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Wanted: A Congregation, Part 5c: Failures and Their Causes

From Lloyd C. Douglas, “Wanted – A Congregation; Fifth Phase – Making Worship Worshipful,” in the 9/9/1920 issue of The Christian Century.

“Regarded specifically, it is true that many churches have been unable to present a very attractive portrait of his life and love who spoke of a social commonwealth of souls in that gripping phrase – ‘The Kingdom.’ Possibly such failures may be traced to a large number of causes. At least three of these causes stand out rather prominently. One type of failure may easily be accounted for on the ground of an overemphasis upon some minor point of doctrine which has been permitted to grow so huge as to drain the very life of the cultus that produced it – like a monstrous sarcoma. It may have gone in for feet-washing as a necessary and important ceremonial rite, for example. At first, this performance may have had some real symbolic beauty – though the imagination of the writer is far too sluggish to understand what beauty could ever have been thus expressed to the occidental mind; he merely assumes that such may have been the case, at first. But once the ceremony had lost its pristine spontaneity, it must have become a heavy load to carry. The sect could not relax its grip upon its burden, however. What it had written, it had written! Presently, so far as that body of believers is concerned, there is nothing much to Christianity except to get one’s feet washed, and so large a volume of effort is required for the persistence of this rite that there is very little energy left for the main task. It is the old case of the tail wagging the dog. It is also like the steamboat of Lincoln’s story that had a ten-foot boiler and a twelve-foot whistle. Every time it whistled, it stopped. I fancy that the sacrament of feet-washing is now nearly enough passe to be safely mentioned as a case in point to cover a great many similar pathological conditions still present with us. Such deflections from the main task of the church account for part of her present discomfiture.

“A second type of failure may be explained on the ground of an untrained and ineffective leadership in the pulpit. No church can get on very well or for a very long time which willfully does violence to human intelligence. To endure, a church must be able to command the respect of thoughtful people. But this is a truism requiring no argument; at least not in this presence.

“The third and by far the most prevalent type of failure may be accounted for on the ground that the churches of this order have almost completely ignored the ‘incurably’ religious passion in men’s hearts for a beautiful, reverential, dignified and consistent means of church worship.”

[Douglas’s essay will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 5b: The Disappointed

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the last installment of the series, “Wanted – A Congregation!” which Lloyd Douglas published in the Christian Century during the summer of 1920. This final essay is entitled, “Fifth Phase: Making Worship Worshipful,” and it was in the September 9th issue. Douglas has just finished telling the story of an American tourist – one of the new rich – who goes to an art museum in Europe and is disappointed with what he sees there. The old verger tells him his disappointment says more about him than it does about the old works of art. Douglas continues:]

“There seems to be a general rumor to the effect that Christianity, as expressed by the church, is failing to please this generation. Almost everybody, both within and without the church, is either announcing blatantly his firm belief that the church confronts a crisis or waggles his head solemnly when somebody else asserts it. Some people view the situation with alarm. Others, unable to add a cubit to their own spiritual stature, are glad enough to think that the norm and standard of the soul has been lowered, and poorly conceal their satisfaction over the general chatter relative to the failure of the church to maintain her grip upon the mind and heart of our age.

“Prominent among the doleful, who are sincerely disturbed over this matter, are many members of our own profession. We have permitted ourselves to be stampeded by all this idle chatter. Really – it is mere impudence for our country, whose most permanent works still reek of green lumber, hot rivets, wet plaster, fresh paint, and perspiration, to grow hysterically concerned about the fate of an institution that was ancient and venerable more than a millennium before civilization was apprised of the fact that this continent was in existence!

“The church has quite passed out of the experimental stage. She does not happen to be on trial. The spectators are, however; and when they presume to express their fear that she may not survive the temporary flurry of our present restlessness, they but advertise the vasty depths of their unplumbed ignorance of history, and the almost incredible lengths to which naive bumptiousness can aspire in a land of unbridled and unsupervised gabble. So much for the church – generally considered and spelled in caps.”

[Douglas’s essay will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4j: Encouraging Meditation

by Ronald R Johnson

From Lloyd C. Douglas, “Wanted—A Congregation, Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship,” in The Christian Century, 9/2/1920.

