How to Usher

The University of Omaha's wide-ranging services even include the schooling of church ushers. This year 40 adult students took the Omaha ushering course, learning their art from practical experts. At their commencement last week, the principal speaker was earnest, efficient A. & P. Sales Manager J. S. Handy. Every Sunday as head usher at Des Moines' Westminster Presbyterian Church, he "competes with the Devil" of congregational boredom.

Said Salesman Handy to the graduating class of Omaha's School of Church Ushering:

"The usher's job is to put the buyers [congregation] in a receptive mood for the supersalesman in the pulpit to work on. . . . We don't like the hale & hearty traveling salesman's greeting." But at the other evil extreme is the cold-shoulder church. "There must be no distracting influences [from the service]. A good usher asks himself: 'Is the sidewalk clean? Are the steps clear of snow and ice? Are the lights too bright? . . . How is the heat?' Heat makes or mars a service. If we see somebody nodding, we check the heat before we check the preacher."

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