3V 652 .M3 1917 McGarrah, Albert Franklin, 1878- Modern church management MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT CHVkCH EFFICIENCr SERIES By Albert F. McGarrah Church Efficiency Specialist A Modern Church Program. A Study in Efficiency, iimo, cloth . . net6oc. Prepared as the result of the wide experience of the author, who is a Church Efficiency Specialist, in order to help Churches study their fields and forces, and make out complete, effective, and reasonable programs of activities along all lines. These activities embrace education, evangelism, visitation, social service, missions, etc. Thi» is not a treatise on methods or devices, but on church statesmanship., Modern Church Finance. Iti Prin- ciples and Practice. 1 6mo, cloth, net ;^ i . 25 A complete guide to success in raising church funds by a most competent expert, illuminates every phase of the subject including : System, Modern Methods, Special Finance, Problems and their Solutions, How to Avoid Deficits and Raise Pebts, How to Secure Larger Budgets for Church Support and Church Benevolences, How to Pre- pare for, and Conduct an «« Every Member" Canvass, How to Collect An'ears, How to Make Church Finances Minister to Spiritual Efficiency* etc MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT A STUDY IN EFFICIENCY BY ALBERT F. McGARRAH Church Efficiency Specialist Author of •• Modern Church Finance," " A Modem Church Program," etc. New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Epin»urgh Copyright, 191 7. by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street TO MY WIFE PREFACE WE are living in a new age. God has not changed but His world has changed. Jesus is the same but the eyes of our under- standings have been opened to see vastly greater pur- poses and glories in His life and work. In this chang- ing, growing world, only a growing, changing Church can be all things to all men and institutions that it may win them to accept Christ as the only Saviour of individuals and of society. Our science, wealth and population have increased more during the past forty years than during the preceding four hundred, and the Church is just begin- ning to feel to the full the results of these changes. From the beginning to the close of the present world war, men's ideals and ideas and methods will advance more than during ten times the period in the nineteenth century. Democracy, commerce, industry and social organization are taking thousand-league steps. They must not out-distance the Church. In the approaching high-tide of opportunity for religion and the Church, she must advance even faster than other institutions. Putting aside all sectarian and debatable matters, she must press to one supreme goal, to make Jesus Christ King in every life and in every com- munity, in every nation and in all human interests. Each local church as well as the church at large must outline a program of action as much vaster than 7 8 PREFACE the old as the present war out-reaches all former ones. As the former military forces and strategy and equip- ment and finances of our nation appear petty in the light of the present marvellous mobilization and organization of our national resources for unprece- dented campaigns, so their past forces and organiza- tion and equipment and resources must be increased many fold if the churches are to take advantage to the full of the magnificent opportunities to make Jesus King of the forces of industry and commerce and science and national life, and to establish peace and prosperity and good-will for all men and nations. Forgetting the things that are behind, pressing for- ward unto the achievement of the magnificent duties which God has set before us with an open door, we must build us more noble and adequate ecclesiastical organizations and policies through which the Spirit may work to redeem the world and to rebuild it after the divine pattern. " If God is our partner, we must make our plans large," remembering that the re- sources of God are promised to those who undertake His program. To those who deprecate the development of ec- clesiastical machinery, let me recall the scriptural teaching that the Church is a body made up of many kinds of members and having many functions, and that the Christian is likened to a soldier. God is a fool if a complex body is a mistake, and military leaders are mistaken if wars should be fought with simple armies as formerly. But God wisely made the body complex that it might be efficient, and generals who are wise do not deplore military complexity. If the directing head be capable, the human body or the army or the Church can be made vastly more PREFACE 9 efficient by increased complexity and wisdom of organization and management. But simplicity must be sought as far as possible, and organization is sec- ondary to, not a substitute for, spiritual purpose and devotion and pulpit and pastoral efficiency. This is the third in appearance, but the first in importance and in logical order, of a series of volumes which the author hopes to complete in due time. In this are laid the foundations for the others, which will incorporate the results of an intensive study of the various phases of church management. The reader's interest should be increased, together with the value of this book, by the fact that these volumes are the outgrowth of hundreds of Church Methods Institutes and Church Efficiency Campaigns con- ducted by the author, where the successes and fail- ures of churches of every size and type have been revealed, including many of every Protestant body of any size. Not only have these ideas been presented con- stantly and debated and tested thoroughly, but much of the material has been incorporated in lectures to students of McCormick, Princeton, Western and other theological schools. May this volume be a valuable asset to the churches of Christ. May it stimulate others to give more thorough consideration to the important sub- jects treated, which have received but a meagferpart of the attention due them. Chicago, III. A. F. McG. CONTENTS I. Modern Church Management . . 13 II. Modern Church Problems . . 22 III. The Supreme Goals of Church Management 42 IV. Ten Essentials of Successful Church Management • • • 55 V. Church Organization — Its Funda- mental Principles .... 73 VI. Church Efficiency Through De- 0- partments and Societies ... 88 VII. Church Committee Organization AND Efficiency 99 VIII. Church Efficiency Through Dis- trict Organization .... 109 IX. Modern Women and the Efficient Church 120 \ X. The Sunday School and Young Peo- ple's Departments . . . .136 XL The Efficient Men's Department . 145 XII. Official Board Organization and Administration 154 XIII. Setting Every One at Work . . 167 XIV. Securing Efficient Church Officers 187 XV. Successful Church Diplomacy . 195 XVI. Securing New Policies, Plans and Equipment . . c.. . . . 205 Bibliography ...... 213 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT THIS is the day of efficiency standards. The world insists on the elimination of unneces- sary waste in the form of materials, time, products, opportunities and unused equipment. It demands a maximum of results with a minimum of cost. The more important the institution, the more searching is the scrutiny into methods and results. Even a superficial scrutiny of American Protes- tant (not to say Catholic) churches reveals most striking proofs of inefficiency. They have clearly failed to accomplish the results which might be ex- pected, considering their divine origin and commis- sion, their human forces, their natural and super- natural resources. While Christ was a missionary and his last com- mand was to evangelize the whole world, the aver- age foreign mission gifts of some of our largest religious bodies are less than one cent per week per member. No denomination of 200,000 members averages as much as one cent per day for each mem- ber and adherent. Of American church buildings, representing an investment of over $1,750,000,000, one-half are used not over a day per week, while only one in ten is used over four hours weekly, aside from Sunday. 13 14 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT In a land where almost every citizen recognizes and reverences Christ, we find that less than ten per cent of the population hears a Protestant ser- mon weekly. The average weekly attendance at theaters and movies is, in many cities, five times the church attendance. Millions of church members bear the name of Christ who would be decreed fraudulent and spu- rious if we had a " pure religion label law," who refuse to permit religion to interfere with the most heathenish practices in their social and political and industrial interests and activities, who not only ig- nore the moral teachings of their churches but bring contempt upon them, who do not dream of seeking really to know and obey the commands of Christ who is their Lord. To a very' large proportion of the members of all American churches prayer is meaningless, faith in spiritual realities is no more than a superstition, mis- sions are held in contempt, and the divine ownership of their property and their Christian stewardship are derided. We find that only forty per cent of the Sunday School pupils join the church. Frequently less than twenty-five per cent of the members are males. Though Christ was a man, there are 3,000,000 more females than males in our churches. According to the census of 1906, forty-two church members and one-third of a minister were required to make a net gain of one member in a year. From twenty per cent to fifty per cent of the MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 15 additions to the churches on confession are dropped from the rolls within a few years. In scores of other ways, we might illustrate the inadequacy of results in and through our churches. This does not mean that ministers are less diligent or consecrated than formerly; not that religion or the Church is dying out; nor that the leaders of the Church are in ability and intelligence below the aver- age standard for leaders of other institutions. The contrary is true. Ministers, church leaders, religion and the Church are all better established than ever. The troubles are that we are living in a new age, the most complex that the world has ever seen ; that in church work, as in farming and merchandizing and manufacturing and in all other affairs, the manage- ment of yesterday will lead to bankruptcy and failure today. Because the Church is the most complex in- stitution on earth, and religion is the greatest human interest, the highest development of religion and the fullest efficiency of the Church must advance more slowly than, and must wait in part upon the perfection and utilization of, all other interests and institutions, while it needs more far-sighted and efficient man- agers and a more comprehensive policy than any other institution in the world. Possibilities Through Increased Efficiency The apparent decay of religion and the Church has already been checked. In some fields, there has been a striking reversal of tendency, especially since the Lay- men's Missionary, Men and Religion, Sunday School, 16 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Christian Endeavour and other modem movements of many types have begun to set new ideals and to arouse a broader and more uniform enthusiasm and purpose. In ten years, gifts to foreign missions from Amer- ican Protestants have risen from less than $9,000,000 to more than $24,500,000 per year. Expenditures for educational and social and missionary work in America have been vastly increased and the results have advanced in even larger proportion. The net annual gains in membership of several denominations have doubled and trebled since 19 10. Multiplied thousands of men and women are enrolling for vari- ous forms of service to the Church, the community and their fellowmen — spiritually and socially. The efficiency of all departments of church work has been vastly increased. Modern evangelistic campaigns on a city-wide scale, — with adequate organization and preparatory plans, with all denominations uniting, with their ample corps of leaders, with liberal expenditures for taber- nacles and other publicity and equipment features, with plans and programs which are far-reaching in time and scope, with adequate forces enrolled for visiting every home and for developing the prayer and other essential features, — have demonstrated the mar- vellous possibilities when the churches begin to go about their work regularly with the same regard for fundamentals of efficient business-like management. That the average American church, by adopting the fruits of the largest experience as to successful plans MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 17 and goals, methods and organizations and policies, could increase its resultfulness for the Kingdom by from 100 to 500 per cent, there is no doubt. William James reminds us that men are as yet ex- erting but a fraction of their potential energies, and of the Church this is even more true. Church Management Defined •^ By church management, we mean the study of gen- eral church supervision. In this volume, details and methods will be discussed only incidentally. Our primary concern is with fundamental principles and factors in church organization and planning. The employment of the best church methods at every point and in every detail is essential, but we must dig deep and lay our foundations on bedrock or we cannot build most wisely. Unless our general plans and blue prints are carefully determined, we may not expect the brick and mortar to yield the largest returns. Too many pastors and church officers are content to do superficial work. Instead of church engineers, building organizations to stand and grow for cen- turies to come, they are mere church tinkers, patch- ing up weak points in the old scheme of organization and management as a tailor puts a new patch on an outworn garment. Others are church jugglers, satis- fied with attracting popular attention and admiration by doing sensational rather than permanent things, starting many things and accomplishing nothing. In- stead of studying statesmanship and church building. 18 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT they depend on makeshifts and try short-cuts to repu- tation and glory through numbers. They are no sooner gone than their plans are forgotten. Their policies are obliterated, their work falls to pieces and they become fruitless memories. Other church leaders wish to build permanently. Realizing that one cathedral of stone will stand for ages and is of more use than a hundred straw huts, that God works by ages rather than by spurts, and that one oak is worth a thousand squashes ; they seek to secure results rather than crowds, to build churches rather than reputations, to build on rock rather than sand. For such far-sighted church architects is this volume and its series. The Scriptural Call for Efficient Management Is it Scriptural to emphasize church management? Is it not contrary to the Christian ideal to study mechanics and systems and methods instead of rely- ing wholly on prayers, sermons and similar forces? Such questions still lurk in the minds of some con- secrated folks. We will turn aside briefly to satisfy ourselves once for all that we are not departing from the methods of the Spirit, to be able to give reasons for the faith that is in us that these matters are just as legitimate and indispensable in church business as in other business. God is a God of system. From the activities of atoms and electrons to the orbits of suns and stars, from the growth of a mustard seed to the evolution of a nation, from the shapes of oak leaves and snow- MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 19 flakes to the construction of human bodies and minds, every element of His creation — His every activity — manifests His concern for system and organization. We are driven to conclude that, if order is not Heaven's first law, it is certainly among the first ; and while love is God's supreme attribute. His love works by and through law and order. The organization of the ancient Hebrew church, which the Bible attributes directly to His wisdom and will, was marvellously systematic for that age, as were the tabernacle building and service and the tem- ple architecture and worship. When our forefathers emphasized so highly the " plan of salvation " and " system in theology," they impliedly condemned the heresy of indifference to wisdom and order in church management. If system and strategy are unspiritual, then Christ was unspiritual for He was as great a master of strategy as of prayer and of the Scriptures. For His advent, He chose that strategic age when Greek philosophy and culture joined with Roman language and law to offer unprecedented opportunities for carrying and interpreting His gospel to all sorts and conditions of men. Instead of travelling to great cities like Rome, or seeking to preach to crowds, He wisely gave most of His time to the systematic train- ing of competent successors because it is wiser to train twelve men than to do a hundred men's work, and because such education could be more effectively imparted in comparative solitude. We find that His curriculum began, not with theology but, with the 20 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT simpler ethical principles of the Sermon on the Mount and that His highest revelations followed practical demonstrations of His divine authority and illustra- tions of the significance of His earlier teachings. While He was always as harmless as a dove, He was as wise as a serpent in dealing with His adversaries and turning events to good account according to His purpose. Because methods and management must constantly change with changing conditions, He :wisely ab- stained from suggesting details in these regards lest they be misunderstood as permanently binding and gave His chief attention to changeless ideals and principles. Yet, as has been well pointed out, He was the first " Efficiency Expert " and anticipated and illustrated in His practices every one of the twelve principles of efficiency elaborated nearly nineteen cen- turies later by the Apostle of Personal Efficiency, from " competent counsel " to " the square deal." Consider His management of the task of feeding the five thousand, supremely important because it is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. We find that He first surveyed the task, or the number to be fed. He next took stock of the available re- sources, and of the difficulties. Next He organized the work and seated the multitude by " fifties and hundreds " for the sake of speed and fairness. Next He secured an adequate corps of helpers by summon- ing all of the twelve to stand ready to distribute. Next He gathered every available loaf and fish before He asked the divine blessing in prayer. But this is MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 21 only one of many illustrations of the business judg- ment of Christ. Since God is the Creator of all of man, business instinct and administrative ability are among His creations. Since God is the source of the brains and laws and forces which make inventions and manage- ment possible and give them their value, these talents are just as sacred as the talents of oratory or prayer. Since all so-called secular and material laws and materials are really of divine and spiritual origin, they must be spiritual in purpose. Neglect to develop and conserve and utilize them for the Church and its work is nothing less than sinful indifference to God's rights and creations and methods. The larger results which have always accompanied business-like management in the world of religion by such organizers and systematizers as Calvin and Wesley and Paul and Billy Sunday prove that God still expects faith and system to go hand in hand in the Church on earth as they do in heaven, and that spirituality and practicality are mutually helpful and dependent rather than antagonistic. The Church is the temple in which the Spirit of God is to dwell as it dwells in the human body. The more perfectly organized and managed is the ** human-body temple" or the " church-temple," the larger are the results which the indwelling Spirit can produce. II MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS THE successful manager of any institution must understand the sources of its prob- lems, especially if the institution is com- plex. Being the representative of God on earth, His supreme visible agency in dealing with all His human children and all their individual and social interests, the Church of Christ must always be the world's most complex institution. Her leaders need a more inti- mate insight into existing conditions than do states- men, for the Church is the prophetic teacher of the state. Her problems are as varied as human inter- ests because all other interests and problems are added to her own. The local church must likewise understand all the problems of her community and of her members and prospects, with their sources, because she is affected by them all and must adjust her policies thereto and because she must declare the whole will of God as it relates to them. The mission- ary and other general American church problems have been clearly formulated, but no adequate presentation of their significance for the local church has yet appeared. We can here merely hint at them and their sources, trusting that some com- MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 23 petent authority may soon give us a more exhaustive treatment thereof as a basis for efficient church engi- neering and reconstruction. The problems of the modern church have many sources. Protestant church management has more problems than Catholicism. More intelligence and attention are essential in the government of a democracy than of an autocracy. The pope can tell his followers what they must do and when, can make immediate changes in policy or organization, can authorize his lieutenant-priests to act without consulting their parishioners. Protestant church leaders must guide the thought of their followers yet must wait until it is moulded in legislation. They must depend upon the voluntary co-operation of their employers. They can be hindered by faddists or self-seekers. In a church democracy, voters often resent suggestions of change as undue reflections on their past wisdom and in- fallibility. On the other hand, they are likely to abandon good plans and call for undue changes as a panacea for inefficiency due to their own unspiritu- ality or indifference. They may nullify all that their leaders have wisely done, may refuse to help to do what themselves have voted, or may bungle things because their conceit leads them to vote and to undertake work without due preparation or con- sideration. The ideals and attainments of a democratic church are infinitely greater than those of the papacy, because they include the broad development of the members rather than keeping them ignorant and superstitious, 24 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT but for this very reason a much higher type of in- telligence and spirit is required both in leaders and followers, and the problems of majnagement are accentuated. American churches are developing within a de- veloping democracy. Political instability has always been a temporary hindrance to the church, upsetting its equilibrium, bewildering its members and dis- tracting its leaders. America is at an unprecedent- edly unstable period in the evolution of her national ideals and methods. The political status quo of fifty years ago, which served as a stable basis for church adjustment and management, has been discarded. City charters, state constitutions, national traditions, all are changing rapidly. Men do not know what they want or need. Be- wildered by the situation, they seek an infallible authority. They follow the orator or the ward-boss, and make him a dictator, merely because of per- sonality or of one service rendered. When he dis- regards their selfish wishes at one point, or when demagogues rise against him, their affections are hastily transferred to another political demigod. The influence of the political leader is likely to be as great as is the inadequacy of the tests of his fitness or the uncertainty of his vogue. So in the church, because conditions are so bewil- dering within and without, no one knows exactly what the times demand. He who knows least often becomes a leader because those who know best are too humbly conscious of the imperfection of their MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 25 knowledge. A pastor explains one intricate point and is at once acclaimed an infallible authority. Too often he is betrayed by his gullibility into accepting this unintelligent semi-worship as proof of his wis- dom, rather than of its superficiality of which he is very soon the victim. One mistake, or the antagonism of a bellsheep member, suffices to discredit his as- sumed wisdom. He is dismissed and a new infallible leader is sought. The church needs spiritual lead- ers who realize the vastness of the plans of God and the transitoriness of present world and community conditions, who seek to foreshadow ultimate stand- ards rather than to dogmatize concerning methods, who can develop an open mind in the church along with loyalty to God and to Jesus Christ. Experi- ments must be made and must be regarded as experi- ments in method. The cocksure church manager is likely to be a conscious or unconscious quack. The enlarged duties and opportunities and com- petition of the modern church demand increased machinery calling for larger attention to church man- agement. A century ago, the average church con- sidered its duty done when it had called men to recog- nize God, to accept the creed and the Bible, to keep the ten commandments, and to prepare to die. Her work was to arrange for weekly sermons, for stated calls to catechise the people, for conducting funerals and for performing marriages. The minister was the church. His word was law. Only he was holy enough to do any work. Management was of no importance. 26 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT What a change ! Within the past century, the Church has received her first clear vision of her missionary and social responsibilities and their scope and im- portance. She has awakened to the Christian duty of making the child central instead of considering him an unfortunate obstacle to be repressed when he could not be ignored. She has realized that a church whose founder finished His work at thirty- three, and called as disciples only young men who could labour for forty or sixty years, should give larger attention to training and using her youth. She has recognized the heresy of her Roman tradition of using only workers who have been ordained, and has sought to conform to the Scriptures by calling all men, women and children to take a share as well as a voice in the work of Christ. She has reaccepted the primitive teaching of the Church that she must educate her members by work, as well as by the pouring-in process, though it be far more difficult. She has been compelled by a study of psychology to revolutionize her teaching methods and her equipment. She is forced to compete with the spectacular appeals of movies and entertainments and of the Sunday press. The remarkable expendi- tures of money and of brains on advertising counter- attractions, and the unprecedented appeals of wealth and the things it will buy and the power to get it, make it vastly more difficult to secure proper atten- tion to her ideals and work. Life itself has become almost incalculably more complex. Yesterday the Church had almost no com- MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 27 petition or social relations. Today she must adjust her appeals and her methods to a complex social organism, with a hundred local lodges, clubs, com- mercial organization, educational concerns and com- munity agencies. These make urgent demands upon her for leadership and support, divert her members and prospects from proper attention to their religious duties, and call the minister from his church duties. While few of these things are inherently evil, they hinder the efficient development and operation of the Church and tend to bring her into contempt because of the resultant reduction in efficiency. The increased cost of ministerial living and libraries, and the necessity of better equipment and the urgency of adequate allowances for publicity, social educa- tional and other essential matters to meet the needs suggested above, combine to demand vastly increased expenditures ; — if the Church is to keep pace with her members who spend more on automobiles than the entire incomes of their grandfathers, or to maintain her respect as compared with the stupendous out- lays for government and education and philanthropy and their resultant equipment. These new ideas and tasks necessitate a great variety of committees and complex departments. Unless they be properly organized and managed, con- fusion and demoralization must result. The modern church must seriously set herself to the task of wisely analyzing and evaluating and co-ordinating each and all of them. The increased size of the average church has 28 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT greatly intensified the problem of performing these increasingly complex duties. Managing a small school or factory or church will always be a com- paratively easy matter. But when a church's mem- bership reaches 300 or 500 the relations of the mem- bers become vastly more complex. Every denomi- nation has seen a great change here. For example, 102 Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia average over 600 members and 11 have each over 1,000. In the territory between the Mississippi and the Pacific only II Presbyterian churches had in 1870 as many as 200 members each, but now 30 churches in that region average over 1,000 members each, and have more members than had the 782 churches in that area in 1870. It is impossible for one pastor to do justice to 500 members in the average church without an assistant. It is foolish to say that the large church cannot be as effective as the small church, if the same amount per capita be expended for pastors, and if adequate wisdom is exercised in developing the organization and efficiency of the work aside from preaching. Churches of 2,000 members will soon be common and can be made more efficient than those of 200 members but there will be an educational director, one or two assistant pastors, women to help with the office work and with the visiting, together with an executive secretary or business manager competent to perfect and direct the organization and oversee the mobilization and training of efficient volunteer leaders. Our church inefficiency is largely an entail from MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 29 the churches of the past century. We do not imply that the churches of yesterday did nothing. They wrought miracles. They found a continent in process of conquest by rough and ready pioneers and set themselves to conquer the conquerors. Ministers were scarce. Colleges and seminaries did not exist. Churches had no buildings and their people had no money. Accustomed as European immigrants are to churches supported by taxes or endowments, few of their members were trained to give and their former poverty made them the more liable to stinginess. The churches conquered America. Contrary to the beautiful tradition of an early Golden Age for Amer- ican Christianity, the fact is that in 1790, while Catholics were a negligible quantity, only four per cent of the population were on Protestant rolls as against twenty-five per cent today. For each com- munity where everybody went to church, there were five communities where churches scarcely existed. Liberty was almost universally interpreted to in- clude moral and religious license. The adherence of the intellectuals to infidel teachings was almost uni- versal. Yale College had only two avowed church members. With such conditions, ministers had no time to think of church efficiency. For a hundred years the problem was to keep alive the spark of religious interest, and to carry the torch and light spiritual fires in every community in the land. The world never before saw such a religious crusade. The popu- lation increased twenty fold but the church mem- 30 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT bership increased a hundredfold. Mountains and prairies and cities saw the missionary trail the pioneer. The value of church property in 1900 ex- ceeded the wealth of America under Jefferson, while our gift to foreign missions alone the past year was nearly double what he paid for the great Louisiana territory. We expend more wealth for religious pur- poses each year than the nation produced during the first four years under the constitution. Blunderingly, sometimes mistakenly, but alv/ays earnestly, they compelled an empire to consider God and the things of the spirit. We cannot estimate the value of the crude but effective efforts of these fathers who conquered the American Continent for Christ and the church and hastened by centuries the con- quest of the world. May God help us to be as single-hearted and unselfish. Yet our fathers' wasteful methods of farming and lumbering and building were paralleled in their churches. Their work was too urgent to permit of delay, so the ready-made European methods of church organization and work were used, or methods im- provised for the moment. Religious highways like city streets were built on primitive cowpath lines, and congregational organizations were as primitive as log cabins. The very simplicity of their message and their methods make our problems the more difficult. Their very success in making church members so fast brought in millions who do not understand what Christianity means. Their success in raising money MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 31 and doing other things by unscriptural methods which interfered with true spiritual development leads many to question the wisdom of business-like foresight and scriptural plans. We must take their crude work and, with equal consecration and zeal, develop varied and compre- hensive policies to perfect it. We must make Chris- tians, in all the word means, of those whom they made church members. We must promptly rebuild their crude churches into spiritual edifices and organisms in keeping with the stupendous needs of the present age. Let us never criticise the past but, with thankful, prayerful hearts, let us complement their sacrifices by bringing the churches they founded to a greater power and usefulness than they dreamed of. Unsettled social and intellectual conditions. The church must work with institutions and individuals as they are, adapting her methods to them, until they can be improved. But the present era of change is moving the foundations of our civilization. The very forces with and for which she must work, folks and communities and ideals, are being transformed. By means of new inventions, scientific discoveries, political developments, social theories and moral prin- ciples, humanity is as it were taking itself apart to rebuild its ideals and institutions on a vastly enlarged scale and an unprecedented plan. Only a few years ago the church ministered to people of a very limited outlook, who lacked logical discrimination, whose lives were starved by want of 32 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT education and travel and leisure, who had few recreations and fewer books, who lived simple lives under simple conditions. When we read of occa- sional communities where every one went to church, the retort is made that "they had nowhere else to go." The social fellowship before and after church was all their starved lives had. Motor and street cars, and movies and amusement parks were un- known. The minister was the only educated man, and the church the only meeting-place for all ages, in the community. Competition practically did not exist and a superstitious fear of the church and of the minister persisted from pre-reformation times. All this is changed. Human life has been incom- parably enriched, intellectually and otherwise, by higher wages and better schools, bath-tubs and electric lights, lodges and women's clubs, commercial organi- zations and rapid transit, telephones and rural mail delivery. Many people meet too much with each other. Leisure for thought is past. Each year in America, more lectures and entertainments and socials are held, more miles are travelled, more new books are published, more money is made and spent, more college students are graduated, more newspaper type is set, than in the first three centuries after Jamestown was settled. All these are good, but mod- ern church policies and methods must be developed to deal with the new humanity thus produced. The social progress of each decade surpasses that of the whole eighteenth century. The onrushing present is no more like the past than the rapids of MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 33 the St. Lawrence are like peaceful Ontario. These great currents, and the mighty forces which have caused and are caused by them, are divinely ordained to bear us through narrows and shallows to a future religious life as much deeper and richer than that of the past as the Atlantic is deeper and vaster than the lake, but passing the rapids places a great strain upon the Church. With constant care and skill she must steer her safe course in the channels of idealism and service, avoiding cataract-like breaks with the past such as are urged by impatient advocates of revolutionary instead of evolutionary change, and avoiding on the other hand the equally dangerous shallows and reactionary eddies sought by those timid souls who are fearful of change and of an enlarged religious outlook and life. Having