The Church on the Changing Frontier Part 8

Eighty-seven per cent. of the 385 converts and the thirteen who were reclaimed joined the churches holding the revival. This gain amounted to 72 per cent. of the total gain in membership made by these same thirty-one churches during the entire year. Forty-four per cent. of all the churches held revivals, and while they represent only 45 per cent. of the total harvest by confession and letter, yet three-fourths of all the gain made by confession of faith were obtained by these churches.

The country churches held seventeen meetings, averaged four new members each, and made 20 per cent. of the total gain. The village churches held five meetings and the town churches held four meetings, both averaging five new members each, the village churches making 8 per cent. of the total gain and the town churches 6 per cent. The city churches held only four meetings, averaged about fifty-seven new members each and realized one-third of the total gain made.

Children and the Churches

Sunday schools are the big hope of this country. Young people and older people are not so much interested in the Church and religion because so many have grown up without it, but the children have had more chance to know the Church. Sunday schools are to-day the most frequent form of church work in these Western counties. They are especially hopeful because so many of them over-ride denominational lines and unionize; also because they persist when all other church spirit seems to be dead.

Fifty-six churches have Sunday schools of their own, and one city church has a mission Sunday school in addition to its own. Two groups of two churches each combine their Sunday schools. Only three churches neither maintain their own Sunday schools nor help with a union school.

Thirty-seven union Sunday schools are being carried on in the four counties, nine of which have the a.s.sistance of church organizations meeting in the same building. Three are located in mining camp villages, the rest in small hamlets or open country. These union schools have a fourth of the total Sunday school enrollment. People on ranches and far from town start Sunday schools under local leadership without waiting for churches to be organized. When a newcomer sends his children to Sunday school it is often the only contact made with religious activity in the new country. The independent Sunday school has, therefore, in a sense, a greater responsibility than the church Sunday school.

The importance of the Sunday school is brought out in a comparison between Sunday school enrollment and resident church membership.

Country Village Town City Total Number of churches 34 14 13 9 70 Number of Sunday schools 56 14 12 10 92 Total resident church membership 745 563 1,389 2,272 4,969 Total enrollment of church Sunday schools 897 731 1,430 1,475 4,533 Total enrollment of all Sunday schools 2,373 829 1,430 1,475 6,107 Average enrollment of all Sunday schools 42 59 119 147 67 Average attendance of all Sunday schools 28 40 79 104 50

The enrollment of church Sunday schools is larger than the total church membership in Union County, and larger than resident church membership in Beaverhead, Hughes or Union. The total enrollment of all Sunday schools is 23 per cent. higher than the total resident church membership. Without the Union County Sunday schools this enrollment equals only 91 per cent. of the resident church membership. Thirty-five churches have a larger Sunday school enrollment than resident church membership; all nine churches helping with Union Sunday schools have a smaller membership than the Union school enrollment. This discrepancy is high in some churches. For example, a country church has thirty-five enrolled in the Sunday school and only eight church members; a village church with sixty-five enrolled in its Sunday school has seven church members; a town church has fifteen church members and 150 enrolled in its Sunday school.

Country and village Sunday schools show the best record. The total enrollment of all country Sunday schools, including the Union schools, is more than three times as high as church membership. The enrollment of all village Sunday schools is about 47 per cent. higher than village church enrollment. There are no Union Sunday schools in the towns or city. Except in the city the average Sunday school enrollment exceeds average resident church membership, the advantage being twenty-two for the country schools, nineteen for the village, and twelve for the town schools. The average city church membership, however, exceeds average Sunday school enrollment by 105.

When Sunday school enrollment is higher than church membership, it is ordinarily encouraging as a promise of future growth. But the large discrepancies between village and open country church membership and Sunday school enrollment, coupled with the low percentage of young people in their church memberships, show that these churches are not recruiting new members from their Sunday schools as they might. Nor are the churches relating themselves to any extent to the separate Sunday schools in outlying sections. This _can_ be done, and is most successful in a few cases. For example, the Apache Valley Sunday School, which meets on Sunday afternoons at a schoolhouse in Union County, is being "fathered"

by two ministers from Clayton, six miles away, who go out on alternate Sundays. This Sunday school is live and flourishing. It maintains a high percentage of attendance and carries on various activities.

Attendance in general is good. The percentage of enrollment represented in the attendance on a typical Sunday varies from 66.7 per cent. for the town to 70.8 per cent. for the city schools. Yet only twenty-five schools make definite efforts to increase their attendance. The various methods used are contests such as a compet.i.tive Boys' and Girls' day, a fall Rally Day, cards, rewards and prizes, a Banner Cla.s.s, a Look-out Committee and the Cross and Crown System.

