Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1976
Religion and Bureaucracy: A Spiritual Dialogue ROBERT MILLS How strange that the current quest for spirituality evidenced by some aspects of growing religious fundamentalism, use of mind-altering drugs in attempts at mysticism, and religio/secular pronouncements of the counter culture should be offset by declining health of the church/synagogue institution! Though I realize that there is a spiritual component in all of human illness and well-being, I question the effectiveness of the institution in providing the sought-after healthy psychological set for its religious client. Throughout history, religious ideas have furnished men with the energy needed for life. The contemporary phenomenon of exotic searching for spirituality is further indication of the continuing need, as well as evidence of the ineffectiveness of current institutional forms. I believe that "mature religion" has now, as in the past, a distinctive contribution to make to the well-being of individual man, but has been diverted from its task by the effects of the mechanics of administrative functioning. "Mature religion" as I conceive of it is succinctly described by Abraham N. Franzblau as man-fostering rather than man-flagellating; concerned with man's ultimate worth and self-actualization; deed-centered rather than creed-centered; insisting that guilt be related to behavior rather than to ecclesiastic considerations; avoiding the use of fear or the promise of reward as a motivation; this-worldly in major emphasis rather than other-worldly; progressivistic rather than perfectionistic in its social and personal goals; centrifugal rather than centripetal in the direction of its concerns (moving outward rather than inward into the individual soul and its salvation alone); less mystery-centered and messianic and more reality-centered and melioristic with regard to the future of man; leaning more on reason than on revelation as the source of its authority; being more God-seeking than God-fawning, more universal than parochial, more democratic than sacerdotal, and more dynamic than static.1 The characteristics of a mature religion provide a proper psychological set wherein one can continue to grow and mature and integrate functionally into one's personality all aspects of the life that faces him. Mental and spiritual health are inseparable. One's relationship with self and others has to do with Robert Mills, M.A., is the Executive Director of Temple Sholom in Chicago. He has long been interested in the relationships between religion and psychology and has written articles on the subject t h a t were published in the Journal o[ Pastoral Psychology, the Journal of the Central Con[erence o[ American Rabbis, and the National Association of Temple Administrators Quarterly. 291
292
Journal o[ Religion and Health
one's mental health; one's relationship with God, the universe, and ultimate values has to do with one's spiritual health. As the two relationships are interdependent, it is not possible to fulfill one completely without completely fulfilling the other. The usual means of bringing religious values and insights into the lives of individuals is structured within an institution. There are many advantages of an institutional setting. It provides a caring and curing community capable of sharing the joys and sorrows of its constituents. An institution readily provides resources, initiatives, and group settings within which religious insights can be delivered. However, much of the cause of ineffectual efforts in this direction must be attributed to the very institutional apparatus now required by "modern" religion. Long ago we recognized that no policy formulation, no intended course of action, no statement of purpose can remain pure when put into action. We know that the manner in which any policy is administered, be it a public law or a household directive, is altered by the persons called upon to carry out the policy. This is an inevitable hallmark of administration. With the purest of intentions, the administrator of the policy will find, in his administrative actions, exceptions, deviations, alterations caused by his understandings, the incapacities or proclivities of those carrying on the work, or change in circumstances. Flexibility and concern for an over-all direction is the best that one can hope for from any administrative action. As our society grows in magnitude and complexity, its institutions are forced to adapt themselves to new requirements of operation. Management techniques, specialization in dealing with employees, governmental agencies, repair work on large buildings, fund-raising campaigns competitive with other philanthropic agencies and requiring professionalism in techniques all contribute to increasing needs for administrative structures. In the modern church and synagogue, an administrative apparatus becomes an absolute requirement for the effective functioning and the very survival of the institution. As the church/synagogue grows and the professionals acquire skills and powers, we run the danger of the ultimate substantive function of the institution's becoming identical with the operation of the administrative apparatus. Let us examine some typical characteristics of the bureaucratic apparatus as these features apply to religious institutions. Every bureaucracy drifts toward requirements of specialized performance. Efficiency is a catchword, and in order to achieve efficiency one looks to specialists to handle various aspects of the institution's work. Specialists regard their work and the success of the total enterprise from the viewpoint of their particular specialty, be it religious school direction, social program, preaching, adult education. The professionals must struggle for recognition within the organization. Visible performance of each of the specialists becomes routine, and those aspects of congregational life that are readily visible and understandable become the standard. Successes of the past continue to be attempted, for one's success must be repeated in face of the
