How to Have a Working Church

Your success will depend, under God, not only upon your own devotion and diligence, but also upon the thorough cooperation of your people. You are not only a shepherd of souls, but the commander of a regiment in Christ’s sacramental host. It is not every godly minister that has the gift of executive ability. Henry Ward Beecher, with all his splendid genius and eloquence, had but small executive faculty. Mr. Spurgeon, on the other hand, was so masterly an organizer that if he had taken to politics he might have been a great parliamentary leader, or perhaps the prime-minister of the realm. Dr. James W. Alexander once said to me, “There is no pastor in New York whom I envy more than Dr. Asa D. Smith afterward the president of Dartmouth College, for he has the knack of keeping all his people at work.”

It is indeed a peculiar “knack” of many ministers; and, if you do not possess it naturally, you must do your utmost to acquire it in as large a degree as possible. Common sense and godly zeal are indispensable to every minister; if you do not possess these, God has never called you to the ministry. If you do possess them, then apply them to the task of developing and guiding the spiritual activities of your flock. Be an untiring worker yourself. A lazy pastor makes a lazy church. Emphasize from your pulpit, again and again, the duty and the joy of labor for Christ, and exhort every member of your church to find his or her place of usefulness — the place for which God created him and the Holy Spirit converted him.

Too. large a proportion, in nearly all our churches, count for very little except upon the muster-roll; and, when that roll is called for duty, they seldom answer “Here.” A large portion of the power in the church, therefore, becomes latent; the stream is diverted upon the waterwheels of wordliness, or else runs to waste entirely. One reason is that young converts are not trained into Christian activity from the start. Another is that when new members unite with the church they are not set to work; and so they drift away into idleness, and become “deadheads” in the church.

Of course you will organize a society of Christian Endeavor in your congregation, if there be none already in existence. No church in these days is complete without a thorough organization of its young people for spiritual labor and spiritual growth. As a training-school for young converts it is as indispensable to the church as the Sunday-school; it molds the youth into a household, and into a homelike relation with the church; it supplies a social necessity, and keeps the sons and daughters of Christ’s family out of the clutches of the devil. The danger with all associations of young people is that the social element may crowd out the spiritual element, and so cause a Christian organization to degenerate into a semi-convivial club, bent on amusements. There is a place for innocent, healthful entertainments, such as musical concerts, readings, sociables, instructive exhibitions, etc.; but as soon as the “daughter of Herodias” gets into the association, and your young people try to make a frolic of their religion, then use your veto summarily. No society of Christian Endeavor and no association of young Christians is likely to lose its interest or to languish, so long as the hearts of the -members are full of Christ, and their hands are full of doing good. But, when Satan “side-tracks” them into mere mirth and merriment, they soon go over the embankment, and end in a smash-up. There is always enough of innocent recreation and wholesome happiness to be found on Christ’s side of the dividing line, without going over to the world’s side; nor can we ever convert the world to Christ by conforming to its follies, its fashions, or its frolics.

In every society of Christian Endeavor there ought to be a temperance committee. The decanter and the dramshop are chronic curses in every community, which your pulpit and your church have no right to ignore. The title to membership in a temperance society should be the pledged practice of entire abstinence from all intoxicating beverages; the constitution and by-laws should be brief; the public meetings should be free to everybody, and a collection should be taken up to meet current expenses. I found such an organization in my church* to be a source of manifold blessings to our own members and to the surrounding community.

Your prayer-meetings will be the spiritual thermometer of your church. A prayer-meeting below freezing-point indicates a cold church; it is both a cause and an effect of serious spiritual declension. When a revival comes, it commonly begins right there. Whatever else you neglect, never neglect your prayer-meetings, and never allow anything else to crowd them out. Always attend them yourself, but never take charge of them so long as any church-officer or gifted member can be found to conduct them. If you lead them, there is a danger that you will be tempted to monopolize them. A certain eminent minister complained that his people did not take part in the devotional gatherings, and the reason was that he absorbed most of the time by his own addresses. The main purpose of a prayer-meeting is not a sermon ette by the pastor; it is the development of the church-members in their spiritual life, the worship of God in fervent prayers, songs of praise, and the stirring up of one another’s hearts in experimental talks and warm exhortations. The more like a family gathering it is, the better. Have your church-officers conduct it, in alphabetical order. It is a good practice to select some Bible passage or practical topic beforehand, and to have that announced from the pulpit on the previous Sabbath. Exhort the leader to come well prepared, and then leave the helm in his hands. If the meeting drags, be ready to give a timely lift; and you will seldom allow the service to close without some words of earnest exhortation or of prayer. Unless you are wonderfully fortunate, you may be troubled by some officious and indiscreet brethren that persist in flying” like moths into the candle. It is your duty to deal with such offenders lovingly and kindly. If they are genuine Christians, they will thank you for setting them right, and so will the rest of your people. If they are only noisy, or self-conceited self-seekers, then they ought to be abated as nuisances.

In dealing with the varieties of people in your charge, and in developing their activities, you will need to use a holy tact. Study the characters of your members. Put to the front the wisest, and gently repress the blunderers. Some good people will do good service if they are only consulted; to such it will be wise to say, “Brother A, don’t you think it would be well for us to do this or that?” The brother will then imagine that he is having his own way, when he is really going your way. There is a vast deal of human nature in the godliest men and women in our flocks. Never wound a true disciple of Christ; never discourage any one that longs and tries to be useful; and never do anybody’s work so long as lie or she can be got to do it. You will have enough work of your own.

Finally, let me exhort you to drive every wheel in your machinery to its utmost; but do not have more wheels than power. Enlarge your work as fast and as far as you have men and money to propel it. Keep clear of hobbies and all sorts of sensational devices. Feed your flock with strong, solid, gospel food, if you want them to be strong for work, and then arouse their enthusiasm by your own example and by leading them to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Come to them on Sunday with Christ on your lips, and go among them all the week with Christ in your heart and life. The only power that can drive any church is the Power from on high; and that church which is mighty in prayer will always be mighty in work. Heaven’s holy activities will be its sweetest rest.