During the year preceding the survey, 168 pupils joined the churches from the Sunday schools, and there were seven probationers at the time the survey was made. Decision Day was held in four country, one village, five town and four city schools. The results were meager. Only thirty-five declared for church membership. Nine town and city schools have cla.s.ses to prepare for church membership, eight schools have sent twenty scholars into some kind of Christian work during the last ten years. A country Sunday school in Hughes County has shown what can be done in this respect.

It has sent five young people into Christian service during the last ten years, and five more in the whole history of the school. It is significant that one consecrated pastor has served this Sunday school and church during this entire time.

Cradle Rolls are another excellent method of enlistment. Yet these are kept in only twenty-six schools. The total enrollment is 473. One of the greatest needs of this country is more local and better trained leadership, not only for Sunday schools but for the community at large.

The only definite training for leadership is eight Teacher Training cla.s.ses, held in two city, four town, one village and one country school.

Mission study is carried on in seventeen schools more or less frequently, several additional schools annually presenting the cause of missions. One city school has a four-day inst.i.tute for the study of Sunday school methods and missions. Twenty-nine schools make regular missionary offerings, and seven take them once a year. Twelve schools have libraries with an average of seventy-three volumes each. Eighty-three schools give out Sunday school papers. There are 507 cla.s.ses, an average of about twelve per cla.s.s.

Proper preparation is one of the greatest needs of the Sunday schools in these counties. Much of the instruction is haphazard and indifferent. Men teach 123 cla.s.ses and 26.6 per cent. of the total enrollment. Ordinarily, the man teacher, if there is one, takes the adult cla.s.s at the expense of the growing boy who needs him more than the adults. Graded lessons are used exclusively in ten schools and twenty others use them in some cla.s.ses. Seventeen schools have organized cla.s.ses. Sixty-six schools are open throughout the year. The pastor is superintendent in six schools, teacher in fifteen, subst.i.tute teacher in one, "helps" in nineteen, is a student in two, and in one reports his job as "superintendent; teacher and janitor."

Social events for the Sunday schools mean picnics, cla.s.s parties, and sometimes a real ice cream sociable. About one-third of the schools have a reasonable amount of social activity, while sixteen report a great deal.

Fifty-seven schools have picnics, and great events they are, too, with more cakes and pies and goodies of all sorts than the community is likely to see again for another year. One or more cla.s.ses have socials, parties and "hikes" in seventeen schools (four village, nine town and four city).

The "Anti-Kants" is an interesting cla.s.s of young women. Every time one of the cla.s.s becomes engaged, there is a party and a shower, called a graduation. Twenty graduations have taken place in the history of the cla.s.s. About half of the schools have programs for special days, especially for Children's Day, Christmas and Easter. One Union school has an Easter picnic and egg-hunt. Nineteen schools have mixed socials, such as parties, indoor picnics, ice cream suppers and entertainments. One town school has a weekly social. The only special Sunday school organizations are a Choir a.s.sociation and Sunday school athletic teams in three town churches which play compet.i.tive games. Twenty report no social life of any sort in connection with their schools. They do not even have a picnic to liven things up.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HAPPY LITTLE PICNICKERS

The Baptist Mission at Kleenburg, Wyoming, does good work for the kiddies.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL

A Sunday School cla.s.s picnic in Union County.]

Other Church Organizations

Various other organizations have been developed within the churches for business, educational and social purposes. Women have a great many, men have very few. Fifty-six women's organizations are carried on in thirty-seven churches, of which nine are village and nine country churches. There are twenty-eight Ladies' Aids, thirteen Missionary Societies and various Guilds, Circles, Auxiliaries, a Manse Society, a King's Daughters, an Adelphian and a Dorcas. The total enrollment is 1,682, or about 70 per cent. of the total female resident church membership over twenty-one, and 17 per cent. of the total female population aged from eighteen to forty-four, in the four counties. The attendance averages about twenty-one to each organization.

In sorry contrast to this array, men's organizations number only seven, and all are connected with city or town churches in Pierre, the county seat of Hughes County. The enrollment is 300, or 27 per cent. of the total resident church membership in city and town of males over twenty-one years of age, and only 3 per cent. of the total male population between the ages of eighteen and forty-four in the four counties. Men and women have two organizations in common. One is a missionary society which, contrary to custom, shares its endeavors with men, the other is a dramatic club for any one old or young who has dramatic ability. This interesting organization gives a splendid amateur show every year. A former professional actor, who also coaches dramatics in the high school, is the coach.

Boys Left Out

There are only eight organizations for girls in seven town or city churches. Two hundred and twenty-two, or 42 per cent., of all the girls under twenty-one in the town and city resident membership are enrolled.