Religion and Bureaucracy: A Spiritual Dialogue
293
obvious competition from other specialists. Where an activity has been already acclaimed as successful, the sponsor naturally feels less threatened by possible criticisms engendered by his rivals from the other specialties. Innovation thus requires an extra modicum of courage and self-assurance. More likely we will see a rigidity about change and reliance upon old methods that ultimately achieve their own type of sanctity. Emphasis is placed upon technological implementation rather than upon concern for explicit purpose of organization. As the areas of endeavor acquire the specialization typical Of professionalism, the emphases become efficiency, standardization, visible performance, doing things--especially those things that apply to the most people. One must protect one's area of competence from other areas by maintaining professional distance from one's clients and fellow workers, thus cloaking oneself in an aura of secrecy and impersonality. "Every bureaucracy seeks to increase the superiority of the professionally informed by keeping their knowledge and intentions secret. Bureaucratic administration always tends to be an administration of 'secret' sessions; in so far as it can, it hides its knowledge and action from criticism. ''~ In bureaucratic structures the emphasis is on getting things done; the reason for doing things recedes into the background. Officials develop a mind-set of common interest in assuring that the mechanism continues to function. A psychic attitude, set for the habitual workaday objectives and the belief in the everyday routine as an inviolable norm of conduct, thus prevails. Traditionalist authority is based upon what actually, allegedly, or presumably has always existed. Emphasis is on technique--doing things--not on meanings. Max Weber noted that: "Bureaucratization offers the optimum possibility for carrying through the principle of specializing administrative functions according to purely objective considerations. Individual performances are allocated to functionaries who have specialized training and who by constant practice learn more and more about the specialty. The objective discharge of business primarily means a discharge of business according to calculable rules and without regard for persons." ~ The more bureaucracy is dehumanized, the more completely it succeeds in eliminating f r o m official business love, hatred, and all purely personal, irrational, and emotional elements that escape calculation. This specific nature of bureaucracy is appraised as its special virtue. The more complicated and specialized the agency, the more the supporting apparatus demands personally detached and objective effort. The very technical efficiency of the bureaucracy is precisely built upon the factors of impersonal, standardized routines that are separated from the end user and composed of rigidities that resist the changes required by a changing society. The inculcation of values that have consequences in the lives of individuals--values that are helpful in sustaining (or restoring) mental/spiritual health--can be accomplished only by close personal and human contact. Routir~e relationships that must struggle to exist in the efficiently run and organized institutional church or synagogue are trivial in the face of the need. Nevertheless, the
294
Journal of Religion and Health
institution, in order to retain its efficiency, directs its attention increasingly to its emphasis on keeping the machinery going, without regard to the substantive purpose for which the machinery is being run. The customary effects of bureaucracy upon a voluntary board are even more intensified, for the volunteers are by very nature impermanent, unschooled in the mechanics of day to day operation, and thereby most concerned in formal routines that are easily understandable, visible evidence of activity, standardization, routine efficiencies, and close attentiveness to the smooth operation of the machinery. The broad purposes are difficult to conceptualize in the framework of a committee or board meeting; hence attention is given to those matters that are closest to the board members' specialties, aspects of administration. This further emphasizes the crucial nature of the administrative apparatus. As the organization grows and becomes more complicated, the lay leaders who volunteer their expertise similarly become more and more concerned with their own areas of administrative competence. Fund-raising technicians grow to prominence as the need for funds expands. Successful social program directors grow in stature as the need for visible performance becomes a mind-set. The "successful" lay people more and more become the official leaders, providing the institutional direction in accordance with their past successes. The capacity to examine the goals and purposes of the institution is left to fewer and fewer lay people until finally the institution continues on its own inertia. As Blau has indicated in his study of bureaucracy: "Preoccupied with perfecting efficient means for achieving objectives, we tend to forget why we want to reach those goals. Since we neglect to clarify the basic values that determine why some objectives are preferable to others, objectives lose their significance and their pursuit becomes an end in itself. ''4 Because of the need for operational consistency, we find a transference of sentiments from the aims of the organization to the particular details of behavior required by the attempts at operational consistency. "Adherence to the rules, originally conceived