Serving the church in the world of to-day : a book for office-bearers and church workers on training, equipment, and service

Front matter

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Preface

Tue task of writing this book was laid upon me by the late A. B. Keay, founder of the International Association for Church Finance and Organisation, who was so well known in this and other countries for his unremitting labours in the promotion of the Weekly Freewill Offering System.

As a trained business man Mr. Keay strongly felt the necessity for the Church to increase its spiritual efficiency in order to meet adequately the world situation which confronts it to-day. To this end it must needs apply wisely and vigorously the ideals and methods of modern business to its own organisation and work, and, in particular, seek to give its office-bearers and workers an outlook on the world’s needs and a knowledge of its own task and resources such as will inspire and equip them for rendering the best possible service.

While commissioning me to stress this latter necessity and present a reasoned case for the training of office-bearers and church workers, he also desired me to attempt the preparation of a Manual which would provide information on service in the Church such as would aid them in the task of training themselves.

This explains the form in which the book is presented. Part I and Part III discuss the need for a courageous and well thought out policy of religious education as a means towards raising the Church’s spiritual efficiency. Part II forms a

Preface

Manual in which I have endeavoured to describe the task of the office-bearer and church worker from the same standpoint as that from which I myself, as a minister of the Church, regard my own task.

Many have given me valuable assistance, especially in my efforts to describe the polity and organisation of Communions other than my own. To these generous advisers, whose names appear on the opposite page, I desire to express my cordial thanks for their help and for the privilege of quoting from their works as the footnotes indicate.

In the actual preparation of the book I owe a great deal to the encouragement and ungrudging assistance of the Rev. W. J. Smith, M.A., Bo'ness, Chairman of Executive of the International Association for Church Finance and Organisation, who revised the manuscript and corrected the proofs. The arduous task of preparing the manuscript for the press was carried through by Miss J. R. Maciver, of the International Association, to whom I desire to express my deep indebtedness for her assistance.

The appeal of the book is, I realise, greatly strengthened by the fact that the Right Honourable James Brown, M.P., has kindly contributed a Foreword commending it to his fellow office-bearers, and my sincere thanks are accorded to him also for his interest.

I have further to record my indebtedness to the Rev. W. P. Merrill, D.D., for permission to reprint the verses with which the book commences.

G. A. SMILLIE.

St. Matthew's Church of Scotland, Glasgow.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The following have kindly given advice or permitted quotation from their published works :

The Rt. Rev. The Lord Bishop of Chichester.

Canon E. J. Petrie, M.A., St. Margaret’s, Newlands, Glasgow.

Rev. J. S. MacArthur, B.D., St. Michael’s College, Llandaff.

Rev. R. S. Benson, B.A., Moville Lower, Co. Donegal.

The Very Rev. Donald Fraser, D.D., Church of Scotland.

Rev. Professor W. D. Niven, D.D., Trinity College, Glasgow.

Rev. T. T. James, M.A., Moderator, Lancashire Province, Congregational Union of England and Wales.

Rev. Charles Richardson, D.D., Secretary, Congregational Union of Scotland.

Rev. R. G. Drummond, M.A., Dundas Street Congregational Church, Glasgow.

Rev. J. Scott, M.A., Ph.D., Secretary, Baptist Union of Scotland. ,

Rev. S. Wilcox Stocker, Chairman, Scotland District, Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Thomas Cochrane, Esq., Editor, World Dominion Press, London.

William Glen, Esq., M.A., Secretary, City of Glasgow Society of Social Service.

