A Ministry That Measures Up to Human Need

EDITORIAL NOTE: The following article is a condensation of an address presented to the Western Conference of Hospital Chaplains, held at the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, California. . .

-Chairman, Department of Education and Psychology Walla Walla College at the time this article was written

I HAVE been humbled more than once in my ministry, both pastoral and educational, by my ineffectiveness in dealing with critical spiritual problems. Reflection upon these experiences has led me to the conclusion that the majority of these failures resulted from a lack of preparation. The lack of preparation was usually traceable to a concomitant lack of appreciation for the resources at hand. In this reflection I saw, too often, the story of the church in microcosm.

We so frequently talk about "the church" that we overlook one extremely important point—we are the church. Thus, when we talk about the problems of the church, we are talking about ourselves and our problems. The extent to which we succeed in our ministry is the extent to which the church succeeds; the extent to which we fail is the extent to which the church fails. Unprepared and, consequently, ineffective, the church has often stood hopelessly by while men have sunk into the depths of despair. Tragically, too many have come to consider the church either dead as a spiritual institution or, if still alive and struggling, totally out of touch with reality.

If the church is weak and faltering, it is because we are performing a lifeless ministry. Human nature, however, has a quality of tenacity that causes it to turn from the direction in which there is no help to an other from which help might come.

Is Religion Inadequate?

An experience in Scripture captures the essence of humanity's problems and their solutions. The seventy-third psalm contains the story of a man who, though a practitioner of formal religion, had found that religion inadequate for life's perplexities. He was not quick in renouncing his faith, however. Rather, he first sought help from the spiritual leaders of his time.

His problem was not unlike that of many whom we encounter daily. He was confused by the inconsistencies of his fellow men; perplexed by the apparent prosperity of the wicked; confounded by the lethargy of his peers over the utter disregard of morality. And in this confusion he sought help. "If there is a God, why does He permit these things? Where is God when He ought to be bringing these conditions to an end? If God really exists, why doesn't He answer my prayers?"

Seeking answers to these questions he is told in essence: "Yes, there is a God, but not the infantile father image you have conjured up in your mind. He is a great God, too great to be bothered by such trivial matters as the events of this world and/or of your life. Pragmatically, God is dead!"

The hero of this psalm was a rational person. If God were truly dead—and the proposition appeared reasonable enough as he considered the social conditions of his time—then it was an utter absurdity to engage further in what had been his religious experience to that point. Thus, as an intellectually honest person might do, he jettisoned his faith. He turned his back upon the church and he set out to proclaim his new-found freedom. Now, don't overlook the significance of this last point.

Here was a man who had reached the point where he had given up his faith. He was free, unshackled, no longer bound by the outmoded concepts of his ancestors; and he set out to tell others about his new insight.

As is true in many Biblical narratives, all details are not provided. In this case we are not given an explanation as to how or why the sequence of events progressed as they did, but the Record indicates that before he had a chance to tell others of his experience he encountered the church.

The remainder of the psalm contains this man's praise for this encounter and for the fact that he had not offended or misled others because of his temporary loss of faith in a living God. In other words, he discovered that God was not dead, that He was very much alive. And what a difference this knowledge made in his experience.

Skepticism Molding Man's Thinking

Today we are living in an age of social and spiritual disintegration when skepticism molds man's thinking. It is certainly no overstatement to claim that in this environment people are caught up in crises —many types of crises. Customarily, it is in these critical periods of life that religious consciousness becomes awakened. It leads them to look for answers. And in this search, as in the seventy-third psalm, such persons have the possibility of encountering the church, perhaps through you or through me. If we are not adequate in our ministry, human desire for relief is such that they will turn to other sources for healing. Rest assured that other healers will be found—healers who may actually be detrimental as they practice only partial healing.

It would be insulting intelligence to argue psychosomatic medicine. Since the 1930's we have had overwhelming empirical evidence that what a man believes affects profoundly his health, both mental and physical.

We must not minimize the great strides that have been made in the treatment of mental illnesses and their related physical manifestations. In this pursuit of mental health, however, it has generally been expected that religion must abet and never oppose the behavioral sciences. Thus, almost through default, the clergyman finds himself replaced by the behavioral scientist.

Mental Illness Not Diminishing

A strange and disturbing paradox confronts us. In spite of our increased psychological insights, our increasingly sophisticated psychotherapeutic techniques, and the growing respectability and acceptance of the psychiatrist and the psychotherapist, mental illness has not diminished; rather, it has increased alarmingly. Due to a multiplicity of factors, the suffering of individuals has not lessened, but has been bitterly aggravated. This has caused considerable concern among mental health workers.

Now, it would be grossly misleading if we were to imply that the psychotherapists or related behavioral scientists are in themselves the cause of this malady; although some, like Fromm and Mowrer, are quick to point out that they are not to be completely absolved. The fact is that they, like ourselves, are often treating only the symptoms rather than the causes of the illnesses that confront them.

When we examine psychotherapy closely, we will discover that some of the most effective tools are implements borrowed from the church. These devices include listening, encouragement, advice, and transference, wherein the patient finds security in dependence upon the counselor. In spite of the fact that the therapist's techniques largely duplicate those of the minister, the cure of souls is gravitating more and more out of the hands of the church and into the hands of the psychotherapists. Why?

