Northwestern Bible School - Scroll Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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During the early yean of my Minneapolis pastorate In my ministerial life I have never flirted with a single church to the point of permit¬ ting a call, unless I was first assured of God that it was His will that I should ac¬ cept it; and that is why no newspaper has ever carried a report of any call extended to the pastor of the First Church, Minne¬ apolis. I have believed it to be unethical and unchristian, and in something like thir¬ ty instances, involving most attractive pul¬ pits in the states and Canada, and college and seminary positions, I have killed such movements by a positive declaration of “No 11 and No use while yet it was in the incipient committee stage. The certainty that I am past the dead line seems to exist in the circumstance that for two years now no pulpit has approached me with a propo¬ sition. I came to Minneapolis to succeed Way- land Hoyt, a most capable preacher, an orator of the first order, a loyal and sound theologian. I found the church well housed Its property was valued at $160,000. The membership was poorly organized; the young people’s society, the Christian Endeavor, was practically the only effective body operating. The audiences were small, three to four hundred; the Sunday School smaller; the prayer meetings not large but good in spirit; the membership 660 (by revision was immediately reduced to 585) ; the amount of money raised for all purposes was about $14,000 per annum, There was in the church considerable wealth, some degree of culture and a distinct company of consecrated believers. Owing to the house in which they worshipped, the presence in the member¬ ship of George A Pillsbury and family, Mrs. W. H Dunwoody, and several older families like the Wolvertons, Hoblits, the Browns, Cooks, Huntingtons, the Barnes brothers, Potters, and others who had been rich, but who, in the panic of 93-’97, had lost practically all, together with a rising company of young men who were now making money (a few of them headed for the mil¬ lionaire class), pride was a characteristic of the First Church From the first, this spirit seemed to me to be bigger than its success warranted, and I set myself deliberately to the task of trying to democratize the institution. Through an agreement entered into before I accepted the call, I was able to democratize its government, taking the same from the hands of five ruling trustees, the majority of the trustee board, and putting it into the hands of the Advisory Board, made up of all officers—twenty-five to thirty people, By the abolition of the pew-rental system, attendance was popularized and outsiders began to frequent the services By carrying every matter of vital moment to regularly appointed and widely advertised business meetings, the government of the church passed into the hands of the membership. By preaching on subjects that were either of constant concern or of instant public interest, the crowds increased to a comfortable house full [24] -

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In my study, with tny assistant, Wm Francis, and my secretary, Etta McCall ence, and even to destroy the reach of personality. It is like standing up before the General Grant, the giant of the Sequoias; it dwarfs a man, I sensed that fact the first year, but I deliberately decided to make but one more move, and that if possible to a young and growing city, and to a down-town church. In 1889, the First Baptist Church of Lafayette, Indiana, had provided me both the means and the time for attendance upon the Baptist Anniversaries at Boston. At that time the second Tremont Temple existed and some kind officer of that church showed me all through the building and explained to me fully Lorimer ' s ideal institution for the heart of a city. The subject enamored and enthralled me, and I felt even then that some day I should attempt for some other city what George Lorimer had accomplished for Boston. Two years later I was on the Baptist Anniversaries ' program in Philadel¬ phia to speak for the Home Mission Society on “Immigration.” While in Philadelphia I visited Grace Temple and was shown its social rooms and arrangements At once my ideal increased. I saw that a Tremont Temple was not enough That in addition to a preaching station, a great social center should characterize the city-center endeavor, and I dreamed of the day when my opportunity should come! When the call to the First Baptist pulpit of Minneapolis was extended to me, in the early part of the year of 1897, I had to decide between three churches They were alike in size, kindred in historic standing, and if any one of them had approached me wholly apart from the others, I would probably have accepted its call, for I had decided to quit Chicago for a city more nearly my size. The decision between them was made solely on the ground of the location, First Baptist Church, Minneapolis It was in the downtown, and seemed to suggest a possible Tremont and Grace Temple for a possible West Boston or Philadelphia. In my domestic life I proposed to but one woman. She is the present Mrs. Riley, and the mother of my six children, Chicago having added two sons, Mason Hewitt and Herbert Wilde, and Minneapolis, a daughter Eunice, and two more sons, W. B., Jr T and John Branson. [ 23 ]

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This procedure was not acceptable to all. Controversy arose, contention resulted, and for five consecutive years debate, disorder, and a certain degree of domestic bitterness ensued, at the end of which time, and after two cx-partc councils had advised my resignation, a solution of difficulties was effected, the disaffected forming their own body and building their own separate house of worship. There are those who imagine that a church can mark no progress while engaged in a family fight. But that was not true in our instance. In this time we had gone up from 585 to 999 members, and from contributing $14,700 per annum to $17,000 per annum. It is a fact to be confessed, however, that in the first one of these years, free from debate and bitterness, we had reached 828 members and had attained to $21,625.00 in gifts. The four succeeding years while still adding numbers to the membership, represented a decline in offerings to the level of $14,000 again. At that time my salary was $3,000 per annum, and the church engaged a secretary and one visitor. But since the settlement of the many mooted questions that had arisen, the following fig¬ ures are eloquent of God’s goodness: The first five years of the pastorate in Minneapolis, the church gave to all causes a total of $85,000.00 and attained a membership of 1,037. The second five years, after the formation of both Trin¬ ity and Windom Park in that period, the membership went up to 1,183, and the gifts to $99,600.00. The third five years the membership was 1,480, and gifts to all causes, $157,484. The fourth five years the membership was 1,783, and gifts $220,000.00. The fifth five years the membership was 2,489, and gifts $441,000.00. The sixth five years the membership was 3,102, and gifts $955,534.00. If the rate of increase of membership continues for two years more, the seventh five-year period will bring us to 3,500 members and will put through the treasurer ' s hands in that period $1,072,646.00. The Building Program It will be noticed that in the fifth five-year period of the Minneapolis pastorate there was an immense jump in the amount given to all causes. The increase was from $220,- 000.00 to $441,000.00 or more than double that which had been given in the previous, or fourth five-year, period, while in the sixth period it more than doubled again. This circum¬ stance is explained in the fact that this was the building od in the pastorate. For some years previous, the Church had been acquiring grounds and getting ready for