a church, brought to the verge of bankruptcy by lack of system in financial methods, has adopted a more intelligent plan with results that were little less than miraculous. In place of letting unpaid bills accumulate until the credit of the church was almost ruined and meeting these bills by a frenzied appeal to men when there happened to be a good congregation assembled for worship, the plan of intelligently making a budget of expense for the twelve months in advance, and informing the congregation as to the legitimacy of the several items in this budget, and finally canvassing every member of the church for subscription to this budget, has raised many a church from the dead. 7. Modern administrators, within and without the church, have much to say about “efficiency” This is the result of an effort on the part of “scientific management” in industry to handle huge volumes of business by standardizing, wherever possible, the processes of mass production and turning them over to “routine/* Necessarily it is highly mechanical, reducing the demand for creative 130 THE PASTORAL OFFICE thought on the part of the workers and requiring special skill in making a few motions which soon become almost instinctive and involuntary. It should be understood that efficiency in this mechanical sense for church work is neither desirable nor possible. Efficiency in industry converts the worker as certainly into a machine as the clanging thing of iron and steel which he handles. And, surely, we do not expect men to be treated by the church in the impersonal way that they are treated in a mill. Moreover, it is impossible to standardize very extensively methods and processes in an organization whose aim is to develop certain moods and tempers, to induce an attitude of faith and good will toward God and men. The “efficient church” is the one which finds a way to produce “the believing soul.” This is more largely a matter of “atmosphere” than of technique or organization. It neve* can be said that a specific number of prescribed actions will always and everywhere produce this state of belief. It does not follow, however, that there is no need for more intelligence and better practical judgment in doing the work of the church, which is what we really mean when we demand “greater church efficiency.” The pastor who enters his study well past the middle of the morning with no definite schedule in mind for the next four or five hours, spending a half hour on the morning papers, an hour on letters, followed by a visit to the post office, returning to weed the garden or tinker the automobile, failing to get in sixty minutes of conscientious mental labor on a worthwhile book or problem of thought, is wasteful and lazy and that is inefficient. The Sunday-school teacher who permits a pupil to be absent two Sundays in succession without getting in touch with him is careless and indifferent and that is inefficient For two or more organizations to plan social affairs for the same or successive evenings which appeal to the same constituency for financial support is stupid and that is inefficient. For several societies, the Sunday school, the Epworth League, the Men’s Club, for ex PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION 131 ample, to attempt to do separately something that could be done together better shows lack of coordination which is inefficient. To organize a group of women, girls, and children first as a Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, King’s Daughters, and Little Light Bearers; and then as a Woman’s Home Missionary Society, Queen Esther’s Circle, and Home Guards is bad management and that is inefficient. An official, whose duty requires that plain and accurate records be kept of business transacted or moneys handled, but whose minutes or accounts are in disorder and confusion is surely inefficient. A church badly located and poorly equipped for its work when a better site and adequate facilities are really available, is inefficient. More precision, care, painstaking conscientiousness, imagination, earnestness, intelligence these can all be introduced with advantage into the work of the church which is all that is -meant in suggesting more efficiency. 8. A final principle which should control a pastor of a Methodist Episcopal church is derived from the federal character of the church. There is probably no ecclesiastical organization in the world, except the Roman Catholic, in which the cohesion of its several parts is so great. Its bishops are all “general” superintendents. In practice the authority of each may be limited to a group of Conferences, but in theory this authority is church-wide. Its ministers are “transferred” with the greatest ease from one Annual Conference to another, and the lay membership, while localized and counted in some particular church, as a matter of fact rests in the general denomination. This produces a strong “connectional” consciousness, which affects each pastor to a notable degree. It obligates him to exalt before his own congregation the best in the denominational tradition, without boastfulness or unbrotherliness toward other communions. Moreover, it requires from him- loyalty toward the general officers and heads of the church and willingness to cooperate in executing properly authorised programs. This loyalty does not require that he be servile. I 3 2 THE PASTORAL OFFICE He is to think his own thoughts and express his own mind when the time for discussion has arrived. But when discussion has ceased and the will of the denomination is expressed in legislation, he has no choice but to conform to this general will. If one cannot give this loyalty, he may honorably withdraw from the ministry of the church, but cannot honorably continue in it. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Charles E. Jefferson, Building the Church. Albert F. McGarrah, Modern Church Management; A Modern Church Program. Albert J. Lyman, The Christian Pastor in the New Age. Frederick Lynch, The New Opportunities of the Ministry. Shailer Mathews, Scientific Management in the Churches. F. A. Agar, Manual of Church Methods. William H. Leach, How to Make the Church Go. R. W. Babson, The Future of the Churches. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 12-PLANS OF ORGANIZATION ======================================================================== CHAPTER XII PLANS OF ORGANIZATION THE General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church has prescribed a plan of organization for the local church. The governing body is called the “Quarterly Conference 5 ’ 1 and is composed of all ministers, local preachers, exhorters, stewards, trustees, class leaders, and deaconesses on the charge, together with the chief executive officers of the several major organizations within the church (superintendent of the Sunday school, president of the Epworth League, presidents of the several women’s organizations, and the directors of religious education and social activities, etc.)- This Conference usually meets from two to four times a year under the presidency of the district superintendent. It operates through numerous committees, and to it the several officers, organizations, and committees report at least once a year. The long interval between meetings of the Quarterly Conference makes it an impractical instrument for handling business which must receive regular and frequent attention. To meet this defect, the Board of Stewards and the Board of Trustees were separately organized. This gave rise to a species of dual control in the church, for the division of labor agreed upon was that the stewards should have charge of “spiritual matters,” while the trustees should give themselves to “temporal affairs.” The lack of coordination between the two bodies proved embarrassing, and eventually, in many churches, one of them came to feel itself superior to the other. To make possible a return to a more democratic and unified control the Quarterly Conference now *An amendment is now pending proposing to change this name to “Local Conference.” 133 i 3 4 THE PASTORAL OFFICE may authorize the organization of an “official board,” whose personnel is that of the Quarterly Conference, and which largely does the work both of the stewards and trustees. Some states require that the trustees must be separately organized to hold and transfer property. But for this fact, in most churches neither stewards nor trustees would be independently organized. The official board meets regularly once each month, and special meetings are held on call of the pastor. The pastor is presiding officer, exofficio. Additional officials are usually a vice-president, secretary, treasurer for local budget, treasurer of benevolences, and financial secretary, who generally fill corresponding offices in the Quarterly Conference. The board performs its work through the Quarterly Conference committees and such others as it may decide to elect. Its minutes are approved annually by the Quarterly Conference, and thus its action becomes Quarterly-Conference action. The principal defect in this plan of organization lies in the large number of standing committees through which the official board functions. The following are elected in every church or charge, either by the Quarterly Conference or the official board by order of the General Conference, 1. Apportioned Benevolences. 2. Christian Stewardship. 3. Foreign Missions. 4. Home Missions and Church Extension. 5. Religious Instruction. 6. Tracts. 7. Temperance. 8. Education. 9. Education for Negroes. 10. Hospitals. 11. Church Records. 12. Auditing Accounts. 13. Parsonage and Furniture. 14. Church Music. 15. Estimating Ministerial Support PLANS OF ORGANIZATION 135 1 6. Examination Local Preachers. 17. Church Property. 1 8. Finance. In addition, authority is conferred to create “such other committees as may be thought necessary/’ so that frequently the list is materially longer. It is clear that many of these committees are supposed to represent the General Boards of the denomination in the local church, presumably informing the congregation concerning their work and soliciting funds. Inasmuch, however, as this is an important part of the pastor’s task, assisted by the Finance Committee, these committees almost never function. Other committees are designed to serve some actual need in the local church, but many of them function so imperfectly that duplication, friction, waste, confusion, misunderstanding, general inefficiency, and even carelessness are written large everywhere. These considerations have caused some thoughtful leaders to seek a way of coordinating the activities of the many committees and organizations without contravening the discipline. The suggestion has been made repeatedly that the pastor should appoint a “council” or “cabinet” composed of one or more representatives from the chief organizations in the church, whose business should be the unification of the work of the several societies. 1 “This cabinet will meet and receive the program of activities of each of the several organizations, and from these compile one general program of activities for the whole church (which it is well to publish for the general information of the church membership), or it would be better still if this cabinet should suggest to all the organizations represented a comprehensive program in which all would have a part.” 2 The cabinet, of course, a So Fisher in The Way to Win; Cook, in A Working Program for the Local Church, and Tippy and Kern in A Methodist Church and Its Work. “Warren F. Cook, A Working Program for the Local Church, p. 25. 136 THE PASTORAL OFFICE would be an unofficial body. It could do nothing more than advise. But it would be a powerful agent in creating public opinion in the church which the official board would surely respect. If any complain that such a cabinet is unauthorized by the Discipline, reply may be made, “Neither is the bishop’s cabinet at the Annual Conference.” Yet another method of unification might be to create several standing committees, in addition to the cabinet, to supervise the great essential tasks of the church. These are: (i) Worship, (2) Evangelism, (3) Religious Education, (4) Service, (5) Finance. The work of these committees would be to correlate and supervise the activities of all agencies at work in their respective fields. Each committee would report directly to the official board, or to the cabinet, which, in turn, would unify the programs of the several standing committees before reporting to the board. These committees could be ordered under existing authority to create “such other committees as may be thought necessary.”* They might be composed, in part at least, of the membership of committees and organizations which they respectively supervise. For example, the “Committee on Worship” would absorb the committees on “Music” and “Pulpit Supply,” and might include representatives from the Epworth League and Sunday school. The pastor should be a member exofficio of all such standing committees, possibly the chairman of each. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Fred B. Fisher, The Way to Win. Albert R McGarrah, Modern Church Management. Warren F. Cook, A Working Program for the Local Church* Tippy and Kern, A Methodist Church and Its Work. Discipline, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920. *See Discipline (1920), 112:2. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 13-THE ADMINISTRATION OF WORSHIP ======================================================================== CHAPTER XIII THE ADMINISTRATION OF WORSHIP THE present chapter will deal briefly with the subject of worship from the general point of view of the administrator rather than the specific point of view of the liturgist, which was presented in the first section of this book. 1. The Standing Committee on Worship should be composed of not more than six besides the pastor. These might well be the chairman of the Music Committee, the chairman of the Pulpit Supply Committee, the organist, the choirmaster, the Sunday-school superintendent, and the president of the Epworth League. The scope of their activities would include all that has to do with the enrichment of public worship in the church service, the Sunday school, and the Epworth League. Their judgment should be secured before new hymnals and songbooks are purchased, and before singers, organists, and directors of music are employed. They should make, from time to time, constructive criticism to the official board looking toward the improvement of the worship of all organizations in the church. Moreover, they should, by every means in their power, encourage private and family prayer throughout the membership of the church. They should cooperate with the Epworth League in promoting the “Morning- Watch” idea and recommend worthy books of devotion for individuals and manuals for domestic worship. 2. The committee might request the pastor to use a whole service occasionally for instructing the congregation in the ideds and principles of public worship as set forth in the first section of this book. The disorder that mars much free worship is not due to conscious irreverence, but to the unhappy fact that many people have never been taught to worship. They have gone to church all their lives “to hear 138 WORSHIP 139 the sermon,” and have not understood that they were themselves expected to make a contribution to common prayer. This instruction should be given as early in the life of the child as possible. But it will be helpful, too, to instruct the adults in the public congregation if they are unenlightened concerning ideals of worship. One of the notable memories in the life of a certain minister has to do with a Sunday morning when he took the congregation into his confidence, showing how important were the contributions of the congregation itself, the choir, the ushers, and the janitor as well as that of the minister to common prayer. The best opportunity for teaching social worship in the average church is to be found in the Sunday school. A few superintendents understand that the introductory service is not merely a mechanical way of beginning the work of the school. But not many. The average Sunday-school orchestra may serve some useful purpose in holding the interest of the players to the school, but it seldom induces the worshipful mood. Noise, “pep,” “jazz” sometimes because it pleases the leader, and sometimes because it is supposed to have a disciplinary value on restless pupils constitute the ideal of many superintendents for the “opening exercises.” It should be a vital part of all true religious education to teach boys and girls to worship. The time to do this is in the early part of the service. “To bring each person in attendance into the conscious presence of God for a few moments every Sunday is one of the splendid privileges presented to officers and teachers of the school.” 1 3. Every consideration which can be urged in behalf of graded instruction in the church school may be urged likewise in behalf of graded worship. The absence of children from public worship is generally remarked upon with regret. Can it be expected, however, that active young human beings will enjoy sitting for.an hour or more through a service that was never designed to meet a need of which they are Oosterzee, op. dt, p. 445 140 THE PASTORAL OFFICE conscious? Everything is arranged for the adult section of the congregation hymns, prayers, anthems, and sermon, all beyond the understanding of boys and girls. Have we any moral right to insist upon or expect the children to attend public worship unless the service is adapted to their needs? They are not “little men and women/’ as we sometimes declare. They differ from adults as radically in mental and spiritual matters as in physical. They are sui generis. Adult religion no more fits them than do adult clothes. Forms and methods of worship must be designed to meet their peculiar spiritual needs. They must be trained to worship. But they will never learn to worship by simply looking on while older people worship. Opportunity must be given them to express directly their own feelings, as is not and cannot be done in the ordinary service of worship. Respect for personality will eventually compel us to concede the principle of graded worship and provide such opportunities for the expression and development of the child’s faith as are adapted to his several stages of growth. Many pastors are experimenting with the “Children’s Church” an organization modeled after the ordinary church, but composed entirely of children, transacting its own business and conducting its own services of worship, often at the hour when the adults are met for formal worship. The success of this experiment always depends, of course, on the personality of the adult leader who is in charge. Others are attempting to convert the “Opening Exercises” of the Sunday school into “Junior Worship.” Where the several departments of the Sunday school are independently organized and meet in separate rooms it is easily possible to have worship adapted to the ages which are found in each group. Still others bring the Sunday-school children into the public worship of the church and introduce elements into that service, such as a children’s song and a short children’s sermon, which will appeal especially to them, dismissing them before the moment has arrived for the usual sermon. Each of these methods has something to commend it. WORSHIP 141 4. There is no doubt that the cause of social worship is greatly served by having the place of worship kept sacred for that particular purpose. It is true that play may be as legitimate as prayer. Nevertheless many find it difficult to enter into a worshipful frame of mind in a room which is open to all causes. A minstrel show in a church is incongruous, but not much more so than many other things that are admitted. If there is but one room for all purposes, of course one must do the best he can. But when it is possible to arrange for concerts, lectures, plays, etc, in some other than the room used for public worship, let it be done by all means. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Hugh Hartshorne, Worship in the Sunday School. Weldon F. Crossland, The Junior Church in Action. Charles E. McKinley, Educational Evangelism. CHAPTER XIV THE ADMINISTRATION OF EVANGELISM 1. THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON EVANGELISM should be composed of representatives of all the organizations which attempt definite evangelistic work in the local church, together with the pastor and one or two members of the official board. The committee will supervise and coordinate the evangelistic work of the several organizations^ Not later than October first it should present a unified program of evangelism for the succeeding twelve months. 2. PRINCIPLES OF EVANGELISM. There is no single term that will more accurately describe the total task of the church than the word “evangelism/’ provided it be interpreted ’broadly. In specifying the principles of evangelism we are only trying to define the idea in such a way as to include its larger meanings. a. Evangelism is not primarily a matter of delivering the Christian message^ as was represented in a widely circulated book some years ago called The Evangelization of the World in this Generation. Dr. John R. Mott, the author of this helpful volume, distinctly affirmed that by “evangelization” he did not mean the conversion of the world, but merely such a general proclamation of the gospel that every person in the world should have the opportunity to hear of Christ and so to accept him. Knowledge of Christ must precede devotion to him, but there must be no complacency over having proclaimed his gospel in a professional fashion* ?75<> Pledges renewable at 10percentincrease Pledges from new members From Sunday-school for local Budget... 75<> Total... $12, 100 ’See McGarrah, op. dt, for suggestions, 216 THE PASTORAL OFFICE The budget for a church of 250 to 300 members would probably be somewhat as follows, ESTIMATED EXPENDITURES For the Fiscal Year Beginning October r, 1923. ZQ2I 1Q22 1923 Increase^ Decrease Pastoral Support.. $2, 360 $2, 470 $2, 583 $113+ Clerical Help IOO 150 50+ Janitor 300 300 300 Fuel and Light 250 250 250 Insurance 50 50 50 Music 100 IOO IOO Repairs 600 300 500 2OO+ Printing, postage, etc... 100 IOO IOO , Interest 350 300 250 50~ Reduction of Debt 1, 000 1, 000 1, 000 Sunday-school 400 400 450 50+ Miscellaneous 200 2OO 200 Total $5, 7io $5, 570 $5, 933 Needed to pay all bills $114:11 each week. Estimated Receipts Weekly pledges from 5 members at $3:00perweek $15-00 $363+ 10 IS 15 40 60 30 25 2.OO I.OO .75 -So -25 .20:10 From the Sunday-school for local expenses... Expectation from unpaid pledges, 1922, average per week $104-75 5:00 5:00 Total $114-75 b. The Benevolent Budget is somewhat simpler, the items being received, for the most part, from the district superintendwt, It includes (i) the Apportioned Benevolences FINANCE 217 ordered by the Committee on Conservation and Advance for the support of the great boards of the General Church; (2) tke apportionments ordered by the Annual Conference for educational and philanthropic work within the Conference; (3) the benevolences ordered by the Official Board of the local church for the support of community enterprises, such as City Missions, Educational Institutions, Anti-Saloon League, Associated Charities, etc. It will relieve the pastor of much embarrassment often if the official board will adopt a rule that no public appeal shall be made from the pulpit for funds without the consent of the board. * The items in this budget should be set forth in orderly fashion and added to the local budget. The total will be the amount which must be raised by the congregation during the year. Ideally the Benevolent Budget should equal the Local Budget. “As much for others as ourselves” At least half of the gift from the Sunday school should be credited to the Benevolent Budget. 