One is a Friendly Society, and the rest are various kinds of guilds. But boys are the most shabbily treated of all. There are only four organizations especially for them, all in town churches and two in one church, so that only three churches have special clubs for their boys. The enrollment is sixty-nine, or about 21 per cent. of all the boys under twenty-one enrolled in city and town church membership. Boys and girls together have two organizations in two town churches with a membership of seventy-three. One is a Junior League, and the other a Junior Baptist Young People's Union. Young people have twenty-eight organizations in ten country, three village, nine town and six city churches. Eight of them are Epworth Leagues, eight are Christian Endeavors and the rest are various Young People's Societies, Baptist Young People's Unions, Mission Volunteers, Young People's Alliances, two Choir Organizations and one Purely for Fun Club. Their total enrollment of 834, together with the membership of the mixed boys' and girls' organizations, equals 84 per cent. of the total church resident membership under twenty-one.[7]

More people in the community are reached through the meetings of these organizations than by any other single church activity, with the exception of the celebration of special days. These meetings are often community affairs, especially in the case of the women's organizations. In twenty organizations, the attendance exceeds the enrollment. The men's clubs work for the church, and several do practical community work. Their programs in all but two cases include dinners, either at every meeting or at special banquets during the year. One club puts on a Father and Son banquet every year.

Men's Forum and Ladies' Aids

The most interesting outcome of the work of any of the men's organizations is the Men's Forum, recently developed in Sheridan by the combined Men's Clubs of the Congregational and Protestant churches. This was the first open forum held in Wyoming. The attendance at the meetings averaged 400.

The principles of the forum are as follows:

The complete development of democracy in America.

A common meeting ground for all the people in the interest of truth and mutual understanding, and for the cultivation of community spirit.

The freest and fullest open discussion of all vital questions affecting human welfare.

Partic.i.p.ation on the part of the audience from the Forum Floor whether by questions or discussion.

The freedom of the Forum management from responsibility for utterances by speakers from the platform or floor.

Among the subjects presented have been "Community Problems," "The Church and Industrial Conflict," "The Golden Rule in Business: Is It Practicable?" "The Farmers' Movement in America," "Bolshevism," "Feeding the World: Is It America's Job?" There is no more encouraging sign of community interest in public questions, and a conscious effort on the part of the Church to develop a public opinion on social, economic and religious problems.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PROGRAM OF A COMMUNITY RALLY]

The Ladies' Aid is often the only woman's organization in the community.

Most of these clubs meet once or twice a month, with regular programs for Bible study or missions, organize sewing and quilting bees, and bazaars, etc. The help they give in church finances has already been appreciated.

Any such common interest and responsibility holds many an organization together. Several promote social welfare work. One organized a Teachers'

Training Cla.s.s to improve material for Sunday school teachers. One village has a community Ladies' Aid which works for the church, although only a few are church members. The community woman's club in a small hamlet is studying missions as a part of its program. In one community, the Ladies'

Aid of the only church, which is pastorless, meets regularly and holds a yearly bazaar to pay the occasional supply preacher and keep the church in repair. At the "Frontier Day" given by a Dude Ranch, the Ladies' Aid from a nearby hamlet had a booth for selling hamburgers and lemonade. In one of the mining camps, the Ladies' Aid of the Mission church sent out invitations for an afternoon tea to raise money for a new piano for the Kindergarten. It turned out to be a great social event attended by women, many of them foreign, from all the camps in the vicinity. Here is another Ladies' Aid, the only organization in all that part of a spa.r.s.ely settled country, and many miles from town which holds eight socials a year and every social is a supper. Those suppers bring out whole families, and are the biggest annual events. Is it any wonder? The woman on the Range has a lonesome time of it. Ranches are far apart. She rarely sees her neighbors and less frequently goes to town. This woman needs social activities more than her town sister. Yet only nine out of thirty-four country churches have women's organizations.

Young People's Meetings are generally held Sunday nights, and the majority hold an occasional social. One town Young People's organization has a successful Bible Study Cla.s.s. The Purely for Fun Club, as its name implies, is purely social and meets twice a month. It has a special garden party once a year. This club is one of the activities of a M. E. community church located in a new dry-farming community which is having a struggle to make both ends meet, but is doing good work in that community. The people are loyal, even enthusiastic. There is not, however, even a church building, let alone any equipment for social activities. A building is desperately needed for church and community center, nor can the members provide it themselves. Cases of this kind represent possibilities for the most effective sort of home mission aid.

CHAPTER VI

The Preachers' Goings and Comings

This is a field that challenges a preacher. The love of a new world has drawn his potential flocks and with them a pastor may come to new pastures where the satisfaction of creative pioneer work is not its least attraction. Settlements have grown up almost over night. People have come from all over the East, Middle West and Southwest. Many families live far from their neighbors. Leadership is the challenging need and it is primarily the task of the Church to furnish and develop it. The initial handicap is that here people, from a matter of habit, do not yearn for church ministry as they do in other parts of the country. Their traditions do not include it. It is the preacher who must "sell" the idea of religion and the Church. No one else will do it. He must be a "builder of something out of nothing--a pioneer of the Gospel, creator as well as evangelist."