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Contents

PART I EFFICIENCY IN THE CHURCH CHAPTER PAGE I. THE DEMAND OF TO-DAY - - -~ 19g Il. THE CHURCH'S PRIMARY PROBLEM - 29 III. THOSE WHO MUST NEEDS BE EFFICIENT - 40 PART II

TRAINED AND EquippED—ITuHE EFFICIENT Orrice-BEARER (or CuurcH WoRKER)

I. HIS SPIRITUAL CHARACTERISTICS - - 55 II. HIS VIEW OF THE AGE - - - - 67 III, HIS CONCEPTION OF THE CHURCH - 80

Chapter I The Demand Of To-day

Tue world in which we are living to-day 1s making ever increasing demands upon our efficiency. It is a world of gigantic forces mastered and applied with the most marvellous skill, a world of intricate, most delicate and precise machinery, a world in which industry has become so differentiated and specialised that even the ordinary worker must needs be an expert, a world of keen competition in which alertness and trained capacity alone guarantee the maintenance of one’s position, and super-qualities are required in those. who would excel, a world seething with unrest in which the fiercest antagonisms are pitted in mortal combat. Man’s destiny in this new world, it is not too much to say, hangs upon the manner in which the forces which make for good respond to the challenge of the age’s peril and opportunity, and succeed in bringing every phase of life into captivity to the obedience of Christ. In such a world efficiency counts supremely. It is the size gua non of success, progress, attainment. It alone commands the future. ‘Therefore in increasing degree it is efhciency that is required of all who would seek for themselves or for a cause a dominant and influential place in the world.

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Towards enabling the citizen of to-day to meet. this demand, statesmanship is directing all its energies. Both legislatively and administratively it aims at enlarging the citizen’s opportunity of acquiring efficiency and of discharging the duties of life in the most efficient manner. ‘Through the public services it provides him with all sorts of conveniences and facilities, clears his environment of perils and impediments, provides him with an _ elaborate education and furnishes him in the arena in which he toils with safeguards, inducements, and rewards. As a consequence, the citizen of to-day is rapidly becoming a specialist, a man of trained capacity who, responding to the demands which modern life makes upon him, is gradually being induced in the interests of efficiency to realise hitherto unattainable ideals.

This characteristic present-day demand and the revolution which it is producing is seen in every sphere of life, and nowhere with such vividness and aggressiveness as in the domain of industry and commerce. With such conditions as prevail to-day, industrial concerns and commercial ventures have little chance of survival, and none of success, unless they take pains to observe and apply the laws which make for efficiency. One of the newest of the sciences— Applied Psychology ”’—deals with the discovery and application of these laws and, in the hands of the “ Efficiency Engineer,” is exploring the.whole industrial and commercial field, producing in consequence, in many great undertakings, amazing, and indeed romantic, results.

Whereas, half a century ago tote and commerce were very largely in the hands of individual manu-

The Demand of To-day facturers and merchants and small concerns, to-day they are organised in large corporations, employing thousands of workers and operating in every part of the world, and the application in them of efficiency methods has reduced costs, cheapened output, increased production and brought undreamt of advantages both to the producer and. consumer. And that is not all. Responding to the demand for, and inspired. by the idea of efficiency, modern industry and commerce are reaching out after a new idealism. In many quarters, service has been given precedence over profit-making as the main end of business; employees, emancipated from the position of mere wage-earners to that of partners, share responsibility as well as profits; and a real rapprochement has been effected between capital and labour. In all industrial and business communities there is a growing desire after personal efficiency. Indeed nothing is more characteristic of the present age than the eagerness for training which is evinced by so many of our youth, in order that, trained and efficient, they may be equal to the demands which modern life makes upon them.

Another direction in which this characteristic modern demand is making itself felt is in the region of those ameliorative and redemptive activities which play such a large part in the modern world. Not so long ago, the relief of distress and the reform of social evils were very largely left to private enterprise and casual effort, but to-day the State is the great almoner and Peer applying the latest achievements of science and the highest technical skill not only in remedying the effects of evil conditions but in removing their causes as well. And so much are our voluntary organisations and enterprises dominated by the spirit of efficiency that no institutions and organisations are so smoothly and effectively run as our great hospitals and numerous relief associations. ‘The dominant thought in present-day social service is that anything less than efficiency is unworthy of such a cause, and workers of all sorts are more and more seeking training or training themselves in order that the service they render may be as efficient as possible.

