Book Briefs: October 22, 1976

How To Lead A Congregation

Creative Church Administration, by Lyle E. Schaller and Charles A. Tidwell (Abingdon, 1975, 208 pp., $4.95 pb), Church Planning and Management: A Guide For Pastors and Laymen, by B. Otto Wheeley with Thomas H. Cable (Dorrance, 1975, 218pp., $8.95), Managing Church Groups, by Norman M. Lambert (Pflaum, 1975, 85 pp., n.p., pb), Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be, by LeRoy Eims (Victor, 1975, 132 pp., $1.95 pb), Ideas For Better Church Meetings, by Jerold W. Apps (Augsburg, 1975, 128 pp., $2.95 pb), Now That You’re a Deacon, by Howard B. Foshee (Broadman, 1975, 136 pp., n.p.), and The Elders of the Church, by Lawrence R. Eyres (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1975, 69 pp., $1.75 pb), are reviewed by Richard Allen Bodey, pastor, First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Gastonia, North Carolina.

When is someone going to take pity on the parish minister? When will the modern church tailor his job to bearable—and biblical—proportions? No other professional in our society is required to wear so many different hats. Preacher, pastor, evangelist, trainer, youth worker, fund raiser, administrator, public-relations representative, promoter—he is all these and more. No doubt to some extent he always has been. But the difference today is that, except in large churches with multiple staffs, he is expected to perform each of these roles with the knowledge and skill of a specialist. No wonder men quit the parish ministry. The wonder is that the drop-out rate hasn’t soared much higher.

The latest demand of the secularized church is that the pastor be equipped with the management expertise of a corporation executive. Seminars, conferences, and books on management for the clergy sprout all around like dandelions in May.

One can hardly protest the introduction of sound principles of management into the church. The church is an institution with an intrinsic organizational character. And good management, like good preaching, is preferable to bad. No pastor can afford to be ignorant of administrative procedures. Most could profit from reading a few select books on the subject, or attending a management-training conference. Many seminaries need to upgrade their courses in parish administration.

But allowing all this, one still pleads for the recovery of biblical perspective. The church is essentially a spiritual fellowship, the living Body of Christ, not a corporation. And the parish minister is essentially a teacher-enabler, not a professional executive. Management is, after all, a very small piece of the ecclesiastical pie.

The first three titles listed above are designed to help both pastors and lay leaders adapt tested management principles to the operation of the local church. To their credit, Schaller and Tidwell, nationally known church planners and administrative consultants, recognize the limitations of good management in the church. It is, they caution, no cure-all, and overemphasizing it may prove counterproductive by blocking the Holy Spirit. Organization is meant to be servant, not master. Among sinful human beings, however, a role exchange tends to occur, as institutional maintenance and survival become the foremost concern. The authors appeal for a reversal of priorities, so that congregations focus their attention on the purpose and values for which their structures exist. Creative church administration, says Tidwell, enables “the children of God, who comprise the Body of Christ, the church, to become what, by God’s grace, they can become, and to do what, by God’s grace, they can do.” Viewed in this light, the pastor and other parish leaders serve an enabling function, in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

Wheeley and Cable, both industrial executives with extensive experience in church work, show the same sensitivity to the vital role of the Holy Spirit and stress the fundamental spiritual mission of the church. Lambert, a Roman Catholic layman of similar background, who is less influenced by the biblical norms in his understanding of the church’s mission, ignores the Holy Spirit altogether. The theology of church management is more marginal to his purpose than to that of the other authors.

Creative Church Administration is an apt title for Schaller and Tidwell’s work. While theory receives its due, they offer a wealth of practical counsel, based on the sifted experience of thousands of churches, that points the way to imaginative planning, laity motivation, leadership enlistment and training, innovative thinking, ministries development, membership recruitment, and program evaluation. The authors advocate participatory decision-making and program evaluation by the church members as an important means of promoting congregational vitality and involvement. Of special value is their analysis of factors in church growth, a subject about which Schaller has written several times before.

The major weakness of the book lies in its large-church orientation. Despite the publisher’s claim, it is difficult to see how many of the recommendations could be practiced in the average church with one pastor and 300 to 500 members. The level of lay involvement required would, in most small and medium-size churches, be found to be utterly unrealistic. Nevertheless, a serious attempt to follow the creative ideas of this book ought greatly to improve the church’s life and ministry.

