Congregational Church

“ The Congregational church of this city has been blessed with a visible outpouring of God’s Spirit. Many of our old members have been quickened in their religious feelings and have reconsecrated themselves to their Lord and Saviour. ”

“ Now it has sometimes been questioned whether a Congregational organization, working on thoroughly Congregational principles, could so well plant the Christian church among an ignorant, degraded people, needing guidance, oversight, care, government. ”

“ Let us cheer them and urge them on to greater effort. The whole race will rise just so far as it shall put forth what strength it has.
The third great requisite of the Congregational church is self-support. ”

“ Its polity was Congregational, as we find in its manual of 1850:
232“This church is an independent ecclesiastical body, and in matters of doctrine, order, and discipline is amenable to no other organization. This church will extend to other evangelical churches and receive from them that fellowship, advice, and assistance which the laws of Christ require.”
His own policy toward the church is given in these words:
“I have never managed. I have never employed management. I have tried to inspire kind feelings and thus lead men to take up their crosses. ”

“ In one community, the rigid rules adopted by the Congregational Church concerning these indulgences, brought the other colored churches into line first, and, finally, the white church of the same community found it necessary to take this radical position in order to maintain its hold upon the people. ”

“ Beloved, the more I study congregational life and gather practical experience, the wiser does the Lord's rule appear to me in preserving the welfare of the Church. Let us all strive to conform to it. Let us openly and frankly treat each other like brethren. If you have been offended by a brother, or if you have offended a brother, here is the rule that guides you; if you see a congregational member wandering from the path of true religion, going astray from Church and [236] godliness, fail not to do your duty by him, by an attempt to admonish and reclaim him. ”

“ In the church that Jesus built, each congregation is entirely independent of every other congregation. The Bible teaches congregational autonomy, which means that under Christ each congregation is entirely independent. According to the Bible, there can be no organization whatsoever binding two or more congregations together. This is the first fundamental fact to remember.
Second, in the church built by Christ, each local congregation is supervised by a group of men who are called by either of six different names: pastors, bishops, overseers, presbyters, elders, or shepherds. ”

“ The leaven of their intelligence and higher standard of morality is taking hold of many families about them. From many centers the call reaches us for the organization of Congregational churches, churches which shall stand for morality, equal membership rights and a more rational type of piety. ”

“ If the Congregational churches will listen to the call of Christ and appreciate the opportunity which he has placed before them, there may be in these mountains, filled with their marvellous mineral wealth, Congregational churches which shall be not only self-supporting, but give generously for the advancement of Christ's kingdom throughout the earth. ”

“ Yet the relation of Congregational polity to its religious ideal had already become less intimate and conscious than even half a century before: the system was held simply as one traditionally associated with a serious and unworldly piety. “Church privileges” meant to many only the sacred duty of electing their own ministry and a formal right of veto on the proposals of pastor and deacons. ”

“ Their form of church government is Congregational; they take the Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice, and while adopting immersion as the proper mode of baptism, freely welcome Christians of every sect to their communion. ”

“ Give this, the youngest of our congregational institutions, a place in your prayers.
"For the Literary and Debating Society of the congregation I ask your sympathy. It was founded long ago by the late Mr Robert Gillies, as was also the Congregational Library, which I deem valuable, and deserving of a more generous support than it has of late received. I am glad to be able to say that the society is rendering excellent service to an important branch of education. An evening in its rooms is as enjoyable as it is instructive. ”

“ If, in view of all the facts, it should be ultimately decided that the Congregational churches should be represented at the South by one missionary society, the decision should be reached in the broadest spirit of Christian wisdom and kindness. ”

“ From Browne’s idea of a holy people, covenanted to walk after Christ’s mind and will, all else flowed, as is set forth in his Book which sheweth the life and manners of all true Christians. As it may be called the primary classic of congregational theory, its leading principles must here be summarized. Hearing the word of God unto obedience being due to “the gift of His Spirit to His children,” every church member is a spiritual person, with a measure of the spirit and office of King, Priest and Prophet, to be exercised directly under the supreme Headship of Christ. ”

“ In Table E the Protestant churches are grouped according to their polity. It will be seen that about 1,600 have a Congregational form of government, in which authority rests in the local church; that in nearly 1,200 churches the polity is Presbyterian, in which authority is largely in the local church, but partly in a representative body of several churches grouped in districts. Under the title of “Episcopal Bodies” are grouped denominations comprising 2,721 churches, or more than the total number of the Presbyterian and Congregational combined. ”

“ That the ordinances in a particular Congregation are Prayer, Thanksgiving, and Singing of Psalms; the Word read, though there follow no immediate explication of what is read; the Word expounded and applied; Catechising; the Sacraments administered; Collection made for the Poor; Dismissing of the people with a Blessing.
"Resolved: That many particular Congregations shall be under one Presbyterial government.
"Resolved: That the Church be governed by Congregational, Classical, and Synodical Assemblies, in such manner as shall be established by Parliament. ”

“ I cannot make them responsible in any way, and therefore I now here, and in the greatest love and sympathy, lay down my membership of this Association and go forth—not to be separated from you. I shall be nearer to you than if I should be in ecclesiastical relation. I will work for you, I will lecture for you, I will personally do everything I can for you. I will even attend these meetings as a spectator with you. I will devote my whole life to the Congregational churches and their interests, as well as to all other churches of Christ Jesus. I am not going out into the cold. ”