a more intelligent generation to deal with, the Church must to outsiders prove her faith by works and fruits in evident accord with those of the Master and with human need and ideals. Yet many individuals and communities, drunken with draughts of freedom and prosperity and progress which they have not learned how to use, will only listen to the stentorian challenges of a John the Baptist or a Billy Sunday. While others believe the church to maintain the moral and intellectual and practical pettiness of the past and consider her an agency whose ideals and spirit have been outgrown, so that a " come to Jesus " appeal makes no impres- sion until the church proves emphatically that 34 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT it truly represents Jesus, and that He is worth rep- resenting. Under such conditions, an ideal church plan or program is not possible, for that implies a fixed environment and fixed conditions. An ideal attained is at once outgrown. Each church is as it were " on a moving platform shooting at a moving object." She must seek to foresee the focal points where divine purpose and human progress intersect, pre- paring the way for an ideal church tomorrow when conditions have taken a more stable form. She must discover the policies and develop leaders for the task of consolidating tomorrow the successes of religion and for carrying the battle forward to com- plete victory. Unsettled community life. American communi- ties are ever changing. Commercial and industrial and agricultural developments and fluctuations, financial reverses, prosperity, vacations, schools, climate and numberless other causes constantly oper- ate to tear down churches and hinder their efficiency. Every church is in a measure reaching a procession, or could and should be. " Folks move in, then move about, and then move out," says an Ohio city pastor who reports that in two years he made over 900 additions and erasures and changes of addresses on his rolls, and had still only the 1,700 members reported by his predecessor. An Iowa minister reports that, during a four-year rural pastorate, eight of his eleven original officers died or removed. A Kansas town pastor, after MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 35 twenty years of hard and successful work, reported that he had received over 500 members and had dis- missed 18 to 30 to each of four churches in Okla- homa, Washington and California, yet only 17 of his original 292 remained. A Pennsylvania town pastor that, at the close of a thirty-five-year pastorate, with 850 members, only 18 of his original members re- mained. A Philadelphia pastor reports 1,500 mem- bers in a church only eleven years old. One family told a Chicago pastor that they were too unsettled to join the church though they had lived fourteen yeafs in the same neighbourhood. Many a pastor receives and dismisses more mem- bers each year than the entire roll of the church forty years ago. To minister to these nomads so as to prevent their loss to the church is a tremendous problem as well as opportunity. When they do join, tenants take less interest in and do less for the church than do home owners because less familiar with the church and the community. Whether or not they stay long enough to be of use, the church must make itself useful to them. This means consecrated and persistent eflfort with expenditure of money, but no church dare neglect this missionary task. Publicity and constant visita- tion are demanded, with business-like efforts to find and develop them and to follow them up when they leave. They must be captured for Christ and the church as soon as they enter the new home, since it is vastly easier to tie them up to the church before they are tied up to other social and fraternal inter- 36 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT ests. District committees to locate and welcome them, a well-equipped office with a secretary or two tactfully turning a stream of mail and visits to them, an automobile for the pastor and one or more visit- ing assistants, with adequate educational and social policies, are essential for finding, winning and de- veloping them for local service if they remain, for better service to communities and churches to which they go if go they do. Our unprecedentedly heterogeneous American population. In all communities and nations, the population is more or less diverse, but nowhere else is there such a congeries of people. Imagine the difficulty of meeting the varied needs in a church whose pastor has received 700 members who re- ported former connections with 102 different congre- gations in 22 states and 7 nations, representing 19 religious bodies. Consider the problem of an ade- quate ministry in another church having 14 different nationalities represented in its departments, while only 20 per cent of the adjacent population was of native parentage and only 16 per cent were of any one nationality. While these are extreme cases, they present a prob- lem which is universal. We find even rural church members separated by great chasms in ideals and interests due to their racial ancestry, family tradi- tions, wealth, ecclesiastical and spiritual antecedents, education, native talents and prejudices, and experi- ences with former pastors and church tasks. Even within the same denomination are such vast diver- MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 37 gences of training that efficient harmony can be developed only by the wisest leadership. A church in a Pittsburg suburb reports thirty-nine members who were formerly officers in the churches whence they came, for whom no place has yet been found on the official board, who mostly want to tell how to run the church because they helped to run churches under utterly different conditions in their varied communities. A Methodist superintendent says, " Denominations are supposed to be needed be- cause of various emotional, intellectual and doc- trinal types but there is no possible human type which we are not now assimilating in some of the churches of my district. Methodism is being modi- fied thereby, as Methodists who enter other bodies are modifying them, so that by and by you cannot dis- tinguish Methodist or Presbyterian or any other type for all churches will be alike." The American Church has a great part in the great American melting pot. Its problems are vastly greater than those of the public schools which deal only with children from five to eighteen and which can compel attendance. The church must deal with the mature and the immature, of all types, in rela- tion to all their interests, and must win and hold them by democratic methods while remoulding ideas and ideals which have to a large extent already taken form and lost plasticity. The management of all the elements of a church so as to develop a real church family unit out of this confusing conflict of ideals and temperaments, to contribute to the soli- 38 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT darity of the state and of the world at large while maintaining and increasing its own local efficiency and unity — surely here is a task demanding great wisdom and diligent study. Our fifty-seven varieties of sects. In no other land and no other age have church problems been so intensified and magnified by an aggravated sectarian- ism. All Protestant bodies of any achievement were launched in America by consecrated apostles with an eye single to serving the Kingdom, and, with few exceptions, with a desire for co-operation with other Christian churches. But Europe's national jealousies and sectarian controversies were soon manifested. These were rapidly amplified among ministers by that incomplete education which is the nurse of superstition. The common people responded to sectarian debates and attacks because they resembled fisticuffs, cock-fight- ing, political mud-slinging and similar popular sports of body and mind. Churches and ministers mistook popular approval for divine sanction and proceeded to secure audiences and members thereby. Religion in many places degenerated into such exhibits of vituperation, extreme emotionalism and lurid denun- ciations of Satan as secured the most respect from frontiersmen accustomed to the equivalent realism of bludgeons, blasphemy and bullets. The exaltation of the Christ of the Bible became unimportant compared with the chance to add to denominational glory by victories over " enemy " churches won by blackguard- ing them and stealing their members. Often church MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 39 officers were chosen and church management was directed to these ends, because they got crowds and money and led to pastoral promotion. Under such conditions, is it any wonder that churches lost most of their original ideas and brother- liness, or that we inherit from them heathenish carica- tures of Christ and utter misunderstandings of faith and experience and church purposes, plus a vast mul- titude of church members with merely a sectarian veneer over their original heathenism and material- ism? Is it any wonder that millions of thinking people resorted to Tom Paine's writings as reasonable alternatives to the popular brands of religion and joined lodges as being useful and sane instead of scandalous fighters and emotionalists? To this day the efficiency of every church is ham- pered at many points because so many churches in- sistently proclaim the superiority of their respective polities and distinctive minor doctrines. Unchurched folks are bewildered by the variety of churches and either repudiate them all as prompted by selfishness and jealousy or take so long to decide which is best that they never join any. When a minister seeks ade- quately to perform his duty by educating folks in the neglected teachings of Christ and their social and moral implications, when he summons his members to perform their duties as to living and giving and pray- ing for the salvation of their neighbours, for social redemption and for missions, they threaten to stay at home and cut ofif their support if he does not stop preaching these " strange themes," 40 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT No church can have an adequate financial support when the sacrificially minded people scatter their offerings to give a starvation support for three times the needed plants and pastors. Instead of equalling the local church expenses, missionary gifts are but a fourth or a tenth of what they should be. Denied funds for the books and travel which would broaden and freshen them, debt-burdened and dis- turbed as to their future support, pastors attain only from twenty to fifty per cent of their possible effi- ciency. Buildings and equipment and publicity ex- penditures are utterly inadequate. Educational and social and office work lack both the essential sup- plies and the expert paid assistants. Pastors and leaders who strive for better conditions are pointed to the lower per capita expenditures of the more inefficient church down street. Church discipline is weakened or ended by sec- tarian competition. Drunkards, misers and despoil- ers of women and the poor remain unrebuked on church rolls because of the necessity of maintaining denominational glory and strength against their rivals; and because some church down street would receive the unrighteous deserter-under-discipline with his gifts without any investigation but with Pharisaical rejoicing in the " rescue of a brand from the burning." Instead of maintaining Christ's stand- ards, every applicant, however shallow his profes- sions, is received as a new proof of divine favor for the church and its doctrines and polity while the neighbour phurch which faithfully stands for higher MODERN CHURCH PROBLEMS 41 ideals is publicly sneered at because it grows slowly. The outsider conceives a bitter contempt for all churches and their members if he understands the miscreant church. Otherwise he is likely to join it instead of the more efficient church, unconscious of the fuller blessings and development and larger use- fulness to the Kingdom which the more faithful though unpopular church would have brought him by its true vision and its closer touch with God. Many young people are lost to the church. Hav- ing been taught community unity and co-operation in other matters, they resent being separated in reli- gion. The offered explanations and appeals for denominational loyalty do not appeal to them. If they do not develop a prejudice against religion, they are likely merely to tolerate an agency which sepa- rates them from their friends because of parental pressure, or they go with their intimates to other churches than their parents and break the family unity which is so essential to church and community. Ill THE SUPREME GOALS OF CHURCH MAN- AGEMENT SUCCESSFUL management implies clearly de- fined goals and ultimate objectives. The army or school which attains its highest efficiency must understand the fundamental ideals involved and the ultimate purposes and program toward which its immediate successes must contribute. The indi- vidual church, both as a school and an army, cannot attafin to its highest efficiency save by a careful study of the ultimate goals of the Church Universal and its Divine Leader. The Church Universal and the Local Church Let us keep in mind that the Church Universal, in its origin and history and purpose, is the greatest of all earthly institutions. It is indeed more than a human institution. It was founded by Christ Him- self. It is His Body and bears His Name. It par- takes therefore of the nature of the Infinite. It is the Sacred Temple of the Holy Spirit, the supreme agency through which the divine power is to operate on earth. It is a family of God's sons and daughters, inaugurated on earth to continue and be perfected in heaven. Though not an end in itself, and not identi- THE SUPREME GOALS 43 cal with the Kingdom of God, it is the supreme means to the establishment of the Kingdom. The significance of the Church is notably under- estimated by its members and even by most of its leaders. The Bible, the sermon, the minister, the Sunday School, theology, architecture and other church interests are most important, but attention to any or all of these cannot atone for our glaring neglect to exalt and study the Church itself, its past and present achievements, its importance and author- ity for the present and future, and the perfection of its life and resources with the utmost of efficiency in accord with its essential democracy. There is but one Church in all the world. The religious bodies and local congregations which we call churches deserve the name only because, and so far as, they participate in the nature and tasks and ideals of the Church Universal. We cannot here discuss in detail either wrong theories of the Church, or the perverted ecclesiasticism of mediaeval Romanism with its denial of spiritual freedom and life and democracy, or the unduly extreme reaction of Protestantism therefrom, or the exaggerated sectarianism, or the other causes which have combined to discredit the Church and to obscure its true nature and responsibility and unity and glory. We can discuss only God's purpose for and through it, in which all churches share as they participate in the glory and honour of being parts of the One Church of Christ. We believe it will, sooner than we expect, become really '' one that the world may believe," by the advance of religious freedom U MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT and intelligence and efficiency which will undermine the heresies of the papacy on the one hand and of an unscriptural sectarianism on the other. The Church is Christ's Earthly Representative We do not assert that the Church is an absolutism, or that the Church is to seek political powers. We do assert that the Church was instituted by our Lord to continue the work which He began; to complete the plans which He initiated; to constitute a functional body through which He, as the head, may accomplish His divine and universal will. It is clear that His purpose and program are obligatory upon the Church which bears His name, which is to the world His ambassador and representative. Usually we apply only to individual disciples such expressions as : " The works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do," and " As thou didst send me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world." But these declarations apply even more directly to the Church Universal, and to its true subdivisions, than to individuals. What, then, are the plan and program of Christ for His Church? What greater works is it to do? For what purposes was He sent and for which He in turn sends His Church? What ideals for the earth did He express which become binding upon the Church ? What are the divine far-off events towards which the Church, and the whole world under its oversight, is to move, under the providential lead- ings of the Founder and Lord? Without determin- THE SUPREME GOALS 45 ing towards what ultimate objectives it shall direct its energies, a church is like the inefficient man who can truly sing, " I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way/' The first elements of efficiency are clears cut purposes and definite goals. We cannot have absolute knowledge of the supreme purpose of Christ, because it is infinite and we are finite. We can now know only in part; but we can know much, for the Holy Spirit has been fulfilling Christ's promise that '' He will guide you into all truth," and will continue so to guide us just as long as He has anything more to reveal and just as fast as the Church is prepared to receive His further revela- tions. We shall examine various elements of Christ's purpose which will enable us more fully to apprehend His Supreme Purpose and Goal which the Church must obediently seek to hasten. One purpose of Christ was and is to bestow physi- cal salvation. Jesus sanctified the human body and all its functions by being Himself born of woman, by becoming weary, by eating and sleeping and by physi- cal suffering on the Cross. That He "grew in stature," the resurrection of His body, and Paul's assertion that every body should be a temple of the Holy Spirit, unite to show the value of human bodies and the religious duty of seeking to perfect them in strength and beauty. Jesus gave to John the Baptist, as a proof of His Messiahship, the message that " the blind see and the deaf hear." He teaches that the " righteous " will, at the last judgment, enter into the joy of their Lord in large measure because of 46 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT physical service, for " I was hungry and ye fed me, naked and ye clothed me, . . . inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these ye did it unto me." It is clear that the Church bearing His name must con- tinue to perform similar ministries, wherever there are physical needs, of this or future generations, or better still to see that they are performed, and best of all to help anticipate or prevent them. Another purpose of Christ through His Church is the salvation of what zve call the intellectual life of men. Jesus Himself possessed a reasonable soul and " grew in wisdom." He enjoyed the beauties of flowers and birds and fields. His parable and teach- ings show a full development of His logic and imagi- nation, and He appealed to both the emotions and the will. God made man in His own image, so it is evident that God and men come into their largest and grandest fellowship only as men's minds are developed so that they may think the thoughts of their Father-Creator after Him. The greatest and most lasting fruits have accompanied that Christianity which has promoted the fullest and freest develop- ment of all intellectual powers. Culture and art and science and history are the handmaids as well as the children of Christianity, and the Church which is loyal to the Christ who astonished the learned men of His day by His intellectuality will seek, as He did, to promote men's fullest intellectual development. To this end, the Church will foster the progress of scien- tific and philosophic wisdom and of education in all its phases and forms, and will encourage the develop- THE SUPREME GOALS 47 ment of educational principles and practices to the highest efficiency in all lands and for all human beings. God's supreme purpose includes the salvation of society. Man is a social being by God's purpose and creation. The God who, in the beginning, saw that " it was not good for man to be alone," who " setteth the solitary in families," who organized families into tribes and nations, whose religious laws were largely concerned with sanitation and co-operation and with the perfection of the social machinery of the Hebrews, is the God who lives today and for whom Christ spoke. Christ recognized the universal social independence of humanity and sanctified all social relations and duties. He had a mother. He was subject to a father and shared in the duties and the benefits of a family of brothers and sisters. He assumed economic rela- tions by becoming a carpenter, by labouring for others and by receiving wages. He frequented feasts and weddings in the homes of rich and poor. He took a vital interest in His Nazareth community and in the affairs of His nation. He paid taxes and He denounced political grafters and the economic swin- dlers who robbed widows' houses and communities. He gave unprecedented honours to women and led in giving to children that pre-eminence which has ever characterized a true Christianity. While He gave few detailed suggestions as to wages and caste and democracy and social justice and progress, because these problems are ever chang- 48 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT ing their form, His command to " love thy neighbour as thyself " is at the foundation of all progress in these lines, and exacts far more than the extreme of political socialism. He enunciated a Golden Rule which, though often misinterpreted by unspiritual leaders, is when fully analyzed an ample panacea for all social ills. Above all, Christ's gospel of individual salvation has proved the most powerful dynamite the world has ever known for reconstructing family and community life, for transforming economic and politi- cal and social conditions, for blasting political and industrial and political tyranny alike, for challenging every individual and institution to help secure for every man the right to freedom of thought and a chance to earn an honest and ample living for him- self and his family. The Bible tells us of a holy city that is to be on earth, and that Christ wept over cities. Jesus tells us that the command to " love thy neighbour as thy- self " is " like unto " the command to " Love God with all thy heart and soul and strength and mind." We are told that Christ came to establish " peace on earth and good will to men," and that He commanded the Church to "disciple all nations," which means the Christianizing of the diplomacy and statesmanship and civic interests of nations as well as the conver- sion of individuals. The Bible teaches us that " the city shall be full of children playing," and implies the right of every child to dwell among flowers and birds as God caused His first human children to dwell in Eden. THE SUPREME GOALS 49 Clearly the Church of Christ is intrusted with the task of helping to accomplish the regeneration of so- ciety, with all its institutions and interests and rela- tionships, with helping to establish God's plans and to perfect the work Christ inaugurated. The purpose of God includes the salvation of indi- vidual souls from their sufferings and sins. In our enthusiasm because of the rediscovery of the social teachings of Jesus, we are in danger of swinging to the other extreme and depreciating the salvation of the spirit. The gospel of sacrifice and of the regen- eration of individuals is not bowed out of existence by modem science. Heredity and environment make it easier to become and remain Christians and to enter into the full enjoyment of our spiritual heritage, but the Cross has an eternal significance. Soup, soap, shirts and sleeping-quarters do not constitute perfection, for Newport and Palm Beach palaces are not inhabited entirely by saints. Christianity is a new life and no note is more consistently sounded in the New Testament than that " Ye must be born again " ; that the life must be developed " which is life indeed." Social salvation and individual salvation are neces- sary each to the other. God is concerned with per- fecting the physical natures and intellectual powers and social relations of men, because these are the temples in which dwell the spirits of His sons and daughters. The importance of salvation for the life that now is finds its explanation and its perfection in eternal life. Sin is the great obstruction to the divine will which must be recognized, repented of and 50 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT abandoned by those who would attain to their full stature and their infinite inheritance as children of an infinitely holy as well as an infinitely wise God. A young child, living with an earthly father and an elder brother, gradually grows into their character and likeness and comes into perfect understanding of, and co-operation with, their purposes and work. To have similar friendly and intimate personal fellow- ship with Him and with His Son in order to grow into their likeness is the supreme possibility and glory and blessing of each human being. This the Church must help them to attain on earth and for heaven, both for their own sakes and for the sake of their Heavenly Father, whose heart is saddened and whose plans are hindered by every prodigal son and daugh- ter and by each spiritually stunted and morally dwarfed child. Thus they and He are deprived of the joy and blessing of mutual fellowship and part- nership. The purpose of God includes the salvation of all men, of every colour and language, of all nations and communities. We need not rehearse here the many ways in which Christ teaches His Church that He died '' that whosoever will " might be saved. The Bible is a missionary book. As God made all men, so Christ died for all, and the Church must make Christ's death worth while, must complete His work, by bringing to all human beings a convincing knowl- edge and appreciation of their possibilities as children of the Most High, and of the work and purposes of Christ for them. To ignore the missionary duty of THE SUPREME GOALS 51 Christ's Church is to ignore the last and most sacred words of Christ, and to rebel against Him who has made the Church possible. The purpose of God includes the redemption of the earth itself, the discovery and full development of all its forces and features. In Genesis, we read that God gave to man, along with the command to *' mul- tiply and replenish the earth," the commission to sub- due it and have dominion over it and all that in it is. Modern science teaches the unity of the universe. As we awake to the immanence of God, — to His author- ship of gravity and electricity, of animal and vegetable life, of the laws and forces which underlie invention and commerce, of agriculture and art, — finding that " by Him the worlds were made and without Him was not anything made that was made," we see that it is a religious duty to insure the fullest development of soils and machinery, of fruits and grains, as well as of the sciences of conserving and distributing the products of the earth. We are abandoning that heresy, introduced into Christianity from heathen sources and established by an unscriptural Romanism, that some things are secular and others are sacred. We now understand that God made all things good and that there is nothing unholy or secular in the world save sin. To quote Dr. G. Campbell Morgan,* " The mis- sionary commission given in Mark i6: 15 is all too superficially considered. ' Go ye into all the cosmos ' does not merely mean to travel over the surface of the *"The Missionary Manifesto," pp. 20, 21. 52 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT earth and speak to men: the term cosmos here in- cludes man and everything beneath him . . . refers to the whole earth in its order, its beauty and its forces ... all hidden treasures, its boundless re- sources, its yet undiscovered secrets . . . beasts, birds and flowers, ... in order to the discovery and utilization of the secret resources of the earth, so that the whole may become a thing of glorious beauty. . . . He created man and gave him dominion over the whole creation in order to its development and per- fecting. " . . .He also gives to the Church today the charge to pass out into contact with the cosmos and to proclaim to the whole creation the story of His victory. . . . The Church must always begin with man but she must not forget that the emphasis of the commission in Mark is that the ultimate result of man's remaking is the renewal of the whole creation. He will be able to restore the cosmos to its order and lead it to the fulfilment of divine purposes . . . the garden of a Christian man ought to be the most beautiful in the whole district. When it is not so, he is not living in the full power of the risen Christ. " The conception of Christian responsibility which aims at the saving of men while it is careless of the * groaning of creation ' is out of harmony with the meaning of this commission. . . . Those who fulfil this commission shall be accompanied by the Lord Himself, co-operating with them in the communica- tion of the divine life by the spirit." These words of Dr. Morgan need no comment. Agriculture and THE SUPREME GOALS 53 mining and engineering and all the human activities which look towards " subduing the earth " are spiritu- ally commanded and the Church must recognize and encourage their proper prosecution as sacred religious tasks. Finally, the purpose of God includes the complete reconstruction of this earth into " a new earth." We have the summing up of the stupendous task which Christ undertook, and intrusted to the Church to complete, in the vision given on Patmos (Rev. 21 : i). The new heavens which we know, as compared with the Jewish and heathen heavens, are God's creation. The task of establishing a New Earth was only begun by Christ and its completion is intrusted to the man- agement of His Church. Every church is bound to nothing less than to help answer the prayer which Christ taught us, " Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth." As in heaven there are no commercial or indusr trial or diplomatic or social or spiritual institutions or practices which do not conform to thie will of God, so it must be on earth. Ignorance, poverty, economic inefficiency, waste land, unused economic and ma- terial forces, disease, selfishness, sin in its national and community and family and individual forms, — all these are contrary to the will of God, so the Church must seek their eradication and abolition. Every- thing on earth must be brought into subjection to God's perfect and holy will, that His Kingdom may come over all and His will for the earth may be ac- complished as it is in heaven. The Church which 54 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT does not hope and pray and work for this as its supreme goal has so far failed fully to appreciate Christ's purpose for it and cannot be fully efficient. It aims only at half-way goals and lacks the courage and power that come from divine responsibilities and visions. In Conclusion We do not mean that the Church is to do all these things but that it is responsible for getting them done. When Christ fed the five thousand, He used resources of many forms ; loaves and fishes, and the small boy who brought them, organization and system, prayer, and twelve disciples to attend to the details and deal with the individuals. So the Church, setting forth the purposes of Christ for the world, will use com- merce, agriculture, governments and other institu- tions; wealth, system, men and inventions. With prophetic authority, it will summon and mobilize all earth's resources, co-ordinating and using them in the wisest possible ways, to accomplish the divine pur- pose. The Church is not to do all things directly but to insure that the work is done, using every good gift of God to that end, for by the Church all things are *' to work together for good." Each local church must seek to accomplish its part directly and indirectly, and in every way possible to co-operate with the Church Universal to the accom- plishment of these ends. IV TEN ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESSFUL CHURCH MANAGEMENT HAVING noted the chief problems of church management, our next step is to make a brief survey of the essentials of a successful modern church. We shall take as it were a bird's-eye view of the church that is worthy to be called efficient. Of course we must here assume those elements of church success which are superhuman. The object of human church management is to accomplish that reasonable purpose which God requires — the utmost utilization of all the material and human forces, the wisdom and strategy, and the divinely appointed co- operating social agencies and resources, which God has put at the command of the church — as a prelimi- nary condition of power in prayer, and of that divine aid which Jesus asked only when He had done all that human wisdom and foresight could do towards feeding the five thousand. The promise, " Lo, I am with you always," like all other scriptural offers, has practical conditions. It puts no premium on that attitude of indolence or of heathenish superstition which excuses itself from wisdom and sacrifice and strenuous effort on the plea that God will save the heathen or build up the Church and its members if we will only pray. 55 56 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT We should pray before we plan and work but prayer is folly unless we do, as individuals and as churches, everything that God has put within our power. Only when men have exhausted their possibilities will God help them to do impossibilities. The first essential of an efficient church is a trul'^ scriptural program, a comprehensive and balanced objective. Balance is as essential to the health and efficiency of a church as of minds and bodies. An ill-balanced pursuit of fads, or of good but partial policies, in a church as in an individual, may well be termed insanity, or absence of that sanity which is health. _Fiv e scriptural ideals and duties are es- sential in every intelligent and sane church. ^ First, every church must seek to^ evangelize^ or better, as Jesus puts it in His last commandLlQ-niaKil jdisciples of, individuals. This means vastly more than getting people to join the church, frightening them, or making them cry. A disciple is a pupil, and many supposed converts due to hysterical and sec- tarian exhortations, falsely called evangelism, are in no sense worthy to be called pupils of Christ. They are emotionalists, selfish seekers of present profit or praise, prudent pursuers of eternal-life insurance, or, at best, Christ-admirers. True.,e.van^[elism suc- ' ceeds in seeking to lead men and women to become diligent students of the ideals, purposes, principles and practices of Jesus, accepting Him as their su- preme Teacher as well as Saviour. No man is fully evangelized until he has a clear conviction that his highest happiness and usefulness will come from mak- TEN ESSENTIALS 57 ing Jesus his absolute Lord, and from a persistent study and practice of all that He taught. jecon d, the efficient church wjlLcpnform to His instruction as to '' tea ching them, to. observe all things whatsoever I comma nd." Religious education is the chief function of the Church today, yet many a church has largely or wholly ignored this last command of Jesus, allowing its converts to be content with ma- triculation instead of emphasizing their urgent duty to press on towards graduation in Christ's school of grace and knowledge and life. One reason for loss of power and prestige by the Church is her content with mothering spiritual babes, making little or no effort to help them to " grow up in all things " unto " the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," or to develop them to that point of Christlikeness where onlookers will not need to be assured that they are church members 'iDut will involuntarily call them Christians as at Antioch. The Church must redouble her efforts to make her members real students, to induce every child and adult to attend both the preaching and the teaching services and to study at home to master " all things whatsoever " Jesus com- manded and their applications to individual and social life. Educational plans must provide, for every stu- dent member of church and school, opportunities for, and oversight in performing, such practice work as they need. In teaching religion, as in arithmetic or art, it is necessary that problems and tasks be pro- vided each pupil which involve the immediate applica- tion and mastery of every principle taught. The 68 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT school of church and community religious service is as important as the school of instruction, involving a radical change of emphasis in church plans. The t hird duty of each church„is_to seek the Chrisj tianization of the'social order. The last command of Jesus, to make disciples and to teach " to observe all things whatsoever," applied not merely to every crea- ture but to *' all nations." The word which Jesus used applies to all corporate social life including community and racial interests, government and in- dustry and science and education. The Church must evangelize all these, teaching their voters and rulers that God is the God of all social interests and that they can find their highest development and perfec- tion only by conformity to the infinitely wise and loving will of Him in whom they had their origin and have their continued being and progress. The Church