Calvin Synod Herald, 1981 (81. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1981-05-01 / 5-6. szám

8

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

WE BELIEVE! WE SHARE!

It costs us nothing

To confess our faith By voice alone.

To verbalize our trust in God May only mean that we Have spent the breath or two It takes to say, “We believe.”

The price of talk is cheap.

But when we lace our words With gifts that speak The silent eloquence of love,

And generously share the treasures Of our God-blest lives,

We add the vital force of action

To our faith.

Faith finds its proper medium;

It leaps from lips into life,

From creeds into deeds;

And all the worldincluding us—

Is richer.

Produced by the Division of Parish Services, Lutheran Church in America, 2900 Queen Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19129, in co-operation with the Lutheran Laymen’s Movement for Stewardship.

MINISTERS

STUDY FINDS LOW MORALE IS COMMON AMONG CLERGY

Over three-quarters of the clergy in the Penn Central Conference have suffered at one time or another from low morale, a new survey conducted for the UCC’s Office for Church Life and Leadership finds. They change parishes and even professions as a result and are reluctant to talk about their feelings to anyone except their spouses.

According to Ralph Quellhorst, OCLL associate, the purpose of A Study of Clergy Morale is to recognize the symptoms of low morale, so that ministers may be helped. Because of their joint concern with the problem, OCLL and the Penn Central Conference asked Loyde H. Hartley, study director of the Research Center in Religion and Society of Lancaster Theological Seminary, PA, to do the survey.

Among the 198 parish ministers in the conference questioned, 149 (75%) responded.

Low morale is defined as any negative feeling or attitude which reduces effectiveness and enthusiasm for the job. When asked if their work has ever been affected by low morale, 83.9% of the ministers polled

said yes. Probing further, the report concludes that about half the clergy in the conference “at any given time may be working with the handicap of some degree of low morale.”

One-third of those with problems say they are serious or very serious. As the result of such feelings, about a third of those who have suffered low morale changed churches, and two-thirds considered leaving the ministry.

The major reason cited for low morale is poor clergy-lay relationships. Particularly important, the study claims, is “the often-destructive way in which laity handle dissatisfaction with clergy.”

While morale problems are real and multidimensional, they are potentially changeable, the report says. Clergy-laity friction can be reduced if both see themselves working in the parish as a single unit, rather than as isolated persons, it suggests.

The study is available for $1.50 from OCLL, 105 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016.

KYP 11-15-80

THE TROUBLE WITH RELIGION

Many regard religion and the church to be in trouble today. Many years ago Isaiah wrote: “Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel.” Here, the people of God are referred to as worms. That’s startling! We don’t like to put people into the category of worms, let alone call them worms. And yet today, religion and the church is wormlike to many people. They regard the Christian faith as rather useless and wormlike.

For example, the Christian college is regarded as a place where young people are taught to be so humble that they are useless. The world often thinks of the Christian faith as something that advises surrender. The religious person is considered weak and mild. The Christian is forgiving, and the world considers that to be wormlike.

Today, with waning power, with a reduction of money receipts, with declining attendance in Sunday Schools, many are saying that religion and the church are in trouble.

Now, after saying that, we discover another side to religion and the church. There is a troublemaking influence by religion and the church. The church is a troublemaker that rouses people to fight for all kinds of “unreasonable” propositions. There is the testimony of Einstein that the one institution that finally stood against Hitler was the church. We see missionaries living in discomfort and danger to bear witness. We see a power working in the world that, instead of being wormlike is lion-like.

Look again at the words of Isaiah. What is he really saying? He is saying, “Stop acting like a worm”. This is a sarcastic remark that Israel is impersonating a worm and it will not be tolerated. The early Christians learned that they were called upon to play a part