USA > Pennsylvania > Change and challenge: a history of the Church of the Brethren in the southern district of Pennsylvania, 1940-1972 > Part 10
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Philip M. Kulp developed a strong interest in educational missions. The "Go- Teach" injunction of the Great Commission has always been important in Brethren mission work. Philip took his schooling at Juniata College, Bethany Biblical Seminary, Gettysburg Theological Seminary and Shippensburg State Teachers' College. At the time of this writing (1972), he is a Ph.D. candidate at the American Univer- sity. On August 31, 1953, Philip M. Kulp married Mary Ann Moyer, a Juniata Col- lege graduate and a resident of Waynes- boro, Pennsylvania.
In 1961, the Brotherhood approved the appointment of Philip and Mary Ann Kulp as career missionaries to Nigeria. The Philip M. Kulp Kulps served in Africa from 1958 until 1965 as teachers. Philip served as vice- principal (1958-1959, 1962-1963) and as principal (1959-1960, 1964-1965) of the Secondary School at Waka. The Waka School is a Teacher Training School which stresses useful skills designed to aid people to develop eco- nomic independence. The school was begun to assist people to become future home makers, farmers, teachers and Christian leaders in their communities. One of the interesting aspects of the entire mission move- ment has been the emphasis on non-evangelistic, humanitarian activities such as developing schools, building hospitals and training people in tech- nical skills.
The Kulps have been frequent contributors to The Gospel Messenger as they have related the life of the missionary among the African people. When Philip was on furlough from the mission field, he served as pastor of the Ridge congregation (1961-1962) and was advanced to the eldership by the District Ministry Commission. When the Kulps retired from the mission field in 1965, the General Brotherhood Board presented them with a citation for their terms of service. Since his return to the states, Philip M. Kulp has been serving as Assistant Professor of the Department of Political Science at the Shippensburg State College.
A number of other persons from the Southern District have served in the African mission work. Benjamin Sollenberger, son of Clarence and Marian Sollenberger, chose Alternative Service instead of the mili- tary system. His interest in missions caused him to prepare himself with medical training in Washington, D. C. On January 20, 1957, he left for Europe and then went on to Africa. He spent several years as a teacher at Marama Station in the Senior Primary School (Grade 5-7). Here, on several occasions, he became acquainted with the deep bark of the baboon in the African wilds. He also had the misfortune of being hit in the eye by a spitting cobra. He completely recovered the sight of his eye after the incident.
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Benjamin and Nelda Sollenberger
While he was on furlough, Benjamin Sollenberger was married to the daughter of E. Paul Weaver, a retired Nigerian missionary. The young couple returned to the Waka School for a second term of service (1963- 1966). A third term was also spent at Waka where Benjamin served as the assistant principal (1967-1970) and as head of the department of mathe- matics at the Teacher Training School. In 1967, he had a paper printed in the West African Journal of Education on programmed learning in mathematics.
Margaret Ann Hostetter, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar L. Hostetter, also spent time in Nigeria as a teacher. In 1960, she was married to Robert Knappenberger of Reading, Pennsylvania. Both are graduates of Elizabethtown College. Robert completed his work for a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale University in 1962. Both Robert and Margaret were placed under contract to teach at the Waka School in Nigeria. Here Robert served as an elder and taught Bible and English from 1962- 1965. Margaret taught chemistry in the school during the same period.
Connie Stambaugh, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sterling Stambaugh, of the Pleasant Hill congregation, served a term in Nigeria as a nurse (1966- 1968). Connie has since become Mrs. Wendell H. Sweitzer and is serving with her husband in the ministry at the Shrewsbury congregation. She has also worked as a nurse at the York Hospital.
Rolsalita Leonard, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Blain Leonard, of McAlisterville, and a member of the Lost Creek congregation, joined the staff of the secondary school in Nigeria in 1966. She gave a term of service to the Nigerian work after her graduation from Juniata College.
Ray Tritt, formerly of the Carlisle congregation, served for two years in the United States Navy off the coast of Naples, Italy. Here he saw the oppressive poverty of the people and became acquainted with some of the problems of the underprivileged. When he returned to the states, he enlisted in Brethren Volunteer Service. He first worked at Kassel, Germany. Later, he went to Nigeria where he served for three years, using his skills to build schoolhouses and homes for missionaries.8
Several former members of the First Church of the Brethren of York tore up their community roots and devoted themselves to lay work in
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Ecuador. John and Theresa Herr arrived in Ecuador on September 20, 1964 to begin their work with the Church of the Brethren near Quito. Their specific assignment was in the sphere of community betterment and social uplift.