Wheeley and Cable, adapting the “marketing concept” that began to evolve in business circles in the early thirties, develop an approach to church administration in which informed planning is the basic ingredient. In addition to the usual topics, this handbook includes a helpful chapter on constitution and bylaws. Also worthy of mention are the section on leadership development and the many charts, graphs, and exhibits. The entire treatment, however, is too closely tied to principles of Baptist polity, and the models used are almost all drawn from congregations in the American Baptist Churches. Such parochialism is unfortunate in a work intended for general use.

Much more limited in scope, Lambert’s Managing Church Groups describes the system of church administration known as “Church Management by Objectives and Results” (CMOR). Applying the principles and techniques of Organizational Development theory, CMOR places equal emphasis on task and process in church management, i.e., the needs of the organization and the needs of its individual members, as expressed in the way they feel, respond, and react to one another, their surroundings, and their task. Essential to CMOR, which operates on a developmental rather than autocratic style of leadership, is consensus decision-making. The system, Lambert admits, is not suitable to every church, and should be used only if it will help a congregation or parish organization achieve worthwhile results.

The concern of the CMOR approach for personal values in the operation of the church is commendable. But the underlying democratic concept of the church, with its circular model of authority and accountability—an anomaly in a Roman Catholic like Lambert—limits its usefulness in churches committed to other forms of government. Many of the techniques and procedures in areas such as developing objectives data, writing objectives, programming, allocating resources, and staffing can, of course, be applied universally.

Although the manual has a decidedly Roman Catholic flavor, Protestant church leaders with little knowledge of management will find it informative and stimulating. Learning sheets and exercises at the end of the chapters help the reader apply and practice basic management skills.

A different slant altogether is found in LeRoy Eims’s Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be. The author, director of evangelism worldwide for The Navigators, while recognizing the value of modern management, restricts his study to biblical principles of leadership. The result is a delightful gem of spiritual insight. “As practical and down-to-earth as everyday shoes,” this little book extracts basic principles from Scripture, then illustrates them profusely from the lives of biblical characters and shows how they are confirmed in personal experience today.

So, for example, from Hezekiah we learn what is required to make an impact for God: wholeheartedness, singlemindedness, and a fighting spirit. Nehemiah teaches us the importance of doing our homework; Moses, the need to focus on objectives, not obstacles, and how to resolve difficulties; Daniel, the place of purity and humility; David, the importance of attending to unpleasant duties; Elijah, the perils of discouragement. The ultimate secret of spiritual leadership, Eims maintains, is open-hearted fellowship with the living Christ. The wealth of biblical teaching about leadership is impressive.

Eims’s book is suitable for group study. A leader’s guide with visual aids is available.

For anyone having anything to do with church boards and committees, Ideas For Better Church Meetings is important reading. Every seminary student should be required to digest it. The book is not, as the title might suggest, another aid to improving programs; it is a compact guide to help decision-making bodies become dynamic, harmonious work forces that get results.

Apps takes the reader step-by-step the whole way from selecting committee members to evaluating meetings. He tells how to plan an agenda, analyzes the decision-making process, classifies group-member types, and gives tips on dealing with the various types, considers ways to involve members in discussion (he even diagrams seating arrangements), and describes the use of various visual aids. He discusses how to solve and prevent common problems. Nearly everyone would agree that church meetings often generate tension, strife, frustration, and boredom, and are a waste of time. This book shows how the wasteful can be eliminated and the necessary transformed into creative spiritual experiences.

With the rediscovery of the ministry of the laity has come an awakened concern for training church officers. The books by Foshee on the Baptist deacon and Eyres on the Presbyterian elder lend themselves to this purpose well. Both are comprehensive and practical, and both stress the spiritual qualifications required of these officers, who are viewed as partners with the pastor in the work of ministry. Eyres’s book is particularly valuable for its detailed examination of New Testament passages on elders. Contrary to the current trend, he insists that the Scriptures restrict the eldership to men. Every Presbyterian session ought to docket this study for serious discussion.

While these last two books are obviously directed to particular denominations, many of their emphases are equally applicable to the principal lay officers of any church. Pastors in all traditions will find material here readily adaptable to their own use.

True Spirituality

The Inward Pilgrimage, by Bernhard Christensen (Augsburg, 1976, 176 pp., $3.50 pb), is reviewed by Donald Bloesch, professor of theology, Dubuque Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.

Bernhard Christensen offers a helpful commentary on a number of spiritual classics drawn from the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant communions. Among these are Augustine’s Confessions, Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ, Luther’s Christian Liberty, Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God, Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, John Woolman’s Journal, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together.

In Christensen’s opinion, a work of spirituality is primarily concerned not with ethics or doctrine but with the communion of the soul with God. Its chief aim is to lift the heart toward the Eternal, not to instruct the mind. Such works are especially profitable for those who seek to deepen their devotional life.