“ Roy, that nothing is more certain than that in the New Empire that is growing before our eyes, the Congregational churches of this century will not turn towards the dark ages, and will not put themselves to shame by refusing to fellowship with the disciples of Christ on the ground of caste. ”

“ Organization corresponded to the life distinctive of the new Ecclesia. This was one of essential equality among “the saints” or “the brethren,” turning on common possession of and by the one Spirit of Christ. “The whole congregation of the faithful was responsible for the whole life of the church—for its faith, its worship, and its discipline” (Dale) . ”

“ When any important and weighty matter arises in the congregation, of whatsoever kind, whether within or without the church, whether it concerns the parsonage or school-house, the church yard or the burial place, it shall not be decided by the Pastors alone, nor by the other Trustees alone, nor by the Elders alone, nor by the Vorsteher alone ”

“ Article 47 And although the particular congregation be distinct and several bodies, every one a compact and knit city in itself; yet are they all to walk by one and the same Rule, and by all means convenient to have the counsel and help one of another in all needful affairs of the church, as members of one body in the common faith under Christ their only Head. ”

“ Congregationalism goes to these people as the representative of pure, intelligent and progressive Christianity. We can gather them into schools, Sunday-schools and churches, anywhere where we can put a Christian worker. Our only limit is consecrated workers and the support for them. The field is as ripe this very day for a thousand as for a score. But the school and the church must go together. ”

“ To such associations might be entrusted also mission Sunday-schools and distinct spheres of missionary effort. In a large congregation it is often desirable to organize committees for the care of the sick and the poor, and the visitation of strangers needing to be invited and welcomed to the congregation, and of erring and sinning ones needing to be won back to holiness and the church of God. ”

“ The Congregationalists, or Independents, are so called from their maintaining that each congregation of Christians, which meets in one house for public worship, is a complete church, has sufficient power to act and perform every thing relating to religious government within itself, and is in no respect subject or accountable to other churches. ”

“ A single church organized on the right basis, watched over with painstaking care, so that her members shall adorn the doctrines they profess, will do more for the prosperity of Congregationalism in this part of the country than would a score of churches hastily organized and unsuitably located. We think the officers of this society have been wise in their movements thus far; nearly all the churches organized having made a history that deserves the admiration of Christian people everywhere. ”

“ A congregation is answerable before the Head of the Church; it must keep its membership and roster clear; it dare not permit among its membership impenitent and manifest sinners, those who are despisers of God's means of grace, the Word and the Sacrament, whose morals are a blot, whose lives are a stench in the nostrils of the believers and of the world. ”

“ The regular pastor and the church councilmen shall take care that no strange preacher outside of our communion, let him bear what name he will, shall preach or administer the sacraments in our Augustus church or school-house, that the congregation may not be thrown into strife. ”

“ These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding, in accordance with his teaching, that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to man. The conference recognizes the fact that its constituency is Congregational in tradition and polity. ”

“ Both sent out hundreds of most intelligent and worthy members, who adorned all the walks of [103] life—teachers, preachers, professors, lawyers, judges, governors, senators—but neither of them ever propagated itself. Both were ministered to for years by men of other denominations, though none ventured to tamper with their polity. It is a singular illustration of the toughness and vigor of the Congregational life, and of the uncongenial soil in which it was planted. ”

“ We are simply living in a fool's paradise if we suppose that all these agencies combined are doing a thousandth part of what needs to be done, a hundredth part of what could be done by the Church of Christ. We must face the facts; and these compel the conviction that this terrible flood of sin misery is gaining upon us. It is rising every day. ”

“ Every congregation chooses its own overseers and deacons, who preside over and administer the affairs of the congregations; and every church, either from itself, or in coöperation with others, sends out, as opportunity offers, one or more evangelists, or proclaimers of the word, to preach the word, and to immerse those who believe, to gather congregations, and to extend the knowledge of salvation where it is necessary, as far as their means allow. ”

“ If the providence of God ordered events in such a way that a new congregation should be formed for a special purpose, it is nothing new or strange that men, having a different vocation, and whose views and aims were cast in a different mould, should with the most conscientious intentions, be unable to coincide in judgment or act in concert. There is room in the Catholic Church for every kind of religious organization, suiting all the varieties of mind and character and circumstance. ”

“ But if members are unable to be present through sickness or other causes, or if those present are not of one mind, the majority shall decide.
"9. When the church council (Kirchen Collegium) meets, the pastor shall begin with prayer to God, and then he shall present the matters to be considered. He himself shall have two votes, and he shall take diligent care that all things be done in an honorable, Christian and orderly way, for God loves order and hates disorder. ”

“ We consider a christian church to be a congregation of believers, voluntarily assembling together, and submitting, in all things, to Jesus Christ, their only Lord and Master. Such a church we desire to become; recognizing a pastor and deacons as our only officers, and asserting our exclusive right to make our own independent choice of a minister, to watch over us in the Lord, and of deacons, to attend to our temporal concerns. ”