Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 54, number 3, July 1961

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PLANS FOR THE NEW SESSION

Columbia Theological Seminary will begin the School Year 1961-62 with open-
ing exercises in the Columbia Presbyterian Church on Thursday evening. September
21, at 8:00 o'clock.

The opening address will be delivered by Dr. Dean G. McKee, formerly Presi-
dent of the Biblical Seminary in New York, who begins in September his work as
a Professor in the Biblical Department of Columbia Seminary. Dr. McKee will also
speak on Friday evening and at special convocations on the mornings of Friday and
Saturday, September 22-23. The subjects of his four addresses will be:

I. The Minister and the Bible

II. The Minister and Prayer

III. The Minister as Teacher

IV. The Minister as Example

Dr. Neely D. McCarter will also enter upon his duties as Associate Professor of
Christian Education with the opening of the Fall Quarter.

Present indications are that the entering class this fall will be the largest to
enroll at this institution for several years past. New students are expected to regis-
ter on September 18-19 and to attend Orientation Exercises continuing through
September 21. Upper Classmen and Graduate Students are expected to enroll Sep-
tember 20-21.

The new dormitory, Florida Hall, has been completed and will provide accom-
modations for 108 persons. It contains a number of apartments planned especially
for occupancy by married couples. All facilities of the Student Center, Georgia
Hall, which was opened in May, will also be fully used for the first time. With the
completion of these buildings, and with some alterations in Campbell Hall, Colum-
bia Seminary possesses a physical plant which is probably unsurpassed by that of
any similar institution in the United States.

WHAT VOICES WILL YOU HEED?

(An Address Delivered by Dr. Peyton N. Rhodes, President of Southwest-
ern at Memphis, at the Commencement Exercises of Columbia Theological
Seminary May 29, 1961).

I speak to you as a layman, untutored in Theology, Eschatology, Homiletics, or
any of the technical studies which you have been pursuing for three years. However,
I speak to you as one who has served a long time an institution closely allied with
our Church and who has had the opportunity to observe many ministers and to
number among them scores of warm personal friends. My subject is a question.
-What Voices Will You Heed?"

I think it is safe to say that the average layman, if there be an average layman,
almost instinctively respects and defers to his minister. This attitude is based on
a long tradition of scholarly preachers in the Church. It is not lost in our day,
even though many preachers are something less than scholarly. Thus, the minister
stands out in his work with a sort of advantage over the layman. The minister's
problem is to serve God in his ministry without losing his early commitment in the
welter and confusion of many conflicting and ever-increasing daily demands of the
pastorate. The pastor today is a top executive facing often a multi-organizational
church with a long and loose chain of command and few unifying elements other
than buildings. As a college administrator, with many years of teaching exper-
ience as a background, I am not unaware of the difficulties of achieving educational
unity in diversity. I am entirely sympathetic with the minister in his efforts to pre-
serve spiritual perspective while looking at blueprints of the new church or visiting

sick parishioners, or attending a civic club meeting. In a report dealing with the
freedom of the pulpit endorsed by the General Assembly several years ago are
found these words: "According to the Scriptures, we must conclude that a minister
is one called and set apart under God to 'Proclaim the whole counsel of God.' If the
ministry of our Church is to be anything more than the priestly preservation of
tradition, it must involve not only the proclaiming of the 'Good News' of the Gos-
pel but also something of a prophetic nature, in that each minister, feeling the
burden of the Lord upon his heart, must speak forth. 'Thus saith the Lord.' " The
problem is not only how to be a man of God, but how to be a man of God among
men. To achieve this a minister must possess and exhibit much of wisdom and abil-
ity, more of courage and humility.

As a basis for what I shall say, I wish first to make an observation and then
to read a brief portion of the Bible. The observation, like the subject of these re-
marks, is a question. It is, "What will you preach?" This is not an original question
with me, but was asked by a long-time member of the Southwestern Faculty of a
pre-ministerial student who was seeking advice, at the same time exhibiting a cer-
tain self-complacency over having decided that he had been called into the min-
istry. The wise professor removed a bit of this complacency with his question,
which I pass on to you now What will you Preach as you go out from this semi-
nary?

