Your own committee also wishes to utilize the Conference. To this end they suggest that this Association recommends to the several Conferences in the State that a presentation of the subject be included in the programs for their fall meetings; and that the Conferences in turn shall recommend to the pastors in their respective bodies, to preach at least one sermon before the close of the year in which they shall duly emphasize the theme. One further thought in conclusion. It is the belief that some such agency as this Committee on Labor Organizations can in the future be made greatly useful, if intelligently guided and sufficiently constrained by the love of Christ, in removing the prejudices which, unreasonable as most of them are, exist in the minds of some of the laboring classes against the Church. It can serve this purpose by becoming a medium of communication between the Church and these people, bringing to the Church the knowledge, gained through personal contact, of their hardships and of their wrongs as far as they have wrongs, and in return conveying to them an expression of our sincere desire that the church shall become to them what the Saviour intended it ever to be, a place of refuge, of sympathy, and of help. This, with the additional thought of the relation which this committee sustains to the "Joint Committee" which it has been instrumental in bringing into existence, will probably aid you in deciding upon the wisdom of continuing some such committee another year. Respectfully submitted, JAMES G. BUTTRICK, chairman,) Committee on Report. ADDRESS.' BY REV. FRANK W. MERRICK. Wastes in Over-organization. Because order is Heaven's first law, it is therefore one of the first necessities. Vigorous life multiplies the forms of its activities, and its fruitfulness is the best test of its worth. The gardener never esteems his vine according to its output of branches and blossoms. Indeed, their over-abundance arouses suspicion that the life of the vine will not make itself concrete in fruit. Likewise, the machinist aims for the maximum of efficiency with the minimum of machinery. Cogs and wheels and levers multiplied beyond necessity tend to poor work, friction, and danger. In mechanics, unity and safety are directly related to simplicity. Whether we adopt the organism or the machine as the type of organized activity in the church, the vital element is indispensable. But the divine life must be organized and directed. As with the individual, so with the church, next to life, training is the chief requisite, for the church as well as the individual is a part of an order which she did not make, but found. To-day, however, we are in danger from too much organization. In the State, this tendency takes the form of paternalism on the one hand, and on the other of parasitism, rendered possible through the multiplication of commissions and bureaus. In the school it takes the form of political domination from without, and of patchwork educational processes from within. In society, this tendency becomes concrete in needlessly multiplied social duties and conventions, until we become the slaves of the order we have made. That the church should share in the fortune and misfortune of this spirit is inevitable. The effect in the local church is doubtless modified by the type of polity to which that local church belongs. If it be a part of a highly centralized body, the difficulty is not likely to be as great, because the main lines of activity are prescribed by the central authority. However, in the exercise of individual privilege, possible in many if not all highly organized Protestant communions, a local church may multiply its secondary agencies. If so, prescribed and proved agencies may be weakened or endangered, and a spasmodic whirr of machinery end in breakage through ill-adjustment of parts, or in sudden arrest through total expenditure of motive power. In churches having a democratic polity, the evils of over-organization are more pronounced. The independence of the local church, modified only by the principle of fellowship, a bond often notoriously weak, affords the best opportunity for all sorts of foolish activities planned and guided by the zealous, but restless and injudicious. Under such condi tions, an intelligent, spiritual, conservative membership is invaluable. Over-organization in churches of the democratic polity usually takes one of two allied forms: (1) The multiplication of religious societies gathered about the church, agreeing with it in spirit and aim, but tending constantly to weaken the church by assuming its duties and by diverting the time and strength of members who belong to both church and society into good but distinctly non-church channels. (2) The other evil of over-organization is in the multiplication of distinctly non-religious societies of philanthropic or otherwise benevolent intent, which seek the shelter but deny the control of the church. Do not misunderstand me. I have no word of criticism upon either of these classes of organization. Though they are seldom instituted by the church, or even invited by it to do the work assumed, they are worthy of respect for the quality and quantity of their service; but I hold that criticism may justly be made from two standpoints: (a) The multiplicity of these societies tends to divert attention from the church itself as an organization. (b) There is a lack of spontaneity, vigor, and power through needless complication of machinery. What remedy, I am asked, would you propose? In brief, let the church, through its appropriate committees, do its own work, said committees acting under the direction of the church and amenable to it. No small part of the modern attitude of indifference and contempt toward the church is attributable to its irresolute and loose life as a definite force in the world, and its seeming content with its position. In an article entitled "The Churches and Good Citizenship," Dr. Dike has shown how the churches having a democratic polity may aid good citizenship effectually, though indirectly, through "laboratory practice." If the business, it is contended, of the parish, the church, the Sunday school, the Christian Endeavor Society, and of the committees of these various organizations, were conducted as it should and can be, first-class training would be given, good business habits would be formed, — all of which are as important to one in the capacity of a church member as in the role of a citizen. "Most of the elements," says Dr. Dike, "of the questions of municipal reform are to be found in germ or in considerably advanced stages of development within many of our churches. The nonvoting citizen, the multiplicity of departments, the self-constituted organization for exploiting the city, the committee transcending its powers, the bureau that insists upon being independent of civic control, the routine committee and time-serving official, the