as a means, becomes transformed into an end-in-itself; there occurs the familiar process of displacement of goals whereby an instrumental value becomes a terminal v a l u e . . , conformance with regulations, whatever the situation, is seen not as a measure designed for specific purposes but becomes an immediate value in the life-organization of the bureaucrat. ''5 Both lay and professional persons strive to conform to the comfortable rigidities of the patterned obligations. The patterned obligations for lay and professional people do not provide a framework conducive to the delivery of those religious insights, which are a demand of the modern world. The primary contribution of religion to health and fulfillment will not thrive in such a setting. Delivery of value-insights and moral transference of strength requires a one-to-one relationship. The successful seeking after God is fulfilled in the process of relating and we have made relating an increasingly difficult task in the modern bureaucratic structure. Paradoxically, the work that the efficient bureaucratic, highly professional structure is most capable of doing is that of creating, on a professional level,
Religion and Bureaucracy: A Spiritual Dialogue
295
complete with necessary administrative apparatus, a Guidance Center whose substantive area of responsibility would be to provide a technical approach to delivering religious insights for the congregation client. The functionaries within such a bureaucratic structure will function effectively precisely because they are in such an administrative apparatus. The very bureaucratic features that cause so much difficulty in providing mental/spiritual service in the usual church or synagogue are precisely the beneficial features of an administrative staff designed to provide the counseling service. Here the bureaucratic emphasis on specialization, routines, efficiency, standardization are exactly the qualities one seeks to establish a well-run Guidance Center. Even the emphasis on professionalization conceivably can be utilized to make the worker perform with "professional warmth and humanity." He must professionally be close to his client, since the business of the Center is not to remain in operation, but is directed toward helping people survive and/or grow. Contrariwise, the business of the typical church/synagogue seems to be that of doing everything professionally effective in helping the organizational structure survive and/or grow. In the process, everyone forgets to ask why. 8 Human potential is infinite. The church or synagogue should become a significant participant in the new, humanizing network of growth opportunities that can help more and more people to find "life in all its fullness." As religious institutions begin to seize their opportunities for providing essential services to their constituents, they enlarge their recognition of the possibilities of fully using the knowledge of the relationships between mental health and spiritual well-being. Being able to function fully in our society is a matter of vital interest to both the health disciplines and the religious endeavor. We seek out a theology of everyday living in order to enlarge the possibilities for creative fulfillment. The church or synagogue, because it works with a clientele made up of families and sustains an involvement throughout an entire lifetime as the developmental crises and opportunities unfold and because it can take active initiative prior to any cry of distress or quest for support in a growth experience, can be the most effective source of growth and development in the lives of its people. Recognizing this opportunity, Temple Sholom is beginning to construct a Family Living Center. On its staff there will be a professional social worker equipped to provide a religious dimension to the task. The Center will establish programs for individuals and groups that will generate growth at the various developmental stages of life. The staff will also provide individual, family, and group counseling in response to recognized expressions of need. Clusters of interest groups will be stimulated and encouraged to maintain ongoing professionally guided association. Individuals will be encouraged by referral from rabbis, administrators, and schools, and will come naturally from interest groups and program projects to utilize the professional counseling service availability. In this fashion, it is hoped that the many purposes of the institution may be recognized as belonging to a single whole. The institution will have an appropriate means of delivering its human insights.
296
Journal of Religion and Health
References 1. Franzblau, A. N., "Distinctive Functions of Psychotherapy and Pastoral Counseling," Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 1960, 3, 583-585. 2. Gerth, H. H., and Mills, C. W., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York, Oxford University Press, 1946, p. 233. 3. Ibid., p. 215. 4. Blau, P. M., Bureaucracy in Modern Society. New York, Random House, 1964, p. 15. 5. Merton, R. K., Social Theory and Social Structure. Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press, 1949, pp. 154-155. 6. Recognition of the phenomenon is gradually reaching the established religious institutions. A powerful statement of concern was uttered by the Rev. Merlyn W. Northfelt, D,D., during his inaugural address as president of Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston. "When the needs of the world are so great, a congregational life-style that consumes nearly all its resources in manpower and finance to sustain itself is not defensible. Freed from the traditions that stultify, rainisters must be architects and builders of a congregational life-style that will spend itself in mission and reduce survival instincts to a bare minimum." Chicago Sun-Times, March 9, 1971.
