The ministry of worship; a study of the need, psychology and technique of worship

Front matter

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Contents

I, A STATEMENT OF THE CASE . — ee

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Preface

In this book the author has tried to set forth, first, the place of The Church Life Foundation and an outline statement of its program (Introduction); second, the conditions prevalent in the church today (chap. i); third, a study of the need, psychology and technique of worship, which is the first item of the Foundation’s program for the local church (chaps. li-v). To this he has appended a chapter on ‘‘ Worship and Unity’’ (chap. vi), and several Orders of Worship (chap. vii), that are now being used in the churches, and have thus had the test of experience.

Later on, it is his purpose to write on other phases of the Foundation’s program for the church, such as Programization, Organization and Business Administration.

The author has tried to state things as they are. He doesnot wish his statement to be taken, in any sense, as an attack upon any group or phase of the organic life of the church, but rather as an appraisement of existing conditions. It should be understood that this book is not discussing the subject of private or personal devotion, but the Sunday morning church service, and deals solely with the conduct of a

ae worship service. Later it is anticipated that other types of religious services will be discussed.

Another word should be added. The Order of Worship herein treated in chapter v, ‘‘The Technique of Worship,’’ is not a ‘‘ worship program,’’ but a definite Order of Worship, based on the divine form, as manifested in the teaching and practice of the early church. This form has been followed very closely in order that we might have an accurate statement of the order of worship of the early Christians, and at the same time it has been the author’s purpose to infill it in such a way as to make it applicable to present-day life.

This book is sent forth with the profound hope that our leadership may be encouraged to give more time and study to the conduct of public worship and that they may thus be able to lead the great body of believers into a fuller and richer experience with God.

W.S. Lockuart, Director, The Church Life Foundation, Indianapolis, Ind.

Easter Season, 1927.

Introduction

In the early days of the Restoration Movement, the Fathers had a very high ideal. They said, ‘‘Let us restore apostolic Christianity in its doctrine, worship and life.’’ This was a great vision, and they gave their lives toward its realization. Certainly they did a heroic piece of work, but owing to the bitter sectarian rivalry of that hour, they advanced only as far as their first goal, namely, ‘‘The restoration of apostolic doctrine’’; and with reference to the great problems of Worship and Christian life, they accepted, with some modifications, the ‘existing order,’’ so that it remains for the church of this hour to begin where the Fathers left off and restore the type of worship service that left its impress on the lives of the early disciples.

The new movement.—The Church Life Foundation is a movement for the ‘‘spiritual enrichment and efficiency of the churches,’’ and is at least calling attention to the great divine principle of worship that runs through the whole of human nature and finds its highest expression in the worship of the church. We believe that the church, by learning to have communion with God, will be inspirited for the stupendous tasks that confront it in this age. Following the high ideal of the apostolic church, the Foundation thought it should add thereto such methods of work and plans of organization as will make for a greater degree of efficiency in the local church. We have seen in our analysis of the situation that the church is not getting sufficient results for the energy expended. It is our purpose, therefore, not only to produce the highest possible type of worship, but to guide the service by competent methods, so that, out of the services rendered, will come the greatest possible results.

The Foundation and the brotherhood.—The Foundation is not an ‘‘overhead’’ organization, and was not intended to be such by its organizers, but rather a movement that would feed the roots of the spiritual life in the local church and bring up its efficiency to a higher degree. Being a new organization, it has been necessary to outline a policy and create a literature.

Our national boards, such as missionary, benevolence, and higher education, are organizations giving themselves to the development of such programs as come within their sphere of activity. They seek the co-operation of the churches in making the programs effective. The Foundation does not look in this direction for its task, but aims to aid all these enterprises

INTRODUCTION li by finding for them a place and expression in the program of the local church. When our local churches have such a program, every interest of the brotherhood will be strengthened.

Its policy—tThe policy of the Foundation is to function through the organizations of the brotherhood’s life. It seeks to do its work through, and in connection with, the state organizations of our several states, these being the most direct approach to the local church. The Foundation has related itself to the state office in the following ways: First, by giving instruction along the lines of worship and church efficiency at state conventions; second, by holding institutes and schools of instruction for the state workers and, especially, for the district superintendents; third, by being directed as to where work should be done in the various states by the counsel and advice of the state secretary; fourth, by giving a series of lectures in a number of our Bible colleges; fifth, by providing an ‘‘Order of Worship’’ with ‘*Instructions’’ and a weekly sermon for pastorless churches. This latter service will be earried out under the direct supervision of the state secretary and the superintendents of the various districts. Thus the Foundation stands ready at all times to co-operate with the pastors and state secretaries, and it finds its authorization (if such be needed) in its being accredited by the state conventions.