The Scripture which I wish to read is from the first letter to the Corinthians,
the fourteenth chapter, verses 6-12: (King James Version)

6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall
I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowl-
edge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?

7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp,
except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what
is piped or harped?

8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare
himself to the battle?

9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be
understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For it shall speak into
the air.

10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and
none of them is without signification.

1 1 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto
him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian
unto me.

12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that
ye may excel to the edifying of the church.

The answers to the question, "What will you preach?" will depend largely on
the kind of voice or voices to which you listen.

Now many voices will be heard by you ministers, confusing and confused
voices. It seems to me that the most difficult part of your ministry may be to
identify and to respond in some way to these voices. Most of them will secularize
your ministry and cause it to deviate from its true purposes. Your choice of re-
sponse will make or break your usefulness in the Kingdom. Which voices are
voces Dei and which are voces hominorum may be difficult to determine. For what
it may be worth, I shall call your attention to seven voices that may call so in-
sistently that an unwary minister in weak moments may think that the voice of
God has become identified with the voice in question.

Voice Number 1 I shall call vox mei. This is a compelling voice charac-
terized by the nominative case, first person singular, written in capitals. It is the
"I kilt a bar" voice. A minister who has listened too long to such a voice becomes
very impressive and, indeed, may acquire a fairly shiny, but plated, halo. If this
is worn too much the baser metal will appear as the plating wears through. He is

the authoritarian or stuffed shirt type, paternalistic, pontifical, censorious. He
dresses the part and speaks with a deeper tone than most, while making unsmiling,
final pronouncements on almost any subject. He is more than reasonably sure that
he is right and that God has set him apart to correct the errors of those of less ma-
ture judgment. Most laymen, for a while, pay him due deference. This minister is
never caught off-guard and is never seen in public without his dark coat on. Elderly
ladies, smelling faintly of violets or lavender, dote on his every word and speak of
"That dear man." These same ladies, assembled in groups of two or more, are
apt to say softly, "How on earth did Dr. X's wife, a sweet young thing to be sure,
manage to ensnare such a saintly and distinguished husband?" To any minister
who has misinterpreted vox mei as vox Dei to the extent that has been indicated
one can only give Paul's warning, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall." Speaking as one who has met many ministers, I could not
feel sure that this man would not elope with either the organist or the head of the
kindergarten department of his Sunday School.

A second insidious voice that may have in a call for you is vox populi. This is
easy indeed to confuse with vox Dei. One who heeds this voice of the people may be-
come just about everybody's friend and as hale a fellow as can be well met anywhere.
In my own inept way 1 would call him the applesauce type. He joins every club or
group that has a pin or password. He radiates good cheer and keeps his ear to the
groundswell of opinion rather than pushing his inquiring nose against the grind-
stone of hard study. He will certainly be elected "Man of the Year'" by some group.
After all, a man who has succumbed to vox populi, if he reasons at all, can cer-
tainly conclude rightfully that all people are God's children, so why not play along
with them? Why not run with the influential crowd that frequents the country club
(which means free swimming and golf privileges for the rest of the family, also),
in order that by friendship with the "right" people he will be in a better position
to do the Lord's work? After all, he argues, one can't run a church on anything
but hard cash, and why not cultivate the boys who have it. This minister is an
easy first name caller after even a casual introduction. He says, "call me Buck;
I'm just a plain country boy serving the Lord in my own humble way." This man is
sure to get along for a while and the "girls" i. e., Women of the Church, in-
variably invite him to open their monthly meetings with prayer, followed by a "few
words of inspiration." Certainly there is nothing wrong about this, but, gentlemen,
let me urge you to resist vox populi as being the controlling voice in your ministry.
It is too pleasantly seductive to fool with.