carelessly made records, the poorly kept books, the shallow treatment of public policy, the easy-going readiness to let things go as they have been going, the unwillingness to take hold of reform in earnest, are all serious municipal evils. But numerous churches have many of these evils in more or less serious degree within their own organization, and sometimes to an alarming extent.” These considerations bring us to the very heart of our subject: Wastes in over-organization. The subject is general. It has an application to the various benevolent societies of the churches, which societies, though true to their trust, yet, in the judgment of an increasing number of thoughtful and generous people, need co-ordination. It applies to the various organizations related to the local church which are doing similar work. 1. The first waste in over-organization is the waste of effort through overlapping. This loss follows wherever societies are multiplied in the local church whose work is very akin, and also wherever certain voluntary or municipal organizations of a philanthropic kind come into conflict with religious societies having in view the same ends. When a half dozen organizations loosely related to a church do work that may properly be called benevolent, there is an immense waste of energy. Better far to federate all of them and make each separate society a committee, calling all the organizations thus related the Department of Benevolence. The advantage of small societies, each with a specific end in view, is, it is said, that various tastes and inclinations of different people can thus be gratified and utilized; but granting this advantage, is it not more than outweighed by serious disadvantages, one of which is that one large, strong society, with many related lines of action, has an esprit de corps that cannot be found in the small and limited society? By dividing the church into departments, each of which is composed of committees for special work, the waste from overlapping is reduced to the minimum, and the chief advantages of widely and narrowly distributed interest and effort are found combined. Furthermore, the local church thus simply but efficiently organized may, through the appropriate committee, come into agreement with the relief work of the town, municipality, and social brotherhood. There is no good reason why the appropriate committee on poor relief of a given church might not co-operate with the Associated Charities of the large municipality. Nor is there any good reason why those appointed to visit the sick might not co-operate with the committee for the same purpose from the social brotherhood, with mutual advantage to all parties in this Good Samaritan service. 2. The second waste in over-organization is loss of interest. The common opinion is that interest in a given work is promoted somewhat iu inverse proportion to the number of persons enlisted. Undoubtedly this is true of the remunerative monopoly; but it is the exact opposite of the truth in organized Christian service. A Sunday-school teacher devises a little organization for his class. It is social or literary or benevolent. During the intensely selfish period of youth, it serves its purpose. But it is too small, too narrow in spirit, too limited in aim, too individualistic to last. A reaction is likely to follow and the original interest turn to indifference or disgust. If the work related at first to some form of benevolence, such a result is a calamity. 3. The third waste in over-organization is through loss of the sense of social unity. In reality this is closely allied to the waste through loss of interest. At all hazards the sense of solidarity and the desire for co operation must be maintained. At this point, the over-organized church defeats itself. It thinks to arouse great interest and achieve uncommon success through its multiplied functions. The apparent gain is formal, not real. Rivalries arise between one society and another, and invidious comparisons are often made between one or more of these societies and the church as an organized body. The essential notion in the old exploded interpretation of the doctrine of state sovereignty-liberty without unity shows itself in the church. We are told on every hand to-day that the church is losing power; that the day of decline is already here and the day of death is not distant. While we believe this a false prophecy, yet the cause of such predictions is a legitimate inquiry. One of the causes is the multiplication of societies religious and non-religious, having a distant relation to the church, if indeed they have any relaton at all to it. The church is weak and half-atrophied to-day largely because it has hitherto neglected to do its own work and is forming the habit of delegating it to various organizations which the providence of God has provided to meet our necessities. We need an immediate return to the Pauline idea of the church as the body of which Christ is the head, a body in which all the members are so related that they are members one of another, yet one body. The church will not win and keep the respect of men of the world by merely acceding to the plans which a few zealous members may devise, but fail to incorporate into the church, nor by concerning itself primarily with every possible interest except the culture of the personal Christian life. In a contributed article in the Outlook for April 18, 1896, entitled "Church Centres," the directly opposite plan of organized Christian work is advocated. The church, it is said, should be the centre of every humanizing influence, and it is confidently asserted that "were this the accepted position of the churches," many outside organizations which do this work would then have no reason for existence, and multitudes of men and women would be drawn to the support of these Christian agencies connected with the churches. "Why," it is asked," should Sunday schools not have connected with them the secular element of manual training during the week? Why should not activity in scientific charity, in sanitary measures, in everything that may promote happiness in the home, or advance the welfare of the Commonwealth, emanate from these all powerful church centres? Why should not civic clubs and good government clubs be led to hold their councils in the churches?" Why not, indeed, where the exceptional conditions require it? But when these exceptional conditions do not prevail, why should these organization-burs stick to the church? In unnumbered towns through our own and other States no such all-inclusive plans are feasible. To force such efforts would be to invite defeat with its after chagrin. The reasons for this certain defeat are many. One of them is the already over-organized church field. A half-dozen struggling sects in altogether too many localities are singing about once a month in these days, "We are not divided, All one body we." |