Six Thousand Country Churches Part 7

In every way their work is becoming more effective.

This form of cooperative organization may be called a church federation, but it should be distinguished from the federated church, which is the union of two or more churches into a single congregation. In every rural community where it is neither feasible nor desirable to unite all the churches under the leadership of one pastor, a church federation should be formed to create conditions favorable to the development of Christian character, to hold community religious services and social gatherings, and to render all forms of social service which are needed in the community, but are not rendered by other inst.i.tutions.

2. _Cooperation with Other Social Forces_

Where there are social organizations other than school and church it often happens that the churches can get better results by working with them. An example of this kind of cooperation may be found in White Cottage, Newton Township, Muskingum County. Here the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church made a thorough survey of the community in an area which included four churches. He then prepared a sermon on the much needed country life movement, and sent a personal letter to every family in the area covered by the survey, inviting its members to come and hear his sermon. Large numbers responded. Then a ma.s.s meeting was called to discuss the situation, and the results of the survey were set forth. A committee was appointed to draw up a const.i.tution for a community betterment organization. At a second ma.s.s meeting it was adopted. Under it every member of the community became a member of the a.s.sociation. Every social organization in the community was given equal representation on the Executive Committee, which has standing committees on programs and publicity, on religion and social service, on education, on recreation and physical culture, and on finance.

A general cleaning up of the community followed. An unsightly square was transferred into an attractive playground, where every Sat.u.r.day afternoon there was basket ball, volley ball, croquet, tennis, track athletics, or baseball. A library and public reading room was opened, a temperance program was adopted, farmers' inst.i.tutes were established, and lectures on agriculture and home economics were given, together with a Chautauqua course of lectures for winter and summer, and a series of home talent plays. There were three holiday picnics each summer, and field day exercises with a parade, platform meetings, and a community dinner.

Other results of this movement are a fine new school building with a large auditorium, and greatly improved roads. Moreover, a favorable reaction has been felt in the churches. Whereas, formerly but 37-1/2 per cent of the population were church attendants, now there are 58 per cent; where formerly 40 per cent of the people went to Sunday school, now there are 52 per cent. The whole community shows a higher moral tone.

While the churches at White Cottage were not united in any organic way, yet a spirit of Christian unity was brought about. The very best of feeling exists among the different churches, and their members work together gladly in community improvement. As the result of such an atmosphere the evils of overchurching are reduced to a minimum, and it becomes easier to bring about such reorganization as may be for the best religious and social welfare of the community.

Organizations of cooperating rural social forces, like that at White Cottage, for many years have been doing good work in other states, both East and West. In large numbers of communities, particularly where the churches cannot be federated, or where bitter feeling has resulted from interchurch compet.i.tion, the best method of progress is often to bring about such a coordination of forces in the service of the community itself.

3. _Community Service and Christian Unity_

Ashley, in Delaware County, is a town of about 600 inhabitants. Here a resident pastor's desire to serve his community resulted in Christian unity. Twelve years ago there were four competing churches, poorly attended and struggling for existence. Camp meetings of a fanatical sect were often held in the neighborhood. In the churches of the town seasons of protracted meetings were characterized by excessive emotion at the time, but by few permanent good results. While respect for religion is necessary to a high degree of moral and social life in any country community, a large proportion of the people in Ashley no longer respected the church because of the character of its religious activities. Many of the most influential citizens even doubted whether the church was good for the community or not. High ideals were conspicuously lacking among the young people, and disorderly conduct was beginning to appear.

In the year 1907 the Methodist Episcopal Church acquired a pastor who by nature and training was well equipped for his work. Fortunately he was the only resident minister in the town, where he remained for nearly ten years. As the result of his leadership the whole community now has a high regard for religion and the church, while a practical Christian unity has been brought about and interchurch compet.i.tion has disappeared. The moral and religious atmosphere of the place has become wholesome.

Community life has been made attractive through special instruction and entertainment, social gatherings, athletics, and all kinds of healthy amus.e.m.e.nt.

There still are two churches, but one of them meets not oftener than once a month, is attended by only two or three families, and has ceased to be a factor in the life of the community. The other church is well attended and is generally recognized as the community church. The members of the two churches which have dropped out have, for the most part, united with it, while the building of one of them has become the gymnasium of the community church.

Though the work of this successful pastor was begun before the modern country life and country church movement had been developed, his program and methods of work in no way differ from those which are common to the nation-wide movement. In fact large numbers of country pastors, widely scattered over the United States, entirely independent of one another or of the literature of any special movement, have made and carried out programs for church and community betterment which in their essentials are substantially alike. The pastors have all studied the needs of their communities and have tried to meet them. Similarity of needs in the different communities has naturally resulted in the adoption of similar programs.