John Henry Herr and Theresa Mohler grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. John came from Mennonite extraction and Theresa was a member of the Mountville Church of the Brethren. When John worked as an employee of the John Deere Company, he became a member of the First Church of the Brethren in York. He was also employed by a travel agency for the planning of tours. When a promotion compelled the family to move to Baltimore, Maryland, the Herrs united with the First Church of the Brethren in Baltimore. The desire to be of deeper service to mankind troubled the Herrs. Theresa learned to work with under- privileged children when she directed playground activities for children at the Frey's Avenue area in York (1958). The Herrs decided to leave all chances for further promotion, turned their backs on their community ties, and offered themselves for mission work.
In Ecuador, John and Theresa Herr worked with other Brethren as they tried to upgrade living conditions, raise health standards and im- prove agricultural methods among the Indians. The soil of the Calderon Valley in Ecuador is shallow and heavily eroded. The Brethren have been working to rebuild its productivity, operating demonstration plots and assisting in securing new breeds of animals and fowl for the region. The equivalent of 4-H Clubs have been formed. A church program and an educational program are part of the project which began in 1943 as a Boys' Club. Theresa Herr has been listed in the 1968 edition of Who's Who in American Women as an educator. John Herr has also worked with George Kreps in experimenting with turkeys to determine whether they can be grown for marketing.
The Church of the Brethren has sponsored regular summer tours to encourage interest in mission work. In 1965, Earl K. Ziegler, pastor of the Black Rock congregation, directed a tour of the Brethren to this land where the Protestant Reformation did not come. In July, 1970, Joseph M. Long was granted a leave-of-absence from his Tri-District assignment to lead a tour to Ecuador. "One of the outstanding experiences of my life", he said as he described his encounters with the people of this South American land. These Brethren tours have taken many Brethren from Southern Pennsylvania into a land of volcanic peaks and oppressive poverty.
The Church of the Brethren has expanded its work in South America into neighboring countries. James L. Fitz, a member of the New Fairview congregation, spent two years of Brethren Voluntter Service in Bolivia, assisting in the agricultural improvement program sponsored by the de- nomination.
In recent decades, much serious thought and discussion has centered in the mission program of the church. New attempts have been made to discover a theology for mission. There has been no attempt to undercut the mission program, for this work continues to be at the heart of the church's reason for existence. The missionary way is the church's way. However, there has been a developing sense of urgency about the kind and the quality of the ministry which is being offered by the Christian Church. The traditional forms of missions have been passing and some new forms must be found.
Major Mission Boards have moved away from the dedicated general missionary and have begun to look for specialists in such skills as medicine and agriculture. The work of the missionary in the past has upgraded
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the educational level of the former mission lands. More and more skilled and well-trained people are required to do the work of missions.
Leland Brubaker, who served as Secretary of the Foreign Mission Com- mission, once noted:
"For some people it is difficult to realize that the function of the church in foreign fields is not just to represent one department of the church but that it is to extend the whole church to the whole world. In our mission areas this includes evangelism, Christian Education, secular education, selection and preparation of church leaders, medical health programs, hospital care, pastoral support, material aid, eco- nomic betterment, and emphasis on home and family life . .. This is not just one section of the church's program, but represents the whole church with all of its activities moving into the areas of India, China, Africa and Ecuador."9
The original mission program of the Church of the Brethren, like the denomination itself, was rural-oriented. However, as urban life continues to expand around the world, attracting more people to urban centers, the church now needs to look at the influence which industry is exercising over the lives of millions. This kind of ministry demands a special lead- ership and it cannot be conditioned by the slower pace of peasant life. As the tides of migration run from the country to the city, the church is com- pelled to readjust its program.
The 1955 Annual Conference established a new policy with respect to missions. The 977 delegates meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, called for a review of foreign missions in the denomination. A report indicated that circumstances required a change in the work of India, Nigeria and Ecuador. The mission churches must become indigenous and the church at home must aid these churches to develop a style of life more closely identified with the cultures of their own lands. The report also suggested that, where it is possible, these churches should become self-supporting.
This decision of the Annual Conference and the Brotherhood Board was prompted by the rise of nationalism in many parts of the world. Nations had thrown off yokes of domination by colonial powers and the "little people" in the 1950s achieved nationhood. In many instances, the mission church itself has trained (directly and indirectly) the new leaders of these new nations. The attitude of many overseas people is reflected in a statement made by the Karens of Southeast Asia: "If we eat our own rice, we can do things in our own way". The Church of the Brethren began to move from a paternalistic role to a partnership role on the mis- sion field. In 1965, Norman J. Baugher and Calvert N. Ellis consulted with mission stations in Nigeria and India on this new role.
The church also began to discover on the mission field that what is economical is also ecumenical. Cooperative programs and joint ventures have become necessary in many mission lands. Denominations discovered that they could do more together than they could independently. Although a division of territories was made on early mission fields, such geographical denominationalism was both weak and expensive. The achievement of Christian unity on the mission field came by stages: by consultation, by actual cooperation and, in some instances, by eventual confederation. These changes on the foreign fields have forced the supporting denomin- ations to take a look at their own domestic programs.
