BV 600 .B865 1923 
 Brunner, Edmund de 
 Schweinitz, 1889- 
 Testea methods in town and 
 country churches 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/testedmethodsint00brun_0 
 
TESTED METHODS IN 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
The Committee on Social and Religious Sur¬ 
 veys, which is responsible for this publication, 
 was organized in January, 1921. The Commit¬ 
 tee conducts and publishes studies and surveys 
 and promotes conferences for their considera¬ 
 tion. Its aim is to combine the scientific method 
 with the religious motive. It cooperates with 
 other social and religious agencies, but is itself 
 an independent organization. 
 
 The Committee is composed of: John R. 
 Mott, Chairman; Ernest D. Burton, Secretary; 
 Raymond B. Fosdick, Treasurer; James L. Bar¬ 
 ton and IV. H. P. Faunce. Galen M. Fisher is 
 Executive Secretary. The offices are at 370 
 Seventh Avenue, New York City. 
 
TESTED METHODS 
 IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 
 
 CHURCHES 
 
 A.' 
 / \> 
 
 
 BY 
 
 
 OF PR/^ 
 OCT 17 1923 
 
 EDMUND deS. BRUNN^R^,, |C4[ 
 
 With a Foreword by 
 HONORABLE GIFFORD PINCHOT 
 
 GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 NEW 
 
 YORK 
 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1923, 
 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 TESTED METHODS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY CHURCHES. I 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 By Honorable Gifford Pinchot 
 
 GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 In 1909 it was my privilege to serve as a member of the 
 Country Life Commission set up by President Roosevelt. 
 At that time if somebody had prophesied that only four¬ 
 teen years later a volume would be published giving, as this 
 one does, not the theory of a successful ministry in the 
 country church but actual concrete methods employed in 
 forty country churches which had won conspicuous success 
 through the use of these methods, I should probably have 
 thought the prophecy entirely too optimistic. 
 
 I remember a phrase in the recommendations made by 
 President Roosevelt’s Commission which bears very specifi¬ 
 cally upon the subject of this volume : “The country church 
 of the future is to be held responsible for the great ideals 
 of community life as well as of personal character.” Just 
 because the Commission felt that the country church was 
 not serving, as in the earlier periods of our history, to pro¬ 
 mote the social and religious well-being of the country, it 
 stressed the social obligations of the rural church. 
 
 The present volume shows that country churches succeed 
 by living up to principles which the report recommended. 
 They have been the servants, not only to their constituents, 
 but to whole communities. They have been social centers 
 in the best sense and at the same time have remained true 
 to their distinctive evangelistic purpose. In a word, they 
 have demonstrated that the church which fully represents 
 Jesus Christ ministers to all sides of community life, and 
 must supply the motive for many of its purely social 
 activities. 
 
 As one, who, in company with Mr. Charles O. Gill, has 
 
vi 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 had practical experience in the work of making rural re¬ 
 ligious surveys, I have followed with profound interest 
 and satisfaction the studies of the church in rural America 
 which have been completed by the Committee on Social 
 and Religious Surveys. It seems eminently fitting that the 
 careful investigation made by Dr. Brunner and his col¬ 
 leagues, as published in the twelve volumes of the Com¬ 
 mittee’s Town and Country Series, should be followed by 
 this study of the country church at its best. It shows how 
 others have met and overcome the very difficulties which 
 the average rural church is facing. I can imagine no better 
 inspiration for the rural pastor than the reading of this 
 book and its companion volume, “Churches of Distinction 
 in Town and Country”—and only those who are familiar 
 with the difficult problems which the country pastor faces 
 can realize his need of inspiration. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The Committee on Social and Religious Surveys conducted 
 during the year 1922 an investigation of the most successful 
 town and country churches of Protestant persuasion that it 
 could find anywhere in the United States. The study was 
 undertaken in order that the experience of these churches 
 might be available to all other churches similarly placed. 
 
 For the purposes of this study no attempt was made to 
 arrive inductively at a scientific definition of what consti¬ 
 tutes a “successful” church. The test of a church’s “suc¬ 
 cess” most generally accepted by the denominational boards 
 consulted in the preliminaries of the study is the service, 
 spiritual and material, which it renders to the community of 
 which it is a part and the measure of support which in turn 
 it receives from the community. This test was accepted as 
 the basis of the present investigation. 
 
 Two books have resulted from the investigation; a volume 
 made up of stories of certain of the individual churches, 
 which has been published under the title of “Churches of 
 Distinction in Town and Country,” and this one, which 
 describes the methods employed by those churches. The 
 present volume is intended for use in theological seminaries, 
 in graduate summer schools for the training of town and 
 country ministers, by classes in leadership-training within 
 congregations, and above all by individual town or country 
 pastors at work in their fields. Both form and content of 
 the volume have been adapted so far as possible to meet the 
 wishes of officials of home mission boards who have had 
 these purposes in mind. 
 