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He is telling his wife about his plans for improving the order of worship…]

“‘That organ prelude,’ soliloquized Blue, ‘ought to begin quietly. People come in from the racket of traffic on the street. They should be given some incentive to calm their spirits and meditate without being overwhelmed and distracted with a thunderous noise. It should be understood by the ushers that the seating of the people should be done with a minimum of confusion. From the moment the prospective worshipper steps inside the door, he should be impressed with the fact that this is the House of God. He should be given a chance to think, to pray, to sense the divine Presence. Therefore, the organ prelude, which helps him to that mood, must not be a big ‘show piece,’ but rather an impassioned tug at the heart-strings. And then it should grow, almost imperceptibly, at its close, until it seems to be building up toward some definite action. The people must be filled with a desire to express themselves.

“‘Without a pause,’ continued Blue, thinking aloud, ‘the organist will modulate into the score of the opening hymn. Just think of the thrill of it, my dear,’ exclaimed the minister – ‘the organ piling harmony upon harmony, higher, richer, fuller, until, in one great, triumphant chord, it peals out the majestic measures of ‘O God, the Rock of Ages!’ – and the choir comes to its feet – and the congregation rises, not hesitatingly, by squads, but spontaneously, immediately, because it can’t sit still another moment – and then they will sing! Fine – isn’t it?’

“Blue remembers a wonderful service he had attended, in which the organist had begun with an impassioned prelude, rising to a martial mood, and, because the minister was going to preach on a patriotic theme, brought the congregation to a stand with the strains of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ – after which he swept his choir and the audience into the first verse of ‘Lead On, O King Eternal,’ which happened to be in the same key and therefore required no introduction at all. True, the congregation didn’t know for a moment what was afoot, but it was not long in finding out, and the genuine thrill it experienced shattered every vestige of indifference and tuned the heart for a thorough appreciation of that great militant hymn.”

[Douglas’s story will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4e: Back to the Invoice

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He is on vacation with his wife, taking stock of the recent improvements.]

“Now, there comes a time in the experience of every minister who has been party to such a resurrection of the dead, when his new responsibility makes him very humble. He does not come by this sensation at first. Just the sheer wonder and delight of witnessing the miracle occupies his whole attention. His feeling of gratification knows no bounds. He had always wanted a live church and a magnetic congregation – and now he is getting it! Hallelujah!

“Every Sunday there are many more new faces before him, and he is spurred to his best efforts by their challenging expression of an appraisal that seems to be saying, ‘Well, we’ve heard about it, and here we are; wonder if it’s as good as advertised!’ Yes, there is that period to be gone through – a time of delirious excitement over the hitherto untasted joy of seeing the pulpit actually function.

“Then comes, with a shock, the almost terrifying sense of responsibility to do something more for these eager people than merely preach to them. D. Preston Blue had now arrived at that stage. As he sat gazing wide-eyed but unseeingly into the night, his heart was very heavy. He had wanted a congregation. His dream was going to come true. People would come to his church in increasing numbers. But why did people go to church? Why should they go? To hear a sermon? Was that all? Was there not another – indeed, a primary – function of the church that he, Blue, had almost completely ignored? Was he helping to satisfy that irresistible heart-hunger of the normal human soul for a closer contact with the Infinite? Was he doing anything to deepen the desire and increase the capacity of his people for worship? After all, wasn’t this the main business of the church – to offer a service of worship so reverential and inspirational that it would serve as a spiritual tonic to souls in desperation to escape the tyranny of material things, almost frantically eager to catch occasional glimpses of an intangible heart-kingdom where the youth of the spirit is renewed until it mounts up on eagle-wings?”

[Douglas’s essay will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 2b: Long Step Toward Happiness

by Ronald R Johnson

Excerpt from Lloyd C. Douglas, “Wanted—A Congregation, Second Phase—Preacher and Newspaper,” Christian Century, August 19, 1920.

[This is from Part 2 of Lloyd C. Douglas, “Wanted — A Congregation!” This second installment was in the August 19, 1920, issue of The Christian Century. It was entitled, “Second Phase — Preacher and Newspaper.” I am continuing where I left off in my most recent post. Douglas is talking about a minister who has decided to stay with his current church and seek a wider audience there, rather than going elsewhere.]

