OTHER PROGRESSIVE CHURCHES
1. _A Church Federation_
In the village of Shiloh in Richland County are two churches, Lutheran and
Methodist Episcopal, each supporting a resident pastor. Each seems to be
strong enough to sustain alone its ordinary activities. For this and other
reasons there has been no desire to unite the churches into one
congregation. But they had both neglected to provide means of meeting many
of the community's needs, such as opportunities for social life,
recreation, and athletics, or to stimulate others to make provision for
them. As usual under such conditions, gambling and other amusements of a
questionable sort became more or less common. In order the better to look
after the needs of the young people and to strengthen the moral life of
the community, a committee representing both of the churches was appointed
to provide and carry out a program for the community welfare.
One of the features of this program is a successful movement for the
promotion of the social, athletic, and play life of this and neighboring
communities. The life of the neighborhood has been made more attractive,
especially for the young people, while some of the forms of petty vice
have disappeared. Union services are frequently held by the two churches.
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 institutions.
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 mass meeting was called to discuss the
situation, and the results of the survey were set forth. A committee was
appointed to draw up a constitution for a community betterment
organization. At a second mass meeting it was adopted. Under it every
member of the community became a member of the association. 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 Saturday 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' institutes 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 competition, the best method of progress is often to bring
about such a cooerdination 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 competition 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
amusement.
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
competition. 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 institution
which supplied the opportunities for social life for the whole community.
The church became preeminently the most democratic and most popular
institution in the town.
Simplicity of organization was the aim of the pastor. Sunday school
classes, including a men's Bible class, 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 multitudes 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 circumstances 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 classes 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 asserts 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
constitute 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 class. 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 pass through legislation, it is most
important that the church shall give special attention to the tenant
families.
[Illustration: MAP 12 SHOWING BY COUNTIES PERCENTAGE OF ALL FARMS OPERATED
BY TENANTS]
[Illustration: 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 attitude, 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
pass. 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 competition.
The kind of community service which is illustrated 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.