Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II SHALL THE MINISTER ALWAYS LEAD?
Yes
and
No, in answer to the above question. If the midweek service is to be simply a midweek lecture?a third preaching service? then of course the minister will always lead the service; in the main, the minister will be the service. It is not the purpose here to discuss whether such a service is wisest. Each church must determine in the light of its own circumstances. What was said in the last chapter has its bearing, to be sure. But if the midweek service is to be a prayer-meeting, then it should be the people’s meeting. The voices of the people should predominate. But should not the minister lead, even though the members participate? I think some strong reasons can be given for lay leadership. I. It will be admitted, even by many ministers, that there is a possibility of having
too much minister in what should be the people’s service. There is danger that it will be a weak, half-tone reproduction of the Sunday services; too stiff and formal, smacking too strongly of the minister’s library and homiletic magazine; not human enough. Dr. Gray, of Tke Interior, was wont to say, in his waggish way, that three ministers were enough to kill a prayer-meeting. He did not mean that they would talk it to death; most ministers have too much sense for that. But, given the finest sense of fitness, and the best of intentions, the average minister will be a minister, from force of habit, when he enters the church door. It is not a matter of too much talk, but of too much
ministerialishness, to coin a word that will need no further definition. Therefore, it is better, often, for another to lead the people’s service. 2. There is no necessity that the minister should lead, in a far larger number of churches than one might at first thin…