The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-09
WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK OF CHURCH HELD IN THEATRE? Many Citizens Interviewed on Subject Yesterday by Age-Herald Reporters ALL FAVOR
 THE INNOVATION Dr. Preston Blake Even Says He May Do Likewise Because He
 Believes in Reaching
 the People

I
 pastor of the Independent Presbyterian
 church of Birmingham, compiled with the
 biblical instruction to go out and bring 1 the people to God, was the prevailing
 opinion in Birmingham yesterday. Dr. Preston Blake declared the idea
 which Dr. Edmonds had put into prac- tlcal operation was splendid. The well l known pastor of the Southside Baptist
 church, repeating the foregoing opinion, promised soon to emulate the Edmonds' i example
 | While one more of innumerable peo- pie interviewed yesterday by reporters
 of The Age-Herald smiled, requested to
 be permitted to reserve their opinions, or in "damning with faint praise at titude expressed the conviction that Dr.. Eomonds was somewhat unconventional,
 the great bulk of those questioned prompt ly rendered verbal support to the course adopted by the popular pastor.
 Dr. Blake Approves
 l When interviewed, Dr. Blake was in a discussion with Walter B. Fowlkes and
 Dr. w. B. Hubbard chaplain of the state convict bureau. Mr. Fowlkes, when the | TSPOitSI plOpOullucu HIS lQteTTOSdllOI, eN-
 pressed approval of what Dr. Edmonds had done Dr. Hubbard agreed and 1 spoke in highly complimentary fashion of
 a minister who would proceed in the serv- | ice of God to the point of going out after those who had strayed. And then Dr.. Blake spoke:
 1 ''Dr Edmonds' idea Is splendid. The Baptists do not refer to their church as
 a house. It is simply congregation. I 1 intend to deliver some sermons on the
 streets. For when we go out among the
 people, appearing in unaccustomed place, we reach those who in no other manner
 would be reached.
 1 Why some years ago, I delivered ser- linens on the streets. I had wagon and some singers, and went from corner to
 corner. I enjoyed preaching to the peo- pie. And I am convinced that I achieved
 some good results.'
 Other interviews obtained follow: J. M. F. Otis. T believe we ought to l go out after the man who needs to be l saved. We should go after him in the office buildings, on the streets, in the theatres, on South Highlands, on North | Highlands, in the western section and 1 in the eastern section. I am heartily 1 in favor Of holding church services in downtown. because I believe many peo- pie can be reached in this way who l could not be reached otherwise.
 However, I do not think the down. town services should supplant the | regular church services. Continue the 1 services at the churches at the usual hours, as they have been conducted
 always. But go out after the fallen man in all places The downtown church is one way to do it.
 ! Harry l.. White: T believe 1t good l idea to hold services downtown. The church in this way can get to many 1 people it otherwise would not touch.
 It seems to me good proposition.'
 Has His Ideas About Churches Sam J. Erckert: Well, don't see any harm In holding church services l at one of the theatres downtown, and | it holds unlimited possibilities for good. Yes, I think the churches ought to 1 have meetings downtown Sundays. They can reach hundreds of people who | are on the streets Sunday evenings wondering where to go and what to do. l q have some ideas of my own on church architecture. and believe that l the fact that a man can walk into a 1 theatre without having to climb steps | or watch carefully where he walks be- 1 cause of the dimness of the lights. has much to do with keeping many men away from church. The churches must l make their edifices attractive from an exterior viewpoint, as well as on the inside'
 Mir. Stovall's Views
 The Rev. G. B. T. Stovall, 1900 Sec- 1 ond avenue, West End. who signs him. self "an fashioned preacher" wrote | the following statement for The Age Herald:
 Aside from the novelty and curiosity of the occasion, the throngs that pressed l to hear MT. Edmonds at the Strand thea l Ire Sunday night are of very great in terest and significance.
 He said in his sermon as reported by The Age-Herald that the churches needed l a new birth: that they were wrong in | their attitude toward worldly amuse- ments for their members such as the theatres, the dance. etc. If these things are legitimate and proper for Christian | people, very surely he is right, and would be right in insisting that they change ] front in these matters.
 But there are those of us that not only think that card playing theatrego- | ing, dancing and world conformity in the matter of dress and of wearing gold and pearls and painting and powdering the | face are wrong and hurtful to spiritual | drances to righteousness and humility. 1 the salvation of souls and the coming of the ungdom of God of anything else at ' this time of the worlds history.
 1 '"rhe greatest enemy to God and spirit
 uality is self, the sinful. carnal self in
 us, and the cultivation of our own self 1 love and pleasures If we are to go by the Bible at all clearly the life enjoined upon the disciple of Jesus Christ is life
 of denial of self, of mortifying the fieshly I lusts and desires. But MT. Edmonds is reported as saying that the new birth does not come through the destruction of
 the old fallen, sinful feshly nature and the creation of new spiritua. life, but by the right training of the natural life. | "Clearly all this Is contrary to the very clear and emphatic teaching of the New Testatment Scriptures, which say that all by nature are children of wrath. So 1 much is involved in this matter in that
 it not only affects the life and happiness of my children and your chillren and of us all here and now, but in the eternity to
 come. that it is but fair to ask Mir. Ed monds how i've now know" as he is re- l ported as saying that 1t is right and safe
 lcsntaansa sA PaGs Ssvsa.a