Its financial support.—This movement is financed by interested individuals—men and women of the brotherhood who have felt the need of such a movement and who have had the faith to believe that others would be moved to join with them in extending the work, until the Disciple churches would be characterized among the Christian bodies of America as those whose worship service meets the needs of humanity and whose people go up to the house of the Lord with gladness of heart.

[ts reception.Something of the reception of this new organization at the hands of the brotherhood may be noted in a brief summary of the work. Before the existence of this department had been known six weeks, the Director was asked to speak in fourteen state conventions, and during the past two years he has held conferences in twenty-one state conventions, two national conventions, spoken in four state ministerial association meetings, held schools of

~ instruction and institutes in several states for the district superintendents; spoken before numerous city ministerial associations, lectured in five colleges and universities, and, in addition to the above, he has given several consecu-

INTRODUCTION 13 tive ‘months in holding institutes in local churches.

Dr. J. H. Garrison, dean of editors of all the Protestant church journals of America, after attending the institutes held by the Foundation in one of our states, said to the Director, ‘*The Foundation is doing exactly what it should be doing for the local church, and, moreover, I thank God I have lived to see the day when this work is being done, for I tried to get our brethren to do this twenty-five years ago, and if they had begun it then, how many pitfalls we might have avoided!’’

Its success.—The Foundation’s program for our churches, both as to worship and efficiency, is now being carried out by hundreds of our churches throughout the United States and Canada. If the demand for this work is any indication of its need, certainly the Foundation has put its finger on one of the neediest spots in the life of the brotherhood.

The Foundation’s program.—The Foundation’s program may be summarized in four words: spiritual enrichment, programization, organization, business administration.

Comprehended in these four words are all the activities of the local church.

Church management.—It is not the purpose of the writer to discuss the matter of church management or efficiency in this volume, but a brief statement may not be out of place. Notwithstanding the fact that our brotherhood is now one hundred and sixteen years old, we have not, nor have we ever had, anything that would pass for a science of church management. We have, according to the report of the Board of Education, twenty-eight colleges and universities affiliated with that organization. At the present time there is not a single professor in any one of these colleges giving his major attention to the development of a science of church management. This may seem to be a broad statement, but if any one doubts it let him do as the writer has done before many groups of ministers in various parts of the United States, namely, ask them what courses were offered them in their college and seminary days that prepared them for the actual work of handling a church. He has tried this many times, and has found only a few exceptions to this statement. When we take into consideration the fact that more than 2,000 ministers have been asked this question in the past two years, it is proof of the splendid initiative of our ministers that they have done as well as they have.

Conservatism.—Possibly the one outstanding criticism, justly merited, grows out of the con-

INTRODUCTION 15 servatism of the large per cent of the laymen in our churches in making their contributions to our colleges and universities. This conservatism further finds expression in boards of trustees and faculties who do not make the necessary revision of the course of study that the present situation demands. ‘The strong tendency is to hold to the old type of curriculum of just teaching men ‘‘how to preach.’’ Fortunately, the introduction of the religious education professor into our colleges has helped in a very marked degree in the preparation of our students in the field of religious education, which, of course, is intended primarily to cover the educational program of our church schools.

It is our judgment that the Bible colleges should add clinical features and make them ‘‘required courses.’’ Every student studying for pastoral service should have a thorough course in worship, program making, organizational work and the business administration of the church. A modern business man asked the dean of one of our church schools, ‘‘ Why don’t you teach your young men to at least know how to conduct a committee meeting?’’ This was merely another way of saying, ‘‘Why are you not teaching the technique of church management?’’

A story.—Our church management has grown up very much after the fashion of the old colored woman’s way of making a cake. When she was asked by a visiting lady, who was enthusiastic over her cake, for her recipe, she replied, ‘‘Why, Missus, I don’t have no recipe.’’ ‘‘Then how do you make such wonderful cakes?’’ she was asked; to which the old colored woman replied, ‘‘ You see, Missus, it is like this: I puts in a little of this, a little of that, and a little of the other; then I stirs it all up and puts it in the oven, and it comes out cake.’’ This is the way we have thus far developed our church management. We have borrowed a little here and a little there; we have imitated this one and the other one, and as a result we have now what may be called a ‘‘method of doing things’’ among our churches. This method is probably not standardized in our churches and is largely inherent in the pastor and board. If a pastor is a man of ability, of judgment, and of fine training, able to adapt the work of his church to the needs of the community and to the larger phases of the brotherhood life, then all goes well. On the other hand, if he doesn’t have these qualifications, either inefficiency or trouble ensues, and sometimes both. The thing that seems to be needed at this present hour is that our churches be grouped according to size

