New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
CONTENTS
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Nineteenth Century Methodism
3. Methodism at its Height
4. After the First World War
5. Campaigning for a Spiritual Advance
6. Making Disciples References
Appendix: Methodist Statistics
GRAPHS
1. Methodism in New Zealand 1850 - 1981, Gross Statistics (Graph 1)
2. Wesleyan Methodism in New Zealand 1850 - 1911 relative to the population. (Graph 2) 3. Primitive Methodism relative to the population 1850 - 1911 (Graph 3)
4. Methodism relative to the population 1850 - 1981 (Graph 4)
5. Changes in Methodist and Presbyterian adherence, 1891 - 1981 (Graph 5)
6. Changes in Methodist and Presbyterian membership, 1891 - 1981 (Graph 6)
7. Baptisms in the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, 1901 - 1981 (Graph 7)
8. New Membership rate of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches (Graph 8) 1901 - 1981
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
THE AUTHOR Dr. Peter J. Lineham is lecturer in History at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Born in Karamea in the South Island in 1951 he joined the Crusader Movement while a pupil at Burnside High School in Christchurch and served as a leader on various Crusader camps while completing his M.A. in History at Canterbury University. He gained a D. Phil. in English Social and Religious History from the University of Sussex in England in 1978. A member of the Brethren assemblies Dr. Lineham is author of "There we found Brethren" (1977) and "No Ordinary Union" (1980) - the Centenary History of the Scripture Union in New Zealand, and several articles on New Zealand and English religious history.
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
PREFACE Early in 1982 the Rev Fred Waine approached the Professor of History in my University on behalf of the Making Disciples Task Group of the Methodist Church, in search of someone to provide a historical-cum-sociological analysis of the denomination for a National School of Evangelism three months later. He was directed towards me, and he was, I imagine, a little surprised at the enthusiasm with which I received his invitation. My two major fields of research are eighteenth century religion in England and New Zealand religious and social history. Where else do these interests more happily marry than in the study of New Zealand Methodism? Possibly this background made me a rather self-confident interpreter, but as I threw myself into a week of research in the Archives at the connexional office in Christchurch I became immersed in the difficult task of adequately analysing Methodism in the context of one lecture. I suppose that was how the paper Jrew and grew, until it grew into two massive and provocative sessions at the chool of Evangelism. The original paper was fairly blunt in its appraisal of Methodist history. Fortunately church members seem to thrive on criticism, so I benefitted from helpful comments both then and subsequently, especially from that gracious exponent of the best of Methodism, the Rev W.R. Laws. I later gave revised and abbreviated forms of the paper at the Manawatu-Hawkes Bay District Synod and as the Lecture at me Annual Meeting of the Wesley Historical Society in November 1982, and by then its direction and themes were clearer. The original duplicated version, typed in haste by Miss Heather Read, has been widely circulated but it is time now that the revisions were incorporated in print. The diagrams have been drawn by Fraser Vickers. It remains very much an interpretation and very condensed in style, but I trust that my original concern that, although not a Methodist, I could encourage Methodists in their commitment to the Christian evangel, has combined with good analysis to the benefit of the whole church, I should mention that a recent M.A. thesis by Ross Anderson at Canterbury University seems to have illustrated some of these themes. P.J. Lineham Massey University
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
1. INTRODUCTION Methodism began its history as a movement characterised by dynamic life, dramatic growth and effective avangelism. At this point of its history in New Zealand it seems to be in a condition of almost universal contraction. At the turn of the century Methodism reached its highest proportionate impact on the New Zealand community, when 10.9% of the population acknowledged themselves as adherents of the two Methodist bodies in the 1901 census. At that time 88.7% of New Zealanders adhered to one of the four largest churches, Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Methodist. Eighty years later the relative support for this group of denominations has declined drastically to 62% of the population. Methodism's own decline is still more dramatic. Today it claims the support of 4.7% of the population; only 43% of its one- time impact. No other large denomination has experienced so drastic a collapse in its support. 1 Today the Methodist church is acutely aware of its crisis, for it is now apparent in the church's membership, baptism and attendance figures. Every aspect of the life of the church, financial, ministerial and theological, has been touched by the decline. In something of a reflex action voices at every level of the church have begun to urge the necessity of evangelism among their fellow New Zealanders. The novelty of their call is somewhat astonishing, for the first Methodist ministers were strictly enjoined by their beloved leader, John Wesley: "you have nothing to do but save souls". Evangelism was the very lifeblood of early Methodism. Somewhere in the subsequent events it was displaced, and Methodists found alternative preoccupations. Today Methodism has only a weak evangelistic tradition to draw upon, and the denomination itself has ossified into a rigid monument. The sudden urgency in the current clamour for evangelism suggests that the crisis is of recent vintage. It is not. Even before 1901 the intelligent observer could have found unmistakeable warnings of a coming crisis. The Methodist conference has always diligently collected statistics relating to the denomination and their implications were clear. Indeed the leaders of the church early recognised the declining vigour of the church. This is a study of the evidence which they partially comprehended, and it is also an assessment of their attempt to shape policies to meet the problem. It is not
1 The statistics in this paper are based on the New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings, Religious Professions section. Methodist figures have been compiled from the annual Methodist Church of New Zealand (hereinafter MCNZ) Minutes of the Annual Conference. Presbyterian figures are from Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. I am indebted to the Rev. Dr W.J. Roxborogh, Dr Huph Jackson and Professor Michael Hill, all of whom have previously worked on these statistics. For currem church attendance see M. Darroch, 'How many committed Protestants are there?', N.Z. Baptist, vol. 98, no. 8 (March 1982), p.11. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 5
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham intended to be a retrospective criticism. Obviously many of the circumstances shaping a denomination are beyond its control. But others are a matter of choice. Contemporary Methodists might well consider the lessons of their history. In the past the policies of the churches in New Zealand have rarely been subject to this kind of historical analysis. Most denominational histories go into details of the successes of the church, not its failures. However ecclesiastical institutions cannot escape so lightly. Their internal politics and commitments, and their role within society must be a matter of importance to church historians, social historians and ordinary Methodists alike. P.J.Lineham, Massey University
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
2. NINETEENTH CENTURY METHODISM Until 1901 New Zealand Methodism had reason to be self-satisfied. The colonial setting did not prove hospitable to all churches, and some denominations scarcely retained the support of emigrating members. The Anglican church naturally was the church of about half the nineteenth century European immigrants, and it also had the largest missionary force among the Maoris. Yet that church did not quite maintain its position. Its Maori work was devastated by the wars and prophetic movements. Although numerically its European work grew steadily, its relative hold on settler society slowly but steadily weakened. Most of the "Nonconformist" churches which were at the peak of their strength in England at the time, the Congregationalists, Baptists and Unitarians, as well as the Quakers, found it acutely difficult even to establish an organised presence in the colony. The Presbyterian church in contrast slowly increased its hold on the New Zealand population during the nineteenth century, and its decline has been a relatively recent phenomenon. But of the larger denominations only two grew in significant proportions; Methodism and Roman Catholicism. Of these Methodism was the faster growing until 1901, but thereafter it was the Catholic church which continued to grow, whereas Methodism went into decline in its hold upon the population. This distinctive trend of an unusual rise followed by unusual decline, requires an explanation which sets Methodism in its New Zealand context, but which also understands the distinctive elements in Methodist history. The investigation must therefore begin, not in New Zealand but in understanding the Methodism of nineteenth century England, which was brought to New Zealand. Methodism was imported to this country by men and women who were themselves the product of several generations of connexional life. They were no longer just from the lower socio-economic sector of society, as had been the first Methodists, although nearly half of the English Methodists in the Victorian era were artisans, and the unskilled and semi-skilled out-numbered white-collar workers and employers2. Furthermore by the mid-nineteenth century it would no longer be true to describe Methodism as an evangelistic movement. It was a denomination. It had become a denomination from the earliest period for Wesley had deliberately sought to control and to direct a religious revival which he had not commenced. By means of adopting and closely controlling preachers of the revival, by close control of chapels held under his own name, and by despotic examinations and purees of local societies Wesley shaped the revival which showed every sign of being dissipated in political, social and doctrinal schisms. His system of enlightened despotism was fine while he lived, but his death plunged the connecion into crisis.
