The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1922-05-09
THE PROBLEM OF THE URBAN
CHURCH MOST URGENT


One of the most common obses'
sions of our times is the mania fol
imagining problems and finding 'theo'
retic solutions for the questions thus
raised.
This mania for making and solving
problems always takes the direction
of overlooking ones own problem and
offering unfailing so.::;'1ns fox the
rero.ex;ng questions with wh:ch oth-
ers are supposed to be confronted.
Such is the current discussion by
urtsn theorizers concerning the rural
rastor and the rural cal,eh. The
professional surveyor mas been
making his SURVEYS Of The Wn;ry
:ha1ch and presc:iein-: pana@cas FL
Hha. he supposes are It's ailments. -
though he has never se1vcG Imal
rastorate and ne}tr vii: s'rvc one
as long as he can get living IN the
field of Surveyor" or in the office
of some sort of driver" or campaign
secretary.
Some of his proposed remedies are
little short of the ridiculous. To a
preacher who has served and sue
ceeded in rural pastorate they seem
positively laughable. For imaginary
conditions are offered cures Of pre-
tentious and fanciful impracticabil!ty.
It is time to call attention 10 some
indubitable facts about this whole
matter of the country preacher and
the country church.
In the first place 1t is worthy OF
remark that the urban church ana
the urban pastor are far less success
full than the rural church and the ru-
raj pastor. The simple truth is thai
very many city churches are compos-
ed of country people who were con-
verted before coming to town and
who were more, religious in their ru-
raj homes and churches than they
have ever been in the urban hablta-
tions and temples to which they have
removed.
What would become of certain city
churches if they were no longer re-
plenished by eon1munieants drawn
from country churches would be
hard. to say, Their very best mem
bers are country people come to
town. Urban life seems to be not
most favorable to the; highest type of
religious lifes Damaging distractions
are on all sides. Sights and shows
exclude meditation and prayer. The
demoralizing movies" and kindred
things impair piety and incite to SEN
suality. Divorce suits and the pro
fanation Of the sacred institutions Of
marriage, which would shock rural
communities are tolerated in the
cities.
1t was when a rural population
proposed to build them a city and a
tower reaching to heaven that Coos
Judgment of the confusion of tongues
fell upon them, and since Babel cities
have been the points of greatest
strain upon civilization. Thomas JET
ferson expressed the hope that large
cities would never exist in the United
Stats and Prince Bismarck declared
that cities were ulcers on the body
polite which should be cut out"
The problem of the "ur3an church"
is far more perplexing and urgent
than that of the rural church. Let
city pastors give all diligence to
solve the problems right under their
noses before holding Institutes and
delivering lectures for the solution
of the problems of the rural pastor
and his rural pastorate.
That the. country church has not
failed half so badly as some would
have us believe is established by the
fact that in the South, section in
habited largely by country people,
there is a greater number of church
members in proportion to population
than can be found in any other sec
ton of our country In no other
have the churches come so nearly to
reaching and saving the people.
The country church may be dying
in New England but it is not dying in
the South. There were never so ma
ny prosperous churches in the rural
sections of the South! as there are
now. Here and there may be seen a
country church which has been aban-
doned, but in the majority of such
cases, investigation will disclose the
fact that it has been superseded by
more commodious building IN a
more convenient location.
A few rural churches have perlshed
nv Temporary shifting of population,