Religion: Twelve Churches

The ministers of top U.S. churches are not always outstanding preachers. Many of them also tend to put too much emphasis on service and too little on God's Word.

This is one of the conclusions reached by the editors of the Christian Century after careful and detailed study of twelve of the most successful and important Protestant churches in the U.S. In Chicago last week, the Century's editors analyzed the round dozen for trends and common denominators.

Must a successful church have an outstanding minister? He must certainly be a "good minister," say the editors, and must work at it for a "considerable number of years." But pulpit fireworks are not necessary; "only three of the ministers in these [twelve] churches are outstanding as preachers." In U.S. Protestant churches, according to the Century's editors, there is no lack of pastoral care. In fact, they suggest, there is a bit too much "service" at the expense of the people's need "to hear the word of the Lord proclaimed in contemporary power." One reason is the desire of congregations for their churches to be community centers. Another is that "the intellectual and spiritual demands of a truly prophetic ministry are more searching and less immediately rewarding than the pastoral ministry."

City churches show a marked indifference to denominational loyalties, the editors found. But in their support of missions and church projects outside their localities, congregations, the editors feel, follow denominational lines too closely, without paying enough attention to church federations and other cooperative enterprises. U.S. churches, according to the Century's editors, also fence themselves off from two of the greatest challenges to the expansion of Christianity—the Negro and the industrial worker.

In matters of theology, the editors found that "these churches are growing toward each other, those on the extremes . . . moving toward the center . . . The 'liberal' congregations are beginning to stress more than they once did the importance of biblical and theological teaching and preaching.The 'conservative' churches are gradually yielding to the influence of ecumenical doctrine and are more ready than formerly to accept the good faith and Christian integrity of those with whom they do not agree."