3. THE FINANCIAL PLAN. There are six features in the financial plan recommended by the General Conference, and each is indispensable. (See Discipline.) a. Education. After the two budgets have been approved by the official board, a campaign of education covering a month should be instituted for the purpose of informing the membership accurately concerning them, the reasons for enlargements, and the plan adopted for raising the money. The methods usually employed in this educational work are, (1) Form Letters sent to all members setting forth essential facts briefly.* (2) Church Bulletins where such are printed. (3) Full explanation from the pulpit. (4) Special dinners and social gatherings. (5) And instruction in Christian Stewardship and Systematic Giving throughout the year. *See McGarrah, Modern Gfa&th Finace f for good sampk letters. 2i8 THE PASTORAL OFFICE After the plan has once been put into operation, the educational work will be less arduous in succeeding years. b. Every-M ember Canvass, (i) Canvassers are selected from among the most capable men and women in the church, and in sufficient numbers that no one will need to visit more than twenty persons, fewer, if possible. After careful training they make their own pledges then go two by two to every member of the church, securing a subscription from each, children as well as parents. It is an “every-member” not an “every-family” canvass. (2) It is generally best to limit the canvass to a short period, preferably between certain hours on a given Sunday afternoon. The members of the church will expect the visitors and be prepared to make their pledges without much argument. Many congregations give a sacramental character to the canvass by commissioning the canvassers in a season of prayer at the altar of the church in the morning service preceding the canvass. Of course such persons as cannot be seen on the day set apart will be visited as soon thereafter as possible. (3) In distributing the names of persons to be solicited it is generally well to permit the canvassers to select, as far as possible, those whom they can approach most easily. The remainder may be assigned arbitrarily. The name of each prospective giver should be placed upon a card containing the amount paid the preceding year and the amount that the committee feels may reasonably be expected on the new budget. This is given the canvasser for his information. It is not an apportionment merely a suggestion. c. Weekly Offering. The pledge is a weekly pledge to be divided between the Local and the Benevolent Budgets according to the wish of the giver. d. Envelope System. Each subscriber is provided with a set of fifty-two duplex envelopes which he is expected to use in paying his pledge week by week. These can be secured from The Methodist Book Concern FINANCE 219 e. Two Budgets and Two Treasurers. To avoid confusion and diversion of funds, the official board is asked to elect two treasurers, one for the Local and the other for the Benevolent Budget. Moreover, a financial secretary is to be chosen who shall receive all moneys, keeping an accurate account with each subscriber, then turning the moneys over to the respective treasurers, receiving their receipts therefor. Thus church funds are handled in a businesslike manner.” The treasurers shall pay out this money by check and only on the authority of the Finance Committee or the official board. /. Monthly or Quarterly Remittance. The Apportioned Benevolences should be sent each month or each quarter to the Committee on Conservation and Advance. This will make it possible to reduce the interest charges of the several boards. Other benevolences should be sent directly to executive officers of the respective beneficiary organizations, or deposited with the Conference Treasurer, by the pastor, at the next session of the Annual Conference. BOOKS RECOMMEUDEB FOE FURTHER STODY A. F. McGarrah, Modern Church Finance. F. A. Agar, Modern Money Methods; Church Finance. F. B. Fisher, The Way to Win, Chapter VIIL Discipline, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 20-CHURCH RECORDS ======================================================================== CHAPTER XX CHURCH RECORDS AN important part of the work of administration is to keep accurate records of all transactions. In a great department store every sale, however small, is recorded in such detail that, years after, the management can quickly discover the nature of the sale, the date, and the clerk who made It. All that comes in and goes out is carefully checked whether goods, cash, or employees so that at the end of the year everything and everyone is accounted for. Only by giving attention thus to accurate accounting is it possible to carry on any organized business. While this is being written, a man, reputed two years ago to be a multimillionaire, is going into bankruptcy in Chicago unexpectedly to himself! He says he thought he was making money until a few weeks ago. This ignorance on his part is due primarily to his failure to keep proper records. Ideally, the local Methodist Episcopal Church is supposed to have a good accounting department. “Are the church records properly kept?” is an inquiry made annually in the Quarterly Conference. A Committee on Church Records is appointed and required to report annually on the condition of all record books (not financial) of each organization in the church. Furthermore, an Auditing Committee is required to audit the accounts of all financial officers. But these seldom function or tell the whole truth when they do attempt to discharge their duties. So “church records” have come to be a symbol for confusion and unintelligibility. Church reports and statistics can almost never be taken at their face value. If the State were to call for such an accounting from religious organizations as is demanded of banks and life-insurance companies, the community is rare indeed, that would escape without an ecde 220 CHURCH RECORDS siastical scandal. Such carelessness puts a sore temptation in the way of church officers charged with the care of church money. And to be careless in accounting for the people intrusted to the church is a greater sin! The General Conference of 1920 gave careful consideration to records, and approved certain forms for Quarterly Conference and official-board business. The official board is responsible for (i) church members, and (2) church funds. The pastor represents them in caring for the former, and the financial secretary and two treasurers for the latter. And the General Conference is very clear about the kind of records that are to be kept by every such officer in any Methodist Church. No better investment of money can be made than to secure from the nearest depository of The Methodist Book Concern these new forms if they are not already in use in the local church. i. RECOM>S TO BE KEPT BY THE PASTOR, a. A Permanent Membership Roll which constitutes the fundamental record of personnel. The names should be arranged alphabetically and grouped by families. The only way this record can be kept up-to-date without rewriting frequently is to use a loose-leaf book. A page should be given to each name, the lower part providing for the names of other members of the family. In case of death or removal, the leaf can be taken out of the active list and reinserted in the same book under the guide “Removed” or “Died!* The data should be very full, including head of family; occupation; business address; telephone number, family and Christian names; state in life; official position in the church; when, how, where received; when, how, where removed; other members of family; baptized children; birthday (if under 21); organizations in which active, as Sunday school, Epworth League, W. F. M. S, W. H. M. S, etc. This roll should contain the Est of preparatory and nonresident members as well as those in full resident membership. 222 THE PASTORAL OFFICE &. Card Index. Membership and Constituency Roll The permanent loose-leaf roll is not practicable for daily reference. A card index should be prepared containing the names of full members, probationers, and constituents. Cards of different colors may be used for different classifications, for example, full members, white; probationers, yellow; constituents, blue. This index will be in use constantly in pastoral and evangelistic work. It also has great value as a “mailing list” for circularizing the church. The data may be much less full than on the permanent roll, including only such facts as are especially useful in everyday work and experience full name, residence and business addresses, telephone number, organizations in which the individuals are shown to be active, official relation, for example, steward, trustee, president Ladies’ Aid, teacher in Sunday school, etc, c. Historical Record. Certain matters of permanent interest, not provided for above, should be recorded in a bound volume of board covers. This book should contain (i) A history of the local organization, brought up to date annually; (2) A record of pastors and terms of service; (3) The official members from the time of organization; (4) The statistical and benevolent reports made yearly to the Annual Conference; (5) Baptisms; (6) Marriages; and (7) Deaths. d. Calling List. In addition to the card index, the pastor should have a “street list” of members and constituents in compact form which he carries with him constantly. This should be revised frequently and left with his successor on removing from the charge. 2. OFFICIAL BOARD RECORDS. a. Record Book for Secretary of the Official Board containing full minutes of all actions by the board. b. Record Books for Secretaries of Boards of Trustees and Stewards, respectively, when separately organized, containing full minutes of proceedings. CHURCH RECORDS 223 c. Financial Secretary’s Record, containing (i) Detailed weekly account with each individual subscriber to the two budgets, and a (2) Weekly summary of cash received on subscriptions and special collections, and deposited with the two treasurers. d. Record of the Treasurer of Benevolences should contain (i) The amounts apportioned for the several causes; (2) Cash received, source and purpose; (3) Cash disbursed, and vouchers for the same; (4) Blanks for yearly report to the Annual Conference with carbon copies for permanent record. e. Record of Treasurer of Local Expense Fund should contain (i) Cash received from subscriptions and special collections; (2) Cash disbursed, and warrants for same; (3) Ledger accounts with the pastor, district superintendent, janitor, and others as necessary; (4) Monthly summary and report. 3. SUNDAY-SCHOOL RECORDS. Great variety is found in the matter of Sunday-school records. A large school, closely graded by departments and classes, will necessarily work out a system of accounting more complicated than is desirable for a small school. It would appear, however, that the following records are essential in any school if people and money are to be accounted for satisfactorily, a. Sunday-School Secretary (1) Permanent Register in which every new member is enrolled on joining the school, containing name, address, date of birth, date of enrollment. (2) Card Index of officers, teachers, and pupils, arranged alphabetically by departments and classes, with fuller data than is asked for in permanent register, such as members of church; baptized; attendance (by month or quarter); parents or other members of family; activities, when, why, and how removed, etc. (3) Class Boots containing names of teachers and each 224 THE PASTORAL OFFICE member of the several classes to mark attendance, collection, study of lesson, etc. (4) Summaries of attendance and collections by week, month, quarter, and year. b. Sunday-School Treasurer (1) Weekly Record of cash received by classes. (2) Cash disbursed warrants and vouchers for same. 4. OTHER ORGANIZATIONS. The Secretaries of other organizations, such as the Epworth League, Ladies’ Aid Society, and the Women’s Missionary Societies, should keep (i) accurate membership records of their respective organizations and (2) complete minutes of all meetings. These should be submitted to the Committee on Church Records for inspection each year. The Treasurers of these organizations should keep careful records of all moneys received and disbursed by them, and submit their accounts to the Auditing Committee of the official board annually, as well as reporting to their own organizations. For the official board has responsibility for their oversight by virtue of the fact that all these organizations have representation in that body. Note: The necessary books and supplies are all obtainable from The Methodist Book Concern, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York city. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 21-CHURCH PUBLICITY ======================================================================== CHAPTER XXI CHURCH PUBLICITY THOSE engaged professionally in the advertising business complain that they are unable to overcome the conservatism of the church as to publicity. As a matter of fact, the church for many centuries has practiced publicity diligently. The church spire, setting the church building apart from all others in the community and visible from afar, has been for centuries an excellent device for advertising religion; and the cross on the spire and the gable-ends commonly suggests certain denominational viewpoints in religion. The most that can be said truthfully is that the church is only conservative in adopting certain new methods of publicity. The inertia of an old and established institution is, in part, responsible; in other part, it is due to the control of an old ideal in all the great professions that disapproves undue self-assertion on the part of professional workers in attracting attention to themselves. It is not quite obvious that the bizarre methods employed in getting a certain brand of chewing-gum or cigarettes before the nation are in good taste for lawyers, physicians, and ministers. A newspaper may shamelessly declare itself “the Greatest Newspaper in the World/’ but such a legend emblazoned above the door of the church is so at variance with the spirit of humility as to arouse the suspicion that the church, through pride and self-conceit, has ceased to be Christian. On the other hand, the professional worker must believe in his cause or he will never succeed. Self-confidence is indispensable, so long as it stops short of egotism. And he must find a way to establish new personal contacts, thus widening the range of acquaintance. All this applies to the church and the minister as certainly as to medicine and the physi 225 226 THE PASTORAL OFFICE cian. It would be stupid for any religious worker to say, “I do not believe in publicity.” But a wise man will be cautious about the publicity methods which he employs. No final answer can be made to the question, “What is legitimate?” Whatever will appeal to the imagination of the community, without cheapening religion or offending good taste, is in order. But communities differ greatly in their standards touching such matters. Moreover, a man must be true to himself, doing nothing that will harm his self-respect. This implies that he must constantly examine the motive that actuates him in his desire for publicity. Does he seek a crowd for a crowd’s sake? to gratify his conceit? or is he honestly desirous of reaching unselfishly a larger number of people for the good he can do them? Within these limits the largest liberty must be accorded ministers and churches. It is quite possible that in another twenty-five years churches generally will employ devices which now are used only by a very few. Let it be said, however, that modern advertising has become almost an art. And one who contemplates the use of new methods should read many volumes on the general subject before committing himself to a unique program of publicity. And he should read everything that has been written by the pioneers in these methods as applied to churches. The more helpful volumes will be found listed at the close of this chapter. But the publicity methods which are most open to criticism are probably least valuable for the work of the church. After all such are eliminated, there remains a multitude of devices which are generally approved, whose power does not derive from novelty and is not affected by frequent repetition. And every pastor should use them in his work. i. WELL-KEPT CHURCH PROPERTY. The condition of the building and grounds always advertises the church, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse! Some congregations would find new people coming to their services if they would only spend a little money on paint and keep CHURCH PUBLICITY 227 the lawn well watered and neatly trimmed. And an attractive exterior must be matched by a clean and inviting interior. The stranger in the community instinctively feels that a church which keeps its property in good condition probably has other worth-while ideals. On the contrary, if the first impression made by the property be one of untidiness and general decay, he does not expect much helpfulness from its spiritual ministry. Experience too often justifies this estimate. 2. A BULLETIN BOARD. A bulletin board on the outside of the church is a useful publicity device, provided it is neat in its appearance and announces simply and briefly the services to be held, together with the name and address of the pastor. One that is in need of paint or repair, or on which the announcements are hastily scrawled with crayon, is of questionable value. If an announcement is worth making, it should be made in such fashion as to attract not repel. Many churches in recent years post a “wayside sermon,” consisting of a single short sentence, on their bulletins, thus rendering a helpful ministry by dropping a great thought into the minds of those who read. 3. WORTH-WHILE SERVICES. No church has a right to large numbers in its congregation unless it is doing everything in its power to make the services worth while. By novel publicity methods it may be possible to induce people to enter the church for a single service, but if they get nothing, they will not return a second time, be the publicity agent ever so clever. “Have something of value to advertise before you advertise,” is a word of caution needed by many congregations and ministers. To conduct their services of worship more skillfully and make them more dynamic, to improve the quality of their educational work, to give Christian fellowship more significance would be the finest possible “ad” for many congregations. 4. PRINTING. The printer’s art can be of great help in spreading information about the work of the church. a. A congregation which can afford it should publish a 228 THE PASTORAL OFFICE “weekly calendar” containing all announcements for the next week. It is better than making oral announcements, for the calendar may be taken home for reference. It should be paid for, as is true of all printed matter issued by the church, out of the church treasury and never contain anything except church news. No official board should permit the pastor or any organization in the church to solicit advertisements with the view of compelling the business men to bear the cost of such publications. This is a deliberate exploitation of commercial institutions, and it is disastrous for worship. While the minister attempts to lead the minds of the congregation in prayer, the bulletin, thus prostituted to secular ends, is reminding them where they may secure groceries and clothing most cheaply. b. Paid “display ads” in the newspapers are becoming increasingly common. The writing of them so as to be impressive is a difficult matter. c. Better than these are “news letters” about the churches of the community, which the editors are glad to publish frequently without cost if prepared by a minister who knows how to write newspaper English. d. For special meetings or unusual occasions, window cards are valuable. e. Neatly printed invitations sent through the mails or carried by church visitors to individuals make a good impression generally. The mechanical work of all printed matter issued by the church should be excellent and on good paper. 5. PERSONAL TOUCH. The most valuable publicity is that which costs nothing the commendation of those who are pleased with what they have found. This is personal and voluntary. When the members of the church express spontaneously great happiness in the fellowship and worship of their church, that church will have congregations whether they employ unique methods of advertising or not. Let church members form the habit of talking their church up not down. It will always be possible to find some fault CHURCH PUBLICITY 229 if one is so disposed; but, on the contrary, there is nearly always more to commend than condemn if we choose to find it. a. Pastoral visiting. The systematic visitation of all persons on the membership and constituency rolls of the church by the pastor is a very fine method of publicity, to say no more concerning it. It suggests that the chief leader of the church is personally interested in the people of the community, and makes an irresistible appeal. However large the membership, and however many paid workers there may be on the ministerial staff, every pastor should “visit from house to house.” b. Personal Canvass. An organized canvass of the community for persons, similar to a canvass for money, in which members of the church carry invitations to other persons, individually, is immensely rewarding. c. Letter-writing. The writing of letters, where calls cannot be made, will often serve equally well. d. Telephone. A pastor in Denver had his church so perfectly organized by the “Unit System” (though not a Methodist church) that by using the telephone, the whole constituency could be informed of any important matter in two hours, without anyone calling more than six or eight persons. The pastor would call his ten “captains”; each of these, five or six “lieutenants”; and each of these, six or eight persons or families. “In rural communities, one person can notify all the families on a given telephone line.” 6. COOPERATIVE PUBLICITY. In many communities the churches advertise cooperatively through the press, by billboards, and other devices. The occasion is generally some special event or campaign, though it may be intended merely to call attention to the regular services of the church. The “Go-to-Church Sunday” is a familiar example. 7. THE ADVERTISING COMMITTEE. Many churches have an advertising committee composed of from three to five persons whose judgment and zeal in such matters are worth while. The pastor should meet with them frequently to 230 THE PASTORAL OFFICE suggest and guide sometimes to save himself embarrassment resulting from the personal exploitation of his gifts by the committee. For an unrestrained publicity committee will almost certainly proclaim from the housetop the virtues of their pastor in a way that is painful to a modest man. Advertise the church, “but not the pastor! 8. MISCELLANEOUS METHODS. The resourcefulness of such committees is very great. Among the devices which have been employed successfully have been (a) parades, (b) billboards, (c) broadcasting from radio-stations, (d) blotters in schoolrooms and the writing rooms of hotels, (0) electric crosses and signs on the church, (/) street-car bulletins, (g) musical programs, (h) doorknob tags, (t) stories of community service rendered by the church, (;) lead pencils with name of church upon them, etc. The literature of this subject is growing rapidly and is very suggestive for those contemplating new methods. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY E. E. Elliott, How to Advertise a Church. Christian F. Reisner, Church Publicity. Charles Stelzle, Principles of Successful Church Advertising. William C. Skeath, Building the Congregation. A. F. McGarrah, Practical Inter-Church Methods, pp. 199-335. Fred B. Fisher, The Way to Win, Chapter VI. Francis H. Case, Handbook of Church Advertising. Roy L. Smith, Capturing Crowds. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 22-CHURCH BUILDINGS ======================================================================== CHAPTER XXII CHURCH BUILDINGS BUILDINGS ill adapted to the needs of a religious organization are responsible for much inefficiency in the church. Sometimes this is the result of poverty. The congregation may not be able to afford a better house. But often it is due to ignorance on the part of the pastor, influential laymen, or the architect. The congregation may supply money in abundance, but those responsible for spending it may create a pile of brick and mortar that would serve as a railway station or a factory quite as well as a church. A church was built in Illinois some years ago whose total cost approximated $100, 000, and the acoustics were so bad when it was finished that the worshiping congregation beyond the first few rows of pews could not understand what the speaker was saying. That was a defect for which the architect was to blame. Within five years the only church in a community of a thousand people was built in Kansas at a cost of $30, 000. This organization is responsible for the religious education of three or four hundred young people and for the money which they provided at great sacrifice they got a building of four rooms a large and a small one above ground, and these were duplicated in the basement. Almost in the center of the large basement room, a huge hot air furnace was installed, reducing the serviceability of that room by at least fiftypercent. The responsibility for this fearful blunder must rest upon the pastor and the building committee, for the structure does not show that they had any proper knowledge of the work which a modern church should undertake. Another building committee in Iowa was persuaded that an architect’s fee of $200 would be a misappropriation of funds, and, with the assistance of a local contractor, drew their own plans, and spent 232 THE PASTORAL OFFICE $12, 000 in erecting a building. When finished the church proved to be unsafe for a public assemblage. Poor ventilation, crude interior decoration, and inadequate heating facilities are other very common defects, which cannot be charged to poverty. All this is said to emphasize the fact that much is needed besides money to provide properly for the housing of a congregation. Just as some persons are better dressed on a small income than others who are not compelled to practice economy, so many congregations, because they were led by men of intelligence and insight, possess a more serviceable church building than others, and at a smaller cost. We do not have space, even if we possessed the ability, to write a treatise on church architecture. A few considerations, however, may be emphasized as important for all who contemplate remodeling or building new churches. I. Neither size nor cost necessarily determines worth in a church building, but fitness to serve the religious needs of the community. The three great activities of the church are worship, education, and service, and every church should be adapted to this threefold function. It is remarkable what excellent service can be rendered with limited equipment in the hands of an imaginative pastor. A single room seated with movable chairs placed in rows, is a place of worship. With these chairs rearranged in circles or semicircles and concealed from each other by portable screens, it is a schoolroom in which the church performs its educational task. Another arrangement of chairs and screens, and it becomes a social center promoting good will and fellowship. The chairs pushed back against the walls the room is a gymnasium in which basket-ball, volley-ball, and captain-ball are played by the young people. Arranged in rows again facing the platform, it is an “opera house” in which are held amateur theatricals, farmers’ institutes, and other neighborhood meetings. Of course, this is not at all ideal. But if it is the best the community can afford, it can be made very usable. CHURCH BUILDINGS 233 2. As rapidly as increasing wealth permits the people to have better homes, they should have a better place of worship to comport with the new standard of living. In planning for the new church, let the demands of worship and education have the right of way over everything else. Do not build a larger main room than is needed for the ordinary occasions of worship. Probably some allowance should be made for growth, but to provide seating capacity for eight hundred when no more than two hundred usually come is a mistake. Remember too that the Protestant ideal requires intelligibility throughout the service. Acoustics should be such that a speaker may be heard easily in every part of the room. Ventilation is all-important. It should be possible to get a fresh supply of air into the room constantly without a draft blowing on any person in the congregation. The heating system should warm the room to sixty-five degrees in cold weather without an extravagant outlay for fuel. The interior decoration has much to do with creating atmosphere in a place of worship. The best taste in these matters declares in favor of simple lines and light colors, and against somber tones and mural decorations in the form of figures, or even verses of Scripture. The building should be as well adapted to modern ideals in religious education as worship. Warm, well-ventilated, cheery rooms, large enough to accommodate respectively the Beginners 5, Primary, and Junior Departments of the Sunday school, are needed. The other departments may assemble in a larger room for worship, but as nearly as possible each class should have its own room for study and instruction. Some of the rooms used by the elementary departments may well be furnished as parlors for social and fellowship meetings of other organizations in the church. Rooms designed primarily for service, such as gamerooms, club-rooms, gymnasium, etc, should be included in the plan only after a careful and prolonged study of the relation of the church to the needs of the community. It 234 THE PASTORAL OFFICE is to be feared that such rooms sometimes have been built because they were supposed to be “up to date” rather than because they were sorely needed. This service entails an increased budget for special workers and maintenance of plant. Unless all this is clearly understood and provided for by the Finance Committee, it is much better to keep these out of consideration. Not a few congregations which possess this kind of equipment wish they were rid of it. 3. All of which leads to the following suggestions. a. No plans should be made for a building enterprise until the needs of the community have been studied carefully, and specific conclusions reached, in conference with lay leaders, concerning the exact nature of the service to be undertaken by the church. b. The financial resources of the church and its constituency should be estimated as accurately as possible and some decision reached as to the maximum amount that can be raised for this purpose. c. The committee should then consult with the architects who are specialists in planning church buildings. One may be competent to design an office building and possess no ability to draw plans for a church. The Board of Sunday Schools, the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, and the Committee on Conservation and Advance have organized cooperatively an excellent Bureau of Architecture, employing only those draughtsmen who are experts in designing buildings for public worship and religious education. This bureau will be pleased to submit several plans to any inquiring official board, at a small fraction of the usual architect’s fee, on being informed of the number o persons to be accommodated, the exact nature of the services to be rendered by the church, and the total cost which the congregation can afford. d. Great care should be taken in selecting a suitable building site. We do well to follow the example of the Roman Catholics in locating churches where they will be accessible to the majority and on conspicuous sites. The CHURCH BUILDINGS 235 unfortunate location of many churches makes it impossible for them to serve effectively. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY E. deS. Brunner, The New Country Church Building. Herbert F. Evans, The Sunday School Building and Its Equipment. P. E. Burroughs, Church and Sunday School Buildings. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 23-THE CHURCH SURVEY ======================================================================== CHAPTER XXIII THE CHURCH SURVEY THE policies of the local church and the form of the organization should be determined by scientifically observable facts physical, personal, industrial, social, and religious which appear in the life of the community. Some of these may be seen at a glance. Others are discovered only after diligent search. The device employed for uncovering them is commonly called a social survey. It is in some disfavor for the moment because of abuse by “faddists” who do nothing about the data which they assemble by ostentatious effort. In principle, however, the survey is absolutely sound. No pastor or church can do its work properly without taking “a calm, clear look into the community to see what is there/’ This is probably the place to say that one should not form his notion of a survey entirely from the elaborate findings of the Russell Sage Foundation, or other agencies which in recent years have made exhaustive studies of community life. The average pastor has neither ability nor time for such microscopic social analysis. Nor is it necessary. For the most part, such facts as are important for him may be observed quietly as he performs the routine work of the parish. On occasion he may institute an organized canvass in which he should have the assistance of other pastors and competent laymen. But even here the aim of the study should be so clear and definite that nothing irrelevant shall emerge to produce confusion. It is better to make several simple surveys than attempt a more comprehensive study which embraces a bewildering body of facts. Let the surveyor be very certain what specific things he desires to know, and then go about it in the most direct fashion to discover them. 236 THE CHURCH SURVEY 237 i. THE RELIGIOUS CENSUS. In general it may be said that church surveys usually take one of three forms. 1 i. The first is not properly a sociological survey at all, but merely a census in which the enumerators list all persons in the community with reference to their religious affiliations, noting such facts as will be helpful to the churches in serving them. When every house is to be canvassed, all religious organizations in the community should participate. If the work is done by a single organization, scrupulous care should be exercised in notifying other denominations of those who prefer their ministry. Such a canvass is necessary before a complete constituency roll can be prepared and will supply a list of prospective members for evangelistic and Sunday-school campaigns. A card which can be filed in an index for permanent record is filled out for each member of the family.. The information usually asked for includes the following, Name; residence; business address; telephone number; age; married; unmarried; widowed; church membership; church preference; Sunday school attended, etc. It is possible to increase the number of questions, but these are sufficient to locate the individuals. Other information may be collected later by church visitors. In communities where the population is constantly shifting, this canvass should be made annually. Accuracy on the part of the enumerators is very important. The pastors should meet -them for training several times previous to the census. When possible, they should go in pairs. In small communities, the pastors themselves can do the work without assistance from the laymen. Prepared forms may be secured from certain agencies, but it is better to make out the particular blank desired and have it printed locally. The importance of such a census cannot be doubted. It is a systematic search for the unchurched, and renders it ’See Fisher, The Way to Win, p. 238 THE PASTORAL OFFICE impossible for any religious organization to be unaware of its obligation to minister to certain people. Of course it is of no value unless an effort is made to bring the church into touch with those who have become dissociated from it. In cities it will be necessary to confine the canvass to the particular geographical area for which the cooperating churches are primarily responsible. Likewise in the open country. In villages and towns the canvass should embrace the whole community. 2. THE COMMUNITY SURVEY, The community survey proper has a very different aim. It is a study of environment, and seeks to note and classify every factor in the environment which influences human well-being. a. Scope, (i) Physical conditions such as climate, soil, rainfall, housing, sanitation, water supply, community health, etc, are always an important part of such a study. (2) Since a good material foundation is indispensable to the life of the spirit, the inquiry will carry into the field of economics. Does the community depend chiefly upon agriculture or manufacturing? If manufacturing, under what conditions do the workers toil? What wages are received by different classes of workers? Number of hours in the working day? Women in industry? Children in industry? Unemployment? Welfare work? Cost of living? What proportion of the workers receive sufficient income to enjoy a fair standard of living? Are workers organized? etc. In an agricultural community the investigation will concern itself with questions of tenantry, absentee landlords, marketing, crop production, etc. (3) The survey will give careful consideration to the sociological structure of the community, for race, nationality, sex, family life, inbreeding, immigration, etc, have profound significance for the spiritual life. (4) The educational agencies will be scrutinized. Number of schools? Graded? Centralized? High schools? Number of pupilsperteacher? How many young people are in college? How many evening schools? libraries? THE CHURCH SURVEY 239 Whatpercentof the pupils finish the eighth grade? The high school? Are there vacation schools? Parent-teachers’ associations? etc. (5) Again, it is vital to know accurately what agencies serve the instinct for play and recreation. How many parks are there and what facilities do they afford for baseball, football, bathing, boating, tennis, and other out-of-door games? How many pool-rooms? theaters? movies? dance halls? Where do the young people congregate? Is there a Y. M. C A.? Y. W. C. A.? What are their social activities? Do the churches and public schools make themselves social centers? etc. (6) Community morals cannot be overlooked in such a study. How many arrests annually by the police and for what offenses? Gambling? Drunkenness? Prostitution? Juvenile crime and delinquency? Jail conditions? How are child offenders treated? etc. (7) And all philanthropic institutions will come in for investigation. What organizations assist the needy, such as organized charities, lodges, churches, etc.? How many dependent families cared for by each? Are their methods modern and scientific? etc. (8) Religious institutions will be surveyed. Number of churches? Membership of each? Amounts raised by each for current expenses? for benevolences? attitude toward evangelism? religious education? community service? missions? Service rendered to social and recreational life of their own young people? of the community as a whole? Do the pastors give full time to their church work? Do the churches cooperate with each other? Is the community overchurched? underchurched? etc. The suggestions made under the several headings are by no means exhaustive. The number of inquiries in each case could be multiplied indefinitely. They merely suggest the vast scope and prodigious labor involved in a comprehensive study of this kind. b* Method, (i) The first step in making a community 240 THE PASTORAL OFFICE survey consists in determining its scope. It may be very elaborate. For ordinary purposes the simpler study which takes account of the more important factors in the community life, and these only perhaps one at a time, Is the more valuable. In any case the initial step involves the preparation of the questions which are to be asked. The same inquiries will seldom be appropriate for two communities. (2) The geographical area must be defined very accurately. (3) Who shall make it? In the open country, or in a rural village or town, the pastors themselves can do the work better than other persons. In larger towns and cities the survey may be made a community achievement by securing the cooperation of business clubs, lodges, the Board of Health, the Board o Education, the Woman’s Club, and other organizations. In this event, the survey should be put under the direction of an Executive Committee composed of representatives of the participating groups. (4) Assistance from the outside. In the more involved surveys, it is better generally to raise a fund and employ a trained director of social surveying -to supervise the whole task. It may be that a near-by educational institution, such as an agricultural school or State university, can supply such a worker. To organize and instruct his assistants will require weeks of time, and to tabulate and interpret the data impressively will consume even a longer period. (5) Proper interpretation of the facts is quite as necessary as skill in detecting them. The work of interpretation includes map drawing, charting, and graphing so that the eye as well as the ear may be impressed. A single map should not be overloaded with facts. It is much better to make three maps, for example, one showing the location of churches, another the location of schools, and another the location of social service agencies, than to crowd all into one drawing* “Comparisons” and “averages” are devices which give significance to local figures. “The fact that there are 500 children in school means nothing unless that THE CHURCH SURVEY 241 figure is compared with the total number of children of school age.” “A death rate of 9:77perthousand in Washington Heights is not particularly informing unless it is known that the death rate in the city of New York is 1340perthousand.” (6) After the facts have been discovered, the next question is, “What shall be done about them?” Frequently nothing has happened. A few years ago many American cities appropriated considerable sums for the study of vice conditions, and important findings were made. In almost no- instance, however, were those surveys followed by intelligent changes in public policy with reference to social conditions, and of late there has been much fruitless surveying within the church. Suppose -that it should appear that the community is not provided with adequate facilities for play? Suppose that the school buildings are overcrowded, badly located, and poorly equipped? Or that there are too many churches? What change will that make in the program of the church? A community survey will certainly raise embarrassing issues to meet which thoughtful policies and programs must be adopted for a period of years. Better make no survey at all than let it end there. 3. THE CHURCH SURVEY. The third type of survey aims to discover and chart important facts about the church organization itself. It too may be elaborate or simple, dealing with many or with single phases of church activities. It may concern itself with the history of the church; its growth or decay; the benevolences, the financial policy and resources, the buildings, missions, community service, evangelism, religious education. The materials for such a study are found largely in the records of the church and its several organizations, and may be reviewed by the pastor without much assistance from others. Fisher’s The Way to Win, pages 153-155, contains a suggestive list of questions for such an inquiry. 242 THE PASTORAL OFFICE BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Edwin L. Earp, The Rural Church Serving the Community. C. E. Carroll, The Community Survey in Relation to Church Efficiency. Fred B. Fisher, The Way to Win, Chapter VI. Margaret F. Byington, What Social Workers Should Know About Their Community. Anna B. Taft, Community Study for Country Districts. Warren H. Wilson, Community Study for Cities. SECTION III PASTORAL RELATIONS ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 24-THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY ======================================================================== CHAPTER XXIV THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY IN the preceding chapters we have considered the ideals and methods generally approved for making the modern church an effective instrument for Christianizing society. But the mere mastery of the technique of religious work will not of itself produce the successful church leaden Spirit, temperament, zeal, inward attitudes of soul and heart are the vital elements in the ministry, and will supply the themes for discussion in the final section of this book. Conspicuous among them is the “call” to the pastoral office. 1 In the absence of this experience, one is likely to be distinctly unhappy in the ministry, and will abandon it ultimately for more congenial employment. To interpret the meaning of the “call” is our aim in the present chapter. i. Let us begin by asking, “Is the work of the ministry really distinguished in this respect from that of other professional men?” Undoubtedly, all work may be sanctified by the spirit of service, and the same obligation is on every Christian which is on the minister to “do all as unto the Lord.” But this is not quite what is involved in a divine call the conviction that any worthy work is God’s work and that the worker stands in “living connection with the heavenly world.” Take coal-mining, for illustration. There can be no doubt that it is a “basic” industry, absolutely necessary to human happiness. And the man who burrows underground to bring fuel to the surface for his fellow men is a most valuable servant of society, deserving ^t might be possible to distinguish between a call to the pastorate and to some other form of religious work. No differentiation of this kind, however, is made here. The term is used in its most comprehensive sense> applying to all forms of ministerial service. 