 TYPES OF COMMUNITIES STUDIED 
 
 To make sure that the investigation would cover the great¬ 
 est possible number of churches differently placed in respect 
 
 • • 
 vii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 • • • 
 vm 
 
 to environment, the Committee on Social and Religious 
 Surveys, aided by the findings of its previous studies and 
 by the advice of rural sociologists specially consulted, drew 
 up a list of town and country communities of twenty differ¬ 
 ent types. It was believed that among these types every 
 area in the United States would be represented. The com¬ 
 munities, arranged in accordance with the plan of regional 
 distribution used in other surveys by this Committee, follow: 
 
 Northern Colonial Area 
 
 1. A Scotch-Irish community, general farming back¬ 
 
 ground, preferably an open country church. 
 
 2. A German community, probably in Pennsylania, gen¬ 
 
 eral farming and open country or small village 
 church, one of the liturgical group. 
 
 3. New England communities, villages, illustrating: 
 
 a—A denominational community church in com¬ 
 mand of the field by comity agreement, 
 b—A federated church, 
 c—An interdenominational or union church. 
 
 4. New York village or town of 1,500 to 5,000 population 
 
 with developing industrial interest, some foreign 
 element but farm connections still existing. 
 
 Middle West and Prairie 
 
 5. Village in wheat belt where there is migrant labor 
 
 affected by church, preferably in Kansas or Ne¬ 
 braska. 
 
 6. County seat, Middle West, several denominations rep¬ 
 
 resented, having program of community coopera¬ 
 tion, preferably a town with considerable retired 
 farmer element. 
 
 7. Same social and economic background as “6” above, 
 
 but in which one church is forging ahead regardless 
 of competition. 
 
 Northwest 
 
 8. Scandinavian community, dairy or grain region in 
 
 Minnesota or North Dakota, preferably a church 
 with a developed educational program and an ad¬ 
 vanced economic program. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 IX 
 
 •5o uh 
 
 9. Good average open country community in cotton belt. 
 >. Cotton mill town. 
 
 1. Southern mountain community with or without any 
 industrial development but in which outside aid has 
 affected progress, especially along educational, 
 other cultural or health lines. 
 
 12. Negro community in cotton section, either village or 
 
 open country. 
 
 Southwest or Pacific 
 
 13. Mexican community with Protestant church, either a 
 
 small industrial or a farming community or a com¬ 
 bination of both. 
 
 14. Indian community in Southwest, illustrating transition 
 
 from nomadic tribal to settled agricultural life. 
 
 15. Community in irrigated country, trucking or small 
 
 fruit, large influx of foreign seasonal labor affected 
 by adequate church program. 
 
 16. Lumber or mining town with foreign element. 
 
 Range 
 
 17. Town in cattle-raising or dry-farming district in which 
 
 church is doing significant larger parish work. 
 
 General 
 
 18. Czechoslovak community in the Middle West or in 
 
 Texas, general farming background, open country 
 or small village church. 
 
 19. Rural industrial village, preferably with polyglot for¬ 
 
 eign population. 
 
 20. Community, industrial or farming, with large perma¬ 
 
 nent element of later (southern European) immi¬ 
 gration in which English-speaking church is doing 
 significant work in reaching foreign born. 
 
 No churches were discovered for a few of these types. 
 More than one church was selected in each of the more im¬ 
 portant of these groups. 
 
 Denominational leaders, state and national, and state 
 leaders in agriculture and education, were then asked to 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 name, in communities of the various kinds, churches doin£ 
 successful work. Investigation was also made of the files 
 of the Interchurch World Movement surveys and of religious 
 periodicals. From this study and inquiry resulted a list of 
 nearly 700 churches. After preliminary investigation half of 
 these churches were eliminated. The Committee sent to 
 representatives of each of the others a statement as to the 
 nature of the investigation; a request for permission to 
 have one or more of its workers study the church in case 
 the committee should so elect; and a questionnaire. 
 
 Responses were received from more than 90 per cent, of 
 the ministers and other leaders addressed. On the basis 
 of these replies the Committee selected forty churches. In 
 making the choice, there was an attempt to include a wide 
 range of denominations and of types of work. If two 
 churches illustrated a given situation equally well, preference 
 was given to the church of the denomination having the 
 fewer representatives on the list. No effort was made to 
 specialize in village churches rather than in town churches, 
 or in country churches in preference to town and village 
 churches. The Committee endeavored, instead, to choose 
 successful churches which, taken together, would represent 
 every kind of community. 
 
 METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 
 
 Each of the churches selected was subjected to careful 
 investigation by competent field workers during a period 
 lasting from eight days to a month, in the spring, summer 
 or fall of 1922. 
 
 In every instance the churches studied gave full coopera¬ 
 tion. Pastors, church officers, and members were untiring 
 in their efforts to obtain all the information desired, and con¬ 
 tributed in the aggregate many days of valuable time. 
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF MATERIAL 
 
 The significant thing is that what is here presented is not 
 theory but the actual practice of churches that are successful. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xi 
 
 From the experience of these churches, it is believed, the 
 country church of America has much to learn. 
 
 This volume is submitted with a word of caution. It is a 
 composite account of forty churches, and therefore contains 
 a multiplicity of suggestive detail. No one church can do 
 all the things of which it tells. Few can do any one thing 
 in exactly the way here indicated. An outstanding tendency 
 of the churches investigated was found to be adaptation of 
 program to need, or method to situation. Their practice 
 must likewise be adapted to varying local conditions. 
 
 WHAT OF THE CHURCHES? 
 
 For a still better understanding of the methods of work 
 described in this book, an analysis of the situation of these 
 churches as it existed at the time of the survey will be 
 found valuable. These churches are not situated in unusual, 
 above-the-average communities which have now ordered 
 their religious life so that but one church serves all elements 
 of the population. Furthermore, most of these churches be¬ 
 gan their development when at just an average level of effi¬ 
 ciency and success, while many began at a level considerably 
 below the average. The success they have won has come 
 because of the consecration of their leaders, because of the 
 methods they have developed and because they have applied 
 those methods with unceasing effort. They have traveled no 
 easy road to distinction. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF CHURCHES 
 
 Six of them are town churches, twenty-two are in villages, 
 and twelve are in the open country. Of the villages, seven 
 have less than 500 population. Some of the churches have 
 from eight to thirteen different denominational bodies repre¬ 
 sented in their present membership. 
 
 Four of the organizations studied are federated churches 
 made up of what were formerly separate congregations 
 differing in denomination. One is an undenominational 
 community church. Ten of the churches are the only ones 
 in their communities, either because of federation or of the 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 • • 
 xn 
 
 withdrawal of some other denomination by agreement, or 
 because they alone survived. Two more share their fields 
 with only very small churches of the Holy Roller type. The 
 church at Parma shows excellently how wide an appeal a 
 church may have. It successfully reaches all. In its active 
 membership are former members of sixteen different denom¬ 
 inations, including such diverse groups as Methodists, Lu¬ 
 therans, Congregationalists, Roman Catholics, Nazarenes and 
 Latter Day Saints. 
 
 EXTENT OF PARISH 
 
 Virtually all of these churches include people from both 
 village and country. Even those in the larger towns draw 
 considerably from the countryside and have broken down 
 such barriers as often exist between town and country. 
 Grace Church at Spencer, Iowa, draws 20 per cent, of its 
 900 members from rural areas surrounding the town. 
 
 The open country membership exceeds that of the village 
 or town in eight of the thirty-two churches located in non¬ 
 industrial towns or villages. In ten others the proportion 
 ranges from one-third to 90 per cent. In most other in¬ 
 stances from one-sixth to one-fourth of the membership is 
 drawn from the surrounding countryside. In the entire 
 group of churches, less than half the members live within a 
 mile of the church building. A fifth live from two to five 
 miles from the church and nearly a fifth live more than five 
 miles away. This long-range influence is not accidental. 
 The churches accept full responsibility for the care of the 
 communities in which they are. They not only care for 
 members at the outer edge of their parishes, but systemati¬ 
 cally cover, with their evangelistic and social programs, the 
 whole territory for which they are responsible. 
 
 Seven out of every ten of these churches have extended 
 their parish boundaries until they are coterminus, or nearly 
 so, with the boundaries of the community. In a few in¬ 
 stances the parishes extend beyond the community bound¬ 
 aries. The parish boundaries of only a fifth are markedly 
 smaller than those of the communities, and in each of these 
 cases the church is either reaching only one neighborhood 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xm 
 
 in the community or is meeting exceptionally strong compe¬ 
 tition. This is an unusually good record. The Interchurch 
 World Movement surveys found that the church was rare 
 indeed whose parish boundaries included the whole com¬ 
 munity. 
 
 MEMBERSHIP 
 
 Whatever their past, most of these churches are now 
 larger and stronger than the average. Only nine have fewer 
 than ioo members, and in most cases they are the churches 
 in very small communities or in communities in which there 
 is a considerable proportion of Roman Catholic population. 
 
