The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-30
Rural Church Like
 City Board of Trade

1unct1ons similar to those held in cit- les by chambers of commerce or boards of trade, says President Ken yon l.. Butterfeld of the Massachu- seets AgrIculturaI College in al report 70 the Commission on Church and Country Life, whose national C.onven. aon Is held in Columbus, Ohio, Dec 8. 5, and 10th. Without decreasfne purely religious activity, Butterfeld says the rural church must become community institution and through lts preacher and its lay readers pro- mote these causes: Good roads bet ter Farming, agricultural college ex- tension courses, temperance, public heaIths community Identification and banning, promotion of co-operati on among farmers for buying, selling and production and social and recreation centers This is a big program but the Commission is planning a big campaign to carry it out Within the next year it will Institute rural church surveys in every state With infor nation gathered from those as basis, organized attempts will be mad To get rural churches to form conn-l -nunity federations and possibly in time to merge It is a praisewortFiy movement intended to strike the funA damenta1 reason for rural church de- cay.
 Is the Farmer Religious?
 
 rural church has failed Ito fill an exist and that 8S per cent. have member ship less than 100, indicate that far mers are not reIigious2f Most stu dents of rural conditions say .ssno''. They believe rather that the ordinary rural church has failed to II an exist ing need for community leadership. It has been too fnsistent. on secta- rian distinction. It has been able to pay for only the partial time of a minister, and has made it physically impossible for him to do anything but preach weekly or occasional sermons The result has been development of a multitude of small weak churches, whose aggregate membership in most country communities is less than 40 per cent of the population. Now comes along a big nationwide inter- denominationa1 movement promoted by the Commission on Church and Country Lifes a branch Of the Federal Council of Churches, to help the country church save itself. In every state this Commission will plan a campaign for cooperation of church. es within g. township or other natural community. Three or four neigh boring churches must work together under the supervision of 8, committee of delegates from each church. Pos sibly in the end they will merge This is Nan interesting proposal for solution of the rural church problem. It will be worth watching when the Commission on, Church and Country Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 8, g, and 10th, with President Wilson and Clifford P1nchot on it's program for addresses
 Absent Treatment in Churches.
 Like the country paper, the coun- try church can wield a mighty inf1u- ence- But what could paper do whose editor lived 25 miles distant aT nd It. a few hours a month ? Likewise what should be expected of a country church when it must share its minis ter with three or four other church. es, and see him only an occasional Sunday? The answer to this question proposed by the Commission on Church and Country Life, a branch of the Federal Council of Churches is something like this: A few rural churches in a community must co-ope-i rate, then form a federation, evenru- ally merge their activities to some extent and become community cen ters instead of merely houses for re- Igious worship. Then they can afford to have resident pastors. A rural church reform campaign to be carried into every state is to be formulated at the Commissions national confer ence in Columbus Ohio, Dec. 8, g and 10.
 City Helps Country Save City.
 What are you doing out in the backwoods ?'' asked a city pastor of country preacher, 'I am helping you save your city" answered the rural minister. He spoke truly. Rural prosperity produces urban success, and it has been demonstrated that healthy churches acting as real com munity centers, rather than mere houses of occasiona worship, promote rural prosperity. That is the reason the Federal Council of Churches has devoted the principal part of it's con Nention in Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 8, g, and 10 to sessions of the Commission on Church and Country Life, a branch of the council. That is the reason also the Commission, an inter-denom- national organization, is planning a nationwide movement, supported