2 See CD. Field, 'The Social Structure of English Methodism', British Journal of Sociology, vol. 28 (1977), p. 210. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 7
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In the post-Wesleyan age a bitter struggle developed over the polity of the connexion, which was convulsed by a series of battles, made more intense because the tensions within Methodism were heightened by tensions among the social classes most affected by the revival. Many Methodists had a background which made political representation, industrial protection and social security urgent issues for them and they deeply resented the conservatism of those in the church who tried to silence them. Revolution and social change were debated within the connexion, until a "no-politics" rule was enforced. Subsequently, after a series of splits, Methodism became more insular. Administrative issues, among them the superintendency which Walter Lawry exercised over the New Zealand missionaries, became instead the focus of debate. The next age of Methodism, the later-nineteenth century stage, was an age when Methodism identified with a wider and broader evangelical consciousness, which was "Dissenting", and anti-Anglican. It was inclined to support the Liberal Party, and was influenced by a broad range of trans-Atlantic evangelical influences, including methods of revivalism and attempts to develop a social Gospel. This package of values and memories was inherited by the Methodists who planted their denomination in the colony. This heritage might be summed up in two words; experience and organisation. They were complementary aspects of Methodism Wesley believed that the work of God needed to be experienced in the human soul, and that this experience could bring about entire sanctification. However because he emphasised the power of the human will, he sought to make religion methodical and systematic. He wanted regulated religious vitality. In his evangelistic preaching he emphasised the law of God, in order to awaken a sense of sin, and he believed that grace and the new birth enabled believers to fulfil the law. More than anything else Wesley feared antinomianism. He was convinced that immoral, undisciplined living imperilled the converts of the revival, and he sought to develop a community, a discipline, indeed connexion where everyone except himself was answerable to someone else. There was from the first the danger that over-regulation of spiritual life would strangle it. Nevertheless Wesley insisted that all Methodists, whether believers or those seeking after grace, should attend class meetings, and that claimants to Christian perfection should meet in bands and be subject to the close control of the preacher. He insisted that societies be part of a circuit rather than self-governing congregations, and that preachers should answer for their conduct to his conference, not to their hearers. The extravagances of what he called Arminian theology reflect Wesley's fears of any theological system like Calvinism which commanded an outside loyalty, and his fears of anti-nomianism which was spiritual independency. These two poles of Methodism — experience and order — had developed a certain working relationship by the time that Methodism reached New Zealand. Consider Methodism's orderliness. There were serious schisms and the foundations of a rival Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 8
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Methodist New Connexion immediately after Wesley's death but eventually the Wesleyan Conference was acknowledged as inheriting Wesley's despotic powers. Methodism was planted in New Zealand in the generation after the schisms; no new splits occurred in the colony. This was a sign of the maturing of Methodism: Colonial Methodists knew how to behave connexionally. They could distinguish acceptable religious claims from dangerous ones. Heresy was defined as resistance to Methodist authorities. There was a growing Wesleyan administrave and legal tradition; the Book of Laws had been woven into the fabric of Wesleyan life. These laws defined the authority residing in every part of a very authoritarian and exclusive body. The pastoral authority of the minister in his circuit and the power vested in the corporate body of ministers meeting in conference became fundamental. By the 1870s laity were granted the right to attend the Wesleyan conference, and this forced the conference to consult with the membership. Ultimately the final authority of the denomination was located in the conference's ability to speak for the membership, who were consulted through a Presbyterian-style system of circuit and district meetings. The conference ponderously delegated a larger say to the local circuit. Its right to choose its minister and to retain him as long as it liked was slowly conceded. Most city parishes became, like other protestant churches, single congregations with their own minister. Yet the old tradition of an itinerating ministry, an all-powerful conference and connexional financial commitments. and the continuing necessity of working through conference to achieve changes at the local level have meant that Methodism remains an unusually united and close-knit denomination. Decisions of the Conference, for example relating to evangelism, can have more immediate effects at the parish level than in most other denominations. There are tensions in Methodism, but there have never been parties as there have been in the Presbyterian and Anglican churches. This is not just a consequence of the smaller size of the denomination; it is the logical concomitant of the powers of the conference. Anything which has threatened connexionalism, whether revivalists in the nineteenth century, wartime pacifists, or contemporary charismatics have been made very unwelcome. The second main characteristic of Methodism was religious experience, and this too has made a significant contribution to New Zealand Methodism. The essence of Methodism was religious experience controlled and disciplined. Wesley believed that certain methods produced religious experience, and he instilled a confidence in methodology into the connexion. Yet his own Aldersgate experience and the great revival of 1738-42 were not just the product of some new method of preaching. Such dramatic events, conversions, convulsions, assurance, and perfect love, could be controlled, but they could not be forced into existence. By the late nineteenth century many Methodists had joined the search for successful methods of revivalism, and there were little handbooks, like Finney's, which explained how to "get up a revival." Institutionalised revivalism, with its altar calls, anxious seats, after-meetings and
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham decision cards ritualised evangelical experience and it was notorious for its exploitation of any trick which could produce results. The desire for "a revival" was a familiar one in 19th century New Zealand Methodism, and the frequency of such mentions in Morley's history shows how debased the word had become. Religious excitement was a useful sentiment, for it drew in the young, increased the membership and revitalised the lackadaisical. Revival was also a problem to the connexion. Enthusiasts for revival changed their loyalty to Methodism to a search for experience, and this often led them in non-Wesleyan paths. "Ranterism" in England had led to the creation of Primitive Methodism and the Bible Christian church; and mindful of this, Wesleyan connexional officials regarded free- lance revivalists as a threat, and sought to keep them out of the pulpits of the denomination. The Maori Mission had used revivalist methods, and this blackened its reputation in the eyes of many New Zealand Wesleyans. Pakeha Methodists saw social, financial and institutional problems in revivalism. Splits within New Zealand Methodism were avoided because revivalism was inhibited in the colonial church. Certainly it existed, but it was never allowed much scope, except among the Primitive Methodists. Even they, though they did some outdoor preaching, held no camp meetings here. Revivalist preaching was left mainly to visiting preachers. Quite a number of independent foreign revivalists moved through New Zealand from the 1880s, including Dr. A.N. Somerville, Douglas Russell and Henry Varley, and two Wesleyan Methodists, California Taylor and Thomas Cook made an impact specifically among the Wesleyans. However these were low-key practitioners. Not until R.A. lorry's visit in 1902 did a leading evangelist set foot in the dominion. In local circuits lay preachers, especially those who had emigrated from rawer parts of the Methodist world, like Cornwall and the American frontier, often enthusiastically imitated Dwight Moody's style. Such preachers were regarded as a problem by the Wesleyan conference, and quite a few were allowed to drift into more fervent and sectarian denominations like the Brethren and the Church of Christ3. The Methodist churches of that age always had an evening evangelistic service, but concern was often expressed that it lowered the respectable tone of circuit life. Revival was fine, so long as it took place in the church, at an evening service, and was a result of the preaching of the circuit minister. Yet there were only a few New Zealand ministers, William Ready and C.H. Laws among them, who were experienced in the promotion of revival of a sober kind. The revival which took place at East Belt church in Christchurch in 1902 was a model revival, because the preacher, C.H. Laws, who was the circuit minister, was the last
3 See P.J. Lineham, There we found Brethren, (1977), pp.59-63. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 10
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham person to forsake methodistical order, and the first to ensure that the young converts became members of the church. Unfortunately such revivalism declined. It is interesting to note that twenty years after the erection of the 'cathedral' of South Island Methodism, Durham Street chapel in Christchurch, its ministers began to be chosen because they were leading 'non-revivalists', although before then the exact opposite had been the rule. Institutional factors also assisted the decline of other aspects of the Methodist experience of religion. Perfect love never seems to have had many New Zealand advocates, and the class meeting, where Christian experiences were shared and controlled, was a sickly institution. In 1887 the number of class leaders reached 239, at a time when the denomination had 267 preaching places. This was at the largest number of classes attained. After 1890 adherents were no longer required to attend the class meeting though they were obliged to enrol as members, and in 1904 the General Australasian conference redefined membership and allowed the nominal classes to go out of existence. Ministers did not want church membership restricted to a "spiritual aristocracy." Such a policy would eliminate too many people. This then was Methodism in 19th century New Zealand; a religion of controlled experience, and a tightly controlled denomination. But why was revival preaching exceptional in the New Zealand church? In general sectarian religion was rare in New Zealand. The experiment of building a settler society in the face of a series of exterior threats, including Maori opposition and trade depression, and the constant struggle to tame the land and build viable communities meant that the co-operative principle was all-important in New Zealand society. There was the strongest social pressure for everyone to work together. A group like the Brethren which stood for a more sectarian or independent outlook were dubbed "pakeha Hauhaus." Bylaws were passed to prevent the Salvation Army from marching through the streets, until they showed a willingness to co-operate with other denominations. There was a strong social pressure against any religion which condemned others, and for this reason there was intense dislike of the Roman Catholic Church. Religion was not part of the establishment in New Zealand. There never was a state church despite the hopes of some colonial administrators and emigrants. Even in the church-sponsored settlements, attendance at the church or kirk was voluntary. Presbyterian Otago was the home of the secularist Robert Stout, while Anglican Canterbury was fertile with nonconformist chapels, and the Methodists there built a stone chapel at a time when all the parish churches were wooden. Yet the country was supposed to be Christian. Parliament began each day's proceedings with prayers and the churches were anxious to serve the state. This did them little good. They destroyed their impact among the Maoris by their identification with the cause of the encroaching pakehas during the land wars. The death of the missionary John Whiteley shows how association with the British troops wrecked the early Methodisi mission. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 11
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Meanwhile in settler society, lodges and town councils were more important than churches in identifying the establishment. Religion was expected to occupy a less exalted position. The pressures of settler societv and the task of establishing an economic base in the new community preoccupied settlers. An all-consuming passion for religion was impracticable. Some time and money could be spared to help to build a chapel and support a minister, but this support was never over-generous. Settlers allowed their denominational loyalties to weaken a little, and accepted a degree of denominational rationalisation. In the rural areas joint-use churches and denominational transfers reduced the number of religious professions. Only the churches with firm cultural bases survived. Scots saw symbolic importance in opening a Presbyterian church; Irish in opening a Catholic one, and the English elite eventually supported the erection of a respectable shrine of the Church of England. On the other hand Congregationalists and Baptists did not show such industry. Methodists were somewhat representative of a distinctive non-establishment culture in England so their churches too were cultural refuges, not just as places to convert the community. Revivalism on the English pattern was out of place in the new world where men were making their own salvation. They were building their own security: they thought the church should be a foundation which supported all their achievements, not a challenge to them. This cautious attitude towards revivalism affected Methodists far more than other denominations, for they were associated with "ranting" in the popular mind. If Methodism wanted to be respectable it had to confine itself to the quiet and polite tones of an evangelist like Thomas Cook who visited in 1895. English Methodism as a whole was in search of respectability and saw itself as the proper leader of Dissent; and for Dissent this was the age of mahogany religion: of polite gothic suburban chapels, decorous preaching and the development of an alternative political structure, a 'nonconformist conscience.' New Zealand Methodists had an even harder struggle to establish their respectability, and consequently they were harder on revivalism. This attitude to revivalism left a long-term mark on Methodism. The caution with which the Methodist Conference in 1957 and 1965 treated the proposed visits of Billy Graham was because any large-scale evangelistic crusade was redolent of the old revivalism. Just because they began as an evangelistic denomination, Methodists preferred to distance themselves from anything which might bring back the bad old days.