The International Missionary Council has been providing leadership in cooperative missions since 1921. Christian missionaries began to report that non-Christians were appalled by the denominational divisions within Christianity. The sectarian brands attached to Christianity were not very meaningful to new Christian converts. As early as 1910, the Edinburgh Missionary Conference met in order to provide a more united approach to
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Christian missions. This approach has been expanding through the decades and seems essential if Christianity is to succeed on the mission field.
A dialogue between the differing religions is only now beginning to occur. Till the present, the various religions of the world have regarded themselves as competitors. Each has felt the other to be a threat! How- ever, the current revival of Hinduism, Buddhism and the Moslem faiths has required a new approach. The religions of the world are now ready to enter the consultation and dialogue stage of growth. Whether the cooperation or the confederation stages will follow is mere conjecture at this juncture in time.
Out of these experiences in missions has emerged the concept of "the church in mission". The church is discovering that its chief business is not only to conduct missions as one of her many activities. On the contrary, all of her activities must constitute her mission to the world. No longer dare the church draw a distinction between "Home Missions" and "Foreign Missions". The church is finding that she must promote com- munities of stewardship, of study, of outreach and of mission as one pro- gram. In keeping with this thinking, the Church of the Brethren adopted a program called "Mission One" (1965-1970).
CHAPTER SIX
THE CHANGING MINISTRY
No doubt the classic nineteenth century image of the Brethren minister is gone. In that era, the minister was the most respected person in the community, the person whose counsel was sought on a wide range of concerns. His position in the community was prestigious. But the min- istry was not a position to be coveted. The older Minutes of the Annual Conferences contain warnings against those who would seek the ministry: "There is a right way and a wrong way to enter the ministry -
the wrong way being when one is taking this honor unto himself; and the right way when one is called of God by the church".1
Even till this day in some congregations of the district, an individual is considered out of order if he seeks the ministry.
The minister of an earlier decade was usually not formally educated. What he knew he learned from his own study and from his experiences in the university of life. The roles he accepted were widely varied, but included preaching, counseling, visitation and administration. In many instances, he served under the multiple ministry system with a number of other ministers. The style of life in the congregation centered about a worship-preaching program. The services of the church were most likely confined to members of one's own denomination.
The current ministry of the Church of the Brethren shows clear changes over the foregoing descriptions. The contemporary minister has tended to become more professional. Where once men were called by the church to serve in the ministry, many now tend to choose the ministry as a career. David C. Wilson described his experience with the ministry as a career:
"In the middle of my college work and still uncertain as to what my vocation would be, I entered Brethren Volunteer Service for a year. For the first time, during my assignment in Puerto Rico, I was con- fronted with the needs of humanity and I saw how they were being met. I felt a call to help people through the ministry."2
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Education has now become a requirement for ordination and the Dis- trict Ministry Committee has been reluctant to ordain anyone who has not completed his college and seminary work. Education has become essential because the role the minister accepts has become more special- ized. He now functions more as the director of an institution than as the confidant and friend of the community. In this new role, the minister is involved in the maintenance of an institution.
The convulsive changes of the twentieth century have left their impress upon the church and its ministry. The rapid shift of the Ameri- can population from rural to urban life; the change of employment from farming to industry; the gradual upgrading of the educational level of the congregation; the rethinking of the mission of the church; and the emergence of the laity as a force in the church - all of these have contributed to a changed conception of the ministry. The forms of thought, the language and the methods of the ministry have been altered. Life- situation preaching has largely usurped the place once occupied by the expository sermon and the textual message. In keeping with the swift tempo of modern life, the modern sermon is usually brief.
As the church has grown more institutional in nature, the role of the Christian minister has also changed. This change is reflected in part in the use of the word "plant" to describe the church house and the word "program" to describe the mission of the church. The work of the ministry has assumed an executive form. The minister spends much of his time in meeting with boards and committees. To use H. Richard Niebuhr's descrip- tion, he has become a "pastoral director", organizing a wide range of activities centering about the manifold interests of the church.
