The Pulpit

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     The pulpit, originally the platform constructed for the advantage of the teacher, has become an institution. As such it is unknown in the N. T It is now a fixed tradition, including its professional occupant, rated according as the church is rated numerically and financially. To meet the popular demands the occupant must be an entertaining speaker, must not be too insistent on practice corresponding to Scripture, must not be too scrupulous as to whether worship, service and living be vindicated by chapter and verse. As a rule he must be an imported teacher who will add to the prestige of "our pulpit," that "our church" may be counted an asset to the community, that is, by the community standard and measure.

     This is the way the churches make professional pulpiteers and hirelings. Men, even preachers, are human, and soon sense that it is to their interest to be in demand, and the grade of the pulpit inviting him is determined by the demand for his services. He senses that people are not averse to his shouldering responsibilities properly theirs. He learns the importance of good nursing. If men are good paying members it is not too bad if they remain babes to be "rocked in the cradle and fed with a spoon." He also learns that babes can be quite particular as to the kind of spoon with which they are fed and as to who handles the spoon.

     Not offering an excuse for congregations failing to develop their talent and making use of it in the N. T. way (see Eph. 4:15, 16), this is not to deny a church the privilege in case of real need of making use of imported men to supply spiritual food to the flock rather than allow a famine for the word of God. But the preacher or evangelist belongs in the field where the seed is to be sown. The "pastor" is not

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the "evangelist." The pulpit is not a New Testament institution. --Stanford Chambers in Word and Work (Sept.1957).