INTRODUCTION Lid.

and location and that there be developed a science of church management, adapted and adaptable to the varied types and environments of the churches. If this science could be developed and taught to the ministerial students in our colleges, this condition would soon right itself; but if we were able to begin to do this tomorrow, we should still have two generations of men who have not had this training. From the angle of the student as well as the active ministry, this is one of the great needs of the present time, and the strenuousness of this age, the urgent insistence on the leadership of the church for a higher type of work calls imperatively for the development of a science of church management. It is, indeed, heartening to discover that nearly all of the major bodies of Protestantism are realizing this need and are establishing efficiency departments in their denominational life.

The business side of the church.—The above is illustrated in an incident that happened some years ago. In a certain church an expert accountant was brought in to audit the books. There was a large membership of about one thousand five hundred in a city of about 16,000 population, a typical central state, county-seat town. After this accountant had spent several days in going over the books of this church, among other things he reported back to the church board the following: ‘‘I have been so impressed with the fact that in this church I have found a real business institution, in addition to its spiritual work. I have herein discovered a church running along modern business lines, and I think I am safe in saying that few business organizations could surpass it in business efficiency. Truly the church is a great business institution, doing business for the King.’’ This is what should be truthfully said of every church in our brotherhood.

Short pastorates.—Another phase of this work is seen in the varied lengths of our pastorates. For example, here is a man who stays with a church for two or three years, which is about the average length of our pastorates. Upon arrival, he insists that certain things be done thus and so, which means that when a year or two has elapsed, the church is entirely reshaped as to its program, organization and worship, in accordance with the idea of the new minister. No sooner is this done than he seeks other fields, and alas, all too many times, he has used spurious methods and plans of organization to make a showing. From this showing he hopes to be called to other and ‘‘greener pastures.’? When the next pastor comes in, the church must be reshaped to the plans and meth-

INTRODUCTION 19 ods of the new man. This is very hard on the church and is frequently the occasion of serious troubles. On the other hand, had the church a science of program building and organization, and had the officials been insistent on their work being done in accordance with this science, the above situation would not obtain, for the new pastor would acquaint himself with the program of the church and fall in line with the general plan of the brotherhood.

No theological coloring—The Church Life Foundation definitely determined at the very beginning not to represent any particular phase of theological thinking, and there is in this movement no ‘‘theological coloring.’’ We have men on our board representing different shades of thinking, but as far as the policy of the Foundation is concerned, there is a notable absence of all theological bias. From far away Australia, the writer recently had a letter stating that if the Foundation was of a certain theological type, he would have nothing to do with it, but if it was of his type, he would be glad to welcome it. The answer he received was that we represented neither of the views. This is mentioned to show that too often theological prejudice and disagreements have come in, disturbing the work, harmony, fellowship and spiritual kinship of the local church. Our churches have suffered tremendously from these matters in the past few years, all of which indicates that our church work is on too low a plane, as we shall see later when we discuss the theme of ‘‘ Worship and Unity.’’ In the realm of worship and efficiency, there is no theological ‘‘coloring.’’ The Foundation finds itself equally at home in the small as well as in the large church, with the progressive as well as with the conservative type. In fact, the Director has held institutes in all the various types of our churches. We raise no questions as to whether a church is conservative or progressive; our only concern is that the Foundation be indeed the servant of the church.

Chapter I

That he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.—Ephesians 5:27.

iI

- What a wonderful institution the church really is; what rare treasures it possesses, what gifts it bestows, what lofty ideals it holds forth, what encouragements it gives! Truly, salvation is in the folds of its garments, and the destiny of mankind is in its hands.

From the pragmatic angle the local church is the center of all our activities. From it must come the life-giving energy that makes the desert to blossom, and the waste places to rejoice. From it comes the inspiration that produces our leadership and we look to it as the source from which we are to receive our spiritual endowment.

The ideals of the church, the fellowship of its saints, its preaching, teaching, worship, and communion service are the means, through Christ, of the ever-widening, deepening influences that are to develop the Kingdom of God in the world.

