As these influences grew, some meetings asked revival preachers to come and preach regularly. At first, such pastors usually held other jobs for income, but before long, many meetings adopted the practice of hiring salaried pastors. Some of these had a background among Friends, but many came from other traditions, and no seminaries taught Friends principles and practices. By the end of the 19th century, most Midwestern and Western meetings in the Orthodox branch of Quakerism had pastors.
Quaker Worship Today
Patterns of Friends worship today are quite varied, but are generally divided into two categories. One category is usually referred to as unprogrammed. The other category is referred to as pastoral or programmed. Sometimes the distinction is expressed as being between meetings and churches. Unprogrammed Friends retain the practice of referring to local congregations as meetings rather than churches, but many (although certainly not all) programmed Friends have adopted the more common terminology in the large society and call themselves churches.
In North America, about two-thirds of the congregations are programmed. In the rest of the "developed" world, Friends are largely unprogrammed. In the "developing" world, where the majority of Friends live today, the programmed pattern predominates.
The unprogrammed Friends follow the pattern of gathering in silence without pre-planned sermons, music or other prepared elements. Anyone who feels moved to speak may offer vocal ministry. Generally, brevity in speaking is strongly encouraged, whereas early Friends sometimes spoke at great length. The practice of recording ministers has fallen into disuse in many places, and generally there is little emphasis on nurturing special gifts in the vocal ministry.
Programmed Friends normally have an order of service, including a sermon and hymn singing. Sometimes they have a period of what they most commonly call "open worship", and sometimes "communion after the manner of Friends". Sometimes this is token or absent. There are now usually educational requirements for recording ministers, which was never the practice before the rise of the pastoral system.
There is often a lot of suspicion between unprogrammed and programmed Friends. Unprogrammed Friends charge that the pastoral system is incompatible with the early Friends emphasis on the free gospel ministry and that programmed Friends have adopted too much from Protestant churches that early Friends would have called apostate. Programmed Friends charge that unprogrammed Friends have often abandoned the early Friends emphasis on Jesus Christ, and definitely their evangelical zeal.
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