The demand for efficiency is pronounced also in the Church and is producing in every sphere of religious life the same revolutionary and transforming effects. For, as an institution whose task it is to produce a salutary influence in human hearts and win adherence to the Christian way of life, the Church is affected in a peculiarly drastic way by the changing conditions of the modern world. ‘The new knowledge which the age possesses, the development of sciences which probe every mystery and bring all phenomena under the suzerainty of natural law, demands such a statement of the gospel message as will be in harmony with the newest categories and at the same time find its best and truest expression through them. ‘The new conditions, problems and needs which characterise to-day, so different even from those of last century, call for a new attitude of mind, new methods of approach and new machinery with which to apply the Church’s inspirations and remedies. Indeed, so entirely new have human modes, customs, conventions and even aspirations become, that in every sphere of her life and work, the Church,

The Demand of To-day moving with the times, is exerting strenuous efforts towards readjustment which may be taken as the measure of her desire for efficiency, as undoubtedly they are the effect within her of the age’s demand for eficiency. But the Church is unlike all other institutions, in that her power lies not in merely human capacity and ingenuity but in the dwelling - and working of a Spirit which is from above. ‘Such things as organisation, adjustment, method and machinery, essential and important as they are, go but a little way to the solving of the problem of her efficiency. ‘The Church’s task in the world is to win men to God and to the Christian way of life, and that can only be effected by the Spirit of God Himself, working from within her, and reproducing His own life and spirit in the souls of men. ‘Therefore, with a view to the fulfilment of this task there is nothing the Church needs so much as spiritual power, flooding men’s souls and pervading every phase of her own life and activity. And the more spiritually-minded among her members, faced as they are by the tremendous problems and perils of the modern world, are longing for such a coming of power from on high with yearning which is as characteristic of our time as is its feverish seeking after readjustment and reorganisation. But the world is to-day in the grip of an all-pervasive and ageressive materialism, which has dulled and deadened the great heart of the Church with the result that there is not that spiritual responsiveness and energy of faith which prayerful men and women long to see, and consequently there has arisen a widespread and persistent attitude of challenge— also characteristic of the age—indicative of a deep anxiety in many hearts, as to what it is that is wrong. — Men know that spiritual power is available. The Lord does not tarry; He waits. Yet the Church is not filled, as men long to see her filled, with the Pentecostal power of her first days, with spiritual energies commensurate with the needs, opportunities and perils of the present. And so, under pressure of the age’s demand for efficiency, this challenging spirit has arisen which, by its widespread persistence, shows how convinced men are that the future of the Church depends upon the maintenance and increase of her efficiency.

It will help to clarify our minds regarding the precise nature of the Church’s problem and enable us to discern the steps which must be taken to increase her efficiency, if we consider the procedure which is invariably followed in solving the problems of efficiency in industry or business. The problem of efficiency is the same wherever it obtrudes itself and is solved by discovering and applying the Jaws which govern efficiency. ‘These laws are laws of method in so far as they concern the manner in which any enterprise is carried through, and laws of psychology in so far as they affect the spirit of those engaged in the enterprise. Accordingly, when it is desired to increase the efficiency of any industrial or commercial undertaking, attention is paid not only to organisation and method but also to the aptitude, temper, understanding and enthusiasm of the personnel. ‘The first endeavour is to eliminate waste in material and energy. If the problem is that of laying bricks or assembling a machine the movements and methods employed in the opera-

