Magyar Egyház, 1971 (50. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1971-12-01 / 12. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 15 THE HEALTHY CHURCH When we call a man healthy, it means not only that he lias no physical sickness but also that his mentality is healthy, too. A murderer, a thief, a rapist can be in an excellent physical condition, yet because of his sick mentality, we cannot regard him a healthy person. By the same token, we can talk about a healthy church. Good and attractive church buildings, well organized church societies, regularly held worship services are just the signs of the physical well-being of a church. But the church must have a healthy mentality also. There must be a certain atmosphere, a high Christian moral standard which manifests itself in the life of the church. Let us see now a few signs of a physically and spiritually healthy church: Sacredness of the Church. A spiritually healthy congregation regards its church a sacred, divine institution ivhich cannot take second place to any manmade organization. The members of the congregation are grateful that God gave them faith and that they can be those “living stones” from which the church, “the mystical Body of Christ”, is put together. A spiritually healthy congregation regards its church as the most precious treasure to which it clings with undivided faithfulness, loyalty, and for which it gladly sacrifices its time, talent and money. It cannot be otherwise when the Bible says: “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.” Relationship between church members. In a spiritually healthy church every church member is equal. There are no privileged and unprivileged members. There are no important and unimportant members. Everybody is equally important. The laws of God, the Ten Commandments that must rule the life of the church, are equally binding on the minister, the elected church officers, as well as every single member of the congregation. If this is not so in a congregation, that congregation is spiritually sick. That church does not live up to the Word of God, which says: “One is your master, the Christ; and all you are brethren.” Elected Church Officers. In a healthy church the office holders are elected in the spirit of this apostolic instruction: “Brethren, look you out among you men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.” Church officers must be deeply religious and morally sound persons who have sufficient wisdom to be able to manage the life of the church properly. A church office cannot be just a “title” added to other wordly titles. In a healthy church all office holders live up to this Biblical commandment: “Elders, tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock.” Church Buildings. Condition of the church buildings tells a great deal about the healthy or unhealthy spirituality of a congregation. In a healthy congregation it cannot be tolerated that the House of God is not as well taken care of, and not as neat and clean as the home of an average church member. Wrhen we see neglected church buildings in America, we can be certain that those congregations which tolerate this are not healthy congregations. We, as Hungarian Reformed Christians, cherish our spiritual heritage. Some of the most important parts of our heritage are those we mentioned in this article. For our forefathers, the church was the only true treasure. . . Our forefathers regarded themselves as equal brethren. . . They regarded their church office as a privilege to work for the glory of God and for the benefit of their church. . . And for them the House of God was even more important than their own homes. This is our Hungarian Reformed heritage. Stephen Kovács ADMIRAL FIGHTS SCHOOL SYSTEM Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover is haring no secret when he confesses, “I am a stubborn man.” He keeps battering away, without much effect, at the forces of progressive education which, he feels, will bring the nation close to disaster in the next generation, if not in this. Three generations have now been molded by educational progressivism, Rickover notes, nurturing the delusion that all children must move together through school at the pace set by the dead average. The only hope for reform lies in the awakening of the talented young to a shocking reality — that they have been robbed of a chance to excel in a future dominated by a complex, science-based technology. Rickover became a critic of American schools after he was assigned a quarter century ago to develop and direct nuclear propulsion in the Navy, a post he still holds. He had to set up schools to teach these young men what they should have learned in high school and college. In ensuing years, more than 30,000 engineers, officers and enlisted men responded to an intellectual challenge they had never faced before.
