Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-16
THERE'S MONEY IN 1T.
Chicago Ideas Which Might Be Used
by Christ Church Trustees.
PULPTTS IN BUSINESS HOUSES
Success Of the Preachers Who Use the
TheaterS on Sundays
LARGE AUDIENCES AND BIG RECEIPTS
rFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT J

rFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT
CHICAGO, May 1a--Financially the burn.
ing of Christ Church, Pittsburg, may turn
out to be piece of great good luck to the
congregation which has thus been compelled
to resort to the theater in which to hold its
services. 1t may turn out to be the perma'
nent introduction in Pittsburg of the dis.
tinctively Chicago idea of mixing religion
with business and so making the devil him.
self work to support the church.
The scheme here was first tried by the
Methodists, to whom lot about 100 feet
square at the southeast corner of Clark and
Washington streets was given many years
ago. This location is in the very heart OF
the business center where land has within
the past few years quadrupled and quin-
tupled in value because of the perfection Of
the passenger elevator and the erection OF
16 and 20 story Office buildings.
Business House and Church.
Long before the fire of 1871 the Method
lists erected building on that corner -four
stories high, the lower stories and basement
being fitted up for stores, offices and other
business purposes, and the third and fourth
floors furnishing space for great audience
room, with lecture rooms and pastors study
attached, and also a number of lodge
rooms. The scheme proved to be great
success. Those parts of the building which
ere devoted to such worldly purposes as
- sale of scalpers' tickets and soda water
Welded a revenue of about S15,0 year
more than sufficient to pay all expenses, and
leave the church members free TO spend for
summer excursions what they might other
wise have to pay for the support of the
gospel
But the donor of the land, foreSeeing that
such a result might happen, provided in his
donation that large part of the income
should be devoted to church extension and,
rs a result, the members of the First NJ. e.
Church had TO hustle to raise their pas
tors salary pretty much as other Christians
do The present building, which was re-
built after the fire of 1871, is antiquated and
away out of date, but it yields from rent
about So, 600 year.
A Big Scheme on Foot.
A scheme is or foot to tear it down and
replace it with a history office building
reserving the choicest part of the space for
church purposes, and doubtless this viii at
some time be done. If this change is made
wisely the income from that piece of real
estate can easily be raised to $50 900 year.
Better results have been accomplished with
similar lots even less favorably located.
The best churches in Chicago are held in
the theaters DR.. H. w. Thomas, who was
ruled out of the Methodist Church several
wears ago fer not believing several things
which he should have believed. holds forth
every Sunday forenoon at McVicker'S Thea
Ter to an audience of from 1900 to 5000.
The seats rent fo- from 81 80 to $50 each
per year, and collection is taken up to
enable the horde of strangers who drift in.
every Sunday TO make contribution.
Thomas sermons are lectures rather than
sermons; they are intellectual rather than
spiritual, and, as might be expected, there
is not a great deal of sociability among the
members, although strenuous efforts are
made TO work it up by means of gatherings
of the members held alternately by the
members in the south, north and west di
visions of the city. At that church there is
nothing that resembles the Methodist re-
ViVal service.
AT Central Music Hall, around the corner
from McVickers and the First Methodist
Church, Prof Swing, the poetical and
brainy hereto, who was cast out of the
PRESBYTERIAN Church for not believing
something or other few years ago.. holds
forth a somewhat similar assembly as that
of Dr. Thomas.
Every Sermon Poem.
Every sermon here is a poem, expressed
in matchless English, but marred by an
execrable mumbling delivery which it takes
time TO become used to. The most intellec-
tual people of the city and suburbs flock to
Swings standard, and it takes a very
stormy Sunday morning TO leave many of
his seats empty.
The managers here consider it vulgar to
take up a collection. The hat is never
passed, and the only way the visiting
stranger can pay for the hospitality extended
70 him is by renting scat at a cost of from
$50 to 500 year. Both Prof Swing and
Dr. Thomas are paid very liberal salaries
Very recent V another Methodist minister,
the Rev. Flayius J. Brobst, a former Penn.
sylvanian by the way, has cut loose from
the church and organized 'The. Union
Temple" which meets every Sunday after
noon at Hooley's Theater, and Rev. Frank
Gunsaulus, pastor of Plymouth CoDgrega-
tional Church, which is located three miles
from the business center, on the Southside,
has for several months been holding even
ing services at Central Music Hall which
have been wonderfully popular; the attend
ance has been SO large that admittanee could
not be obtained after z o'clock. There has
been talk of utilizing the Auditorium
for a Sunday church service but Dr. Lori
been spoken of in that connection, is. about
to leave the city, having recently accepted
a call 10 Boston.
What the Experiments Show,
The Chicago experiments, most of which
have been spoken of above, have demon
strated that, at least as far as attendance is
concerned, a church can be carried on in
theater as successfully as anywhere else.
They have also shown that church located
in the business center of a large city can
combine business with religion, with
very great financial profit to it
self and increased attendance and
without any loss of vitality, power or
infuence-at least that seems to be the ex-
perience of the Methodist church referred
70.
The moral of all this is that if the Christ
Church people should build a history
modern fre-proof Office building at the juno
tion of Penn avenue and Eighth street,
single years income would wipe out the fire
loss and leave them financially, at least,
ahead of any other church in Pittsburg, and
besides they would have the proud distinc-
tion of being the pioneers in the introduc-
! VI