 Nearly half the churches fall within the next membership 
 group of between ioo and 200. This group also has the most 
 extended activities. Six more churches have between 200 
 and 300 members and a final six range from 349 to nearly 
 1,100. Three of the last six are in county seats that have 
 populations of from 2,590 to nearly 5,000. These three, 
 however, share the field in each instance with half a dozen 
 or more churches. Of the other large churches, the largest 
 is in a village of 750 inhabitants which draws heavily from 
 the surrounding countryside; another is an open country 
 church with 507 members; and a third is the community 
 church in a village of 600 people. It has 349 resident 
 members. 
 
 ATTENDANCE 
 
 The attendance in these churches is quite remarkable. Six 
 of them average more than 200 at the morning service; 
 three of these have more than 450 and one more than 800. 
 Often people have to go early to get seats in the main audi¬ 
 torium. For the whole group the morning attendance aver¬ 
 ages 70 per cent, of the resident membership, and the evening 
 attendance 52 per cent. At least one representative of 75 
 per cent, of the families on the rolls of these churches is in 
 regular attendance at least one service every Sunday. 
 
 In six of the churches, which make up 15 per cent, of 
 the entire number, the average attendance at either the morn- 
 
XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ing service or the evening service, or at both services, exceeds 
 the resident membership. The audiences are well distributed 
 among the various age- and sex-groups. At the morning 
 service 39 per cent, are adult women; 31 per cent, adult men; 
 23 per cent, are members under twenty-one years of age, 
 and the remainder are children. In the evening, adult men 
 and women in equal proportion make up three-fifths of the 
 audiences. With the exception of a few small children, 
 young people make up the rest of the congregations. 
 
 The men at the morning services in twelve of the churches 
 equal or exceed the women in number; while in eight the 
 proportion of young people exceeds that of any other group. 
 In the evening the proportion of men equals or exceeds that 
 of women in fifteen churches. In an equal number, the 
 young people have more representatives than any of the 
 other groups. 
 
 AGE AND SEX OF MEMBERS 
 
 For the purposes of this study the membership of these 
 churches has been divided into three groups, including re¬ 
 spectively persons under twenty-one, those between twenty- 
 one and forty-five, and those forty-six or older. It was found 
 that nearly a fourth of the members were under twenty- 
 one and that exactly two-thirds were under forty-five 
 years of age. In some cases more than a third of the mem¬ 
 bers on the roll were under twenty-one years of age. This 
 was owing in part to the fact that some of the churches are 
 in communities still so young that few people have had time 
 to grow old. Another explanation is the great attractiveness 
 to the young people of the virile programs undertaken by 
 these churches. The older congregations include persons of 
 all ages and the churches minister to all of them success¬ 
 fully. In them there are many pews in which representatives 
 of three generations sit together. Slightly more than three- 
 fifths of the present membership of these churches joined 
 within the last decade. The rest of the membership is almost 
 equally divided between those who joined between ten and 
 twenty years ago and those who united with the church in 
 the more distant past. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xv 
 
 These churches also reach both sex-groups. In the whole 
 list there is but one “woman’s” church. In the others, 
 male members constitute anywhere from a third to three- 
 fifths of the total membership. 
 
 OCCUPATION OF MEMBERS 
 
 More than 40 per cent, of the members are gainfully em¬ 
 ployed. Thirty-six per cent, of these are farmers who own 
 their farms, while 12 per cent, are farm-renters, and another 
 12 per cent, are professional people. Thirteen per cent, are 
 in business. Seven per cent, are farm-laborers. Of the 
 other scattering occupations, clerks of various kinds form 
 the predominant group. 
 
 FACTS REGARDING ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 In the Sunday schools there is no predominant age-group 
 other than the adult. The proportion of the total member¬ 
 ship varies little for the different age groupings up to twenty 
 years. xAImost 20 per cent, more of males than of females 
 on the church roll belong to the Sunday school. Sixty per 
 cent, of the entire membership of these churches is enrolled 
 in some one of the subsidiary organizations. In this respect 
 the young people’s group makes the best showing, with 80 
 per cent, enrolled. The total number of males so interested 
 is 55 per cent, and of females 63 per cent. 
 
 LENGTH OF SUCCESS 
 
 The average period over which these churches have been 
 succeeding is seven years. But two entirely different types 
 of churches figure in this average. The first type includes 
 such churches as Stanton, Middle Octoraro and Dayton, 
 which have behind them years of tradition. These are among 
 the eighteen which exceed the average of seven years. For 
 the other twenty-two, the periods of success have covered 
 a shorter period. The average is 3.2 years. 
 
