Northwestern Bible School - Scroll Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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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

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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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this great building program In the year 1924 it erected Jackson Hall, a build¬ ing of four stories, on a base of 116 by 132, containing fifty-three rooms, includ¬ ing church and school offices. This building was intended for Sunday School educational and social purposes, and together with the ground on which it stood, cost about $400,000.00, It was finished in April of 1924, and immediately the task of enlarging the church auditorium was undertaken, to be completed January 1st, 1925 This program increased the seating capacity of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis from a little over 1 000 to 2,640, and was accomplished at an outlay of about $260,000, which, the value of the grounds included, represented considerably above a half million investment or about $1,000,000 in both buildings This progress was not made without the usual difficulties of securing additional land, large funds, and more important than all, the necessary offi¬ cial agreement to the steps taken It is a common experience for the minister who goes through a building enterprise to lose heart by the time the same is finished, and resign very shortly thereafter. In this instance, however, while there were many trials to be met, some serious difficulties to be conquered, and the exercise of what seemed at times almost eternal patience, the con¬ summation was reached without disposition on the part of the pastor to resign, or the desire of any of his people that it should be so The loyalty and self- sacrificing spirit of my officials and associates in office made possible this consummation. As time has gone on from year to year since the termination of these great building programs, the relationship of pastor and people has grown more settled and sweet, and the enormous building bills have been met with a promptness which has been the pastor’s delight. Permit me, in conclusion, to speak of some of the by-products of the present pastorate. It has always been a question with me as to how far a preacher should participate in social, educational, and political movements The brethren who hold that since we are strangers and pilgrims and not citizens of this world, we have nothing to do with its control, have some passages of Scripture for their support On the other hand, the uses to which Paul put his Roman citi¬ zenship when occasion required, and the unquestioned fact that Christ was forever disturbing the minds of kings, exciting fear in the hearts of potentates, and the very wrath of conscienceless politicians, seems sufficient proof that the true prophet of God should exercise a social and political influence and seek by all powers at his command to correct what is evidently wrong. This conviction was back of the following endeavors: When I became pastor in Minneapolis, half of the funerals of the week were held on Sunday, and at the end of my first year, I found myself on one Sunday afternoon with three funerals to be taken care of, and learned on what I considered good authority, that one man, dying In Northeast Minneapolis, had been kept from Tuesday to Sunday so that a big crowd might attend his funeral. I took these matters before the Union Minister ' s meeting, and advised that we refuse to conduct Sunday funerals A committee was appointed, the undertakers and the livery men were called into council, and it was agreed to end the practice. From that date, Minneapolis has known no Protestant funerals; and in fact, few of any kind, on Sunday. I had been in Minneapolis but a few years when Dr Ames was elected mayor His regime was notorious if not infamous After having watched the thing for months. I finally decided upon a series of sermons concerning the matter. They were twelve in number, and were on the following subjects: [2G]