The country church as it is; a case study of rural churches and leaders

Introduction

BY

FRANK A. SMITH, D.D., Secretary of Missions in the United States, American Baptist Home

Mission Society.

THE social and economic changes which have so vitally affected the rural life of our country during the last few years have not left the churches untouched. Because better roads and consolidated schools and farm machinery, and automobile, telephone, and radio have made farm life more interesting and brought the outer world to the farmer’s door, the churches could not remain static and hope to retain their place of leadership in rural communities. Abandoned farms are directly reflected in decadent churches, and even where the population has not declined, farms have been subdivided or sold to strangers, foreigners have taken the place of the native American stock with the result that old customs have deteriorated and old neighbourliness has disappeared. The rural community in many places has ceased to be homogeneous but the average rural church has been content to minister to only one type of people. ?

The betterment of social conditions in rural areas has caught the imagination of some of the best minds of our day, and improved agriculture has held the centre of the stage for a long time. Educators were interested and the consolidated school supplanted the

6 INTRODUCTION

“little white schoolhouse.”’? New forms of social alignment and cooperative effort like the Grange sprung up so that a new form of community interests has arisen, but frequently the church held to its own way, unmindful of the fact that the world without had grown more interesting and religion had become stodgy and had lost its sacredness. In some places these changes took place in spite of the church and it was a brave pastor and a brave people who were willing to pioneer in the effort to adjust the rural church to the needs of the community.

The intense individualism f the rural dweller | offers a happy hunting ground for sects of all sorts. The very barrenness of the early days reacted quickly to some of the more extravagant and hyper-emotional forms of preaching and teaching. These fitful flames flared up and then died out, leaving only a handful of adherents while the older forms of religious life, weakened by the inroads of controversy and competition struggled along. A far-seeing Christian statesmanship perceived the necessity of reducing the number of churches, harnessing the wastefulness of competition | into spiritual dynamic and conserving the money spent on fitful existence of weak churches for real constructive and helpful service for the community. It was soon discovered, however, that the cure for the evils due to competition was not found by simply putting churches together. Consolidation was no substitute for consecrated common sense. The various shibboleths of combination did not woo the indifferent nor silence the ungodly. It is increasingly evident that the real cure for the rural church problem is to be found in an ade-

INTRODUCTION 7 quate program for the rural church which shall be sympathetic enough to meet every unsatisfied need of the community and broad enough to include as many varieties of religious experience and training as circumstances will allow. This program must also have an adequate leadership.

In addition to willingness and consecration there must be added a well-balanced and thoroughly tested technique. The average rural minister must not only be willing to serve the community but get the “hang of the thing” which he is to do. It is to such inquiring minds and earnest souls who are willing to pay the great price of an effective rural ministry that this book will appeal. It has been forged white-hot on the anvil of experience and by the hammer of necessity. It emerges from the life of the rural people, from the struggles and triumphs of the rural ministry and from the desire to make those things which have been acceptable to many people and blest by God available also to those who are always seeking if by some way they might win men.

The writer feels constrained to render words of praise to the rural ministers of this great land. In the cry for better leadership in the rural churches, it should not be forgotten that these men are rendering a sacrificial service and that some of the conditions calling for a remedy are the result of an honest, even though it may be unwise, effort. As long as farmers exist so long will they send forth into our community life groups of young people made resourceful by their contact with nature, calm of spirit because they have been immune from city noise, healthful with the strength

8 INTRODUCTION of the hills and the trees, and flaming with a desire for education. To minister to such as these and help them step over the threshold into the great world, is the supreme joy and task of the rural minister. It is a privilege which many a man might well covet, and the world is full of consecrated men and women, pastors of rural churches and their wives, who are devotedly trying to be worthy of their marvellous stewardship. “Thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren * * which have borne witness * * before the church; whom if thou bring forward on their journey * * thou shalt do well, because that for His name’s sake they went forth.”

Foreword

Many country churches have been visited and studied. The experience was so vital and telling that it seemed as if it should be shared with others. But it is impossible to describe any large number of these churches. A few were selected, the attempt being made to give as wide a variety of situations as possible. It was planned at first to group them according to size or condition of the community but when the cases were analyzed and recorded they grouped themselves. The more successful are called Group A; the least promising form, Group C; and those more mixed in character comprize Group B. It was interesting to find that each group contained the same number of cases.

The attempt has been consciously made to describe things as they are and not to exalt Group A, and much less to paint those in Group C black in order to form a background. Indeed some churches were excluded because an accurate description might have seemed overdrawn, if not incredible.

It would be quite unjust to describe churches by name. For this reason fictitious names are used and other non-essentials have been changed to prevent identification. But every description is accurate in all essentials and is the result of first hand study.

It is impossible to describe any church fully in a

10 FOREWORD brief space. Each situation is very complex and many forces play upon it. All that is attempted is to sketch the church as faithfully as possible. One impression that it is hoped has been left, is that neither the leaders nor the people in Group A think their work has been completed, but rather that it has been little more than begun.

From a first hand knowledge of many country churches and the intensive study of some of them certain differences in how the work is carried on impress themselves forcibly on the investigator. The questions, Why has this succeeded? Why is that failing? cannot be avoided. Partial answers, at least, are found in the quality and kind of program attempted and in the methods pursued; and in the leadership. These two important matters are discussed in Parts IT and III.

In Part II the principles of country church life and work which made for success in the cases studied are set forth. This is by no means an exhaustive treatment. Any reader can deduce his own findings from the descriptions given in Part I. The only thing he lacks is the intimate knowledge of the churches of which the write-up is such a small part.

Leadership is universally recognized as of great importance in church work. ‘These studies emphasize this point. In Part III characteristics and qualities of the leaders studied are presented. The deduction seems to be clear that if the country church is to progress it must look to its leaders. And the denominations in turn must scrutinize anew the kind of training

FOREWORD : 11 their students are getting for their life work in the theological seminaries.

“The world is changing, continually and rapidly.” This was proclaimed from every parish. Is the country church ministering to the world in which it finds itself or to some imagined world probably of a past age? Many churches and their leaders did not seem to be conscious of the world in which they were set.

In the Appendix is found a very brief list of books helpful to leaders and people in the country church; and also a program of evangelism suggested by one denomination. No brief is held for the latter. It is merely submitted as an exhibit of a tendency toward a broader conception of the country church’s ministry.

Whatever its limitations and errors this study is an attempt to see the country church as it is and to suggest principles of program and leadership that may be a guide and inspiration to others.

If a credo is called for, it may be said that the study leads to a deeper conviction as to the place of the country church in its own community, in the nation and in the world; that with good average leaders it has a great service to render and that its possibilities were never greater; that these churches are rich in latent leadership and in a constituency which responds to worthy enterprizes; that religious education is of crucial importance and significance; and that the Christian religion is the most vital and the most lifegiving of all the forces which bear upon country life.

Hartford, Conn. A.J.W.M.

E.E.S.

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