The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-10-13

, of these meetings for a few days each
in order to keep in touch with the
evangelistic life Of the district, and
, check any tendency to extravaganza sc
prevalent in great religious move
: ments. These meetings have been
. characterized by a sane, sweet spirit
and no harmful reactions have come
under my notice. As nearly as I can
judge by reports given me by pastors
and evangelists, about 1900 people
have professed conversion, sanctifica-
ton or reclamation in the meetings
held this year. Many pastors held their
own meetings, while others were as
sisted by Evangelists G1ascock, Cara
dine, Taylor, Bennett, Johnson, Craig,
Ruth and Bud Robinson. Besides the
regular revival meetings we held tent
meetings during the summer at Grand
Rapids, Dawson, Elliott, Fairmount,
lLidgerwood, Linton, Cleveland, Turtle
Lake, Verona and Washburn, and the
great central camp meeting for the dis
trict at jamestown. These meetings
were well attended and resulted in
great good to these communities and
in nearly every case they have asked
for the same thing next summer The
! campmeeting at Jamestown has grown
| in power till 1t is one of the great
| camps of Methodism. We had Bud
Robinson and Brother Craig this year
as evangelists, and they probed the
sin disease to the bottom, and brought
many to realize their need Of Jesus as
Savior and Sanctifier. 1t was reported
that zoo or more were saved, sanctified
or reclaimed in the meeting. Sixty
people were saved at the last service
which was a scene never to be forgot
ten by those who were there. This
camp meeting has been the rallying
ground for old time religion in this
district and has been one of our
strongest factors in spreading scrip
tural holiness. 1t is managed by a
camp meeting board, composed of
Methodists and under a charter from
the state. No fads or side tracks have
been allowed and some of our best and
wealthiest people look forward to this
annual feast OF tabernacles with great
delight
But you ask. how has all these re-
vivals affected your membership.
Membership.
/ answer: In many places we would
have no membership and our churches
would be closed if we had not had re-
vivals The outgo here is tremendous.
We preach to a moving procession in
North Dakota. l have been here TWEEN
ty-seven years, and all of that time
but six years has been SD mt within
the bounds of Fargo district, and vet
In some of the towns where | have
oeen pastor scarcely know the people.
so constantly do they change. This
viii stop sometime and our population
viii become stable, but just now we
must face the situation and stem the
tide
This year the brethren of the Fourth
quarterly conferences have reported to
me that they have taken the following
number Of members into the church
this year, viz: Verona IL, LaMoure
IL, Edgeley Is. Wyndmere IL. Minor
81, Cakes 20, Ludden 4, Glendale IA.
Center 10, Steele 3, Dickinson 81,
Turtle Lake II, Hurdsfield 6, Dawson
II, Goodrich 10, Sheldon 8. Enderlin
IL, Hettinger 20, Mott 80. Mckenzie 30.
Cleveland As, Paramount 10, TYSON
Underwood IA, Fargo. first, S5, Wheat
lano SO, Casselton TO- Valley City IS,
jamestown AZ, Lisbon 40, Cogswell IL,
Elliott Z, Wilton "a, Unkenholz rs, and
quite number from some places that
nave no exact report from, making
over IOO members received into the
church this year on Fargo district.
Now while this is a goodly number
10 take In, 1t does not, by any means,
indicate out net membership The
scheme OF making the membership the
basis of apportionments has set the
pruning" knife on the MEMBERSHIPS
records and many charges reporting the
biggest list of new members this wear
viii report a net loss in memberships
For instances: Wheatland charge
has received ninety three new members
and they told me there was at least
thirty names on the record that has
been reported year after year. and they
are not in the country and no one
knows where they are. I advised fix
ing the record in every such case.
Fargo first church took in thirty
hve new members. but will report eigh-
teen less members than last wear. ow-
ing TO removals and pruning OF records.
jamestown took in forty-seyen hut
will report loss of 100: Casselton
took in twenty members and gave
twenty letters, leaving the membership
the same. At Taylor and Gladstone
4 round twenty-five names on the rec
ords that no one there knew ANYTHING
ABOUT We marked them off-"gone
without letter" and so on throughout
the entire district / have tried to get
the membership roll in shape so we
can find our members. Since j have
been In Office we have taken in about
5000 members. The letters taken in
nave just about kept us even and the
increase nave come from our REVEALS.
Brethren, It 1t have revivals or shut
up the church or hook up with the
World In many cases. / have demon
strated to my satisfaction that REVEALS
IS the only hope of the Methodist
church and without Il we loose our
excuse for existence. Other churches
can beat us along social lines and can
talk union" to worldly people, but we
can't It is along spiritual lines or
nothing with us.
Building.
In the five years that / have been on
the district we have built flftv-two
new buildings. Thirty churches ana
twenty-five parsonages For the past
four years we have averaged new
building month. Forty OF these build
ings are In places where there were
none before Wee have also remodel
ca fourteen churches, making them
Practically new structures increasing
the value Of our property over 500. 900