The third voice, an ever insistent one, that I shall urge you not to heed may be
called vox economici, so very easily confused with vox Dei. This voice may well lead
one into becoming one of the cash and carry me into "a more fruitful ministry"
situation. With ever-decreasing respect for the many dedicated ministers who labor
effectively and with Christ-like sacrifice in poorly compensated areas of service,
it can be stated that a great many ministers of my acquaintance have seemed to
find a "Greater Challenge" at a place where the salary and fringe benefits are better
than where they were before. This does not imply reproach necessarily, for indeed
I have not seen many laymen, including college professors, so overwhelmed with a
burning zeal to serve mankind that they could not discover that there were many
fine examples of mankind to be worked on at places where salaries were higher.
After all, it may be said, the laborer is worthy of his hire, and a man owes it to his
wife and family, etc., etc . . . an "enlarged opportunity" may well be God's way of
directing one into unprecedented avenues of achievement. The only thing I am
suggesting is that one might possibly confuse the size of the salary with the size of
the opportunity. There may be no necessary connection. So much for vox economici.

The fourth disturbing voice may be called the vox numeri, or vox magnitudinis.
This voice, if heeded, gets one involved in the numbers racket and smacks of the
eniac mind, the IBM approach and the statistical evalution of success. This voice
calls most persistently in city churches where the number of infant baptisms, the
members added during the year, or even so sacred a figure as the increase in
Sunday School attendance may be taken as the only measure of the spiritual growth
of a congregation. This vox numeri is a tricky one beceause it is just possible that

the numbers may reflect a great and definitive labor in the Kingdom. The only
warning I give is that the whole matter of size be subjected to careful analysis. The
size of congregation, the complexity and extent of staff, which ordinarily follows
Parkinson's Law almost exactly, and the ever-increasing hierarchy of ministers,
associate ministers, ministers of music, directors and associates in Christian Education,
directors of recreation, picnicing and the crafts, etc., where practically everyone is
a chief and there are few Indians to do the work, involve one in a tremendous
whirl of organizational charts, calendars of operations, endless meals, and so on.
It is so easy to get enmeshed in the wheels of numbers and size, which unlike the
mills of the gods, grind very rapidly and exceeding coarse.

The fifth voice calls rather faintly at first, but with increasing insistence as
one approaches the age of forty-five, and may be called the vox securitatis. It may
be heard on the country club golf course by a minister whose second chin is taking
definite shape. It may be rather easy to confuse this voice with vox Dei. One may
have got into a pastorate where an even pace in feeding the flock on a rather stable
and staple diet is accepted and loved by all and sundry. The chances are that this
voice just simply escapes recognition at all, usually. It may be sub-sonic. I suppose
the phrase, "at ease in Zion" would describe the situation that one might slowly
but surely sink into. It seems to me that it is a great pity for a man to let himself slip
into a practically bomb-proof situation from which only atomic energy can lift
him. Such a person has simply got into a rut with the unconscious connivance of all
his friends in the congregation. It is easier to stay in this rut than to plow a more
venturesome furrow. In the early days of our country, people like Jefferson, Wash-
ington, Madison and Patrick Henry, most of them younger than the average age
of this graduating class, spent no time in looking for security. For many years
there were prices on the heads of most of them, and from everything I have been
able to read, they did not lose the fire of youth even in middle age. They had no
pension plans, no car allowances, no life insurance, and were never at ease. They
lived on the cutting edge of progress and faced a new frontier that was more than
a slogan. Whether or not the voice of security even attempted to catch their ear, I
do not know. At any rate, they did not heed it.

