CHURCH ATTENDANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20385, 14 October 1929, Page 14

CHURCH ATTENDANCE.

Sir, —The suggestion to improve attendances at church by a frequent change of ministers seems to me to be a dangerous pandering to spiritual fickleness, as well as a foolish emphasis on the importance of the minister himself. In the business world a man may profitably impress his own personality on the public, but in the Church, Christ alone should be magnified. It has often been noticed that when a preacher with great gifts of oratory and an impressive prebence visits a church, ho crowds every nook and corner of it.' Then when his mission is over, and he departs, the congregation drops below summer level. As Dr. John Watson once said, the great preacher is often admired and rewarded, but is never loved as the quiet pastor is. The proposal of Dr. Giles for a change of Gospel would wreck Christendom if universally adopted. Nothing can take the place of the "Old, Old Story of Jesus and His Love.? Wben S. Paul first preached at Athens he appeared to pander a little to those who ''spent their time in nothing else but either to hear or to tell some new thing." So his visit was a comparative failure, and no church was formed at Athens. Then when ho went on to Corinth he declared that he was "determined to know nothing among them but Christ Jesus and Him crucified." This old Gospel may still be to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness, but it is now as ever the power of God and the wisdom of God. Wherever it is clung to and faithfully preached year by year, coupled with constant pastoral work, the people come along gladly, and seldom want a change of ministers, and absolutely never a change of Gospel. Dargaville. J. C. Fcssell.

Sir,—"Churchwarden," in Thursday's Herald, says he knows of a church with a most Eloquent preacher and yet the church is only half-filled. This is a surprise to me. The glorious Gospel has still its ancient power, but the difficulty is to get the preachers. A great number of the present-day clergy have ceased to preach the Gospel, and, worse still, a larger number have ceased to preach at all, but read, and what they ! id is as dry as chips. I take my hat off to the few ministers around Auckland who are preaching from heart to heart, and if such stay 20 years in one place will still draw the crowds. Too much stress is placed on degrees, B.A. and M.A., etc., but the man on fire for God and souls will last and win, even if without a handlo to his name. Ginger.