How to Have a Working Church

He pulpit services of a minister occupy only a few hours on each Sabbath; his duties as a pastor extend over all the other days of the week. He may be a very eloquent pulpiteer and yet have an inactive church. Of some plain preachers it may be said as Dr. James W. Alexander once said to me of that noble and admirable pastor Dr. Asa D. Smith — “I envy Doctor Smith more than any pastor in N ew York, for he has the art of setting all his people to work, and of keeping them at it.” That is a great art; how is it to be acquired? A few suggestions that I have gathered during forty years or more, may be of value to beginners in the ministry.

m (1.) If you expect to have an active church, you must be a wide-awake, industrious man yourself. An indolent pastor is apt to have an indolent congregation. If you are found smoking on your lounge or dawdling away your time over light literature; if you are seen oftener out driving for pleasure or sauntering in book-stores and picture-galleries, than you are in visiting your flock, then your people will soon hold you cheap and rightly conclude that they have a lazy minister. They will come to the same conclusion if you are ready to put into your pulpit any man who comes along in a clerical coat. Never cheapen your own pulpit. Go to it as often as possible, even if through unavoidable circumstances, you have been prevented from preparing a “finished discourse.” An imperfect sermon, if well saturated with prayer and sent home with fervor may do good execution. Veteran pastors will testify that often the discourses from which they had expected the least, have accomplished the most.

Recreate mind and body with easy occupations on Monday. Get at your sermon on Tuesday — the minister’s best day — and never commit the idiotic sin of writing a sermon on Saturday evening. Make the utmost of those hours when your mind works like a trip-hammer and then put upon paper your best thoughts — whether you ever carry the paper into the pulpit or not. Use the forenoons for study, your afternoons for pastoral visitation and your evenings for meetings or for reading, recreation or social purposes. Sleep as soundly as possible all night if you want to keep your congregation awake on Sunday. The Irishman’s rule for good sleeping was “to pay attintion to it.”

The men who live the longest, and do the most effective work, are commonly good sleepers. If they cannot secure enough at night, they make it up during the day. When a man who has so much strain on his brain and his sensibilities as a pastor has, goes to his bedroom, he should school himself to the habit of dismissing all thoughts about outside matters. If this cost him some difficulty, he should pray for Divine help to do it. Too many ministers toil at their sermons until eleven or twelve o’clock, and then retire with throbbing heads to their sleepless beds. The man who invented “midnight oil” deserves a purgatory of endless nightmare. My own rule is never to touch a sermon by lamplight. One hour in the morning is worth five at night.

I have already exhorted you to learn the geography of your parish thoroughly, and to keep yourself in daily intercourse with your people. Do not have any “running-places” or favorite resorts; and don’t let anybody in the congregation own you. While making your pastoral visits, show an interest in what your people are doing, and then repay yourself by making them interested in what you are doing. Discuss freely the affairs of the church with all your families; commend those who are most prompt at the devotional meetings, and most alert in serving the Master; and kindly chide the delinquents.

Let them know that you miss them. A shepherd’s “crook” must often be used with

(2.) However active you may be, it is vitally important that you should develop the activities of your church-members, and direct them into fields of usefulness. There is a vast amount of latent power in most of our congregations; and in large churches there is a tendency to say, “Oh, you have enough to do the work without me.” As small farms are usually the best tilled, so small churches are often the best worked. There must be leaders in every church; but don’t try to push into prominence conceited people who happen to have large purses or social conspicuousness. The best workers are oftenest those of humblest social rank; and no man or woman should be prominent unless they- have earned their position by consecration to the Master’s service. Try to discover what a man is best fitted for, and then set him at it. When a new member comes into your church — either by conversion or transmission from another church — do not let him settle down into a mere “passenger.” Endeavor to enlist him at once into some line of usefulness. There will be some conceited and presumptous folk who thrust themselves into positions for which they have no capacity; but such very soon find their level. I have generally found that ardent, zealous Christians, even when sometimes indiscreet, accomplish a great deal more than the over-prudent, phlegmatic sort. Good Dr. Brainard used to say, “I whip up the fast horses, for there are plenty that don’t pull a pound.”

(3.) Keep your eye on all the operations of the church; not to do the trustee’s work, or the elder’s work, or the Sunday-school superintendent’s work, or the class-leader’s work, but to see that they do it. A meddlesome minister may be as mischievous as an idle one; yet oversight and wise counsel are your prerogative. Always attend your prayer-meetings, both for your own spiritual profit and also to put honor on the most vital service, next to the preaching of the Word. As long as you have competent laymen who can lead the meeting, commit the leadership of the service to them; this will develop them, and relieve you of “over much speaking.” Ministers may talk too often; and if a pastor is especially gifted, there is danger that the church may become a one-man power machine. Mr. Beecher used to complain that his people were too slow to take part in his prayer-meetings; and one cause of this was that he took so large a part in them himself. No church can ever be strong unless the strain is put on their own sinews; there is a place for the Aquilas and Priscillas, as well as for Paul. A timely word from the pastor may help a prayer-meeting, but it is the people’s service, not his.

(4.) As the bottle is the chronic curse of every community, the church of God cannot ignore it. Every minister ought to preach

HOW TO HAVE A V/ORKING CHURCH. 6 1

and practice entire abstinence from the intoxicating cup; and every Christian church ought to have a Temperance wheel in its machinery. Therefore it is wise to organize a society which shall not be a political or partisan “annex,” but a part of the religious movement of your church, under the supervision of the Pastor. The titTe to membership should be the avowed practice of total abstinence from all intoxicants; and I still believe in the expediency of signing a pledge to thus abstain. A brief constitution, an efficient President, and Board of Managers, a package of pledges and a good committee to secure proper speakers are the main requisites for such a society. The public meetings should be free; and a collection taken up will meet the current expenses. Such an organization has been a source of social and spiritual blessings in my own and in many other congregations.

(5.) Drive every wheel in your machinery to its utmost power, but don’t have more wheels than power. Widen your activities as fast as you have men and money to propel them. Organize your young people into an association, with a weekly meeting for prayer and training in Christian work. Organize your women into missionary societies and other benevolent labors. Do not overwork any one department to the sacrifice of others, or run your own hobbies to death. Feed your people with the solid meat of the Word, if you want them to be strong for work; and then fire them by constant pointing them to Jesus and praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Keep Christ in the foreground. Come to your flock every Sabbath with Jesus in your heart and Jesus on your tongue. The only permanent power that can propel any church is the power from on high; and that church which is mighty in prayer is the one that is always mighty in work.