One reason, possibly, is that the patient prefers physical causes for his difficulties; and the psychiatrist, being a medical man, may find such a cause. If he does, then the patient is saved from the necessity of facing up to the realities of his inner life. A cause in the body is generally less disturbing than a cause in one's character.

Prestige Mantles Psychiatrist

A second reason is that the patient fears the pastor. I have been overwhelmed since leaving the formal ministry to discover the extent to which the layman lacks confidence in the man of God. He fears that the pastor will preach, pray, or pass moral judgment. This may be one of the contributing factors to the popularity of nondirective counseling.

Another factor may be the vast prestige of modern medical science that mantles the psychiatrist. Many people are reassured by the tremendous victories of modern medicine and transfer that confidence to psychiatry because of its identification with medicine. The victories of the church, however, are from generations past.

A further reason may be that many believe the psychiatrist, unlike the clergy, keeps up-to-date with important discoveries about the human mind as they are being made. There is a feeling that the clergy have exploited all their knowledge with very little success and that there exists no new knowledge that might be of benefit.

In the light of these considerations, it is not difficult for the modern mind to conclude, "Here is a new branch of science. God, if there is a God, has shown that He works by natural laws alone." There are not a few members of the clergy who buy this same reasoning.

One very important fact weighs heavily against this wholly secular solution. This is the ever insistent truth that what a man believes to a large extent determines both his mental and physical health. Religious belief, because it deals with basics, often turns out to be the most important belief of all. Some authorities are convinced that one of the reasons psychiatry has not been more successful is its secularistic predisposition to discount religion as a meliorative force and to see it only as a causative factor in mental disturbance.

I would like to explore the most significant contribution that can be made to mental health and in which the clergyman has a definite edge over the typical psychotherapist. Modern psychology gives much attention to hostility, aggression, rivalry, power, and anxiety, but only microscopic attention to the love elements of human relationships. We tend to forget that these negative states, always present in mental disorder, are secondary developments. They appear when the groundwork of life is disturbed. What has been claiming our attention is the array of reactive phenomena that result from the absence and/or deprivation of love. The security that comes from being loved and giving love to others is the groundwork for wholesome existence at any age in life.

By contrast religion offers an interpretation of life and a rule of life based wholly upon love. It calls attention again and again to this fundamental groundwork. This emphasis is insistent throughout the Scriptures.

It is possible that this very insistence of religion has, in part, been responsible for the "tenderness taboo" that has marked much of psychology. Having rejected the religious approach to the cure of souls, science regards it more realistic to center attention upon the reactive conditions of man—upon hate, aggression, compulsive sexuality, et cetera.

Love of God Greatest Antidote

A change has been taking place, how ever, in which psychologists are stressing more and more the unconditional needs of the child for security and love within the home. In some instances this need is being discovered as equally valid among adults who have a passionate hunger for affiliation with their families, their co-workers, and their community. Even greater potential for healing exists in the affiliation with the infinite—in belonging to, identifying with, being accepted through the love of God.

In other words, I propose that the love of God is still the greatest antidote to man's ills. By the very reluctance of the secularly oriented therapist to prescribe this remedy, the time is ripe for men of God to occupy this void—and we should be those men of God.

I never cease to marvel at the restorative power that exists in a correct relation ship between man and his God. Only recently I counseled with a man so insecure in his own identification that he compulsively collected all the tokens and symbols of status and prestige. He was desperate to convince others—and more importantly himself—that he was a somebody, that he actually counted, that there was some type of meaning to his existence. The transformation that occurred after he developed insight into the love of God, particularly as it was demonstrated for him in the atonement of Christ, was nothing short of miraculous. To think that he actually did count, to think that he was important enough to be noticed by an infinite God, that he was desired deeply enough to be redeemed by the death of God's Son. This comprehension of God's love did some thing for him that nothing else could have accomplished.

I would not deny that modern psychology has helped many people. I would not deny that in its current vocabulary many people have found fresh insights. But it is here that an interesting possibility suggests itself for our generation. Might it not be possible that many of our youth, brought up in the symbolism and faith of psychology, when confronted with life's perplexities might find the less familiar expressions of the Written Word fresh and full of insight, possibly more germane to the totality of experience? There are those today who would find the beauty of Scripture refreshingly illuminating if there were some one to read it to them.

You see, our problem is not that we have nothing effective for the maladies of man kind but that we have been ineffective in communicating our solutions. We have be come so obsessed with the "giants" of other healers in the land that we have lost faith in the God who has promised to go up with us to possess the land.

Do we not encounter people when they are usually most seriously considering and questioning the meaning of life? Do we not find them pondering what forces have prevailed against them? Do we not see marked evidence of disturbed thinking accompanying their physical affliction? Do we not find them more receptive to prayer, to conversation about the more solemn aspects of life and its meaning? Do we not find that for many the enforced hours of quiet breed meditation and reflection that provide the soil for spiritual seed?

It is because we do encounter such individuals each day that we have the need for a dynamic ministry. Through us the church—or more importantly, God—is in a position of encounter that is seldom duplicated elsewhere in life. Whether the church emerges from the encounter as a dynamic institution, a channel through which flows the healing virtues of God, depends largely upon our ministry.


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-Chairman, Department of Education and Psychology Walla Walla College at the time this article was written

August 1969

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