07-The Sunday Evening Service
CHAPTER VII THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE
TWENTY-FIVE years ago Washington Gladden wrote: “In America, at least, the problem of the evening service is one of considerable difficulty... In most of our churches the service is thinly attended, and the question of its maintenance weighs heavily on the minds of the pastors. Where it has not been abandoned, various devices have been resorted to for increasing the congregation praise services, musical services, spectacular services with lanterns, and such like. 5 ’ 1 The problem has become much more difficult in the time that has elapsed since this distinguished pastor complained thus. Then the automobile was still a curiosity which thousands had never yet seen, not the familiar possession of every third family even in rural communities. Nor had the moving-picture industry yet made the theater the chief social and recreational center in every hamlet. When Gladden wrote, only pastors in cities were worried about the Sunday-night service. Now every country pastor, as well, anxiously considers what can be done to offset the enticements of the “auto” and “movie.” And the same two conclusions are still reached. An increasing number decide to abandon the service, while another growing multitude feverishly attempt to enhance its attractiveness by spectacular features, some legitimate and some highly questionable. He is rash indeed who presumes to dogmatize about that which is confusing to many. Nevertheless, there is always need to keep before us certain ideals whose validity is undisputed with reference to this service. i. The success of a service of worship is not to be me as *0p. cit. f p. 121, Used by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
88 THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 89 ured chiefly by the number of persons present. Great multitudes are seldom very important in religion. Let us be reminded often that Jesus was content to do his work with a small group and that he deliberately sought to keep his congregations from becoming “great.” Like Gideon, he seemed to regard a crowd as an embarrassment. Their unwieldiness, their instability, their fickleness, their irresponsibility, their quick response to an appeal to prejudice, their inability to think deeply or with discrimination make it impossible for mere numbers ever to give worth or distinction to a congregation. Catholics and Protestant Episcopalians, for whom the size of the congregation makes little difference in the success of the mass or the communion service, have much to teach non-liturgical churches in this matter. Of course, one must guard against complacency and contentment with inferior achievement. The normal pastor will covet as large a congregation as possible. His motive, however, will not be to get a crowd for its own sake, but to render spiritual service to all for whom he has responsibility. When this motive is in the ascendant one will not be unduly elated, or depressed, by the size of the congregation, if only the service itself shall possess inspirational value for those who are present. Let us not ask, “How many came?” but, “What was done for those who came?”
2. The function of the church is very different from that of the theater. Comparisons between the size of theater audiences and church congregations are not very impressive. For it is impossible to contrast things that have no common resemblance. The chief justification for the theater is that it provides for relaxation through amusement. But amusement is distinctly not the primary business of the church. Services should be beautiful and interesting indeed, but they are not conducted to entertain the congregation. One goes to the theater to “let down,” He goes to the church for instruction and worship, and this requires creative effort of the highest sort the very opposite from letting down. The “movie” makes no demand upon one’s 9 o THE PASTORAL OFFICE intellectual or volitional powers. The church taxes these faculties to the utmost. In the nature of the case the church can never be popular with that large element in the community which has little power to refresh itself from within and is drawn as by a magnet to that in its environment which promises the most excitement and the greatest number of thrills. Whenever the church resorts to the methods of the theater to “get a crowd/’ a distinct loss of respect usually follows; first, because the community feels that the church either does not understand its own peculiar mission or has lost confidence in it; and, second, because the theatrical manager is very much more expert in the show business than is the average pastor. It would seem to be better policy every way for the church to spend its strength on its legitimate task than to attempt to brighten its services by features that are purely diverting or amusing. Gladden’s findings twenty-five years ago have been confirmed, on the whole, by the experiments of thousands of perplexed pastors and official boards since: “It is not to the aesthetic nature that the services of the church make their appeal; and the moment it becomes evident that pleasure, no matter of how refined a sort, has been exalted in those services above serious thought, the power and the glory of the church are gone.” 2 It may be that on week days some church will conclude that a part of its task is to provide amusement, but “the use of its Sunday night services for this purpose is nothing less than the prostitution of a high office.”