245 246 THE PASTORAL OFFICE much more consideration than he usually receives. Moreover, many religiously minded miners derive an inward satisfaction when they reflect upon the service which they render, and are conscious of God’s sustaining grace as they toil. But the effect of this work upon the workers themselves is such that it would seem highly incongruous to declare that one has been divinely called to mine coal. As a matter of fact, most miners probably feel that they have been condemned to the mines by the accident of birth and the circumstances of their early lives. A “divine vocation” may be expected to enrich the mind and heart of the worker as coal-mining does not do. A “calling” should give such joy that the worker would not be engaged in other labor if he could! And it is difficult to think of miners feeling thus about their employment. All this applies to most handworkers. We do not deny the social value or spiritual significance of manual labor. The only point we are making is that men usually drift or are forced into it rather than deliberately choose it. It may be glorified, indeed, by the religious imagination, and thus yield high satisfactions, but the most devout laborers would be slow to declare that their work was a divine calling. The distinction is not so clear in the case of professional workers. The successful teacher, lawyer, physician, artist, musician, architect, and engineer must have peculiar personal fitness for their work as certainly as the minister. Many of them are very happy in the practice of their professions. In most cases professional work is deliberately adopted after other possibilities have been considered. Moreover, the work tends to enlarge mental horizons and is rewarding in rich fellowships. Finally, all the great professions have passed under the law of service. Financial gain is not the dominant motive, as in business. In these respects they do not differ from the ministry. But the ministry is distinguished from all these in that its aim is confessedly spiritual. However noble may be the service to the physical, the intellectual, and the aesthetic THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 247 needs of human life, religious work is more fundamental in that it deals with intangible values which give life its real meaning. This makes it impossible for the minister to know always how well or ill he is succeeding. But it constitutes the chief glory of his task. Blunderingly enough the work goes on, as the workers themselves confess, but where there is a reasonable amount of intelligence, imagination, and unselfishness, the awkward efforts of even an incompetent minister are singularly sanctified to the spiritual well-being of a community. If it be said that other types of professional work produce spiritual results, we still insist that they are secondary, and not primary. And this holy daring which prompts religious workers to make that the chief object of all their striving which others regard as incidental, lifts the ministry out of the rank of professions into the dignity of a divine calling because its aim is divine in a sense that cannot be affirmed of other professions. Again, the effect of the ministry upon the minister himself sets this work apart. Ideally, labor should always enrich the personality of the laborer. One of the deplorable facts about modern industry is that men become as mechanical as the machines which they tend. Born human beings, they die mere grocers, or bankers, or mechanics. Instead of the means to a fuller manhood, work too often menaces what manhood they already possess. And to this dwarfing of personality through the performance of simple processes which require no thought or imagination, must be added the positively immoral effect of the atmosphere of strife, suspicion, and mutual distrust in which employers and workers live. All this gives abundant reason for declaring, with Phillips Brooks, that work is one of the cherubim which stand with flaming swords before the Garden of Eden to prevent man’s return to happiness. The supreme test of any labor must be, not the amount of wealth, but the kind of men it produces. And one is not happy about the human product of our industrial organization, whether it be & roasters or the workers. It is very differ^ 248 THE PASTORAL OFFICE ent with the professions. All react upon their members to enrich personality to a remarkable degree. It will be found, generally, that the physicians, teachers, lawyers, so* cial workers, and ministers are the persons of broadest sympathies in the average American community. They do not accumulate great wealth, as a rule, but they possess good private libraries and overflowing reading tables, and their friendships are usually superior. Furthermore, the ethical standards of their work lay moral responsibilities upon them not imposed upon others. The shock is always greater when a professional man breaks down at the point of goodness than when a business man or laborer falls. The influence of the ministry upon those within its ranks is similar to that of other professions, with this difference - the ethical effect is very much greater. The nature of the work requires constant study, which stimulates the intellectual life. It is likewise rewarding in the opportunity it affords for social intercourse of the finer sort. But the demand which it makes upon the minister himself to live on the highest moral levels exceeds that of any other profession. In a way, of course, careless living is a disqualification for any professional work, but for the pastor it is a capital offense. And no one will hold him to as strict account as he holds himself. He will be aware of personal defects which others do not observe, and these will give him constant pain. More sharply than others he will feel the inconsistency of a moral physician becoming himself a source of evil contagion and a teacher of religion failing to exemplify in his own life the doctrine which he preaches. We are not thinking of his being self-consciously “an example to others,” affecting a piety which he does not feel. That road leads to cant, insincerity, hypocrisy offensive to God and man. Rather we have in mind the passion for genuine and transparent goodness which must adorn his own life before he can successfully transmit it to others. Nor are we declaring that ministers always become immaculate in their saintliness. As a class they are subject to the same THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 249 temptations that befall other men, and often are defeated in the very “citadels of their souls.” But the ethical demands of their work make it more difficult for them to yield, acting as a sharp spur, impelling them to “go on to perfection” when otherwise they might cease their striving. This superior ethical influence of the ministry upon the minister is a divine effect and supplies another reason for regarding it as a sacred vocation. Again, most ministers testify that they entered upon their work because of an inward imperative which is not often the experience of other professional workers. The physician, the teacher, the lawyer, the dentist, unite generally in saying that they like their work, but rarely does one go so far as to declare that he undertook it because of a sense of duty. The matter of peculiar fitness apart, he could have been quite as happy in some other profession as the one he chose. Indeed, many do engage successfully in business while they practice their professions. But not so, as a rule, with ministers. They are happy in their work, but something deeper than the attractiveness of the profession drew them to it. With almost no dissenting voice they affirm that their loyalty to the best that they knew was involved in their choice of a life work. It was a highly moral experience in which they were chiefly conscious of a sense of duty. An authoritative “must” was heard from the voice of conscience the “Thus saith the Lord” of the Old Testament prophets, Let it be confessed frankly that events have proven that some were mistaken in their interpretation of this experience. But, on the other hand, experience has justified the conclusion which was reached in a majority of cases. And it is significant that an attempt to abandon the ministry, or to engage in business as a side line, for reasons less noble than those for which one entered upon it in the beginning, results usually in great unhappiness. Religious work is a jealous mistress. “The Lord will have no driftwood for his sacrifices, and no drift men for his ministry.” These three facts, then, justify the belief that the win 250 THE PASTORAL OFFICE istry is a work apart from others its spiritual aim, its ethical effect upon the minister himself, and the motive actuating those who undertake it. With more warrant than is conferred by mere poetic license, it may be thought of as a “divine calling. 33 This doctrine should be held in great humbleness of mind, however, not in arrogant self -sufficiency. The minister will prove that his is a holy office, not by proclaiming the fact self -assertively from the housetop, but by showing in his words, and life, and work, the divine spirit of kindness, love, gentleness, forbearance, and meekness. 2. We are commanded on the highest authority to test the movements of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men. 3 If these come from the Divine Father, investigation will only make that fact more clear. If spurious, the sooner we know it, the better. What, then, are the evidences of genuineness in a call to the ministry? They are gathered from various sources. a. The first is an idealistic attitude toward life. He who is more concerned with exploiting men than serving them unselfishly is inherently disqualified for religious work! He must love men deeply and feel as his very own their misery and blindness. b. No one is called into ministerial service who is not deeply religious in his personal life. The unseen world must be for him the realest of worlds, with which he holds commerce daily by faith and prayer. He must be very sure of God and have some power at least to make other men see God in everything. In the language of the Discipline, he must have “the love of God abiding in him/’ His religious earnestness will show itself in the conviction that the sickness of the world is spiritual a matter of wrong inner ideals and attitudes rather than maladjustments in the social organization and as such the only cure is a wholehearted acceptance of the gospel of Jesus in all relations. c. An inwwd drawing toward the work is essential. *Phit 1:9, 10* THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 251 should be warned, however, that the strength of the subjective impression is not very significant in itself. Emotional temperaments may describe it as overwhelming, while less excitable persons may feel nothing more than a strong inclination in a certain direction. It frequently happens that the most successful ministers experience this call in its milder forms. If one is unable to dismiss the subject from his thought, or finds pleasure in imagining himself engaged in the work that is allotted to a minister, he has as much mystical intimation as is accorded to most. And he has all that is needed, for this inclination must be corroborated by other evidence to make sure that it is more than a human preference for the office “a hankering after its perquisites, the position it offers, the gains and emoluments it promises.” d. The absence of peculiar physical, mental, and social fitness for the work nullifies, usually, an alleged inward call. If one is not strong in body; or if he does not possess at least average intellectual ability; or if he cannot express himself clearly and with some degree of readiness; or if he does not love people, and has little ability to enlist and organize them under his leadership, he has a right to conclude that he is not called to the work of the ministry. e. The inward call should be confirmed by the outward. That is to say, one’s personal inspirations should be submitted to the judgment of others. Dr. Gladden most wisely declares, “No minister ought to undertake the work unless he believes he has a divine vocation; but he ought to submit this conviction of his to the approval of his brethren.” 4 The Holy Spirit reveals himself in the collective wisdom of the many as certainly as in the private insight of the individual. If one possesses the “gifts and graces” which qualify him for religious service, those who know him and love the church will have an opinion on the subject which deserves consideration. If their judgment does not sustain his, it is quite probable that he was wrong in his in *Qp. tit, p. 69. 252 THE PASTORAL OFFICE terpretation of the subjective experience which was regarded as “a calL” /. The final test of a call is some measure of success in the actual work of the ministry. If one’s efforts do not command the approval of the reflective people in the congregation under reasonable conditions, he has a right to conclude that he should serve as a layman rather than a minister. 3. The call to the ministry ultimately resolves itself into a call to a particular church. This is determined in various ways. Under a “Congregational” polity, the local church issues the invitation. The “Presbyterian” ideal requires that the choice of the church shall be confirmed by the “presbytery.” In the Church of England, the “parish” has little voice in determining who the “incumbent” shall be, the right of nomination being vested in a “patron,” who is, in some instances, the government; in others, the bishop or archbishop; in yet others, a dean or chapter, but generally a landed proprietor. 5 In the Methodist Episcopal Church the matter, theoretically, rests entirely in the hands of the bishop. In practice, however, this officer usually seeks the advice of district superintendents, and invites churches and ministers to express their wishes fully concerning “appointments.” Among the larger churches, it is becoming customary for the bishop to approve arrangements which have been entered into by churches and ministers. The right of the church and the minister to an opinion about establishing the pastoral relation can hardly be denied, even under an episcopal form of government They will be more seriously affected in case a mistake is made than the bishop can be. On the other hand, it is not at all certain that the average pastorate has been lengthened or the joy of the relationship increased by the self-assertion of ministers and churches. Where large liberty is granted a church in seeking its pastor the initiative in establishing a new relationship should ’Recent legislation by Parliament gives the parish more opportunity to express itself than was formerly enjoyed. THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 253 be taken by the church. The denomination generally is sensitive to the indelicacy of a minister actively seeking an ecclesiastical office, whether it be a pastorate, the episcopacy, a general secretaryship, or an editorial position. Under the doctrine of a divine call to religious work, the normal state of the pastor’s mind should be, “I am where I am because God has placed me here... I should stay here until Providence makes it clear that I am needed elsewhere.” If conditions of health or work make a change seem desirable, he is at liberty to express himself in a general way to district superintendents and bishops, but not to suggest himself for particular appointments. If approached by the committee of a particular church, he may express himself as willing to accept an invitation provided the bishop approves. It will be important for him to know whether the invitation is extended unanimously or only by a majority vote. He should be more interested in the spirit and ideals of the church than the salary which it pays. And he should decline to preach a “trial sermon.” Neither minister nor congregation are likely to be at their best under such an ordeal. The customary procedure on the part of the church seeking a pastor is to appoint a committee to consult, first, with the district superintendent and bishop, and, second, with other responsible persons who may suggest the names of available ministers. The committee should not enter into negotiations with anyone until it has satisfied itself concerning his acceptability. It is an easy matter in the Methodist Episcopal Church to discover what kind of work a pastor has done in previous charges, and this is a much safer criterion than the impression he may make in a single sermon. They should as little think of asking him to “candidate” as he should think of consenting to do so. Having satisfied themselves that they are ready to extend an invitation if he is willing to accept, they may interview him, and, if he is agreed, request the bishop, through the district superintendent, to make the appointment. 254 THE PASTORAL OFFICE If there is a call to begin a pastorate, there may also be a call to end it. The conviction may come to the pastor that he has made his best contribution and to continue longer in the service of a particular church is unwise. Let him make sure, however, that he is not moved merely by small personal irritations, or by the desire for an increase in salary, or by sheer restlessness. Again the conviction may come to the more thoughtful members of the church, and become so strong that they feel compelled to take the initiative in ending pastoral relations. There is a Christian way of proceeding in these matters which will be taken instinctively by persons of imagination and brotherly regard. One way not to do it is to pass complimentary resolutions inviting the pastor to return, and then quietly send a delegation to- the bishop or district superintendent insisting that he must not come back. That is unethical in the highest degree. Frankness and candor, mixed with kindly consideration, alone are justified in handling a matter so delicate. 4. Very often the call to religious work may take the form of a call to some special task or field, for example, foreign missions, foreign-speaking work at home, industrial work in cities, rural church work, or religious education. The prevailing considerations in reaching such a decision should be (i) sufficient knowledge concerning the proposed service to make possible an intelligent opinion, (2) the possession of the special abilities required for effective service, and (3) a strong inward response to the appeal of the work itself. 5. It is assumed that the call to the pastoral office is for life. The time may come, however, when the way may lead providentially into other service. It seems necessary to draft men continually from the pastorate for educational and administrative work in the denomination at large. And sometimes there are honorable reasons for withdrawing from full-time work in the ministry. For example, if it is impossible to support one’s family on the salary which THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 255 the church pays, without being embarrassed continually by debt, one is justified in resigning to engage in secular employment which will afford a living. The important thing in all such changes is to be certain that one is prompted by unselfish motives such as first led him into the ministry, and not chiefly by considerations of worldly ambition and private gain. 6. Having insisted that the ministry is a divine calling, let it be said also that it is a profession, in the sense at least that special training is necessary to a high degree of success. Irreparable injury has been done by misguided persons who have discouraged young ministers from attending college and theological school. The level of general culture is rising continually in every community, and professional standards must be elevated correspondingly. It is little short of tragic that the only professional worker who has made no special preparation for his work often is the minister. It is said that out of every five men in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, only one has received complete training for his work; two others have completed the major part or all of a college course; while the remaining two have never attended a college or theological school Anyone in doubt about the relation of training to efficiency in the ministry should write to Rochester (Baptist) Theological Seminary, Rochester, New York, for their illuminating bulletin on this subject. This training should consist primarily of a broad foundation of general knowledge such as a college course affords. Later, there should be specialized instruction in professional subjects and methods of church work, such as biblical interpretation, church history, Christian doctrine, religious education, missions, and social service, together with supervised practice in preaching, conducting public worship, evangelism, and church administration. The Conference course of study is in no sense an equivalent training. It is at best an unsatisfactory substitute devised by a church doing its work largely with untrained men, in the hope of cultivating in them habits of 256 THE PASTORAL OFFICE study and intellectual tastes which will overcome in part the handicap imposed by insufficient preparation. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Matthew Simpson, Yale Lectures on Preaching, Lectures I, II. N. J. Burton, Yale Lectures on Preaching, pp. 31-46. W. Gladden, The Christian Pastor, Chapter IV. Charles E. Jefferson, The Minister as Prophet; Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. James A. Hensey, The Itinerancy Its Power and Peril. Ernest Clyde Wareing, Critical Hours in the Preacher’s Life. W. L, Sperry, The Call to the Ministry, Harvard Theological Review, July, 1923. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 25-THE MINISTER'S STUDY ======================================================================== CHAPTER XXV THE MINISTER’S STUDY EXCEPT in comparatively rare instances the minister’s study is a combination of library, office, and place of prayer. Here he retires to enrich his mind, to do the “paper work” necessary in administering the church organization, and to worship. Ideally, the office work should be cared for elsewhere in order that the hours of study and devotion may be protected from interruption. When this is not possible, the working day must be divided so that each phase of his task may receive his whole attention in its own time. i. THE MINISTER AS STUDENT. The growing minister must be an earnest student throughout his whole life. Unceasing intellectual effort will be required to master the truth which he is to teach, and to acquire the skill to express it effectively. This is not a denial of the fact that God may communicate his wisdom immediately to men. It is only asserting that his revelation is more likely to come to the man who is honestly using his mind to discover it than to the intellectual loafer who regards study as superfluous. The race has been strangely obsessed with the idea that the movements of the Holy Spirit are erratic and capricious, despising the ordinary instruments of knowledge and employing always unique and mysterious methods. This view identifies God with the irregular and the extraordinary, but not with the usual and the commonplace. As a matter of fact, the “natural” cannot be explained without him any more than the “miraculous/’ and there is much to suggest that he will not use a miracle if a sufficiently perfect natural instrument is at hand by which to communicate his will It is sometimes asked, “Why does God speak through certain individuals and not through others?” The probable 257 358 THE PASTORAL OFFICE answer is, “The primary reason why more of the Word of God has come to us through Isaiah and Paul than through other men is that the minds of Isaiah and Paul were better fitted to receive these sublime truths than the minds of other men. This fitness may have been due in part to providential causes, but it must have been largely explained by the thoroughness with which they had prepared themselves for such mediumship.” 1 The pearl of great price in the parable was not discovered by a shiftless vagabond who hugged a comfortable grate-fire, but by a traveling jeweler, restless, eager, constantly searching for precious stones. The buried treasure was not uncovered by a man who never worked the field, but by the conscientious tenant who held himself to the prosaic business of plowing that soil year after year until at last he had his reward. In similar fashion the priceless pearl, the hidden treasure of divine inspiration, is discovered, not by the man who neglects the drudgery of study, but by him who regularly and continuously applies himself to the hardest of intellectual labor. By mastering the truth which others have proclaimed about God, he is making his own mind and heart fit instruments for detecting the divine will. The diligence with which the great preachers of the past gave themselves to hard study is instructive. Jonathan Edwards said, “My method of study, from my first beginning the work of the ministry, has been very much by writing; applying myself in this way to improve every important hint... when anything in reading, meditation, or conversation has been suggested to my mind that seemed to promise light on any weighty point; thus penning what appeared to me my best thoughts on innumerable subjects for my own benefit.” Samuel Hopkins studied fourteen hours a day, generally rising at four in the morning, occasionally as late as five in the winter. Doctor Chalmers, in the most active portion of his life, secured five hours *Gladden, op. cit f p. 87! THE MINISTER’S STUDY 259 daily for study. F. W. Robertson studied German by making written translations of the best German authors. He said, “I read hard, or not at all never skimming, never turning aside to many inviting books; and Plato, Aristotle, Butler, Thucydides, Jonathan Edwards, have passed like the iron atoms of the blood into my mental constitution.” His biographer says of him: “It was his habit, when dressing in the morning, to commit to memory daily a certain number of verses of the New Testament. In this way, before leaving the university, he had gone twice over the English version, and once and a half through the Greek. ... He said, long afterward, to a friend, that, owing to this practice, no sooner was any Christian doctrine or duty mentioned in conversation, or suggested to him by what he was writing, than all the passages bearing on the point seemed to array themselves in order before him.” His idea of study was to have some plan, even if a poor one, which prevented discursiveness in his own words, “the steady habit of looking forward to a distant end, unalterably working on until he had attained it the habit, in fact, of never beginning anything which is not to be finished.” 