 MINISTERS 
 
 The ministers of these churches are not different from 
 ministers everywhere, save that a large proportion are men 
 
XVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 with college and seminary training. Twenty-five have had 
 the advantages of both college and seminary. A dozen others 
 are college men and the other three are seminary trained 
 only. If they differ from other ministers in anything it is 
 in their capacity for ceaseless work. This is the price of 
 their success. Otherwise—in temperament, in age, in person, 
 and in methods of leadership—they are as unlike as men 
 of any other group could be. Had they all been of one 
 general type, it might have been fair to conclude that men 
 of that type possess those general qualities of leadership 
 essential in successful church organizations. This, however, 
 is not the case. The clue to the success of these churches 
 does not lie in their employing a distinctive type of minister. 
 The pastorates, however, are longer than the average. The 
 average length of time that each of these ministers has been 
 with his present congregation is in excess of four and one- 
 half years, whereas the average total pastorate of the 
 churches in the twenty-five counties studied by the Committee 
 on Social and Religious Surveys was 3.8 years. 
 
 These churches, then, have been selected as representative 
 of a considerable number which have won more than local 
 distinction. They have been chosen to illustrate rural re¬ 
 ligious work in various kinds of communities and by various 
 denominations. Growing out of average or below-average 
 situations, and located in communities in no way especially 
 favored, these churches have broadened their scope and in¬ 
 fluence, have increased their memberships and attendance, 
 have reached and held all age, sex, and occupational groups, 
 and have developed programs that have resulted in achieve¬ 
 ments far beyond those of the average town and country 
 churches in America. That is why an analysis of their 
 methods holds promise of interest and inspiration. 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 The field workers engaged in this study included the fol¬ 
 lowing full-time workers of the Committee: Marjorie Pat¬ 
 ten, Helen O. Belknap, and Elizabeth G. Wootton. Through 
 the courtesy of the Board' of Home Missions of the Re¬ 
 formed Church in America, John W. Myers and Ernest W. 
 Brindle were added to the staff for four months during the 
 summer; and through the courtesy of the Presbyterian Board 
 of Home Missions and of the Presbyterian Synod of New 
 York, respectively, the Rev. H. N. Morse and Dr. U. L. 
 Mackey investigated one parish each. Elizabeth R. Hooker 
 and Grace E. Fairley, of the staff of the Committee, assisted 
 in assembling the data and Miss Hooker also gave invaluable 
 service in preparing it for publication. 
 
 Through their generous cooperation in this enterprise the 
 churches studied have placed the Committee and those to 
 whom the findings will be of service under a heavy debt of 
 gratitude. 
 
 The tabulation on the following pages gives for the 
 churches surveyed the geographical and denominational dis¬ 
 tribution, and the names of their ministers. 
 
 Edmund deS. Brunner 
 
 xvii 
 
State Community Church Pastor 
 
 Arizona.Sacaton .Presbyterian Indian Mission .Dirk A. Lay, 
 
 xvm 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
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CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreword by Honorable Gifford Pinchot ... v 
 
 Introduction .vii 
 
 Acknowledgments .xvii 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I Evangelism.25 
 
 II Worship and Services.38 
 
 III Religious Education.47 
 
 IV Work for Age and Sex Groups .... 66 
 
 V The Plant and Its Equipment .... 89 
 
 VI Church Finance. 109 
 
 VII Organizing the Church for the Program 123 
 
 VIII Publicity.140 
 
 IX Community Welfare and Church Coopera¬ 
 tion . *54 
 
 X Measuring Success.*65 
 
 Index. I 7 I 
 

 
 
TESTED METHODS IN 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 

 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
TESTED METHODS IN TOWN 
 AND COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 EVANGELISM 
 
 The forty churches which form the subject of this study 
 both gain members and hold and nurture them. During the 
 year before this study was made a gross gain in membership 
 of 17.3 per cent, was registered, and a net gain of 14 per 
 cent. Moreover these churches are evangelistic. Seventy-one 
 per cent, of their new members came on confession of faith 
 and only 29 per cent, by letter. This is in marked contrast 
 with the showing of the churches of twenty-five typical 
 counties throughout America, studied by the Committee on 
 Social and Religious Surveys, which found the average net 
 gain to be less than 3 per cent. 
 
 The reasons for the success of the evangelistic work of 
 these churches are many, but two underlie all the others. 
 In the first place the churches make an appeal that is both 
 broad and basic. They lead men and women to the Christian 
 life. In the second place they practise the gospel they 
 preach. They make their successful appeal to the hearts 
 of men and women because they exemplify so well what 
 they stand for. Evangelism is, therefore, the keystone of 
 their program. 
 