must summon all human institutions which it can reach to observe all the principles and serve all the purposes of Christ, making Him their supreme Teacher and King. Besides her ministry of evangelizing and teaching social institutions, the Church often will need to exemplify her words and clarify her message by temporarily opening schools, hospitals, gymnasiums and homes for children and for the aged, and by other forms of social service. These will give her students practice in their lessons, and will provide for the fuller development and for the perfection of the environment of those whom she is teaching. But her primary duty is not to do these things but to v\ TEN ESSENTIALS 59 have them done, to call society in its organized capacities to meet all human needs, and to insure uni- versal health and social development and economic opportunity and justice as well as popular education and military defense. Fourth, the Church m u st perform the missionary function , constantly presented in the Bible, of seek- ing to make disciples of all individuals and communi- ties and nations throughout the world, so that every human being and group may realize the pre-eminence of religion and of Jesus, may fully practise His teach- ings and their applications, may see in Him their Saviour, and may make Him their King. Not only for the sake of lands and peoples yet unreached, but for the spiritual and moral welfare of present Chris- tians and of their descendants also, it is necessary to project the evangelistic and educational and social functions of the Church until the earth shall be filled with the knowledge and service of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. No individual or nation or community is fully and finally saved until all are saved and the contagions of evil and ignorance and injustice and sin are eliminated from God's world. The fi fth spec ific duty of the Church is to seek he r own welfare and bui lding , year by year and genera- tion by generation. The Church is not an end but a means, like all other social and material resources. But since she is the supreme agency by which all things shall be made to work together for the hasten- ing of the Kingdom of God, she must seek, while serving, to increase her own prestige and power to 60 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT serve, both by increasing and improving the quality of her members and equipment, by perfecting her own corporate organization and her strategy, and by seeking to achieve the answer to the prayer of her Lord that " they all may be one that the world may believe." The second essential of an efficient church is an adequate parish program based on a careful survey. Before developing His plans for feeding the five thou- sand, Jesus took account of the loaves and fishes available as well as of the number to be fed. So the Church should seek to ascertain all the facts, social and religious, which will affect her work, as a basis for far-sighted planning and a wise program. Every church should secure, and maintain as fresh and accurate as possible, full information concerning her people, her prospects, her community and her- self. After making a community census and a com- plete constituency roll, she can develop an evangelistic program. When she has analyzed the needs of her members and the abilities of her teachers and leaders, she can formulate programs for education and serv- ice which will properly develop her children, her adult spiritual illiterates and those whom God can use for largest leadership. When she has carefully investigated the social needs of her members and of the community, she can decide whether it is wiser to provide charity for the poor, indoor and outdoor play facilities with proper environment, an employ- ment bureau and a kindergarten; to seek the co- operation of all Christian forces in so doing; or TEN ESSENTIALS 61 immediately to challenge the community to meet the specific needs. She can decide whether she should make her missionary gifts equal to her local expendi- tures, whether she shall first undertake a stewardship or a building campaign, whether she should seek a site with fewer competing churches, or whether it is pos^ sible to secure such a church federation program as will vastly benefit all interests. Too often a religious or social community survey has been the end rather than the beginning of a pro- gram. An aggressive Efficiency or Program Com- mittee should immediately formulate a program on the basis of the survey. Frequently a tentative or definite program can be outlined without a survey on the basis of clearly evident facts, details being assembled later to chal- lenge the rank and file to follow leaders who already know what should be done. The program and its performance are the main things. But the more complex the field and the larger the church, the more urgent is an accurate census and fact-gathering. " How to Win " and other volumes specified in the appendix will guide in gathering and analyzing the facts. When the war opened in 19 14, Germany had a vast advantage in an almost perfect knowledge of the territory over which her armies were to move to cap- ture Paris and Warsaw. As a German sympathizer wrote, " We had mapped every forest and stream, every coal and iron mine, every garrison and gun- site, every railroad and resting-place. We had made 62 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT an accurate survey of the men and money and ma- chinery available and all plans for their mobilization. We had anticipated every emergency from the loss of a horseshoe to the defeat of a division. Our only oversight was failure to insure the neutrality of Eng- land." It is said that her plans were made years in advance and were constantly improved. Christian warfare should be planned with equal care and foresight. Each church should formulate a large program of advance for ten years, if not for a generation; continually adjusting it to changing con- ditions, resources and strategy. The work of each year and the sermon and service activities of each month should be definitely though tentatively out- lined. See " A Modern Church Program " for sug- gestions as to details. An adequate and efficient working force is the next essential in a church or any other institution. In analyzing the secrets of military efficiency, Napoleon is said to have named numbers first. If Jesus had not used all of the Twelve to distribute the loaves and fishes, the work would have delayed until dark- ness had come and many were faint. Whether God is on the side of the largest battalions or not. His side will win more quickly, other things being equal, in proportion to the size of His bat- talions. In the days of the apostles, churches grew [apace because every one worked. The Protestant J church will ever be in a bad way when "nobody works but the preacher and the heads of depart- ipents." The philosophy that " we hire the minister TEN ESSENTIALS 63 to do the work " is as unscriptural and Catholic as ' it is destructive. It is folly to expect highest efficiency so long as ninety per cent of the members do only five or ten per cent of the work. Until it has emulated modem military science in mobilizing every individual, the able-bodied at the front and others helping where they can, even the aged and the infirm and the chil- dren doing their largest possible bit, the Kingdom will wait. Modern political science recognizes that each one who consumes and fails to produce is really a sort of pauper, to be regarded as a public enemy un- less really incapacitated. The churches must summon their idlers to become soldiers of the common good. " Church member " must become synonymous with " church worker." The pastors must be relieved from most of the routine work to give their time chiefly to efficient leadership as teachers and executives. Technical training was specified by Napoleon as an j element in military success. While we still prefer that our employees shall know a little about many things, we are unsatisfied unless they know all about the something for which we engage them. Instead of calling a handy man to build a house, we insist on specialists in architecture, cement work, stone-cut- ting, bricklaying, plumbing, etc. At the opening of the Civil War the South had a great advantage in the number of her graduates from West Point and from Southern military schools. Recent events emphasize in thunderous tones the im- portance of specialized military training. Skilled 64 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT aeroplane operators, submarine engineers, machine gunners, surgeons, artillerists, cavalrymen and other war-time specialists must have their counterparts in workers trained for special departments of church activity. Training multiplies the value of a soldier. As it is useless, and injures the morale of an army, to tise men for tasks before they are prepared, the church which attains success will see that all members are fitted for their tasks lest they do harm rather than good and lest they become discouraged and discourage other workers by their failures. Efficient generals and boards of strategy become increasingly important elements in the successful prosecution of a war, as of every great railroad, store or other enterprise. The Church must also recognize the increased complexity of her task by developing strategists as well as preachers, or her geniuses will preach to empty pews, unknown to the world; or will merely build up audiences which fall to pieces when the genius passes, as in the case of Talmadge and others. The Church must take the offensive instead of waiting for folks to attack her or to come to church. She must develop varied re- sources and keep them all in the efficiency and proportion. Her modem conditions demand an employed staff. The large church must spend as much money per member as her smaller neighbour. Her efficiency demands executive and educational and social and office workers, co-operating like an army's general TEN ESSENTIALS 65 staff. The small church must have its volunteer staff of committee and department heads. The modern Church must have vastly increased financial resources. This is the age of increased wealth. " God is giving the Christian world vastly increased financial resources because He needs vastly- increased funds for His business, and feels that He can trust Christians to be honest and give Him His due share, instead of spending it all on themselves." When He organized the Hebrew church, God called for large shares of all incomes accruing to them as stewards of the land, and of the *' power to get wealth," which He gave them. He still expects and needs as large a proportion of the incomes of Amer- icans to do His growing work, though He has not yet received one-fourth of it. A church, like an army, cannot be fully effective unless there be an income adequate to employ needed workers and provide ample equipment. Lincoln gave large credit to the great financier, who, when the treasury was empty and credit was ebbing, secured the funds which enabled the North to pay her sol- diers and press on to victory. Robert Morris per- formed a similar service for Washington. Many a war has been lost for want of money, and many a church is dropping behind its neighbours and its community in growth and influence because of financial conditions. Ministers fail by thousands because they lack adequate tools and equipment, autos, libraries, convention expenses, etc., and be- cause their energies are absorbed in making ends 66 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT meet and in worry about the future. Lacking funds to make the church attractive inside and out, unable to meet the needs of the young people and of the community, without means for advertising, adequate success is impossible. Christ did not ask God's blessing until He gath- ered all the loaves and fishes available, yet many a church foolishly seeks God's miraculous aid though it has brought only one loaf or one dollar where it should have brought five. The efficient church will ask for and secure a vastly increased share of the income of its members. The Church of God needs it. Such giving will be the best spiritual antidote to the sin of " covetousness which is idolatry," which leads church members to make the awful mistake of claiming as their very own that which they merely hold as stewards who must give account to God, the owner. The average church should raise $25.00 per member per year, for salaries for minister and assistants, for publicity, social, educational, mission- ary and other purposes. Several denominations already do this. The Seventh Day Adventists, though poor, average over $40.00 per member. Many of my experiences prove that 50 to 75 per cent can be added to the income of the average church. To secure adequate financial resources, an efficient committee should follow the suggestions in " Modern Church Finance." (See Appendix.) Efficient modern churches must have complete modern plants and equipment. By marvellous new discoveries and inventions, the world has been made TEN ESSENTIALS 67 new during the last fifty years. Farmers have abandoned log houses and scythes and sickles for modern homes and barns, for a bewildering variety of new machinery for ploughing and cultivating and harvesting, for gasoline engines and dynamite, for silos and autos. Merchants have introduced tele- phones, typewriters, cash registers, refrigerators and trucks. Armies have turned from the old armament to the more efficient Big Berthas, machine guns, dread- naughts, explosives and submarines. What can an army do without an armament equal to that of its opponents ? In every field, fabulous values in old equipment have gone to the scrap heap to give place to modem improvements. A multimillionaire steel manufac- turer credits the vastness of his fortune to his cour- age and foresight when he installed entirely new equipment, at the risk of bankruptcy. It reduced costs and increased output, so as to give him ten millions in increased profits while his competitors continued to " economize by wearing out their old equipment which was too good to throw away." Efficient modern church management will be marked by the same effort to secure and make effi- cient use of all promising new tools and equipment from departmental classrooms to duplex envelopes, from religious motion pictures to addressographs and complete modern office equipment, from kitchen and social rooms to a * 'pastor's auto " to save his time when visiting. While a new church in a new community may sue- 68 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT ceed for a time with very limited equipment because the members' hopes are in the future, their continued sacrifices must be secured in behalf of the best new- things money can buy or their own interest will de- teriorate. Their children will classify the church as less deserving than their homes and schools which get the best there is. New and old comers alike will judge the church to be " dedicated to a has-been God," rather than to the God of the New Testament who emphasizes His purpose to "make all things new." The modern Church must modernize her methods. Such successful merchants as Marshall Field have ever used the newest and best. Wanamaker put most of his first day's sales into an advertisement unprecedented for such a new business. These men departed from the ancient policy when they marked their goods in plain figures and held to one price though they were told it was certain to bankrupt them. They developed stores handling almost every kind of goods though experience said " stick to one line." They broke hundreds of other precedents to the astonishment of the " let-well-enough-alones." War strategy has been revolutionized. Fighting in trenches instead of forts, in extended instead of compact formations, and in air and submarine activi- ties, are but isolated instances of modern strategy. On the farm, in the factory, in transportation and in every other field, constant changes are being made. Churches likewise evidence their efficiency or in- efficiency by their attitude towards modern methods TEN ESSENTIALS 69 and strategy, in religious education, social service, co-operation and federation, finance, evangelism, or- ganization and administration, building up the attend- ance and membership, developing the spiritual life, emphasizing social life as an aid to moral and spiritual activities, publicity, etc. We have the same Christ as Saviour and Lord, but we find that He constantly broke precedents. He preached on mountains and lakes, and at weddings and suppers, and did many things in startling new ways when they would better advance His plans and mission. His churches should emulate Him — instead of pleasing His enemies by adhering to methods now inadequate, whether from sinful inertia or because " we always did it this way." The efficent church must plan for thorough organi- zation and modern administration. The best brains of the modern world are being given to the study of political and industrial organization and to the improvement of administrative methods. Mormon- ism is a monument to the power of organization. A thousand organized soldiers can defeat a mob of a hundred thousand. We are often told that churches are now over- organized. Rather, they are trying to work anti- quated and outgrown organizations. Almost every church has several committees or boards or rules which it has outgrown in their present form and which are therefore liable to cause trouble. Like the vermiform appendix, should be cut away as soon as, or before, they fester. 70 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Organization is the science of combining many smaller units into larger and more efficient units. The thoroughly organized army, from the first Macedonian phalanx to the present, is far more effective, so is it the more difficult to manage. Simplicity is better unless there be competent leader- ship to wisely adjust the organizations and operate them, but competent leadership must be developed and more efficient organization secured so as to ac- complish more in this age. The modern church must develop an adequate spirit and program of helpful co-operation. A regi- ment which wasted its energies and ammunition at- tacking allies, however it might doubt their wisdom, would be found guilty of treason. Every worthy Christian church will remember that " He that is not against us is for us." Instead of interfering in any way with the good name and prosperity of other churches, it will help to improve them and will seek an alliance, offensive and defensive, with every church of Christ. The efficient modern church will co-operate with all other churches of its denomination, as each di- vision and brigade and regiment co-operates with all other brigades and divisions. It will co-operate with churches of other denominations in its community and state and nation in a unified program of advance, as all the allies in a well-waged war co-operate against a common enemy. God will withhold permanent blessing and the world will withhold its confidence from the church which selfishly seeks congregational TEN ESSENTIALS 71 or denominational glory instead of co-operation. The community census and survey, training of workers and leaders, development of efficient program, etc., are often possible only by church co-operation. The Church will also co-operate with other existing institutions. Recognizing that the God who set the solitary in families also set them in political com- munities and states, it will seek to serve and co- operate with the state and the community as well as to gain their co-operation. It will recognize and seek to benefit and co-operate with schools, com- merce, science and all other human interests and in- stitutions so far as they are divinely ordained for Kingdom purposes. Napoleon properly named esprit de corps as the last and by all odds the most important element of military efficiency. Whatever else a church may have, loyalty is the soul of church efficiency as well as of religion. Nations develop loyalty by having a flag and a song. They carefully instruct every citizen in the high ideals, the achievements and purposes, the rights and responsibilities, and the glorious past and present of his country. Each church should so magnify the cause of Christ. Her members must be made to realize the infinite supremacy of religion and of the church for the world's salvation, individual and social. They must be inspired by the past achievements of Christendom and their cost in sacrifice. They must be shown the wonderful victories of today, the possibilities of to- 72 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT morrow, and the strategic importance attaching to the life of service, to moral and social righteousness, to the brother spirit and sonlike loyalty of every member. They must be convinced that neglect is treason to God, to the church, to fellow-members and to the world. Her cause must be shown to be worth sacrificing and dying for. Are not Christian churches shamed by the contrast between the efficiency standards of the armies of mur- der and destruction and the unmilitary inefficiency of the "mighty army, the Church of God," whose aim is Life and Light and Blessing? Should not the forces of the Kingdom striving for Righteousness and Peace and Love become as efficient as national forces ? Is not the cause as worthy ? y. CHURCH ORGANIZATION— ITS FUNDA- MENTAL PRINCIPLES I. The Importance of Efficient Organization ^^HURCH organization has a scriptural basis. m J Christ organized even the Twelve into com- ^■^^ mittees of two with a treasurer. He ex- pressed the purpose of building His Church, implying that it must have departments with specific purposes just as a house is divided into kitchen, library, sleep- ing and other rooms. He calls His followers dis- ciples and Paul calls them soldiers ; and both disciples and soldiers can attain their full objectives only by organization into schools and armies. The Church is described as a body through which Christ as the head may work, and we would know that a head could do little without organs even if Paul had not spoken of many members and of specific functions. Organization may be defined as the process of developing, — in an organism such as a church, an army or a human body, — the organs necessary for the performance of essential functions. The purposes of church organisation. These are: to give to all competent specialists and leaders those definite responsibilities where their powers will count 73 74 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT for the most ; to give to every member adequate over- sight in his development, and co-operation in his Christian services ; to make possible a clearer under- standing of the work and needs of the church so as to insure more intelligent service and legislation; to provide for the co-ordination of the work and the co- operation of all the workers under a single directing head ; to permit of larger expansion without reducing efficiency; and to allow for the normal development of additional necessary functions. Are church organizations becoming too complex? We are told that they are and that machinery hinders the work, but the trouble usually is that the funda- mental purposes and principles of church organization have been ignored. As a result, organization has increased rather than reduced confusion as it should have done. Human bodies are the most complex known to science, yet they are the most efficient. God created man after His own image and made human bodies complex in order that they might be more satisfactory agencies of the Holy Spirit. Churches, also temples of the Holy Spirit, must have varied functions and organs if Christ is to work out through them His varied purposes. Modern organizations must be more complex than primitive ones. Commerce, agriculture, governments and all other human institutions have increased vastly in complexity. Leonard B. Smith is right when he says that the early Church exercised in a degree all her present-day functions for (Homiletic Review, 1917, p. 120), " it is not difficult to find in the work of FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 75 Qirist, — during and immediately following His min- istry, — missionary, social, evangelistic, elementary, cradle roll, home, increase and efficiency, good citi- zenship and brotherhood departments." As the church faces, both without and within, the bewilder- ing modern problems outlined in a former chapter, it is clear that her complexity must increase. The church of a century ago usually had but 50 or 100 members, so that, as in other primitive organisms, specialization was less necessary. Many a successful country merchant has gone into bankruptcy because he tried to manage a city steel plant or department store in this complex age with an organization which sufficed when the business was small. So the pastor who succeeded with a small church and the church board which succeeded forty years ago will fall utterly short — God only knows how sadly — of the possible efficiency in managing a large church today unless they abandon their an- tiquated plans of organization and introduce such as experience has indicated for modern conditions. To express a dislike for management and a prefer- ence for preaching is no excuse. Neither God nor the law will excuse a devout father who is too busy pray- ing and teaching the Bible to provide the needed sur- gical care for a son. The spiritual nurture of the church, as of the individual, must be supplemented by proper attention to structural development and functional efficiency. The Bible sets forth no final plan of church organi- sation. As though to anticipate a defense of stereo- 76 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT typed church organization on the ground that we have the same Bible and the old-time religion, both Jesus and Paul gave few definite suggestions as to organi- zation. Many New Testament teachings imply its importance, but their general character implies that their application must be modified to suit the needs of each age and community and that they are to be supplemented by the best contemporary advances in institutional organization. Many churches claim that their methods of organi- zation are inspired and that their denominational founders were infallible, while inconsistently adding Sunday Schools and other organs unmentioned in the Bible and undreamed of by those founders; a prac- tice of adding new cloth to an old garment which cannot be continued indefinitely. Such church plan- ners as Calvin and Wesley never intended their work to remain unchanged through the ages. The foolish customary attitude towards traditional forms of organization is illustrated by a pioneer's family that took pride in living in the sacred octagonal log cabin of its forefathers, though having added modern rooms by building an attractive lean-to on each of its eight sides, making a building astounding both in appearance and in convenience. It is time to consider whether, and how, archaic church organiza- tion shall be replaced, lean-tos and all, by modern organizations adapted with scientific wisdom to mod- ern tasks and local needs. Such a new plan may not allow so much boasting on the ground of antiquity, and may be less homelike for a time, but organiza- FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 77 tions, like rulers, should be esteemed for present usefulness rather than ancestry. Does not God, causing evolutionary readjustments in animal organisms during periods of epochal change in their environments, imply that the Church — its environment having so changed during recent years — should rapidly develop new organs and readjust- ments ? Organs which do not adjust themselves to a changed environment tend to atrophy. Denominational founders deserve great credit for their plans which were then modem and adapted to the times. Only recently has institutional organiza- tion become a worthy science. Since the Church is the most important and complex of all God's institu- tions, its energies should not be wasted on half-baked theories and it has properly awaited experimentation by other agencies. Such experiments have been largely and successfully made, and the duties and problems of the Church have now been mastered so that petty and temporary tinkering can give place to constructive fundamental reorganization. Changes in organisation should be carefully made. When the officials of the New York Central planned to replace their New York terminal (utterly inade- quate though built but thirty years before with the boast that it would suffice for a century), they did not act rashly or denounce the former architects. They employed experts to determine future needs as far as possible, architects to plan the buildings and engineers to anticipate difficulties; and the utmost of skill and foresight were exercised to operate all trains as 78 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT usual while removing the inadequate structures and foundations. If church plans are bungled, the penalties must be paid as in other important structures. The utmost of church engineering skill, local and special, should be employed to insure that the reconstruction will be adequate for the future, and that all interests will be safeguarded meantime, so that the time and energy- expended and the temporary disadvantages accruing will be repaid many fold in years to come. Church organisation will never be a finished science. It must advance pari passu with the development of executives. Great preachers and great pastors often lack executive skill and always lack the time for efficient executive activities. A staff of intelligent lay heads of boards and departments and committees is essential ; must be developed. An executive secre- tary should be employed by every church of i,ooo members (of 400 members if feasible), or several churches of one or different denominations can em- ploy a joint executive, business manager or director of activities. II. The Primary Principles and Ideals of Church Organization Since the Bible presents the human body as a parable of the Church, it must be the text in any primary consideration of the principles involved in church organizations. I. Since a church, like a physical body, is an organism, its complexity of interrelations is beyond FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 79 full description; much more are they impossible of presentation by a chart. Like any other organism, an efficient church can only be adequately illustrated by a three-dimensional model like a manikin. 2. Since the Church is a spiritual organism, spirituality is essential, — a sort of fourth dimension. While we cannot chart this tangible element, we as- sume it to underlie all that we shall say. 3. Being an organism, a church is a single unit, not a mere aggregation of organizations. Inde- pendent and unco-ordinated elements within a church are as undesirable as in a human body or a watch. When the heart or any other member can become independent of the body which produced it, without injury to either, it will be time to approve of societies within a church which recognize no relations or duties to it. So-called organizations within a church are in reality members. A true organization could not exist independently within an organism. The church fur- nishes building, pastor, janitor and other spiritual and general essentials for all its societies. 4. A church is more than the sum of its parts — departments, boards and committees — as a living body is infinitely more than the sum of its dissected parts, and America is vastly more than a congeries of independent states. Parts of a church, as of a watch, derive their chief value from their unity in a vital co- operative whole. 5. Organization must ever be a means rather than an end. An eye or a hand serves its own interests best when it forwards the welfare of the whole body, 80 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT even by sacrificing itself when necessary. No group should be permitted to organize within a church which does not serve the whole church. Of course, as the heart serves the whole organism unconsciously when it serves itself, so a subordinate agency may, and usually does, render valuable service to the church even when it is unintentional. All agencies should be tactfully led to render sympathetic service in ut- most degree to the church and all its agencies, emulat- ing baseball players, for even a heathen will make a sacrifice hit. A committee or society which is out- grown or undeveloped is likely to give trouble and should, at the first favourable opportunity, be treated, like a festering appendix or an overgrown finger- nail. 6. Functional organization is primary. The stom- ach and the heart develop in animals before either head or limbs. The church functions of evangelism, service,education, worship, etc., were exercised before departmental or ofificial organization developed, and must always be the primary considerations. 7. Since the members of the church and its school need specialized direction according to their growth in knowledge and powers, they must be organized into departments according to their capacities and attainments. Graded educational work is a proper recognition of this truth but all functions, — worship, social service, social life, etc., — require a degree of similar grading. 8. Organization should promote efficient discipline and centralized authority. As the head is needed to FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 81 exercise authority over all members and functions in a body, so a church must have official leadership com- petent to formulate a program for, and to co-ordinate the church and all its agencies, and so to direct and oversee them as to secure the largest benefits for each and for the church as a whole. Since obedience to the will of the official head, by all committees and departments, is so essential, all must be connected with the church head as bodily members are related to their head through the motor nerves. 9. Organization should promote democracy. The head receives sensory messages from every cell and part of the body. In a democracy, every voter helps to formulate the policy of his superior government. One object in all church organization should be to facilitate the exercise by each member of his rights and duties by intelligent voting and by the expression of his convictions and desires to his representatives on every board and department. 10. Completeness is essential in an organism. A man may accomplish much without eyes or hands. He may even exist without a stomach. So a church may exist and render a measure of service without some of the departments and organs which God in- tended but the perfection and power of its existence will be limited in proportion to the mutilation. Of course a small church, like other primitive organisms, may assign to a single board or committee the func- tions which in a more complete and perfect church would be performed by several specialized commit- tees, but no function can be safely ignored. 82 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 11. Since every organism is a unity, since educa- tion is a unity, and since all departmental activities are in essence educational and inten;elated, each de- partment and class group should also be as complete a unit as possible. One agency should control all activities of a group, as one nerve controls the bones, muscles, skin, circulation and all other elements of the hand or of the leg. Duplication of societies and of all machinery should be reduced to a minimum, and eventually eliminated, by combining and enlarging the functions of certain agencies so that all the reli- gious needs of each individual can be secured by membership in only one. 12. In order to secure this perfected church or- ganism, the most feasible plan is so to enlarge the function and scope of the Sunday School and so to perfect its organization that no other societies or agencies will be needed. The Sunday School will thus be turned into a departmentalized church, co-ordinat- ing all functions having to do with individuals or groups. The church and its school are integrated into one harmonious organism. Each department and group becomes more independent of the others than in the ordinary Sunday School, and more directly re- lated to the official boards. (See next chapters.) Each member of the church would belong to the appropriate department. Each department would have a complete set of committees, each of which would be federated with the similar committees of all other departments. For example, the educational committee of the men's department would co-operate FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 83 with the educational committees of all other depart- ments where their interests touch yet would be free, if desirable, to add a forum, to enlarge the number of its classes or to vary their courses, or to make any other changes to meet the varied needs and wishes of all members of the church who should be in that depart- ment and enlist them in its work. Teachers would continue members of their proper departments even while teaching elsewhere. Instead of allowing inde- pendent societies, each department would foster and control its own Boy Scout, athletic, social, missionary and other activities to meet all the needs of all its members. 