Pastoral Ministry in Times of Revival

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003399" TEXT="#080000" background="040c8c00erkjxk.jpg"> <div> <B><U>Dr. Ebenezer Porter</U></B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>was a congregational pastor in New England during the time of the Second Great Awakening, and also served as president of Andover Seminary.  This is an excerpt from his </B><I><B>Letters on the Religious Revivals which Prevailed about the Beginning of the Present Century</B></I><B>.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>While I would dispute about some of the Old Covenant aspects of Mr. Porter's theology, his advice concerning the excesses of religious meetings are applicable today.</B></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="7" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Brush Script MT" ><B>Restoration Ministries</B></FONT>  |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Restoration Ministries"><U>home</U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="084f8900.jpg" border=0 width="504" height="144" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Part Two by Ebenezer Porter</div> <div> ____________________________________________________</div> <bR> <div> My third remark is that <B>any system of means for the promotion of true Christianity which will supersede or essentially impair the influence of a regular, local ministry, must ultimately be destructive to the health of the churches.</B></div> <bR> <div> In the apostolic age, it was indispensable that the few men to whom was committed the work of evangelizing the world should be traveling preachers. Their first object, however, was to establish local churches with permanent pastors. On the benefits of this system, so worthy of divine wisdom, I cannot dwell. </div> <bR> <div> The happy results of this system have been most conspicuous in those parts in those parts of our country where revivals of true Christianity have most prevailed, and where many an anxious sinner has valued beyond all price the privilege of opening his heart in private to a beloved pastor.</div> <bR> <div> No organization, though devised by God Himself, can be expected to operate in our depraved world without some difficulties. These are so obvious in the present case that they need not be suggested. But that will be a day of calamity to our churches, should such a day come, when they shall be willing to exchange a stated pastorship for itinerant and occasional ministries. </div> <bR> <div> It would sacrifice what the Head of the church has established as a vital principle of her prosperity. It would strike away the main pillars of the edifice that insignificant props may occupy their place. Just see what would become of ministerial responsibility, when the same man should preach but once or a few times to a congregation. </div> <bR> <div> How could he know their spiritual needs, secure their affections, or feel the full obligation of watching their souls, when his only affiliation with them is the transient sight of their faces from the pulpit? What would become of the whole machinery of the Sunday Schools and the Bible classes and the benevolence ministries which can be kept in operation only by the influence of a constant pastoral supervision?</div> <bR> <div> What would become of the pulpit? If it were practical that itinerant ministries should secure for it in all outlying towns a permanent and perpetual supply, yet the plan would transform the whole character of public preaching. Hearers would become fond of novelty, fastidious and capricious in taste. </div> <bR> <div> Preachers would cease to be men of study and, instead of being instructive, would become rambling and declamatory in their sermons. Of necessity, their preaching must be not appropriate to the congregation, but indefinite and general.</div> <bR> <div> Perhaps you may ask me, “To what extent may evangelists be employed as assistants to stated pastors, or as substitutes for them?” I answer: in a large congregation, where the ordinary labors of the ministry are as great as one man can possibly sustain, a failure of his health, or a revival among his people, may render it indispensable that he should have help in his work for weeks or months successively. </div> <bR> <div> Such help has often been furnished by the occasional labors of other pastors who have had a short leave of absence from their own flocks. But perhaps the only adequate provision for such emergencies would be that a few men of rare endowments for this particular service — men of God, noted for judgement, fervor of godliness and gracious in temperament — should be held in reserve to labor where they are most needed as assistants to stated pastors. These men, of course, should be accountable to some regular ecclesiastical body.</div> <bR> <div> About the close of the period which I attempted to describe in former letters, the Rev. Asahel Nettleton* devoted himself to the work of an evangelist. This distinguished itinerant found no difficulty in laboring as an assistant to established pastors without making himself their rival. If in any instance he could not conscientiously coincide in the views or cooperate in the measures of a pastor among whose charge he was invited to labor, he did not sow dissention in that church, nor seek to detach their affections from their minister, but quietly withdrew to another place. </div> <bR> <div> The consequence was that the visits of this devoted servant of Christ were always sought and never dreaded nor regretted by ministers or churches. But the signal success of his ministry has called forth many others to labor in the same department concerning some of whom, if we must admit that they have done good, we cannot doubt that they have done much more harm. </div> <bR> <div> When invited to assist an established pastor or thrusting themselves forward without invitation, they have been rash, enthusiastic and censorious. They have aimed to subvert the influence of the Christian pastor with the restless spirits of his own church and perhaps in a few days have planted seeds of mischief that have sprung up in years of subsequent calamity. </div> <bR> <div> If I must say when and where a radically indiscreet man should preach the gospel, I would say never, nowhere. As to the substitution of evangelists for established pastors, I have already expressed the opinion that it is always undesirable when it can be avoided.