 All these churches have one time of the year in which 
 their evangelistic efforts culminate. These efforts are 
 brought to an end in different ways. With some, the cul¬ 
 mination is in a series of evangelistic services, sometimes 
 known as a protracted meeting. With others, it is in quiet, 
 personal appeals made at the time of year when the young 
 
 25 
 
26 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 people declare publicly through the rite of confirmation 
 their allegiance to God and the church. 
 
 PREPARATION 
 
 Various methods are used to prepare for the evangelistic 
 harvest. In a number of the churches a survey is held to 
 be a prerequisite. This survey is on a house-to-house basis 
 and no family is overlooked. Where there are other 
 churches in the community, this study is generally coopera¬ 
 tive. Names of persons canvassed are referred to the differ¬ 
 ent churches in accordance with expressed preferences, or 
 with information at hand if there has been no expression 
 of preference. For example, if one man has been known 
 to attend a church occasionally or to seek its service for 
 funeral or a baptism, his name is given to that church for 
 its attention even though he may have placed himself in the 
 non-preference column. These surveys are carried beyond 
 the corporate limits of the community. Consultations have 
 been held with churches of nearby communities and no-man’s 
 lands have been discovered. Dividing lines have then been 
 drawn between communities and all unchurched families 
 listed. This has proved very effective. 
 
 ENLISTING THE MEMBERSHIP 
 
 No evangelistic campaign can succeed without the whole¬ 
 hearted support of the entire church. The membership is 
 enlisted in various ways. Most churches use several methods 
 simultaneously. Letters are sent to church members; or, as 
 in one church community, “to all the Christian people,” an¬ 
 nouncing the services and asking for definite cooperation. 
 Some outstanding passages in one such letter follow: 
 
 There are some things that each of you can do that will mean 
 a great deal to the success of this enterprise for the Master. 
 I take the privilege of enumerating them: 
 
 1. You can pray. . . . 
 
 2. Be at each meeting YOURSELF. . . . 
 
EVANGELISM 
 
 27 
 
 3. Invite others to come. . . . 
 
 4. Talk to others about their relation to God and Jesus 
 
 Christ. . . . 
 
 PRAYER MEETINGS 
 
 Cottage prayer meetings almost invariably feature the 
 preparation for an evangelistic campaign. Members in the 
 different parts of the parish gather once a week during a 
 month or more, before the opening of the campaign, to pray 
 and plan for its success. Such meetings can be made fruitful 
 where the pastor and the leaders have definite plans and 
 objectives. The entire membership is not only brought into 
 a state of spiritual expectancy but is instructed regarding 
 the things that need to be done. 
 
 TRAINING PERSONAL WORKERS 
 
 Nothing is more damaging to an evangelistic campaign 
 than are ill-advised efforts on the part of the members. A 
 person cannot be approached successfully in respect to his 
 relation to things Divine if the approach is made in hap¬ 
 hazard fashion. The reason for the appeal that is to be 
 made, the challenge of the church, the obligation and oppor¬ 
 tunity of fellowship and service—these must be presented 
 with conviction. More than that, their presentation must be 
 influenced by a knowledge of the person to whom they are 
 being presented. Classes for personal workers are there¬ 
 fore important features in preparation for an evangelistic 
 campaign. Frequently they are held in connection with the 
 cottage prayer meetings. Lists of those who are unchurched 
 are gone over and names are assigned both for invitation 
 and for interview. In one church the pastor goes so far as 
 to discuss with his lieutenants the themes of his sermons 
 and upon occasion the lieutenants themselves, after receiv¬ 
 ing full instruction from him, occupy the pulpit. This train¬ 
 ing continues throughout the period of the meetings. In two 
 instances a personal work committee sits in meeting daily 
 about a table to compare notes, while the evangelistic cam- 
 
28 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 paign is on. Names are redistributed. The results of the 
 quiet interviews with individuals are reported to the pastor, 
 to whom the final effort is generally left in all cases. 
 
 PREPARATORY STEPS 
 
 During the weeks intervening before the meetings, not 
 only are sermons and Sunday night services made distinctly 
 evangelistic in character, but in the work of the Sunday 
 school and other organizations stress is laid on the coming 
 event. Where the group or district system 1 is in use, the 
 leaders of each group work together to prepare the ground. 
 
 In several churches, opportunity is given at the close of 
 each Sunday night service prior to the campaign for all who 
 desire to unite with the church to declare themselves. 
 
 PUBLICITY 
 
 Shortly before the time for the meetings to begin,’ cards 
 or folders announcing the dates, hours and subjects are 
 generally distributed. The folder used by the church in 
 Parma had on the outside: 
 
 “For Everyone 
 Time to Think.” 
 