The local church.—Since this is our ideal, the welfare of the local church must be our chief concern, the object of our highest and most reverent thought, if we would have the church contribute its share in the building of the Kingdom of God. It is certain that unless we have strong, healthy local churches, we cannot develop spiritually minded Christians, solve the problems of the local community, or make a contribution, along with other Christian bodies, to the needs of the world. If we are weak and lacking in spiritual vigor, we shall thereby fail in our ‘‘output’’ both at home and abroad. Our impotence today in meeting and solving the many problems thrust upon us is that we have not the strength that ‘‘cometh from communion with God.’’ Our people have been an active people, with service as the keynote, and doctrinal preaching our ‘‘forte.’’ These have made their contribution to our ongoing, but today there is a deep-felt need for meditation, for the strengthening of faith and for a spiritual experience that comes from a vital union with God. This longing finds expression not only from our ministers and our spiritually minded leaders, but from those whose work takes them into the busy marts of trade.

The local church and our orgamzed work.— Strange as it may seem to us, we have done little, in an organized way, to help the local churches to places of power and influence. Certain phases of our brotherhood’s life, such as our educational, missionary and benevolent en-

A STATEMENT OF THE CASE yAa?

terprises, were started through the influence of such godly men as Errett, McLean, Rains, Garrison, and many others. We now have a conscience in these matters, and the churches respond to all the appeals for funds to support our organized agencies.

Granting, then, that we have made progress in developing a science of missions, benevolence and educational work, we have scarcely begun to develop a science of church management, yet all recognize this as one of the basic needs for the ongoing of our work.

Efficiency applied.—One of the small Protestant bodies of the United States sent its representatives to the first meeting of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement in 1914. When the budget was being made up, they were surprised to find that they were not able to raise the amount of money that seemed to be their share for financing this movement. They felt very much embarrassed over the situation and immediately called a meeting of their leadership to make inquiry as to whether or not they had been overassessed, or whether it was because they were weak in some organic part of their brotherhood’s life. They soon discovered that the weakness of their communion was in the inefficiency of the local church. Their churches were going along very much as they had been for years, led by ministers who had ~ secured very little training ia methods of modern efficiency, either in their college preparation or through contacts in the business world. Furthermore, they found themselves face to face with a new and greatly changed age. They began to realize for the first time that the pressure of modern life had forced the church into a new self-expression. New issues must be met; there must be a greatly augmented power that would meet the demands of the age, and these problems must be met in a co-operative way. They also discovered that the church must function as an organization and not merely as a group of individuals. Fortunately, a group of strong-minded business men came to the rescue of these church leaders and gave them sufficient funds to enable them to make a study of conditions and propose a remedy, with the result that this small body of Protestantism, regardless of its size, is one of the most efficient in existence today.

Many ministers say to the author, ‘‘ We do not understand why the methods that we have used in the years past do not get results now. They formerly were effective but are not now.’’ The reason 1s obvious.

Conditions surveyed.—The Church Life Foundation made a study of existing conditions

A STATEMENT OF THE CASE pie of our churches in the United States with reference to the efficiency of the local church. It was soon discovered that there had been some marked changes in the social status of our country and in the place held by the churches. In the pioneer days life was simple; the log schoolhouse and the plain meeting-house were sufficient. Moreover, it was discovered that not only would the methods used eight or ten years ago no longer serve, but that church work itself has become much more difficult since the World War. Churches are larger and life is more complex. Net Changed conditions.—Probably no people in all Protestantism has grown more rapidly than the Disciples. A generation ago our major strength was in the country. We have recently made the shift from the country to the city, and in making this transition, one of our outstanding problems has come about through the large number of countrymen that have moved to our cities and are dominating the life of our city churches. Many of them are successful in business and have adopted modern methods in their business and professional life, but not in the management of the church. They insist that it must be run as ‘‘we did it back home.’’ Technique for a simple type of ufe.—The difficulty lies in the fact that whatever of technique we have developed was adapted to a simple age, and, since our educational preparation has not given us very much help in this matter, we find ourselves in the midst of an urban type of life, with a rural background. On the other hand, we are facing a condition in our churches that causes many of our college trained business men to be restless with the old regime of our church’s way of doing things. They want efficiency; they want results, and, not getting them, they become discouraged and lose interest in the church. Often we have adopted ‘‘short-cut,’’ spurious methods, or a ‘‘high-pressure’’ type of evangelism, with the result that our churches have grown by leaps and, frequently, by ‘‘booms.’’ We have been led astray with the thought that size, or a large number of accessions yearly, was the chief thing, not realizing that the chief end of the church is the development of character. True, it should be the purpose of the church to reach and help every individual, but we are fast learning that the best means of doing this is not by the methods that have produced a twenty-five per cent efficiency, even though at the time they may seem to promise a much larger return, but by developing Christian character, which will eventually reach not only a larger number of people, but also a people with a deeper conseeration.

