Our Most Urgent Problem

The officers have asked me to bring a matter of special interest and importance before you this morning, and to state the burden of my soul relative to it. It is with reference to the Spring Council. For some time I have felt that, because of the times in which we live and the peculiar problems that we face, we ought to come up to this Spring Council with special preparation of heart for the work we should do there. This has been a growing burden with me. I have felt so keenly over the matter that I decided to write to the presi­dents of union conferences in North America, to those heads of institutions who will be coming to the Council, also to the members of the Board of Regents, requesting that they take upon their hearts to pray especially for the coming Council; for I am very anxious indeed that our chief atten­tion during the Council shall be given to studying the things that constitute the real problems in our work.

We are in very unusual times. Just in the ordinary, everyday affairs of life we feel the pressure; and there is danger that at the coming Coun­cil the things which cause the imme­diate pressure shall be allowed to en­gage our attention to a much greater degree than they should. Let us rec­ognize the danger, and guard against the serious consequences involved by being very sure that our attention is directed to those things which consti­tute our most important problems.

We are short of money, and great embarrassment has come into the work because of this fact. We do not have the money to send the workers that the needs of the field demand, and there are conferences that are greatly perplexed to know how to carry on. There are situations in our institutions that are very difficult and trying. We are confronted with the probability of a further cut in our foreign missions budget. All these things will be on our minds as we assemble at the Spring Council, and while it is proper and necessary that they should have our serious atten­tion, it will be a grave mistake if we allow ourselves to believe that they, either singly or in the mass, make up the greatest and most urgent of our problems.

Two Fundamental Facts

That which should most seriously concern us has to do with present con­ditions of church life. Our people are in conscious need of a different experi­ence in Christian living, yet they are not being helped in that direction as they should be. These two facts should give us great concern, and they urge us to inquire if our ministry is as strong and spiritual as it should

It is concerning these things that we need the Lord to teach us at this Council, and lead us to sense how im­measurably important are these con­siderations.

Without reference to the material effectiveness of the movement, but just as ambassadors for Jesus Christ, as leaders of a movement that is in its very essence evangelical, it seems to me that we who are here at head­quarters ought to arrange for prayer and study and earnest counsel to­gether, to the end that we may reach a condition of heart and mind and life for ourselves that will bring the pres­ence and power of God into the Coun­cil, and assure that all things will be done under divine control and leader­ship. As leaders, we need such a prep­aration for the Council. We owe it to our longing people everywhere that we place ourselves where God can make us stronger, truer, and more efficient men.

A New Experience Needed

I have a great desire in my heart that this Council shall mean some­thing more than a mere formal gath­ering for the study of plans and the discovery of ways whereby we can do things upon which we have set our hearts. I wish that it might enlarge and develop and influence every man who comes so that he shall return to his field a better man—better in his life, better in his leadership, to do a work that will be more effective for God, with a clearer vision of what is required of him.

Inasmuch as a more spiritual min­istry is that for which we should strive, and the problem of unspiritual members in the churches is one that we ought to face, the matter of first importance is that we ourselves be led into a better experience in the things of God. We may make the leadership of the work in material things very strong, but such leader­ship in general, union, or local conference will never touch the need. The church that is led by a ministry hav­ing only a formal experience is bound to break down. We must approach the study of our problems in the at­mosphere of sympathy. Our ministers must feel that we sympathize with them in their struggles for a higher spiritual experience. They must know that we are not their critics. We have placed upon these men burdens that can be successfully borne only by men empowered spiritually, and we ought to lead them into that condition of strength through the Spirit of God that will enable them to bear those burdens helpfully and effectively within the church.

 I believe that God will help us to meet the need of the world, and of our own church in the world, by the simple force that He employs through a consecrated life and heart in His service. And if we will come to the Spring Council in the spirit of humil­ity, recognizing that we greatly need help ourselves, and imploring God to give that help for the sake of the church over which He has made us shepherds, He will not turn us away, but will reach down to our need and give us strength, and lift us to a higher plane in life and leadership. My heart is set to reach out with great yearning for that kind of experience in the work of God, and in counsel with the officers it has seemed advis­able to suggest that during the month of April we plan definitely for such gathering together in prayer seasons as will give God opportunity to bring help to us just as we need it.