Inside the Churches

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 782, 16 July 1954, Page 11

Inside the Churches

TO the question "Empty Churches: How Can They be Filled?" one might counter, "How well would a church be filled if Christ was the Pastor?" And I have known ministers who) thought that the straight gospel would | be more likely to empty than to fill | their churches. But such is the modern | ;

emphasis upon social harmony and adjustment that we forget this swordlike attribute of the spirit. Indeed, the 3YA panel which discussed the question of empty churches scarcely touched on the difficulties in the prophetic aspect of Christianity, which is complementary to, but not easily compatible with, the priestly and conservative nature of the church, Although the panel did suggest that certain hymns and a fondness for the archaisms of the Authorised Version lulled rather than challenged the congregations, the whole discussion might have been a good deal livelier for the presence of someone who, while loving the Gospels, did not find church life very dynamic or relevant. As one of the points listed at the end, even the "patient continuance of well doing" might act as a soporific, implying that a perpetual patching up of society is enough instead of a searching for causes; a pursuit which would entail less naiveness and more _ intellectual

effort.

Westcliff