3. The feeling prevails that it is generally unwise to conduct two services of exactly the same type on the same day. This suggests that the Sunday-evening service should vary in its aim and method -from the morning service. The latter should be more dignified and worshipful. The former may well be less stately, brighter in color, more rapid in action, and, while maintaining an atmosphere of worship, *Op tit, p. 122. THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 91 featuring certain matters as a rule unprovided for in the morning service. In every church there are persons thinking seriously upon the subject of personal religion, but who have never made public confession of their discipleship. These should have frequent opportunity to declare themselves before the congregation, and a service should be provided with an atmosphere warm with expectation in which they are frankly encouraged to make their decisions at once. To serve such the Sunday-evening service should often be made evangelistic. It may be the part of wisdom to do this without elaborate announcement beforehand, but let it be done as frequently as the leader feels there is any strong probability that anyone present would be glad for such an opportunity.
There is an important educational service expected of the ministry at this time when the area of ethical obligation is widening to include the field of social as well as private relationships; and the Sunday-evening service, better than any other, can be devoted frequently to this purpose. No subjects are more fascinating to the present generation. And all come well within the scope of the minister’s business, for all sustain a vital relation to the spiritual life.
Needless to say, “preaching of this kind makes unusual demands upon the intelligence of a minister.” He has no right to speak until he has prepared himself thoroughly. But the preacher who intelligently applies the great Christian ideals to the problems of industry, poverty, vice, delinquency, education, government, etc, keeping clearly in view all the while their religious bearings, will show himself a workman who has no need to be ashamed, and at the same time will find a way to make the service attractive without making it merely amusing.
It does not follow that the Sunday-evening service should be converted into a “forum” for the presentation of these subjects from every point of view. The forum, as popularly known, while ethical, is not necessarily religious. Its atmosphere is one of debate rather than worship. There 92 THE PASTORAL OFFICE should be a place where every community may assemble to do what is done in the forum. But wherever possible it is wiser to meet in a public hall than a church. If the church is the only available meeting place, -the forum should be held at some other than an hour set apart for worship.
Interpreting in modern terms the great doctrines of Christianity is also a part of the educational task of the minister.
Neglect of this matter has resulted in filling our churches with a generation of Christians who neither know what to believe, nor why. Any babbler, with a positive air, can disturb them. The blame must fall upon a ministry which forgot to expound in untechnical language the fundamentals of Christian belief the doctrines of God, sin, redemption, immortality, biblical inspiration, revelation, and infallibility, and the like. Nothing will give stability to faith except clear thinking on these high themes, and for leadership in this the church has a right to look to the minister. Within recent months a “summer preacher” filled one of the most famous Methodist churches on warm Sunday evenings by preaching a series of sermons on these substantial and presumably unpopular subjects. A few years ago another preacher in another city maintained a strong Sunday-evening service throughout a whole summer by interpreting the message of one of the Old Testament prophets. Still another found that an unsuspected number were interested in Christian biography, as he spoke helpfully concerning the great personalities in modern church history. The experience of these preachers opens the way for believing that when the minister addresses himself earnestly and intelligently to the educational phase of his task, so far as it concerns his pulpit utterances, that fact will be appreciated by many.
4. Clearly, the maintenance of the Sunday-evening service calls for the most conscientious labor. It has failed often because it has had only fragments of time for preparation that remained after the minister had exhausted himself on the morning service. It is not well attended in many in THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 93 stances because it is not worth attending. The pastor must find a way to keep himself physically fresh for this service. A tired man is incapable of inspiring leadership. And he must keep fresh mentally. Study, study, STUDY must be the dominant passion of his life! How to do it all in view of the manifold demands upon his time may be a very great problem. But he must find a way or suffer the consequence -r-that is, a devitalized evening service. And the way may be found by the minister who puts his mind into his work.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor, Chapter VI.
L. H. Bugbee, Living Leaders Judged by Christian Standards.
H. S. Coffin, Some Christian Convictions.
C. E. Jefferson, Things Fundamental.