gives 20 to 40 hours per week to prayer and study for the purpose of “ perfecting” the members of his church will have a people that are really com municating Christ between Sundays, thus multi plying the pastor’s hands immeasurably. SCRIPTURAL CONCEPT OF THE PURPOSE OF A LOCAL CHURCH Current pressures were never greater to sway the local church away from its God-given commis sion of evangelism, into all types of community involvement, social service and political activity. History proves that local churches have made their greatest contributions to society when truest to their New Testament pattern and purpose. Dr. Oswald J. Smith of Toronto, Canada is right in thundering the following statement: “ The supreme task of the church is the evangelization o f the world.” The simple questions, “Why are we here?,” and “What are we supposed to do?,” go begging for answers in many Christians’ minds. Every phase o f the local church operation should relate to the all-absorbing task of communicating Christ to the world. If a given function does not contribute to this objective, it must go! The routine program of church life has a way of obscuring this objective until local churches become island entities of piety, social units of indifference and selfishness, status symbols o f affluent suburbia, congregations evan- gelistically arrested. By contrast, the New Testa ment churches were gathered communities of be lievers worshipping Christ in their times of assem bly, and scattered individuals between worship oc casions witnessing everywhere they went because they couldn’t help it. EQUIPPING THE LOCAL PLANT Tooling up means providing all necessary and modem equipment whereby the church may operate with maximum coordination and efficiency at the local level. Economizing on the local operation for the sake of missions abroad may be a step in re verse for the missionary program. Like the tool ing up o f a factory for production, the local church needs to have adequate office equipment including
typewriters, addressograph, dictating equipment, complete personnel record system, etc. IMPROVED ADMINISTRATION AND COMMUNICATION “ Tooling up” means taking a fresh look at the church constitution and by-laws. Does the multiple Board and Committee arrangement o f the past fifty years still serve our administrative needs in a day when demands made upon us have multiplied ? Our church, after a year and a half o f special study, adopted the one Board type of church administra tion to provide adequate coordination between ad ministrative groups of the church. Together with the new By-laws, job descriptions are being writ ten in a Special Policy Manual covering all elective offices. Committee communications are required to be in writing with written monthly reports. Regular church members may feel lost in the crowd, strangers to those beside them in worship, without personal “ newsy” information that would stimulate friendship. To meet this need, a weekly newsletter has been provided at considerable ex pense and staff time. A program is currently under way to revise all forms o f church literature under the direction of a public relations specialist. We believe that attractive artistic literature profession ally done is a vital part of our “ tooling up.” We are known in the community partly by the attrac tiveness or unsightliness o f our written communi cations. Surely, the page that speaks for Christ should compare favorably with that which promotes insurance, schools and stores. ENLARGED FACILITIES Tooling up for First Baptist Church of Salem, Oregon also includes the construction of a Chris tian Education building, the purchase o f an out door site for summer activities, and the securing of a beach retreat facility for church officer re treats and youth over-night functions. An attrac tive 17-acre river frontage site has just been pur chased which is o f special significance in view of the limited area available at the down-town loca tion of the church building. Funds for these three
L eft: Mrs. Tom Means (right) assisted by Mrs. Vic Barnick teaches a child evangelism class in a neigh boring home. Middle: Mr. Marion Scheidel, Sunday School Superintendent. Right: Pastor Richard C. Kirk, Associate Pastor, instructs a class for new members. JANUARY, 1968
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