This book is a poignant reminder that the secret of Christian liberty is discipleship under the cross. Teresa of Avila perceptively observes that people really become spiritual “when they become slaves of God and are branded with his sign, which is the sign of the Cross, in token that they have given Him their freedom.”

In this commentary one is presented with the hallmarks of Christian holiness: upwelling joy, self-giving and outgoing love, boldness of faith, humbleness of spirit, and freedom to tread unknown paths. The saints unanimously agree that love is the highest of the virtues and that all other virtues are as nothing without love.

The author also reminds us that biblical holiness has a this-worldly as well as an other-worldly dimension. He quotes from Evelyn Underhill: “There is nothing high-minded about Christian holiness. It is most at home in the slum, the street, the hospital ward.” The Christian hope is not only the coming of the kingdom of God at the end of history but also the breaking in of this kingdom in the midst of history.

Although Christensen shows a definite openness to Catholic mysticism, there is no doubt that his primary loyalties are to the faith of the Reformation. He rightly points out that evangelical motifs persist in the tradition of Christian mysticism. Brother Lawrence, for example, maintained that all possible kinds of mortification cannot efface a single sin and that we ought to expect the pardon of our sins from the blood of Jesus Christ alone.

At the same time, it would have been helpful had Christensen delineated the areas of possible conflict between mystical and evangelical spirituality. For example, is the life of prayer an inner pilgrimage or a state of being grasped by a living Saviour who first stands outside us before he dwells within us? Do we meet Christ in the center of our being or in his Word as preached and read? Is prayer simply the recollection of God (as defined in the Eastern Orthodox Way of the Pilgrim) or heartfelt supplication and intercession (as with the Reformers)?

This book can be recommended to both clergy and laity as a valuable introduction to Christian spirituality and particularly to some of the great spiritual classics of the Church. Too often Protestants are prone to forget that Christianity concerns not only the descent of God to man but also the ascent of man to God, that personal holiness is not simply the evidence of justification but also its goal.

Pastors Are People, Too

They Cry, Too!, by Lucille Lavender (Hawthorn, 1975, 152 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Cecil B. Murphey, pastor, Riverdale Presbyterian Church, Riverdale, Georgia.

This book ought to prompt a lot of people (especially clergymen) to say, “At last!” Lucille Lavender, the wife of a pastor, wrote it for laypeople in the church, telling her purpose in the subtitle: “What You Always Wanted to Know About Your Minister and Didn’t Know Whom to Ask.” She makes it plain: ministers are human beings. Their profession demands much from them—and many of those demands are the result of ignorance, insensitivity, or discourtesy.

I have a few minor criticisms. Some of the illustrative material seems extreme or at least overdrawn. A few stories tend toward superficiality and strain for credibility. She occasionally gets sidetracked. For instance, in the chapter on the pastor’s bank account she digresses to give a short lecture on stewardship. Not badly done, but out of place here. In a chapter on his preaching, she concludes with two pages about church attendance. And the last two chapters don’t really add much that hasn’t been said earlier in the book in slightly different ways.

Nonetheless, Lavender does a grand job. She has researched her material well, and she works on sound biblical and psychological principles. She reveals her theme as “a plea to put aside the artificial differences imposed upon a minister—and his wife.”

She asks questions like, How many hours a week does your minister “owe” the church? Must he be available twenty-four hours a day? Do you put him on a pedestal that makes him not quite human? How often do you think of his needs? Ever said, “Hey, pastor, I appreciate you”? She frequently quotes responses from questionnaires sent to clergymen. One of them answered, “My role seems to be an exercise in futility. I hate the loneliness.”

And thank you, Mrs. Lavender, for your chapter about the pastor’s wife and his children. They often undergo hardships worse than the pastor’s. How can a minister’s wife become Doris Jones, a person in her own right, and not just “Doris Jones, our minister’s wife”? Almost every P.K. has been reprimanded for being a normal child by a well-meaning soul who expected perfection. “After all, your father’s a minister!”

At the end of every chapter the author gives a “checklist” by which the reader can examine his or her attitude.

Here are a few samples of her suggestions: Do not confuse the man, who is imperfect, with the One who called him, who is perfect. And allow the pastor and his family to have close friends. Think of how you would feel if your career required that you not have any close friendships!

The book closes with a Pastor’s Responsibility Awareness Quiz, asking the reader to look at the various tasks assigned to the pastor and to assess the number of hours per week he ought to devote to each task.

She asks the reader to fill in the blanks: “As a regularly employed lay person I have —— days off per week. Total days per year apart from vacation: ——.” Then she asks the reader to answer this one: How many days off should my pastor have per week?

