Upon becoming general secretary in 1935, David du Plessis oversaw a process of institutionalization from which a strong bureaucracy developed, directed by an increasingly educated leadership. It also had the effect of decreasing the role of the laity in the governance of the denomination. He is seen as the father of the "New Order" of AFM liturgy which called for more "respectable" and less extroverted Pentecostal church services. By the 1940s, the simple halls that once housed AFM congregations had been replaced by buildings modeled on Dutch Reformed architecture. Elders and deacons were introduced in 1945, and by the 1960s relations between the AFM and Dutch Reformed churches had improved.