Religion and Bureaucracy: A Spiritual Dialogue ROBERT MILLS How strange that the current quest for spirituality evidenced by some aspects of growing religious fundamentalism, use of mind-altering drugs in attempts at mysticism, and religio/secular pronouncements of the counter culture should be offset by declining health of the church/synagogue institution! Though I realize that there is a spiritual component in all of human illness and well-being, I question the effectiveness of the institution in providing the sought-after healthy psychological set for its religious client. Throughout history, religious ideas have furnished men with the energy needed for life. The contemporary phenomenon of exotic searching for spirituality is further indication of the continuing need, as well as evidence of the ineffectiveness of current institutional forms. I believe that "mature religion" has now, as in the past, a distinctive contribution to make to the well-being of individual man, but has been diverted from its task by the effects of the mechanics of administrative functioning. "Mature religion" as I conceive of it is succinctly described by Abraham N. Franzblau as man-fostering rather than man-flagellating; concerned with man's ultimate worth and self-actualization; deed-centered rather than creed-centered; insisting that guilt be related to behavior rather than to ecclesiastic considerations; avoiding the use of fear or the promise of reward as a motivation; this-worldly in major emphasis rather than other-worldly; progressivistic rather than perfectionistic in its social and personal goals; centrifugal rather than centripetal in the direction of its concerns (moving outward rather than inward into the individual soul and its salvation alone); less mystery-centered and messianic and more reality-centered and melioristic with regard to the future of man; leaning more on reason than on revelation as the source of its authority; being more God-seeking than God-fawning, more universal than parochial, more democratic than sacerdotal, and more dynamic than static.1 The characteristics of a mature religion provide a proper psychological set wherein one can continue to grow and mature and integrate functionally into one's personality all aspects of the life that faces him. Mental and spiritual health are inseparable. One's relationship with self and others has to do with Robert Mills, M.A., is the Executive Director of Temple Sholom in Chicago. He has long been interested in the relationships between religion and psychology and has written articles on the subject t h a t were published in the Journal o[ Pastoral Psychology, the Journal of the Central Con[erence o[ American Rabbis, and the National Association of Temple Administrators Quarterly. 291
292
Journal o[ Religion and Health
one's mental health; one's relationship with God, the universe, and ultimate values has to do with one's spiritual health. As the two relationships are interdependent, it is not possible to fulfill one completely without completely fulfilling the other. The usual means of bringing religious values and insights into the lives of individuals is structured within an institution. There are many advantages of an institutional setting. It provides a caring and curing community capable of sharing the joys and sorrows of its constituents. An institution readily provides resources, initiatives, and group settings within which religious insights can be delivered. However, much of the cause of ineffectual efforts in this direction must be attributed to the very institutional apparatus now required by "modern" religion. Long ago we recognized that no policy formulation, no intended course of action, no statement of purpose can remain pure when put into action. We know that the manner in which any policy is administered, be it a public law or a household directive, is altered by the persons called upon to carry out the policy. This is an inevitable hallmark of administration. With the purest of intentions, the administrator of the policy will find, in his administrative actions, exceptions, deviations, alterations caused by his understandings, the incapacities or proclivities of those carrying on the work, or change in circumstances. Flexibility and concern for an over-all direction is the best that one can hope for from any administrative action. As our society grows in magnitude and complexity, its institutions are forced to adapt themselves to new requirements of operation. Management techniques, specialization in dealing with employees, governmental agencies, repair work on large buildings, fund-raising campaigns competitive with other philanthropic agencies and requiring professionalism in techniques all contribute to increasing needs for administrative structures. In the modern church and synagogue, an administrative apparatus becomes an absolute requirement for the effective functioning and the very survival of the institution. As the church/synagogue grows and the professionals acquire skills and powers, we run the danger of the ultimate substantive function of the institution's becoming identical with the operation of the administrative apparatus. Let us examine some typical characteristics of the bureaucratic apparatus as these features apply to religious institutions. Every bureaucracy drifts toward requirements of specialized performance. Efficiency is a catchword, and in order to achieve efficiency one looks to specialists to handle various aspects of the institution's work. Specialists regard their work and the success of the total enterprise from the viewpoint of their particular specialty, be it religious school direction, social program, preaching, adult education. The professionals must struggle for recognition within the organization. Visible performance of each of the specialists becomes routine, and those aspects of congregational life that are readily visible and understandable become the standard. Successes of the past continue to be attempted, for one's success must be repeated in face of the