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
3. METHODISM AT ITS HEIGHT The Methodist denominations reached their highest relative impact in New Zealand at the turn of the century. Coincidentally William Morley's History of Methodism in New Zealand was published in 1900 at the point when the achievement was at its most impressive, in this large volume a heroic and colourful tale is told of a movement brimming with life expanding to the perimeters of the country, overcoming all manner of difficulties, and almost a united prominent denomination. Morley's account is accurate in its detail, but the general impression of his book is somewhat deceptive. His phraseology suggested that New Zealand Methodism had experienced the vitality seen in the eighteenth century revival. In fact New Zealand Methodism knew almost nothing of this kind of growth. The denomination concentrated instead on ensuring the loyalty of Methodists to the church of their birth. Nineteenth century New Zealand Methodism had aims and attitudes so unlike early Methodism that any comparison of the two is unhelpful. The new denominational policy lived up to its promise. The proportion of nominal Methodists within New Zealand reached a peak of 10.9% of the population in 1901, and from 1891 until 1906 the figure remained above 10% (See graph 4). This was an achievement, but not the sort of achievement indicated by Morley. It was not primarily the result of evangelism; it was instead an act of preservation. It was a consequence of the increasing immigration to New Zealand of English farm workers and skilled industrial workers, among whom Methodism had been most successful. The New Zealand denominations aimed to make contact with these Methodists on their arrival, and ask for their loyalty. Such a policy had limited significance. It was not possible for the churches to move forward by appealing to instincts of loyalty. Thus the achievement of a high percentage of adherents was accompanied by some alarming signals of a weakening life within the Wesleyan denomination. (See graph 2) After thirty years of rapid increase, Wesleyan church attendance levelled off after 1896. Even membership declined slightly for the second time in the history of the connexion in the year 1900, although in general its trend was still upwards before 1918. The most spectacular declines came after 1900. There was a drastic decline in the census of Wesleyan adherents from 9.2% in 1901 to 7.18% in 1906 and 6.34% in 1911. This result may indicate the preference of many Methodist laity for old- fashioned Methodism for which the Primitive Methodist church stood. It is curious to note the growing appeal of the Primitive Methodists after the 1896 union: they rose from 1% of the population to 1.32% in 1902, 2.46% in 1906 and 2.72% in 1911. This seems not to have been genuine Primitive Methodist membership since their unevenly distributed congregations did not significantly grow during the period, (see graph 3) After union in 1913 disappointed Wesleyans demanded an enquiry into what had become of these fictional PMs. A general decline in church attendance was taking
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham place in these significant pre-war years, but even relative to this trend Methodism was doing poorly. As quickly as it had increased, Methodism commenced a decline. The reasons for this decline may be tentatively hazarded. Firstly, one may note a gradual shift of patterns of Methodist behaviour. Formerly the name of Methodist had been concomitant with a much higher degree of active participation in the church than in any other of the large denominations: some 50% of Methodists were at church every week in the 1870s compared to 16% of Anglicans. The gross size of the weekly congregations of Methodism in this period was only slightly below those of the Presbyterian and Anglican churches. But like other New Zealanders Methodists slowly lost interest in attending church. This was more significant for Methodism than it was for the other main churches because Methodism had begun as a revivalist sect. It did not have the kind of appeal to nominal churchmen which enabled non-attending Englishmen to continue to think of themselves as Anglicans Scots as Presbyterians and Irishmen as Catholics.4 Secondly Methodism was affected by the growth of the urban and industrial sector of the community. In Western society industrialisation is usually associated with a decline in the relative impact of the church, and this proved to be so in New Zealand too. This was particularly significant for Methodism because town culture in New Zealand after 1890 was shattered by industrial problems, and by an increasing breach between labour and the state. The alliance of the Liberal party with labour was too short-lived to affect this trend. Methodism depended on support from semi-skilled and skilled labour and consequently it was inherently susceptible to social tensions. There were clashes between church attenders from the working class and the office holders of the church who tended to be respectable and professional. Church leaders at the conference attempted to ensure that the tone of the church was decent and respectable, and in the 1911 conference they demanded a "truly cultured ministry"5 in an attempt to isolate the church from the social unrest of the age, and to improve the quality of denominational life. The policy only succeeded in reducing working-class support for the church. According to figures in the 1921 census, Methodism had significantly less employees in its ranks (42.1%) than the New Zealand average of 45%. It was still slightly weak in its share of the professional classes (4.0% compared to a national average of 4.8%) but it had half a percent more self employed and employers than the
4 I am indebted to Dr Hugh Jackson of Auckland University for these comments. There are also. valuable insights in W.H. Oliver, 'Religion and the New Zealanders', Landfall, vol. 20. no. 1 (March 1966), and in other articles in the same issue. 5 MCANZ, 1911 Conference, p. 27. See E.W. Hames, 100 Years in Pitt Street, (n.d.), pp. 21, 25. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 14
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New Zealand average of 17.9%.6 Methodism began as a religion of the people. By 1901 there was a growing realisation that it was developing some of the characteristics of the established church. It was becoming a service body, run by ministers, instead of a people committed to a common life and discipline. No wonder that it showed no instinct for growth. Any institution which is controlled by an annual general meeting of elected delegates tends to be highly sensitive to signs of problems. Methodism was no exception. Wesleyan Conference delegates were swift to detect fluctuations in Sunday school membership in 1898-9, 1901-2, 1907 and 1911-12, and this led them to analyse the problems they faced. In 1908 they issued a pastoral address to members, which asked: "Is it possible that laxity of parents in the matter of church attendance is the cause of carelessness amongst the children?" They knew and were increasingly oppressed by the sense that it was a "difficult age", and that "our climate, our political freedom, our sectarian rivalries, seem to exert an influence that induces laxity in regard to moral and religious duty."7 Plainly Methodist leaders knew from about 1900 that they faced serious problems. For some denominations that in itself would be a significant achievement. In Methodism on the contrary jittery feelings have been commonplace and it is active response to the problems which is all-important. The most important means of combating these problems which Methodists attempted was the moral crusade. Gospel Temperance Missions must have been the most characteristic evangelism of the period, and Methodism had many preachers among the temperance campaigners. As a denomination it was more committed to temperance than perhaps any other. L.M. Isitt was granted the unique privilege of remaining in the ministry whilst engaged in temperance work. Office holders of the church were not allowed to have any involvement in the drink traffic, and every church observed Temperance Sunday and called on attenders to sign the pledge. This was only one of the moral campaigns. Others included Sabbatarianism and opposition to gambling and pugilism. These moralistic movements endorsed a code of behaviour and a commitment to a "Christian" lifestyle in an age when the alternative rough culture seemed unchristian. Yet although such campaigns were regarded as a form of outreach, they did not help the church. At the same time these Christian movements alienated the city working classes from religion. The moral campaigns called for commitment to a model of society, and to a
6 See 1921 Census, Part VII, pp. 36-40, and W.H. Oliver, Op. cit. See also H. Foy, 'Methodism in Hawera 1874-1918' (Otago University B.A. Hons paper, 1980) for a good local analysis. 7 MCANZ, 1908 Conference, p.22; 1904 Conference, p. 26; 1909 Conference, p. 76. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 15
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham form of social control and moral rectification by individual self improvement. It was a curiously nonconformist model of how to achieve a Christian society.8 It was also a deliberate redeployment of traditional evangelistic methods. In temperance missions the church campaigned for positive community values instead of driving a wedge into society, as evangelistic missions did. Temperance enabled the church to forge and to maintain an alliance not only with other churches but also with a whole range of secular moralists who learnt to work with it. The aim of these moral movements was to create order out of disorder, to build New Zealand society. The church had found a way to endorse these values. Although in one sense it was harder to sign the pledge than to accept the gospel, in another sense it was easier, because it had a discernible social meaning; it made you acceptable in polite society. In the process it destroyed traditional evangelism, because it committed the church to a particular social style and a group of allies. It replaced the gospel of divine rescue and human sin by one of social corruption and individual self help. Ian Breward has written, in connection with the Bible in Schools movement: "The notion that values can be detached from personal faith and life in community because they are simpler than dogma and preparatory to faith has taken such a theological beating over the last fifty years that one can only marvel at the power of protestant tradition. All that happens is that the distinctiveness of the Christian ethic is undercut by the implication that it is a matter of knowledge rather than personal commitment, and too little attention paid to the human dimensions of ethics. There may be some connection between religion and morality, but the cause of neither is served when one is used as the means to foster the other. " 9 In the long run gospel temperance therefore undermined the importance of the church by creating a tradition of self-justified morally secure New Zealanders on one side, and a consciously unacceptable group on the other. This did not really help the church. The moral movements were contributing to the process of nation-building in New Zealand. The new dominion was interested to be a moral place, but the direct contribution of any church to the moral process was unwelcome. Religion was allowed to contribute to nation-building, but only if it was undogmatic religion of the kind which thrived m the moral movements, and is also exemplified in Anzac Day where the dead of the First World War were commemorated in a desiccated semi-Christian rite. Yet religion was less important than sport in fostering national identity. Rugby tours by the All Blacks fostered the
8 See A R Grigg, 'Prohibition, the Church and Labour', New Zealand Journal of History vol. 15 (1981), pp. 135-154; and Foy, pp. 99-119. 9 I. Breward, Godless Schools?, (1967), pp. 108-109. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 16
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham critical legend of national prowess and achievement. "God's own country" did not need to bow the knee to Jehovah; His aid was the last thing it needed. While church members were preoccupied with the affairs of the nation, the ministers of the church were anxious to achieve a greater institutional order within Methodism. The period from 1890 until 1914 was characterised by a growing integration of the church. Connexional policy and funds were established, and several denominational officers were appointed. This was a period of unique opportunity for Methodism as a denomination. The appointment of William Morley, a man of remarkable drive and statesmanship, as Church Building and Loan Fund Secretary in 1883, and as a Connexional Secretary and head of the Home Mission Loan and Jubilee Funds ten years later, meant that forward planning was placed in the hands of a gifted leader. The chief priority of denominational policy-makers like Morley was church extension; the need to provide a national spread of preaching points and circuits to cater for the needs of Methodists on a basis other than a haphazard one. Methodist adherence was very unevenly distributed throughout New Zealand, as a result of the vagaries of emigration. A concentration of West Country people made it usually strong in Taranaki, and a strong religious consciousness made it strong in Canterbury, but missionary tradition committed it to a very extensive number of poor circuits in Northland and in Central Otago. The Church needed strong circuits in every part of the country. This necessitated the erection of buildings and support of preachers to do pioneering work. The problem seemed to be a financial one. Because of the centralised ownership of property the connexion felt crippled by heavy debts at penal rates of interest. A fund to make money available for priority projects was a necessity if a denominational policy was to emerge. A Church Extension association was founded in 1876, and a Church Building and Loan Fund in 1883, but neither had much capital. Although Church Councils were established in 1902 with the task of examining the priorities in the creation of new circuits, the task of initiation and finance tended to devolve to the Home Mission Committee, and it was so saddled by debts that pioneer work was not often possible. A series of financial appeals was organised to raise capital for church extension. In 1890 there was a call for "purely aggressive work" to celebrate the Jubilee of New Zealand, and a Jubilee Fund was promoted by William Morley. The Centennial Commemoration Fund of 1898 hoped to raise £60,000 for the development of the church, and its publicity noted that church- building in the suburbs was inhibited by the heavy debt of the church. However that appeal raised only £11,000, and later financial appeals were also less successful than had been hoped. By the time that Morley moved to Australia in 1902 the financial obstacles which crippled strategic planning had not been overcome. A lament was expressed at the 1906 Conference that Anglicanism and Presbyterianism were more aggressive churches than Methodism. The comment was reasonably valid. Methodism had grown haphazardly in New Zealand; it had to pay for its early mistakes at a time