3 But even if the message could be received directly through prayer and faith without mental toil, the problem of expressing it clearly would remain. And the significance which this truth has for others will be determined very largely “by the dimensions and furniture of the mind through which it is communicated.” A mind well equipped with a good vocabulary of words, abundantly stored with illustrative material gathered from wide reading, and skillful at sifting out the irrelevant and nonessential, will be able to pass on this truth to others as one cannot do which is furnished with nothing but good intentions. No one has put this matter more effectively than Gladden. “Language is the instrument by which the greater part of the minister’s work is done. If he has a message to deliver, it will be con *See J. M. Hoppin, Pastoral Theology, pp. 164-169. Reprinted by permission of Funk and Wagnalls Company. 260 THE PASTORAL OFFICE veyed in the forms of human speech. The Word of God must reach the minds of men through the language of men. All revelation, all inspiration, is conditioned by this fact. There can be no more revelation than there is language to convey... It goes without saying that the better a man understands the instrument, the more familiar he is with its structure and its possibilities, the more perfectly he can convey his own conceptions to the minds of other men... The laws which govern the inspiration of the prophet must be in many respects similar to those which govern the inspiration of the artist. The artist must become familiar with the forms by which beauty, the beauty of which his art is the vehicle, finds its best expression. Long and painful courses of discipline are needful in order that he may gain the power of utterance... We have been told that poets are born, not made; but if this implies that all their powers are the gift of nature, and that none of them is due to training, it is far from the truth. The poet, for his part, was first compelled to learn the language in which he writes; a great deal of patient training was expended on him by his mother, and his nurse, and all the household, before he was able to articulate the simplest words of our common speech. Later he was led by many tutors through the mysteries of the alphabet and spelling-book and grammar; there is no royal road even for poets through these mysteries; the knowledge must be gained by toil. After the rudiments of the language have been mastered, there is a great deal more for him to learn of the idioms and forms by means of which the spirit of beauty finds expression in language. And after the technique of his art, so to speak, has thus beenacquired, if he is to be an interpreter of nature and life and this, as we are taught, is the poet’s function there will be room for long years of patient study of nature and of life before he will be able to interpret them to any clear purpose... Of every kind of art this principle holds true. The musician must prepare himself by the same kind of discipline. There is a certain manual facility which can be THE MINISTER’S STUDY 261 gained only by the most patient toil..., The principle is not different in the case of the minister, even when we are thinking of his prophetic function. Prophecy is the divine word spoken by the human voice, and the voice must be trained for speaking. Inspiration is not caprice; it must follow the law which conditions all divine intervention in behalf of men,... The grace of God is not given to relieve us from effort or to discharge us from responsibility, but to supplement our powers and to stimulate our activity.’^ In mastering language it is impossible to exaggerate the importance of writing. One who always speaks extemporaneously, never undertaking the drudgery of painstaking literary composition, will not make language a perfect instrument for expressing thought. Rather he will incline to wordiness which may conceal thought when it is not a substitute for it. The church suffers greatly from this “vice of extemporaneity.” Words are merely symbols of ideas. Many men create the impression when they speak that there is some especial virtue in using as many symbols as possible. But if one sign by the roadside points the way clearly, why should the landscape be cluttered up with ten others? The first characteristic of good literary style is clearness, and in saying a thing clearly one will use the fewest possible words, selecting them with the utmost care so that each will convey the precise shade of meaning which the speaker intended. The extemporizer in public address does not have time to choose his words with discrimination. The demand for continuous movement forbids pausing to search for just the term he wishes. One who halts thus wearies an audience quickly. He must take the word nearest at hand, whether it is the right one or not, and unless he has expressed previously that thought in writing, searching the dictionary through for better terms than those which first offered their services, the right one will seldom ’Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons. Gladden, op. cit. f pp. 86-89. Italics are the atithor’s. 262 THE PASTORAL OFFICE be available. The one within reach will say more, or less, than he wished to say, and it will be necessary to seize another, and another, to soften or sharpen the meaning of the first; whereas if he had written carefully in the study when he had time to wait until the word he needed came to mind, that very word would have been found lying on the surface of his mind when he called for it in extemporaneous address. And this applies to figures of speech and illustrations as certainly as to words. The “vivid metaphors,” “the felicitous phrase,” “the vital analogy” are seldom the product of sudden inspiration but, rather, the handiwork of the patient craftsman who wrought them out carefully on paper before he used them in public speech. Thus the relation between writing and concise, impressive public utterance is that of cause and effect. There is no easier way to enrich one’s speech. The minister should write completely at least one sermon each week for the first ten years of his ministerial life. He need not, he should not often, take the manuscript into the pulpit. The writing, nevertheless, will affect profoundly his expression. As aids in enlarging his vocabulary he should read the best literature, noting carefully the manner in which others declare themselves. New words, as well as new ideas, should attract him, and he should keep a good dictionary at hand to define accurately each unfamiliar term. To make them his own, he should learn to use these new words accurately as rapidly as he acquires them. They will seem awkward at first, but after two or three trials they become a part of his own mental equipment so that he employs them almost unconsciously. A new word a day added thus to one’s vocabulary will enhance greatly his power of speech in a single year. The study of synonyms is important too in the enrichment of utterance. Ideas must be repeated frequently, but they should be clothed in new words each time they appear, to avoid a sense of monotony. The larger dictionaries give the equivalent terms of every important word. A good thesaurus or book of synonyms and antonyms THE MINISTER’S STUDY 263 should be found on every pastor’s study table, and show evidence of frequent consultation. The minister’s reading should be determined by the nature of his work. He is preeminently a teacher of the Christian religion and his chief studies should ever have to do with his professional interests. In a general way it may be said that he will always be digging into the subjects to which he was introduced by the theological school or the Conference course of study. Four or five hours of every working day should be spent in this kind of toil. From four to six hours will yet remain which can be devoted to correspondence, administration, and pastoral visiting. This implies that he should have access to books, many of which must be purchased. In this way he will gradually assemble a professional library. The limited financial resources of most pastors make it imperative that books should be selected with the greatest care. Few can afford to spend more than two hundred dollars a year on their libraries. Many are unable to appropriate more than seventy-five dollars annually for this item. But none can afford to spend less. If need be, the minister may do without the clothes he might wish, and reduce his diet to the simplest articles of food, but he must buy nourishment for his mind whatever physical deprivation is suffered. The quality of a private library is not necessarily determined by its size. Some ministers’ shelves are heavily loaded with worthless volumes which cost much money. Others purchase comparatively few books, but always of the finest type. A small library of choice books which can be studied profitably again and again is much better than a larger collection of inferior volumes which may be read swiftly and then forgotten. Generally speaking, the man of limited income should not purchase sets of theological books. While there are notable exceptions (for example, religious encyclopedias), these are made to sell rather than to inform the mind. The minister does well to buy single volumes, which should be distributed among all the major depart 264 THE PASTORAL OFFICE ments of theological knowledge (i) Biblical Interpretation, (2) Christian Doctrine and Philosophy of Religion, (3) Church History, (4) Religious Education, (5) Missions, (6) Social Ethics, and (7) Practical Theology. It is unsafe in one’s early ministry to buy new books without advice. Seek the judgment of the best-informed men in the Conference, and ask any theological teacher in the church to recommend authors and titles. Do not buy a book that may be exhausted at a single reading. Since a private library is always an expression of individual tastes, it is impossible for one to prescribe for another the contents of his reading shelves. A studious elderly minister will see in his library the record of his varying intellectual interests across a period of years. At one time he was fascinated by philosophy and filled a shelf with treatises on that subject At another he was enthusiastic over the expansion of the church and assembled twenty-five or thirty volumes of church history and religious biography. At still another he was absorbed in varying problems of biblical interpretation the prophets, the life and teachings of Jesus, the parables, the miracles, or the life of Saint Paul and his volumes on those subjects will remind him of that period. Thus one’s library becomes a kind of autobiography of the intellect. These special interests, however, should all rest on a broad foundation of general knowledge, and it is in order to make certain suggestions about fundamental volumes which should be in every minister’s library, without in the least abridging the right of the individual to his own special enthusiasms. Because he is primarily 3, teacher of the Bible this book must be the object of his continuous study. He will brood over it, first, to enrich his own life, and, second, for its message concerning the spirit, confident that this record of God’s dealing with the race in other years will be supremely instructive to men to-day as they seek a way to life and peace. But the Bible does not “wear its heart pn its sleeve,” It is not easy to understand. What we get from it will de THE MINISTER’S STUDY 265 pend largely on what we bring to it in the way of principles of interpretation. The first books, then, to be purchased by the young minister as a nucleus for the biblical section of his library should be a few volumes which treat in a simple and clear way the subjects of biblical revelation, inspiration, and authority. J. Paterson Smyth’s How God Inspired the Bible, and The Making of the Bible; McConnelFs Religious Certainty and Understanding the Scriptures; William Newton Clarke’s Sixty Years With the Bible; Eiselen’s Christian View of the Old Testament; Dods’ The Bible Its Origin and Nature; A. S. Peake’s The Nature of Scripture; James Orr’s Revelation and Inspiration these suggest the type of work we have in mind. Later, technical treatises may be added, but these more elementary volumes will suffice in the beginning. Moreover, there can be no proper understanding of biblical literature without a knowledge of the religious, political, and social background of every book; and the next most important volumes in this section will be one or two good “Introductions” such as Driver’s or MacFayden’s Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, and Moflfatt’s or Peake’s Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament, together with Hastings’ Bible Dictionary (five large volumes) and Charles Foster Kent’s Historical Bible (six small volumes). After these general reference works have been installed one may purchase “commentaries” and “expositions” of particular parts of the Bible. At last one may secure a good onevolume commentary on the whole Bible (Peake’s or Dummelow’s), and there are excellent interpretive translations of the New Testament which have more value than some commentaries, for example, Moflfatt’s and Weymouth’s. For the most part, however, commentaries come in great sets, a volume, in some instances two, devoted to each book in the Scriptures. Among the more distinguished of these in recent years are the “Century,” “Cambridge,” and the “Expositor’s” Bibles; and the “Westminster” and “International Critical” commentaries. They are very expen 266 THE PASTORAL OFFICE sive, and the several volumes in any set are of unequal worth. On the whole, it is generally better to select single volumes from all these sets as one needs them than to make a large investment in books, some of which one may not use for years. As suggested above, any minister should feel at liberty to seek the advice of any theological professor in the church, by correspondence if not by personal interview, in selecting the worth-while books. In addition to the commentaries there are numberless individual studies on special themes which are rich in expository material. It is well to follow the same method in building intelligently the remaining departments of one’s library one or more comprehensive works which outline the whole field, supplemented by special volumes on particular aspects or periods of the general subject. The basis of the doctrinal section should be two or three standard treatises on Christian Theology such as Sheldon’s System of Christian Doctrine, Clarke’s Outline of Christian Theology and W. A. Brown’s Christian Theology in Outline, together with a few reliable volumes on the philosophical ground of faith, for example, Strickland’s Foundations of Christian Belief, or Foundations, by Seven Oxford Men. A knowledge of the manner in which Christian teaching has developed throughout the history of the church is important to a proper understanding of that teaching, and every minister should possess an excellent work on the history of doctrine, such as Fisher’s or Sheldon’s. Throughout one’s whole ministry he will add to this section single volumes on special doctrines, having respect, first, for the great beliefs that all bodies of Christians hold in common, and afterward for the doctrines of religious experience in which Methodists have been especially interested. The following titles will illustrate what we have in mind: Knudson’s Religious Teaching of the Old Testament; Sheldon’s or Stevens’ New Testament Theology; Streeter and others, Immortality, Prayer, and The Spirit; Bowne, The Divine Immanence, Studies in Christianity; Jefferson, THE MINISTER’S STUDY 267 Things Fundamental; Mackintosh, The Person and Work of Jesus; McConnell, Essentials of Methodism, and Diviner Immanence. In the department of church history, the introductory work should sketch in outline the whole story of the expansion of Christianity. This is done well in a single volume by Williston Walker. If a work of several volumes is desired, buy Sheldon’s History of the Christian Church. Later add volumes on particular periods, and biographies of great churchmen in all periods. After these a volume on the Protestant denominations and a good history of Methodism and the Methodist Episcopal Church would complete the section. The fundamental volumes in the department of religious education will deal with the psychology of religious experience among children and adults. Next should come volumes on principles, ideals, and methods of teaching religion. And finally there should be several volumes on the organization and administration of church schools. The reader is referred to the books recommended for study at the close of the chapter on religious education (XV). In developing the section on Missions, there should be, first, two or three volumes on the great ethnic faiths of the non-Christian world such as Soper’s Religions of Mankind, or Hopkins’, Menzies’, or G. F. Moore’s History of Religions. After these, historical volumes treating of particular mission fields, and biographies of great missionary leaders should be added, together with a number of texts expounding missionary ideals for the mission fields, and methods of missionary education that may be adopted in the local church. The department of Social Ethics will be in many ways the most important, yet the most difficult to develop. The basis should be a few reliable volumes on social organization, interpreting the mutual relations of the individual and society, and the significance of economics for both; next, there should be several volumes setting forth the principles 268 THE PASTORAL OFFICE and methods of the more significant social movements, such as socialism, trade-unionism, syndicalism; and lastly, there should be at least a half dozen of the great statements of the ethical ideal of Jesus for social relationships. The reader is referred to the books recommended for further study at the conclusion of Chapter XVII. The section on Practical Theology should contain a great variety of books having to do with the technique of church work. Some of the great expositions of the art of preaching made annually for a long period by the Yale lecturers and the great teachers of homiletics should be secured. At least one new volume of this sort should be read earnestly each year to keep one’s ideals untarnished. There should be a good collection of the best sermons by preachers living and dead, not for the sake of the material they contain but for the standard they set in the matter of literary form; also a few works on hymnology, several expositions of the ideals and methods of public worship, devotional volumes for the spiritual enrichment of the preacher’s own life, and many volumes on church methods and administration. (See books recommended in Sections I and II.) The morning hours of each day should be dedicated sacredly to devotions and professional study. There will be another hour or two, generally in the evening, besides vacation periods, which may be utilized in reading general literature and periodicals. Here one may follow his own taste. History, biography, science, essays, fiction, poetry, all have peculiar values for the preacher, and in the course of a year he should read them all. History, biography, and science, being descriptions of life, will supply an abundance of the best illustrative material. Essays will suggest themes for sermons. Fiction and poetry will be recreative and at the same time cultivate the power of imagination without which the minister cannot attain to excellence in anything. Upon his reading table should be found the official weekly of his denomination, a digest of current events and news, religious periodicals like The Christian Century, the Meth THE MINISTER’S STUDY 269 odist Review, and The Journal of Religion, together with at least one great magazine of general literature such as The Atlantic Monthly, The Yale Review, Harper’s, or Scribner’s. One should learn the art of reading rapidly the lighter kinds of prose, both general and theological. There is in every well-written paragraph a single sentence, sometimes a single phrase, which summarizes the whole, and good readers know how, at a glance, to fasten upon these central words. To mark them with pencil makes it possible to review quickly the contents of the chapter or book with little effort. The only way to conserve the results of one’s reading is to make notes. The most interesting information, the most impressive illustrations, and the most suggestive interpretations will inevitably escape unless they are rendered permanent by writing. After Phillips Brooks’ death his biographer found many notebooks filled with jottings as he had read and outlines of sermons as they had first come to him the germs of his greatest discourses. And practically every successful minister reads with a pencil in his hand. It is possible, however, to keep one’s notes in such form that they are of little value. The bound notebook and scrapbook ’Tceep” things too literally. It is necessary to read every page of every book to find what one wants. Notes and clippings must be indexed in some practical and simple manner to be useful. The following method is employed by one of the most successful Methodist pastors, with the result that all the data he has collected concerning any subject through his whole ministry is available immediately for use, (1) All books in his library are numbered and arranged on his shelves in consecutive order. (2) He has clipped interesting articles on every conceivable subject. These are numbered consecutively from I to 5, 000 as they have accumulated, without any reference to subject, and are filed in folders containing fifty dippings 270 THE PASTORAL OFFICE each; for example, Folder No. I holds the clippings numbered from I to 49; No. 2, from 50 to 99; No. 3, from 100 to 149; etc. (3) His personal jottings have been made on separate sheets of note paper and are filed separately in the same manner as his clippings. (4) His sermons are preserved in strong manila envelopes on each of which appears a number, the subject of the sermon, when, and where preached. (5) All this material is indexed carefully in a card index under fewer than one hundred topics arranged alphabetically. He began with a much smaller number and developed additional topics as there was need. The following will suggest the character of the groupings: Assurance, Atonement, Authority, Bible, Church, Education, Faith, God, Holy Spirit, Industry, Inspiration, Jesus Christ, Methodists, Missions, Politics, Prayer, Press, Recreation, Regeneration, Social Movements, Sunday School, Temperance, Texts and Subjects. As he comes upon any impressive fact or suggestion in his reading he makes note of it under its appropriate topic in his index. Under each heading there would be dozens of cards like the following on “Prayer”, Meaning of Prayer B 248-43 Prayer and Daily Life 100:16-884 Prayer in the Life of Jesus.*..’S 127 Missions and Prayer B 274-123 Illustration N 39^1962 These symbols tell him that in Book No. 248 in his library, page 43, there is a chapter on the “Meaning of Prayer,” and in Book No. 274, page 123, another phase of the subject is discussed. He has also a clipping in Folder 16, No. 884. Once he preached on “Prayer in the Life of Jesus/’ Sermon 127; and in his Note-file, Folder 39, Note 1962, he once recorded a valuable illustration. He has a score of other cards on this same general subject, containing material THE MINISTER’S STUDY “271 enough for a dozen sermons on every phase of the subject and all within reach. 