Another of Mr. Conwell’s methods for carrying out practical Christianity was to set every body at work.  Every single member of the church was given something to do.  As soon as a person was received into the membership, he was invited to join some one or other of the church organizations.  He was placed on some committee.  In such an atmosphere of activity there was no one who did not catch the enthusiasm and feel that being a Christian meant much more than attending church on Sundays, putting contributions in the box, and listening to the minister preach.  It was a veritable hive of applied Christianity, and many a man who hitherto thought he had done his full duty by attending church regularly and contributing to its support had these ideas, so comfortable and self-satisfied, completely shattered.

The membership was composed almost entirely of working people, men and women who toiled hard for their daily bread.  There were no wealthy people to help the work by contributions of thousands of dollars.  The beginnings of all the undertakings were small and unpretentious.  But nothing was undertaken until the need of it was felt; then the people as a whole put their shoulders to the wheel and it went with a will.  And because it practically filled a need, it was a success.

The pastor was the most untiring worker of all.  With ceaseless energy and unfailing tact, he was the head and heart of every undertaking.  Day and night he ministered to the needs of his membership and the community.  To the bedside of the sick he carried cheer that was better than medicine.  In the homes where death had entered, he brought the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  Where disgrace had fallen like a pall, he went with words of hope and practical advice.  Parents sought him to help lead erring children back from a life of wretchedness and evil.  Wherever sorrow and trouble was in the heart or home he went, his heart full of sympathy, his hands eager to help.

Much of his time, too, in those early days of his ministry was devoted to pastoral calls, not the formal ministerial call where the children tiptoe in, awed and silent, because the “minister is there.”  Children hailed his coming with delight, the family greeted him as an old, old friend before whom all ceremony and convention were swept away.  He was genuinely interested in their family affairs.  He entered into their plans and ambitions, and he never forgot any of their personal history they might tell him, so that each felt, and truly, that in his pastor he had a warm and interested friend.

His own simple, informal manner made every one feel instantly at home with him.  He soon became a familiar figure upon the streets in the neighborhood of his church, for morning, noon and night he was about his work, cherry, earnest, always the light of his high calling shining from his face.  The people for squares about knew that here was a man, skilled and practical in the affairs of the world, to whom they could go for advice, for help, for consolation, sure that they would have his ready sympathy and the best his big heart and generous hands could give.