 After the announcement of the meetings was this statement: 
 
 “Congregation in Charge.” 
 
 This publicly proclaimed the fact, already mentioned, that 
 responsibility for the meetings rests with the whole church. 
 Upon the back of this leaflet was a serious address to the 
 men headed: 
 
 “What a Man Owes to the Church” 
 
 and ending: 
 
 “Will You Do Your Part?” 
 
 1 See Chapter VII, “Organizing the Church for the Program.” 
 
EVANGELISM 
 
 29 
 
 At the same time the meetings are in general widely adver¬ 
 tised by posters, dodgers, and paid advertisements in the 
 local papers. 2 
 
 LETTERS TO PROSPECTS 
 
 Preceding any direct personal approach some churches 
 send personal letters to those whom they hope to win. This 
 is done especially in the case of prospective members who 
 once belonged to a church in another place but who, on 
 moving away, lost interest and severed connections. An 
 example of one such letter which was effectively used is 
 given: 
 
 My dear Mr. and Mrs. Me-: 
 
 In the past have you not had this thought, “Sometime I will 
 join the church here”? 
 
 Sometimes have you not felt that it was your duty to do so 
 because the church needed you or because you’ve found your¬ 
 self slipping from God and needed the church? 
 
 Such thoughts are usually the promptings of God urging us 
 to do the right. 
 
 The Communion of the Lord’s Supper will be observed in the 
 church this Sunday morning. Those who love God and follow 
 Jesus will want to break bread together. Some are to join our 
 church then making confession of their Lord. Won’t you join 
 with us? If you have church letters, bring them. If not, come 
 just the same. We want you; the letter can be obtained later 
 on. 
 
 The hope of the world lies in a united Christendom. Your 
 strength is needed in the organization founded to establish the 
 Kingdom of God on earth. Your children will follow your 
 example. 
 
 Your minister, in spite of an injury, will try to call. Think 
 the matter over, and make him happy by deciding to join the 
 Church of Christ in the community. 
 
 Your friend in Christ, 3 
 
 3 Many of the methods described in the chapter on “Publicity” 
 have been used with success in evangelistic campaigns. 
 
 8 In one instance, not among tha cases used in this book, a survey 
 showed considerable groups of people untouched by the church’s 
 
30 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 THE EVANGELISTIC MEETINGS 
 
 Following a thorough preparation which may sometimes 
 extend over an entire quarter of a year, the evangelistic 
 services begin. The churches under study seldom employ a 
 professional evangelist, although this has been done. Usually 
 either the pastor or a brother minister from a neighboring 
 community conducts the meeting. Much is made of music 
 during the services. It is especially effective to select the 
 hymns so that the thought they express shall run parallel to 
 that of the sermon to be preached. Care in this matter is 
 particularly important for congregational singing and for 
 solos which some of these churches take pains to arrange 
 for. Comparatively few, except those that take part in 
 union meetings, use a large chorus choir. 
 
 The time of year most commonly chosen for this kind of 
 a series of meetings is in the one or two weeks prior to 
 Easter. Some churches prefer the week of prayer at the 
 beginning of January, and still others hold meetings early 
 in the fall. The time must be arranged with a view to the 
 convenience of the community, the custom of the church, 
 the pressure of farm work, which is greater in some seasons 
 than in others. In some communities it is necessary to take 
 into consideration even the phase of the moon. During the 
 full moon, travel along country roads to evening services is 
 far easier. 
 
 OTHER EVANGELISTIC METHODS 
 
 The Sunday school furnishes the readiest field for evan¬ 
 gelistic endeavor. Most of those who join these churches 
 come to them from their own Sunday schools. They are 
 brought to the decision to join the church by three methods 
 other than that of the evangelistic campaign. Every school 
 
 influence. The pastor gathered together the leaders of the various 
 lodges and societies in the community and secured their help in 
 planning a series of special church services designed to help the 
 community. The organizations each allowed one person to represent 
 them in a community conference. In this instance church attendance 
 was quadrupled by following the plan, and sharp intensive work 
 brought many of these people afterward into the church. 
 
EVANGELISM 
 
 31 
 
 attempts definitely to enlist pupils of proper age in the 
 church; and about a third of them observe Decision Day as 
 a means toward this end. In almost all the schools there is 
 more or less personal work by the teacher, usually under the 
 advice and instruction of the pastor. Then there is the 
 confirmation class conducted at certain seasons of each year 
 for young people of the required age either within the 
 Sunday school or at other than Sunday school hours. The 
 members of this class preparing for church membership are, 
 however, recruited for the most part from the Sunday school. 
 
