RESIGNS FROM CHURCH

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 362, 25 October 1932, Page 2

RESIGNS FROM CHURCH

! PASTOR ON DOLE CONGREGATION CDMPLAINED THAT HIS SERMONS TOO LONG. "NOT STOPWATCH PREACHER." I . ^ , I Many members of the congregation | of the Auburn Church of Ghrist are i bitterly criticql of their former pastor, Evangelist Hector Spratt, whose resignation takes effect as from..tor day. He has registered for employment as a carpenter and applied" for the dole. Mr. Spratt, who has a wife and two children, stated that he had resigned because the congregation had . complained that his sermons were too long, and he objected to becoming a "mechanical stopwatch pffeacher." Members of the congregation said that they had made other complaints about Mr. Spratt. These included one that he took too many holidays, and a few months ago went for a seven w.eek's motor tour, while his salary of £4 a week was going on all the time. . Many of them, too, objected to his attitude about smoking, picture shows, and dancing. On more than one occasion, they stated, he told his floek that these things led people away from God. About a dozen members of th'e congregation, inclu'ding a deacon and an elder, have left the church and are holding services in the Dispensary Hall at Auburn. Mr. Spratt denied that his sermons lasted 40 minutes. He said that a fisherman did not run to catch a train just as he got a good bite; he waited for the next train. God had made ministers fishers of men, He had studied the psychology of his congregation, and when he found some of those present on the verge of giving themselves to God, he made an effort to win them. That was why h'e sometimes spoke at length.