Religion and Bureaucracy: A Spiritual Dialogue
293
obvious competition from other specialists. Where an activity has been already acclaimed as successful, the sponsor naturally feels less threatened by possible criticisms engendered by his rivals from the other specialties. Innovation thus requires an extra modicum of courage and self-assurance. More likely we will see a rigidity about change and reliance upon old methods that ultimately achieve their own type of sanctity. Emphasis is placed upon technological implementation rather than upon concern for explicit purpose of organization. As the areas of endeavor acquire the specialization typical Of professionalism, the emphases become efficiency, standardization, visible performance, doing things--especially those things that apply to the most people. One must protect one's area of competence from other areas by maintaining professional distance from one's clients and fellow workers, thus cloaking oneself in an aura of secrecy and impersonality. "Every bureaucracy seeks to increase the superiority of the professionally informed by keeping their knowledge and intentions secret. Bureaucratic administration always tends to be an administration of 'secret' sessions; in so far as it can, it hides its knowledge and action from criticism. ''~ In bureaucratic structures the emphasis is on getting things done; the reason for doing things recedes into the background. Officials develop a mind-set of common interest in assuring that the mechanism continues to function. A psychic attitude, set for the habitual workaday objectives and the belief in the everyday routine as an inviolable norm of conduct, thus prevails. Traditionalist authority is based upon what actually, allegedly, or presumably has always existed. Emphasis is on technique--doing things--not on meanings. Max Weber noted that: "Bureaucratization offers the optimum possibility for carrying through the principle of specializing administrative functions according to purely objective considerations. Individual performances are allocated to functionaries who have specialized training and who by constant practice learn more and more about the specialty. The objective discharge of business primarily means a discharge of business according to calculable rules and without regard for persons." ~ The more bureaucracy is dehumanized, the more completely it succeeds in eliminating f r o m official business love, hatred, and all purely personal, irrational, and emotional elements that escape calculation. This specific nature of bureaucracy is appraised as its special virtue. The more complicated and specialized the agency, the more the supporting apparatus demands personally detached and objective effort. The very technical efficiency of the bureaucracy is precisely built upon the factors of impersonal, standardized routines that are separated from the end user and composed of rigidities that resist the changes required by a changing society. The inculcation of values that have consequences in the lives of individuals--values that are helpful in sustaining (or restoring) mental/spiritual health--can be accomplished only by close personal and human contact. Routir~e relationships that must struggle to exist in the efficiently run and organized institutional church or synagogue are trivial in the face of the need. Nevertheless, the
294
Journal of Religion and Health
institution, in order to retain its efficiency, directs its attention increasingly to its emphasis on keeping the machinery going, without regard to the substantive purpose for which the machinery is being run. The customary effects of bureaucracy upon a voluntary board are even more intensified, for the volunteers are by very nature impermanent, unschooled in the mechanics of day to day operation, and thereby most concerned in formal routines that are easily understandable, visible evidence of activity, standardization, routine efficiencies, and close attentiveness to the smooth operation of the machinery. The broad purposes are difficult to conceptualize in the framework of a committee or board meeting; hence attention is given to those matters that are closest to the board members' specialties, aspects of administration. This further emphasizes the crucial nature of the administrative apparatus. As the organization grows and becomes more complicated, the lay leaders who volunteer their expertise similarly become more and more concerned with their own areas of administrative competence. Fund-raising technicians grow to prominence as the need for funds expands. Successful social program directors grow in stature as the need for visible performance becomes a mind-set. The "successful" lay people more and more become the official leaders, providing the institutional direction in accordance with their past successes. The capacity to examine the goals and purposes of the institution is left to fewer and fewer lay people until finally the institution continues on its own inertia. As Blau has indicated in his study of bureaucracy: "Preoccupied with perfecting efficient means for achieving objectives, we tend to forget why we want to reach those goals. Since we neglect to clarify the basic values that determine why some objectives are preferable to others, objectives lose their significance and their pursuit becomes an end in itself. ''4 Because of the need for operational consistency, we find a transference of sentiments from the aims of the organization to the particular details of behavior required by the attempts at operational consistency. "Adherence to the rules, originally conceived as a means, becomes