p. 8 | Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 26, 1909

Note and Comment

The Institutional Church

THE “institutional church” is defined by Reed Stuart, a Detroit clergyman, to be one which “believes in free soup, in boys’ clubs, and basket-ball, and in cadets carrying guns in the name of Christ.” Such a church does not accord with his ideals, and in consequence he has resigned, after continuing twenty-three years in its pastorate. In speaking of the reasons for his resignation, the Nation of July 8, says:—

The institutional church does, no doubt, a world of good; but some of its activities are confessedly only a sort of pious bribe to induce people to occupy pews, and it certainly tends to belittle the prophetic function of the clergyman. What is really needed is a division of labor, by which those who have a talent for “serving tables,” in the Scriptural phrase, may wreak themselves on the machinery of the boys’ brigades, while those who feel a message burning in their souls may be left free to shape and deliver it.

As the church loses the drawing power of the Spirit in her work, she inclines to the use of social clubs, games, and worldly contrivances to maintain her hold on the masses. These may increase her popularity with the unregenerate, but they are a menace to vital godliness, and leave the church How weak and powerless in the accomplishment of her divine mission to men. The church of God to-day needs to recognize the dignified and holy character of her sacred ministry, leave off man-made devices, return to the simplicity of Bible faith and practise, and then she can take hold of the divine strength which is found in her Lord and Master. Until she does this, while she may become a great fashionable, social organization, she will fail signally of the accomplishment of the commission given her by her great Founder.