13. The activities of all departments relating to any function should be co-ordinated and unified. If mis- sionary or spiritual interest be at low ebb in the men's department, it is much more difficult to maintain their normal vitality among the women. If an adult depart- ment fails of intelligent efficiency at any point, the junior departments are all affected. As the whole nervous or circulating system suffers if one nerve or blood-vessel is subnormal in any part of the body, so each departmental committee is con- cerned that all similar committees in other depart- ments shall be fully efficient. Each church should therefore have a committee or agency responsible for each church function, to insure that all departmental committees having that function shall be properly efficient and to standardize and co-ordinate and sup- plement their activities so that they may be more helpful to each other, and to facilitate an infusion of 84 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT vitality from such functional committees as are efficient to those of other departments which are not. Each adult departmental committee should be repre- sented on the corresponding church committee. 14. The child has practically the same organs as the adult, both because the same functions are essen- tial to his health and because he should not need to master the meaning of an entirely new set of organs at maturity. So the child in the church needs the benefits of, and should be accustomed to, practically all the committee activities with which he will be concerned at maturity. The lower grade departments being less completely developed, several functions may be performed by one committee, or the teacher or an executive committee may be responsible for all activities, but all proper committee interests of the adult church should be explained and exemplified in some degree in the junior departments. 15. Standardized functional terms should be adopted in all departments. A child learns physiology easily because a muscle is a muscle and a nerve is a nerve, whether in the head or leg or chest. In the average church, one society has its devotional com- mittee, another a prayer committee, another a spiritual development committee, and another neg- lects the prayer function entirely. In some depart- ments, one committee does what several committees do in another. In this chaotic condition, the child is confused by what could be made very simple and is not prepared for intelligent leadership. Even adults are hopelessly bewildered and consider church FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 85 organization to be unintelligible; so they fail to take an interest in what they do not comprehend, or if they do take an interest, their work and their votes are less useful. i6. As the welfare of a body is affected by the health of each cell, so a church is affected by the spiritual health or disease, by the maturity or im- maturity, of each member. As each tiny cell receives benefits from, and gives it contribution of help or hurt to, the nerve and blood systems through its own nerve and assimilative elements, — as a single can- cerous or tubercular cell is likely to spread contagion among its neighbours and destroy the member or the whole body, — so the church, and each department, is vitally concerned that each member shall become spiritually healthful and shall function normally and fully. One selfish man or woman of any age may affect the entire department and spread a spiritual malady or contagion which may cause irreparable injury, hence functional committees must be univer- sally active. 17. A local church is itself after all not a complete organism but is a cell or member of, dependent upon and depended upon by, the Christian Church Univer- sal which is a single organism. Therefore the neigh- bouring churches of all denominations are greatly advantaged by standardized functional and depart- mental organizations and operations so that the healthful committees and departments of any church can more easily and effectively exert their beneficial influences upon all less efficient corresponding agen- 86 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT cies in contiguous churches. In turn, its weaker functions may receive benefits from stronger similar functions in other churches. The publicity commit- tees of all adjacent churches should co-operate, as should all corresponding functional agencies. i8. Eternal vigilance is the price of organized efficiency. Church organization is not a mechanical process to be perfected once and forever but an organic process which should constantly advance towards perfection. Like an army or a business, church organization will always depend upon the skill and talents of personalities. Constantly do condi- tions change, department members advance in capa- bilities, tasks attain completion and leaders remove. Only constant attention can effect the necessary im- provements and readjustments. Especially is this true in our age of reconstruction when no two workers have had the same training or outlook in the chaotic past. A generation or two must make patient and con- stant efforts before we can even foresee the ideal. But the added efficiency now, and tomorrow, will well repay the efforts expended. 19. The increase or transformation of organs in order to increase usefulness should be by evolution rather than revolution. In the biological evolution of lower organisms, God increases the number of organs slowly, except at critical stages. When a new organ or function develops, it is apt to overshadow the others for a time, while it absorbs their due support ; just as a Sunday School, young people's or other society, or a new committee for social service or other FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 87 worthy purpose, because of both its novelty and its real importance and poor general management, has too often diverted the energies and interest which belonged to an existing missionary or spiritual com- mittee or to the church itself. Or, a new agency, coming into being amid a number of powerful com- peting agencies of real worth, fails from lack of wise management to secure its proper attention and is doomed to death or to an anaemic life, as has so often happened to a new church or departmental committee, or even to a men's department. Therefore, additions of or changes in organs and their relations should be made gradually — unless there is critical urgency because of some glaring neg- lects or rapid changes of conditions, or unless ade- quate results are impossible save by drastic and com- plete change, — that the welfare of both the old and the new may be carefully safeguarded. Further, as surgical operations or tree-grafting should take place when the body or the tree has high vitality and when subsequent conditions will be favourable, so church surgery or grafting should be decided on under the most favourable conditions, after a revival or definite campaign for increased vision and enthusiasm and consecration, and new organs should be promptly strengthened by exercise. (See Chapter XVI.) VI CHURCH EFFICIENCY THROUGH DEPART- MENTS AND SOCIETIES NO other phase of church organization presents such a chaos of ideals and methods. Prac- tical ministers everywhere cry for deliverance from the harmfulness of inadequate policies concern- ing, and within, church departments and what should be subsidiary societies. The rapid increase thereof, and sometimes their efficiency, command the highest admiration. They have been invaluable laboratories for religious service and methods. Yet most of them, like Topsy, have " just growed " with no unifying or governing principles, with traditions which are in- coherent and inadequate to a degree. The churches and pastors of former days are largely to blame for the overlapping, overlooking, selfishness and strife, and for the inefficiency and the disloyalty to the Church, which are so often present in a measure and which sometimes wreck churches. Instead of encouraging these movements at their birth, helping them to understand their work and how they could best serve their members and the Kingdom; too often were Sunday Schools scoffed at by church officers, women's organizations denounced as heresies, and young people's societies treated with DEPARTMENTS AND SOCIETIES 89 contempt or indifference. Unappreciated by short- sighted churchmen who, in the days of small things, could not see the magnitude whereunto these agencies would grow, starved for sympathy and support and stinging from criticisms, no wonder that former leaders of these subordinate agencies for advancing the Kingdom developed sometimes a semi-hostility to the officers, or at best a determination to remain inde- pendent, and that these attitudes became fixed tradi- tions. Since church leaders awoke in a measure to the vast possibilities for extensive and intensive service through subsidiary departments, and to the harm done by their lack of co-ordination, they are fre- quently asked to keep hands off. Proud of their founders and their policies and rejoicing in their free- dom, women and young people alike hesitate to sur- render control of what cost so much sacrifice. Some- times they lost sight of their duties to the Church, both as societies and as individuals, talk about the Church as " they," and receive free rent and over- sight as duties by the Church while making no return "and even interfering with its plans. But a new day of harmony and efficient co-opera- tion is dawning. The societies are realizing that the Church is more important, and a unity, and that they cannot render their largest services to Christ if they continue in an unscriptural and unbusiness-like inde- pendency. The Church is awakening to the duty of properly sympathizing with and co-ordinating her departments, that they may render fuller service to 90 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT the Kingdom. Finding that they are members one of another and that their usefulness will be limited until they come into a closer vital unity as the colonies united to form our nation, the road to such a step is opening. I. Hurtful Results of the Present System The departmental organization of the average church violates almost every fundamental principle discussed in the preceding chapter. Among the most concrete evils are: Educational efficiency is sadly reduced. If educa- tion is one, we cannot continue to assign impressional duties to the Sunday School and expressional educa- tion in missions and social service to independent agencies. Inadequately co-ordinated, classroom im- pressions are sooner forgotten while expressional gifts and service are inadequate. Pleasure is separated from discipline. Lion-taming is hopeless unless the tamer feeds and pets as well as teaches and disciplines. Superintendents and teach- ers can control and teach with more success when athletic and social benefits are given by the school through its subsidiary organizations; when the Boy . Scouts, etc., are started and controlled from within. ^ Essential courses are optional. A lad of ten seldom knows his needs and none would defend his right to quit school, or to drop arithmetic and reading, when he chose. Bible study, missions, prayer, etc., are just as essential in religion as arithmetic and reading are in the intellectual world, and a church is pitifully DEPARTMENTS AND SOCIETIES 91 foolish which assumes that old or new members who are " spiritual six-year-olds " should choose their courses, electing all or any or none as they please. So long as we imply that men, women and young people do not need to join or concern themselves with the missionary, Bible class, social service, prayer or other groups unless they want to, those who most need their benefits will not want to. Each church should take steps to reduce rapidly its present percentages of gospel illiteracy and sub- normal or unbalanced religious development by definitely determining what its members need, and officially requiring that all who become church mem- bers shall take the essential courses and have the essential discipline, instead of relying upon societies and classes to attract them. If the work done by its agencies for men, women and young people should be done, it is the duty of the church to see that it is done for all the church members, and that it is properly done. When the ideals of the church were limited, when theological sermons were two hours long, when service and broad education were not expected of its members, the functions now per- formed by societies were less important. Today they are vital to the highest welfare of the church and of its members and of the Kingdom, and must cease to be inefficient or optional. Hurtful competition between agencies seriously interferes with their efficiency and the welfare of the church at every point. Many a " Ladies' Aider " has been prejudiced against missions because of rivalry 92 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT with the missionary society as to numbers and pres- tige and achievements. Because of unfortunate clashes in policy between the Sunday School and the young people's society, many young men and women have given up one or the other and their religious experience and usefulness for life have been sadly reduced. When two agencies come into conflict, leaders' personalities and other petty things tend to obscure the fundamentals of religion, while Christ and the church are forgotten or belittled in the strife for existence. Church unity must begin in the local church. This condition can be remedied fully only by official church action defining the membership and rights and duties of all agencies. All church work is unstable. So long as a perma- nent church policy is postponed and each agency is free to develop its own ideals and policies and com- mittees, each new chairman or officer is likely to make equilibrium-upsetting changes, discontinuing needed activities or starting new ones which overlap the work of other agencies. Church work apparently pro- vided for may at any time be discontinued without due consideration, while existing committees find their work suddenly interfered with by others. Work for young people may collapse after two or three years of success because it was built independently about a personality that went away to school or to work. Unable to interpret the incoherent conditions, each new pastor finds himself compelled to add new machinery, and lets old organizations die or con- tinue a useless and meddling existence. DEPARTMENTS AND SOCIETIES 93 Intelligent and efficient democracy is impossible. Unless on the official board which exercises close supervision of all agencies, no member of a church of 500 members can so master the ins and outs of all its organizations as to vote intelligently. Few mem- bers understand work of any but their own societies. Even the majority of church officers fail to compre- hend the greatness of the church or the way to make it efficient. Men and women with leadership are therefore overtasked. Congregational meetings are bewildering rather than enlightening, and successful business men whom the church most needs become weary of what they cannot understand and lose in- terest. Society importance is unduly magnified and the church belittled because it is not understood. When agencies are reduced to a minimum and standardized, with sufficient flexibility retained, all their members will be able to comprehend, and so will take a larger interest in, the work of the whole church. Church management becomes largely the task of the minister to the detriment of the management as well as of his other duties. No mere officer is fitted to supervise and co-ordinate the work of the various agencies in the ordinary church. To master the in- tricacies of each society, and of all the societies, to bring any adequate degree of church efficiency and unity out of chaos, requires a vast deal of time and constant diplomacy and conference on the part of the pastor. Burdened with too many details, his sermon and pastoral work are neglected and the whole church suffers. Were a plan of organization adopted as 94 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT definite as that of the human body, the church ma- chinery would run with less pastoral oiling and over- sight while increasing the interest of those thus given places of leadership for which they were fitted. The relations of men's and boys' organisations to one another and to those of the opposite sex lack wise formulation. The sexes are alike yet different. The normal boy surpasses his sister of the same age in athletic development and daring, so that he acquires a sort of contempt for girls. On the other hand, espe- cially after ten or twelve, he develops more slowly mentally and is less competent and more hesitant to speak or sing or lead in prayer in public. The feel- ing of physical superiority makes him the more sensi- tive to his inferiority in public and Sunday-school classes, young people's and other joint meetings, so that he is likely to manifest his unconscious reactions by staying away, by moody silence or by boisterous- ness. This is one reason many boys drop out of school when their sisters of the same age surpass them. More mature men, except of the college and professional types, become self-conscious and hesitant to teach or speak in the presence of a group of mod- ern women, since women are becoming more fully developed along these lines. On the other hand, girls, at a certain age, usually become more self-conscious in the presence of boys, less amenable to discipline and likely to reflect the boys' assumed indifference to religion. Many women who will speak or answer questions in a woman's meeting will refuse when men are present. DEPARTMENTS AND SOCIETIES 95 Both sexes have their ambitions stimulated by the presence of wise older members of the same sex, while the presence of younger ones means added sobriety and dignity for the older ones. Both boys and girls should be brought from time to time into fuller rela- tions with the adults of their groups. The separation of the sexes into separate depart- mental rooms is therefore increasing, especially for the secondary departments, with large benefit to both sexes. Boys who have been incorrigible, or had quit school, have become good pupils in a separate boys* room with appropriate music, hero stories, male supervision and athletic interests and announcements. While some women make excellent teachers for boys, the men's department must be brought into close touch with them and must assume special respon- sibility for them through a Special Committee. XL Essential Steps to Departmental Efficiency To remedy the conditions discussed and give the departments the larger significance they deserve, we recommend : Official authorisation of- all departments. The offi- cial board, including representatives from all existing agencies, should determine the number of depart- ments, delimit their duties to their members and to other agencies, specify the age and other require- ments as to membership, work out an adequate com- mittee plan and provide for representation on the official board in some of the ways discussed elsewhere. Recognition of three major departments: adult 96 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT men, adult women and young people (besides the elementary and secondary departments), each having the broadest possible scope. The Church School will be, and the other departments may be, divided into minor departments (see chart on page 138). Each major department will decide or permit its own sub- division, in conference with the official board. The school will be largely under the supervision of the representatives of the adult departments with the pastor and the educational and service directors. All subdivisions of a department with their committees will be co-ordinated in that department, and all de- partments will be co-ordinated by the official board. Assignment of members. The church will notify all members, new and old, that they belong to their respective departments, which will exercise the dis- ciplinary, educational and other functions of the church, in place and under the authority of the official board, and that they are expected to participate in the departmental work and government as part of their church duty. Official oversight of all departments. This implies co-ordination of and co-operation with their general plans, such standardization of committees as will admit of their co-ordination, adequate church policies which shall give larger meaning to departmental work, regular reports to the official board from each department, etc. Sex responsibility for the Sunday-school ages. All boys and girls of nine and upwards will be dignified and stimulated by recognition by their adult sex DEPARTMENTS AND SOCIETIES 97 departments as minor members, will receive a large measure of counsel and help therefrom, will look forward to such age as may be locally desirable when they shall automatically become voting members by faithful study and promotions. III. Objections Considered Will not such an organization be much more com- plex? It is much more simple when once put effi- ciently into operation. Will not the societies and departments resent such interference ? Not when the ideal of a complete mod- ern working church is fully explained to them and they are given departmental representation on the official board. Without representation, they can speak of interference as the colonists did of taxation, but they want representation and will readily see that representation without subordination would be impos- ,sible. It is the same idea as when the states gave up part of their sovereignty to secure a union rather than a federation, because they gained more than they surrendered. Will this plan be efficient? What could be less efficient than the present system of letting all the agencies go their own unco-ordinated, haphazard ways ; sometimes doing much, sometimes doing little ; with very vague ideas of their future goals or rela- tions? Matters of readjustment may take some time but they must always be solved in a growing mind or government or church. Should not the church perform all duties to its 98 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT members? When the departments become official parts of the church, what the departments do is done by the church. No central government can do all that should be done for its people, but must work through subordinate agencies or states. The depart- ments should be permitted to do only those things that they can do better than, and will do in harmony with, the official board. What preparation should be made for such changes of policy? Begin by developing a cabinet or council vj I as suggested elsewhere in chapter XII. Bring officers, ; department leaders and church committee chairmen together regularly. Have them discuss the church, its ideals, its future policies, its failures, its lack of common purpose and plan. Appoint a committee to consider the whole matter and present a plan for departmental and committee and board reconstruc- tion. Unify and enlarge the responsibilities of one sex or group as an experiment. VII CHURCH COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION AND EFFICIENCY ""TX TE are committeed to death," is one of V/V/ many familiar expressions of impatience " " and disgust with the average church and departmental committee. The indictments urged are that committees fail to take themselves seriously, do not know what to do, do not meet, do not take an interest in their work, do not plan ahead, do not report, and do nothing. Chairmen are accused of failing to consult their committees, secretaries of " failing to secretary," and members of absolute indifference. Yet committees should be great forces in every religious organism. Their duties are as essential as physical functions. While a minister, or one board or individual, may assume most of the functional re- sponsibilities of the average church with some suc- cess, efficiency is reduced by the absence of efficient committees, in direct ratio to the size of the church and to the complexity of its problems. The blame for present conditions is easily placed. The hit or miss method of selecting them results in more misses than hits. Usually they are perfunc- tory, named because of disciplinary requirements or of similar committees in Boston or Texas, given very 99 100 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT vague understanding of what they are to do or what sister committees are doing, with little conception of the achievements of their predecessors or the expecta- tions of their successors. Lacking definite instruc- tion, leadership and assistance they are trying to make bricks without straw. Tfi€ official board which realizes the importance of committees usually lacks the specialists essential to adequate action, while its time is absorbed with other illy-digested duties. As a result, committee tasks are as imperfectly performed as they are narrowly con- strued. For example, the committee on education usually gives no thought to educational activities or interests outside the Sunday School, where it merely ascertains and reports the facts without offering constructive suggestions as to educational methods, as to reaching adult men and women, or as to meeting the social and physical needs of the young people. The church finance committee, unable to understand the muddled ideals and methods of the various societies, either pays no attention thereto or merely creates a confusion worse confounded. Church committees on social service, spiritual de- velopment, fellowship, etc., if they exist, usually give no aid to the corresponding departmental committees, have no plan of co-operation with one another, and attempt but a small segment of their proper work. The ordinary official indifference to committee effi- ciency in departments results in chaos. Following their own sweet wills — or sweet whims — as to the number and functions and methods of their com- COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION 101 mittees, the standardization essential to genuine efficiency is lacking and co-operation is as hopeless as when left to chance in other matters. Official board committees made up exclusively from their members are akin to our amateur congressional committees, — since the specialists essential to wise church legislation are frequently unpopular or un- willing candidates as compared with those who have wealth, popularity and a goodness which is not good for much, — and must be supplemented by men, women and young people who can render valuable service, either as advisory or full members. I. Remedial Steps In accord with the ideals and principles set forth in preceding chapters, we suggest the following steps towards making inefUcient church committees eificient: 1. The official board should appoint a church com- mittee with respect to each important function, hav- ing definite responsibilities and instructions and having representatives from all corresponding depart- mental committees, to formulate a policy in that field for the entire church, to co-ordinate and help and supplement all the departmental committees, and to secure their organization where they are lacking. 2. The various committees of the church, — likewise of each department, — should be co-ordinated and their mutual helpfulness increased by conferences of their chairmen in a functional staff, or in a cabinet, includ- ing all the officers. 102 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 3. The committees should be taken more seriously. They should receive an annual sermon outlining the whole work of the church, defining the responsibilities of each committee, and calling upon the congre- gation to support their work. Close the service by reading the lists of committee members and calling them to stand at the altar to receive a general charge as to faithfulness, to be recognized by the congrega- tion, and to be consecrated with prayer. A similar service could be held by each department or the departmental committees could be consecrated with the church committees. 4. Church committee chairmen should be appointed with great care as the President chooses his cabinet members. The departmental committee chairmen should be appointed by their presidents only after conference with the pastor and with the chairmen of the church committees of which they will become ex- officio members. A chairman should have enthusiasm for his committee work, a knowledge of what to do or books to tell him, executive capacity, and the ability to gain the confidence and co-operation of his committee members whom he will usually select in conference with his departmental president and cabinet. 5. The chairmen, as well as the secretaries and vice-chairmen, should be taught how to plan and do their work, to develop their dockets, to use sub- committees, to secure action as well as debate, to keep proper records, and to make reports to their su- periors. Meetings of the departmental and church COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION 103 cabinets and of the church committees should be par- liamentary schools for their members. 6. Each committee should meet frequently, as needed. For example, the church finance committee should usually meet monthly, with weekly meetings for a month before the annual canvass, and at such other times as the interests of departments or their own work demands. 7. Secure regular committee meetings and stimu- late emulation by specifying the times and places of meeting if possible. The plan for a " Church Business Night," especially in connection with a monthly supper conference, (see Chapter XII) will greatly stimulate and encourage the committees and prevent forgetting the date, while allowing needed conferences of related departmental committees or their chairmen with each other or with the corre- sponding church committee. In any case, all social committees should meet the same night for mutual conference and help, as should other kindred groups of committees. 8. No committee should be appointed without definite instruction as to its task and its relations to other interests, preferably in writing. The church library should contain books to help each committee understand and do its work. (See Bibliography.) 9. Regular written reports should be required monthly from each important committee and from unimportant committees at least quarterly; four copies being made: (i) for its own file, (2) for the pastor, (3 and 4) for the cabinet of its department, 104 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT and for the corresponding church committee, for filing after reading and consideration. 10. To insure neat and compact reports, the church should furnish all committees with printed or multigraphed blanks, or at least with standard forms. A typewriter and carbon sheets should be owned by the church so that the four copies can be made at once by the church secretary, by volunteer typist or by committee members. 11. Departmental committee interests can be fur- ther emphasized and good work recognized by hav- ing selections from their reports read at the church cabinet meetings or at occasional " Monthly Church Business and Prayer " meetings. 12. The pastor or his assistant should be ex- officio a member of all church and departmental com- mittees and cabinets, attending as often as may be feasible. 13. Most church committees should include one or two members at large, as well as the chairman and possibly the secretaries of the corresponding depart- mental committees. A chairman may or may not be chairman of a departmental committee and may often be a capable woman. 14. Committees should not be too large. Spurgeon is quoted as saying, " The best committee has three members with one sick and one absent." When a committee numbers over five, or seven, a small execu- tive committee should formulate and execute policies, the full committee existing for advisory, educational and confirmatory purposes. COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION 105 15. Promote stability by holding over the chairmen or secretary of each committee from year to year. 16. The more important committees, such as re- ligious education, are frequently called commis- sions, — in some large churches all functional commit- tees are commissions — and are given larger freedom, reporting to the official board as to their progress chiefly for information. 17. Committees exist not merely to do work, but to get work done by calling to their aid as -many helpers as necessary for a social survey, finance con- vass, etc. Every church member is really a member of, and subject to call by, all the official committees. 18. Avoid so overloading certain members with responsibilities that none of their work will be efficiently done. 19. Avoid starting too many new committees or activities at one time. (See chapter. Introducing New Methods.) II. What Church Committees? Wisdom should be exercised by the church effi- ciency commission, or whatever agency determines the number and duties of committees. While there is agreement as to the essential church functions, we find three divergent theories and practices as to the number of essential committees. First, some churches have a great many different committees ; one church having over thirty, each with a large measure of independence, reporting directly to the official board. An advantage is that more men 106 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT and women are given stimulating responsibilities as chairmen. But it is difficult to co-ordinate so many independent agencies, while the small or weak church will not have nearly enough competent chairmen or secretaries. Second, we find many churches, even of large size, have a very few general committees but each has a most competent head and several subcommittees. One small church has but two general committees: Edu- cational (including all work for members and chil- dren) and Extension (including evangelism, pub- licity, social service, missions, etc.). Fred Fisher, in *' The Way to Win," recommends six major com- mittees: Evangelism, Training, Community Service, Missions, Publicity and Finance. The Efficiency Commission of the Reformed Church suggests seven specific functional committees : worship, religious and Christian education, evan- gelism, missions and stewardship, pastoral oversight, social fellowship and social service; and adds five practical committees: Finance, Property, Ushering, Auxiliary Organizations and Publicity. The Finance committee of one church has six sub- committees on : preparing church budget, finances of subsidiary organizations, education as to stewardship and methods (by literature and letters and personal work), annual canvass, bookkeeping and accounting, and auditing; but the ordinary church will not need so many. In another church the committee on Evangelism has these subcommittees: Sunday-school evangelism. COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION 107 to co-operate with the. committee on education ; pub- licity; invitation, to find new neighbours and invite them to church ; hospitality, to usher, to discover the new attendants, and to introduce and visit them ; and personal work. The third committee plan combines the two al- ready described. Certain fundamental committees are named, as Educational, Missionary, etc., and second- ary committees are made up largely by taking co- ordinating representatives from them. For example, one Finance and Stewardship committee is constituted largely from the Educational and Missionary com- mittees, and the Board of Deacons ; the social fellow- ship committee has large representation from the educational and evangelistic committees, etc. By this plan first things are put first and secondary matters are handled by practically federating the agencies most concerned. One young people's com- mittee is made up of one man and one woman each from the educational, social service, missionary, evan- gelistic and athletic committees of the Men's and Women's departments, together with a chairman who is named by the church board, and two young people, but the executive committee includes only the last three, and co-operates with the school and depart- mental superintendents. We may say that the number and scope of com- mittees will depend on the size of the church, on its problems and on the number of available leaders. One man or woman may serve as chairman or secre- tary of two or three committees. Most church com- 108 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT mittees have men for chairmen and women for sec- retaries, since earnest women are usually better in following up details, securing quorums, etc. Every church or official board could have a special " Efficiency Commission " to consider and define the duties and work of the various committees, to prevent any overlooking or overlapping, etc. In the small church, a single individual, with the co-operation of the pastor, will often constitute a committee. VIII CHURCH EFFICIENCY THROUGH DISTRICT ORGANIZATION A NOTHER essential element of modern church l\ management is organization by districts. An -*- -^ efficient district plan makes it possible to get far more work done, especially for adults, and to get it done at the right time and in the right way. If the district system has broken down and been condemned at times, it is because of imperfect organi- zation and plans. Most notable is its success in churches of every size and type where the principles which we shall elaborate are observed, I. The Importance of District Committees First, the pastor needs such committees to relieve him of much of the detail work and routine visiting which interfere with his other duties and to give larger effect to his work. They should immediately visit all new members or attendants from their dis- tricts whose names may be furnished by the pastor, ushers or otherwise, securing information which will enable the minister to accomplish more by his visits, and they should follow his visits by their own. They will serve him as telephone squads, will keep track of changes in address, will report sickness and needed calls and will furnish the volunteer evidence of sin- 109 110 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT cerity which some believe is lacking in visits by paid ministers. Second, they can help increase the family spirit with its unity and loyalty which is so