transformed into an end-in-itself; there occurs the familiar process of displacement of goals whereby an instrumental value becomes a terminal v a l u e . . , conformance with regulations, whatever the situation, is seen not as a measure designed for specific purposes but becomes an immediate value in the life-organization of the bureaucrat. ''5 Both lay and professional persons strive to conform to the comfortable rigidities of the patterned obligations. The patterned obligations for lay and professional people do not provide a framework conducive to the delivery of those religious insights, which are a demand of the modern world. The primary contribution of religion to health and fulfillment will not thrive in such a setting. Delivery of value-insights and moral transference of strength requires a one-to-one relationship. The successful seeking after God is fulfilled in the process of relating and we have made relating an increasingly difficult task in the modern bureaucratic structure. Paradoxically, the work that the efficient bureaucratic, highly professional structure is most capable of doing is that of creating, on a professional level,
Religion and Bureaucracy: A Spiritual Dialogue
295
complete with necessary administrative apparatus, a Guidance Center whose substantive area of responsibility would be to provide a technical approach to delivering religious insights for the congregation client. The functionaries within such a bureaucratic structure will function effectively precisely because they are in such an administrative apparatus. The very bureaucratic features that cause so much difficulty in providing mental/spiritual service in the usual church or synagogue are precisely the beneficial features of an administrative staff designed to provide the counseling service. Here the bureaucratic emphasis on specialization, routines, efficiency, standardization are exactly the qualities one seeks to establish a well-run Guidance Center. Even the emphasis on professionalization conceivably can be utilized to make the worker perform with "professional warmth and humanity." He must professionally be close to his client, since the business of the Center is not to remain in operation, but is directed toward helping people survive and/or grow. Contrariwise, the business of the typical church/synagogue seems to be that of doing everything professionally effective in helping the organizational structure survive and/or grow. In the process, everyone forgets to ask why. 8 Human potential is infinite. The church or synagogue should become a significant participant in the new, humanizing network of growth opportunities that can help more and more people to find "life in all its fullness." As religious institutions begin to seize their opportunities for providing essential services to their constituents, they enlarge their recognition of the possibilities of fully using the knowledge of the relationships between mental health and spiritual well-being. Being able to function fully in our society is a matter of vital interest to both the health disciplines and the religious endeavor. We seek out a theology of everyday living in order to enlarge the possibilities for creative fulfillment. The church or synagogue, because it works with a clientele made up of families and sustains an involvement throughout an entire lifetime as the developmental crises and opportunities unfold and because it can take active initiative prior to any cry of distress or quest for support in a growth experience, can be the most effective source of growth and development in the lives of its people. Recognizing this opportunity, Temple Sholom is beginning to construct a Family Living Center. On its staff there will be a professional social worker equipped to provide a religious dimension to the task. The Center will establish programs for individuals and groups that will generate growth at the various developmental stages of life. The staff will also provide individual, family, and group counseling in response to recognized expressions of need. Clusters of interest groups will be stimulated and encouraged to maintain ongoing professionally guided association. Individuals will be encouraged by referral from rabbis, administrators, and schools, and will come naturally from interest groups and program projects to utilize the professional counseling service availability. In this fashion, it is hoped that the many purposes of the institution may be recognized as belonging to a single whole. The institution will have an appropriate means of delivering its human insights.
296
Journal of Religion and Health
References 1. Franzblau, A. N., "Distinctive Functions of Psychotherapy and Pastoral Counseling," Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 1960, 3, 583-585. 2. Gerth, H. H., and Mills, C. W., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York, Oxford University Press, 1946, p. 233. 3. Ibid., p. 215. 4. Blau, P. M., Bureaucracy in Modern Society. New York, Random House, 1964, p. 15. 5. Merton, R. K., Social Theory and Social Structure. Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press, 1949, pp. 154-155. 6. Recognition of the phenomenon is gradually reaching the established religious institutions. A powerful statement of concern was uttered by the Rev. Merlyn W. Northfelt, D,D., during his inaugural address as president of Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston. "When the needs of the world are so great, a congregational life-style that consumes nearly all its resources in manpower and finance to sustain itself is not defensible. Freed from the traditions that stultify, rainisters must be architects and builders of a congregational life-style that will spend itself in mission and reduce survival instincts to a bare minimum." Chicago Sun-Times, March 9, 1971.
