J.F. Cowan: Assuming that some are willing to attempt lay leadership of the prayer-meetings, particularly that of the older membership of the church, the quality of such leadership becomes an important problem. The quality will depend upon the ideals which one has of leadership. A man whose ideals as a merchant are met by selling peanuts by the pint will never become a Wanamaker or Marshall Field. It is so with leading the prayer-meeting. If one is satisfied with merely sitting before a company of people, with reading an extract from the church paper, with saying, "Let us sing So-and-so, and So-and-so," and finally announcing, "The meeting is now open for all who wish to take part," when in reality it is closed tight and padlocked, and with watching the clock for the proper tick at which to join in the doxology and benediction, he is no more a real leader of a prayer-meeting than the tin soldier that the child places at the head of his play soldiers is a real general.
The real leader of the prayer-meeting, whether for young people or older ones, will have something of the same grasp upon the details and the course of the meeting that makes the military strategist the master of the battle-field. Or, if you prefer to use a more peaceful figure, he must have something of the qualities that make the man who swings the baton the leader of the chorus.
1. The leader will strike the right key-note. If he does not, someone else will strike the wrong note, and so the whole meeting will be pitched upon the wrong key. Or, if the leader himself strike a lower key than he should, those that follow will likely follow in that minor key. For example, if he opens the meeting in an apologetic tone, when he should have sounded a triumphant note, or if he begins in a fault-finding tone when he should have spoken praise, or if he is flippant or indifferent when he should be reverent or on fire with enthusiasm, in any of these cases the leader strikes another note than that which should be the key-note of the meeting, and proves his incompetency to lead: the meeting may drift like a derelict with him in the chair, but he is only a dummy leader.
2. The leader who really leads must go in advance of those whom he leads. He will be in advance in his study and preparation on the topic of the meeting. The stream does not rise higher than its fountain. True, a prayer-meeting may sometimes have enough thoughtful people in it to lift it above the level of the careless, unprepared leader; but it will not have been led to that level.
When it is held that a leader should have a broader, deeper knowledge of the subject than the average of those whom he leads, it is by no means implied that he is to tell in the meeting all that he knows on the topic - that would be the greatest misfortune. But just because it is a principle of pedagogics that no truth can be adequately taught without a great deal of truth in reserve that is not taught, so it is the fullness of the leader's reserve information that gives emphasis and sparkle to the little that he imparts. It is the pressure behind the faucet, the pressure of the full reservoir, that makes the delightful shower bath, and the cooling hose sprinkler. Nothing gives positiveness and influence to what a man says like the deep conviction that has come to him as a result of his study of a truth. A leader may come before the meeting an iceberg, expecting to be thawed out by the meeting, or he may come into it a furnace, giving off sparks and heat.
3. The real leader will not only strike the key-note, and go ahead of those whom he leads, but he will make them follow him. He will plan to secure the cooperation of those whom he leads, to draw them out, to make them make the meeting, instead of making it himself. His success as a leader depends not so much upon what he pours into the meeting, as upon what he pulls out of it. It is one thing to be a sky-rocket and dazzle beholders with one's brilliancy and exhaustive knowledge: it is quite another thing to be a lantern and show people the way, and get them to go in it.
To get cooperation in a prayer-meeting there must be a wise plan. God has set us the example. Every leaf, every hair of our heads is a marvel of careful planning. The great successes of the world are planned. Go into a shovel factory, and you will find men who do nothing but experiment with different shapes, to ascertain which can be thrust most easily into a pile of sand; whether it needs to be broader at the top, or at the bottom; which is best for shovelling coal, which for iron ore, etc. When you buy a common shovel you do not see the brains that have been mixed with it, but they are there. A prayer-meeting is one of the implements of the kingdom of Christ. It needs brains mixed with it, as truly as a shovel does. It needs a plan. The dull prayer-meeting, which makes people feel as if they never wanted to go to another, has not been thought over; has not been prayed over; it has just happened to be.
The real test of a prayer-meeting leader's ability is his success in getting timid, backward people to take part in the meeting. Any one can be a leader of those so ready that they need no leading. But, to paraphrase a familiar saying, "He is a benefactor who makes two prayers grow where one grew before." The ideal prayer-meeting is like the old New England church service, to which each one brought a candle, and the house was light in proportion to the number of attendants. Now, the work of the real leader is, not to be a blazing arc light himself, but to get all the tiny candles lighted. In a certain prayer-meeting the attendance numbered fifty-six. When the song-service was over, the announcements made, and the leader was done introducing the topic, there were exactly fifteen minutes of the hour left. The leader took five of the fifteen to urge those present to take part, which was quite unnecessary considering that there were but ten minutes for the fifty-five persons. How much better if that meeting had been planned so as to give the fifty-five at least forty-five minutes.
4. The leader should be sure that he is going to end his meeting right; that he is leading somewhere in particular. He ought to plan, not only how he is going to open his meeting, and how he is going to continue it, but where and how he is going to close it. He must aim at something definite, and leave a clear-cut impression growing logically out of the theme. Some meetings close like a ship disappearing into a fog-bank. The well-led meeting should close like a ship entering the port for which it sailed, and making fast to the very pier which the captain had in mind from the beginning of the voyage.
To this end it is wise for the leader to reserve himself for a closing word. He should not exhaust his resources in the beginning. He should be ready to throw himself into the task of making strong that end of the meeting which should be stronger - the close. He may seize upon the remark of another and turn it into a forceful application. Perhaps the theme has been, "Service," and the leader gives a brief summary of some of the most forceful utterances, and urges those that have not committed themselves to some definite form of service in the church, to write a note to the pastor telling him of their willingness to take up some form of service, specifying the kind they prefer.
5. It scarcely need be added that the real prayer-meeting leader will himself be Spirit-led. No leader's plans should be so cut-and-dried as not to be flexible and obedient to the promptings of the Spirit that come after the leader has done his best to prepare. The Spirit will not supply the lack of our own brains and common sense; the Spirit will not help the lazy leader. But the Spirit will lead the alert, consecrated leader. The Spirit will not use the blunt or rusty tool, but give the Spirit the polished steel and the Spirit will give the power to send it home. The leader may have no scholastic training, no great fluency of speech, but if he is acquainted with the Spirit, and so obedient to the Spirit that the Spirit can speak through him, there will be a throb and a glow and a spiritual power in the meeting that will be remembered throughout the week.
By John F. Cowan, New York, 1906
Go to next chapter
Go to previous chapter
By John F. Cowan, New York, 1906
Go to Literature Index Page
This URL is www.abcog.org/cowan6.htm