“It is worth a great deal to our hero to have found out so much as that. Just to have stopped his continuous chatter about ‘the peculiar conditions which obtain in this town’; just to have ceased poring over the column of ‘Calls and Resignations’ in his weekly church paper, in quest of some utopia where the SRO sign would be hung on the church door Sunday mornings at 10:20; just to have left off petting his fatuous dream of Elsewhere — constitutes Mr. Blue’s first long step toward happiness in his ministry.

“This man has given himself to prayer and fasting over his problem. He knows now that there is just one thing in this world that he wants – a crowd! He is conscious of a message burning in his heart – a message so highly potential that if only he could face a large congregation with it, there could be no doubt in anybody’s mind about its value. He recalls the few times he has occupied a pew in a crowded church; the strangely magnetic quality of the audience; its tense attitude of expectancy; how the congregational singing of the hymns seemed to carry a rich overtone almost supernatural in its uplifting power; how vividly the Book poured out its inexhaustible treasures when read to that responsive crowd – a crowd that had been welded into one solid chunk so that it saw, heard, thought, and felt as with the eyes, ears, mind, and heart of one man!

“And the sermon! Inspired! Nothing less than that! Why, almost anybody could preach under such circumstances! The minister seemed fairly lifted up and borne along by the intense interest of his congregation whose size lent new significance to the belief that the gospel is, in very truth, the hope of the world! With such support, Blue knows that he, too, could preach. With the promise of such a congregation, Sunday after Sunday, he could hurl himself into his task of sermon preparation with all the zeal and abandon of a prophet.”

[To be continued in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 2a: Growing Where Planted

by Ronald R Johnson

Title page of Lloyd C. Douglas, “Wanted—A Congregation, Second Phase—Preacher and Newspaper,” Christian Century, August 19, 1920.

[This is from Part 2 of Lloyd C. Douglas, “Wanted – A Congregation!” This second installment was in the August 19, 1920, issue of The Christian Century. It was entitled, “Second Phase – Preacher and Newspaper.”]

“Weary of preaching listless sermons to a handful of Laodiceans, the minister whom we shall hereafter refer to as the Reverend D. Preston Blue [pronounced ‘Depressed and Blue’] has determined that he must find a congregation of sufficient size to stimulate his best homiletic efforts. It will require, he thinks, the encouragement of a crowd to vitalize him to the point where he, in turn, may energize his constituency.

“Mr. Blue does not pose as a walking monument to Wisdom, but he is canny enough to understand that by resigning his pulpit at Broad Street Church in Centerville to accept that of The People’s Church of Middlepoint, his problem will be altered only as to its locality. He has quite left off belief in the ancient fallacy that the grass is greener and more succulent on the other side of the fence. Blue suspects that if he cannot draw an audience of respectable size on Sundays in Centerville, neither will he be likely to create much excitement with his pulpit message in Middlepoint, seeing that conditions and people are strangely similar everywhere in their relation to a given individual.

“No; our friend has abandoned the idea that by giving his household furniture an expensive boxcar ride of three hundred miles he can develop some hitherto untested pulpit powers. There has been vouchsafed unto him the wisdom that if ever he is to command the attention of a larger congregation, he may make the adventure of recruiting the same here in Centerville quite as easily and with as much promise of success as anywhere else on earth.”

[To be continued in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 1e: But the Sermon

by Ronald R Johnson

From the first installment of Douglas’s series, “Wanted — A Congregation!” in the 8/5/1920 issue of The Christian Century.

[This is from Part 1 of Lloyd C. Douglas, “Wanted — A Congregation!” This first installment was in the August 5, 1920, issue of The Christian Century. I am continuing where I left off in my most recent post.]

“All this time, while the minister is planning to gain access to a crowd on this strategic October third, he must never lose consciousness of the fact that he must make the most of that wonderful opportunity when it arrives. If he is a very, very poor psychologist, he will decide to say in his introduction, ‘It gives us a thrill of joy to see such a large congregation with us today. Customarily, this is a lonely place on Sunday. You might have been surprised at the echoes which caromed back and forth from these hallowed walls only last Lord’s Day,’ etc.

“Such a method of greeting his great opportunity would be very like the psychology practiced by the shop which announced, on a large placard placed beside the display of a modish gown: This is the only thing in the store worth looking at. We have put it out in front to bait you inside; but, in solemn truth, the rest of our stuff is awful.