2. THE MINISTER’S OFFICE. The minister’s office work should be cared for outside of the morning hours devoted to study. If he is so fortunate as to have a good secretary, this work will seldom need more than thirty minutes personal attention each day from him. Comparatively few pastors, however, have such assistance and must be their own clerks. If this work requires more than one and a half hoursperday on the average, he is justified in asking the official board to make an appropriation for stenographic help, for the pastor’s time is too valuable to spend a large amount of it keeping records and running a typewriter which some one else can do better for fifty cents or less an hour. The best available time for office work probably is in the early afternoon just after lunch and before it is wise to begin his afternoon calling. 3. THE MINISTER’S DEVOTIONAL LIFE. There is nothing more important for the pastor than the culture of his own spiritual life. His energies, constantly being drained, must, as constantly, be replenished. Happily his intellectual toil and pastoral visitation among the people of the community will often refresh his spirit if his attitude in them be prayerful. For, as Doctor Fairbairn says, “It may be laid down as a general principle that the whole of a minister’s labors should be intermingled with meditation and prayer. He should never be simply a man of learning and study, for this itself may become a snare to him; it may even serve to stand between his soul and God, and nurse a spirit of worldliness in one of its most refined and subtle forms.” 4 But in addition he must engage regularly in such special private exercises as are designed to make him conscious of the presence and peace and power of God in his own heart. The first of these is the meditative reading of the more devotional and liturgical parts of the Bible. The great hymns ’Quoted by Gladden, op. cit, p. 105. 272 THE PASTORAL OFFICE of the church, also, read thoughtfully and memorized, have power to nourish the spirit. Furthermore, the reading of prayers and religious poetry will help induce the mood of worship in which, finally, the soul of the man himself comes to self-expression and reaches out to lay hold of God at first hand. He who is not fully aware of the necessity for such communion is not fit to preach the gospel. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor, Chapter V. Frank W. Gunsaulus, The Minister and the Spiritual Life. P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, Chapter V. Evelyn Underbill, Practical Mysticism. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 26-PASTORAL VISITING ======================================================================== CHAPTER XXVI PASTORAL VISITING To many pastors the most distasteful phase of their work is visiting from house to house. This antipathy expresses itself often in mere neglect; but occasionally, in a frank belittling of the task. It is said, “My business is not ringing door bells!” or, “I do my work with my head, not my feet 1” or, “I am a shepherd, not a sheep-dog.” Quite naturally attempts are made to justify this feeling on rational grounds. “Let the people send for me as they do the physician when they desire my services”; or, “A minister invites serious criticism by visiting the women when their husbands are not at home”; or, “Pastoral calling is unnecessary in the highly organized church of to-day” these and other reasons are urged as an excuse for visiting only the sick and the troubled. The fundamental difficulty here arises from a misunderstanding of the purpose and method of the pastoral call. If one contemplates the trying exercise described by Dr. William M. Taylor, a distinguished Congregational minister in New York in the latter part of the nineteenth century, it is better that he leave it undone. “I was first settled,” he says, “over a church of about one hundred and eighty members, many of whom resided in the village in “which the place of worship was situated, but a considerable number of whom were farmers scattered over an area of about six miles in length by about two in breadth. I made my visits systematically, week by week, taking the parish in manageable districts. At first I was “accompanied on each occasion by an elder. It was expected that I should ask a few questions of the children, assemble the members of the household, give a formal address, and, then conclude with 2/3 274 THE PASTORAL OFFICE prayer. The presence of the ’lay brother’ was a great embarrassment. I supposed that because he was with me I should have a new address in every house, and should have a prayer in every instance perfectly distinct from any which I had formerly offered... So I went on from house to house, making a new address in each until, when it was toward evening, and I had walked perhaps five or six miles and made ten or twelve addresses, I was more dead than alive. You cannot wonder that, in these circumstances, pastoral visitation became the b$te noir of my life, and I positively hated it. Thus prosecuted, it was simply and only drudgery, and, so far as I know, was not productive of any good result.” 1 This kind of visiting implies an aristocratic view of the minister’s relation to the members of his church. Calling is an official function, a kind of spiritual inspection tour in which he formally peeps into their souls to see that they are swept and garnished. And after the manner of official affairs, the etiquette of the occasion is prescribed in great detail. This solemn farce gave the pastor no real knowledge of his people, nor did it permit them to derive any benefit from his presence, for an atmosphere of unreality wrapped both him and them about. But suppose that he had been actuated by the democratic motive of friendship, going forth to his calling, not because custom and tradition prescribed it, but because he sincerely desired to visit with old friends and to make new ones among young and old alike. And suppose, too, that he, in genuine friendliness, had come informally instead of formally, upsetting the routine of family life as little as possible, adjusting himself to the mood and circumstances in every home; praying here because it was perfectly natural to do so; omitting the prayer and even religious conversation there because it would have been an embarrassment to everyone; staying an hour in one place, and only five minutes in another, for precisely the same reason that it was Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner*s Sons. Quoted by Gladden, op. cti, p. 197!. PASTORAL VISITING 275 the wise and judicious thing for a friend to do. On this view of the matter pastoral visiting becomes a great adventure with the prospect ahead of endless variety a fascinating game, the object of which is to secure the good will of as many different persons as there are members of his constituency and show himself an equally good friend to all. If any object that “social calling” of this sort is not religious, it is well to remember that one cannot win people to Christ until he has first won them to himself. Moreover, we have no right to regard the social call as necessarily lacking in religious value. The religious motive does not express itself exclusively in formal devotional exercises. The call which promotes unselfish fellowship, deepens human sympathy, and increases the sense of brotherhood is as certainly religious as one which definitely concerns itself with religious subjects. Bishop Quayle gives a valuable hint to the pastor when he remarks, “That every call a pastor makes should be of the revival order is simply a piece of grievous misconception.” Again, pastoral visiting has no terrors for the minister who relates it clearly in his thought to his preaching. All sermonic material is not gathered from books. Much of it comes directly from life. We have seen that, according to the Protestant theory of worship, the minister acts as the representative of the congregation, giving expression to their collective thought and striving. This is true of the sermon as well as of the prayers. But how can he know what the people are thinking if he refuses to mingle with them under circumstances which lead them to express themselves freely? We do not mean to suggest that he should show servile regard for any individual’s opinion, or that he should fear to speak his mind when he differs honestly from others. The hope of lifting the congregation to higher levels of thinking and feeling and living rests largely upon the fact that the minister’s thinking shall not always conform to that of others. But we read that “the spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord”; that is, God reveals him 276 THE PASTORAL OFFICE self through human beings. We are likely to find the beautiful, the courageous, the heroic, the virtuous among simple persons as well as among the most learned. And how shall we receive the inspiration of their lives if we hold ourselves aloof from them? Pastoral visiting is highly accredited as a method of gathering homiletical materials, of acquiring the truth the congregation may have for the minister. Yet another conception of ministerial calling will convert it from an unpleasant duty into a high privilege. The auricular confession of the Roman Church rests upon a sound psychological principle the demand of the human spirit in moments of worry, excitement, and remorse, for an opportunity to unburden itself. It seeks an ear into which it may pour its feelings. Evangelical Protestantism, for good cause, rejects the Catholic method of providing this ear, and finds in pastoral visiting a better device to serve the same end. This is in Bishop McConnell’s mind when he suggests that, in visiting the people in their homes, the pastor shall seek, not so much to become a good talker, as a good listener. To give sympathetic heed to what others * feel inclined to say to us, though it may seem trivial and commonplace; to direct conversation without forcing confidences, so that men and women and children may talk frankly about what concerns them most; to be patient while a nervous, perplexed, annoyed soul eagerly lays its fears and hopes before us is to render, often, the greatest possible service. It may be that a word of wise counsel can be given, or that relief may be afforded through prayer. But the very act itself of discharging the load of pent-up emotion loosens the tension and relaxes the strain so that the weary soul “feels better/’ though the outward situation may remain just as it was. “If a pastor shows himself willing to listen, and can listen without fidgeting in a hurry to get to the next call on his list, he will be astonished to see how thoroughly people will open to him the depths of their lives, and how often they PASTORAL VISITING 277 will give him a message which is a genuine voice of humanity. A successful pastor once told me of the following experience: A member of his church suddenly met a terrible grief. For days the stricken man sat almost in silence, but when my friend called on him he was moved to talk by the rare sympathy of a skilled physician of souls, for my friend possessed such rare sympathy. The mourner talked for one hour, for two, for three, and found his way toward the light as he himself talked. For the rest of his life he held in grateful honor the memory of the pastor who listened while he talked. Now, what the mourner gained as he thus thought aloud toward the light was not less than the pastor learned. The pastor heard not just the man talking; he heard the voice of stricken humanity and a note from that voice sounded thereafter from his pulpit. One reason for encouraging people ’to talk themselves clear out’ is that in the experiences which are most peculiarly our own we may find ourselves to be most like other people. Who of us has not had thoughts and feelings which have seemed so peculiarly his own that he has been afraid to mention them to others for fear of being misunderstood and perhaps laughed at? Yet who of us has not had the experience of discovering that such thoughts or feelings when actually expressed have been those that other people have seemed to understand best? Many of these most intimate experiences are most catholic in their sweep. The man who knows these peculiarly personal experiences is able to preach in widely human terms. Moreover, apart from all such intimacies, the preacher who, with a consecrated desire to serve, mingles most closely with his fellows is the one who can most genuinely utter the voice which we call the voice of humanity.” 2 Finally, it accords with the social view of the minister’s relation to the church to insist that in his pastoral visiting he acts as the representative of the whole congregation. F. J. McConnell, The Preacher and the People, pp. 278 THE PASTORAL OFFICE He is the voice through which all the members speak to each. These considerations make pastoral visiting an all-important part of the minister’s work. Indeed, they justify Vin-et in his statement that willingness to visit from house to house is the final test of a call to the ministry. “Public speaking is comparatively easy and agreeable; we can only be sure of our vocation to the ministry when we feel drawn and impelled to -exercise the duties of the care of souls.” It would greatly simplify matters if a manual could be prepared, such as some have pleaded for 3 containing “examples and rules for the examination of the burdened conscience governing the wants of souls seeking guidance and help, and the ways for meeting them sanctioned by God’s Word, the church’s discipline, and the Christian experience of all the past/’ But the technique of pastoral oversight cannot be thus codified. Imagination, insight, and sensitiveness to moods and conditions are indispensable. Without these, rules are ineffective. With them, rules are not needed. If the pastor is not the kind of person who does the right thing almost instinctively and intuitively, he is not likely to do it because it is commanded; or if he should go through the prescribed actions, it would be in a spirit that would make them ridiculous. Nevertheless, a few general suggestions may be helpful in dealing with certain types of calls. i. GENERAL CALLING. By this we mean the regular and systematic visitation of every family in the membership and constituency of the church. The pastor may have assistance in this work, but he himself can never be excused from participating in it, however large his congregation or however numerous his helpers. No one has a right to regard himself as a good shepherd who does not plan to visit personally every family at least once a year. When F, B. Meyer, S. Parkes Cadman, Charles Reynolds Brown, and ’See Bishop A. N. Littlejohj^ in The Christian Ministry at the Close of the Nineteenth Century, p. 322. PASTORAL VISITING 279 Bishop McConnell never passed a year as pastors without making at least a thousand calls (Bishop Quayle always visited every family once a quarter), others may indulge no hope of pardon for neglecting this work. The busiest pastors have only to plan intelligently and conscientiously for this visiting to get into every home regularly each year. Let them divide the total number of calls which should be made annually by fifty-two to discover how much work must be done each week, and then see to it that as early in the week as possible the appropriate number of visits is made. If one were to spend but three hours a day, five days a week in visiting the people, he could make fifteen hundred calls in a year, allowing a half hour for each visit. In few churches will it be necessary to make a larger number, and most churches will demand less. This will leave four or five hours daily for study, and two more for correspondence and administration, provided the minister is willing to work nine or ten hours each day and he should be ashamed to work less. a. “What is the purpose of such calling?” First, the establishment of friendly relations between the minister and every member of every family. These relations spring up only as the result of careful cultivation. The diligent pastor will carry with him constantly a visiting list containing not only the names of the heads of the family but of every child and other person in each home, and when he calls, will inquire thoughtfully concerning each by name. He will keep a memorandum of pertinent facts about each individual. One of the great pastors of American Methodism twenty-five years ago was the Rev. Henry A. Buchtel, D.D, who is known to the church now as chancellor emeritus of the University of Denver and former governor of Colorado. On his first visit in a home he was accustomed to inquire carefully for the names and birthdays of all young people in the family. The occasion for this appeared later when the children on every successive natal day received from their pastor tetters written iu his own 280 THE PASTORAL OFFICE hand, and never two alike. Who could resist such overtures of friendliness? To recall that on your last visit the father was ill, to remember that James is interested in collecting stamps, and to send your regards by her mother to Mary, who is at college, may be small matters, but they do much to bind people to you. And whatever will do that is very important. The second object of this general calling is to discover any who may be troubled, disaffected, or indifferent, and to render such individual aid as lies in one’s power. Third, this kind of calling binds the church constituency into a single spiritual unity. Like a human shuttle-cock the pastor moves back and forth through the community, carrying the same spirit and the same ideals into all homes, counseling, sympathizing, admonishing, rebuking, encouraging as each case may demand, but all to the same end. Nothing could be more valuable from the standpoint of church organization. Commercial and industrial corporations often pay welfare workers large salaries to do just this among their employees. Finally, it should be said that in this persistent work of visiting the pastor keeps his parish maps up to date. He constantly re-surveys the field, noting new facts and faces in the community, changes of residence, and the like. b. “What do you do when you calif Chiefly, carry a spirit of buoyant faith and hearty cheer into the homes of the community. A sanctified imagination (common sense) will suggest the particular things which should be done. These will vary with the personality of the pastor and with the conditions which he finds. If he arrives inopportunely, say in the midst of housecleaning, or just as his hosts are preparing to go oust, or when other company is present, he will make everyone happy by wishing all “good day” and leaving in a moment or two. Let him not be deceived by assurances that he must stay. A courteous mistress will always conceal, if possible, any embarrassment which a guest unwittingly may cause. Match her courtesy with an PASTORAL VISITING 281 other equally fine and refuse to interfere further with her plans, which are important, at least to her. “The getting away is quite as much of an art as coming,” says our wise Bishop Quayle. “Many times preachers are so engrossed with their pastoral concerns that they do not get at the magnitude of the concerns of others.” 4 On the other hand, circumstances may justify the pastor in lingering long to talk. Should the home be one in which dwells a lonely soul who is largely cut off from religious and social fellowship, and upon whose hands time hangs heavily, stay as long as you choose, talking about the life and activities of the church, telling all the good things you know of persons and institutions in the community, though, of course, the conversation should never degenerate into mere gossip. If the host be devoutly minded, it will be quite in order to read a helpful portion from the Scriptures and pray briefly before leaving. This prayer may be made sitting or standing as well as kneeling. Again, it might be appropriate to stay and listen, rather than talk. As previously noted, there are burdened spirits who need nothing so much as a sympathetic and attentive ear into which they may discharge their feelings. They will derive more comfort from an inarticulate pastor than one who is voluble. It is a good thing for the physician of souls to know when his silence will be more healing than his words. Let no minister suppose that he must pray in every home. A pastor on coming to a new church let it be known that this was his ideal, and later discovered that few people were at home when he rang the bell. A wiser pastor announced that, except in cases of sickness or trouble, as a rule he was not accustomed to suggest prayer when he visited members of the church in their homes. Since the obligation of hospitality was on them, he would wait for an invitation. His own hope, however, was expressed hu ’Pastor-Preacher, p. 139. 