The role of the minister has not always been clearly defined. In many congregations, the counseling-preaching-worship role is generally accepted, but not always completely practiced. The tendency of some ministers to specialize in education, or evangelism or visitation has led to the neglect of other traditional roles. One study of the mental and physical health of ministers suggests that many modern congregations have expected their ministers to play too many roles. The minister's sense of failure in the face of the impossible demands placed on him is what creates emotional breakdown.3
One survey of the roles of the minister has defined seven broad areas in which he is expected to serve his congregation. These areas include: community and denominational activities; pastoral visitation; teaching, counseling and personal guidance; preaching, administration; and promo- tional activities.4
The movement toward a professional ministry in the Church of the Brethren began during World War I. In 1917, the Annual Conference of Wichita, Kansas, took steps to recognize the pastoral system:
"Ministers who are financially able should be encouraged to preach the Gospel without money and without price, as it has been the practice of the Brethren from the beginning. Churches that feel the need of pastors, giving all of their time, are at liberty to secure them giving them a reasonable support, when it can be done with the approval of the majority of the members."5
Since 1945, the Church of the Brethren has promoted the professional ministry. The growth of the professional ministry congregations in the brotherhood may be judged from the following chart:
Full-Time
Part-Time
Year
Pastorates
Pastorate
Self- Supporting
1945
303
472
113
1947
389
383
129
1949
405
366
119
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1950
433
379
105
1955
493
386
73
1960
546
419
1965
533
368
94
1970
525
201
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In 1971, the District Ministry Commission issued a paper on Strategy For Ministerial Recruitment. The paper recognized the need for a variety of ministries in the Christian Church. The church needs the self-supported ministry, the salaried ministry, the specialized ministry, the missions ministry and the ecumenical ministry. All of these forms of ministry have been designated as a "set-apart ministry". The paper also linked the early church with the modern church, asking for conditions in which there are no distinctions between clergy and laity. Such distinctions were un- known to the original church.
The issue of the forms of ministry appeared before the 1959 Annual Conference. Discussions contrasted the merits of the nonprofessional, self-supporting ministry with the merits of the professional, salaried ministry. It is clear that the denomination has a diversity of thought with respect to its ministry. In 1972, twenty-seven of the thirty-nine congre- gations of the Southern District were supporting a professional ministry. Some continue to insist that the self-supporting ministry is returning. Harold S. Martin wrote:
"It is interesting that one of the keys to the rapid growth of present-day cults and newer churches is that many of their ministers are self-employed."6
Those who prefer the unsalaried, self-supporting ministry base their arguments on the practice of the early church and on the traditions of the Anabaptist movement. The Christian movement began with fishermen, farmers, shepherds, peasants and tent-makers, not with professional classes.
When the Anabaptist movement developed in the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, great stress was laid on the equality of all men within the Christian community. Lay responsibility has always been of utmost importance to the followers of this tradition. For the Anabaptists, the only possible church is a voluntary and disciplined community of believers patterned after the New Testament fellowship. The temptation to develop a hierarchy of officials has been studiously avoided.
With the return in recent decades to the view that all of the people of God are involved in His work, the tendency has been to regard the whole church as the servant of God. The church is the living community of believers at work in the world. The ministry is the work of laity and clergymen alike. "A healthy denomination will continue to make room for differing 'models' of the set-apart ministry".7
The question of education for the ministry is of comparatively recent origin. For nearly two hundred years the leadership of the Church of the Brethren has been drawn from the congregations. The training of such leaders once was nearly equal to the people they served. Their preaching was in the nature of exposition and exhortation. They read passages of Scripture and commented on their meanings. The Protestant principle of the priesthood of all believers encouraged the appearance of ministers and laymen without professional training.
The Church of the Brethren in past decades frequently called men to the ministry after they had established themselves in a community residentially and financially. These ministers not only supported them- selves but were often unusually liberal in their stewardship to the church. Their families, businesses and other investments supported them while they gave their services to the church. A multiple ministry developed in
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many congregations, often with four or five ministers appointed to share the responsibilities. Harold S. Martin observed that "the long preachers' benches in many of our older congregations are a lingering testimony to the plurality of ministers".8
A lingering suspicion against formal, higher education has persisted to the present time. In 1924, for example, four queries came to the Annual Conference from Pennsylvania urging the denomination to refuse to assume ownership of Bethany Biblical Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. The Board of Directors of the seminary had been advocating church owner- ship for some years prior to this date. Opposition to ownership arose in part from educators who feared competition from the seminary and in part from people who objected to the professional ministry. The seminary was formally adopted in 1925 by the denomination in spite of the opposi- tion.
World War II gave impetus to the drive for a trained ministry. Any young man entering the Christian ministry was required to present to his draft board letters from his local church and the General Ministerial Board confirming his ministerial status. Any person attending a seminary maintained his ministerial status only by active involvement in the min- istry. Such young people spent their summers in pastoral work in order to maintain their draft exemptions. The rise of ministerial scholarships and loan programs encouraged young people to continue their education.
The demand for an educated ministry also arose from the needs of an increasingly educated church membership. Within the Southern Dis- trict there had been serious losses of members to other denominations chiefly because these denominations had professional leadership. One member of the church remarked to the editor of this volume: "We had the first salaried minister in the Southern District chiefly because the neighboring denominations had salaried pastors." One may still meet persons in the community who point with pride to their Brethren heritage even though they have united with other denominations.
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