The Hyles Church Manual
by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
(Dr. Hyle's excellent book, The Hyles Church Manual)
I. CHURCH BUSINESS
1. The Church Business Meeting
5. A Dedication Service for a New Building*
7. A Dedication Service for New Deacons*
9. An Ordination Service for Preachers*
II. CHURCH PROGRAM11. A Teachers’ and Officers’ Meeting*
12. The Bus Ministry
16. The Music
17. The Women’s Missionary Society
19. A Soul-Winning Experience*
III. THE PASTOR20. The Wedding
21. A Wedding Ceremony*
22. The Funeral
23. A Funeral Service*
24. The Pastoral Counseling
25. The Relationship of the Pastor and His People
26. The Relationship of the Pastor and His Staff
27. The Invitation Time
28. An Invitation*
29. The Public Services
30. A Sunday Morning Sermon*
31. a Sunday Evening Sermon*
32. A Wednesday Evening Bible Study*
*Actual Public services or experiences recorded and transcribed for this publication.
Introduction
With pleasure and profit, I have read the manuscript, Hyles’ Church Manual.
I wish that this book had been published years ago so that many pastors and
churches could have been blessed by its wise contents. This book, wisely
divided into three sections: Church Business, Church Programs, and Pastor’s
Section, will be of invaluable help to all pastors who read it and to all
churches that follow the detailed plans it sets forth.
I cannot praise enough this book which places warm and sympathetic hands on all matters that pertain to the welfare of the church.
Dr. Hyles has gone into details in such a wonderful way that pastors and churches will profit greatly by giving heed to the author’s instruction.
The giving of the actual proceedings of a business meeting will guide pastors wisely in how to conduct a business meeting of the church. The same can be said for the chapter on the church budget and all matters concerning a building program, showing good plans and bad plans for building.
The chapters that deal with dedications and ordinations-the dedication of buildings and ordination of deacons and preachers-is superb in directions given.
Superiority superlative are all words in this book that set forth plans for building a great Sunday school, for conducting teachers’ meeting, for securing and operation of buses.
The urgency of caring for the sick and shut-ins, for direction in youth programs, and well-organized and well-operated church nurseries, for having the right kind of music and singing, and the usefulness of the women’s Missionary Society is evident in all the author writes.
What the author writes about baptism and examples in soul winning add to the value of the book.
Every pastor on earth will find great profit and help in giving careful attention to the words of Section III--and being doers of the words.
If I could command pastors and they had to obey my command, all pastors would give careful attention to all the author says about weddings and actual wedding ceremonies, funerals and actual funeral services, spiritual counseling, pastor and people relationship and the pastor and the staff.
In what he writes about the invitation, Dr. Hyles, an expert himself in giving an invitation, expresses himself wisely as to how some wonderful gospel messages are ineffectual by a weak invitation.
I could use many strong adjectives in
speaking of this book. But they would be inadequate to set forth its
worth--written by a great gospel preacher, pastor of a great Baptist church,
who has given much thought and prayer and time to the writing of a most
excellently superb book--setting forth so many valuable things pastors and
churches need to know and put into practice. I wish every pastor and
evangelist and church in America would get a copy of this book, read it, and
put into practice the wise instructions it gives.
Robert G. Lee
January 15, 1968
Forward
Dr. Hyles, could I come to Hammond and spend a week at your church just
observing the work of the church, going soul winning with some of your folks,
observing the bus ministry firsthand, and seeing how the work is done?”
These words were spoken by a pastor, and he did come to see the work. It
wasn’t long until another came, and another, and another--until our staff was
spending much of its time training pastors, one at a time.
After talking with members of the staff, I decided to set a week when all of
these pastors could come at the same time. One hundred sixty-nine preachers
came for that week, and the First Baptist Church Pastors’ School was born.
Some inquiries then came in concerning the
possibility of another such school, and because of popular demand, another was
conducted the next year. Approximately 250 pastors attended. The next year
over 350 came, and in 1967 approximately 650 were registered for the pastors’
School. then in 1968, there were 1,205 registered for this week of study.
Through the years requests have come that the material be put in print. Though
such an endeavor would be nearly an impossibility, this manual represents at
least an outline of much of the material covered at the Annual Pastors’
School, which is conducted each year in the month of March at the First
Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana.
Jack Hyles
March 29, 1968