“No mention need be made by the minister in his sermon that this is a red-letter day in his church. There is no reason why he should waste his time saying it, especially since it would be such a stupid remark to make – if he wishes to retain that crowd and draw a larger one. No, he must plan his sermon as if accustomed every Sunday to a throng that elbowed and pushed and jostled to get inside the front lobby.

“Again – let him not commit the indiscretion of scolding his crowd for failure to attend church services regularly. These people may possibly be induced to return another day if they are attracted to the message. They are not going to be attracted by abuse, either explicit or implied.

“That sermon ought, somehow and somewhere, to touch human life with hope, cheer, faith, optimism, and engender a longing to hear more of this gospel. It should be replete with incident. A whimsical phrase – even if smile-provoking – need not be tossed out of the sermon if it demands admission. It’s a very sick and sour gospel that will not permit the disciples to smile now and again.

“Day and night, that sermon is being built in our minister’s mind and heart. Every time he throws some fresh fuel on the fire of his campaign for a congregation, he hurries back to his study to work on that wonderful sermon. Early morning finds him gazing, unseeingly, out at his eastern window – his pulse pounding in his temples, his fingernails biting deeply into his palms – as he contemplates the message that has taken full possession of his soul. That message is going to be worthy of his office and his opportunity! As he considers it, he wonders how he could have won the consent of his own mind to preach so dully, so listlessly, so dispassionately, upon such themes.”

[To be continued in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 1d: Keep Your Eye on the Ball

by Ronald R Johnson

“At this point the minister is going to be tempted to spoil the whole scheme by listening to well-meaning counselors who feel that if a spoonful is helpful, the entire bottle should be taken at a gulp. He is going to be advised by the Sunday School superintendent that since October third is to be such a big day, it would be well to put on a general renaissance in that department also, on the specified date. The president of the Young People’s Society sees, in this scheme, a chance to ride through to a larger success in her department. All the auxiliary societies will want to use the campaign for a truck to haul their affairs into more prominence. To each and all, the minister will say, ‘No!’ And again, ‘No! Not by a jugful!’

“Here looms up another example of the wretched psychology that is practiced by churches. Consider the show window at the best store in town and be wise. Is it full to the very eaves with hats, caps, boots, shoes, furnishing goods, gowns, perambulators, parasols, and washtubs? It is not. The display is concentrated upon one or two or three concepts — and these concepts are very closely allied. The window dresser knows something about psychology. It is his business to study people’s mental attitudes.

“The minister has decided that he is going to have a crowded church on the morning of October third. Not the evening, but the morning. He must not wreck his scheme by permitting any other motive to get mixed into this process. The Sunday School superintendent is to be given to understand that his only relation to this campaign is to get behind it and boost. The Young People’s Society must keep out of the traffic. No other fact dare intrude itself here. The minister is going to have a crowd on the morning of Sunday, October third — and that’s all there is to it! No other causes need apply. Let us assume that the active membership of the congregation is lined up now and willing to do it honest best to make a success of this adventure. What next?”

[In response, Douglas assumes that his hypothetical minister has been compiling and organizing a list of prospective members, gleaned from conversations in the community. They now go to that list and identify names to contact for the upcoming sermon. (To be continued in my next post…)]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 1b: Pitiless Self-Search

by Ronald R Johnson

“PITILESS SELF-SEARCH

“Instead of planning a series of sad sermons on the decline of faith as exhibited by this generation, wherewith to increase the depression of the remnant that is still left to him, this perplexed brother could do no better thing than attempt a critical examination of his case, in the solitude of his own study. Let him take stock of his own resources. He should ask himself whether he is entirely convinced that the public needs what he has to offer. If he is assured of that, let him ask himself if he really has it in him to hold and interest a crowd were he to contrive the means to find access to a crowd. If confident of that, he should investigate the possible or probable reasons for his failure to achieve a satisfactory hearing.

“Perhaps the public does not know what it is missing by its refusal to listen when he talks. Do not smile. This is not intended as an ironical slap at our discouraged friend. Many a potentially excellent preacher is hacking away, Sunday by Sunday, at a heart-breaking task who, with a little encouragement in the form of a large and alert audience, would surprise himself and his best friends by the sudden release of a volume of unsuspected pulpit power! In many cases, these latent geniuses lack a proper hearing simply because they are undeveloped. They are undeveloped because they are unknown. The problem, for them, would be fully solved if only they were able to sense the tug of that strong undertow which accompanies the tidal wave of magnetism flowing from a densely packed crowd.

