Chapter 3
THE CRISIS -- IT IS INEVITABLE
I said in my introduction that we were approaching a profound
and inevitable crisis in our evangelism. I have mentioned a few of the
reasons why the crisis is profound and have suggested a few dimensions
of the crisis.
Now to the reasons why the crisis is inevitable.
Most of those reasons would be included in the economic, social, and
spiritual changes inherent in a people completing the cycle from sect
to church, from movement to institution.
"In all religious movements," says a religious historian, "there is
a period of danger. It comes when the first passionate enthusiasm begins
to die down, and the statesmen are called in to regulate and organize."
It is Lord Acton who lists the three stages in the development of institutions:
first, there is the cause; then there is there is the institution which
arises to promote the cause: then there is the subtle shift of allegiance
from cause to institution. Where we are in that progression is not within
the scope of this discussion except as it applies to our evangelism.
But one of the most attested facts of church history is the prevalence
of the economic and social pressures exerted at each stage in that transition.
Wesley saw that a revival movement carried within it the seeds of its
own declension unless there were adequate correctives to these economic
and social pressures. "I do not see," Wesley said, "how it is possible
in the nature of things for any revival of religion to continue long.
For religion must necessarily produce industry and frugality, and these cannot
but produce riches. But as riches increase so will pride, anger and the
love of the world in all its branches."
Richard Niebuhr, the sociologist, has said that a sect-type organization,
by its very nature, is valid for one generation only, as the forces that
brought it into existence would be largely dissipated by the second and
third generation. The wife of General William Booth saw in her own lifetime
the Salvation Army become a respected institution with positions and places
of preferment, and on her deathbed she said to her daughter: "Katie, why
is it that God can't keep a thing pure for more than one generation?"
That is, admittedly, pessimistic; for there have been churches which
remained true to their doctrines and evangelistic commitments for several
generations.
But we are living in accelerated times. And these economic and social
pressures are more quickly and more devastatingly felt today. With our
increased affluence and social acceptance there is too often a corresponding
lessening of the spiritual intensity, with a decreasing concern for souls
-- and an increasing concern about our image and our denominational profile.
William Warren Sweet, writing in 1944, placed the Nazarenes among the
churches of "the disinherited," or "the churches of the underprivileged."
I wonder what he would say if he were writing today. We certainly are
no longer "disinherited" and most certainly are no longer "underprivileged."
An evangelistic singer told me that the song "Zion's Hill" no longer brought
shouts, and the words, "A tent or a cottage, why should I care?" brought
mostly boredom. But we do care -- terribly! All of us do. And the implications
of that more substantial investment in the status quo, economic and social
and religious, give substantiation to the inevitability of the crisis
in our evangelism.
Dr. Eric E. Jorden, writing in the Preacher's Magazine of May-June,
1952, in an article under the title "Problems in the Growth of a Sect
into a Church," wrote these words: "The spiritual need and economic forces
which in one generation drew the sect out of the church turn about to
transform the sect into a church. The last century witnessed the completion
of the process in the case of Methodism. The Church of the Nazarene
is now in the period of transformation.
"A sect may be further distinguished from the church in that the sect
is a conflict group, whereas the church is an accommodated group. A sect
is a religious organization that is at war with the existing mores. It
seeks to cultivate a state of mind and establish a code of morals different
from that of the world about it, and for this it claims divine authority.
A sect in its final form may be described as a movement of social reform
and regeneration that has become institutionalized. Eventually, when
it has succeeded in accommodating itself to other rival organizations,
when it has become tolerant and is tolerated, it tends to assume the form
of a denomination.
"We may as well face fact;" Dr. Jorden concludes, "the Church of the
Nazarene has reached such a place."
It is Elmer Clark who states that all denominations began as sects,
and the sect is born out of a combination of spiritual need and economic
forces.