As a pastor, I hope my congregation will circulate this book widely in our church—and I intend to make it available. The reason is not that I want pity, but that it can help bridge the gap between the ordained minister and other people.

Briefly Noted

What do Augustine, Pascal, Blake, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, and Bonhoeffer have in common? Answer: they have attracted the attention of one of England’s best-known journalists, who has become a Christian in recent years and who regards them as “God’s spies,” stay-behind agents in enemy-occupied territory, men of their time who seek to relate their time to eternity. A Third Testament by Malcolm Muggeridge (Little, Brown, 207 pp., $12.95) is a personal statement of faith originally prepared for television. Not everyone will agree that the author has given a fully adequate account of these “six characters in search of God,” but every Christian will rejoice to see the Good News being proclaimed so fearlessly and so beautifully in such an important sphere.

There Is a Better Way of Living by Sidney Gerhardt and Elizabeth McKay (Seabury, 128 pp., $5.95) is a reaction against interpersonal alienation and coldness. Though not studded with scriptural references, it is to be commended for its view of unconditional friendship as the cornerstone for close relationships. In our society we have stressed independence, but it is through interdependence that we enhance the quality of life together.

No one will ever mistake The Word Made Fresh for anything other than the freest of biblical paraphrases. Published in three paperback volumes by John Knox (Genesis-Kings, 249 pp., $3.95; Chronicles-Malachi, 294 pp., $3.95; Matthew-Revelation, 345 pp., $5.95), it is the work of Andrew Edington, a Presbyterian layman. It conveys the Bible’s message in a style reminiscent of Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Version. Though certain to liven up family devotions and the local Sunday school, it is hardly likely to become a literary classic.

Whether married, single, parents, or children, we all live in a series of relationships. Family Life (Word, 245 pp., $6.95, $4.50 pb) concentrates on God’s view of these relationships. It is by Ray Stedman and five of his colleagues at Peninsula Bible Church. Their views on the biblical tenets of marriage correlate with those of another colleague. Bob Smith, who wrote Love Story, The Real Thing (Word, 97 pp., $2.95 pb). The longer book devotes interesting chapters to the relationships of single people and deals with such problems as masturbation, fornication, and homesexuality. An expanded view of the family within a larger community is presented at the end of the book to balance the roles in the nuclear family discussed earlier.

Child-rearing has never been an easy assignment. Very basic to building self-esteem are “significance, security, acceptance, love, praise, discipline, and God,” discussed in Seven Things Children Need by John Drescher (Herald Press, 152 pp., $1.95 pb). The words of this Mennonite pastor are a good start or review for any parent. Another need of children and adults is expressed in quite a different way in Caring, Feeling, Touching by Sidney Simons (Argus, 101 pp., $1.95 pb). We have a natural and wholesome need to touch and be touched that is often suppressed. Using excellent photographs, Simons clarifies this need and gives examples of how to help fulfill it, starting with one’s family.

The Episcopal Church’s recent decision to ordain women as priests makes particularly timely Women and Catholic Priesthood edited by Anne Marie Gardiner (Paulist, 259 pp., $5.95 pb). It is the proceedings of a Catholic Women’s Ordination Conference held in Detroit last November. Which requirement for its priests will the Latin church change first, celibacy or masculinity? For a high-low Anglican collaborative effort responsibly, though futilely, opposing women priests, see the expanded edition of Why Not? edited by Michael Bruce and G. E. Duffield (Marcham Books [Appleford, Abingdon, Berkshire, U.K.], 184 pp., $6.65 pb).

Most of what many Christians know about what Jews and Judaism believe comes from hearsay or from Christian sources. Rarely have non-Jews taken the trouble to read the Jewish sources for themselves. There is really no excuse for this approach today—if there ever was—since there are a host of non-technical books on Jewish faith and practice written by Jews. The Essential Talmud by Adin Steinsaltz (Basic Books, 296 pp., $10) offers a fascinating introduction to the codified oral tradition that provides orthodox Judaism its key to the Law of Moses and to daily life. A Modern Interpretation of Judaism by Charles and Bertie Schwartz (Schocken, 189 pp., $3.95 pb) bears the subtitle “Faith Through Reason” and is a lucid exposition of the Jewish religion from a layman’s viewpoint by a husband and wife (he is an attorney). Of a different nature is Judaism in America by Joseph L. Blau (University of Chicago, 156 pp., $8.95), a scholar’s account of the history of Judaism (as distinct from that of Jewish people) in its American expression. All of these will be found both interesting and useful by Christians who seek to understand and relate to Jewish neighbors.

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