“It is the purpose of this writing to suggest a few of the processes by which a preacher who really thinks he has a message may win an audience of sufficient size to waken his slumbering genius. Stated with the utmost brevity, and in a phrase that will doubtless pull the very house down about our ears — what this man’s pulpit needs is advertisement! The public must be let into the secret that here is a preacher who claims the right to attention.”

[To be continued in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 1a: What Ails the Pulpit?

by Ronald R Johnson

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing excerpts from a series of articles Douglas published in The Christian Century in the summer/fall of 1920 under the heading, “Wanted—A Congregation!” (The Christian Century holds the copyright to these essays.) The first of these articles appeared in the August 5, 1920, issue. After a brief introduction in which he mentions John Spargo (and by so doing, reminds readers why Douglas’s name is familiar to them — because he participated in that debate), he launches into his subject:

“WHAT AILS THE PULPIT?

“Every denomination is learning, through its leaders, that the problem of recruiting its ministry is fast becoming acute. The obvious reason for this failure to entice a sufficient number of capable young men to espouse our profession, resides in the fact that there is too much restlessness in our ranks to warrant an ambitious youth in risking his future with an institution whose present employees seem so discontented. If the youth is still unconvinced that this is the case, after reading in the secular press and the religious journals that ministers, in increasing numbers, are trading their pulpits for secretaryships in philanthropic organizations, he need only attend any one of the host of churches where the pulpit is dolefully lamenting the godlessness of this generation and its indifference to Christian duties.

“When the influence of the pulpit grows feeble, and its drawing power enervated, what is the trouble? Is the generation so much to blame? Why should we not look this matter squarely in the face? Who are the dissatisfied preachers? Are they men who habitually face large congregations on Sundays? No; they are men who have lost interest in their pulpits because they are unable to gain a satisfactory hearing. This is a very real problem, and if there is any way to solve it, let the remedy be brought forward without delay.

“No preacher can be expected to invest his finest energies in the preparation of his sermons unless he has an audience in his mind’s eye while he works. If, on Tuesday morning as he settles to his task of planning next Sunday morning’s discourse, he is able only to visualize a congregation of one hundred and fifty people scattered lonesomely over an auditorium built to accommodate six hundred, that fact alone is sufficient to benumb his creative faculties and throttle whatever genius there is within him.

“If he knew to a moral certainty, as he begins to lay out the blueprints for that sermon, that he was to deliver it to a crowded church — to face a compact, alert, shoulder-to-shoulder congregation filling every available seat in the auditorium — he would attack his job with the fine enthusiasm of an artist engaged upon his magnum opus. What he needs to fire his genius is the consciousness of a strong demand for his message. He needs the lift, and drive, and tug of a crowd! His problem is simple enough. Wanted — a congregation!

“Now, this suggestion is going to be riddled to frazzled tatters. I think I can hear the clickity-clack-clack now, of vehement typewriters tapping out the good old warning to beware the seductive temptation to attract crowds. We shall be reminded yet again that the unworthy brother who pats his vanity because he has contrived to pack his church by the bizarre announcement of some sensational theme should indulge himself a sackcloth-and-ashes hour of penitence in which he recalls that a large multitude of people can be collected by a pair of incompatible dogs in the street, or a clown with a monkey on a strap.

“Of course, this is very depressing, and quite enough to make any man thoroughly ashamed of himself who preaches on Sundays in a packed church. To ease his discomfort, however, he can remember that when the crowds that thronged about the Lord grew so congested that the people actually trampled upon one another, the speaker is not reported as having been ashamed. The tug that they made at his great heart was almost more than he could bear, as he viewed with compassion that multitude which reminded him, more than anything else, of sheep — a shepherdless sheep.

“Whoever is ambitious to follow in the footsteps of the Man of Galilee should never speak contemptuously of a crowd! Doubtless there are charlatans to whom a warning might be beneficial. Undeniably there are quacks whose brief vogue has been worn unworthily. But — if a church with a consistency justifying the upkeep of a public auditorium seating six hundred people is unable to draw more than twenty-five percent of that number to the major event of the week, there is something the matter; and the manager of the institution may well inquire of himself whether it is in his power to remedy [the situation].”

[To be continued in my next post…]