</div> <bR> <div> Perhaps you may further inquire, “How far may occasional and extraordinary means of religious excitement be relied upon as a substitute for the regular, divinely appointed means of grace?” To this question, in its broad extent, I must answer and everyone must answer, “Not at all.” </div> <bR> <div> For any institution that is plainly of divine appointment, there can be no proper substitute. Any human arrangement, for example that supersedes the Christian Sabbath, or that prevents the regular worship of local churches, or the regular influences of the local ministers on that day is an assumption that we are wiser than God. </div> <bR> <div> In some of the thinly populated districts of the South and West, where ministers are few and pluralities are unavoidable, it may be best that several congregations should remain together on a protracted meeting over the Sabbath. On sacramental occasions, such meetings have always been customary among the scattered Christians of these regions. </div> <bR> <div> But in the compact settlements of the country to admit any principle which should frustrate the meeting of each congregation with its own pastor on the Sabbath, because we presume that more sinners would be converted by bringing six of these congregations with their pastors into one great assembly on that day, is to exalt the hypothetical theory of our own above the settled usage of the church founded upon apostolic authority. </div> <bR> <div> What if more conversions should take place on that single day? Does this measure prove to be wise in the long run? Perhaps ten times as many conversions may ultimately be prevented by this same measure. It is presumptuous to try our experiments on any rule of action which comes from God.</div> <bR> <div> But I must not be misunderstood. There are limits within which Christian discretion is at liberty to try experiments as to the best means of promoting the conversion of sinners. To this head belong conferences, Bible classes and the whole routine of occasional exercises which pastoral enterprise has brought into operation in the aid of revivals. </div> <bR> <div> And I will take this opportunity to say that extraordinary means, such as protracted meetings, may be, under the blessing of God and the guidance of Christian wisdom, eminently proper. It would be unreasonable for me to doubt this after the blessed results of such meetings which I have witnessed in the North and the South, and the ample testimony on the same point given by not a few of our best ministers. </div> <bR> <div> Nor is it difficult to see how the concentrated and prolonged attention of a large assembly, given to the truths of the gospel day after day and given without interruption from worldly cares, should be adapted to make deep impressions on the hearers. The principle involved in this case is not a new one. </div> <bR> <div> In various forms it has been resorted to in all past revivals, though not carried to so great an extent as it has been of late. Protracted meetings, then, if properly conducted, have my most cordial approbation and I am anxious to say this to more distinctly to prevent misunderstanding of subsequent remarks.</div> <bR> <div> The meetings are certainly very liable to abuses, which it is the special province of ministers to guard against, and concerning which all their wisdom and experience should be thrown into common stock. On some of these abuses I shall express my views with perfect frankness under a following head. At present, let me say that a vital principle to be remembered in giving the highest efficacy to these meetings is that they should be regarded as strictly extraordinary means. </div> <bR> <div> In different places they have been repeated with various degrees of success, and the experience of the churches will decide how often this can be properly done. Probably it has been decided that the repetition ought not to be frequent.</div> <bR> <div> To return to my third remark so discursively treated — let protracted meetings never supersede the stated, ordinary means of grace. Let them not disturb the customary worship of the Sabbath, nor impede the regular action of the local ministry. Let churches beware that they do not contract a false taste for preaching from love of novelty and excitement, and after having heard a few extra sermons, complain of ordinary discourses such as their own pastors can prepare amid the pressing engagements of revival. </div> <bR> <div> And let them beware, too, that their Christianity degenerate into mere modifications of zeal and apathy. Let ministers be cautious not to encourage among their people the expectations of only ephemeral revivals, to last but a few days, and let them be cautious whom they introduce to their people as itinerant, revival preachers — for such strangers are not always “angels unawares.”</div> <bR> <div> My fourth remark is that <B>in revivals of true Christianity, great wisdom is required on the part of ministers and other Christians in the treatment of those who are anxious and those who have recently entertained hopes of their own conversion.</B></div> <bR> <div> The practical difficulty of this subject and the differing views which good men entertain respecting it will render it more proper for me to express my own opinions more explicitly and at length than I have already done. As preparatory to this, I shall give a few extracts from printed accounts of revivals which chiefly occurred in 1831, premising that these accounts purport to be written by ministers, that they relate to places in six different states and that I avoid giving names, because some inconvenience might attend it without any disadvantage.