LAY PREACHING.
Conditions in the Primitive Church (§ 1).
Decay of Lay Preaching until the Middle Ages (§ 2).
Medieval and Pre-Reformation Revival (§ 3).
English Reformation and Commonwealth Periods (§ 4).
The Quakers (§ 5).
John Wesley and the Lay Preachers (§ 6).
The Primitive Methodist Connection (§ 7).
In the Scotch Presbyterian and Anglican Churches (§ 8).
The Salvation Army (§ 9).
In the Foreign Mission Field (§ 10).
In Labor Circles; Other Recent Movements (§ 11).
Beneficial Results to Pastorate Churches (§ 12).
Lay preaching, commonly described in Great Britain as local preaching, is voluntary unpaid pulpit-service, or open-air or cottage evangelism, by men, sometimes women, who are commissioned by their denomination to preach, after undergoing a
certain examinational test, but with-
1. Condi- out receiving ordination. There is tions in the Old-Testament justification for lay
Primitive preaching in Moses’ wish that “ all
Church. the Lord’s people were prophets ”’
; (Num. xi. 29), and in the free operation of the prophetic spirit, which sent out such men as Hosea, Micah, and Amos, though they did not belong to the priestly order. The New-Testament justification is in the facts that Christ himself received no ecclesiastical commission, neither did any of his disciples, while Paul claimed to have received his commission not from the hands of men, but direct from Christ himself (Gal. i. 1). Advocates of lay preaching claim that in the apostolic churches there was no distinction between clergy and laity, but that the members of the church were expected to exercise whatever evangelistic or teaching gift they possessed. It must be remembered
that the first Christian churches were largely “ churches in the house,” nor did the idea of a pastorate church arise until the necessity for pastoral oversight became urgent, as the churches increased in membership and perfected their organization. During that primitive.period the churches were dependent on the prophetic gift of such members as possessed it, and the clerical order gradually evolved itself to meet the need of continuous specialized oversight, while the development of dogma and the combat with multiplying heresies strengthened the idea of an ordained clergy commissioned to teach what the Church, as a whole, held to be the fundamentals of the faith. The clergy took on increasingly a sacerdotal character, and the dogmatism and the sacerdotalism, together, told against the continuance of lay evangelism. There was always the possibility that the lay preacher, unskilled in theological polemic and with undisciplined enthusiasm, might commit himself to dangerous positions, playing into the hands of the heretical sects and leading the people astray. The “ liberty of prophesying ” was checked, and by the middle of the second century it is probable that lay evangelism, except in missionary fields, was almost abandoned.
In the middle of the second century, however, the Montanist movement in Asia Minor led to a revival of enthusiastic lay preaching (see Mon- TaNnus, Monranism). The Montanists laid the greatest stress on the inspiration, by the Holy Spirit, of believing men and women
2. Decay without distinction, and without regard of Lay to any authorized clerical channels. Preaching Montanus associated with himself two until the prophetesses, and the enthusiasm of Middle the sect generated a host of preach- Ages. ers who gave prominence to the con-
cepts of the dignity of the universal Christian calling and the royal priesthood of all Christians. With many extravagances, Montanism was the precursor of Puritanism and non-conformity, especially in the place which non-conformity has given to lay evangelism. With the downfall of the Roman Empire and the adoption of Latin, fast becoming a dead language, as the language in which the Bible was to be read and liturgies to be performed, lay preaching became more and more impossible. The ministry demanded a scholastic training; liturgical practise usurped the place of preaching; and the layman was reduced to the position of a submissive hearer. Yet throughout the Middle Ages the lay preacher sprang up sporadically and had a hearing, for he at least could talk to the people in their own tongue, and whenever there was a movement of spiritual revival there was a reappearance of lay preaching.
The leaders of all the medieval revivals recognized the value of the lay preacher. St. Francis of Assisi’s Minorites were laymen, and throughout Europe they traveled, artizans most of them, who earned their living by working at their trades. Francis founded also his order of Tertiaries, or Brothers and Sisters of Penitence, who made their direct appeal to the working classes whence they sprang, finding their flocks in the slums and hovels of over-