Building the Congregation; A Study of Appeals (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: m. A BASIS FOR APPEAL Accepting these criticisms upon the present mode of religious publicity, it remains to inquire whether this force, having, as it does, so free an entrance to the minds and homes of the passively religious, may be so used as to appeal to permanent religious elements, and to appeal in such a way as to furnish an incentive which attendance at church services can continuously satisfy. To this question, it is our belief, an affirmative answer can be given. If the motives underlying religious action be discovered, and the appeal be directed to those motives in harmony with church practice and purpose, we feel that publicity may be a very useful agent in gathering congregations for the church. Religious action of whatever sort is a species of behavior, and as such the underlying forces may be investigated and more or less definitely formulated. Just as the investigator of animal action may get a clear idea of the force of hunger in producing animal action, so the investigator of religious behavior may secure a knowledge?not so accurate, certainly, since the conditions of the experiment cannot be so surely regulated?of the forces which may enter into or may be employed in producing religious action. Among the forces producing such religious action we may cite Social Solidarity, Moral Feeling, and the Sense of Life's Incompleteness. These factors in their various ramifications may be appealed to in turn in the building up of congregations. Let us examine them in a little closer detail. Social Solidarity Men tend to act in crowds. It is the very unusual individual indeed who is strong enough to break social tabu by defying the customs made valid bythe majority. That action which in the past has been, or has seemed to be, most helpful in securing hu...