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham when it might have expanded and consolidated. There was always too little money available; the Church Loan Fund amounted to only £5,985 1898. The wealthiest church funds were based in Australia. The money given to the various financial appeals was wasted because donors directed their gifts to whatever church body took their fancy. Some money was spent on chapels in unsuitable locations, following the misguided principle that the real reason for low church attendance was the lack of churches. In the meantime the most strategic projects and the central agencies of the church lived a hand-to-mouth existence. The theory of connexional policy lacked substance in the absence of a Connexional budget. Connexional budgetting was established only very recently, but contemporary Methodism has only debts to share. One of the genuinely strategic policies of the connexion was an attempt to carry out mission work in parts of the country where there were not enough Methodists to make a circuit viable. The Home Mission Fund was a form of church development distinctive to New Zealand. It originated in the employment of Maoris as catechists to assist the work of the missionaries. After 1876 catechists began to be employed where there was insufficient finance to pay for a minister, and in 1890 the sixteen catechists were renamed home missionaries. They were placed under the control of the newly appointed Connexional Secretary in 1893. Thereafter the number of missionaries grew sharply. They were cheap; it was an easy way to train potential ministers and to provide some interim satisfaction for the demand for a second circuit minister or the establishment of a new circuit in rural areas About 50 missionaries functioned in the early twentieth century, and this gave to the connexional officers a flexibility in staffing which was very useful In 1909 Tom Brooke was appointed Home Mission Secretary in Auckland. Unfortunately his main task proved to be raising money for a fund which was always in debt. Because of the debt the Home Mission Fund lost its flexibility and it was also the victim of church politics for it was forced to maintain preaching points long after hopes for their viability had vanished. English Methodism in the late nineteenth century commenced a 'Forward Movement to evangelise the run-down central city areas. In 1875 the first independent Home Mission Minister had been appointed in Manchester, and by 1885 the first Central Halls had been founded at the urging of Hugh Price Hughes. This Forward Movement attracted some interest in New Zealand for example at the 1891 Conference10 Methodists realised that there were' distinctive probjems in New Zealand cities too, and it was intended that £3000 of the Century Commemoration Fund would be set aside for the establishment of City Missions. Unfortunately the failure of that appeal hamstrung the programme, and only tentative gestures could be made including the expansion of the Freeman's Bay Helping Hand Mission in Auckland and the formation of a Dunedin Central Mission out of William Ready s mission station. (Initiatives in
10 G. Sails, At the Centre. (1970); AWMCNZ, 1891 Conference, p. 77. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 18
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Christchurch and Wellington did not succeed.) In 1911 the order of business at the conference was adjusted to allow for a specific question on City Missions, but no consistent policy or vision developed until after the war. Institutional issues attracted more attention. One of these was church union first between the Wesleyans, the Bible Christians and the United Free Methodists in 1896, and then between this united church and the Primitive Methodists in1913. The smaller Methodists denominations were not sufficiently different in character from the Wesleyan connexion to enable them to exist independent of it, and they needed a local base for finance and tor ministers. The Primitive Methodists survived the longest They were a genuine alternative, especially after the 1896 Union, which, to Wesleyan regret, excluded them. Primitive Methodism was finally forced to sue for Union in 1913 It had never achieved anything like the proportionate following it had in England, and in a smaller population its connexional life was not viable. 1913 was a great year for Methodism. In the year when Union took place the Wesleyan Conference also severed its links with the Australasian connexion and formed the fully autonomous Methodist Church of New Zealand. The ecumenical co- operation which had been initiated by James Gibb of the newly united Presbyterian Church in 1901, and had been exemplified by an interdenominational church newspaper, was brought to an end There is a certain amount of truth in the Currie thesis that the Methodist church has only ever sought union when it feels its weakness.11 The consummation of union with the Primitive Methodists injected enough primitive zeal and awakened enough Wesleyan self-confidence to enable them to lose interest in broader union proposals for another forty years. Yet it can be argued that Methodist union created an administrative structure of crippling proportions relative to the number of members, and that flexibility and economy were sacrificed to national control in the creation of an autonomous church which never had a viable base of support. No doubt this interpretation exaggerates the case, but the years after 1913 were not great ones for the church. The new age began well. At the time of union with the Primitive Methodists and independence from Australia, the connexion finally began to think connexionally. This was not occasioned solely by these two moves, important as they were in forcing the New Zealand church to face up to its own responsibilities. Especially important was concern at the Methodist adherents recorded in the 1911 Census. The 1912 Conference established a Welfare of the Church Committee chaired by the capable Rev. C.H. Laws, and charged it with examining the needs of the church more
11 R. Currie, Methodism Divided, (1968). For a critical evaluation of this vis-a-vis N.Z., see N.E. Brookes, 'New Zealand Methodists and Church Union', (University of Canterbury M.A. thesis, 1976). Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 19
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham thoroughly than had proved possible at the session of the conference devoted to the "state of religion in the churches" and "the work of God." The report of this committee, delivered to the first conference of the Methodist Church of New Zealand in 1913, was a milestone. It analysed the "grave matters" which delayed progress: the growth of luxury and pleasure seeking especially by young people; theological unrest; the separation between humanitarian movements and the church and the feeling that clergy were not adequate to meet the new age, and were too absorbed by financial and committee responsibilities to deal with new challenges. It was a reasonable statement of the crisis and its consequences for Methodism. C.H. Laws urged the conference that: "We cannot hope to ‘muddle through' in the warfare upon which we are engaged, nor will mere blind earnestness effect much. We need the most scientific analysis of present-day conditions."12 The conference did not know how to take up this challenge. In a series of resolutions it encouraged more commitment by the membership, who should become involved in lay pastorates, visiting bands, literature distribution and open air services. A Mission of Inspiration and Appeal which had been planned to celebrate the united church assumed more importance, and became a main responsibility of the Welfare of the Church Committee. The notion that special connexional evangelistic initiatives will renew the life of the church has had a long history and is certainly not dead yet. The first call for the appointment of a connexional evangelist had been heard in 1880, and in 1886 the Rev. J.S. Smalley was appointed to the position. He held successful missions in several churches, but he had a breakdown in health during the year and the appointment was not renewed. From 1890 until 1920 overseas visitors supplied the need. From 1896 until 1900 the Rev David O'Donnell of Victoria, Australia, held an extensive series of "Young Life Campaigns" in New Zealand, to the satisfaction of the Conference. In 1901 Sister Elinor and Miss Leyton of England held a Speech and Song Mission through the colony. The 1913 Mission of Inspiration and Appeal was led by the Rev. Vallence Cook and Sister Francis from England, but their "sane and sensible" appeals were supplemented by a "heart on fire", the Rev. Val W. Trigge of Victoria. Trigge’s style was enormously popular, and he returned for an extended mission from 1916 until 1920, supervised by an Evangelistic Sub-Committee of the Welfare of the Church Committee. He held ten to twenty missions every year, with considerable success. Yet when it came time for him to return to Victoria in 1921, moves to replace him were thwarted. Nor was this the only occasion when the plan to make a connexional evangelist a regular officer of the conference failed. In 1904 and 1905 the policy had been the subject of an ardent campaign, but it was sidestepped by the appointment of
12 MCNZ, 1913 Conference, p. 71. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 20
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham an Organising Secretary for the Young Men's Forward Movement, the Rev Charles Porter. We may enquire why such an appointment never proceeded when there was such evident satisfaction at the work of visiting evangelists. One reason was financial. All the officers appointed by the church at the time — and not all of them were permanent appointments — were really fund-raisers. Organisational tasks could be reduced to the essential one of raising financial support for nationally organised initiatives. The evangelistic missions were very expensive and very time-consuming for national committees, yet their achievements were always local. A connexional evangelist who could hold only twenty missions a year was a dubious expense in the eyes of circuits which were not visited by him. Furthermore those who wanted to appoint an evangelist always assumed that he must be a foreigner on a high stipend. No New Zealander was thought suitable. An element of envy preventing any local appointment, Methodists had been reluctant enough to appoint a connexional secretary, but to choose one preacher and free him from circuit duties and preaching tours seemed like favouritism. Wesley's successors were reluctant to admit that evangelism was not the ordinary work of the Methodist ministry. The roving evangelist seemed to subvert the status and achievement of the ordinary minister. Above all, ministers were increasingly eager to settle into single church circuits; to be less itinerant and not more; to be more pastoral and less evangelistic. There were a few ministers like C.H. Laws who were noted as evangelistic preachers. But preaching for decision was usually regarded as the role of the temperance sermon, and commitment meant signing the pledge. Old-fashioned hell-fire sermons were not really in place in the "more dignified and reverent form of public worship" which the Welfare of the Church committee advocated. The ethos of the church had undermined one concept of evangelism, and left little to replace it. At the local level evangelism had not died. In many churches the evening service had an evangelistic altarcall. The Methodist "church year" provided a series of services with a special attraction to those outside the normal life of the church. The harvest festival, which had begun in England in the mid-nineteenth century, had quickly become a community celebration. From about 1900 one Sunday a year was set aside as "Decision Sunday" when children were encouraged to make a decision for Christ after hearing a special evangelistic sermon. It has always been easier to evangelise the young. The Sunday schools were particularly significant in the outreach of the church. This was natural in an age when religion was left to women and children and when the task of evangelism was seen as making contact with adherents. Methodists were unusually active in the Sunday schools. Their 22000 Sunday scholars were about 65% of the number of infant Methodists, whereas the Anglicans reached only 18% and the
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Presbyterians 42% of their infant adherents.13 The figures of Sunday School attendance were carefully monitored and in the early part of the century an effort was made to strengthen Sunday schools by appointing a Dunedin-based committee under the moving genius of A.H. Reed. In 1909 graded lessons were adopted. Thus it was hoped to reach children of existing adherents, although it was also hoped that they would become more involved in the church than their parents were. In addition to the Sunday school a whole range of ancillary organisations lay within the penumbra of the local congregation. Bible Classes developed after 1905 and an Organising Secretary provided leadership for them from 1907 to 1910. There were Christian Endeavour Unions and Bands of Hope, and evangelistically inclined Young Men's Forward Movements in most churches. In the Pitt Street church in Auckland, there was also a Wesley Young Men's Institute, a gymnasium, a literary and debating society, a tennis club, and a glee club. The significance of this institutionalisation of youth activities needs to be explained. For many Methodists this cluster or organisations and functions was evangelistic by definition. Yet there was a gap between these institutions and church services. Youth activities were popular in their own right, not because they were based in church buildings. Recreational facilities were seriously lacking and in rural districts the church was often the only available hall, while towns had a large youthful population without the economic resources to assist themselves. Consequently the churches played a useful socialising role. However this socialising role was mistaken for evangelism by the churches. They assumed that to patronise young people was virtually to convert them. Social circumstances impelled the churches into a "Christendom" model, which encouraged participation on the least demanding terms. But the net effect was to weaken the church as an instrument for urging men and women to repentance and faith. That weakness still remains.
