Outagamie County WI Archives Church Records.....The Sunday Evening Club
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 August 11, 2008, 12:30 am

The Sunday Evening Club.

BWMONG the activities of our church work, a prominent place should be given to
the Young Men's Sunday Evening club, though comparatively of recent origin. It
was organized early in February, 1892, and held the first service on the 27th of
the same month. It aims to increase the interest and effectiveness of the Sunday
evening service, and to bring in those who have no other church home. The pastor
and officers of the club constitute its executive committee. The officers are
changed quarterly, and the committees monthly, thus relieving a few of the
burden of work, and calling nearly all the members into active service.

     Concisely stated, its efforts have been largely promoted by the following
means: The use of printed programs, received on entering the church, enabling
the whole congregation readily to participate in the service of responsive
readings, and singing of hymns; the introduction of both vocal and instrumental
music, which is an attractive feature; the placing of its members on the various
committees, throwing upon them responsibilities which they cheerfully assume,
serving as ushers, collectors, committees on music, invitation, membership,
printing, &c; in the giving by the pastor short sermons on timely topics, and in
manifesting a hearty greeting to all, always showing the spirit of welcome,
promoting a homelike feeling, especially with strangers.

    While the object primarily has been to increase the attendance on
the-evening services by its enrichment, it has already accomplished far more. It
has changed the average attendance from less than one hundred and fifty to over
five hundred, and has created an interest among its members that has led many
hitherto non-church-goers, to attend also the morning service, while not a few
have become regular contributors to the current expense fund who had not been
before counted as such. It has become responsible for a part of the cost of the
music of the church, and also stands sponsor for a course of popular
entertainments each year, in the line of concerts and lectures. It has enlarged
the parish. Its membership has grown from twenty-two to over seven hundred, of
whom nearly five hundred are still enrolled as such.

    The Club was instituted by the Rev. Dr. John Faville, now of Peoria, Ill.,
who as pastor at its inception, and during the first seven years of its progess,
has largely given life to it. Its success, at first problematical, has long
since been fully assured, and, as a pattern, it has been followed by many other
similar clubs throughout the country. Its charter members were: F. H. Blood, S.
N. Buck, C. S. Buckland, W. L. Conkey, John Faville, F. W. Harriman, F. J.
Harwood, J. A. Hawes President, E. P. Humphrey, D. M. Hyde, A. J. Ingold, H. J.
Ingold, C. L. Marston, G. M. Miller Treasurer, C. W. Mory, W. B. Murphy, T. W.
Orbison Vice-President, Thomas Patten, J. S. Reeve Secretary, E. H. Reynolds, A.
L. Smith Jr., Alex Zenier.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
APPLET0N, WIS.

PREPARED FOR THE
SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY, DEC. 18, 1900.
BY
J. F. FULLER, A. M., Compiler of the "Fuller" Genealogy.

1850—1900.
APPLETON PRINTING CO.,
APPLETON, WIS.


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