The Demand of To-day tion are studied and the method discovered by which the maximum number of bricks can be laid or the maximum number of machines assembled in a specified time. Five motions a brick instead of eighteen, with stooping and lifting eliminated, enabled two thousand bricks per man per day to be laid instead of seven hundred, and a minimum of necessary motions and operations and a wellthought-out method of assembling increased the output of a certain machine from fifteen machines per worker per day to sixty-six, an increase of 340 percent. Waste of time and material and waste or dissipation of energy are the great enemies of efficiency, and the “‘ Efficiency Engineer ” by good organisation and proper methods seeks in the first place to eliminate these, so as to find the best, easiest and quickest way to the end desired. This 1s what we mean when we speak of “ efficiency.” But the best, easiest and quickest way to any desirable end depends upon something more than machine-like precision in organisation and method. The capacity and spirit of the workers play just as large a part. An industry may have the best available plant, a perfect organisation and wellconceived methods of working; yet if its personnel is deficient in understanding and lacks foresight, interest, energy and goodwill, efficiency in any high degree in that industry is an impossibility. Alive to this fact, the best employers to-day do not hesitate to incur expense and trouble in seeking to inspire in their employees a real interest in their aims, and that esprit-de-corps expressing itself in what may be termed ‘“‘ team-work,” without which no great undertaking can flourish. Their concern is to ah capture the interest, rouse the enthusiasm and draw out and develop the latent energy of the personnel. In every body of workers there is a vast amount of energy lying dormant, and no small part of the problem of increasing the efficiency of any industrial or business concern lies in finding out how to awaken and utilise this undeveloped power. The solution is to inspire goodwill in staff and employees and to induce them to increase their own personal effectiveness, to develop initiative, to undertake responsibility and to throw their maximum energy into the enterprise.

This short study of the procedure of the industrial psychologist has brought us to the very heart of the Church’s problem and revealed she task which of all the Church’s tasks must be considered her primary one. The Church, as we have seen, is continually attempting to eliminate waste, and to conserve and concentrate her energies so as to produce in the best, easiest and quickest way those spiritual fruits which it is her function to nurture. The ceaseless toil of her consecrated thinkers in seeking to reinterpret the Gospel in the light of present-day thought, the catholic movement towards a League of Churches co-ordinating the Christian forces in world-wide service, great unions such as those recently consummated in Canada, in which diverse churches entered into a corporate fellowship, and in Scotland, which at last sees her disrupted Presbyterianism reunited in the ancient National Kirk, and the continual process of experiment with new ideas, methods, organisations and agencies so characteristic of to-day, show how alive

The Demand of To-day she is to her own defects and how strenuously she is seeking to overcome them. If it were simply a problem of reorganisation and the adoption of new methods there would be no real difficulty and no cause for anxiety, for readjustment, reorientation, new invention and new alrgnment are easy things for churches which have a mind to increase their efficiency. The real, because the more difficult, task of the Church to-day lies in so arousing and energising her personnel that she will become characterised by a more virile spiritual life and greater energy in the Christian enterprise. It 1s true that to-day in all churches there are vast numbers of consecrated and earnest people, inspired with the Christian sentiment and co-operating in the Christian enterprise to a degree that no former age has known; yet such is the low spirituality, indifference, unconcern and sheer worldliness of many others that the high endeavours of the wholehearted and eager are deprived of much of their value and as a consequence the Church’s efficiency suffers.

In face of the demands of the modern world, its perils, opportunities and needs, the Church’s Spiritual power must be increased. If she is to beat back the attacks of Mammonism, Hedonism and Materialism and succeed in bringing every phase of life and every interest in life under the inspiration and power of Christ, there must be awakened, deepened and extended in her whole membership a virile, spiritual life. Not only must the number of the wholehearted and eager be increased, but her members must be so inspired to seek a higher spiritual efficiency that the untold resources of latent power at present lying dormant and useless within her may be brought forth and thrown into the prosecution of her tremendous task. That 1s the Church’s primary problem. She must so raise her spiritual efficiency as to be able to undertake adequately and successfully any task her Lord lays upon her.

Chapter II

Tue key to the solution of the Church’s primary problem lies in the conception of the ideal church member. For the problem is nothing less than that of reproducing in as large a proportion of church members as possible the ideal church member’s salient characteristics. These salient characteristics are three in number.