13 See G.L. Stafford, 'An Inquiry into the Development of the Sunday School Movement in New Zealand', (University of New Zealand M.A. thesis, 1928), p. 46. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 22
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4. AFTER THE FIRST WORLD WAR By 1918 church attendance was lower than attendance at the new picture theatres. Settler society had progressed towards new and less stable values. The appearance of nationalism was symbolised by rugby and Anzac day. Affluence and poverty upset the egalitarian model; the towns took the lead from rural areas; organised industrial labour and state ncervention challenged individualism, and the dairy farm and co-operative society ceased 'o be the standard models of social organisation.14 The crisis oi identity throughout New Zealand society caused a crisis of peculiar intensity within in t.ie church, and encouraged some deep changes of attitude which have given the Methodist connexion much ofils present reputation for liberalism and social involvement. This change of image of the church was important for its evangelistic ministry. The crisis of 1913 did not abate during the war years. Church attendance continued to fall sharply, and this fall was accompanied by a decline in the percentage of adherents and by the cessation of growth in membership figures. The Wesleyans gained an average of five hundred members a year up to 1910 but it took eleven years for the united church to gain a further 2000. (see graphs 4 and 6). As Val Triggers mission came to an end, there were earnest discussions concerning the need for continued evangelistic work. In 1920 the committee organising Trigge's missions was transformed into an evangelistic committee, and the appointment of an evangelist and the training of all new ministers in evangelistic methods was advocated. At the same time the conference requested a report on church services, church membership and methods of evangelism in an attempt to develop a new forward policy. These reports were delivered at the 1921 conference and they gave a sombre analysis of the problems of the church: "The conditions amid which the Church is doing her work are exceedingly acute. The foundations and buttresses of society are being shaken and disruptive forces are gaining new energy. In this hour of crisis the only alternatives before the world are CHRIST and chaos."15 From 1921 until 1923 the Conference ruminated on these changed conditions", and they became the fulcrum for rethinking the task of the church. Rugby Pratt, the brilliant connexional secretary, helped to prepare this analysis of New Zealand's "social and political unrest .... growing secularly a shameless materialism and a marked weakening of moral sanctions." Ten features were described in a later report including popular bitterness at the church s condemnation of sin, "relaxation of moral fibre in the general unsettlement occasioned by war", increasing
14 See Erik Olssen's chapter in Oxford History of New Zealand, ed. W.H. Oliver, (1981), p. 273 and passim. 15 MCNZ, 1921 Conference, p. 49. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 23
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham self-indulgence within society the dissatisfaction of modem minds with the church's expression of Christian truth, trust in science as an alternative to God, "the suspicion that the church does not breathe the spirit of the modern age; that she is the bulwark of the privileged classes; that she seeks to provide a religious basis for the existing social order and is deaf to the appeal of economic justice," the church's seeming failure to deal with war and world problems, the broadening of female interests beyond religious confines, the diversion of humanitarian work into non-church agencies, and the distraction of ministers from their real tasks by routine and committee responsibilities.16 This analysis was a perceptive one. It rightly noted the poor image of the church, the increasingly secular culture and the undermining of the credibility of the Gospel by modern thought. In effect it concluded that evangelism of the old style was partially to blame for the crisis. The 1921 report on evangelism commented that: 'For the most part.... the great spectacular mission, and even the mission in the church... have outlived their day .... Each minister should combine with his teaching and pastoral office the work of an evangelist... The presentation of the message mist be modem taking account of the changed needs and altered temperament of our time. 'Damnation with the cross in the middle of it' –General Booth's earliest gospel - leaves men cold today.... The Lord's table is a Forgotten Confessional. All other evangelistic methods pale before the wonder and beauty of this one. "17 "Aggresive Evangelism" was still the ideal, but the notion of a connexional evangelist was now abhorrent, and consequently the conference evangelistic committee was dissolved. When a later conference designated 1925 as a year of evangelism and spiritual advance, it was the Home Mission executive which took control of planning, and formed the spiritual advance committee to look after details. The debate over the need for a connexional evangelist was replayed in 1933, but no change of policy took place then. Such a profound shift of emphasis may have been caused by the change of national mood, but it was made possible by a significant shift in the theological tone of the connexion as a whole. Younger Methodist leaders felt the need for a new evangelism, "a message of goodwill and brotherhood" aimed at "realising the reign of God on earth." Nineteenth century liberalism thus experienced a belated heyday in inter-war New Zealand. The Methodist leaders were uncomfortable with the old dogmatism: "God fulfils himself in many ways; no homogeneous presentation of the Evangel wins men for holiness .... The Infinite Love of God in Christ; our Lord in all the glory of his
16 MCNZ, 1923 Conference, p. 70. 17 MCNZ, 1921 Conference, p. 53. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 24
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham magnificent robust Humanity; His hatred of cant and Pharisaism; His attitude to social wrong; His will and His power to perfect all that concerns us — these are the themes that draw men s hearts and satisfy men's needs." This natural pelaeianism, beautifully rhetorical and cloudy, was expressed in the Conference Report on Evangelism. Such views explain why Methodist leaders tolerated the Strand Theatre services of C.G. Scrimgeour — "Uncle Scrim" — in depression Auckland services which were described by A.J.S. Reid, as "an untheological mixture of social gospel, and a happy, homely, comfortable type of common sense with a religious flavour."18 The acceptability of this revision of the Methodist evangel may seem a little surprising. Methodism moved away from Fundamentalism without any great struggles. It was a denomination not characterised by excessive theological thinking. Most of its ministers and lay preachers had not received theological training, although the leaders of the connexion were well-read in the latest trends in English nonconformist thinking, and as early as 1893 C.H. Garland had lectured the Wesleyan conference on the effects of higher criticism. To men like Garland alteration of "the prevailing crude and confused ideas concerning the Bible and the things of the Spirit" was crucial if the church was to gain a following from intelligent modern men. The 1924 Welfare of the Church report declared that "a paramount need of the present day is to acquaint our people with the accepted findings of Biblical Research and to unfold to them in clear and concise terms that statement of our faith which is accepted by those Christian thinkers whose interpretations are more in harmony with the modern outlook upon life and with the acknowledged findings of Science."19 Another aspect of this concern was the desire to "breathe the spirit of the age," so that modern people should find the church more compatible with them. The aim was to turn modern thought in a Christian direction. This was far from easy, for modern thought tended to leave religious issues behind. It dismissed the church as unimportant, and traditional. In trying to appease this mood the leaders of the church embarked upon a frustrating struggle. The number of converts from the world of modern thought was never large. The Conference never defined their new creed, but with typical antipodean zeal for the practical they became earnest commentators on "modern social questions." Temperance campaigning had taught the church how to speak out on public issues. The rise of the Labour party, and the feeling that the workers had received a raw deal, naturally concerned Methodists, who were proud of their denomination's influence on moral campaigns and on industrial workers. As early as 1893 the denomination had "welcome (ed) all social reforms as an essential part of the programme of
18 Ibid., pp. 52, 53; 1922 Conference, pp. 75-76; AJ.S. Reid, 'Church and State in New Zealand, 1930-1935', (Victoria University M.A. thesis 1961), p. 138. 19 MCNZ, 1921 Conference, p. 53; 1924 Conference.pp.62-3. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 25
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Christianity." It had long operated orphanages and city missions and had expressed support for shop assistants and factory workers in their campaigns against sweated labour and long hours. The conference in 1919 affirmed: "its full sympathy with labour in its efforts to secure its fair and equitable rights which include improved conditions, increased wages, and shorter hours and pledge(ed) itself to assist labour to that end." Consequent on its rethinking of evangelism, the 1922 Conference agreed on ten principles, "for promoting the extensive influence of the church." These principles, borrowed from a 1912 declaration of the American Federal Council of Churches, were a statement of a Christian social ideal, and were intended "to make our position clear to all classes of the community." The ten principles covered industry, wages, sweated labour, holidays, constitutional change, poverty, brotherhood and citizenship and they eventually became the standing Social Creed of the church. It was a moralistic age, and the Creed had the right tone. When in 1925 and Order of Seventy was founded, its vow included the promise: “I will do what I can to form a Christian judgement on the social and international problems of the day." Thus when the depression became severe, Methodists were more ready than other churches to commit themselves to social issues. On the whole the social creed diverted Methodist interest from evangelism. For it was not made known to many non-Methodists. In the church programme it was discussed at the poorly attended mid-week meetings rather than Sunday services. The only attempt to promote the practice of the social programme of Christianity came with the foundation of the National Council of Churches in 1940. One reason for the foundation of the NCC was the desire to make the church more influential in public affairs, and early in its existence the idea of a "crusade for social justice" was adopted by the Council. The Campaign for Christian Order, which was held in 1942 and'1943, tried to promote public recognition of the need for a new world order in the post-war age. Sermons were preached and booklets were produced, but the chief achievement of the Crusade was to put the NCC on the map. Its social aims were rather vague. It is dubious whether it even persuaded churchmen to "rethink and transform all their relationships with one another in the spirit of Christian fellowship." The Crusade failed to analyse which means would best produce the desired end, and. in the words of the Methodist. Raymond Dudley, it "somewhat neglected the individual for the social (Gospel)".20 It was the young people of the denomination who were most affected by the modernisation of Methodism. The new emphasis was very apparent in the Bible Class Movement. By 1910 Bible Classes had become a very effective part of Methodism and Presbyterianism and in the 1930s the average attendance at the Methodist classes rose to just under 4000 boys and just over 4000 girls per week. The classes had a
20 C.G. Brown, Forty Years On (1981), pp. 26-42. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 26
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham competent staff of travelling secretaries and a programme of Sunday studies, youth activities and camps. It was a very absorbing pattern. The camps often were evangelistic, but the classes went far beyond "Sunday school religion" in their discussion of modern social issues. At the time many elder members of the church feared the aggressive independence of the Youth Departments, but in fact many of the well-informed lay and clerical leaders of post-war Methodism found a place in the church through them. No other wing of the church showed the same energy. The Home Missions Department attempted to launch a "Great Forward Movement" in 1919, but it was suspended in 1920 for lack of money, and a review of the Department in 1921 indicated that almost all of its money was going to the same preaching stations in receipt of assistance five or even twenty years before. So the department was unable to adjust to meet new opportunities. A.J. Seamer took over the department in 1912 and he had a vision for the Christian evangelisation of New Zealand. He was rewarded with control of the 1925 Spiritual Advance Campaign. In 1935 his department organised an imaginative five year campaign to increase church membership by 5000, and to evangelise" the church-going membership as well, by encouraging them to relate evangelism to pressing social questions. At that time many Methodists were stirred by reading Maltby's book, Evangelise or Perish. Yet such stirrings were never directed successfully into effective evangelism, and they tended to be weak in comparison with the attention given to social and political issues. In the City Missions efforts were made to relate social and evangelistic issues and they were quite successful during the depression years when institutional religion was hard hit. However only two missions were really significant, and they were not co- ordinated by the national conference. They were dependent on maverick leadership and their administration was often weak. In effect they tended to be loose associations of institutions, lacking any unified vision. Thus modern evangelism was not a very prominent aspect of church life despite continued Conference exhortations in favour of lay pastorates, literature distributions, neighbourhood visiting, and the like. Open Air services were held in Pitt Street, Auckland, on Friday nights during the 1930s, in which Trinity College students debated with ordinary Aucklanders. These were atypical events. More than ever, church services were the primary meeting place for the church and the world. Realising this, the denominational conference was anxious that services should make a good impression. The aim in the words of a 1935 statement, was that services should strike "the positively radiant note rather than the introspective gloomy one." Services which were "stodgy, unattractive and spiritless' should be transformed, using "all that is best in music, song, and modern thought." It was hoped that the effect would be better, "if in our ordinary services the worship side were given more prominence. This part of the service is often very bare, and sometimes conducted in a very haphazard
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham and slovenly fashion.21 The Presbyterians and Anglicans are sometimes alleged to have turned to liturgy as a retreat from the problems of modernity. Methodism hoped that its services would express the contemporary mood which others disliked. Yet the Methodist desire for "heartiness like changes in other denominations increasingly emphasised the role of the minister as the master of ceremonies. After 1915 the number of local preachers began a steady decline, and the minister began to be seen as the only religious officer in the church. Nowhere was this policy more disastrous than in the evangelism of the church, for it was not ministers but lay people who had more opportunities to explain their faith to the unchurched.