The pastor who did at Ashley the work just described began by making a thorough study of his parish. He then led the young people into active work for their community, and later on stimulated the older men to do their part also, until finally it became recognized in Ashley that the duty of the Christian and the church is not to work mainly for the church, but mainly for the common welfare and the development of all the people.

This minister never emphasized any form of sectarianism. He thought of himself as pastor of the whole town and countryside rather than of his church alone, so that whatever he did was entirely free from the spirit of compet.i.tion. The people did not fail to recognize his aims, and, in consequence, were satisfied with his leadership. Thus it became possible for him and his church to work to satisfy the needs of all the people. The Presbyterians and Friends, therefore, willingly joined his church and gave up their own. But if in speech or deed he had attempted to build up his own church at the expense of the others, there would undoubtedly be four churches in Ashley to-day.

The Ashley community church secured the creation of a community library, itself provided a community reading room, gave special attention to the day school and its teachers, held each year free university extension lectures on agriculture and home economics, lectures on sanitation and prevention of diseases, gave socials and festivals, promoted athletics, maintained a church gymnasium, and formed farmers' clubs and helped them in their work. Though there were lodges in Ashley which held occasional gatherings, still the church was generally recognized as the inst.i.tution which supplied the opportunities for social life for the whole community.

The church became preeminently the most democratic and most popular inst.i.tution in the town.

Simplicity of organization was the aim of the pastor. Sunday school cla.s.ses, including a men's Bible cla.s.s, were organized, and were stimulated to do their best to meet the social and other needs of the community. So well did they do their work that other organizations were found to be unnecessary. One unusual feature of the pastor's work was the combining of the Bible school session on Sunday morning with the service of the church, making one service of worship, at which communion is administered and members are received.

No collections are taken up in the church, but a budget is made at the beginning of the year and the money is raised through a church committee.

Contributions for benevolences have been greatly increased during this pastorate, and large sums have been spent for building and improvements.

Yet nevertheless the community did not furnish adequate support for its pastor, undoubtedly because as in the case of nearly all pastors, he refused to work for an increase in his own salary, while, as in nearly all small communities, no one else took the matter up. In this respect, therefore, the people acted unjustly towards their minister.

It should be noted that the minister was well trained and of high character; that he lived in the community he served; that he was given a long term of service; and that he cherished a right conception of the work of minister and church.

Such work as this is badly needed in mult.i.tudes of communities in Ohio. It is the only thing that can preserve or restore their wholesomeness and make them suitable places for the rearing of children. The church, as a whole, should spare no effort in providing large numbers of such men to do this kind of work, for the total result of so doing would be an increase of untold value in the strength of the very foundations of Christian civilization in America.

4. _Christian Unity by Necessity_

In Ontario, Springfield Township, Richland County, there were three churches,--Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, and Methodist Episcopal.

Because many of the best families had left, the Presbyterian churches have held no regular services since the year 1900. For a time the Methodist Episcopal Church shared a resident minister with three or four other churches, but from 1912 Springfield Township was left without a resident minister for three years. Under these circ.u.mstances it was inevitable that social and moral decline should begin, for the modern community's needs cannot be met by the old-fashioned circuit system. More and more the better families moved away or relapsed into the background, and the less moral elements became conspicuous. A dance hall became the haunt of disorderly people from neighboring towns. Drunkenness grew apace, while bad language on the streets was altogether too common. Pilfering the property of the railroad was more or less open. It was high time to act.

Accordingly, the people of all the denominations and the non-church people who lived in the township, realizing that it was going from bad to worse, joined in deciding that a resident minister was necessary. Money was raised, and the future support of a minister was promised if the Methodist Episcopal Conference would send them a good man.

The new minister began his work in the autumn of 1915. The total budget of the church had been about $500, of which less than $250 went to the minister's salary. During his first year, $1,540 was raised, $900 of which went for the support of the minister. In the second year no less than $7,500 was raised, $1,000 for the minister's salary, $540 for ordinary expenses, while the rest went to the permanent repairs on the church buildings.

As in Ashley, so in Springfield Township; the pastor regarded his church as a community church and thought of himself as a Christian rather than as a sectarian. The attendance more than doubled both at the church services and at the Sunday school, while the real membership increased from less than 100 to 315. When the Presbyterians saw the manifest good that could be brought by united Christian action, they became members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while later on they made a Christmas present of their building to the Methodist community church. It is now used as the house of worship, while the Methodist Church has become a gymnasium and parish house.

Under the leadership of the new resident minister a genuine cleaning up of the gross indecency was made, some of the most harmful characters left, and the place became comparatively orderly. The village has been transformed from a rural slum to a very decent community,--a safe place to bring up children. This better state of things will undoubtedly continue as long as the present system of church work prevails.