often conspicu- ous by its absence in modem churches, by arranging for visitations and district socials and prayer meet- ings, etc. In a large church it is impossible for any family to have that intimate acquaintance with all other members and families which is so valuable a feature of the small church and for the lack of which many members will lose interest and be lost to the church. The division of the church into districts or parishes about the size of the small church, and main- taining its social and helpful features, makes it pos- sible for every member in each to know every other member so that all are welded into a brotherhood which makes backsliding members an impossibility. Third, church members need such oversight as it is impossible fully to give except by this plan. Wes- ley's primitive method of setting a class leader over every ten or twelve members to see them each week and inquire regularly after their spiritual and moral interests, to receive their contributions and to gather them for prayer and testimony, was admirably adapted to that age and was a primary element in the amazing solidarity and growth of Methodism. Yet it is not adapted to modern conditions. His followers were for the most part poor and illiterate, and were without industrial or political rights. They were ac- customed to work always under overseers and to " reverence their betters." They accepted the class DISTRICT ORGANIZATION till leader and reverenced him as a sort of elemental bishop. But conditions have changed, except in heathen lands where the plan is most urgent. Most American church members are accustomed to choose their politi- cal and social leaders instead of having them ap- pointed from above. Ardent partisans of intelligent democracy, they expect a voice in all affairs. They will not respond to an individual overseer but will respect the less personal and truly American system of committee oversight when committees are tactful and are appointed by elected representatives. Be- sides, departments now share in the responsibility and no single person can properly oversee the interests of all present-day ages and types of church members. Hence arises the success of the district committee plan, each department having a committee in each dis- trict to oversee its members, all departmental districts having the same boundaries and their workers being co-ordinated in church district committees. Fourth, the efficiency of every church committee can be much increased by district committees co- operating. As the ganglionic centers serve the body, so the church district committee ganglia perform many of the duties which would otherwise need to go to headquarters, congesting the pastor's study or the church office. What District Committees Are Doing We cannot do better than relate some testimonies. Says one pastor : " When new members are received 112 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT by our church, or when new attendants or families who might be reached are discovered, we send cards with their addresses and all possible information to the secretaries of the committees in their respective districts. It is their duty to have a call made within a week, to welcome them to the community and to the church and to their proper classes and depart- ments. Callers have duplicates of the information cards sent the secretaries on which they add all the additional notes they can. After these cards return to the district secretary, the information is given to the pastor and a separate card is made out for each adult member of the household with information. Within the next four weeks, at least four visits are to be made by women of the proper age upon each woman, and at least two visits to each man by men of suitable ages. They usually go by twos in order to emphasize the welcome and to give the new-comers as many friends as possible at the church. All addi- tional information is noted on the card after each visit, with the names of the visitors, so that each visitor's work is as effective as possible. Each secre- tary keeps a complete card index of all the people in whom the church is interested in her district, and arranges for regular social and other visits upon the sick, shut-ins, young mothers, and upon all whom there is hope of interesting in church or school as well as upon members who are irregular or lack interest. Each quarter, before our communion, we try to have every family visited to arouse interest," Says another: "We have i,ooo members divided DISTRICT ORGANIZATION 113 into twelve districts. Among the very helpful activi- ties of the district committees during our first two years' use of them we would mention: (i) They have made a complete religious census of our com- munity with 15,000 population, securing 1,100 names of unchurched individuals and families for our mailing list ; have given to the men's department about 600 names for their follow-up visits and have furnished approximately 500, 200 and 450 names to the women's, young people's and Sunday-school de- partments respectively. From one to five visits were made upon all these people before the union evan- gelistic campaign, because of which we secured over 200 members or more than any other three churches in the community. (2) They co-operated with the publicity for the evangelistic campaign, and before two special sermon series by the pastor, by taking printed cards or door-knob hangers to every un- churched home. (3) They have held district socials for all groups. At monthly district socials the second year, the women averaged over 200 per month, al- ways holding a brief Bible study and prayer service, followed by reading one or more chapters from mis- sionary books, interesting more than twice as many women in missions and trebling their offerings. Sometimes the men or women of one district would invite those of another district and be invited for return visits the next month. By many devices the interest was maintained. To all these socials they have invited the men or women or young people whom they desired to interest, sending an attractive 114 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT invitation in the name of the particular department and group which was supplemented by personally written and telephoned invitations from the hosts and hostesses. (4) For one month each year, we have had weekly district prayer meetings which have been of great service in preparing for the evangelistic campaign the first year and for a ' Family Altar and Prayer League ' campaign the second year." A third said : " We desire to develop something of the spirit of the New Testament ' church in the house of ' so we arranged a home headquarters in each of our seven districts, sometimes chosen for its spaciousness and sometimes because of the host and hostess, to be the meeting place of a monthly district gathering for * family prayer,' preceded by a social hour. Light refreshments were served by the ladies of each district, serving in turns. We averaged twenty- three at each meeting or 161 per month though our membership is under 600. Much was accom- plished to break down our old-time formality. The committee did a great deal of calling. ... A report blank was made up with the names of each member for each district, and some district committee member who knew each one in that district watched at all services and checked those present. Thus unusual or prolonged absences were discovered, so that we could tactfully follow up the negligent and find the sick. . . . Cases of need of money or employment were promptly put before the social service com- mittee." Says another: "We organized our 950 members DISTRICT ORGANIZATION 115 into sixteen districts, arranging for them to meet monthly during January and February for social fellowship and prayer and to hear a chapter read from a missionary book. By strenuous publicity, we secured an average attendance of 258 each week. Many whole families came together and fully thirty- five per cent of the attendants were males. Many unchurched folks interested by their neighbours came to church and joined while our every-member canvass brought unprecedented gains. The second year, these committees were better organized and arranged for visiting every family connected with the church on one afternoon, with follow-up work greatly increasing the attendance at church and Sunday School. Nearly a hundred were thus prepared to undertake a 'win one ' campaign and, after a month of studies for personal workers in the prayer meeting, we added ninety-eight to our membership and the spiritual life was greatly deepened. Our district committees co- operate most helpfully with the Sunday-school depart- ments, in looking after absentees, and have started a week-day afternoon Bible class for women and a week evening class for both sexes." One more testimony. " Our woman's department made over 2,200 calls last year in the interest of the church, and our men 1,800, under district leadership. Our attendance was increased nearly 100 per cent and 104 were added to our membership, bringing it to over 500. Every one is delighted with the method. We began with a general visitation Sunday, October i, to launch a ' Go-to-church and Sunday-school 116 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Month/ With follow-up visiting and publicity to help, it was most successful, so we followed with a January spiritual development campaign and a March evangelistic campaign almost exactly as detailed in *A Modern Church Program' (see Bibliography), and shall repeat the whole plan next year. It has lifted us out of the ruts, has greatly developed the enthusiasm of our people and their loyalty. After the evangelistic campaign, we had a stewardship and finance campaign. Since we are a people of moderate resources, we were astounded at being able to increase our missionary and benevolent gifts from $800 to over $2,200 and our church expense income from $2,600 to $3,600. The district plan makes it pos- sible to look after everybody and keep them working and growing." Surely in the face of these testimonies, and in the face of the enormous losses of all American bodies each year by the cutting off of deceased or indifferent members, it becomes necessary to try a plan which is after all very simple and which brings such splendid and varied results, in small churches as well as large. How Make District Organization Effective? This requires planning and work. Among helpful features are: care in selecting and training district secretaries and chairmen, occasional conferences — before or after the mid-week service or for a whole evening — for exchange of ideas and methods and enthusiasm and transfer of names, careful selection of departmental district representatives, women for sec- LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS. t' 1909 '^^^ 4. TC\\ A Parish Map with famihes located by different colored tacks, being hung where all workers can see it at any time DISTRICT ORGANIZATION 117 retaries, understudies who can serve in the absence or disability of secretaries and chairmen, appointing workers who are efficient to serve outside their resi- dence districts where necessary, occasional confer- ences of the departmental representatives in each district to exchange information about the people, launching the committee organization with a general visitation Sunday to be followed by an adequate cam- paign as outlined in the chapter on " Enlisting and Training Workers," the devotion of an occasional mid-week service to reports from committees and workers to stimulate their enthusiasm, etc. A church secretary should be employed where pos- sible, at least for part time, to keep the church records up to date, to give information to district and depart- ment secretaries and chairmen and to receive informa- tion from them for the church records and for the pastor, to hang a map of the parish where all com- mittees can have access to it with the families and prospects indicated by varicoloured tacks, etc. Variations of the Plan Sometimes a church officer is chairman of each district committee, but this frequently results in its breakdown, since officers are not all fitted for such leadership, have varied capacities, and are already overloaded with other church work. Sometimes part of the officers are used for chairmen. Sometimes the chairmen are young men, who are not on the official board but have energy and interest, with an officer as ex-officio member of each committee. In any case, 118 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT men make poorer detail workers than women, and have less time for records and follow-up work, so a woman usually serves as secretary, helping to keep the men working diligently. Sometimes the machinery is allowed to remain dormant part of the time, ready for service on a large scale when needed, as before the autumn campaign or before and during an evangelistic campaign. Sometimes people are allowed to belong to other districts. In metropolitan city churches, the district plan is often feasible only in part. It needs to be supple- mented by a group plan for certain departments. In a large Chicago church, part of the men work in dis- trict committees but most of the work is done by two groups. The downtown group, where from twenty to fifty meet for lunch each Thursday to receive as- signments from the secretary for the coming week and to make reports on work done. A similar group meets after the mid-week service. The men and women work separately but are co-ordinated by the church office. The number of districts will depend on the size and policy, and on available leaders. Sometimes a large church has 200 people in each general district but allows of their division into subdistricts. The small- est church should have at least two or three districts to develop some degree of emulation and division of responsibility. If there are too many districts, they are too small to attract leaders of ability and to compare ideas, and some will be failures. The aver- DISTRICT ORGANIZATION 119 age will have about forty families. In one church, the women have twelve districts because they are more numerous, the men have six districts each in- cluding two of the women, and the young people have three districts each including four of the women ; the church has six districts. IX MODERN WOMEN AND THE EFFICIENT CHURCH IN a Pennsylvania church, of 400 members the pastor organized his women into seven district committees to look after new-comers, visit the disinterested members, and do whatever he might ask of them. In two years, they made nearly 6,000 calls and 265 members were added to the church, with a vast increase in the membership and attendance of all departments. In a Chicago church of only 189 mem- bers, the new pastor secured the promises of thirty- five women to give several hours each week to visit- ing the multitude of unchurched folks in the neigh- bourhood. He divided them into seven districts each with a chairman and secretary. Each district had five women and five subdistricts, each woman visiting every home in one subdistrict the first week to secure information as to unchurched children and families and to invite them to the church and Sunday School. The second week, a complete change was made so that a second woman visited each unchurched home with a new invitation. For five weeks, every unchurched family received a visit and invitation each week from a different woman. The men and young people be- came aroused and followed up those of their groups. 120 WOMAN'S PLACE AND WORK 121 The attendance was marvellously increased all along the line. The pastor then started a revival, adding 140 members. The work kept up and a second series of special meetings developed. Within a year the membership of every department and class increased from 75 to 200 per cent, all growing out of the work of women hitherto unused or used inadequately. I. New Conditions Demanding New Policies The question of woman's place in the church, of her duty to and rights in its official management, is in the foreground. We cannot evade this question. Let us face squarely the fundamental facts and principles in accord with which it must be settled. Even Europe, supposedly more conservative than America, points the way. The Free Church of Scot- land recently took unprecedented action which every American congregation and denomination might emu- late by appointing a special committee to " consider the varied and invaluable services rendered by women to the life and work of the church, and the advan- tages that would accrue from a more definite recog- nition of their place " and to report to the next annual Assembly as to " how this could best be effected." Because of its reasonableness and Euro- pean origin, we quote at some length the report made by this committee after twelve months of careful study : " Far-reaching changes have taken place in the relation of women to the community during the past fifty years, and these necessitate corresponding 122 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT changes in the organization and work of the church, if, as a living church, it is to do its best work in a living and changing world. . . . The opening of universities and the granting of degrees to women on the same terms as to men, with the consequent effects upon the educational system, have involved changes during the past two generations so vast that those who have lived through them may fail to appreciate their significance. ''Women now serve on University Senates, on School boards, on town councils, on parliamentary commissions and public committees, on hospital direc- torates, and in professional capacities. Equally great changes have taken place in the economic place of women, and in their admission to so many posts formerly held by men. The resultant effects upon women's whole attitude to life, — including their capa- bilities, their independence, their interest in the gen- eral life of the people, — and on the social and political questions bound up with that life, are incalculable. Men and women who have sat on the same benches at the university, who have laboured together on com- mittees and boards and public tasks, as well as in industry, are bound to work out a new type of rela- tionship. A feature of our present social life is the spread in all ranks of society of an ideal of woman as not only wife and mother but also as comrade and co-worker. " There is imperative need that the church should reconsider its organization and methods of work in the light of these changes, and should make the read- WOMAN'S PLACE AND WORK 123 justments necessary to the conditions of the new age. The core of the Christian gospel is that Christ came to give life and to give it more abundantly. The church, in view of its own essential aims, must desire and encourage the awakening of latent powers and the opening of fresh opportunities for self-expression and service. It cannot maintain barriers against new forces in human life that struggle for outlets." The Church of England is not guilty of fanaticism in the direction of democracy yet a recent convoca- tion decided that women should be co-opted to her boards of missions and allowed to sit in parochial bodies and to have other new fields of official church service as well as a vote in the election of church officials; steps encouraged by the Bishop of Lon- don and miany other leaders, — the Archbishop of York pleading if there were *' any reason for the mind of women being excluded from the mind of the church." In America, the changes in the position of woman, and the consequent urgency of reconsidering her place in the church, are more marked than in Europe. Less than a century ago women were admitted to no American public or high schools. Their admission to colleges would have been considered insanity, wives could not own property or control their children even against the most criminal of husbands. The minister who permitted women to talk and pray in organized missionary societies, or to speak in any church serv- ices, was in danger of trial as a heretic. Today women are placed on an equality with men in many things. 124 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Usually they exercise almost exclusive oversight of the children and the economic affairs of the home. They conduct clubs, lodges and other enterprises upon a gigantic scale. They have frequently ad- vanced along educational lines and in foresight be- yond their husbands. Women of large experience make better house- keepers and wives, and give their children larger inheritances of intelligence and power. As they grow in powers, they should have opportunities for using them, for the sake both of society and of their own happiness. While women's societies and such activities as Sunday-school teaching give them many lines of work, they are frequently subject to severe limitations, and are discouraged, because they must work under church boards made up exclusively of men, who are neither as consecrated nor as faithful in attending the services and reading the church papers as are the women, and whose plans are therefore less progres- sive and aggressive. Were qualified women on these church boards, to stir the men to good works and to see that important matters are promptly and thor- oughly considered and acted upon, church efficiency would be increased by an incalculable degree. In churches of the middle class, many women have both larger leisure and larger training than do their hus- bands for church management. Especially in rural and poorer city neighbourhoods, whence the picked men have gone while their capable sisters remain, they have often larger inherited abilities and ambitions. WOMAN'S PLACE AND WORK 125 Since churches are community homes and schools, while church problems are largely home and school problems on a larger scale, the experiences of women as managers of houses and children (many have also been school teachers and managers) fit them for more efficient church management than their husbands who know little of managing children or schools, especially if they be farmers who manage only cattle, or employees with employee minds rather th^n executives. The husbands are not so much deserving of blame. They are occupied with a vast variety of business details, often at a great distance from the home and the church, in order to support the family adequately in this age of bitter economic competition, and their wives and children require much of their attention when the day's work is over. Their dealings being often with people and communities wholly apart from those of their churches, their very experiences sadly unfit them for understanding their church members and problems. On the other hand, the wife gives her thoughts almost exclusively to her church and its environ- ment because she has fewer lodge and business in- terests, because her associations are largely with acquaintances made there, because she spends more time in the community and at the church, because her children and their playmates reveal to her their community and family needs, because she studies her husband and his needs more carefully than he studies hers, because she associates more with the women 126 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT and children who constitute fully three-fourths of the church's constituency and because she often learns from them facts which enable her to understand their men-folks even more fully than her husband does. There are intelligent women in almost every church who, — by home and community experience, by leisure from other cares, as well as by experience of parlia- mentary law and committee management in their clubs and church societies, — are better fitted for intel- ligent comprehensive church legislation and execu- tive leadership than are their husbands and brothers. Women are especially good in details and promptness. Their zeal would insure quorums and enthusiasm, Their wisdom would assure larger programs and budgets. Their inquisitiveness would ask for audits and for larger publicity. The Scotch Report continues, in brief: " The tasks which the church is called to under- take are of such magnitude and increasing difficulty as to require all the resources at its command. It would be a calamity if large stores of Christian capacity and energy are allowed to remain partly or wholly unused. " In planning its work, the church is deprived of the special experience and distinctive contribution of women. It is impossible for a body exclusively of men to possess the necessary intimate and instinctive knowledge of women's needs and circumstances, an omission the more serious in view of new social condi- tions and problems. ^* The present want of correlation between women's WOMAN'S PLACE AND WORK 127 work for Foreign and Home missions and the general work of the church is not in the interest of the high- est efficiency. Sometimes a court of men fails to show sufficient sympathy with the women's fund, and on the women's side there is the possibiHty of action which does not take account of all congre- gational circumstances. In every place where the in- dependent work by women touches the work of the church as a whole, in congregation or in national body, the same lack of correlation results in reduced efficiency. " There is a serious tendency among able Christian women to seek opportunities for service in public and philanthropic activities rather than in the direct work of the church, because they find larger freedom and scope for the exercise of their special gifts. It appears of vital importance that Christian women find as open a field for their powers in the church as out- side. Otherwise the church will be deprived of in- dispensable resources." When we consider what Christian women have done since the days of Priscilla, Phoebe and Blandina, the vast sums of money they have raised, the im- petus they have given to Sunday School and mission- ary progress, the churches which would be dead but for their zeal and sacrifices, and the contributions they have made to the social and evangelistic efficiency of the churches through hospitality to new-comers, surely there can be no question that their growing powers should be utilized in larger plans and in larger degrees. 128 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 11. The Rightful Place of Women in Modern Churches We cannot evade the fact that the Church needs to utilize her spiritual and practical capacities in wiser fashion. What, then, is woman's rightful share in the work of the Church today? What should be her official responsibilities? What shall be the next steps to conserve to the utmost her newly developed powers and the leisure brought to her by the intro- duction of present household methods and labour- saving machinery ? The suggestive recommendations of the Scotch committee were: 1. That the Assembly remind the congregations that women are now eligible for service on all con- gregational committees, including Boards of Manage- ment (corresponding largely to American Trustees and Finance Committees), and declare them eligible to Deacons' Courts. 2. Approval of the association of women with Kirk- Sessions for consultative purposes and for the discharge of certain pastoral duties; such women to be elected by the congregation, solemnly set apart, and to constitute a Women's Advisory Committee of the Session. 3. That the Assembly instruct its Foreign and each of six other Boards and Committees to co-opt to their number as full voting members a proportion of women not to exceed one-sixth of their membership ; and authorize Presbyteries to add women to their committees. The committee also suggested that the WOMAN'S PLACE AND WORK 129 time was coming when women could become elders and enter every field of service open to laymen ; with- out discussing whether they should become ministers or not. Approving these Scotch ideas, we would add that in some cases American churches have already gone beyond these Scotch recommendations. Baptist, Con- gregational, Friends and other bodies ordain women to the ministry. We believe all denominations will soon make women eligible to all congregational offices and in most churches they will constitute from twenty to fifty per cent of the members of the committees on education, finance, social service, etc. As a start, a board of deaconesses can be appointed to visit every family in the church during the year and report their findings in writing. III. Objections to Women as Church Officers We are told that " woman's place is in the home," but that simply emphasizes her duty in the church for it is the community home in which God's children meet as brothers and sisters and in which women should have just as prominent a place as in house- keeping. " Men do not like to meet with women ? " Men do like to meet with women in school and social life. When churches fail to reach the men it is often because the male church officers do not appeal to them. Dr. M. B. Riddle always reminded his pupils that " there are old women of both sexes." Has the Methodist Church lost men because it allows women 130 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT on its official boards and sends them to vote in its General Conferences? Do hospitals and orphanages suffer because women serve as directors ? We are told women do not want office. Even if this were accurate, it is not a question of what they want or do not want, but of what God in His providence desires them to do. Besides younger women are asking a place and they are the ones whose loss the Church of tomorrow would miss seriously. We are told that women are physically and men- tally weak. In politics there has been some argu- ment for refusing office to women because they can not bear arms, and the saloon men make zealous use of it; but militarist standards, which are losing ground in the state as women render indispensable services in times of war and peace, have no place in the kingdom of peace and love for which the Church stands. Intellectual strength is not of sex but of opportunity. Her spiritual strength developed through her suffering is a powerful asset. We are told that Paul kept women in the back- ground. In an age when women who spoke in public or who appeared unveiled were stamped as immoral, expediency demanded and Paul taught that women should conform to heathen custom for the sake of the Church's reputation. But times have changed. Women are no longer kept in harems. Miriam and Deborah, and the women whom Jesus honoured (for He honoured woman far above any heathen prophet) were but forerunners of a Christian age in which WOMAN'S PLACE AND WORK 131 woman should assume a larger place, and receive her proper honours and responsibilities, in the field of religion. We find that Priscilla was esteemed with her husband, that deaconesses were appointed in the apostolic years of the Church and favoured by Luther and Calvin, and that Catholicism is our authority for depriving them of much of their primitive Christian freedom. '' Our church boards are already large enough," some churches truly say; but women would add *' something new, making possible a larger, richer, more balanced view than men or women could take alone," and the question is not size but efficiency. If church law forbids electing them to certain boards, selected women can at least be appointed on all congregational committees and can be made ad- visory members of any board. IV. Making the Women's Department Efficient How shall the women of the church be so organized as to perform most effectively their duties as and for women, aside from their duties in and to the church as a whole? The chapters on departmental and committee efficiency contain valuable hints in addition to the suggestions we can give here. I. Let the women strive to secure larger efficiency in the planning and management of the church as a whole, and to secure such perfect co-ordination of their plans and committee work with those of the boards and other departments and committees as 132 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT will insure harmony and fullest success for their own work as well as for the church. 2. Let the women as carefully plan and as at- tractively arrange their programs as do the best women's literary clubs. Too many plans are pitifully inadequate, and too many meetings are dull from lack of both preparation and enthusiasm. 3. Unify all the women in the church, and all the work for and by women, in one official woman's department. In large churches, sometimes 500 to 1,000 women are well organized in such a department. The women should be a compact unit. Overlapping and overlooking, if not friction, are certain when two or more women's groups work as independent rivals. The women's department should be authorized and its plans and policies indorsed by the official body of the church, receiving full authority and responsibility for ministering to all the needs and directing all the abilities of the women of the church, all of whom, by congregational law, not merely by the action of the women, automatically become members of the women's department by joining the church. (See my article in Ladies' Home Journal, September, 1916.) 4. If early unification of all societies into one organism is impossible, work out such a plan of federation, approved by the church boards, as shall co-ordinate their varied activities through joint com- mittees on program, work, etc. 5. The president, secretary and other officers should be chosen solely on the grounds of ability and leadership, not because of past services or as an WOMAN'S PLACE AND WORK 133 honour. There should be a time limit to such serv- ice unless by unanimous vote. 6. Committees should be appointed by the presi- dent and cabinet, the chairman and secretary for each being first chosen with greatest care and having large freedom in selecting additional members and in the development of policies, all committees being co-ordinated through the executive or cabinet, includ- ing the officers and committee chairmen. Sometimes commissions are appointed as bearing more authority than committees. Each committee should seek the co-ordination of the plans and work of all committees in the church having similar functions. 7. A committee on Bible Study and Religious Edu- cation should be authorized as, or to co-operate with, the women's department of the church school in order to enlist all women in definite Bible study, arranging for afternoon classes on week-days or on Sunday, or on an evening, at the church or by districts, for those who cannot attend at the regular school hour ; also to promote the home department work and to arrange for class and group and departmental prayer meet- ings unless an efficient Devotional committee assume responsibility for this great interest. 8. Such committees should be appointed as : Home Missions, Foreign Missions, Finance, Social, Social Service, Pastor's Aid, — to help in church office work, visiting, etc., — District — to promote social, educational, spiritual and other interests among smaller groups, — especially to visit the sick, indifferent, lonely, new- comers and others who might be induced to join, 134 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT working for children as well as for women — and co- operating with similar committees of the church and other departments — Work for and by Young Women and Girls, organizing them into guilds, mission bands, Camp-fire Girls, circles, etc., built upon the same policies and with the same functions as the women's society; each committee to appoint the necessary subcommittees. 9. The arrangements for meetings by one consoli- dated women's department are : First Tuesday of each month: luncheon at the church at cost, for all who will come, arranged by the social committee, with sewing before and after lunch for the hospital or Red Cross, or as arranged by the Social Service Commission, followed by: 2.30-3.00, special music and educational talks; 3.00-3.30, Bible study and prayer; 3.30-4.15, to Home Mission papers and discussion; 4.15-4.45, business and social hour. Third Tuesdays : same as above with Foreign Mis- sion themes. Second and fourth Tuesdays : group meetings for Bible or mission study and prayer, and social pur- poses, in each of the ten districts, hours and programs being decided by each district. Fifth Tuesdays : addresses by men and women of note, either for the one society or for the city federa- tion of church women. 10. Will women object to the subjection of their department to the Official Board, or to uniting in one department instead of several societies? Not when they are allowed adequate representation on WOMAN'S PLACE AND WORK 135 the Official Board as suggested in that Chapter, and when they are given an adequate vision of the goals and ideals of the modern church and its methods. Of course the department can permit as many sub- divisions as may be necessary or desirable : Business Women's Guild, College Women's Guild, Young Mothers' Class, etc., all under the supervision of the department, yet semi-independent. X THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S DEPARTMENTS AS we have already suggested, the best modern A\ educators insist that the efficient church of •^ "^ tomorrow will unify all the religious interests of its children and young people through one agency, the Church School, with functions and ideals so enlarged and with organizations so modernized as to provide for all objectives that can possibly be served by the present miscellany of young people's and chil- dren's organizations. Says Dr. Athearn in his superb discussion of the matter ("The Church School," Chapters I and II) : " The arguments which have given us the graded school curriculum must also provide for graded wor- ship and graded expression. The efficient administra- tion of an educational program demands emphasis on the fa<:t that religious expression is a part of the process of religious teaching. It must follow that the organizations which have sprung up as agencies for the expression of religious life must be correlated with the church school and that one board of officers must administer both sides of the educational pro- gram. When a pupil is promoted from one school department to another, he should pass into all phases of the work of the new department." 