21 MCNZ, 1935 Conference, p. 48; 1922 Conference, p. 51. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 28
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5. CAMPAIGNING FOR A SPIRITUAL ADVANCE After the First World War, the church experienced a crisis. The Second World War was followed by an optimistic burst of activity. New Zealand society recovered rapidly from the war, and the baby boom was not accompanied by an economic depression. The same was true in the church. It was an age of religiosity throughout the western world. The emergence of the communist bloc after the war and the resultant Western fears lent support to socially conservative forces. Religion was widely identified as a bulwark against the red peril. Furthermore the austerity of the post-war years helped to preserve the traditional puritanical patterns of New Zealand consumption and lifestyle. The tensions within society reduced. The 1951 waterfront confrontation did not lead to a heightening of class tension, and the relevance of class analysis became less apparent in the post-war years, as a generation of returned soldiers and their families built similar houses in the new suburbs. About 75% of New Zealand families managed to purchase homes and suburban life reflected a growing prosperity and economic equalisation. It was an age of the family, and the state sought to protect the family from external threats. In 1956 the Mazengarb commission on juvenile delinquency concluded that society needed a recovery of family morality and religion. Such traditionalism was not as securely based as it seemed. Although the British link remained strong, American influences were increasingly affecting foreign policy, culture and religion. The changing age-structure of the population meant that by 1960 a large teenage sector helped to stimulate changing social patterns. Most denominations experienced a significant rise in support in the 1950s. Congregations rose, new churches were built in the suburbs, membership increased, and the churches were in good heart. Relative to the growing population these trends were less encouraging. Census adherence remained more or less stable, and the percentage of Methodists actually declined from 8.1% in 1945 to 7% in 1966, the year of its numerical peak. (see graphs 4, 5 and 6) Nor did church membership grow as a proportion of the population Methodism added its highest ever number of new members to the church in 1959: 6% of the existing membership, (see graph 8). Similar patterns were recorded by other churches in the year of the Billy Graham crusade. Church adherents came from most sectors of society. A survey carried out about 1950 of Methodists in a number of circuits, indicated that the denomination was attracting a reasonable proportion of most social groups, although it was a little low in businessmen and unskilled workers. The figures showed 12% were professionals, 7% were employers, 17% tradesmen, 19% farmers, 8% labourers, 23% general workers and 14% not defined. (Women appear to have been ignored by the study.)22
22 Spiritual Advance Committee of MCNZ, Methodism Marches, (n.d.), p. 11. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 29
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This survey probably covered families whose names were on the pastoral care lists of ministers. After 1945 the proportion of census adherents on the pastoral rolls of both the Methodist and Presbyterian churches rose dramatically. There were few "missing adherents." However, contact with the church was becoming less demanding. Many of those on the pastoral roll probably never put in an appearance at a regular church service. They received the parish magazine and they used the church for weddings and funerals. Often they had their children baptised. The number of baptisms relative to the number of adherents reached a peak in the late 1950s although graph 7 shows that it consistently reflects the New Zealand birth rate. (See table 7) But in the same period the Sunday school rolls had begun to fall far behind the youthful population. It was a great age for a touch of religious icing, but the icing was becoming thinner. The children of this generation of vague adherents had no real contact with church after their baptism, and they were to become people without religion who are today aged between twenty and forty. The churches reinforced this pattern of less committed involvement. Their policy seems to have been an emphasis on the importance of public religion. Methodist Church services became more formal. It was an age of "architectural evangelism", symbolised in the Methodist case by the Whiteley Memorial church in New Plymouth. Methodism was able to afford fewer of these monuments than the larger denominations, but it did try to make church services more ritualistic. The new Faith and Order committee, influenced by the ecumenical liturgical movement, spent a fair proportion of its time debating what sort of stole the minister should wear and what liturgy he should use. It was in 1957 that the Pitt Street church choir began to wear gowns in services. Services became more respectable, and sermons shorter and vaguer. The philosophy behind the changes was flawed. The reaction of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to a pre-war service at Riverside Church, New York seems somehow appropriate: "The (service) was a respectable, self-indulgent self satisfied religious celebration . . . Such services make for libertinism, egotism, indifference. Do people not know that we can get on as well, even better, without 'religion'".23 Such religion did not capture the enthusiasm of New Zealanders, and there was less and less support for church extension into the new suburbs. Methodist Church Councils studied the question carefully, but they were forced to limit their building programme for financial reasons. After 1950 most new parishes were organised in co- operation with the Presbyterian church, especially in situations where that denomination was weak also. Thus Methodism became institutionally committed to church union, and numerous other small rural churches, weakened by the urban drift, were reconstituted as union or co-operating parishes.
23 D. Bonhoeffer, The Way to Freedom, (1972 edition), pp. 230-231. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 30
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
The long term consequences of this institutional co-operation are now apparent. Presbyterian statistics record the figure of 19,573 New Zealanders who are members of union churches. (There is no complete list of those in other sorts of unions and co- operative ventures.) As a result of these unions Methodism is no longer a fully national denomination. 51.5% of all Methodist parishes and 26.7% of all members are involved in union churches. The effects of this policy are particularly serious for the weaker partner in union schemes. E.W. Hames, in his history of the church, noted the way in which talented Methodist ordinands tend to transfer to a larger denomination. Most of the union parishes are dominated by the stronger church, usually the Presbyterian. However, the Presbyterian Church is less affected by its involvement in union. Only 25.1% of its parishes and 18.1% of its members are involved in co- operative ventures. Presbyterians can afford to opt out of union negotiations. Methodists cannot. Besides this makeshift policy, the church in the post-war era achieved little by way of extension. (The formation of the Methodist Social Service Association does not fall within the scope of this study). The impact of the city missions and the church Bible classes and Sunday schools declined very significantly, although very large numbers of conversions were reported from Bible Class Easter Camps right through the 1950s. The church's major attempt to turn vague religiosity into commitment was the Campaign for Christ and His Kingdom, which was planned by the Spiritual Advance Committee, reorganised as a Palmerston North based committee under the chairmanship of the Rev. W.R. Laws in 1948. Following the lead of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, the committee persuaded the conference to adopt a five year programme, in which successive years were to be devoted to visitation, membership recruitment, leadership training and community involvement. The committee had a strong sense of purpose, and used a booket by George H. Goodman to put its case to the church. They had no time for the kind of evangelism in which people "feel they have been spiritually assaulted", but were anxious lest the baby be thrown out with the bathwater. Evangelism was defined as "the task of preaching the whole gospel of Christ, with a passionate desire that those who hear it will be persuaded to accept Jesus as their leader. Saviour and Lord; and to offer gladly their whole lives, in the service of Christ, His Church and His Kingdom."24 The campaign committee were eager to encourage a wide range of evangelistic methods, but at the local level they urged visitation evangelism", in which the homes of Methodist adherents would be visited by lay teams to reawaken their interest in the faith. The mission was a decentralised one, and it only made any large-scale impact in 1950 when George Laurenson served as its full-time director and toured the country talking about the crusade. About the same time the Rev. E.T. Olds made a caravan tour of
24 G.H. Goodman, Vital Evangelism, (n.d.), pp. 5-6. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 31
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New Zealand as Methodist evangelist. However only a limited amount of visitation evangelism took place, and the five year plan had to be stretched into eight years and finally petered out in 1956. The Spiritual Advance Committee slowly lost its evangelistic concern in its preoccupation with the other duties deputed to it by the Conference for overseas visitors' itineraries, devotional literature and Bible reading aids. During the same period the Presbyterian Church benefited from a lay stewardship movement organised by Norman Perry, the New Life Movement. The Presbyterian translation of evangelism into stewardship was less truly evangelistic than the Campaign for Christ and his Kingdom, but its success was measurable in terms of pounds, shillings and pence. It is always easier to attract money than it is to attract lives. By the mid-fifties a Methodist Stewardship Campaign reproduced aspects of the New Life Movement. The strength of the Presbyterian movement was that it was genuinely lay-led. With the notable exception of the Methodist Women's Fellowship, and the lesser exception of the Methodist Lay Association led by Alan Crothall, Methodism has had few lay movements. Methodist laity are absorbed into committees of the clergy-dominated synods and connexional committees. The Rev. D.O. Williams tried to redress the balance when as President of Conference he declared a "Layman's Year," but the problem still survived. Both the Campaign for Christ and His Kingdom and the Stewardship Campaign had another flaw. They were working on the presupposition that New Zealand was still part of "Christendom." They aimed to strengthen the church involvement of adherents on the fringes of the church. Stewardship, baptism, and occasional services might draw them into the church. They had denominational blood in their veins, however diluted, and it was hoped that a process or a formula might be found to thicken the mixture. Unfortunately it seemed only to continue to thin. In the 1950s interest in evangelism turned back to older paths with the emergence of a local following for the Evangelical Movement in many denominations. The evangelical view of salvation had slowly lost support in the New Zealand protestant churches from the late nineteenth century but this new evangelical consciousness soon became strong and set itself the objective of organising a tour of New Zealand by the prominent American preacher. Billy Graham. In 1955 and 1957 the National Council of Churches was persuaded to issue an invitation to the evangelist, thus obliging Methodists (who had been little touched by Evangelicalism) to face up to the issue. The proposal that Methodists support the crusade awakened sustained controversy. Neither the Spiritual Advance Committee nor the Ecumenical committee of the conference wanted anything to do with the Crusade and the motion in support of it in 1957 had to come from the conference floor. After bitter debate the conference supported the crusade by 189 votes to 45. The opposition was fierce because Billy
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Graham's "fundamentalism" and mass methods ran counter to the philosophy of the previous generation of denominational leaders. However most of the denomination remained willing to try a crusade. The crusade drew enormous crowds, and 3106 "enquirers" names were referred to Methodist churches. For most of these people the crusade was very important. But the crusade's impact was largely confined to New Zealanders already in contact with the churches. This was especially true in the case of Methodist enquirers, for 76 of them were church attenders and 30 church members!25 It is t from these figures that the crusade brought back an emphasis which the denomination had been unable to provide for. Methodism benefitted from the crusade, and 1036 of the converts decided to join the church However growth in the membership of the church in 1959 although a record was not so unusual compared to the growth of the preceding years and many traditional Methodists remained hesitant about the value of the crusade after participating in it. When a return visit of Billy Graham was proposed a few years later, the church declined to support it. It thus alienated many evangelical members of the denomination still further, with unfortunate side effects. For the church was about to enter an age of crisis. Evangelicals had no neat answers to that crisis, but they had a vitality of faith which many other Methodists lacked, and they believed in evangelism. One of the central problems of the Methodist evangelistic strategy after 1960 was that hardly anyone in the connexion fully shared that belief.