The plan of this church's work did not differ from that of many other modern country churches. It included Sunday school cla.s.ses organized for social service, athletics, including basket ball, a full program of social activities, lectures to promote an intelligent interest in agriculture, and active interest on the part of the minister in cooperating with the day schools and providing opportunities for intellectual advancement.

The pastor declares that the work in Springfield Township was made possible only because he could live in the community, because he could give his whole time to this field, and because of the program of country church service with which, through the Conference of the Commission on Church and Country Life which was held in Columbus in 1915 and through modern country church literature, he had become familiar. He a.s.serts that without the modern program and conception of the function of the country church, success would have been impossible.

5. _The Church as a Force for Righteousness_

In the work at Ashley and Ontario we have seen the adoption of a good program accompanied by improvement in the moral tone and religious atmosphere of the communities. There are many other communities where a similar program has been carried out, with the same results. These cases const.i.tute a fairly conclusive demonstration that the varied community life which is stimulated and made possible by the modern country church program is the normal one, and that without these various activities general moral and religious health is impossible.

The leadership of a modern country church minister brought about just such an improvement in the community life of Old Fort. This pastor came to realize the needs of his community by taking part in the Ohio Rural Life Survey. One direct result of his work is a centralized agricultural high school, which will become the means of keeping the best families on the land instead of letting them move to the larger towns in search of better schools for the children. Once gone they rarely return.

The young men of Old Fort, who formerly had little to do with the church, are now active in its work. Special attention has been given, in a neighboring parish served by the same minister, to the farm laborers and tenants. Whereas formerly these people rarely went to church, now as large a proportion of them take part in the activities of the church as of any other cla.s.s. This is an achievement of real importance. It appears from Map 12, which is based on data from the United States Census, that, in no less than 54 of the 88 counties of Ohio, more than 25 per cent of the farms in the year 1910 were operated by tenants. On Map 13 it appears that in no less than 50 counties the number of farms operated by tenants is increasing. Here is one of the great obstacles in the way of church progress in the State, for it is well known that farm tenants usually take little interest in the community where they live, while only a small proportion of them are members of the church. Until reform in the system of land tenure can be brought to pa.s.s through legislation, it is most important that the church shall give special attention to the tenant families.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP 12 SHOWING BY COUNTIES PERCENTAGE OF ALL FARMS OPERATED BY TENANTS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP 13 SHOWING INCREASE (+) OR DECREASE (-) PER CENT IN NUMBER OF FARMS OPERATED BY TENANTS YEARS 1900-1910]

Success in this parish, according to the testimony of the minister, is due to the program brought to light by the modern country church movement.

Indeed, we have observed no notably progressive country churches in small communities where the new country church program has not been an essential factor of success. Lakeville is a case in point.

In the village of Lakeville, as in a large proportion of Ohio rural communities, opportunities for wholesome recreation were few. The church not only felt no responsibility for providing a better environment for the young people, but looked upon matters which have to do with recreation, entertainment, and physical development as foreign to it. To give them attention was regarded as beneath its dignity. This att.i.tude, both here and in a large proportion of the rural churches, has been responsible in no small degree for a general moral laxness in communities, and often for the separation of the young people from the church.

The moral and social conditions in Lakeville have been revolutionized by a resident minister in three years. His conception of his work and the methods he used did not differ materially from those of the pastors of Ashley, Ontario, and Old Fort. Every wholesome feature of community life was regarded by him as a matter of interest to the church. Thus, to promote a deeper interest in agriculture, lecturers and demonstrators upon various phases of it were invited into the community.

Under the leadership of this minister a wholesome, normal, interesting life, leading to the high development of the young people, and a marked increase in the general happiness of the community, has been brought to pa.s.s. The excellent auditorium of the consolidated school was made the social center of the community. The pastor and the members of his church were the initiators and chief supporters of the program of recreation, instruction, and entertainment which was carried out largely in this building. Although in Lakeville the church wisely kept itself in the background in much of its work, its activities were none the less effective, while this policy also reacted favorably upon the church itself.

Although there were two churches yoked together in this field, they were but a mile and a half apart, and the parish was therefore compact.

Consequently the pastor could and did make much of his pastoral work. The close touch of the minister with the members of his church and community greatly added to the effectiveness of the evangelistic services which he held, for he befriended those who had need of friends. Hence there was not only a large increase in membership, but the results of it promised to be of a durable character.

It will be noted that the minister was pastor of all the churches in the community and so encountered none of the difficulties which come from interchurch compet.i.tion.

The kind of community service which is ill.u.s.trated at Ashley, Ontario, Old Fort, White Cottage, and Lakeville offers abundant opportunity to a young man of good equipment for using his knowledge and native ability, and should therefore attract a better type of man to the rural ministry. The church as a whole should be active in presenting it to young men, for the purpose of getting the best of them to enlist in it. The conservation of the high character of our rural population depends on just such work.

CHAPTER IX