The Penn's Grove record., 1913-04-04
TO GROW IN POWER
Many Fields of Usefulness Thai
Are More or Less Neglected
by the Rural Church.

There are $50. 900 persons in the ru-
raj sections within the district tribu-
tary to Troy, and this means not far
from $50 churches in the territory.
How many of these are taking lead
ing part in their respective commu-
mites for all that is implied in the up
ward look for which their tapering
steeples stand? Some of them are
unused; others are opened one in
two weeks for a brief service; many
house a tiny band of worshipers each
week; but probably not o~ne-quarter of
them are coming anywhere near their
capacities in any branch of their work
How can great efficiency be Sc
cured?
G.. Frederick Wells, chairman of the
country church commission Of the
Methodist Federation for Social Serv-
ice, mentions a church within a days
journey of this city which stands amid
a farm community containing more
tia n million dollars worth of pro-
ductive wealth, yet it cannot support
a S400 minister. Is this the fault of
the pulpit or the pew, or is it merely
the lack of a proper appreciation for
the new functions of the religious side
Of life in the upbuilding of a rural
population?
Probably it is largely this. There
are" says Mr.. Wells, seven stages IN
the development of the normal coun-
try church in the average American
rural community. They are the wor-
ship stage, the service stage, the fell
lowship stage, the cooperative stage,
the s~ubstitutional stage. the commu-
nifty stage and the world stage" First.
agri%culturists desire to come together
for worship, and they establish a
church. The natural outgrowth of this,
reached by most organizations, is a
desire to serve each other in spiritual
ways. From this m a spirit of fell
lowship. Here, however, most rural
churches have been disposed to stop.
Those which go along to other stages
are the ones which are not complain
ing about the ~,depopulation of the
country and the loss in efficiency of
the rural church. And, fortunately,
there are some that do go further.
Cooperative Movements.
These progressive organizations be-
gin to cooperate with the ranges,
the state library, the credit associa-
tons, village improvement societies,
neighborhood clubs and other forces
FOR social b~etterment. thereby making
the church a center, doing away with
a bleak silence six days in the week
and holding many who otherwise
would drift away under the feeling
that there was not enough in the
church to make attendance and work
for it worth while. Few are those
who reach this point, but those who
do rarely complain of their deserted
state. Then comes the stage in which
the church takes the place Of city &C.
t~ivities, adding institutional work,
gymnasium classes, reading rooms,
medical relief, educational extension
and all the activities now found in
some progressive downtown institu-
tons in our large cities. This re-
quires money, and hard labor on the
part of the pastor.
Beyond this the steps are more ideal
than actual, for it may be questioned
whether they are reached in a dozen
churches of any state. Under the
community idea the whole section to
which the organization ministers be-
comes a unit for all kinds of endeav-
or. 1t brings the religious life of the
community into business effort. into
social relations and into all the varied
interests of any group of individuals
able to be self-suficient on account of
the variety of interests within their
OWE ranks.
Ideals May Be Realized!
Can these ideals be realized? In
part they have been in isolated cases.
Within the sections near to Troy there
are churches standing on the hills of
farming communities or at the cross
roads of agricultural sections which
are reaching out to meet problems
along the line outlined. The rest can
be accomplished Just as much. ALI
that is needed Is a feeling that the
community needs such a work and
can do it if it will. Then indomita-
BILE effort must be put forward until
the vision of a few becomes the reali-
zation Of the many. If this were done
there would be little more complaint
about the d~ecadence of the country
church. The boys and girls from the
country would reach the city with a
determination to realize the same am
billions they had in the hills of home
and would inspire the city churches
as did the same classes fifty years ago.
And the church would justify its ex-
istence to such an extent as to dis
arm the critics who have in the de-
cline of the rural church an argu-