25 MCNZ, 1957 Conference, p. 200; 1960 Conference, pp. 60-61; N.Z. Methodist Times , 23 November 1957, p. 405; P.J. Uneham No Ordinary Union, (1980) pp. 124-125. 131 -132; Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 33
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
6. MAKING DISCIPLES In the 1960s Methodism began to feel its age. The connexional structure seemed increasingly inept and insensitive, and involvement in the denomination absorbed fewer and fewer members. Capable leaders put their energies into ecumenical ventures, and denominational fife showed signs of decay. The need for structural reform was widely recognised. Unfortunately the process of structural revision was a slow one, and one which was never completed, because the pressure of financial stringency and ministerial and parish tensions inhibited the process. Professionalisation was the hallmark of the intended changes. Finance, ministry and agencies were all revised to allow the experts to exercise supervision, and the church departments were reorganised into three divisions. In key areas the ponderous democratic structures of the church were circumvented by executive-style leaders. This had its consequences for the old agencies of evangelism in the church. The Home Mission Department was dissolved into the new Development Division. The Spiritual Advance Committee became the Making Disciples Task Group within the same division. However shortage of money inhibited the scope for development, and the professionalisation never fully replaced the complex committee structure of the church, although it had ways to circumvent it. Meanwhile every indicator of the life of the church registered a decline. Membership declined relentlessly after 1966 and today, fifteen years later, it stands at exactly two- thirds of its level then. Confirmations now stand at 18 of their 1959 high. (See graphs 6 and 8) Relative to the membership of the church new members join at the rate of only 1.67 per year. Although, as in many denominations today, there is a distaste for formal membership, the new Methodist system of an electoral roll to some extent avoids this problem. An equal number of names are now removed from this roll through death as are added by confirmation, for the age structure of the denomination is significantly top-heavy. Meanwhile many names have to be purged from the electoral roll because they have ceased to be involved in the life of the church. From 1965 to 1974, 1989 members transferred to another denomination, and 4685 simply ceased to attend. The nett loss of members in that period other than by death was 5994. From 1974 to 1981 nett "avoidable losses" totalled 6930. This significant decline in membership has naturally been reflected in a reduction in activities, and in the reduced lavishness with which programmes can be mounted. Sunday Schools and Bible classes have been closed down in many cases, and extra-parochial activities have been threatened. The decline in the activities of the church has been parallelled by a very sharp decline in its adherence levels so that the total percentage of New Zealanders now thinking of themselves as Methodists at the time of the 1981 census was 4.68%, (see graph 5) Baptisms are at 37% of their 1966 level. In 1981 0.67% of adherents were baptised, although this low rate is affected by the unusually marked
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham decline in the birth rate of Methodist women, and the aging of denominational adherents, (see graph 7). The proportion of marriage now conducted by Methodist ministers — 6.06% in 1979 — gives another indication of the decline. These doleful indicators need to be compared with those of other denominations so that we may assess to what extent Methodism has a problem peculiar to itself. Census figures of nominal adherents show that none of the main churches are growing in that sense. The Baptist Church has shown an increased number of adherents, but is still not keeping up with the population rise. Among the smaller "gathered churches" the results are more varied. The Associated Churches of Christ, the Salvation Army and the Brethren have all lost ground, although not to the same extent as the larger denominations. There has been a dramatic rise in charismatic denominations, and curious rise in the number of those who simple write "Christian" on their census form. Many of these are probably people actively involved in churches, but not committed to any one denomination. Maori and Polynesian churches continue to grow, reflecting the higher birth rate of this sector of society. So there are some patterns common to most denominations, but there are also important variations. These show up more clearly in a survey recently conducted into church attendance in Palmerston North. This showed that 43% of nominal Catholics were at church on one Sunday, and at the other end of the spectrum, the "gathered churches" - Baptist, Brethren, Salvation Army - had between 50% to 75% of their adherents at church. Charismatic churches tended to attract to church many more than their nominal adherents. Meanwhile of the main Protestant churches, less than 6% of nominal Anglicans attended, and just over 11% of both Presbyterians and Methodists. Despite the similarity of Methodists and Presbyterians in this and many other respects, Methodism's statistics have been much more volatile than those of its sister church, (compare graphs 5 and 6) This is probably not due to any theological distinctiveness of Methodism. One characteristic of the New Zealand religious scene is the lack of real denominational variety among the main churches. The Geering controversy has been blamed for problems in the Presbyterian Church, but church statistics of Presbyterianism in the period continued to move in tandem with those of Methodism. Methodism's greater volatility may be partly because it is more monochrome than Presbyterianism in its theological stance, but the less extensive spread of Methodist parishes is probably the more important factor. The simple fact is that while individual congregations and denominations continue to flourish, and while the decline in church attendance has levelled out, church life is far less vigorous than it was thirty years ago. Evangelicalism has been responsible for some successful evangelism, but conversions are at a relatively low rate. This is not an easy age for any form of evangelism.
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
One common explanation for this trend is the declining moral or Christian values of our community. Perhaps immorality renders people impervious to the Gospel. Certainly community values have drifted from their Christian moorings, although New Zealanders have always been capable of combining puritan opinions with behaviour unhampered by moral constraints. Nevertheless since 1945 there have been significant increases in exnuptial births to approximately double their previous level, and separation and divorce also have increased to the extent that comparison with their 1945 levels is meaningless. (If is interesting to note that Methodist levels of divorce are significantly below the national average.) Statistics of criminality also indicate dramatic increases. The annual statistics of appearances in children's courts look like the church attendance statistics inverted! Yet this suggested relationship cannot be one of cause and effect, as the moralists might argue. Two sorts of factors are at work; changing values and changing social patterns. The discarding of Christian principles is not a short-term phenomenon. The rise of modern science and the acceptance of a closed world-view have developed over the last three hundred years throughout the Western world. Such principles undermine the traditional basis for credible belief. More than ever Christian apologetics needs to radically challenge these assumptions. This is the only real way for Christian values to be made coherent. The church needs to combine this radical faith with compassion and care for the victims of a society which encourages people to live by standards which are ultimately self-destructive. This will come more easily if we understand the social pressures which produce them and also weaken churches. Changing patterns of social life have destabilised traditional social patterns. Increasingly the individual's major association is with the state, which is in more than 50 of all cases also his/ her employer or source of income. Intermediate groups like clubs and churches have become less important, and it is these intermediate bodies which have traditionally controlled a broad range of social behaviour with which the secular state does not concern itself. A related phenomenon is the increasing mobility of the population, for every year about 16 move house. Religious institutions are notoriously immobile, weighed down by inflexible buildings, and controlled by a tight local hierarchy which is suspicious of outsiders, and thus tends to be older and less in touch with social trends. In effect churches prefer to be small and not to welcome new members. Methodist figures indicate that many members who remove with the intention of transferring their membership to a church in their new district do not successfully make the transition. A range of other social problems is produced by the same phenomena. But churches with their existing structure seem unable to help people cope with the ennui of modern life. A change in patterns of age structure and family life also has its consequence for churches built to cope with another pattern. The churches failed to benefit from the post-war population rise. That generation is now under-represented within church life and leadership. The Presbyterian Parish Development and Mission Department has
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham been advocating out-reach to recapture this generation specifically.26 The old philosophy of "getting the child" and converting the individual, especially the wife, has serious problems today. Working women now make up one third of the labour force, and consequently women are no longer so easily attracted by church programmes. However an alternative policy of reaching the whole family must cope with the fact that standard nuclear families now incorporate only about three quarters of the population. Those outside such family structures would be unhappy if the church only catered for families, but such people often look for compensations for the lack of family, and some aspects of church life can provide them with a substitute. NOT should one neglect the increasing number of the aged in our society. However while the churches have long had an important ministry to the needy in our society, an evangelistic policy which solely aims to reach such people is in danger of being forced to the edge of a society with which it does not communicate directly. The church cannot just be a haven; it must be an army. Over the last ten years the traditional egalitarianism of our society has become increasingly mythical. Home ownership is no longer possible for everyone. Suburbs of the larger cities are very clearly ranked. Maoris and Pacific Islanders, who are the last to join the movement to the cities, find themselves at the bottom of the new social structure, and racial tension is thus heightened by economic exploitation. This means that churches which rely upon leadership from the professional class will find that church life is difficult to maintain in places like Otara and Porirua. Analysis of the 1976 religious census in terms of social patterns reveals that the only surviving distinctive of Methodism is a rather high proportion of shopkeepers and low proportion of professionals. The immigration of Samoan Methodists means that the church has potential leaders among the blue collar workers, but at the same time the islanders are significantly detached from the European church. Perhaps this shows that the most effective evangelism is in 'people groups,' which aim to reach distinctive subcultures as units. The problem is to combine this diversity with genuine Christian unity. Within the European and middle class population somewhat similar problems are faced. Planting churches in new suburbs seems to demand a policy of investment of capital, and local people are expected to raise this. Unfortunately these people are preoccupied with the demands of new houses and busy lives, and are not always willing to give much in the way of time or money to the church, and so church moves to the fringe of their lives. They may be willing to travel some distance to church, but unless Christianity has a local presence it will never make an impact on their non- christian neighbours. Some other model of church structure and Christian living is needed in such contexts.
26 Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 37
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Patterns of congregational involvement have changed as a result of many other factors beside the decline in Christian belief. There is often a firm belief in "practical Christianity" among non-attending church adherents, although its theological content is dubious, such belief is coupled with a retreat from participation, as middle-class patterns of weekend life are affected by greater insularity and mobility. The advent of television in New Zealand in 1960 wrought a fundamental -change in cultural patterns. It is not just the church which has been affected by this. Every form of voluntary participatory institution, including P.T.A.s and sports clubs have been affected by the replacement of the amateur participatory ideal by the professionally provided spectator event. If the church service is a small, colourless and amateur affair which demands a high level of concentration, it will not attract many uncommitted people. If is crucial that the media are used evangelistically by Christians. Only thus can seeds be sown. More than any other social group, young people have been saturated with this new style of entertainment, and this means that young people's evangelism must move from the educational and amateur model (typified by the Sunday School) to some other one. Christianity in New Zealand has always been structured into voluntary associations. Current social forces have increasingly made Christianity an item of consumer choice which is not normally confronted in the course of daily living, and which there is considerable resistance to sampling. This is an important issue when we consider the shape of Christian living today. Denominations and local churches by concentrating on their own survival tend to lock themselves into a subculture, or retreat to a sectarian siege mentality, as if they were exclusive clubs. Most denominational organisations are self-perpetuating structures which seek to serve their own members rather than to open the way for others to come to faith. This is a policy which precludes effective evangelism. Christian discipleship needs to be made visible in New Zealand, and the place to do it is in the community. It is not just a question of holding services within the proximity of every New Zealander, the church must somehow make contact with their mental world, not just their physical one. Presbyterian figures show that church attendance is now lower than the level of church membership. The figures are no doubt similar within the Methodist church. That is why a policy of contacting Methodist adherents is no longer workable. Those adherents now know scarcely anything about the faith. There are several types of church growth. Some involve sheep stealing, others involve reaching children of church members. The first is pointless, the second confines the church to a narrowing circle. The chief basis of growth will be the conversion of non-christians from contemporary paganism. They will not come to church for the answers. Christians must go to them. But even Christian words will be treated as hollow if Christians live unattractive lives in the community.