"The sects themselves," Clark affirms in his Small Sects in America,
"do not recognize the economic factor in their history, though it stands
out plainly in their protest against the elements which only wealth can
secure -- fine churches, organs, costly raiment, indulgence in worldly
amusement, etc. It is the growth in wealth and culture that brings about
departures from what the sects feel as primitive Christianity. Increase
in wealth eliminates the frontier simplicity and creates an atmosphere
of affluence uncongenial to simple souls. Fine edifices appear in which
well-dressed and bejeweled congregations worship to the accompaniment
of instrumental music and salaried choirs. Class distinctions emerge,
and social life within the church partakes of the spirit of 'the world.'
The favorite taboos of the poor against the theater going and similar exercises
weaken; the difference between the 'saved' and the 'unsaved' becomes
less apparent. In the minds of the conservative element the church
has become apostate and worldly. Revolt ensues, and a sect is born."
Clark sounds like he is writing a sequel to "the formative years" of
any church. "Then as a church increases in wealth," he continues, "there
accompanies it an advance in education. A sect starts out with a ministry
by and large untrained except in the leadership of the Holy Ghost. Bible
colleges develop into colleges of liberal arts. And the advance in education
has an inevitable effect upon doctrinal emphases, modes of religious
expression, and methods of propaganda within the church. Among the students
of theology there comes a divergence of opinion concerning traditional
theology. This modification in belief is accompanied by the gradual elimination
of emotional expression, less emphasis on radical conversion experiences,
the lessening of the revival method of adding members to the church.
Advance in the educational life of the church inevitably is followed
by a growing emphasis on religious education; thus the frontier religion
dear to thousands of souls is gradually eliminated."
Liston Pope, in his book, Millhands and Preachers, gives essentially
the same analysis of the economic and social pressures exerted on a people
in transition from movement to institution. He lists these stages in
that development:
-- from economic poverty to economic wealth, as disclosed especially
in the value of church property and the salary paid to ministers.
-- from a psychology of persecution to a psychology of success and
dominance.
-- from emphasis on evangelism and conversion to emphasis on religious
education.
-- from a high degree of congregational participation in the services
and administration of the religious group to delegation of responsibility
to a comparatively small percentage of membership.
-- from fervor in worship service to restraint; from positive action
to passive listening.
-- from reliance on spontaneous "leadings of the Spirit" in religious
services to administration procedure.
Who is there to say definitely just exactly where we are in that transition
-- but who is there so blind that he cannot see the possibilities of
that pattern emerging?
And how does all this relate to revivals and evangelism? Most directly
and inescapably! For whatever affects the spirituality of a church affects
vitally its evangelism and, as we have seen again and again in this study,
effective evangelism is the result of revived and renewed and Spirit-filled
people. When there is a secular sag in the hearts of the people, there
will be a spiritual sag in the life of the church; and unless that spiritual
sag is corrected by revival and renewal, there can be no effective evangelism.
A secular-minded, materialistically oriented church may talk much about
evangelism, and even engage in it; but it will be a sterile evangelism,
powerless to produce spiritual results and a mockery of its former glory.
As Samuel Chadwick said of that kind of evangelism: "There may be noise;
there may be crowds; there may be high emotion; but there is no Shekinah."
It is inevitable that any church will have problems with its evangelism
when it becomes more concerned about status than about souls.
It is inevitable that every phase of a church's life and outreach will
be affected when its people are moving from underprivileged to affluent,
from Fords to Cadillacs, from three-thousand-dollar homes to thirty-thousand-dollar
ones, from "glory barns" to million-dollar edifices, from grade-school
diplomas to university degrees, from unskilled laborers to professional
men, from the wrong side of the tracks to suburbia.
It is inevitable that any church, Nazarene or otherwise, undergoing
such changes, will find its evangelism affected and will need to guard
against the cooling of revival fervor and the erosion of its mood for
evangelism.
Although it is inevitable that these economic and social pressures
that have come to every church should come to the Church of the Nazarene
-- and they are upon us -- it is not inevitable that we should be swamped
by them, or swerved from our original mission because of them.
The crisis is inevitable, yes; that we come to a crossroads in our
evangelism is inevitable, yes -- but that we take the wrong road in this
time of crisis is not inevitable! Therein are the hope and the challenge.