136 YOUNG PEOPLE'S DEPARTMENTS 137 Under this plan, there should be as many young peoples' societies in a church as there are Sunday- school departments, Primary (if desired), Junior Intermediate, Senior and Advanced. (See chart, page 138.) Where the departments are not large enough, two could be consolidated, but this should seldom be done when a department has as many as ten members. Class loyalty should be developed, and each class should be a unit for social and other activities, under the direction of the teacher and of temporary com- mittees up to the Intermediate department when class officers and a few permanent committees should be chosen to co-operate with the teacher in leadership. The more advanced the grade, the more definite should be the class organization and the committee responsibilities. The International Sunday School Assocation suggests that organized classes appoint committees on missions, devotional life (class prayer meetings, etc.), social life, citizenship, flowers, look- out work, etc. The spread of such classes is phe- nomenal. Says Mr. Alexander, Superintendent of the Secondary Division of the International Sunday- school Association, " On December 25, 1913, only 479 Secondary Organized classes were registered. Two years later the number had jumped to 21,620. At the present rate of growth, soon we will have half a million pupils in such classes." The class committees of each department should be federated, all social committees co-operating for departmental purposes; likewise all devotional and ^ ^ .•§ ^ g •-1 « V Q rs T3 S S C V o o > o P Q P o 1 1^ III o to «3A J^3A B* i^A w aomsg & 1 1 joranf j ^3 ^' aioraotidog o ,~^ O o -o iE3A "«*"• -A S S ' -S -SI »-, ho ^ J«3A s i "^ 6 ^6 spBJO apBJO apEJO spwo sp«JO 11^^^ «» S •£ "S f= £ S 2 S^Q sl -5 s H ^ ^ 1 w 3. Q -I lie's u SB'S g i w to 03 il 3 "to u »2. P. +05 . a 8* w» s^ 2 fi -S 'C5 C5 3 YOUNG PEOPLE'S DEPARTMENTS 139 other committees. Says Dr. Athearn ("The Or- ganization and Administration of the Church School," p. 298, Pilgrim Press) : " The groups within a department should share in the responsibilities of the joint organization. . . . All groups and classes should mingle freely in, and share m the work of, the department so that departm.ent loyalty absorbs the loyalty of the smaller groups. Three or four times a year, the whole school must be brought together in special services which will weld the whole school into a social unit." Thus departmental loyalty is developed into loyalty to the school and to the church. If departmental and class organization do not ade- quately meet the sex, class and racial needs. Dr. Athearn suggests " the organization of clubs or social groups corresponding to our Boy Scouts, Camp-fire Girls, sewing classes, athletic teams, etc., which are within the control of, but do not include, the whole group of a given department, but all these groups should meet and freely mingle in common depart- mental groups regardless of race, colour or station in life, and the differences which have made necessary the smaller groups must gradually disappear, the entire being unified on the level of the larger group." Of course the fourfold development of children must be insured by proper efforts in behalf of their social, physical and mental interests as of their religious development. To provide for the expressional education now secured through the young people's societies, Dr. Athearn urges a longer school period, including, say : 140 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 9.30-9.50, Departmental worship; 9.50-10.20, Class instruction; 10.20-10.50, Expressional period with activities corresponding to those of the young peo- ple's societies. Where the school period is not long enough, the expressional meeting of each depart- ment may be arranged at some later hour in the day, or on a week-day, just as in the present young people's societies, but it should be a part of the official depart- mental plan and curriculum. The departments would be managed as in the ordi- nary Sunday School save that larger departmental usefulness and unity would be developed under the lead of the departmental superintendent by the ap- pointment and direction of departmental committees co-ordinating the class committees, and by fixing an official period for the expressional meeting so that all would benefit instead of merely those who might be attracted to join an independent group and sign a pledge. At present, as an investigation by Dr. Athearn revealed, the membership of the young people's so- cieties of all ages in 100 churches was only 18.29 per cent of the church membership, so, since many mem- bers were children unconnected with the church, the needs of many members are at present entirely unmet by the society plan. Dr. Athearn suggests as one great blemish of the present society plan its failure to provide for a system of society promotions just as in the class work, since some "quit before their time to quit and others never feel that they should move on," so that societies are hampered both by YOUNG PEOPLE'S DEPARTMENTS 141 members who are too young and by those who are too old. He adds (" The Church School," pp. 2i9ff.)> "Care must be taken not to create an extraneous organization which cannot be easily sloughed off when outgrown. The function of any society is to promote the welfare of its own members, not to keep intact the machinery of any state or national organization, denominational or otherwise. . . . The ideal organization is a homogeneous local group having organic connection with the church, under the direction of a trained educator. It may in- clude many interests but it should centralize its activity in a Bible Class or other interest definitely related to the church or church school. All activities should be under the direct supervision of the teacher, correlated with the lessons ; while all public programs, etc., affecting the life of the school should have the approval of the Director of Religious Education ; and all should be under the governmental authority of the church educational committee." Some Vital Problems We would urge every reader to study the books we have referred to, but some pertinent questions deserve consideration here. Shall young people's societies all be immediately disbanded ? That does not follow. We have been dis- cussing an ideal that should be attained by wise steps according to local conditions. The policies and the leadership in the average school, as well as the teach- ers, must be more efficient before we can attain the 142 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT ideal. A class for the study of religious education and the training of departmental leaders is the first step. Meantime the church committee on religious educa- tion and other committees should confer with the young people's society leaders as to their proper organic relations with the church and its work and program, should bring them into the church cabinet and conferences, should secure their intelligent co- operation, including tentative age lines and definite promotion policies in accord with those of the church school. Departments and classes for whose members no societies exist should seek to meet their needs by trying out the new plan and demonstrating its work- ableness, church committees should secure the appointment and correlation of corresponding com- mittees in each department and class of suitable age to provide for matters as yet neglected, and steps can be taken towards an adequate educational policy to include modern departmental and social rooms. Young people's societies will long flourish in rural communities where there are no evening services, where school grades have not fixed age groups, and where social meetings are not over-abundant. They serve a fine purpose when they bring the sexes to- gether. It is better that they mingle and mate in the church than in dance halls or other demoralizing places. But where societies live only to perpetrate a faded glory, their leaders should be tactfully led to see that there is a better way. On the other hand, there is danger that expressional YOUNG PEOPLE'S DEPARTMENTS 143 and social matters will be neglected, that the organ- ized class will crowd out the societies without filling the need, that the school hour will be insufficient for the full task. Then some supplementary activities must be provided for. Possibly church committees will provide for district study groups of all ages. Possibly a social hour can be arranged for each Sun- day evening, including choral singing and a brief devotional service, followed by a light supper or tea just before the evening services. Dr. Clark's original society received its initial im- pulse from a revival, and he was its constant coun- sellor. It did not exist for the sake of numbers. It was a real Pastor's Aid Society. Where a sepa- rate society is desirable, it is better to start with a small group of really sincere, working and praying, young people and to add members slowly only as they can be truly assimilated and given the needed spiritual culture and oversight. The custom of organizing a crowd of young folks with no spiritual leadership is wicked. It sets inadequate ideals and leads them falsely to believe they are doing spiritual service, while it prevents a proper appeal on behalf of a Leader's or Teacher's Training group. A prayer band of ten is often more desirable than a rabble of fifty. The young people and children are tHe church of tomorrow, and must be developed for leadership as well as for their own sakes. They should be organ- ized, not to free the older folks of responsibility but to give better opportunity for co-operation by wise, 144 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT young-hearted, forward-looking elder leaders. As military academies conform to the activities of real armies, so young people's and children's organiza- tions should conform to the ideals and standards and machinery of the church in which they are expected to work. Many and varied plans for successful work with young children are found in Hulbert's '* Church and Her Children." The "Children's Church" which he so well describes, and which the efficiency report of the Reformed Church suggests in various workable forms, with its services and officers, is found invaluable in many places. In any case, the Young People should become vot- ing members of the congregation at eighteen years of age, and their work should thereafter be semi- independent of the lower departments of the Church School, being affiliated with the Adult Departments. At least two of their number should sit in the Pastor's Cabinet and on the Official Board. The un- married folks above twenty-four may be affiliated directly with them in their social meetings, etc. A Young Married Folks' Club can be one of their sup- plemental organizations. All their classes should be organized with officers and committees. As to Sunday-school management, space forbids its adequate treatment. Readers are referred to the many valuable volumes already covering this field. XI THE EFFICIENT MEN'S DEPARTMENT I. The Problem of Interesting Men WHY is the man problem commonly regarded the most difficult for American churches? Why have they 3,000,000 more female than male members ? Why do they average four enthusi- astic women workers to one man? The causes are comprehensible. First, a woman has fewer outside interests. Her days and nights are more largely spent in the home with her children. Her knowledge is chiefly confined to the community. Her friends are chiefly in the church and its departments so that she meets them when she goes to services and not often otherwise. Her husband, in his business, meets and makes friends among folks from other churches and com- munities and he is accustomed to find recreation and new acquaintances among the lodges and clubs, so that he has a smaller fraction of his friends and in- terests in the church and community. Church work and services are usually calculated to appeal primarily to zvomen. Says Henry F. Cope (''The Efficient Layman," pp. 7, 8, 24): "As churches are conducted today, they meet the needs of the feminine type so much more closely that they 145 146 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT show men as less churchly than women. When the Church meets the needs of real men as they are, the men will be there in due proportions. . . . Since singing is rather an act of adoration than of activity, music has a larger place in the religious life of women than of men. ... In how many hymns can a man join heartily? Does a healthy vigorous man want to ' rise in the arms of faith ' or to * fly to world unknown'? Since men are asked at every service to sing hymns written for women or by sedentary saints, the wonder is that so many go through the performance." Christ and His apostles were men, they made sacri- fices like men, they spoke in the language and laboured in the spirit of men of their day, and the Church must emulate them now to win men. The average man believes the Church to he antiquated. He believes the Bible class to be far more concerned with the ancient Hittites than with modern social conditions, remembering the former classes which were largely made up of amateur theo- logians and sectarians. He knows that the church has a session, deacons, or a consistory; as well as a Presbytery, a classis, a diocese, or a Synod; but he does not know Greek and concludes these ancient Greek names mean matters as ancient. He recalls the purely subjective Sunday-school teaching of his childhood. Suppose the Church had names as modern and intelligible as the city council; that he were con- vinced that the Church regards honourable business EFFICIENT MEN'S DEPARTMENT 147 ^ and clean politics as also sacred callings presented by Almighty God; that he were made to understand how practical and magnificent are the plans of the Church — experience shows that his attention would be challenged. He considers church affairs petty. The com- mercial club and other city affairs command his respect; but he takes for granted that the churches have neither community-wide vision and program nor the co-operative spirit, and that they maintain the former selfish sectarian objectives and denomi- national jealousies which he despises. He wants a big city-wide movement, and city-wide co-operation will arouse enthusiasm. He is given no definite responsibility. He has never been enlisted in a worthy task with proper preparation. His proposed men's club has but a vague program and policy. He is scolded for not doing anything when he has never been given, and has no offer of, a clear-cut explanation of what the Church is seeking to do, or of how he can help. Men want democracy, and a really democratic church is rare, even among those which praise it most. Men have been taught the right of self-gov- ernment for over a century, yet they go to Sunday School to have no more voice in the selection of officers, or in the government of the school, than their six-year-old sons. The success of organized Adult Bible Classes points the way to church success with men. Having a voice in the selection of their teach- ers and courses of study and of committee men to do 148 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT something, hearing their representatives speak about departmental business at each meeting and having a vote on that business as well as a right to talk back, their self-respect is maintained. But when it comes to church business, what chance has the average man? Once each year he is wearied by an endless series of reports of departments he knows nothing about, in tones which do not impress him, concerning trifling matters. After hearing a bewildering maze of ma- terial that he has no power to digest in one short night, he is asked to vote for a slate and approve a policy he has had no voice in formulating. Dislik- ing to start discussion at a late hour, if he has not already left, he silently acquiesces in all that is said, but perhaps does not return next year. Suppose church machinery and plans were stand- ardized like those of his farm so he could under- stand; suppose one whole evening were given to hearing and discussing reports of boards and their committees with ample time to secure an understand- ing of affairs and reach his own conclusions, and with a hospitable hearing for his sincere opinions but a time limit for mere self -advertisers, — the Church would mean something to him. Suppose again that the men's department were a real force instead of a talking society; that it named three or more of the church officers; that it could really help direct church policies; that a Bible class period each month, or eight Sundays before the an- nual meeting, were given to full and frank discussion of the church's defects in policy and work and an EFFICIENT MEN'S DEPARTMENT 149 exchange of ideas of what should be done and how, — he could be enthused. Men's organizations are seldom broad enough. The term Brotherhood implies simply social concerns and the average busy man prefers to spend his time with his family unless social engagements serve a double purpose, — giving him new standing and busi- ness acquaintances as at the club, or securing self- advertisement and self-poise as at the lodge, — so he does not go to men's socials unless guaranteed a first- class speaker or supper, or unless other great benefits are to be gained or given. If his men's organization is doing a worth-while work for the boys and the community, or plays a real part by helpful discussions of community interests and church business, he can usually be induced to take notice and accept a chance to get something done. Drastic steps must be taken to give the men's department the dignity and impor- tance which will make it a power. Elements in the Solution of the Problem 1. Make the church more modern in its terminol- ogy, more manly in its services, more purposeful in its plans, more aggressive in its challenge to do things worth doing. 2. Give men increased responsibilities as individ- uals and in men's organizations, a real voice in deter- mining what shall be done by the church and how, work worth doing and training for it, and apprecia- tion for work well done. 3. Make the men's department a worth-while 150 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT concern. Allow it to name a definite number of members of the church board or governing body as suggested in the next chapter, say twenty or thirty per cent. Encourage it to have special meetings to discuss church management and policies and to in- struct its representatives as to its desires. Give it a separate room, or build one, if possible. 4. Develop a strong men's class (or several classes), organized and conducted after the manner of the most successful adult classes for which many excellent suggestions are available. Let it be entirely independent of the school in its management, its opening exercises, etc., yet meeting with it occa- sionally. 5. Develop a series of strong functional commit- tees, including social fellowship, " work for young men and boys," social service, missions, temperance and moral reform, civic and state affairs, strangers and membership, speakers for neighbouring mis- sions and meetings in other churches, community and district visiting, Sunday evening and mid-week service boosting, ushering at class and department meetings, publicity, special speakers, recreation, policy and effi- ciency, etc., but not too many at a time, and only as workers and leaders are available to promise success. 6. Make class meetings broadly educational. Es- tablish a Forum in connection with them, to discuss practical affairs from a religious angle. Suppose the weekly session lasts an hour and a half— after the first fifteen or twenty-five minutes for opening exer- EFFICIENT MEN'S DEPARTMENT 151 cises, business, etc., fifteen minutes would be given to the special speaker, visitor or local, on some theme relating to social progress, civics, missions, church federation, or church matters in general ; fol- lowed by fifteen minutes for discussion: using the closing half-hour for the teaching of the lesson. 7. Devote one meeting a month to discussion of matters " for the good of the church and the depart- ment," have an annual ladies* night, a Father-^nd- Son banquet, and a Son-and-Father athletic-field day ; see that some man is in touch helpfully with every young man or boy in the Sunday School; see that the members keep in touch with ways to benefit the schools, the boys of the church and the community, the unemployed, the minister, and every other good cause; let them take a Sunday evening service each month, etc. 8. Make every male member of the church or school who reaches eighteen or twenty years of age a member of the men's department, with a vote ; also every other man who signs the constitution and sub- scribes ten cents per week or more to class or church purposes. 9. Study especially the chapters on " Enlisting and Training Workers," and on " Committee Efficiency,'* since these are really a part of this chapter. 10. Often, it is unwise to organize since the same ends can be better served by putting all men on church committees and by having an occasional men's supper. 162 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT How TO Begin Have an objective. The Presbyterian Brotherhood Movement Committee says, " If your organization is to be one worth while it will not be enough to unite men on social lines only, i.e., to bring them together once a month for a dinner or for some entertainment or address. We must develop friendship and fellow- ship, and dinners and entertainments are good for that purpose. However, if you are going to have a strong, permanent organization it will be necessary to have a strong and compelling objective, to organize on the basis of real service for the church, the com- munity and the kingdom." Remember that most men have wrong ideas of the Church and religion. They must be shown that the Church is modern and has a worthy purpose and program, and that they will be allowed opportunity to talk about and to do things worth doing. Let the church board appoint a committee to work out plans for a really adequate organization. Call a few men, representative of all types, young and old, rich and poor, to a conference, preferably at a free supper, to talk matters over. Have further conferences if necessary to perfect a plan. Call a meeting of all the men of the church at the Sunday-school hour, or at a banquet, to discuss the proposition and take steps. Select the departmental committee chairmen care- fully. Allow men to choose on which committee they will work after chairmen are named. See that every- thing is done in a manly way. When things are going, EFFICIENT MEN'S DEPARTMENT 153 keep your promises. Do not start until ready to make it go without fail. In any case remember that the boys of today, handled rightly, will make a strong men's church for tomorrow, and that manly pastors and lay leaders are essential with both men and boys. While most men do not like to talk before women, and do not ordinarily care for a men's church social, most men will come with their wives and children to a good church supper served at cost with social features. Alternate the men's supper with a church supper or social on a Monday night every two months. Better still, have church suppers (see next chapter), making special effort to get new men to come with their wives and stay to hear what the church is doing. Invite men to come with their sons to a dinner. A Chicago Men's Club is said to spend over $2,000 per year on advertising, on a weekly Thursday night men's meeting which is addressed by prominent civic and commercial men with audiences ranging from 200 to 600, and on free dinners and suppers for its com- mitteemen so that they may be sure to do business. About 100 men make perhaps 5,000 visits each year to follow up the members and prospects. Of course the church has rapidly filled up with men as has a Buffalo church where the Men's Club made a com- plete religious census of the whole community, made over 5,000 follow-up visits on unchurched men, ar- ranged for suppers and speakers, worked hard for the social welfare of the city and the uplift of the com- munity, opened well-furnished club rooms for men and boys, etc. XII OFFICIAL BOARD ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION EVERY body must have a head to unify all the members and functions. Christ must be the spiritual head of each church, yet an earthly head is as essential as a local habitation and a name. If the head is not intelligent and active, the body will usually be weak and its work of little value, just as in individuals with low brain power. Official leadership in church and state implies three primary duties: legislation, execution and judicial decision. The official head of a church must take (or lead the congregation to take) authoritative steps recognizing those duties by and for which the whole church exists, providing that the ideals and plans shall be properly realized in action, co-ordinating all de- partmental and committee activities with one another and with the church, and correcting all improper atti- tudes and actions. But the judicial function, in the church as in the state, becomes less important as legislative and executive duties are performed with increasing wisdom and efficiency so that members and departments shall clearly understand their duties and relations and work loyally. The two keynotes of modern government are effi- 154 OFFICIAL BOARD ORGANIZATION 155 ciency and democracy. Democracy, which implies and depends upon intelligence and freedom, is a growth. It gets into action more slowly than autoc- racy but in the end it makes for larger efficiency. It is less mechanical and more enthusiastic under discouragements. The Church seeks the development of its members through service, and intelligent serv- ice increases as an intelligent share in the govern- ment is exercised. Democracy does not mean anarchy or independency. The local church must aim at edu- cation and democracy and efficiency. Its efficiency and perpetuity depends upon a strong central author- ity, constituted and controlled by and for and of the people. " Where no counsel is the people fail, but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety," is especially true of democracy. Mere pessimists and throwers of water are not counsellors. To " be sure you are right, then go ahead," is wise, but many church offi- cers and boards are never sure they are right, for they never want to go ahead. The Christian Church is a growing institution with a great God, which looks to vast achievements and a wonderful goal in the future, so no one should be on a church board who lacks vision, courage, personal experience of God, and loyalty to Christ as the supreme teacher and officer of the Church. I. Problems of Organization Should there he more than one official board f Dan- ger of conflict always exists where co-ordinate agen- 156 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT cies are. Official authority must be exercised by a single body. In the New Testament Church, the deacons were subordinate to the authority of the apostles. The political trend is away from the bicam- eral legislative system. Such conservatives as Elihu Root plead earnestly with the recent New York state constitutional convention to substitute a single legis- lative body for the Senate and the House ; voicing the desire of all thoughtful statesmen. Modern church policy cannot be determined by the archaic double system of Europe which originated in the caste spirit. The intention of providing a body with no doc- trinal authority, with which they could deal — leaving doctrinal matters to the denominationally designated spiritual head or board — led many states to require a separate board of trustees, and the question of their necessary subordination to the spiritual board is often a difficult one. Sometimes the law permits the spiritual board to incorporate as a board of trustees, which should be done, if legal, by having the one board keep two sets of records. Where requirements as to the number or method of election of trustees makes such action impossible or undesirable, a church should transfer all possible duties to the spiritual head, reducing those of trustees to the lowest possible terms, usually as a mere holding body for the property. Better still, where legal, adopt a by-law providing that only mem- bers of the spiritual board may be eligible for nomi- nation as trustees so that only spiritually minded men OFFICIAL BOARD ORGANIZATION 157 can be chosen, and they become practically a sub- committee of the spiritual head to which they report and from which they receive instructions even while they keep separate records. Where a separate board of trustees must be con- stituted, they will usually forego responsibility for raising the budget if their honour is maintained by the privilege of spending it. A joint Finance com- mittee of all boards and departments can be intrusted with the preparation and provision of the budgets, securing the sanction of the church for its plans, while the trustees manage the property and, if neces- sary, pay the bills. One spiritual duty of a church head is the education of the members as to the scrip- tural principles and practices regarding the steward- ship of money, and this duty can be performed properly only when such head determines the financial plans. Sometimes a subordinate board is authorized by the official board as a sort of committee for the care of the poor and for community service, as well as a training school for church leadership, but the same ends can be secured as well or better by the appoint- ment of committees as has already been suggested. How secure proper unity in the ideals and plans of the different departments and committees and hoards? Four different methods are acclaimed as satisfactory in checking up the whole work of the church. (a) The constitution of a Church Council or Con- sistory where all the boards meet in joint session, regularly; monthly, or at least quarterly. A whole 158 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT evening can be occupied with the joint session, or the boards can meet separately at first, meeting together at 8.45 or 9.00 P.M. (b) The constitution of a Pastor's Cabinet or Council, meeting as is desired, usually including the president of each department and sometimes their secretaries, with the chairmen of the church com- mittees. (c) The constitution of a Joint Official Board as in Methodist churches; similar to the Church Council above described, except that each society or depart- ment has one or more representatives. (d) A radical reconstruction of the church organi- zation constituting the official board itself in a new way. If denominational laws do not permit this action by a local church, certain elements of the plan can be adopted; or the official board can take action promising large consideration, if not constant approval, to all deliberations or decisions of such an unofficial board. The plan is to constitute the church legislative body of three elements; a small group elected by the church as a whole, at least as many more elected or nominated by the departments, and the chairmen of all functional church committees. A church of 500 members would have, say, twelve offi- cers elected by the congregation, eighteen elected by the men's, women's and church school departments — each naming six — making a central board or church legislature of thirty, with the addition as full voting members of all church committee chairmen who are not of the thirty thus elected. Certainly every mem- OFFICIAL BOARD ORGANIZATION 159 ber of the Cabinet should be represented at legislative sessions. By giving enlarged power to the committees named as suggested in the previous chapter, the board could leave details to the departments and committees and to intercommittee and interdepartment conferences, the church doing its real work through committees as Congress does. The administration of the com- munion, the reception of new members and other duties which the constitution specifically commits to congregationally elected men, could be in the hands of the twelve so chosen. This plan has all the advantages of the preceding plans, and dignifies the departments so as to give them greater vitality and increase the spirit of democ- racy. Undoubtedly this plan will be rapidly intro- duced as its benefits are experienced, modified to suit local conditions. What should be the size of the Official Boards The preceding paragraphs will be suggestive. The official board should be neil:her so small as inadequately to represent the wisdom of the church nor so large as to be unwieldy. The church of lOO members would have perhaps fifteen or twenty members, while the church of 2,000 members would have only fifty. In the small church, more definite supervision of all interests would be exercised. The larger churches would leave details largely to the committees, author- izing them with large authority and approving their reports with little discussion. What relation should the pastor bear to the boards 160 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT and committees f He should be ex-officio a member of all, even those on finance. He needs to know all that is being done, as the President knows the work and plans of each cabinet ofBcer. He is concerned with the finance committee, not in order to see that his salary will be paid, for it will be, of course, but that spiritual ideals and scriptural methods shall govern and that there be a surplus to meet publicity, educational and other expenses. What should be the period of service of church and departmental officers? The problem is to balance stability and permanency with rotation and vitality. This is secured under the plan suggested on the pre- ceding page. The eighteen representatives of de- partments and the six or more committee chairmen would be subject to change each year, but probably two-thirds would remain and give ample stability. The twelve elected by the congregation might well be chosen for three-year terms, one-third to expire annually. Where the system prevails either of elec- tion for life or of always re-electing old members, large churches especially should pass a law that an officer could be elected to succeed himself only once, but would again be eligible after a year out of that office. What are the arguments against a long, or life, term? The same as the arguments against life serv- ice for kings and senators, which no American has ever proposed. Legislators chosen for life are liable to conversion to the idea of the divine right of the ruler rather than of the ruled. A legislator should OFFICIAL BOARD ORGANIZATION 161 never have more than a five- or six-year term. Democracy will perish with disuse. For the sake of insuring their intelligent loyalty voters should, by the recurrence of important elections, be compelled to give careful consideration to the ideals and policies concerned. In a Pennsylvania church where the life system existed with only six elders for i,ooo members, I suggested allowing them to serve for life as elected while choosing twelve new elders on the rotary system, a plan which obviated all objection. What if a small church has few fit for oMcef Often an unfit or unpromising Peter needs merely responsibility and vision to make him an invaluable aide. Many a layman is a diamond church worker in the rough, awaiting the expert polisher. Larger use should be made of women and young men. The one-year ineligibility clause can be made to apply only once, at the close of the first or second term, to give the opportunity of eliminating, withouti invidious reflection, such as prove unworthy. How should nominations be made? If made in open meeting, there is danger of unfit nominations. Nomination by a board is apt to be regarded as a " slate," receiving but a perfunctory vote and reduc- ing the interest of the voters. Usually a nominating committee can be appointed in advance, or a prelimi- nary nominating ballot or direct primary can be held. The pastor should be a member of the nominating committee. Should non-members ever be chosen officers? In 162 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT the small field, this may be essential, especially if they be members of other churches not locally represented. But non-Christians, and unfaithful members, if they must be given place, should have mere honorary posi- tions, being seldom made responsible save for the holding of property, or as members of building or publicity committees where spirituality is not so fundamental. II. Efficient Administration Every official board should have an executive com- mittee to prepare a docket for each meeting, to see that all committees are prepared to report, and to meet with the committee chairmen and department heads to help formulate their plans and develop their work, thus saving much time at the official meetings. This executive committee should include the pastor and at least two men and one woman in the small church. In a large church, it will include all the pastors and such others as are desired. It should meet weekly. Where it is difficult to secure adequate attendance of the members of a board or committee, the sec- retary, or some specified member, should be respon- sible for telephoning or sending a card to each member on the day of, or the day before, each meet- ing, calling their attention to the business. Strict attention to the work in hand is a great stimulus to attendance. In the large church it is common to take lunch or