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Church growth will thus be affected by the kind of Christianity which is lived both individually, and in community. The Methodist Report on Evangelism in 1968 recognised this in its slogan, 'the church's true life is the church's true evangelism'. The flaw in this slogan is that 'church' is still regarded primarily as an institution. Methodism's evangelism is seriously hindered by this. Part of the tension is that the church is run by those for whom it is a profession; a profession which does for others what they could but will not do for themselves. In recent years the clergy have sought a greater degree of professionalisation and specialisation. At the same time congregations in demand that they be what is called euphemistically 'good pastors', but really means 'good public performers'. The church needs a programme of declericalisation, and it would be good stewardship, given the reduced resources of today's church, if congregational life was truly corporate, truly open to and shaped by the gifts of all of its members, truly bringing members to fulfilment not just as members of an institution but in every aspect of their daily living. Nursing congregational life into order has been one of the tasks the Methodist development division has set itself. It often fails to affect the ordinary life of church people in the crucial context when they interface with the world. Restructuring often fails through the resistance of laity. The comment in the Outlook in 1901 that 'if ever the Methodist cause dies, it will die of dignity' 27 is perilously close to coming true today. Christian minorities cannot afford to be passenger ships, preoccupied only with the quality of the berths, and the menu. To concentrate on the contentment of the passengers when the ship is facing a battle in enemy waters, is a tragic abuse of energy. The passengers must be enlisted. Twentieth century Christian churches need some of the qualities of eighteenth century Methodism, not those of its nineteenth-century transmutation. So there is a flaw in the concentration upon church life in so many contemporary discussions of evangelism. There is a danger that slogans like 'the church's true evangelism' give us an excuse to talk to the church when we should be talking to the world. Such slogans encourage a claustrophobic, absorption in church life as though it were in itself salvation. It is not. Biblical 'koinonia’ is a byproduct of the saving gospel. In the last days of the British S.C.M. it abandoned social action and concentrated on community. It only hastened its decline, for truth with a cutting edge is the only basis for healthy communities in our modern world. The alienation of our community from the Christian message is due not just to dislike for the church. It is the consequence of the rise of a secular intellectual and social framework which leaves almost no foothold for faith. Unless Christians meet this head-on they will have no hope of evangelising with integrity. The history of evangelisation over the past hundred or more years suggests several conclusions. It is clear that, while methods vary in their effectiveness and must be
27 Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 39
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham abandoned if unhelpful, methods are a relatively minor issue. If evangelism is equated with a particular style of preaching, then the baby will certainly be thrown out with the bathwater. Unfortunately internal church politics rather than effectiveness has too often defined the acceptability of methods. Another issue is church structure. Regardless of their theologies, if the life of churches is weak and shaped only by tradition, then the church will decline. Churches which achieve a degree of sensitive and relevant community life are those which attract people. Yet another issue is authenticity and lifestyle. Methodism's tradition effacing up to social issues and seeing them in the light of the gospel has been a valuable one. This surely is an important aspect of making disciples. However public statements will not be successful by themselves. A clear and holistic life-style in the world is needed. Very often social pronouncements do not convince, let alone speak for the ordinary church member but only the professional churchman. The social views of Christians must be related to an integrated faith and life. People must speak and act from the heart of their faith, and then their stand will expose people to Christianity and influence their own community as Wesley influenced his. Finally, Christians need to have something distinctive to live for in the world. In this world of unbelief, Christians must be bold. It is one thing to sympathetically understand modem social movements and movements of thought, but Christians must be careful that they do not reshape their faith to be compatible with such ideas, but rather to challenge them. Current discussion of the 'New Zealand Christ' seems perilously inclined to avoid the cutting edge of the faith and does not challenge the heresies endemic in our society. There is an inclination to seek a Christ who is at home and comfortable in New Zealand society. With such a Christ we are comfortable members of our culture, but we become inarticulate as Christians. The Biblical Christ can never be so settled, and in the end the test of a church is whether it can help those who follow him to understand, live out and express their faith in God, despite all the pressure to apostatise. For there is a vigorous New Zealand religion which is winning converts by the thousands today. This secular, self-confident materialism, with its pious platitudes is well adapted to our society, and our churches can never really offer as much as it does in worldly terms. But we know it cannot offer eternal salvation. Evangelism remains, as it was in Wesley's day, the urgent call to snatch brands from the burning.
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APPENDIX Methodist Statistics for New Zealand Methodist Statistics are presented annually in the Minutes of the Annual Conference. Government statistics are found in the New Zealand Census Of Population and Dwellings, which since 1881 (with an exception from 1931 to 1945) has been quinquennial. Before 1926 government statistics did not include Maoris in the European list. Only statistics for membership, attendance and adherence and other related gross statistics are presented here, but for most of the period a very much more extensive range of statistics was produced. (M for Methodist figures, G for NZ Census)
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WESLEYAN METHODISTS PRIMITIVE ALL % Yr Mem Atten Adh Atten Adh Atten Adh Atten Tot* M M G G G G G G Pop 1851 2529 226 2755 10.5% 1854 508 2514 1857 633 3470 1858 632 3650 1859 694 4051 1860 737 4787 1861 836 5086 7670 724 8394 8.5% 1862 1027 6238 1863 1223 9317 1864 1262 9752 12506 1340 13846 8.04% 1865 1623 16671 1866 1782 13032 1867 1826 13111 16669 1332 18088 8.27% 1868 2192 14293 1871 2633 19971 1883 22004 8.58% 1872 2658 19675 1873 2594 20087 1874 2726 22406 12723 22728 868 1725 13591 25219 8.53% 1875 2910 23992 1876 3034 25164 1877 3222 28232 1878 3232 29824 17955 32299 3066 3676 21021 37879 9.14% 1879 3349 31321 1880 3612 35789 1881 3980 38054 18915 39544 2499 4643 21414 46657 9.52% 1882 4549 40143 1883 5249 42428 1884 5929 42428 1885 6497 43386 1886 6851 45175 22960 45164 4315 5173 27275 55292 9.61% 1887 7062 46646 1888 7121 46513 1889 7405 47999 1890 7746 49321 1891 7910 51266 27106 56035 5265 5220 32371 63415 10.14% 1892 8209 52094 1893 8524 53576 1894 8907 55319 1895 9622 57499
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New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
UNION OF WESLEYANS, UNITED FREE AND BIBLE CHRISTIANS, 1896 WESLEYAN METHODISTS PRIMITIVE ALL % Yr Mem Attd Adh Attd Adh Attd Adh Attd Tot* M M G G G G G G Pop 1896 11236 59850 35455 63373 5436 7041 40891 73367 10.43% 1897 11568 67211 1898 11899 67686 1899 12185 68524 1900 12013 67058 1901 12494 66382 71034 10143 83802 10.86% 1902 12778 67781 1903 13430 68566 1904 13924 70208 1905 14409 72062 1906 14763 72627 34623 63063 6490 21796 41113 89038 10.06% 1907 15056 73560 1908 15472 71738 1909 15988 72600 1910 16567 71695 1911 17173 73076 37730 63959 8303 27445 46033 94827 9.43% 1912 17701 67699
* Yr = Year Mems=Members Attd=Attendance Adh= Adherents Tot=Total Comcts=Communicants SS Av= Sunday School Average Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 43
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
METHODIST UNION AND SEPARATION FROM AUSTRALIA - 1913 Yr Mems Attd Comcts SS Av. Adh. % 1913 21751 80247 16545 20695 1914 22226 81713 16195 21285 1915 22503 81002 16515 20705 1916 23563 79082 41986 16141 19686 106024 9.91% 1917 22953 78772 16131 19789 1918 23388 77156 15978 21094 1919 23046 76601 15260 21223 1920 22612 72394 14909 18976 1921 22819 73692 40306 15876 20483 112344 9.22% &66445 1922 23451 73205 16415 21267 1923 23491 73239 16488 20191 1924 24034 73514 16514 21914 1925 24017 73613 17078 22111 1926 24241 72609 34329 17428 20890 125278 8.97% &61527 1927 24395 72565 17847 21873 1928 24543 70985 17810 21707 1929 24429 71026 17635 20391 1930 24629 68570 17971 21330 1931 24651 58522 18485 21460 1932 25390 18932 1933 25401 19212 22325 1934 25678 19817 21568 1935 25408 19555 20769 Excludes Bible Cl. 1936 25193 18854 13520 126755 8.05% 1937 25339 19437 13404 1938 25192 19612 12187 1939 25393 19638 12363 1940 25308 19638 11054 1941 25309 19884 12449 1942 25706 20285 12718 1943 25377 19617 12643 1944 25315 19861 13036 1945 25460 20324 13538 137755 8.09% 1946 25253 19903 13183 1947 25597 20505 13724 1948 No figs Change Of Conf. Date. 1949 25939 19934 14286 1950 26118 21082 15315 1951 26418 21034 16312 156077 8.0% Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 44
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
1952 26937 21809 16600 1953 27114 22285 17605 1954 27592 22629 18041 1955 27685 23306 18323 Pastoral Care 1956 28215 24505 116828 161813 7.4% 1957 28985 25939 120689 1958 29869 26536 123598 1959 30656 28085 132345 1960 31307 28599 136247 1961 31674 28556 140500 173838 7.2% 1962 32073 29577 144323 1963 52389 30516 143732 1964 32496 30769 144674 Christian Educ. 1965 32749 33431 Electoral Roll 1966 32709 33139 144821 186260 7.0% 1967 32730 144161 1968 32668 150178 1969 31905 147640 1970 31224 147607 1971 30213 145818 182727 6.4% 1972 29835 139701 1973 29015 133977 1974 27563 1975 26512 1976 26564 173526 5.5% 1977 24800 1978 24188 1979 22867 1980 22109 1981 21784 148512 4.7%
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 45
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 46
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 47
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 48
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 49
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 50
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 51
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 52
New Zealanders and the Methodist Evangel by Peter J Lineham
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #42 - 1983 Page 53