One chief function of a pastor is to develop and utilize the spiritual,
mental, and social forces of the church. There is in every congregation
much latent force, which needs to be developed, alike for the growth
and usefulness of those who possess it and for the results it might
secure for the church and the world. The minister is, in this respect,
a general to whom troops are entrusted; his work is to train and
organize and lead. The troops are to fight: he is to inspire and direct
the battle. Some hardworking pastors take on themselves burdens which
it were far better to lay on the people--better for the pastor, in
leaving him free for other work, and better for the members, in calling
out their gifts. Indeed, one of the strongest bonds which bind a church
together is the consciousness of being mutual workers, each having a
post of duty and a share of responsibility. No member should be left in
a purely receptive attitude--a mere attendant and listener--but each
should have a place and a work assigned him. That church attains the
truest and highest growth in which every member is a worker under the
stimulus of a consciousness of responsibility and of a useful sphere of
activity. Much of the imperfection of church-life is due either to the
fact that this latent force is undeveloped, or, if developed, is
misdirected. Here I suggest:
1. A pastor should carefully study his people with the view of
ascertaining and utilizing their special aptitudes and gifts. The
prayer-room, the Sunday-school, the teachers' meeting, and the pastoral
visit all afford constant opportunities for this. One may show aptitude
for teaching and may be entrusted with a Sunday-school class. Another
has the weight of character and the tact of leadership which fit him
for conducting a neighborhood prayer-meeting. Another has the solid
judgment and clear discernment of character which will make him useful
on a committee of discipline or finance. Another, though possibly not
marked in exhortation or prayer, may have social qualities such as
admirably qualify him for managing the details and arrangements of the
social gatherings of the congregation. A pastor who will constantly act
on the motto, _A place and a work for every member,_ and will press
this motto on those who conduct the different departments of work in
his church, will soon find himself at the head of an active, living,
and ordinarily happy people while yet he is not personally overburdened
with the details of church-work. In some instances of eminent pastoral
success, the chief secret has been in this power of developing and
utilizing the gifts of the church.
2. The organization of associations within the congregation for
different departments of work is another means of developing and
utilizing the spiritual forces in the church. I have spoken in another
place of literary and missionary organizations, but I may here add that
an association for Christian work composed of young men in a church,
and a similar one for young ladies, may often prove of great value--the
one to act among young men, to attract and hold them to the church; the
other for like service among young women. To such associations might be
entrusted also mission Sunday-schools and distinct spheres of
missionary effort. In a large congregation it is often desirable to
organize committees for the care of the sick and the poor, and the
visitation of strangers needing to be invited and welcomed to the
congregation, and of erring and sinning ones needing to be won back to
holiness and the church of God. In most places it is useful to have
committees for the general visitation of the field occupied by the
church, each committee being entrusted with a distinct district in it
and made responsible for its cultivation. In neighborhoods remote from
the church much good is often secured in local prayer-meetings placed
under the supervision of some judicious person. A thoughtful pastor,
thoroughly supervising his field, will find constant work, and manifold
forms of it, in which he can utilize either individuals or
organizations in his church; and in doing this there is a double
blessing--that which comes to the workers, in making them larger and
happier Christians, and that which comes to those for whom they labor.
Two things, however, are here to be observed: (1.) Organizations should
not be so multiplied as to conflict with the general meetings of the
church or with each other. Each should subordinate its arrangements to
those of the church, and each should have its own separate,
distinctly-marked sphere. (2.) They should be kept under the pastor's
supervision and subject to his guidance. It will be readily seen that
this supposes care and tact on the part of the minister.
3. It is important that in this development of the forces in a church
the pastor should mark those cases among the young in which special
promise of intellectual ability appears and should inspire and direct
them toward a higher education. Intellect is a gift of God: it is
criminal to leave it undeveloped. Be thoroughly alive to this fact and
impress it on the people. You will see young men and young women in
your congregation who might, with adequate intellectual culture, occupy
positions of power in life, and carrying into those positions a
Christian character as well as a cultivated intellect might exert a
wide and beneficent influence for Christ in the world. It seems to me
one of the highest duties of a pastor to foster in such minds a desire
and purpose for an education, and to facilitate in every possible way
the attainment of that end. He should perpetually stimulate the people
to a larger and higher intelligence, and never be satisfied unless
numbers of the youth of his church are in higher institutions of
learning. A failure to develop his people intellectually is a discredit
to any minister.
4. Another important end to be secured is the development of
ministerial gifts. The prayer-meeting, the Sunday-school, and the
general work of the church will commonly, but not always, make these
manifest. Sometimes a very diffident young man may possess them, but
only encouragement will develop them. A pastor should be on the watch
and should take occasion to call out the latent power. A few kindly
words of encouragement have often developed a man of ultimately wide
usefulness. Besides this class, there is much talent in the church that
could be utilized in lay-preaching, where men of good speaking and
spiritual knowledge, without relinquishing business pursuits, might be
employed at destitute points to proclaim the Gospel. A pastor's care is
needed in seeking out and setting at work these gifts for
lay-preaching, and thus multiplying the agencies for evangelization
around him.
+SECTION XI.+