Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-08-19


the scope of the new enterprise, will
be the biggest in Ohio, to certainty,
probably the biggest in America.
That it will be the biggest Protestant
church in the world l am sure. 1 am
sanguine enough to believe that it will
be the greatest church in the world
as well.
Growth of the congregation and of
church work in the last few years
has made necessary new building.
Work on this will be started as soon
as the necessary plans have been COM
pleted.
This great opportunity will be
seized to enlarge the church, broaden
its scope, enhance its usefulness to
the community, and to branch into de-
cided1y novel and radical lines of re-
igious activity
Our work." continued the pastor,
will be that which many other
churches have abandoned. They have
moved out from business centers as
the residence centers have moved.
They have remained family churches.
"Ours will be a church for the indi-
vidua1. 1t will take the place of the
home that, perchance, lies far away.
We will make one big family of the
homeless men and women who live
downtown-whom may be fairly well up
in this worlds goods, but really have
no home.
"Why is a sky-scraper necessary.
Well, in the first place, downtown
land costs too much to permit our
building an old-style church that
would be big enough to accommodate
our work.
Necessity determines that we must
enter into, or at least accept, the spirit
of the modern metropolitan building
idea. If we cannot have land enough
to spread over, we can, at least, go up
in the air, where there is plenty of
room.
Instead of having a magnificent
dome that is full of emptiness, we can
have space to be used profitably We
want less architectural adornment and
more room in which to work.
ITO do the work before US, we must
attract. To do that, we must adver-
tise. A big church advertises itself
1t thus, automatically, takes care of
the work which it accomplishes. 1t
draws the people and houses them,
because it can draw them.
1--WE need more room, because we
wish to establish home for homeless
| people.
THAT term covers a great many
| thousands in large city-people who
are not homeless in the sense that
they are anything like Migrants, but
/ people who, although even well-to-do,
may be homeless in the truest sense
of the word.
| Dining rooms, club rooms, enter
tainment rooms are what we want-a
place good and attractive enough to
draw any one who wishes real home
to which to CO.
Especially are we after the man
| who boards. The man who puts up at
hotel and pays SIS a day is just as
| homeless as the clerk who rooms in a
boarding house at that much a week
i Hall bedrooms and parlor suites do
not make home.
Religion will not be minimized in
/ the new church. 1t will be emphasized
more strongly than ever. But religion
| will not be all we have to offer.
Il mean that we will not simply be
holding continuous prayer meetings.
The church, however, will not be a
| mere club 1t will be a church, first,
last, and all the time; a Christian
church, whose aim will be the better
ing of mems lives But it will seek to
obtain that object in ways slightly
different from the usual"
Fifteen hundred people may be seat
ed in the auditorium of the present
church The new auditorium, 1t is es-
timated, will seat at least $500. Pro
viding an ample place for public wor-
ship will be one of the least features