282 THE PASTORAL OFFICE morously by the comment that he expected them to be wellmannered in this regard. Why should the physician of souls have but one prescription, regardless of varying temperaments and conditions? Let him be as wise as the healer of the body, who makes a careful diagnosis of each case and adapts the treatment to the disease. Some ministers utilize the mail as a valuable pastor’s assistant. The personal visits of the lamented Maltbie Babcock were very brief. Frequently he made as many as twenty-five calls in an afternoon. But he had the imagination to take in a situation at a glance, and on his return to his home often spent several hours writing notes of advice and helpful suggestion to those whom he had found in need of pastoral counsel. Dr. George S. Butters, of Boston, has followed a similar plan. In every community where he has lived men and women treasure pastoral epistles which he addressed to them at important crises in their lives, and literally hundreds of ministers in his denomination, whom he first met as theological students, preserve with great care letters which he has written across a long period of years. This use of the pen is commended especially to those who find it difficult to express themselves in speech when they feel deeply. In cities and larger towns it is all but impossible to see the men of the congregation during the day unless one calls on them at their places of busines$. As a rule, laymen rather like to have their pastor hunt them up at their work, provided he does not come too often or stay too long. This kind of a call usually should be very brief. The object should be merely to let the man know that his pastor thinks of him and wishes him well in all that concerns him. If one plans to consult laymen on church business during the day, an appointment should be made in advance for that purpose. Men usually are appreciative of any effort which the pastor may make to visit their families during the evening. They have time then for social and religious conversation which is denied them during the day. PASTORAL VISITING 283 It is not clear that a minister should announce publicly in advance that he will call on the families who live in a certain district during the following week. There is always a possibility that he may be compelled to change his plan, and some will await his coming in vain. Moreover, it may give others the opportunity to avoid a call which they need sorely. It seems better, on the whole, to take one’s chances on finding people at home, and, if they are absent, to call again. It should be unnecessary to say that no minister should make pastoral visiting an occasion when he airs his personal grievances or works up sympathy for himself. He goes to give sympathy and not to get it. Some ministers feel that their wives must accompany them in their pastoral visiting. When it is convenient and pleasurable for them to go, let them do so by all means. But that they are obligated to attend their husbands thus is not obvious. The minister’s wife may have a unique relation to the church, but certainly it cannot be that of parish visitor. Should a physician’s wife accompany her husband on his professional calls? Let the mistress of the parsonage have her own calling list independently of her husband. In many cases the same names will appear on both lists, but the lists will not be identical throughout. It may be urged that there is a type of woman in almost every community who is. especially attracted to ministers, and against these their wives must protect them. In reply it may be said that almost never does a minister whose heart is pure and whose manner is above reproach get into trouble of this kind. If he needs other protection than a clean mind affords, let him take as escort a male lay official of the church or an officer of the law or stay away. 2. SPECIAL CALLING. This includes all official visiting which is required by something exceptional in the experience of individual members of the church or its constituency. It is additional to the regular visiting which should go on constantly, and, in importance, takes precedence over it. 284 THE PASTORAL OFFICE That is to say, an individual in especial need of pastoral attention has a preferred claim upon the pastor’s time, even the hours ordinarily set apart for study. This type of visiting embraces calls upon the sick, the troubled, strangers, and all who are upon the pastor’s “personal work list.” a. Upon the Sick. A pastor on going to a new parish should begin his work by visiting immediately all who are ill, and he should let the congregation know that he desires to be informed in the event that any home is stricken with sickness. Nothing but ignorance of the fact can excuse pastoral neglect of any who suffer. Those who are “shut in” as the result of chronic invalidism should be visited regularly, both by the pastor and any parish visitors who may assist him. Their names should be on special mailing lists to receive all printed matter issued by the church, and good wishes may be sent frequently over the telephone. In the case of acute and sudden illness the pastor should call as soon as he learns of the trouble, and, under ordinary circumstances, every day thereafter as long as the illness continues to be serious. Some of these subsequent calls may be made by telephone, particularly if the sickness is not of a threatening nature; but the personal visit will be more appreciated because it requires a greater expenditure of time and energy. The pastor should have two ends in view in visiting the sick: (i)composing the spirit of the patient, and (2) being a good friend to the family. In the first instance his call may have genuine therapeutic value. The relation of the mind to disease is now generally admitted. Depression and irritability are inimical to health and retard recovery from sickness, while calmness, buoyancy, and hopeful expectancy assist the healing process greatly. The wise minister may do much to create a state of mind favorable to the restoration of health. Nor does it depreciate the value of this service to recognize that it is accomplished by “suggestion.” It is not necessary to approve all that is said in the name of a be PASTORAL VISITING 285 havioristic psychology to use its method intelligently, as does the salesman in selling merchandise. The wise pastor knows what kind of a response he wishes to secure from the patient, and will plan his appeal with the utmost care. On entering the home, let him lay aside his outer garments overcoat, hat, gloves, and rubbers. His manner on approaching the bedside of the patient should be cheery, though quiet; and sympathetic, though not solemn. He should not stay long, for sick people tire easily; nor should he talk much of his own illnesses. Let him listen, however, if the patient wishes to describe his sickness. All this is of absorbing concern and relieves the mind. Then the patient’s attention may be directed away from his illness to people, things, and events of interest. Leave a book to be read when reading is possible, or flowers, either in your own or the name of the church. If you know a good story that will provoke a smile, this is the time to tell it. Let all that is said be designed to stimulate in the sufferer a hopeful, pleasant frame of mind. And, if possible, one should turn the conversation so as to suggest naturally the healing values of prayer and faith, for nothing is more potent in composing the restless mind. Thus the spirit, manner, and words of the pastor will be designed to induce an attitude which will be favorable to recovery. If it should appear that the patient grows steadily worse and death is imminent, the pastor should be the most devoted friend of the family. This would mean, at the least, keeping in constant touch with them, and, at the most, putting himself entirely at their disposal for any service which he is able to render. One distinguished minister in Methodism well-nigh took up his abode at the home when death was expected in any family in his parish. Happy is that family whose pastor is gifted with imagination as well as sympathy so that he understands without being told how he can serve best, whether by speaking or keeping silence, by his activities or by his prayers! And this service should continue long after the funeral, if it comes to that. A cer 286 THE PASTORAL OFFICE tain bishop in the church is generally commended for the profundity of his thought and the simplicity of his utterance, but the sound of his name is like sweet music to one elderly woman because every day for three weeks he called at her home after a member of her family had died. He seldom stayed more than five minutes, but it was long enough to let her know that she and her loneliness were much in his mind those dreary days. The conduct of the pastor in the face of contagious disease will be regulated largely by the laws of public health. He has no more right to consider personal danger than a physician; and his family is obligated to take the same risks should occasion arise, which are run by the doctor’s wife and children. But let him be guilty of no foolhardiness. If he must expose himself to contagion in the discharge of his pastoral duties, let him consult a physician concerning protective measures which may be taken, both for his own and his family’s sake. He should never be guilty of disregarding quarantines without the consent of health officials. The telephone and mails, of course, may be used to communicate with those who are isolated. As a matter of fact, visiting the sick is always attended by more or less hazard, and the careless pastor may easily become a “carrier” of disease. He will almost certainly shake hands with the patient, and may handle articles which the latter has touched. Consider how perilous that is in a case of tuberculosis. The thoughtful pastor, then, should always be careful to cleanse his hands thoroughly after a visit to the sick-room. The relation of the pastor to the physician should be one of cordial cooperation. Most physicians recognize the therapeutic value of the pastor’s call and welcome it, except where a pastor has proven himself to be a wretched bungler who irritates more than he soothes by his coming. Generally, the minister will be admitted to sick-rooms, hospitals, and operating rooms when all others are excluded, and he may call at other than the regular hours for visiting. PASTORAL VISITING 287 But should the physician leave orders that no one may see the patient, or if the nurse should warn, “Only a minute!” he must have the utmost respect for their commands. They are in charge of the case. Let him turn his attentions to the family, who need him in such an hour more than the patient. b. Upon Strangers. After the sick, strangers have the next best right to the pastor’s attention. It is quite possible that the minister may not understand how lonely new people can be in a community. He and his family receive so much attention when they come that he may mistakenly assume that others are as cordially received. It is seldom so. Often strangers wait in vain for signs of friendly interest in their neighbors. They may even attend church without anyone inquiring for their names or bidding them welcome. For an occasional Christian (?) takes the position that he does not care to make any new friends. As soon as he learns of their presence the minister should call in the name of the church, provided, of course, that they belong to his constituency. (If they are members of another denomination, he should give their names to the pastor of that religious body.) And he should urge the members of his own church who live near by to call soon. Conscientious pastors use many devices to inform themselves concerning strangers. Blank cards are kept in the pews for reporting their names. The members of the church are asked to act as “sentinels” who notify him when he should call on new people in their block. Sunday-school teachers are trained to report the names of new pupils so that the minister may call on the parents. Ushers in the public service note the unfamiliar faces and quietly secure their names and addresses, introducing them when possible to the pastor. He, in turn, secures their “church letters/’ and builds them as rapidly as possible into the life and organizations of the new church. c. The Troubled. This group would be, as a matter of fact, identical with the entire membership of the church, 288 THE PASTORAL OFFICE for trouble in some form comes to all. Here the term is restricted, however, to those who are miserable for other reasons than physical illness. It includes the wearied, the worried, the anxious, the depressed, the perplexed, the discouraged, the sinful. The amount of mental and emotional suffering in the world cannot be exaggerated. The number of persons who destroy themselves annually because life has become intolerable; the multitudes who follow after Christian Science and other cults which promise peace of mind; the tens of thousands who take “the rest cure” in sanitariums; the millions who seek diversion and selff orgetfulness in drugs, intoxicants, and extravagant amusements these all bear witness to the far-reaching sway of unhappiness. The causes are numerous, sometimes found in external circumstances, and sometimes in psychological conditions. In part, they are due to the monotony of modern industry; in other part, to defective education in the home, the school, and the church; and, in yet other part, to the rapid pace of modern life, which gives very few an opportunity to compose themselves. Some of this misery is psychopathic, a matter for experts highly trained in the methods of psychoanalysis. Most of it may be relieved, however, by the “healing personality” of a sympathetic pastor who has the imagination to understand in how many ways the spirit of man may be burdened; and the patience to listen while the heart pours out that which has been too long repressed; and the wisdom to make helpful suggestion concerning the attainment of peace and self-control. The nature of these suggestions will vary greatly, for different problems require different solutions. When poverty is the real source of trouble the pastor must do all in his power to find employment, or, if that is impossible, to provide for permanent relief, enlisting the interest of all persons and institutions directly concerned. When the case is one of domestic unhappiness in which husband and wife are alienated, appeal, exhortation, rebuke may all be in order, according as the facts show that one or both are PASTORAL VISITING 289 culpable. No more difficult problem ever comes to the pastor than this, and, as a rule, he will do well to take with him a wise and patient layman for advice and counsel. If the troubled be young people who have blundered through ignorance or lack of self-mastery, the case is one for sympathetic reproof and constant watchfulness in the future. And if the case be one of moral “obliquity on the part of a mature person in the church, the pastor may find it necessary to speak as the voice of conscience, both of the sinner and the church. But we must say again that no set of rules can be laid down for handling any pastoral problem. Only common sense, imagination, and sympathy can teach us what to say or do. The spiritual welfare of the church membership may be increased by the pastor who emphasizes, both in the pulpit and his calling, the value of daily prayer and meditation. The discipline of Christian Science requires that a considerable portion of time each day shall be devoted to the deliberate culture of the sense of well-being by uncritical reflection upon the affirmations of “Science and Health.” This practice more than anything else accomplishes the alleged “cures” of this body. But anyone who will spend at least twenty minutes each day in religious meditation, closing the mind to that which disturbs and annoys, and filling it with that which is peaceful and holy by reading worthy devotional literature and engaging in prayer, will find his mental, moral, and physical health improving. An old monk long ago called this “practicing the Presence of God.” And there is no way of truly reviving the church except by cultivating this old habit. d. The Unevangelized. A final group which has special claims upon the pastor’s time consists of those who are unevangelized. The term is a broad one, embracing not merely the unchurched, but the unconverted, and all who have never ventured into the deep places of Christian experience, whether members of the church or not. Their names will compose the pastor’s “Personal Work List,” and none but 290 THE PASTORAL OFFICE himself and God will see it. These must be cultivated persistently and lovingly, though with tact and common sense. There should be no nagging, yet there must be constant pursuit which never abandons the holy chase. Let the pastor angle for these souls as the fisherman angles for the wary trout. He should be tactful, yet at times be ready to risk a blunder by bold adventuring. This work must go on month after month,.intensified, perhaps, during special meetings, but not abandoned when meetings are done. BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY W. A. Quayle, The Pastor-Preacher. Charles E. Jefferson, The Minister as Shepherd. Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor. F. J. McConnell, The Preacher and the People. John T. Stone, In the Footsteps of a Pastor. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 27-MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS ======================================================================== CHAPTER XXVII MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS THERE is no professional worker whose service is affected more by an unethical quality in his living and conduct than that of the minister. Yet it might be possible, as Doctor Batten suggests, 1 to say that the ministry as a body has no code of professional ethics. This is true, however, only when we mean by a professional code one that has been formally elaborated and adopted by a group of workers who were empowered to speak for a whole profession. Examples of such codes are found in the canons of ethics for lawyers, adopted by the American Bar Association, and in a code of medical ethics adopted by the American Medical Association. Several reasons may be urged for the lack of such a formal code for religious workers. The motive for entering the ministry differs radically from that of any other profession, as has been suggested in a previous chapter. It might be assumed that men acting from such a motive would not need the restraints of a formal ethical code. Again, practically all ministers belong to particular denominations. The differences separating these religious bodies are very marked. Each has its own standards for its own ministers, but it would be difficult to secure the cooperation of all in formulating a code which should be binding upon all. Nevertheless, the profession is tested by the highest standards. There are those who believe that the unwritten Constitution of England is of greater practical utility than the written Constitution of the United States. Similarly, the unofficial code of ethics for the ministry is more exact a See an article, “The Ethics of the Ministry,” in Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, May, 1922, p. 147. 291 292 THE PASTORAL OFFICE ing than the carefully formulated rules which govern workers in other professions. A minister will be discredited and unfrocked for private conduct which would not affect at all the professional standing of a lawyer or a physician. This is due chiefly to the fact that he stands before the community as a teacher of New Testament ethics, and by this Christian standard, which he interprets, the community inevitably will judge him. Besides the restraints imposed upon his private and professional life by the ethics of the New Testament, the minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church is bound by a carefully written code set forth in the Discipline of the church. 2 It is called “the rules for a preacher’s conduct.” These were written first by John Wesley for the guidance of his English preachers. On the organization of the church in America, they were adopted by the ministers in the new country, and have been confirmed by each succeeding General Conference. Every minister who applies for admission into an Annual Conference is asked, “Have you considered the rules for a preacher, especially those relating to diligence, to punctuality, and to doing the work to which you were assigned, and will you keep them for conscience’ sake?” Thus each candidate for our ministry admits this code as binding, in spirit, upon himself. Formal professional codes aim to safeguard the entrance to the profession, to maintain the dignity and standing of the profession, and to assert with great care the obligation of all professional workers to be bound by the motive of service. The principles of medical ethics, as set forth by the American Medical Association, are arranged in three chapters, namely, (i) The Duties of Physicians to Their Patients, (2) The Duties of Physicians to Each Other and the Profession at Large, (3) The Duties of the Profession to the Public. The concluding paragraph says, “While the foregoing state *Discipline, 1920, W 117-130. MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS 293 ments express in a general way the duty of the physician,... it is not to be supposed that they cover the whole field of medical ethics, or that the physician is not under many duties and obligations besides these herein set forth.” A similar statement might be made in concluding the rules for a preacher’s conduct. These rules take account chiefly of matters of major importance. But many ministers become wholly unacceptable, not through the violation of these greater rules but through disregard of minor matters, which, though trivial by comparison, are of great consequence in the community’s estimate of their efficiency. In this chapter we shall deal with these little things, many of which are not mentioned at all in the chapter in the Discipline on “Qualifications and Work of the Ministry,” and one might even search the New Testament in vain for a statement concerning some of them. Saint Paul says, “I put no obstacle in the path of any so that my ministry may not be discredited.” 3 Every minister should be equally eager to remove from his life and conduct everything, however trifling, which in any way reflects upon his office. It is impossible to make a complete catalogue of these faults. They fall into a few great groups which are not mutually exclusive. Such practical classifications as are attempted here include only the more common failings. We must repeat that which has been affirmed so often in these pages, that there is no safe guide in these matters except what is afforded by a discriminating taste and a sensitive conscience. i. PERSONAL HYGIENE, a. It is so regrettable as to be painful that some ministers are untidy to an intolerable degree. The mediaeval association between piety and filth is no longer admitted. No degree of sanctity, and no depth of ministerial poverty will ever excuse soiled linen, grimy hands, black finger nails, unbrusbed teeth, dirty shoes, vests spotted with grease, dandruff-covered coat collars, in the minister himself, Nor will they excuse untidy housekeeping *2 Corinthians 6:3, Moffatf’s translation. 294 THE PASTORAL OFFICE or unkempt children in his home. Each of these things betrays an indifference to personal cleanliness which everywhere shocks the sensibilities of people of ordinary refinement. How can they respect the minister’s judgment in spiritual things when they must apologize for him in such elementary matters as these? “I am ashamed to introduce him to my business associates as my minister,” exclaimed a vexed layman whose badly groomed pastor was a constant source of humiliation. ft. But some who are meticulous in caring for the outside of the body are grossly indifferent to the inside, with the result that spiritual efficiency becomes seriously impaired through low physical vitality. The men who follow sedentary occupations must put their bodies under and provide sparingly for physical appetites. Ministers are proverbially poor, but that does not keep some of them from eating too much. Nor is it altogether a question of quantity, but also one of kinds of food. They consume too much meat and starch, and too little fruit and green vegetables. The organs of digestion and elimination are overloaded. Constipation, kidney trouble, indigestion, and foul breath inevitably result. John Wesley’s demand that his preachers should fast regularly was justifiable on physiological as well as religious grounds. “Do you use only that kind and degree of food which is best both for body and soul? Do you eat no more at each meal than is necessary? Are you not heavy or drowsy after dinner?” 4 An overfed body is not an effective instrument for the soul. c. Posture has much to do with physical efficiency. Physicians tell us that man has limb for limb, bone for bone, and muscle for muscle with other mammals. His upright position puts an unaccustomed strain on the nervous system. The weight, which in other animals is supported by the abdominal muscles, settles into the pelvis and puts pressure on new nerve centers. This strain quickly produces a ’Discipline, 1920, Tfi2if. MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS 295 sense of fatigue. The only way to relieve it is to maintain a good posture head erect, shoulders thrown back, and abdomen supported by muscular effort. Yet how infrequently does one find a minister who carries himself properly! Generally he stands lop-sidedly on one foot, chest and shoulders thrown forward, and abdominal muscles completely relaxed. He thinks he stands this way because he is tired. As a matter of fact, the truth probably is that he is tired because he stands this way. d. Exercise is important too, though not in the same sense as for the athlete. The minister does not need hard muscles. He requires only that degree of physical activity which will keep every bodily organ in good condition. Setting-up exercises morning and night, and additional exercise which will be equivalent to a five-mile walk each day, will generally suffice. 2. GOOD MANNERS. Of all men in the world, the minister should be most mannerly; yet good manners are not always in evidence among religious leaders. We are not thinking now of codes of etiquette which prescribe in detail the action appropriate to ceremonial occasions. “The words etiquette and ticket have the same origin. Formerly, the rules and ceremonies to be observed at court were printed on a ticket, and given to every person presented at court.” So E. J. Hardy comments in How to Be Happy Though Civil. 6 Rules of this kind.change, like fashions, with every wind. We have in mind, rather, that gentle bearing and consideration for others which is indispensable to happy relations among men. Edmund Burke says: “Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in great measure, the laws depend. The law touches here and there, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and color to our lives. Accord “P. 13. 