The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-09
CHANGES IN CHURCH METHODS.

Inc matter may not COME up U us
cussion at the coming meeting of the Pres
b~yterian General Assembly, but the adop-
ton of the itinerant system for the minis
tiers of that denomination is being seriously
talked of by laymen. The present system
of ''candidating'' has long been recognized
as undignifed and unsatisfactory, and a
congregation frequently finds itself en-
b~arrassed by having a minister in charge
who does not suit, but whom it does not
know how to get rid of. The system works
also to the disadvantage of ministers, since
congregations are unwilling to call a
man over fifty-five years of age through the
dislike they have to freezing him out in
his old age. But, above and beyond all
such embarrassment is the desire felt for
frequent change, and it is a desire not UNI
reasonable nor unnatural. There may have
been a time when ministers, as a class, re-
manned in advance of their focks, intel
lectually as well as spiritually, and were
able to be real leaders to the end, but it is
no longer the rule. 1t is no disparagement
Of the clergy, but rather a proof Of the
spread of education and of the habit of in
dependent thought among their hearers to
say that the average minister wears him
self OUT for any given congregation in a
Comparatively few years. The Methodist
Church puts the outside limit at five years.
The pastor may be popular and his useful
ness in the one church not be ended at the
close of that period, but it is Eeld that ne
could do greater good in another field. 1t Is
this phase of the question, in fact, which
is the strongest argument in favor of the
itinerancv. A writer in the New York OBJ
server puts the matter in this way: IAN
occasional change of the pastor lends Won
derful life to the work of the church. NO
argument is called for on this point. Actual
experience has placed it beyond the domain
of If there is a poky or an IN
efficient pastor, it is well enough to let
him stav in one place all his life, but our
good preachers and successful pastors are
needed so badly everywhere that we can
hardly afford to let them stay In one place.
even so long as one year" Thls writer
goes on to say that if DR.. John Hall or DR..
M. B. Palmer had spent two or three years
in each of a dozen different States they
would. themselves have benefited and would
have given the Presbyterian Church ten
thousand more members than it now mas
AS it is, the church at large has never seen
them or heard them preach. He believes
that if a proposition for a limited passionate
were submitted to a vote of the Presby-
terrain laity it would secure the support Oh
nine-tenths of the people, though the MIN
isters would unanimously oppose it. Wheth-
err this is true or not the fact thaI So ldoi-
cal a. revolution in a long-establlsheo SyS-
tenn is proposed is an interesting mahlIes-
tation of the unrest in church circles ana
Of the anxiety of the laity to lave the
horaf+ of the most advanced thought in
their religious life. Oddly enough TINS
feeling has a development OF an opposite
sort in the Methodist C~hurch-namely III d
movement. not very extensive, however 10
do away, at least partially, with the ltih-
Grant system.