ONLY ONE IN THREE

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 39, 12 September 1930, Page 3

ONLY ONE IN THREE

PEOPLE IN CHURCH LIFE PLAN TO REACH THE MASSES. Declaring that only one in every three people, or perhaps only one in every four, in Gisborne had any interest. in church life, the Rev. J. Stanley Murray. M.A., referred at Tuesday’s meeting of the Gisborne Ministers’ Association to the neglect of the churches in endeavouring to reach the masses of the people, and urged a co-operative campaign with this end in view. “It seems to me that, with a few exceptions here and there, the Christian churches to-day are giving comparatively little time to the task of winning for Christ the - masses of outside people in our communities,” he said. “Sometimes it seems to be hard enough to retain what we have without trying to increase our holdings. “And I feel somewhat strongly that, in a measure, we are failing in our duty in this respect. We ought to be giving far more thought and effort to the task of reaching the non-churchgoing people in our land than we do. At present, compared with our other work, this is being sadly neglected. “To me this is one of the greatest problems confronting the Church, and I am compelled to think that the Church is not facing up to it. We are not making a thoroughly decisive effort to reach the people. We arc not being aggressively evangelical.”

Local Churches Hold Only 3500. The speaker’s special interest in this line of thought had been aroused by several years’ experience in a large Government department, where a great percentage of the employees had little or nc connection with or rdfcpect for the Christion Church in any of its forms, and also by a short experience in the ministry of the Church. It had been claimed by the late Professor Davies, of the Presbyterian Theological College, that all the churches in Dunedin together could accommodate only one half of the population of the city. Mr. Murray said he had found that this estimation was exaggerated somewhat, for out of a population of 88,000, the city’s churches, if packed, could accommodate 30,000 at the most. But the churches were not being packed, and it was safe to say that allowing for the people who attended only once a Sunday, only a third of the population was in active connection with the Church. | The position was even more pronounced in Gisborne. Out of a population of 15,000, not more than 3500 could be seated in our places of worship. This meant that about 10,000 of the 15,000 people in the town were out of touch and out of sympathy with the Church and what it stood for. He presumed the position in Gisborne and Dunedin was not vastly different from that prevailing elsewhere in the country, and he concluded that only one in every three persons, ..or perhaps only one in every four, in New Zealand were sufficiently interested to maintain a connection with the /Church. Work of the. Present. Viewing this as rather a startling state of affairs, the speaker outlined the work of the churches at present in trying to reach the masses. The usual church services were open to all, and a greater or lesser number were attracted according to their inner unrest or the attractiveness of the pregcher. The advent oi wireless was widening the reach cf the pulpit to a greater number of non-, churchgoers, and a certain amount of street preaching was carried but by smaller denominations. The Sunday schools, Bible .classes, Christian endeavours and other young people’s organisations were making a definite effort to reach outside the Church ranks.

Perhaps the only other method of reaching the outside masses was by means of specially organised evangelical missions, and although in years gone by this method was successful, it seemed to fail to-day in a large measure, for the masses would not attend meetings. With the exception of missions, the work he outlined tended to become only a minor part of the routine work of the churches. The suggestions he proposed would be applicable to the.whole of New Zealand, and there was no reason why they could not be put into practice in Gisborne. Fervour and Discretion. Firstly, he proposed that a concerted evangelistic campaign should be organised by the ministers’ association in the form, perhaps, of a Church rally month. This need not be confined to large meetings, and there • should be a house-to-house Visitation, the distribution of carefully worded invitations and exhortations, special meetings in churches and in the Opera House. If the churches spoke with a united voice, surely there would be a great response on the part of the people. More widespread use should be made of street and open-air preaching. “In latter years,” he added, “open-air preaching has been left largely to some of the small exclusive sects, who have been distinguished by religious fervour rather than discretion in their utterances. This is not always the case. A great* work has been done by .the Salvataion Army in this respect, but others have brought that method of working, and indeed the whole Christian message into disrepute by their efforts. “I see no early reason why it should be a disgraceful thing to preach from a street corner, and I think it is a duty of the Christian Churclj to reclaim that privilege, and to exalt her message in the eyes of the people by judicious, yet fervent, appealing utterances in public places.

The Disabused Tract. “And what applies to the use of openair preaching applies also to the question of using tracts and literature of all kinds. Again, such a method has been discredited by many of the well-intentioned, but decidedly narrow, indiscreet, somek

times repulsive, effusions, which are circulated to ministers as well as other folk. "To be seen handing round tracts today would mean being branded as a member of some rigid, exclusive sect, or being accused of narrowness and intolerance that so often characterises them. But why ‘should such a condition last? Why should not the larger bodies of Christian people destroy the stigma that attaches to tracts by issuing authoritative ones, wisely and sympathetically worded. Why should not the Presbyterian Church, or the Anglican or Baptist Churches, or any large denomination, use this very effective method for putting the Gospel message into the hands of the people who will not listen to the spoken word? “We are not positive, assertive, or aggressive enough. Because certain people have despoiled a certain me mod of working, we are content to leave it to remain in such a condition, instead of redeeming it by lifting it up, and showing what a power it can be if wisely handled.” The address aroused an animated discussion.