supper together at a restaurant. Sometimes meetings can be held at the close of a morning or OFFICIAL BOARD ORGANIZATION 163 vesper service, or on a Sunday afternoon, with a much larger attendance. An invaluable plan is that of arranging for a regular supper at the church on prayer-meeting night, semi-monthly or monthly, for all boards and commit- tees, at cost or free. All meeting on the same night, the date is more easily remembered and each agency is stimulated to make the best possible showing. At the supper, or immediately after, each goes to its own table, or room, and has a full hour for the trans- action of business before the mid-week service. If not completed, further business can be done after the service. This plan builds up the mid-week meeting since the workers nearly all assemble. In many city churches, such business sessions are held every week and supper for fifteen or twenty cents is provided for all who will come. Sometimes twenty per cent of the church members are at the supper and the business meetings, and at the Bible, teacher, and mis- sionary classes which follow. A marvellous increase in the administrative efficiency of every church using the plan is reported, as well as a larger spirit of unity, greater sociability, and large educational bene- fits. The church can well afford to furnish an occa- sional supper free to secure business efficiency. Even more valuable is the plan of a monthly " Church Business and Prayer " mid-week service, usually but not always following such a supper and business sessions, and corresponding somewhat to the monthly concert of prayer for missions or to the Methodist " Church Conference." The whole evening 164 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT is devoted to the reading of brief reports, from the various departments, boards and committees, of work done since the last report and of future plans. To insure brevity, reports should be required to be in writing. The whole church becomes informed and interested in the work of the church as would never be possible otherwise. Every committee can know what all other committees are doing. Specialization is balanced with breadth of outlook. Every agency is put on its mettle to emulate the others in the effi- ciency of its work. Why should not each church have a monthly concert of prayer for its work? One church which averaged only forty at other mid-week meetings reports an average of 200 at six such meet- ings, nearly half being men. People can be interested in the actual work of their church. Other valuable features are the opportunities for questions or pointed expressions of opinion at the close of each report, the democratic participation of so many people, the vastly increased attendance, and the offering of several brief prayers as interludes between reports, — asking women to lead in prayer for the work of the men's department and men to pray for the women's and boys' departments, etc. Every department gains new members and workers under such a plan, especially the classes and working forces of the church school, the committees on pas- toral visitation and oversight, etc. Possible variations are, — using a part of each weekly service for some reports; holding such meet- ings but four or six times a year ; assigning an entire OFFICIAL BOARD ORGANIZATION 165 evening to one committee or department or board; having only a part of the agencies report each month and some only quarterly; having a social at the close with light refreshments instead of the supper at the beginning; having the supper furnished by a caterer; having a stereopticon lecture on missions at the beginning to insure promptness and increased interest, etc. The supper is often furnished by the church free to the workers. It is usually provided by the ladies, divided into sections serving in turn. The meals are of the simplest, the expense being paid from the church treasury or by the nominal charge without seeking to make any profit. In the latter case, if the attendance falls below the estimate and causes loss one month, it is made up the following month. Usually extra supplies of canned materials are in reserve for an overflow. Sometimes an annual ticket is sold at $2 or $3 for twelve suppers. In one church, departmental cabinets meet the first Wednes- day evening of each month for supper, departmental committees the next Wednesday, and the general sup- per comes the third week. Pastors and officers should be as punctual at meetings as a grocery clerk is expected to be at the store. Ideas should be secured and interest aroused by visits, made to, and received from, other boards. Care must be constantly exercised lest routine be- come so dead and dry as to lose power. Routine meetings should always be lifted above the. common- place at the opening and at the close so that large 166 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT and fresh and clear views of the progress of the Kingdom will be possible. An encouraging mis- sionary incident, a stimulating instance of life trans- formation in the Sunday School, references to some who once were unpromising but have become towers of strength for good in some sphere, stories of suc- cess in other churches, and earnest prayer — these will not take the place of careful business-like planning but they will add to the interest and the efficiency. XIII SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK THE head of a factory employing 20,000 men declares, "No greater question confronts us than the man question, which assumes two forms : first, to secure an adequate force of workers ; and second, to insure their highest resultfulness." The pressure of these two questions is nowhere more serious than in the Church. When churches were small, without Sunday Schools or other organizations, with few changes in membership and little competition, the minister who had very simple tasks was able to do most of the work alone, just as could storekeepers and black- smiths. But vastly enlarged modern churches, with great problems to solve in reaching and holding the people, with many new organizations and tasks, de- mand greatly increased forces developed and trained and handled with greatly increased skill, just as do modern department stores and steel corporations. Every minister should be enthusiastic and humble enough to do anything which needs to be done, but no efficient pastor can do half the work that needs attention today, even in the small church. Successful bankers, generals and merchants do not spend time on detail. They employ clerks and errand boys and 167 168 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT lieutenants. Only a rare pastoral genius can attend to his necessary administrative and sermon duties when he spends half or three-fourths of his time on what others could do. Pulpit disaster and church bankruptcy often occur when a preacher tries to do what district, social, finance, missionary and other committees should do. The calamity of " spiritual idlers " is multiplied because much of even the simple church work must remain undone. Inactive church members lose their healthful appetites and respond only to sensational stories and statements, to special music and other spiritual condiments and sugar-coated pills, just as sedentary folks lose their appetites for bread and meat and other nourishing physical food. A diet of strong spiritual meat without exercise brings spiritual dyspepsia and a tendency to criticise and condemn unfairly, just as indigestion makes for low physical vitality and mental unreasonableness. An inactive church member cannot attain to an adequate measure of growth and knowledge, for only *'he that willeth to do his will shall know." As every lesson in chemistry or music includes concrete examples, so definite tasks must be set for church members in connection with each spiritual lesson in order that the principle may be truly mastered and the disciple prepared to receive more difficult principles. Knowledge is not knowledge but theory until it is applied in a practical way. Most church members that retire to the " inactive " list," or walk out by the back door to the suspended SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 169 roll, would have remained enthusiastic Christians and useful Soldiers of Jesus Christ had they been given due exercise according to the laws of spiritual hygiene at useful tasks suited to their spiritual muscle and needs as soon as they joined, and regularly. In many a church it is true that Nobody works but the preacher, Though he works hard all right, We pay him starvation wages, With no rest day nor night. He runs the clubs and finances, Societies, meetings galore, Tends to letters, calls and sermons, No others work any more. The Church of Christ should be the greatest force in the world. Every member is called by his Lord to be a good soldier in the titanic conflict with the forces of evil, in behalf of the Kingdom of Christ and the comm.on good of humanity. If the tremen- dous and tyrannical sin-forces of the earth, individual and social, are to be uncovered and soon defeated ; — if they are to be discredited until even their blinded subjects are made to realize their hatefulness, to rebel and aid in their dethronement and in enthroning peace and good-will, to help in establishing the Chris- tian empire of brotherly love and morality and in hastening that "new earth in which dwelleth right- eousness " ; — shirkers cannot be tolerated. If loyalty in national struggles requires all citizens to do their bit ; — if the greatest military successes are 170 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT possible only when every man, woman and child be- comes a soldier on the fighting line, in the munition works, as food producer or in some other useful capacity, and if every idler is a traitor who produces nothing yet asks that his needs be met out of supplies and by efforts needed elsewhere; — surely Christian loyalty can ask nothing less. The Church and Its Slackers God expects every church to turn its spiritual idlers into assets, but not one in ten has yet realized the seriousness of its responsibility for mobilizing every member for active service, training and assigning all to suitable tasks and conserving their work by wise activities. The Kingdom value of the average church will be increased from two- to ten-fold when pastor and officers give as zealous study and constant atten- tion to these interests as do military and industrial masters. A host of spiritual diseases constantly afflict churches and their idlers, from church quarrels and anaemia to spiritually adipose sermon-tasters and moral sluggards. Instead of becoming spiritual athletes their members succumb to the slightest temp- tations, become hypochondriac seekers after patent spiritual panaceas such as Christian Science, or bury their letters in their trunks as symbols of their spiritual decease, when they move elsewhere. Every minister who inveighs against the indifference of his people bears eloquent testimony to the folly of trying to develop healthy Christian life and loyalty by lee- SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 171 turing members while excusing them from definite service. No parent can work, or take exercise, for his chil- dren, so as to excuse them from the necessity of use- ful and healthful living. So ministers and church officers who try to relieve lazy members of the reli- gious services they should render are making religious " ne'er-do-wells " of those whom they seek to relieve, while neglecting their own true duties. The Possibilities Ninety per cent of the idlers in the average church can be enlisted for useful service. The almost uni- versal complaint is that " our people will not work. It is impossible to arouse any enthusiasm, or secure any sacrificial spirit in behalf of the great work to be done." This proves only that we have been woefully inefficient in our past eflforts. Take a church of 500 members whose pastor as- serted, " They are the hardest bunch I ever had to deal with. I could not arouse ten per cent to do any- thing but go to meetings, and with five or six excep- tions, these worked only for departments and ignored the work of the church in spite of all my criticisms." His successor tells a different story. Though a less talented preacher he turned the church from a tobog- gan slide into a mighty mountain-conquering force, and had over 250 people working joyously and effectively within three years. Instead of knocking the societies, he praised their zeal and tactfully co-ordinated their work so that service in them always aided the church, 172 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT and he studied church management as carefully as sermon preparation. His membership has increased over 80 per cent and his attendance over 100 per cent. Tact, common sense, sincerity and a measure of personal magnetism are essential to the largest re- sults, but remarkable spiritual and material achieve- ments in this direction are possible to any one who will study the principles of scientific management as practised in successful factories and armies and other institutions, and apply them to church conditions. From a wide experience inducing college boys to become book-agents which they did not want, and had emphatically refused to do, and of training them to work with success ; and from a still wider experi- ence with the enlistment and training of church work- ers, the following principles appear to be fundamental. How TO Enlist Church Slackers Overcome indifference by giving a more adequate understanding of the supremacy and glory of Chris- tianity and the Church. If salesmen and soldiers, who are paid, are hard to enlist, and will do their best only when enthusiastic for their cause, how shall a church appeal secure adequate unpaid response while not one member in fifty has a worthy appreciation of the importance o^ the cause and when the concep- tions of the Christian enterprise held by most church officers are so pitifully meager? Even yet, most folks think of religion as having no purpose or meaning save for the world to come. SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 173 God is a petty being who helps women and children but either does not care, or has not the wisdom and power to plan, for the management of nations or of a world. The Church is a matter of vague and trivial sectarian distinctions, lacking heroic ambitions or plans or leaders, supposed to have done nothing for world advancement in the past, and thought to be now on the down grade. Pessimism paralyzes enthu- siasm, and lamentations prevent enlistments. We have few sermons on great themes, exulting in the superhuman evangelistic and missionary and social victories of our religion in past centuries, or of the past one hundred years in America and in all lands and human interests. Before trying to enlist workers, enlarge their vision , and arouse their enthusiasm by an inspiring sermon \ series. Enthusiastically present the infinite purpose ': of Christ for the Church and for the redemption of all men and of all of man, and review the miraculous victories and superb heroes of the Cross. The fol- lowing courses have been found exceedingly helpful. I. The achievements of the Church of the past and her ideals for tomorrow in such specific fields as (a) Education and Science, (b) Moral Righteousness, (c) Freedom and Democracy, (d) Political and Social Reforms (slaver}'', intemperance, etc.), (e) Mercy and Philanthropy, (f) World Peace and Brotherhood, (g) Economic Justice and Efficiency, etc.* ♦See Brace's "Gesta Christi," Dorchester's "Christian Progress," Gulick's "The Growth of the Kingdom," etc. 174 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT 2. Missionary and other successes of the past by ages, viz.: (a) Apostolic, (b) Pre-Constantine, (c) Mediaeval, (d) Reformation, (e) Eighteenth-Century England, (f) Nineteenth-Century America, (g) Mod- ern Mission Fields, etc. 3. Christian victories and achievements, — ^mission- ary, evangelistic, social, etc., — in America, by epochs or by subjects. 4. The victories of the past generation, and the ideals for tomorrow, of the Church of Christ through- out the world. 5. The past progress and present possibilities of the local church. Challenge to action by outlining the tasks, as recruit- ing agents describe the opportunities of the marines, artillery, etc. Preach on the ideals and program and methods of the local church as to (a) Evangelism, (b) Education, (c) Social Service, (d) Increase of Membership and Attendance, etc. Many members feel that most church work is not important. Show how each task is worth doing, that it vitally affects the lives of individuals and the wel- fare of the church and the community. Show that every individual is the ancestor of many generations, spiritually and physically, and influences many others ; that all departmental or committee tasks affect many interests, etc. Prepare an ''Opportunity Book" (send ten cents for that of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago), or folder listing and explaining all the forms of service offered in or by the church and its >o« SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 175 various departments, with a blank to return indicating those in which the signer is interested. Show the wide range for specialization. Does your church lack opportunities for useful service? Start a needed mission or settlement. Ar- range with a downtown church which lacks workers and teachers to send a band from your fortunate suburb. One St. Louis church sends about a hundred workers each week, including some of its best, to downtown churches which lack workers, and to social settlements. ^.,9^^^^ Opportunities can be classified by ages and sexes as : For men : — teach a boys' class, introduce strangers after service, visit for Bible Class Members, do per- sonal evangelistic work, lead or aid Boy Scouts or similar organizations, join the ushers' association, teach English to foreigners, visit the sick, lead a boys' ball team, sing in the choir, help in orchestra or glee club, serve as Big Brother for an orphan or a Juvenile Court boy, aid in visitation or finance cam- paign, speak in other churches on certain themes, start a family altar, join a prayer league, teach in a social settlement, superintend or teach in a mission school, encourage boys by a visit to their class or club, etc. Opportunites can be classified by departments, list- ing the committes and activities of each. Opportunities can be classified by functions; edu- cational, publicity, etc. For example : Social Service ; assist the unemployed, aid temperance or law enforce- ment campaign, do friendly visiting for Associated 176 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Charities, give free piano or violin or drawing les- sons to poor children, help poor mothers with sewing or ironing or care of babies, do volunteer nursing, serve on sanitary police, organize or help at social settlement or in Sunday School with dramatic or musical or corn or embroidering or potato or hiking or other clubs, open one's home for socials and games for boys or young men or Sunday-school classes, take shut-ins for auto rides, entertain children from city slums, employ discharged prisoners, etc. Opportunities can be classified in other ways as: Serving the pastor by writing letters and folding circulars, visiting or addressing envelopes, keeping up the card index or doing other office work ; helping the church treasurer keep books and send out quarterly statements; serving on a church or departmental telephone squad to help increase attendance at special services ; helping with monthly mid-week church sup- pers, making community social or religious census, leaving a calendar or door-knob hanger or blotter at every home in a certain district each Saturday or each month, etc. Have an occasional workers' enlistment campaign, when, after a series of sermons on the greatness of the Church and its goals with an explanation of the work to be done, — with an *' opportunity book " if possible, — cards are mailed out or handed out at a service and immediate opportunity given to check up and sign them. Sometimes signatures are secured by an every-member canvass. They should be followed up as thoroughly as a finance canvass, till every one is SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 177 interested and enlisted. The Meigs Co. of Indian- apolis publishes a " White Gift Service " which has been a great aid to many churches. An enlistment day will be most successful after the " Loyalty " campaign described on the next pages. Draft those capable folks who do not promptly sign enlistment cards. Educated people, even when deeply affected, seldom respond in a public revival but yield readily to personal approach, so the most valu- able worker often ignores a general appeal to volun- teer, but can be reached successfully by a wise note or personal interview to say *'thou art the man," and to set before him a special work which he sees to be worth doing and can do with reasons why he should undertake it. Put on him the burden of proof as to why he should not. Ask him to pray about it. Designate an '' Employment " or " Efficiency Com- mittee " responsible for taking stock of the workers' talents, the work to be done and other factors of im- portance, and to assign each worker to specific tasks. In a workers' enlistment campaign, such committee may suggest in advance to each person the tasks for which it is specially desired that they shall enlist, with complimentary reasons. It will reassign workers if they grow weary of the first assignments, or are fitted or needed for other special fields. Enlist even unpromising workers for simple tasks. Many have become millionaires because they attained efficiency in reducing silver or other ores of such low grade that others scorned them, and many a church leader has attained great success by skill in utilizing 178 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT members with low-grade abilities. Many workers doing each a little can accomplish as much under competent leadership as a few workers of large talents, just as the great bulk of the Mississippi fall- ing a few feet at Keokuk is as valuable a power source as a smaller volume of water falling hundreds of feet on a Belton wheel. The wise use of even an hour or two a week or month will develop unexpectedly many a valuable worker. " Where your treasure is there will your heart be also," and millionaires or workingmen who have invested time and enthusiasm which they consider valuable, whether they accom- plish much or not, will retain a growing interest in the church and can be led to invest more and more money and other values in order to avoid the loss of their initial investments. Democracy demands that all shall have place ac- cording to their powers, in the work of a church as in its treasury. For a social visitation in a city church, two country lads volunteered whose visits might have done harm in most places, but the committee assigned them for visits to shut-in saints who, being told in advance, found great joy in being helpful to the boys while the young men's loyalty was enlarged by feeling that they had a place to serve with honour. Give every child suitable work to do. Catch and train them young. If shown how, they can bring their friends to their classes and interest their parents in the Sunday School and the church, can distribute advertising matter at the homes on Saturday night or pull weeds from the church lawn, can be sanitary SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 179 scouts, can watch babies for poor mothers, can play in the orchestra or sing in the Christmas Eve Carol Club, can make a few pennies for missions by raising potatoes or can bring flowers for the school and the sick, can distribute hymn books, etc., before the school opens or serve occasionally as ushers in church or school, can fold circulars or run errands for the min- ister during the week or serve as pages during a service, can be officers or committeemen of classes or societies or in a '* Children's Church," etc. Training for service is as important for the child as training in principles. His interest in religion and the church is deepened and he is unconsciously fitted for church leadership tomorrow. Churchmen should meditate upon the words of a great employer, " It is cheaper to experiment with shop boys than with managers. If you employ the right kind and train them they will grow, while working, into the best possible executives and star salesmen." Assign the First Work Carefully The first task offered to new workers is of critical importance, in securing responses and developing them into permanent workers, or in prejudicing them against the church. Where possible, it should have these features: (a) Simple, so that not even a child need hesitate to serve. (b) Important enough to arouse their enthusiasm. (c) Involving many workers so that they will not seem peculiar, will be appealed to by the " team " or 180 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT *'gang" idea, and will respond to a healthful spirit of emulation. (d) Offering opportunity for pleasant sociability. (e) Prepared for so as to offer no chance of failure. (f) Yielding immediate visible results, which in- sure permanent enthusiasm. (g) Of comparatively brief duration yet with simple follow-up tasks so as to establish further con- fidence and fix the habit of working. Such a task is not so impossible to find as at first it seems. The conditions are met largely by a finance canvass or by a community census or social survey, and to a certain extent by a temperance campaign. But by far the best way to interest and enlist nezu workers, so as to insure their further and increasing activity, is by an Autumn or New Year's " Loyalty " or " Church and Sunday School Attendance " cam- paign. One plan for such a campaign, outlined in detail in " A Modern Church Program," * has been tried by thousands of pastors with large satisfaction. In brief, it means setting apart a period of one month which is not so long as to frighten workers away. The objects are such as appeal to every one. Each worker is furnished with a companion, a list of places to be visited and printed matter to leave, so the work is simple. It involves sending out at least ten per cent of the members and visiting every family adhering to the *By A. F. McGarrah, Revell & Co., 60 cents. SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 181 church on a single Sunday p.m., so it is large enough to arouse enthusiasm and the team spirit. Letters are sent out in advance announcing the social visit so they are cordially welcomed and delightful ac- quaintances are formed. The great increase of at- tendaice at the next services proves the success of their work and gives confidence. An echo meeting held at once gives opportunity to express their satis- faction, and their feeling that church work is pleasant and profitable, and to publicly commit them to a follow-up campaign for visiting and welcoming the new people throughout the month. Tens of thousands of new workers have been trained by such an initial plan which prepares the way for evangelistic and financial campaigns as a kind of graduate work. Other Important Principles Give workers a voice in the plans. Soldiers of a democracy fight more loyally than those of an oli- garchy. Have a complaint or suggestion department, possibly the Efficiency Committee, to receive ideas and criticisms at any time. If workers quit, find out why and remove the objection. In a church of over 200 members, organization under district or group committees is almost essential to efficient distribution of the work and adequate reports. A paid " church secretary " or " director of activities " should be employed to see that all informa- tion is conserved and that all work started is followed up, finished, or reassigned with wisdom. Keeping people at work is as important as starting them. 182 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Every committee must have a competent secretary or chairman as intelligent leadership promotes loyalty. If workers are allowed to be idle they are apt to transfer their interests elsewhere. They should be assigned permanent duties with the District Visitation or some other church or department committee. Assign new workers with committeemen or team- mates of their choosing to insure their largest en- thusiasm. Give workers all the general preparation possible ; a clear idea of the church organization and policies, an elementary insight into human nature, etc. Usually this is done at a supper. Give specific training for each task if possible. Scientific management means written instructions as to each piece of work, so mistakes are impossible. Have blanks for written reports. A weekly workers' conference, probably at a supper or after a prayer meeting, is highly desirable. Suggestive reports as to the time and methods of their work will be given and will stimulate emulation. Seek to enlist workers for definite periods or serv- ices as — two hours each month (the successful Methodist "Time Legion" plan), one night each week, three hours on one Sunday each month, to bring some one to service each week, etc. Send a letter to all members asking, " What more should this church be doing ? " to arouse their interest and get ideas. Do not stultify yourself by monotonous, vague SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 183 exhortations to " go to work " with no hint of what, when, how, why or where. Be definite. Never knock the idlers. They are not to blame, but the in- efficient leadership of past years. Scolding causes revulsion. Let the minister and officers set examples of service and of tact. Do not hold to stereotyped terms. Use new ideas. Avoid ruts. Make church work as interesting as a ball game, a salesman's contest, or a lodge enterprise. He who permits church work to be dull should be anathema. Church advertising is a splendid stimulus to the workers, as is a church paper. Since big men like to be at big tasks, arrange city- wide campaigns when possible. In addition to one major responsibility, give each worker one or more minor assignments which will broaden his outlook and make a change of work easier if necessary. Every Christian should be doing something along each of these four lines if pos- sible: — for the Sunday School or the youth of the church, for the community, for some individual, and for some special committee of the church or of a department. Assign workers tactfully. Don't set a mechanic to an artist's task, or vice versa. Failure may occur to discourage the worker and interfere with the esprit de corps. Show idlers that they are their own worst enemies, that tasks are for their good, that service brings them into closer fellowship with God and is a means to a fuller understanding of the truth, and that the slacker 184 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT robs himself of his own good conscience, of all feel- ing of pride or partnership in Christian victories, and of an essential means of growth in grace. Don't fail to promote workers from sentry or file- closing jobs to larger and larger responsibilities as they are fitted for them, to keep them growing. Don't tolerate the man who wants to " hog the offices." Show him that he is robbing others of what they need, although it is wise to allow a specialist to hold his work permanently. Give proper support to the workers. Nothing is more discouraging to a baseball pitcher than poor sup- port on the bases or in the field. No minister can win a church game without good team-work behind him. It is equally demoralizing to an earnest worker when the strangers whom he has induced to attend are dis- gusted by poor sermons or cold-blooded pew-holders or lack of a pastoral call. Efficient work by the finance, publicity, visitation, hospitality or any other committee should be supplemented by efficient work by every other committee and by the pastor, or inter- est will diminish. Give generous recognition for faithful service. Justice and wisdom impel to print the names of the workers in the church calendar occasionally, to read them in the prayer meeting or from the pulpit with some statement of their achievements, to send occa- sional personal messages, and, once each year or at the close of a special finance or evangelistic campaign, to give a reception or supper or auto ride to the workers of each special group. " The zeal and loyalty SETTING EVERY ONE AT WORK 185 of many a jewel of a worker have frozen when the pastor or committee chairman publicly took all the credit and gave no sign of appreciation." Talk about what " we have done," instead of what ** I have done." Paid workers do better when given a measure of appreciation, and faithful volunteer helpers are al- most impossible without it. Don't tolerate unfavourable working conditions. The factory with plenty of light and air and other favouring surroundings gets the best workers and their finest work. The church with an optimistic brotherly atmosphere and good equipment finds it vastly easier to enlist workers and insure their effi- ciency. Jealousy, nagging, unkind criticism and one- man tyranny reduce the vigour and energy of workers. From the pulpit and otherwise, show that such offenses are anti-Christian and undermine the usefulness of the Church. Let each one seek the good of all instead of personal honour or office, let criticisms be made to the efficiency committee and not in public, let all remember that all are humanly liable to imperfections and mistakes. Remember that men are never too busy to do what they want to do, and that most men can be made to want to do almost anything. Do not be put off by: " Not interested " or " I am too busy/' Send fifty cents to Rev. E. E. Emhoff, Owotonna, Minn., for *'A Pastor's Cabinet," a booklet telling of unusual success with striking methods. Remember that the Church is not only a field but a community force to work in the home, the street and 186 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT the city. " The Church is the headquarters to train people for every kind of service." Do not say too much about workers, or start them too exuberantly until you have made a survey of what is to be done so you can promptly give each one a permanent worthy task. XIV SECURING EFFICIENT CHURCH OFFICERS IDEALS, workers, organization and equipment are absolutely essential to an efficient church but they are worth little without leaders. Be- fore America mobilized her drafted armies, she organized Officers' Training Camps to prepare tens of thousands of picked men for leadership as cap- tains and lieutenants and other tens of thousands of the drafted men were trained for sergeants or corporals. Andrew Carnegie attributes his success largely to his almost uncanny ability to find and develop leaders. He constantly watched the recruits in his mills for promising material for overseers, lieutenants and vice- presidents, whose ambitions and ideals he stimulated by recognition and promotion and counsel until he made a score of sons of farmers and mechanics into millionaire partners. A similar appreciation of the need of leaders is essential to spiritual victories, and church statesmen must everywhere raise the cry louder and louder. Says one great preacher, " If I had five good lay leaders, I would turn the community upside down." Another attributes his success in doubling the mem- bership and trebling the attendance of a church which 187 188 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT was receding under his far more brilliant predeces- sor to " the self-sacrificing industry and tactful per- sonal leadership of a half-dozen unusual laymen," whom he developed. One George Washington or U. S. Grant or R. E. Lee doubles or quadruples the value of a whole army. The pastor who develops half a dozen really good leaders has doubled the usefulness of his church, for they can soon double its numbers and spiritual efficiency. No pastor has the right to sit down like Elijah under a juniper tree to bewail the modern necessity of a tenfold increase in the number of efficient de- partmental and committee leaders. Ours not idly to deplore but promptly to meet the providential call of God. Whatever else a minister may do or leave undone, here is a primal duty if the church is to be put on a permanently efficient basis. No church is without material. Peter was unpromising and Thomas was very dull, but great is the glory of the pastor who emulates his Master by efficiently de- veloping such Peters and Thomases. In a Pennsylvania church, no one was supposed to be fit for office. Out of Boo members not a new officer had been chosen for ten years. But a well- managed every-member canvass led to the prompt election of four new trustees and six new elders, young men who had merely needed responsibility, — that great developer of leadership, — to challenge their interest, arouse their enthusiasm and reveal their powers. SECURING EFFICIENT OFFICERS 189 In an Ohio church, an eighty-year-old elder opposed the " loyalty campaign " plan suggested in the previ- ous chapter because there were none fitted for the work or its leadership. In spite of his assertion that " not ten of our 650 members will help," after a three-day Church Efficiency Institute, 74 men and 66 women made 630 calls in one Sunday afternoon with such impetus to the work and such revelation of leaders that personal evangelism and finance cam- paigns followed, adding in seven months 106 to the membership and $3,000 to the church budgets, while raising the standards for all church work. How TO Secure Leaders and Officers In the preceding chapter, and in that on men's work, we have suggested important steps. The de- velopment of workers by simple tasks will ever help to prepare leaders for more difficult responsibilities. The church machinery must be simplified and stand- ardized and co-ordinated so as to be intelligible, and so that each responsibility will be clear-cut. Over- lapping and indefiniteness must be remedied as in business. Faithfulness and industry are more desirable than brilliancy. Men who talk at every opportunity are often less reliable than silent neighbours. Says the Reformed Church Efficiency Commission, " Three essentials for leadership are, a clear vision of the world purpose of God in Christianity, a study of leadership, and its vital practice. . . . The congrega- tional efficiency institute will raise up leaders. . ♦ . 