</div> <bR> <div> During a protracted meeting which is described at some length, the writer of the account says that “two hundred manifested hopes.” Another similar account says, “On the second day of the meeting the converts and the anxious were called on to separate themselves from the rest of the congregation.” Another says, “Last Sabbath I attended a camp meeting at B____. The meeting was very orderly and solemn, and thirty-one professed to indulge in hope.” Another closes the account of a protracted meeting thus: “The number of conversions is sixty.” Respecting a similar meeting in M____ , the account says, “On Saturday, an awful solemnity was on the assembly. Sabbath morning, three persons gave themse1ves away to Christ, and were admitted to the church.”</div> <bR> <div> “At a protracted meeting in D___, on the last day at noon, those who hoped they had experienced a change of heart during the meeting were requested to signify it, and about forty arose. Others were led to rejoice in hope in the afternoon.” “In M____ on the last day of our protracted meeting, about fifty professed to have passed from death to life.” In a town where no previous revival prevailed, “A protracted meeting began on Monday. On the following Saturday, the Session examined twenty-one, all of whom were next day admitted to the church.”</div> <bR> <div> It is needless to multiply extracts. If you have carefully read the printed statements of revival for a year or two past, you must have observed that many of these statements, especially concerning protracted meetings, speak of anxious persons and also of converts, or, as they are sometimes designated, “those who entertain hope of their conversion since the meeting began,” as being called on publicly to separate themselves from the rest of the assembly. </div> <bR> <div> Before I make remarks on the expediency of these measures, a few questions of a distinct character arise respecting a protracted meeting that occurred during the past year and the particular description of which was copied into our periodical papers. A summary of this description is sufficient to exhibit the principal facts. </div> <bR> <div> “On the first day, Mr. ____ , the preacher, said at the close of his sermon, ‘The Gospel offer is designed to produce an immediate decision.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="WP MultinationalA Roman" >*</FONT> Then he called upon all who were<B> determined now to attend to their soul‘s welfare</B><I> </I>to retire to the lecture room for conversation and prayer. Near two-hundred went. </div> <bR> <div> On the second day near four hundred were in the anxious meeting. The invitation then given was, ‘All who are<B> determined now to yield their hearts to God</B><I> </I>are requested to kneel down as subjects of prayer.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="WP MultinationalA Roman" >*</FONT> About two thirds of the assembly kneeled, and prayer was made. </div> <bR> <div> A similar request made on a subsequent day, when there were about three hundred anxious, one hundred and fifty kneeled in token of their determination then to cast themselves on God<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="WP MultinationalA Roman" >*</FONT>s mercy in Christ Jesus. On a still later day, the determination was expressed by about two hundred to become servants of Jesus Christ. </div> <bR> <div> On the last day, if I mistake not, about four hundred assembled in the anxious room, the converts being called on to separate themselves from the anxious, about one third declared themselves converts.” During the successive days of this meeting, a number of ministers took part in the exercises.</div> <bR> <div> Now, I would be slow to condemn any work which excellent and devoted ministers of Christ are engaged, and especially in which there is evidence that God is present by the influences of His Spirit. Nor would I censure any measures merely because they are new, for this does not prove them to be wrong. </div> <bR> <div> It rather suggests a good reason why we should inquire with sincerity and caution as to the evidence alleged that they are right. Nor do I regard with the same degree of concern which some good men have felt, the danger of excitement on these occasions. </div> <bR> <div> The greatest possible danger to souls is a deadly insensibility. When the house is on fire and the family is asleep, better that they be awakened than consumed. Better to rouse them, even if it were at the expense of a momentary insanity, than let them die. Every preacher of the Gospel knows how very difficult it is to gain even a serious attention of careless men to the subject of Christianity. </div> <bR> <div> This is just the point on which occasional and special means, judiciously employed, may be advantageously brought to the aid of ordinary means. Now and then such special exercises will help to break up the lethargy of the soul and awaken intense interest in the concerns of Christianity.</div> <bR> <div> Worldly men allow and demand excitement in the orator, the poet, the politician, the warrior; any man may be ardent on any subject but Christianity, while on this subject they denounce fervor as fanaticism. But how can a subject that properly fills all heaven with emotion be properly regarded without emotion on earth? Let excitement come, not from appeals to the passions, but from clear and vivid exhibitions of divine truth and one most formidable obstacle to the salvation of sinners is removed.</div> <div> _______________________________________________________________</div> <bR> <div> *  For a fuller and excellent treatment of Asahel Nettleton’s ministry, see <I>God Sent Revival </I>by John F. Thornbury, Evangelical Press, 1988.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>