296 THE PASTORAL OFFICE ing to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them.” e In spite, however, of the obligation which his religion imposes upon him to be civil, and its usefulness in allaying the frictions incident to his work, the rude and ill-mannered minister is conspicuous and discredits the whole profession. This is apparent in his ostentatious disregard of proprieties on the supposition that he is proving himself democratic; in conversing with guests in the pulpit while others are contributing to public worship; in looking bored while others are speaking; in taking more than his share of time on a program when others besides himself are to speak; in self-assertively doing all the talking at a dinner party or other social occasion; in affecting eccentricities of dress and manner; in petty concern for his own prestige, anxious that proper deference shall be paid him on every occasion; in parading the affairs of his own household and the cleverness of his own children before the congregation; in improper bodily contacts with members of the congregation, jocosely slapping men on the back and sentimentally dealing with women or holding their hands in bath his own as though he were their father or older brother; in carelessness about engagements; in slangy and coarse speech; in discourteous contradiction of the statements of others; in fidgeting and fussing; in planning to get before the public and see his name in print; in picking his teeth, chewing toothpicks, trimming his finger nails, and expectorating in public places; in assuming generally that the obligation to be a Christian gentleman rests upon every person in the world but himself. Of course no one minister was ever quite guilty of all these faults, but everyone knows some minister who is guilty of one or more of them. Bad manners are regrettable for any minister. They are inexcusable for Methodist ministers. Professor Hoppin, of Yale University, said, “John Wesley, plain and severe as we picture ’Quoted by E. J. Hardy, op. ciL, p. 12. MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS 297 him, insisted upon the highest style of manners in the ministerial office, all the courtesy of the gentleman joined with the correctness of the scholar/* 7 The causes of bad manners are numerous. Defective early training is surely one. This usually applies, however, only to those conventions which are indispensable to social intercourse. Wherever there are contacts with our fellowmen, to proceed according to well-recognized customs is to reduce friction. To disregard them will only create confusion and misunderstanding as certainly as failure to heed the signal of a traffic officer. For example, if one is a guest in a private home during Annual Conference, he is expected to act as if he understood perfectly that a home is not a hotel. He will disturb the routine of the family as little as possible and make his convenience suit that of the family if within his power. And on returning to his own home, he will send a note of appreciation to his hosts for their gracious hospitality. To conduct oneself otherwise under circumstances such as these will open the way to censure. But defective conduct which grows out of ignorance of social conventions is not especially serious when one honestly intends to be thoughtful, modest, and courteous. He may inform himself concerning polite usages by studying a good volume on manners. The situation is much more complicated when the cause is a wrong inner attitude of heart and mind. Vanity is one of these. This is responsible for the self-conscious assertion of oneself on small occasions telling what others have said about one’s sermons, parading one’s hobbies and private affairs as if they must be of universal interest. “The vain man can scarcely be well-mannered; he is so absorbed in the contemplation of his own perfections that he cannot think of other people and study their feelings.” 8 Irritability is another fruitful source of incivility, whether it is caused by weariness, illness, or constitutional churlishness. The irri Theology, p. 196. “E. J. Hardy, op. cit, p. 116. 298 THE PASTORAL OFFICE tated person is always chiefly concerned with himself, full of fault-finding, and lacking in appreciation of others. Probably every other source of bad manners, however, is gathered up under this disregard for other persons. Bad pulpit manners are due to lack of respect for God and the congregation. All vulgar conduct loudness, coarseness, silliness, boorishness, obtrusiveness of every sort is due to lack of regard for the rights and feelings and presence of others. Reverence for others impels to love and sympathy, which prompts us to be courteous. Disregard for others impels us to throw away all self-restraint and let ourselves go according to the feeling of the moment. The cure for bad manners is, of course, suggested by their several causes. If they are due to faulty education, then one should study some good guide to social conduct, watch the way in which others deport themselves, and eliminate that in one’s own conduct which contrasts unpleasantly with their action. If vanity be the cause, then one must stop thinking of himself. If irritability, then one must learn to master his moods. If they are due to lack of respect for others, then one must learn to reverence personality wherever it is found, whether in God or a congregation, in adults or children. One who reverences all men because they are men will never quite abandon himself to say or do just what he likes. He will be concerned less with making himself comfortable and more with putting others at their ease. “To listen when we are bored, to talk when we are listless, to stand when we are tired, to praise when we are indifferent, to accept the companionship of a stupid acquaintance when we might, at the expense of politeness, escape to a clever friend, to endure with smiling composure the near presence of people who are distasteful to us these things, and many like them, brace the sinews of our souls. They set a fine and delicate standard for common intercourse. They discipline us for the good of the community.” 9 “Agnes Repplier, Americans and Others, p. 26. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifilin Company. MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS 299 3. UNREALITY. Among the influences which “unmake” a preacher, President (emeritus) Tucker, of Dartmouth, gives the primacy to unreality. This he defines as “the failure to get right correspondence between the expression and the comprehension of truth.” 10 One less gifted with philosophic insight, and less skillful in saying harsh things sweetly, might define it simply as affectation, artificiality, insincerity, or plain “bluff.” a. This peril threatens the intellectual life of many ministers who pretend a knowledge which they do not possess, and affect an assurance which their attainments do not warrant. They are given to dogmatic utterance without offering solid reasons for their statements, and exalt their own unsupported opinions as the standards by which all in the community must stand or fall. At the best this intellectual unreality consists in affirming the ancient beliefs in ancient phraseology without verifying them in one’s own personal experience; and at the worst it consists in grossly putting forth as one’s own the thoughts and experiences of others. Conceivably it might consist ii preaching less than one believes rather than more in permitting the congregation to think that one accepts old statements of belief which, as a matter of fact, he secretly rejects. &. Unreality breaks out too at the point of the emotional life, manifesting itself in the pulpit in a “ministerial tone,” in “rhetorical courage,” in gestures and voice artificially solemn or strenuous, in a religious fervor which one does not feel. In social contacts it expresses itself in gushing, and unctuous compliments on meeting people, in pretending to know or remember everyone, in excessive and flattering graciousness which does not represent one’s true feeling. The necessity that is on the minister to make himself agreeable to all for the sake of their cooperation in his work strongly tempts him to become affected. c. Moreover, unreality is reflected in the petty devices “The Making and Unmaking of the Preacher, p. 62, 300 THE PASTORAL OFFICE sometimes employed to give am, appearance of success in church work which would not otherwise be suspected. For example, informing the church press each time the salary is increased, or an invitation is received to speak on some special occasion; special diligence in visiting just previous to the fourth Quarterly Conference in order to make a good report, even counting casual conversations on the street or at the post office as pastoral calls; Annual Conference reports of church and Sunday-school membership based on generous estimates rather than careful tabulations; reporting as “converted” all who bow at the altars of the church for any reason during special meetings; reporting large numbers received into church membership without explaining that a majority came by transfer, or that many were counted twice once as probationers, and again when received into full membership. In these and countless other ways ministers may degrade themselves to make a “good showing.” The preacher may be excused for lack of eloquence and brilliancy, but never for lack of candor and simple honesty. 4. FINANCIAL MATTERS. Delinquency in matters of finance hinders the effectiveness of some ministers. a. This more commonly takes the form of debt, which trails them from charge to charge. It is easy to buy “on account,” and the salary is generally meager. So the creditor may seem to be a real friend. But to pay is difficult, sometimes impossible, and good men have been impelled by sheer desperation to undertake disastrous ventures in speculation or “borrow” church funds in the hope of escaping from debt. Or it may be that they have become callously indifferent to their obligations, which is worse. The minister should borrow money sparingly; he should not run current bills in excess of his monthly salary; and when obligations fall due he should make no delay in meeting them. If he cannot pay when he promised, let him say so frankly and arrange for an extension of time, but never disregard the obligation. MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS 301 6. Church Funds. The minister may become seriously involved through the careless handling of church funds. A few simple rules will save him trouble and possibly shame, (i) Never accept responsibility for administering funds which properly should be deposited with one of the church treasurers. (2) In case it seems imperatively necessary to become the custodian of church moneys, never deposit or in any way mix them with personal funds. Open separate accounts for them at the bank. And never borrow from them for private use. (3) Keep a careful and clear record of all receipts and expenditures of such moneys. (4) Insist that at regular and frequent intervals, all accounts shall be carefully audited by competent persons. c. Supplementing the Salary. Frequently an insufficient salary, or sometimes plain commerciai-mindedness, impels ministers to resort to various methods of increasing their income while continuing in the pastorate. Farming; investments in enterprises which promise large returns in interest or dividends; selling life insurance; breeding poultry, rabbits, or dogs for the market; buying and selling stocks, land, timber, or fruit orchards; taking agencies, or permitting their children to do so, to sell books, pictures, etc, to the community in which they live these, together with writing and lecturing, are among the more common devices usually employed. Obviously, not all of these are equally objectionable. For example, to go on a Chautauqua circuit certainly comports more with the dignity of the ministry than to promote the sale of oil or mining stocks. There is great need for discrimination in these matters. The following observations would seem to be pertinent, (1) The Methodist minister has taken a vow “to give himself wholly to the work of the ministry.” Whatever more may be implied, this surely means that he shall have an undivided mind with reference to his work. Anything which seriously diverts his attention or makes large demands upon his time and strength must be pushed aside. (2) While the church is obligated to provide a suitable 302 THE PASTORAL OFFICE support for the minister and his family, it cannot be expected to do more than this. The ministry in whatever form must never become attractive by virtue of financial rewards. Its large compensations must ever be found in the peculiar aims and satisfactions of the work. (3) There would seem to be no inherent impropriety in extra-ministerial labor along kindred lines, such as writing or lecturing, provided it is not allowed to interfere with one’s main task. (4) In the event that a minister cannot live on what the church will pay him he may honorably abandon the ministry for commercial pursuits, but he may not follow them and continue in the ministry on salary. Secular work is highly diverting and distracting. Moreover, the best conscience of the community insists that if the minister engages in it he should do so on terms of equality with others. He may not claim a subsidy in the form of a salary for religious work and then enter into competition with those who enjoy no such advantage, or, perhaps, have helped provide the subsidy for him. (5) The minister should be thrifty so far as lies in his power. He is under obligation to save something out of his salary to provide comfort in old age or to protect his family in case of death. At the best his savings will be small. It is imperative then, that in investing them, he shall have regard, first, for the safety of his principal. Less than a rich man can he afford to risk his all in questionable ventures, and he may safely assume that any enterprise is questionable which seeks to finance itself on the small savings of salaried persons by the promise of large returns. // it were a good investment, its promoters could get their capital from the banks. And the minister cannot afford to invest his money in what the banks consider worthless. Life insurance is the wisest investment for the person of small salary. In case of early death, it returns many times the amount paid in premiums, while if one lives until the policy matures, at least a reasonable interest is returned for MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS 303 the use of the principal. One will usually be very wise in refusing to invest in enterprises which promise more than five and a half or sixpercent. It is the part of wisdom to consult a good banker before making an investment. (6) A minister as agent should never seek to influence others in making investments. Much kss should he appeal to the religious motive to risk their savings in highly speculative enterprises. This is beneath contempt. For similar exploitation of religious instincts and institutions in the interest of personal profit, Jesus became greatly angered and drove the money-changers from the Temple with a heavy corded whip. And honest men to-day are filled with a sense of outrage at such abuse of ministerial power. 5. MENDICANCY. The mendicant-priest and the beggingfriar are familiar figures among non-Christians and Catholics. Theoretically, Protestantism makes no place for these professional “holy men” with their ostentatious poverty. But as a matter of fact the spirit of mendicancy obtrudes itself under all forms of religion. It has entered into the heart of every one who finds himself asking or expecting favors because he is a religious worker by profession, which he never would receive if he were not. Doubtless all are familiar with the reasons by which the clergy justify (to their own satisfaction) the custom of accepting presents, discounts, and special consideration of all kinds. But the fact remains that the finest spirits in the ministry have ever heard with whole-hearted approval Jesus’ injunction to the twelve, “Take no wallet [begging bowl].” 11 Phillips Brooks exclaims bravely, “That which ought to be the manliest of all professions has a tendency, practically, to make men unmanly. Men make appeals for sympathy that no true man should make. They take to themselves Saint Paul’s pathos without Saint Paul’s strength. Against that tendency, my friends, set your whole force.” 12 Perhaps a u Luke 9:3 12 By permission from Lectures on Preaching, p. 68f. Copyright by E. P. Button and Company. 304 THE PASTORAL OFFICE better support for the ministry awaits the coming of a generation of preachers who will refuse to accept gratuities as a substitute for a fair salary, 6. LAZINESS. This may be physical, but it is more likely to be intellectual. In the interest of comfort there is a pronounced disinclination to wrestle manfully with the problems of thought which arise in religion. Some make themselves think they are too busy to study as if one could ever be excused for neglecting the principal task because of any number of lesser ones. Intellectual apathy may go hand in hand with physical vigor. The man who likes to work in the garden may put in time there which properly belongs to his books. Moreover, his delight in human companionship may smother mental and spiritual culture. Under a pretext of social sympathy which takes him among the people he shirks the hard and lonely tasks of study and reflection. 7. IMPROPER SPEECH. “Sin not with thy tongue!” should be written in bold letters above the study table of every minister. It includes every sort of improper utterance, ungenerous and gossipy speech about one’s brother ministers, inane story-telling and jesting, “smart” sayings which rankle and sting, as well as vulgarity and obscenity. Especially should the ecclesiastical buffoon be on his guard the man who is full of Bible jokes. The hot wrath of Phillips Brooks blazes forth on all such. “There are passages in the Bible which are soiled forever by the touches which the hands of ministers who delight in cheap and easy jokes have left upon them. I think there is nothing that stirs one’s indignation more th&n this, in all he sees of ministers. It is a purely wanton fault. What is simply stupid everywhere else becomes terrible here.” 13 8. CovETOtr&NESS. The tenth commandment in the Decalogue (against covetousness) should have a conspicuous place in any rules laid down for the conduct of ministers, **By permission from Lectures on Preaching, p. 54. Copyright by E. P. Button and Company. MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS 305 amended, of course, to suit an ecclesiastical situation. Who has not met the minister who was envious of the esteem in which his predecessor is held? or who was jealous of his successor for captivating so readily the hearts of a former congregation? or who was so intent upon getting into a general office or a traveling secretaryship that he neglected his pastoral work? This is responsible for all that is offensive in “ecclesiastical politics” unashamed and immodest selfseeking for ecclesiastical preferment. There is not so much of it as is supposed, but more than should be. A highly centralized form of church government, which requires a large number of general officers, may make it easy for men to sin in this way. But the best conscience of the church insists that anyone is disqualified for its high offices who selfassertively offers himself as a candidate or is active in promoting his own cause, whether he be a minister or a layman. The one serious criticism that may be made against our form of church government is that the administrative office is magnified above all others, and constantly operates to create dissatisfaction with the pastorate. If the pastorate could be restored in the consciousness of the church to the place of primacy among church offices, and the administrative office really be regarded as secondary, and so rewarded, covetousness might not disappear entirely but its forms certainly would be greatly modified. 9. RELATIONS WITH WOMEN. The most tragic experience that can come to a church is to have its pastor discredited because of immoral relations with women. Comparatively few ministers are unfaithful at this point so few that the story of such a fall is told on the front page of every important newspaper on the continent, though he may have been previously the most obscure of men. Nevertheless, this type of delinquency is common enough to warrant particular mention in this chapter. At two periods in his life a man may be in imminent peril ftom sexual appetite once in youth before he has come to understand fully the significance of manhood, and again 306 THE PASTORAL OFFICE in middle age when, weary of life’s prosaic responsibilities, the desire for romance flares up and tempts him to relieve the tedium of commonplace days by irresponsible adventure. It is in the second of these periods that the minister is most likely to fall, for the first will have passed as a rule before, he has begun his professional career; and if it had not passed without serious mishap, he would not have been admitted to the ministry. In the later period his danger may be increased by a false sense of security growing out of his paternal relation to his own household. His fatherly consciousness may lead him to be more familiar with all women than he was as a younger man. And if, unfortunately, misunderstanding has arisen between himself and wife, leaving him to crave a sympathy which he thinks she does not give, the peril is still further magnified. Two types of women may shake his self-control at this time; one is a young woman, attractive in personality and mystical in temperament, who may be very active in church work and thus thrown much in the pastor’s company. Her interest in the things he counts most worth while may lead quite innocently on her part to an interest in herself which neither intended. If both are strong, they will remain masters of themselves. If either is weak, disaster may follow. The other is a middle-aged woman who shares with him the desire for romantic adventure which experience does not gratify in middle life. She too is likely to be physically attractive, religious by temperament, and will come into frequent contact with him in doing the work of the church. But life will have taught her so much that innocence can never be affirmed of her relation to the matter any more than of his. Of course a younger minister, especially if he is unmarried, is not free from danger, but the fact that most preachers who fall thus are between thirty-five and fifty years old suggests that the middle-aged man should be particularly on his guard. In his relations with women, then, the minister should have strict regard for the following considerations, MINOR MINISTERIAL ETHICS 307 a. Cultivate the habit of a clean imagination. No sin of this kind is ever committed without some degree of premeditation. Unclean thinking,is always antecedent to unclean living. Behavior only reveals what has long been hidden in the “chambers of imagery.” 6. Discipline the physical instincts by vigorous physical living. A young man is often in less danger than a middleaged man because he is more active. Blood running fast and full of oxygen from exercise makes for pure thinking. David was betrayed into his sin with Bathsheba after he had given up the active life of camp and field for the passive life of court and palace. And many another man has gone wrong after he dropped into the sluggish physical habits of the forties and fifties. . In the matter of physical contacts, the minister should govern himself with the greatest restraint outside his own family circle. There is no conceivable emergency that can arise in pastoral or social relations which will give any warrant for sentimentally putting one’s hand on a woman or otherwise coming into close bodily contact. And even to take her hand in both one’s own in shaking hands is an exhibition of bad manners that is open to serious criticism. d. Let him cherish constantly a sense of his responsibility for the spiritual and moral well-being of all in the community. So he will have a care that none are destroyed through his bad example. e. Let him be sensible of his own everlasting need of divine grace. Let him, like Saint Paul, live in holy fear of failing to exemplify in his own life the gospel he preaches to others. “I buff et my body, and bring it into bondage, lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected” (1 Corinthians 9:27). ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/beebe-pastoral-officedcoxv9/ ========================================================================