190 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Make an attempt to get the whole congregation to study the whole task both within and without its own bounds." Says Dr. Cope, " So few are engaged in religious work because they were never taught to do it, and be- cause no chance is now offered to them." He adds : " As the curriculum of the day school is being modi- fied by the life needs and interests of the pupil, the church-school curriculum must be determined by simi- lar conditions. It is well for the children to learn of the zealous activity of Ezra and Nehemiah but the ideas become harmful unless we can show where and how to emulate them today. There are signs that religious workers are recovering from the dangerous delusion that ignorance and inefficiency were indica- tions or conditions of consecration." Church officers do not happen. Whatever they know has been acquired. They must study church management specifically. We must keep our require- ments high as to spirituality and personal talents but we must supplement them by training as specific as for banking, manufacturing or any other business. Church leaders should be given office as early in life as possible. Said a widely known and unusually faithful churchman, " My chief regret is that I have been such a poor church officer. My heart is right but I was never in office until I was fifty, too old to gain an intimate knowledge of the work either of my denomination or of the local church. I have learned the peculiar tricks of church management as best an old dog could, but I want my son put in my place at SECURING EFFICIENT OFFICERS 191 the next annual meeting when he will be twenty- five years old. His youthful enthusiasm and powers will be utilized, he can give more evenings to the work and can so much better master the science and art of church leadership." In some churches, officers retire to the " emeritus list " when they reach seventy. Most of them should be able to attend all board meetings and to make pastoral evening calls. Every pastor should carefully scrutinize his list of members, observe their interests and qualities, and pick out for special training those of special promise. He will find some suitable for specialists on church publicity, finance, missions, educational or social work. Others will be better for general counsel and leadership. He should draft those who are fit, or can become so, — winning their friendship, their interest and their consent to take temporary responsibility, — assigning them to committee leadership which does not require a vote of the congregation. Personal work to enlist and inspire leaders is as important as personal work for new members. Having discovered the young people of promise, send them to county or district inspirational conven- tions, church methods institutes, etc., paying most or all their expenses if necessary. Some churches send the Sunday-school head and other officers to such conventions, allowing all expenses plus $3.00 or $5.00 per day, since time thus spent is for the church as a whole, and find it a fine investment. Arrange for local institutes on church finance, on 192 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT publicity, on social work, on methods of building up the attendance and membership, etc., as well as on women's and young people's educational work. Usually neighbouring churches will co-operate in financing a joint institute. If not, the results will justify independent action. Competent visitors will arouse three times as much interest as local speakers because distance lends enchantment, and they should be really specialists. Have a campaign for students for teacher-training and church management classes, to meet at the church-school hour or before it, or after the mid- week service ; and hold a special convocation or dedi- cation service at the opening of the courses, at the morning hour, to impress the importance of their work on both them and the church. (See Athearn, "The Church School," p. 305.) Devote several ser- mons or services to awakening the people to the matter. Sometimes a small committee will secure large results. Books suitable for such classes are listed in the appendix. // the present oMcers are not intelligent, take thought to improve them tactfully. At several church services, present a broad view of the task of the church and its elements. Turn the last half of each official board meeting to discussions of the work and to study of the reports of the boards and benevolent enterprises of the church. Hold an officers' retreat for two or three days at the opening of the autumn, for prayer and conference on the work of the church. Secure an ample church methods library and see that SECURING EFFICIENT OFFICERS 193 the books are systematically read, and make the church committee meetings institutes on methods. If an officer is hopeless, pile so much work on him that he will realize his unfitness, or better still, talk plainly to him of the desirability of certain other persons being chosen if he would retire. If he be immoral, ask him promptly to resign for the sake of the church. Ask him if he resembles Stephen or Philip. Make the young people's committees training schools in the principles and practices of church work, have suitable addresses given to their depart- ments, organize a children's church with active offi- cers corresponding to those of the church, and insure the abundance of leaders needed for tomorrow. The colleges must be summoned to help. As Dr. Athearn says, " The church college must prepare young people to return to lead in the religious work of their churches and communities or it is not entitled to denominational support." Another essential element is the professional church executive, male or female, who can help the minister to train and enlist present and future leaders. In- stead of reducing the need of other workers, the church assistant's chief task is to find ways and means of setting more folks at work intelligently and of keeping them at it. One pastor tells how the num- ber of standard workers in his church was raised from less than 40 to over 200 by the employment of two assistants. When the great field for service is understood, the attendance at the denominational 194 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT training schools for lay workers will be increased ten- fold. When a man is modest about assuming leadership, it is often a good sign. Perhaps he simply needs the pressure of official duty to enrich his life and develop his powers. Have an understudy for every office in the church, from president of the Boy Scouts to treasurer. Give large freedom to leaders, since red tape and undue limitations will discourage those most competent for leadership. Seek to develop the spiritual lives of all officers and understudies, since prayer, intelligence, courage, enthusiasm, personality and the spirit of sacrifice are essential for the best leadership. Chal- lenge all officers and leaders to be examples to the church, to study the ideals and methods of Christ, and to take stock of their own worthiness and faithfulness. XV SUCCESSFUL CHURCH DIPLOMACY FEW men have come as close to the problems of so many churches as has the writer, and few discoveries have surprised him so much as the proportions of ministerial failures and inefficient churches which are due to lack of diplomacy. It is not enough for a church leader to know what a church should do. He must know how to get it done. Jesus was a master diplomat. With consummate tact, He answered the question of His opponents con- cerning tribute money and the resurrection, met the temptations of Satan, praised Nathanael, compli- mented Nicodemus even when He rebuked his igno- rance, showed the faith of the Syro-Phcenician woman, or won the heart of Zaccheus. Good business sense should not conflict with obedience to the in- junction, " Be ye kind one to another." Church ef- ficiency demands brotherly kindness, and patience, and long-suffering rather than bluntness or harshness or autocracy. The foolishness of the Lord's sheep is often most exasperating, but it is surpassed by the folly of bungling and unfit shepherds. To treat sheep like wolves is to scatter and destroy them. The church leader should be an ideal for his flock instead of an 195 196 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT imitator of the most unworthy of them, Most of the sheep are only spiritual lambs and can and must be preserved from the results of their own folly by kind- ness rather than by bitterness. The ideal church leader does not force obedience, but wins his people so that, as groups and individuals, they will follow him as he goes before. As a ruler of a democracy, he always seeks to command their respect and con- fidence as a means to discipline. The more he is like Christ, the more he can influence them as Christ could. However much the Master denounced out- side opposition, we have no record that He employed toward His disciples either sarcasm or dictation. The Church especially needs diplomatic leadership, for it represents Christ. The divisions and quarrels which arise in local congregations as well as denomi- nations from poor diplomacy discredit Him, hinder His Kingdom, vitiate the ministry of His Church to the children and to the unsaved, and neutralize the good done. Thousands of churches have been wrecked, hundreds of thousands of members lost and millions of prospects prejudiced, for lack of it. The diplomacy which we advocate does not consist in secret machinations and falsehood. Rather it is " to do and say the wisest thing in the wisest way," remembering the words of the Lord Jesus how He said, " Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves." Whether to secure a raise in salary, a new building, the consolidation of the women's societies or a new official policy, the principles of diplomacy are much the same. SUCCESSFUL CHURCH DIPLOMACY 197 Before coming on the field, or if possible before accepting the call, have a kindly understanding of the relations which will exist between pastor and people. Plans which will conduce to the best results should be defined, the salary and its monthly payment legally acted upon, pastoral oversight of all departments pro- vided for and the right to suggest new methods recog- nized. As soon as you take charge, begin to enlarge their ideals, to show them in a friendly way that they have not risen to all their opportunities and that by and by you will have some suggestions to make. Create dissatisfaction with anything short of the highest possible achievements, and a realization that progress must be constant. Show them that you are putting your life into the work and so deserve atten- tive consideration and that you can teach ideals better if you can determine policies to buttress them. Take the people into your confidence. Nothing dis- sipates interest like secret diplomacy. Recognition of popular rights establishes confidence. Assume popular and official sympathy. Say that you expect opposition and you will find it in abun- dance. When you trust people and expect their co- operation, they dislike to disappoint you. Scold or nag or whine and they may hate you. Never lose your temper. This is as poor strategy as it is bad religion. Deacon Jones may plead love for the old building when you know his affection is for his pocketbook, but other folks know it also, or can be made to realize it by tact. An open attack on him may drive him and his friends from the church, 198 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT will weaken your influence on your best friends, and may possibly start a fight by which the usefulness of the church will be injured for a generation after the original cause has been forgotten. Patience is golden. " A smile will often carry you many a mile." Avoid all thought as well as all appearance of self- seeking. Modesty is useful as well as ornamental. When he pleads with individuals, boards, committees or the congregation, the minister should argue not his personal rights but the welfare of the church and the community, the principles of Christ, and the bene- fit of the Kingdom. Vindication is never by votes but by popular opinion of one's grace and gumption. Never present an important proposition to a large group for action until you have discussed it with two or three wise members, asking their criticisms and suggestions. Do not be sensitive. Conferring with them, your ideas and plans will be clarified, possible objections will be discovered and can be anticipated, and you will be practising your arguments for the larger group. If you cannot convert a few, it is impossible to convert a larger body. Never do or say what others can do as well. When lay men or women speak or act, the interest of the church is deepened, democracy is conserved, they are more closely identified with the Kingdom and com- mitted to the plan with all their friends. Never present an important matter, especially if there is probability of opposition, until you have converts to support it. One of the wisest and most successful American pastors says : " I never present SUCCESSFUL CHURCH DIPLOMACY 199 a new proposition to any board or department myself. I interest one or two bell-sheep members, develop their enthusiasm, and prepare them to propose the matter with the chief arguments for it. After their presentation, I second it in detail as necessary, at once, or after it has drawn fire. When I have thor- oughly prepared two or three key members, my plans rarely fail of adoption, but are seldom known as my plans. They can therefore be modified or abandoned without any reflection on my judgment. No minister can continually open and lead arguments without arousing more or less antagonism. My plan insures that those who present the matter will carry it on to permanent success without my constant attention and even after I leave the field." Enlist also the interest of the women and young people in your plans. Their influence is great, or can be, and their zeal also. " Many times, the most valuable elders and deacons are their wives." Con- sult them. Win their sympathy and you insure that of their husbands. Unfortunate is the young minister who lacks the confidence and co-operation of two or three sensible key women who will protect him from his rashness, will enlist the support of other women for his plans, and will support his proposals at cabinet and official board meetings. Women need larger place in the counsels of the minister, as well as on the official board. One or two women should be members of every important committee and conference. Consult with key members of the Sunday School, young people's, women's and other departments as to 200 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT what they should do. Says one pastor, " I had plans of great importance which demanded a complete re- construction of the women's work. Two predecessors had injured their usefulness by proposing the same things at general women's meetings. I took a year to convert three key women, devoting a dozen afternoons and evenings to conferences with them, separately and together, and making a score of telephone calls. When they were fully converted, they presented my plans to a women's meeting and the desired changes were made without a public word from me. In simi- lar ways I got the graded lessons, an assistant, duplex envelopes, a parish house, etc." Make large use of counsellors from other churches. Well-known laymen or ministers from more impor- tant churches, if they have experience and tact, cani say to your people or your boards what you would never dare say. Churches with bishops have a great advantage here. Why should not ministers exchange for these purposes? Christ and Paul believed in ministers working in teams of two. Where you can- not secure needed action unaided, and where denomi- national specialists on publicity, educational, financial, social or other interests are unavailable, employ ex- pert assistance. A "Church Efficiency" or "Modern Church Methods " Institute with competent leaders will be invaluable in creating larger ideals, arousing enthusi- asm, undermining opposition and helping to adapt modern methods to the local field. Follow public opinion rather than precede it. The SUCCESSFUL CHURCH DIPLOMACY 201 minister must mould public opinion but he should not act or ask action until he is sure of a sympathetic hearing or of co-operation. Even the beloved pastor who " can have anything he wants " should not ordi- narily ask blind support. Unless they are first made intelligent, officers or people will simply vote a formal and perfunctory approval. Overwhelmed by many duties, the minister must either bury the new plan for lack of workers or neglect other duties to push it, only to see it thrown on the scrap heap later, or all his efforts wasted under his successor because he lacks time or fitness for the plan and popular interest in it was never gained. Never stake your success or reputation on a propo- sition. To declare, " I'll resign if you don't," will usually be regarded by business men as a sign of childish petulance. Even if you win your point, your influence is weakened and the day of your resignation is probably hastened. Patience and diplomacy win more victories in the Christian Church than bluff. Formulate your propositions definitely. Nothing dissipates the interest of business men like indefinite- ness or unpreparedness. Officers who love their pas- tors often negative their proposals because they are so vague, the details so uncertain and the terms unin- telligible to them. These dangers can be avoided and time saved at board meetings by advance con- ferences with the leaders. If cold water is thrown on important matters be- cause of misunderstanding, do not be discouraged. Smile, and ask the appointment of a small committee, 202 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT including the objectors, to study the matter more fully. Win confidence before you make changes. Many a new pastor hastens his downfall by making serious moves before he has time thoroughly to study the field, the leaders, the needs and the problems. Even where a pastor has a free hand, he should first get well acquainted with his people, establishing him- self and winning their hearts by faithful pastoral and pulpit work. Before making a great campaign or attack with unfamiliar forces on unfamiliar grounds, a wise gen- eral sends out skirmishing parties to find the enemy, to measure his strength, to survey his field, to win preliminary victories which will develop enthusiasm and confidence, to test the temper of officers and privates and prepare them for larger effectiveness, and to gain time for preparation. Church leaders should be as wise. To secure the adoption of a plan, there are four chief arguments: that the proposition is scriptural, that it is business-like, that it is necessary, and that it has succeeded elsewhere or that good results can be expected because of favourable conditions. Appeal intelligently, also, to the denominational past. For example, Presbyterians and Baptists who oppose social Christianity should be reminded that Calvin made politics a part of religion and that the Baptists of Reformation times were almost a social brother- hood. "Nothing succeeds like success." The minister SUCCESSFUL CHURCH DIPLOMACY 203 should seek, like Napoleon, to establish a presumption of success. Therefore, he will first start plans of whose success there is no doubt, as suggested in chapter XIII, leading on to more difficult ones. Make large plans. Stimulate the imagination. Frequently a church has failed to add anything to its income by asking a lo-per-cent raise, but has added 60 per cent by asking for it. Large ideas stimu- late large enthusiasm and responses when wisely presented. Remember that men are so constituted that a little taffy is worth a bushel of stink-bombs, and that oil is more valuable than shrapnel. Often an honorary position or a reception to an aged saint will disarm opposition and win consent. Always be a Christian and a gentleman, even if others are not. They v/ill usually reflect your atti- tude. But do not take the peculiarly exasperating attitude of posing as a martyr. Opposition can often be disarmed by compromise. Insistence that all wisdom has been put into your proposition proves your own fallibility. Always be ready to discuss compromise. Win your point by wis- dom, by heart-to-heart private conversations with and appeals to its opponents instead of by impugning their honour. Frequently an opponent becomes convinced that he is wrong, but will not admit it unless you " save his face " by making nominal concessions. Legislators often insert in bills features which can be sacrificed to satisfy critics who object as a matter of habit. 204 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Where difficult conditions exist and cannot be changed without trouble, two courses are possible : — either work about the incompetent individual or agency as a farmer does about an enormous rock, or prepare the people's minds for worthy changes and blast the obstacle out of the way with the least pos- sible damage to the church so that your successor may have a clear field. Sometimes complete reconstruc- tion can be secured only through successive pastors each helping a little. Get many folks to pray for the desired objective. Prayer is not only a mighty means of usefulness but a mighty reinforcement to diplomacy as well. XVI SECURING NEW POLICIES, PLANS AND EQUIPMENT IN this period of marvellous change and recon- struction, every church must be constantly en- larging its ideals, improving its policies and organization, adopting new plans and bettering its plant and equipment. This is necessary and invalu- able, yet dangerous, work Many churches have been sadly wrecked by mistakes. Many a minister has broken his heart as well as his reputation here, and nothing else so sorely tests his diplomacy. He must lead the church into larger and better ways suited to the times, yet he must if possible maintain the unity and peace of the church which are more important than sudden changes. He must main- tain his influence and prestige as leader so as to insure that changes shall not be barren of the desired results. The preceding chapter largely deals with this theme but its special urgency calls for further suggestions. I. Answers to Objectors When introducing new methods or ideals or policies, some of the chief objections with arguments to meet them are: " It is new, we never did it before." Show that 205 206 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT the Bible reveals constant progress, that Jesus was always breaking precedents, that new conditions de- mand new policies and equipment and plans and organization just as a growing boy demands new clothes, or new times call for new farm machinery. Many people illogically confuse new methods with new theology. This is as foolish as to confuse a man with his clothes. The last book in the Bible tells us that Jesus came to " make all things new." God is ever remaking each human body and all of nature. A refusal to adopt the new simply because it is new is as unscriptural as it is unreasonable. " This is not the minister's business." When there is prejudice against pastoral suggestions as to finances, music, Sunday School, women's work or any other interest, show that it is his business to consider the welfare of the whole church and to co-ordinate all the church interests ; that he is blamed locally and through the denominations if the church fails at any point; that as a President or Governor is over all the interests of a state or nation, so he is pastor or overseer of the whole church and that it is unreason- able to make him pastor of only a fraction of it ; that all things affect the value of his work as preacher and pastor; and that he has made a special study of church management, has more opportunities to study the successful workings of other churches, and is the only one who continually studies the local field and meets all the people and knows their ideas and wishes. "We have tried this and it did not work." The minister should study all past experiments carefully. SECURING NEW POLICIES 207 Probably failure occurred because of the unpopularity of the pastor, or lack of preparation, or the incom- petence or inaction of the committee, or the making of the trial at the wrong season or before times were ripe, or the distraction of the church by other affairs. Perhaps it was never really tried with any enthusiasm, or possibly it was a success but was not kept up. Remind objectors that they must not judge the future by the past. Airships and motor-cars failed many times, but their success has warranted the repeated experiments. Show the probable reasons for former failures and that they no longer exist. Show that they learned how not to do it. If necessary, modify the plan. A slight change in the proposition, even in its name or leader, may remove all prejudice. Some- times it is better to wait years if bitterness has been aroused. '' We love the old." Frequently there is a genuine love for a traditional plan or an old building. Never sneer at anything as antiquated or " old fogey." Praise for and sympathy with genuine sentiment are a pastoral duty as well as diplomatic wisdom. Per- suade by showing that the Church is not an agency for maintaining traditions, that it is God's Army in- stead of a storeroom for beloved memories, that it exists to make conquests and render service rather than to minister to sentiment, that a true lover of Jesus as King will subordinate personal desires, traditions, prejudices, and all things else, as others do, to the winning of the world and to the establishment of the Kingdom. 208 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT " The old plan does very well," or " We are getting along." Usually answer can be made that we are standing still instead of getting where we ought to, that our ideals are too low, that we are not doing some things at all. The *' fairly good " is every enemy to the best, betraying us into neglect of Christian duty. That outgrown departmental policy or financial plan was a great advance over its predecessor and praise should be given to those who developed it, as a step to showing that there has been deterioration if they have ceased to be as open to new ideas as they were then. " We are not an ambitious church." You ought to be ambitious to accomplish all that God expects of you. He calls the officers to render an account by service proportionate to the members and money and denominational prestige and location and other opportunities of which He has made this church a steward. H we are not ambitious to do all we can, we must not expect an approving " Well done." " We are doing as much as many other churches." But have we not vastly greater advantages and oppor- tunities than they? God does not judge us, however, by comparison with others but by what we could have done. " We have a great record." But past achievements are our condemnation if we are now at ease in Zion. Our reproach is the greater because we know what we can do, and we know God's power to help. It is not ours to boast of our ancestors or of our own past SECURING NEW POLICIES 209 but to be worthy of them by surpassing them, other- wise we are on the path to decay. " We considered this once and voted it down." No business man should ever make such an argument. A wise man is ever ready to change his mind but a fool never. " We can't do it." From the days of Joshua down, the " giants in the way " have ever been the devil's best arguments. They can be met only by clear con- victions of the omnipotence of God, with whom man's impossibles are always possibles. The average church can do vastly greater things than it has ever dreamed of doing. Enlarged ideals and imagination are essen- tial prescriptions. Think of the harder things done by the " fathers," and by contemporary churches in America and in mission fields, with greater obstacles. " We can't afford it." When this objection is made, or is the real one behind those advanced, have a loyalty campaign followed by a stewardship cam- paign. Have outside speakers who can speak plainly on this most sensitive subject. Men must be made to realize that they are only trustees ; that the silver and the gold, the natural and the produced wealth, are God's creations and possessions ; and that " it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth " (Deut. 8: i8). II. Some Fundamental Principles Vastly more im.portant than the adoption of any detail is the awakening of officers and people to a real vision with a different viewpoint, with an open mind to new ideas, with higher ideals for modern 210 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT times. Once the heart is open, anything reasonable can be easily introduced. Have a series of addresses by ministers and laymen on the new opportunities and duties of the church in view of modern condi- tions. When the church cannot be induced to try any new plan, — such, for example, as the duplex envelope or paid publicity or the monthly officers' supper, — have it tried fairly in the Sunday School or young people's society on a smaller scale as an eye-opener. A complete change is often bewildering. To retain some of the old features may secure larger interest and loyalty, but essentials to success should not be compromised. Never depreciate your predecessor or his work. It is wrong and it may develop a habit of " knock- ing the preacher" which will some day be applied to you. Have the new as well worked out as possible before the old is discarded. Prepare most carefully for the transition. In the winter of 1916-17, after years of preparation, arrangements were completed to replace a great bridge over the Missouri at Omaha, used by several transcontinental railways. The old piers were retained. The new bridge was constructed on a false- work just above, and a false- work was prepared just below to receive the old. At midnight a force of men properly prepared began work. In less than an hour the old was replaced by the new bridge and traffic was resumed. Unless your new plans are well worked out, a breakdown will occur causing friction. The old SECURING NEW POLICIES 211 having been too discredited to use again, the church is far worse off than before. Seek to make changes along standard lines so that they will be permanent. Mere originality must never be substituted for fundamental wisdom, though de- tails may be varied in order to give freshness. In other words, the main structure must be standardized so that your successor can use it, though the wall- paper and furnishings may suit your special tastes. When presenting a big proposition publicly, do not begin with details. Make the main proposition abso- lutely clear, then discuss the matter by point. For example, present the need for a new building or for a reorganization of the church machinery, arousing enthusiasm and popular approval for the general idea. Then unfold the details step by step in such other services and conferences as may be necessary to arrive at a final plan and its adoption. The greater the project, the more essential is original enthusiasm and time for full consideration. To present a great build- ing plan sometimes creates ineradicable prejudice. Many congregations, having decided to " consider a modest enlargement of the present plant," have been led gradually to consider all elements carefully and finally have voted heartily to build the needed new plant at a cost double or treble what they would have authorized originally. The same has been true of church-work plans developed under diplomatic leader- ship of a Church Efficiency Committee, appointed to consider the entire field of the church and to recom- mend desirable changes whatever they may be. 212 MODERN CHURCH MANAGEMENT Do not ask people to consider many new things at once, especially if important. They will not receive due consideration. There is danger that they will either be disapproved or will be authorized without sufficient interest to insure success. Every failure discounts your leadership, discourages the workers, creates pessimism and gives excuse for refusal to consider that plan again or to try any other new ideas. Never gossip about your members or officers to one another. It is a heathenish example as well as child- ish folly. And remember that you must also set an example of big-heartedness and of a forgiving spirit if you expect others to practise them. Do not be sus- picious, for it leads to your being suspected and mis- understood. Be certain that you have competent and enthusi- astic leaders to insure the success of every new plan or committee. Remember that laymen differ. The promoter is as likely to let his enthusiasm run away with him and to approve of untimely things as the banker is to resist all changes as dangerous. Let the two extremes balance each other. Whoever starts changes or buildings should see them through. To leave in the midst of reconstruc- tion, unless for imperative reasons, is to endanger one's work and reputation. A new policy needs con- stant watching and improvement for a time, and its parent can do this best. BIBLIOGRAPHY This list of volumes most essential to the " Church Management and Methods Library " of the average church is necessarily brief. It presents those volumes which will be most helpful to beginners in this field. General Church Management Church Efficiency, Tremaine, Revells, 50c. Building a Working Church, Black, Revells, $1.25. The Working Church, Thwing, Revells, 6oc. Local Church Efficiency (a recent volume of unusual value, prepared by Church Efficiency Commissions for Laymen's Movement of the Reformed Church in the United States, 15th and Race Sts., Philadelphia), 50c. The Reconstruction of the Church, Strayer, Macmillan, $1.50. Men and Religion Movement Library, Association Press, 7 volumes, $5.00. All volumes have great value. Survey and Program The Church Survey, Carroll, Methodist Book Concern, $1.00. A Modern Church Program, McGarrah, Revells, 60c. Church Finance and Stewardship Modern Church Finance, McGarrah, Revells, $1.25. Church Finance, Agar, Missionary Education Movement, 50c. A Man and His Money, Calkins, Methodist Book Con- cern, $1.00. Stewardship and Missions, Cook, A.B.P.S., 50c. General Church Methods The Way to Win, edited by Fisher, Methodist Book Concern. 6oc. Workable Plans for Wide-awake Churches, Reisner, Methodist Book Concern, $1.50. Modern Methods of Church Work, Mead, Doran, 50c. 213 214 BIBLIOGRAPHY Parish Problems, edited by Gladden, Century Co., $1.50. The Problems of the Town Church, Miller, Revells, 75c. Dead or Alive, A Study of the Local Church, Agar, Revells, 50c. Evangelism Pastoral and Personal Evangelism, Goodell, Revells, $1.00. Normal Evangelism, Green, Revells, $1.00. Recruiting for Christ, J T. Stone. Church Publicity Principles of Church Advertising, Stelzle, Revells, $1.25. Church Publicity, Reisner, Methodist Book Concern, $1.25. Publicity and Progress, Smith, Doran, $1.00. Church Advertising (Addresses at 1916 Church Publicity Departmental of National Advertising Association), Lippincott, $1.00, Volume soon to be issued with addresses at 1917 Church Publicity Congress (Address W. L, Roberts, Ridgewood, N. J.,), $1.00. Men's Work The Problem of Lay Leadership, Elliott, Revells, Soc. The Efficient Layman, Cope, Griffith and Rowland, $1.00. The Church and Young Men, Cressey, Revells, $1.25. Modern Church Brotherhoods, Patterson, Revells, $1.00. Church School and Education The Church School, Athearn, Pilgrim Press, $1.00. The Church and Her Children, Hulbert, Revells, $1.00. The Secondary Division Organized for Service, Alexander, Revells. 50c. The Sunday School Organized for Service, Lawrence, Pilgrim Press, 50c. The Sunday School at Work, edited by Paris, West- minster Press, $1.25. The Development of the Young People's Movement, Erb, Chicago University Press, $1.00. Efficiency in the Sunday School, Cope, Doran, $1.00. (For a complete bibliography on educational themes, on the organization and management of each depart- ment and phase of Sunday School work, see Dr. Athearn's "The Church School.") BIBLIOGRAPHY 215 Rural Church The Challenge of the Country, Fiske, 7Sc. The Church of the Open Country, Wilson, Missionary Education Movement, 50c. The Rural Church Movement, Earp, Methodist Book Con- cern, 75c. The Making of a Country Parish, Mills, Missionary Edu- cation Movement, 50c. Prayer and Worship The Meaning of Prayer, Fosdick, Association Press, 60c. Prayer Packet, Laymen's Missionary Movement, 50c. Worship and Song, Winchester, Hartford School of Pedagogy, Social Service Graded Social Service for the Sunday School, University of Chicago Press. Social Evangehsm, Ward, Missionary Education Move- ment, 50C. Publications of the Social Service Commission, Federal Council of Churches, 105 E. 22nd St., New York. Yearbook of Social Service, Federal Council of Churches. SoaAL Social Plans for Young People, Reisner, Methodist Book Concern, 75c. Recreation and the Church, Gates, University of Chicago Press, $1.00. The Church and the People's Play, Atkinson, Pilgrim Press, $1.00. Social Activities, Chelsey, Association Press, |i.oo. Printed in the United States of America Date Due A« 26-38 i 1 - ,:-; ■^.; 1 rr T -» ^t J r*t^^ r-A ^a^fO^i. lA. ^ ^^„„^ W«iP****' ..^- pp«^ S^'"^ 'M«.«rt ^ ^ f) ^^^ McGARPlAH D- Admin Modern church manc?.ge'nent .