Significant figures.—One of the best ways for us to discover the inefficiency of previous methods is to look at the results. It is now well known that twenty-five per cent of our church members are carrying the responsibility of the church, while seventy-five per cent are doing practically nothing. Again, we are discovering that ten per cent of our citizens do not so much as hear a single Protestant sermon a week, and that ten per cent of our churches give ninety per cent of our missionary money.

Our Sunday schools—wWe have taken great pride in our Sunday schools, but sixty per cent of our pupils are not received into membership in our churches, yet seventy-five per cent of all our accessions come, directly or indirectly, through the Sunday school. This means that seventy-five per cent of our church’s increase comes from forty per cent of our church school pupils; but more significant than that is the fact that we lose seventy-five per cent of all our young people from the membership of the Sunday school and church before they are eighteen years of age. This is enough to make angels weep!

In the hight of this severe indictment of our church management, certainly every thoughtful student will be aroused and led to make inquiry as to why this condition. ‘There is a reason. ~ Somewhere in our body politic there is a weakness. It is imperative that we discover that weakness and correct it.

We have considerable joy in the women’s missionary work of our church, and yet we now know that less than twenty-five per cent of our women are really interested in the missionary and benevolent work of the church.

Our evangelism.—We are proud of the statement that our brotherhood has led Protestantism for many years in the matter of evangelism. This is true so far as recruiting is concerned, but we have been woefully negligent in conserving our recruits. All too often have we labored for numbers, but having no plan by which the new members could be educated, stabilized and absorbed into the church, the pastors have had the heart-breaking experience of seeing them drift back into the world.

Actual gains m evangelism.—According to figures given by our Superintendent of Evangelism two years ago, we had approximately - 200,000 accessions yearly to our churches in the previous three years, but at the end of the threeyear period, when the time came to total actual gains, we found that our net gain was about 00,000 per year. This brings us back again to

A STATEMENT OF THE CASE a our 20-75 per cent ratio. If we could hold those that we gain each year, it is readily apparent what a tremendous force the church would be in afew years! This morning a city pastor told the writer that in a parish seven block square, with a population of 25,000, they found 3,600 Disciples unidentified with any church. This tremendous leakage by removal from one section of the country to another, so far as it relates to the efficiency of the local church, is another of our vital problems. The fact that we have done so little to solve it bespeaks the lack of co-operation in our brotherhood and our inefficiency in conserving results.

Church attendance.—A. still more vital fact ‘awaits us in the matter of our attendance at our Sunday morning service. Information is given us on this subject by the two surveys that have recently been made of the Springfield (Mass.) and Indianapolis (Ind.) churches. In both of these cities, which are regarded as ‘‘church-going centers,’’ it was discovered that the average attendance at the Sunday morning services was about twenty-five per cent of the membership. The writer does not know the season of the year that the Springfield count was made, but in Indianapolis it was made about Easter time, which is the high tide of church attendance. Many pastors have made this count in their own churches, and to their surprise more have run under than above that per cent. This would indicate that the above figures are correct and leads us to the observation that, while we have increased in numbers during the past five years, at the same time we have decreased proportionately in our attendance at worship.

Why small church attendance?—The reasons for these conditions are numerous, but only three will be mentioned here.

First, lack of education for membership of those coming wmto the church. We have done but little educational work of an intensive nature to prepare even children for membership, and we have almost entirely overlooked the education of adults seeking church fellowship, with the result that we have a preponderance of church members untrained in the teachings, practices and worship of the church. This is one of the gravest oversights on the part of our modern churches, and is one of the main reasons, In my judgment, why we have so many complex problems in our churches at the present time. The author has been greatly impressed with what was done in the days of the Apostolic Greek Fathers. The children were not allowed to sit through the entire church service (much less become members) until they had received two years of instruction. Here is a suggestion coming from the long ago, that, as to the period of time, might be shortened, but as to need, certainly should be revived, as many of the children that come into the church today come from homes in which there is little religious instruction. Bible study, prayer and family devotions are found to be almost absent today, even in our so-called Christian homes. As a result, the children who come into the church have had practically no religious instruction except that received from the Sunday school teacher, which is usually very inadequate. There are exceptions to this statement, but it characterizes general conditions throughout our country.