(1) The ideal church member must needs be a spiritual man. He must be one who has entered into vital union with the Spirit of Christ and so become possessed of a spiritual experience in virtue of which he is able to maintain the high standard of the Christian life, exercise a far-reaching influence, and continue unwearying in service and enduring in trial. He must be one in whom the Spirit of Christ finds a channel through which to work.

(2) The ideal church member must needs be an informed man. He must be one who has a knowledge of the Christian facts and experience, the working of Christian principles and the way in which the teaching and spirit of the Gospel is permeating every realm of human thought and activity. He must be one who is acquainted with the main aims and ends of the Christian enterprise and of the general progress and activities of the Christian Church at home and abroad. And, in particular, he must be one who knows thoroughly the organisation and enterprises of his own denomination and is conversant with everything which concerns the congregation to which he belongs.

(3) ‘The ideal church member must needs be a worker. Whether old or young, rich or poor, cultured or simple, he must be one whose hand 1s turned to some form of Christian service. His service need not necessarily be a constituent part of church or congregational work, such as teaching a Sunday School class, singing in the choir or serving as an office-bearer. It may be service rendered apart from the church altogether in the ordinary work of life or in the service of the community. But of whatever sort it is, it will be rendered eagerly, without thought of the cost and with but one end in view, namely, that Christ’s Kingdom may be advanced.

Since the Church’s primary problem is to call forth in as many of her members as possible the characteristic qualities of the ideal church member, we have in the three salient characteristics just noted a clear indication of the three-fold direction in which the Church must apply her energies, if she would succeed in lifting the aggregate of her membership to a higher level of spiritual efficiency.

First, and fundamentally, she must concentrate upon the deepening and extension of the spiritual life of her people. The Church is essentially a spiritual institution, created to perform a spiritual task and dependent for life and energy upon

SS a a ee spiritual conditions and factors. Her ability to fulfil the high purpose for which she exists depends upon the presence within her of the Holy Spirit, who is hers only as He dwells in the hearts of her members. The Holy Spirit is always available and has always been in the Church, but in all ages the Church’s members have relied too much - upon their own wisdom and strength, upon their ingenious and masterful aims, methods, schemes and organisations. They have attached far too great importance to numbers, finance, material resources, famous leaders and influential committees ; and have forgotten the simple truth that it is not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of God that the Church prospers.

It is true that God at times breaks in upon His people, filling them with wonder and awe by the amazing manner in which He acts, as He transforms thought, attitude and activity and makes the life ofan age new and rich and fragrant. But He never acts in any such marvellous way until His people really desire it, until in desperation they give up their perpetual scheming, their delight in machinery, their trust in human might, the rank wilfulness and disobedience of their hearts, and simply wait till He fills them with power.

Such a Divine infilling is the Church’s greatest need to-day, but it can only be hers in proportion as such a gospel is preached, such worship offered, such prayerfulness cultivated, such homage to the Divine Will paid, and such a complete surrender made of all that thwarts the Divine Purpose as will meet the august demands upon which depends the coming of the Spirit in power. The gift of

God’s Spirit is not a simple thing nor is it easily obtained. But it is so fundamental and essential for the increase of the Church’s spiritual efficiency that there is nothing which the Church and her members should so diligently, patiently and prayerfully seek to obtain.