Voice number 6 is usually intermingled with voice number 5, and indeed often
indistinguishable from it a sort of duet. It may be called vox inertae, the voice of
inertia or status quo, or "We've always done it this way." This voice leads the
unwary minister into what might be called the rocking chair attitude. This repre-
sents a very late phase of deterioration, to a point where all fresh thought is ab-
horrent and the battle of the mind has been all but lost. Reading is desultory and
random, writing an effort and burden, constructive and vigorous thought, painful.
I am not here warning against the infirmities of age, which will inevitably slow
down and bring to gradual cessation the constructive labors of able, dedicated and
vigorous men. I am saying to young and middle-aged and virile men, don't let vox
inertae, often accompanied by an overwhelming call to go fishing or duck hunting
with prominent members of the congregation under almost ideal conditions, pre-
vent regular habits of study and an alertness to current problems. I know from ex-
perience how easy it is to answer the short and easy letters first. The days just
aren't long enough to do a number of easy jobs and then get around to tackling the
single hard job. Newton's third law of motion has a very specific application to
the life of a minister. This law, which I shall oversimplify a bit, says that if a mass
of material is in uniform motion, it will keep moving in just the same way in a
straight line unless an external force slows it down and stops it, and if the body
is at rest, it will stay at rest until some external force moves it. As they say in the
English mathematics books, "Application of the law to the case under discussion
is left as an exercise for the reader."

And approximately finally, gentlemen, a seventh voice which may enter as a
controlling factor in your ministry and which is very easily confused with vox Dei
is vox Freudi, or vox lecti. This is the peace of mind or couch voice.

This voice produces a curious effect in determining the type of sermons
preached. Dr. Coue and Pollyanna thinking may cause hellfire, damnation and sin
to be covered up with a sort of unsalted pabulum of sweetness and light. Or, a

minister who is lost in a maze of personal problems may be acting as his own
psychiatrist and whistle or preach in the dark for his own encouragement. The
main concern of vox lecti is to have everything go along smoothly, calmly and
on an even keel. This is not the same as vox securitatis or vox inertae at all. Vox
lecti has the person who heeds it vigorously in action smoothing things out and
applying oil to troubled waters. He is a tremendous counselor and securely binds
up man) broken hearts. He is super-energetic and reads all the latest psychiatric
journals. Much of this is good. But can a minister preach the Word of God with
conviction and effect while emphasizing just sweetness and light, calmness, peace,
ease, harmony with the cosmos, and good works? I think not. A minister must not
let vox lecti cause him to lose ministerial perspective, scholarly awareness of the
heritage of the ministry, spiritual dignity and depth. The best jokes from the latest
meeting of presbytery are no substitute for a carefully reasoned paragraph arrived
at by serious thought and study.

The seven voices I have mentioned, you will all hear at one time or another.
If you recognize them in time, you will be able to answer them intelligently and
appropriately.

There is another voice that calls presumably you have heard it already and
are heeding it now. This is vox Dei, often heard through vox Christi. '"Behold I
stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I
will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20).
This is the real, the true, the reliable and clear voice that I hope each member of
this class has heard and will continue to hear with increasing clarity over the years.
This is the voice that through Paul was speaking to Timothy. This is the voice that
may be speaking through the words of Floyd Doyd Shafer, a Presbyterian minister
of Salem, Indiana, when he says in a recent issue of Christianity Today (as quoted
in Time). "Fling him (the preacher) into his ofhice, tear the office sign from the
door and nail on the sign: Study. Take him off the mailing list, lock him up with
his books get him all kinds of books and his typewriter and his Bible . . . Force
him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God . . .

'"Set a time clock on him that will imprison him with thought and writing about
God for 40 hours a week. Shut his garrulous mouth spouting 'remarks' and stop his
tongue always tripping lightly over everything non-essential. Bend his knees in the
lonesome valley, fire him from the P. T. A. and cancel his country club membership
... rip out his telephone, burn his ecclesiastical success sheets, refuse his glad
hand, put water in the gas tank of his community buggy (and) compel him to be
a minister of the Word."

If you gentlemen can manage somehow to recognize and heed The Voice, our
Savior's voice alone, what a life awaits you!

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