The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1920-01-30
OVERFLOW
ONE SECTION WITH
many WEAK ONES
Churches Struggle, Pastors
Families Half Starve, Work
Lags Because Of Worn-Out
Leaders and Congregations.
OTHER POPULOUS TIPS.
ARE WITHOUT SINGLE ONE

The Beilamy articles running in
the Cleveland Plain Dealer are syndi-
cate articles being published in SO or
60 of the more widely circulated news
papers Of the United States. They
are carefully written, the question has
has been carefully studied, and Mr..
Bellamy writes with as little bias as
possible. The men he interviews are
big men in the church, students Of the
past and present, and so far they
have been men whose chief aim is the
upbuilding of true christianity.
These men all agree on the needs
Of a quickening within the realms of
applied christianity. They differ as
to the best methods; differ, too, as to
present conditions; but so far the
men from whom he has quoted have
all been recognized as true disciples
Of the faith and anxious to see the
world bettered and saved.
There has been much to interest and
instruct in these articles. Only those
who know little about christianity
and the power of the gospel fear lest
this new, light-some may term ii
criticism-will be inimical to the
great work of saving the world
True, this new light may conflict with
the "cut and dried" methods through
which some had hoped to win souls To
their own particular church, there
always have been certain pastors and
deacons who would rather see soul
60 to He'll than know that it was
saved by some rule of salvation
different from that which they had
prescribed.
In the Saturday article Mr.. Bel
lamy terms as rural communities
those whose population is less thar
5000, which would apply to Medina
He urges the consolidation Of small
churches, tells of a. town of $50 peo.
pie with six churches, tells Of one
township with 36 churches while ad
joining townships have none, and il
this adjoining township of 1000 chill.
dren Of school age and no Sunday
school that they can attend. All o.
which shows supreme selfshness
with Pharisaical christians"
Applying it to Medina he would say
that two congregations, with one creee
and baptism, and raising only enough
money to consistently support one
pastor, are selfish in trying to mo.
nopolize the services of two men anl
hundreds of communities with no one
to preach and teach. And this addee
burden on these struggling commun
tiles. and for what? That two lead
ers. of factions, choirs, and two set!
Of Sunday school and church officers
may parade before the world in thei1
"robes of authority" simply thai
they may push themselves into &
weak sort Of leadership-there's NJ
christianity in it.
With 81 per cent of one Of the mos
influential denominations minister.
receiving less than $1,000 a year, ant
many serving more than one congre
cation and spending part of wha
they receive for travel, what's to b.
said? Is it any wonder one local pas
tor left to go into other work ant
second switched from pastor to Y
M. G. A. secretary because he coult
drum his head off for money in Y. M
c. A. work without sacrificing hi.
dignity? Consolidate the two "like'
Medina churches, stop the Y.M.C.A
and Y. w. c. A. leaks, and the Medin;
pastors will not then receive wha
they are worth in other fields of en-
deavor. But the five remaining pas
tors would receive more nearly wha
is necessary for comfortable ant
decent living. And the men who pa,
these bettered salaries will have ;
more comfortable feeling as the!
come and go in the community. (Som,
of them ought, now, to be ashamed tt
meet their preachers.)
The man who is honest recognizes
more and more as the years go BY
that he owes a duty to his famil,
first Where the church won't pa,
him enough to perform this duty tn,
pastor must look elsewhere. And tn,
effort of the church in the past t,
mark the man who "turns his back
carries small terror to a half -starvet
man with a hungry family these days
Naturally the churches are losing
ministers, and unless there is
change this loss will soon becom,
acute.
And still the fact remains that tn,
church is a great, institution, a powe
for salvation, the one saving institu
tion from which must come help il
christianizing the world. What il
needed, then, is a wider view Of tn,
powers and prerogatives of tn,
church, 1, wider conservation of tn,
members-not leaving all the ccnse
Grafton for the ministers and bust
ness like systematizing of the worl
Of the churches, it's pastors and lay
men, consolidation of weak congre
Tgations and pushing out into com
munities where there are not nov
sufficient churches and Sunda,
schools. That Mr.. Bellamy and hi
articles may be able to quicken tn
! intellects and consciences of tn
| church as a whole is to be hoped
that he is seemingly doing a won
derful work toward that end is sci
evident.