The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1905-10-23
WHY CHURCH
WORK IS
DIFFICULT

The Rev. Il. Tallmadge Root, secretary
or the Rhode Island Federation OF
churches. preached yesterday at the Elm
wood tempe. taking as his text Gen.
NILS He said I'm part:
when this church ~eorganized as Elm
wood temple. in 1895. IL issued a pros
pectus: eve desire TO be a church for the
whole man and the whole community;
like Christ. ministerlng. not ministered
unto. The WORK that confronts us Is
more than we can estimate. Within a
radius o. 1000 feet live 10000 people. To
those we must carry the gospel"
What has been the work accomplished
IN these ten years2 The church has ex-
ceeded the average growth of Congrega-
tlonal churches i'm the city. Yet you
know how difficult and discouraging the
work has often seemed. In both your
splendid ambition and feeling OF compare
tive failure. your case is typical OF all
our churches. Why is II so?
Our parish system, II It has done moth
ing else. has at least given us data to
answer this question. We know now the
probable church preferences OF the TO-
600. Catholics and Jews number $500. OF
the $500 Protestants. IL is true. only 500
are without preference, but the remainder
scatter among Is denominations and 90
churches. Only SS4 are Congregational
lists, OF whom 60 have no church home and
$50 prefer this church. To how many
then does a church like this really have
TO carry the gospel7" The 500 without
preference must be divided with nine
other neighboring churches: the 90 un-
attached Congregationalists. with a sister
church.; and OF the $50. one-tenth may be
new. All told. then. the church has only
40 which Il can reach. beyond those now
known. unless II draws away from some
other church.
Is II not obvious. now. why church work
is difficult? The surprise is that we sue
coed as well as we do. We fail OF doing
what we hope for two reasons: Because
OF our ignorance OF the real facts and our
ignoring Of other religious factors. We
thought we lad 10000 to reach. and there
were only 10 new individuals. We
ignored the nine. nay the 80 other
churches which shared with us the task
OF evangelizing the 10000.
The remedy Is obvious. Comprehension
OF the facts and cooperation with other
factors. The parish plan enables US TO
do both. II enables us 20 know the facts.
Said a politician: when ! was on our
ward committee. ] would have been
ashamed not TO know every voter. When
we went into caucus we knew how every
stood We sat up till midnight to
do It," Shall men do for party what they
will not do for Christ? Thus knowing
every man. woman and child in It's parish,
each church shares Information mutually
with every other. Thus working together
the churches can know the community
thoroughly and move II nightly.
Precisely the same things are true
the home missionary work OF the
denominations. ! CHANGED upon n Massa-
village the other day. where
there are two American churches, with
audience OF IL apiece, three Swedish
churches, and the only resident pastor is
the Catholic priest. Why? Because each
denomination goes ahead, ignoring others.
We are bringing them, through fedora
ton. into conference and agreement. The
50 ving I'm none and increase OF efficiency
which fedora ton will bring about, who
calculate?