Secondly, if the Church is to develop a new efficiency her whole life and work must be more clearly conceived and vigorously prosecuted as an educational enterprise. As the Body of Christ, whom Clement of Alexandria truly called “ The Educator,” she is in the world to exercise an educational function. Her task is to lead men into that fulness and richness of life which is possible for them only in the power of God, which is manifest in Jesus Christ. ‘To this end she must needs show them all the glory of God and the working of His Spirit everywhere throughout the universe, in the evolution of humanity, and in the spiritual experience of the soul, all with a view to developing in them power of personality and fitting them to live strong, full and joyful lives in the service of God and their fellows. For that task she has to her hand the instrument by which the race 1s being raised and civilised, by which the nations are training their citizens to meet the demands of this modern age and by which that efficiency is being acquired which is so prized in present-day industry and business. Education, scientifically — conceived and painstakingly developed, is capable of the most marvellous results. In his “ Science of Power ” Benjamin Kidd shows how by controlling national education Germany and Japan transformed in a single generation the spirit, ideals and character of their peoples. In the hands of the Church what might not be accomplished by a courageous and well conceived policy of religious education ? Not only would it rid her of many inherent defects, but it would, without doubt, produce the most radical changes in opinion and custom both within herself and in society. | Modern education puts at the Church’s service her scientifically designed techniques and objectives, and it has become quite apparent along what lines progress must be made to attain such a perfected system of religious education within the Church as will raise the spiritual efficiency of her members.

Three things are specially demanded. (a2) The grading of instruction so that teaching may be appropriate to the growth and interests of those taught—a principle germane to modern secular education but still insufficiently applied to religious education. (4) The projection of what is taught into practical life in order that it may be studied in action and given expression to in conduct— the modern “ project ”’ method by which instruction is related directly to experience and made to play an immediate part in the development of personality. (c) A co-ordinated and complete curriculum of study which will not only provide for the growth of the Christian man in the knowledge and love of God through study of the Scriptures and the practice of Christian living and service, but also throw open every field in which the Spirit 1s at work inspiring and enlarging an interest in every branch of the Church’s tremendous enterprise, which comprises the training of the young, home evangelisation, the spread of the Gospel overseas and the

33 Cc application of Christian ideals to social, industrial, racial and international problems. Such an application of sound teaching methods to so great a field of study would, without a doubt, produce far-reaching results, and develop a more intense and eager, because a more instructed and interested church life.

Of course, realms of knowledge so wide would demand life-long learning. But why should the Christian man not learn all his life? Are the activities and problems outlined above so trifling that they do not need to be studied after manhood’s

years have been reached ? Is the human mind only ~ capable of learning when it is immature? On the contrary, the objectives of religious education demand the most sustained pursuit, both on their own account and for the sake of the enlargement of personality which their mastery brings. And while the adult mind may lack to some extent the elasticity and quickness of the youthful mind, its enrichment through experience confers upon it that greater power of relating what it learns to practical life, which gives to adult education its peculiar value.

Moreover, the Adult Education Movement, in this country and America, which is giving its ideals, methods and loyalties to the fuller equipment of many workers in political, social and religious life, shows that it is possible to carry education forward right through adult life. The Church in developing a more scientific system of religious education must needs give a large place to the education of the adult; and so meet the challenge issued to the Christian churches of the world in the Report on Religious Education of the Jerusalem Meeting o+ of the International Missionary Council, which met during Holy Week, 1928. Says this Report in one of its ‘“ Messages and Recommendations ” “Certain churches provide commendable courses of instruction before admission to communion, but very few if any provide adequately for the continued growth in knowledge, as in grace, after reception into full church membership. . . . Adult religious education may well be envisaged by the Church as a distinct task.” 1 ‘Thus the Church must become more truly a schoo/. It must be imbued with an intense teaching purpose. It must employ sound teaching methods in the operation of an exhaustive programme of religious instruction, adapted to all stages of intellectual and spiritual development with the end in view of developing in ordinary human nature the Christ-like personality.

Thirdly, if the Church would increase her efh- Ciency, she must intensify and extend the volume of service which she renders to the community and to the world. Sheisinthe world, asher Master was, to serve, and she discharges her function as Servant by providing ways through which her members render their service as followers of Christ, and by inspiring and instructing her members for the service which they render, as followers of Christ, in the world beyond the Church. Modern life and its problems, its highly developed social activities, its redemptive and ameliorative zeal, and the enthusiasm it displays in world-wide evangelism, has led to an enormous extension of the Church’s activities in service. ‘To-day all churches have great service departments equipped with elaborate and complex