 SPECIAL DAYS 
 
 Prior to certain special days, such as Easter and Rally 
 Day, which are set aside in a number of the churches as 
 church-joining days, prospective members are visited by the 
 pastor and often by officers or workers from the church. 
 The invitation is extended in this quiet, personal way, fre¬ 
 quently over the table at the home of the prospective mem¬ 
 ber. Many such visits are made, under assignment, by 
 members of official boards or by volunteer parish visitors 
 in churches that have this system. 
 
 CLASSES TO PREPARE FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 
 
 The results of the Interchurch World Movement surveys 
 showed that the 20 per cent, of churches which had classes 
 to prepare prospects for church membership, or as the 
 liturgical churches know them, confirmation classes, gained 
 proportionately four times as many members as the churches 
 that lacked such classes. More than half of these churches 
 have such classes. 
 
 Perhaps the most thorough system of all is followed by 
 the Mamrelund Lutheran Church at Stanton, Iowa, 4 where 
 from a graded class within the Sunday school the pupils 
 pass, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, to a confirmation 
 class taught from January to September by a competent 
 
 4 See the Committee’s publication “Churches of Distinction in 
 Town and Country” (George H. Doran Company), Chapter XI. 
 
32 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Sunday school teacher. This training is supplemented by 
 instruction from the pastor for several hours every Saturday 
 afternoon during eight months. Classes in the Bible, cate¬ 
 chism, and Bible history are included in the curriculum and 
 in addition there are lectures on themes relating to the 
 Christian life. At the close of the course those young people 
 who are willing to unite with the church have the rite of 
 confirmation administered to them with a knowledge of all 
 that it means. Besides this course for adolescents, the 
 pastor gives lectures on Sunday afternoons to persons above 
 the age of seventeen. Persons enter this class without 
 pledging themselves to join the church. In the year pre¬ 
 ceding the survey, the class numbered twenty-five. At its 
 final meeting the pastor said: “At the confirmation service 
 next Sunday evening there will be in the front of the church 
 twenty-five chairs waiting for you. I hope you are all ready 
 to come out on the right side/’ On the appointed evening 
 the church was so crowded that chairs were put in all the 
 available spaces, even, in the vestibules. Gradually the 
 twenty-five members took the chairs placed ready for them. 
 When the service began the twenty-five were all there. 
 
 FOLLOWING UP THE RESULTS 
 
 There is too general a tendency in churches holding pro¬ 
 tracted meetings to feel that when converts are once enrolled 
 nothing more need be done; but this feeling is not in evi¬ 
 dence in the churches studied. These churches have such 
 thorough knowledge of their own fields and of their needs 
 that new members are quickly assigned tasks in the church 
 organizations. Consecration is in this way strengthened by 
 service. First of all, the effort is made to align each new 
 member with at least one church organization. Sunday 
 school pupils are, of course, already aligned. With the 
 thorough preparation which these churches make, most new 
 converts already have contacts with some other members and 
 organizations. Some churches schedule their mission study 
 classes immediately after their greatest in-taking of mem¬ 
 bers. Some conduct training groups for specific tasks. 
 
EVANGELISM 
 
 33 
 
 NURTURING BOYS AND GIRLS 
 
 Some churches give further training to their boys and 
 girls who have become members of the church. At Dayton, 
 for example, for two years after their admission, the young 
 members receive instruction from their Sunday school 
 teachers in the Intermediate Catechism of their denomina¬ 
 tion. At the end of this period they are questioned upon 
 their work during a Sunday evening service devoted to the 
 purpose. The boys and the girls are pitted against each 
 other and are closely questioned as to their studies. Older 
 members are present, and the whole exercise is made inter¬ 
 esting to all. 
 
 At Sacaton, Arizona, there are among the Indians nine 
 catechetical classes graded as to age and enrolling a total of 
 177. All but one of these classes are taught by Indians. 
 Once a year all members are asked if they have come to the 
 place where they are willing to unite with the church. 
 
 CIRCUIT EVANGELISM 
 
 Holding evangelistic services on a circuit, particularly a 
 large one, is a very difficult problem. The minister of the 
 Methodist Circuit at Larned, Kansas, solved it in an un¬ 
 usual way by having each of his four churches hold services 
 for one week with their own members in charge while the 
 pastor was in command during the second week. The min¬ 
 ister spent several weeks prior to these meetings in preparing 
 his leaders for the enterprise, using methods that have been 
 outlined above. It was no small venture of faith to trust a 
 week of evangelistic services to each of four churches with¬ 
 out any pastoral oversight. The plan seemed to work with 
 accumulative interest. The net result showed a considerable 
 increase in the membership of every church on the circuit. 
 
 INDIANS SET THE PACE 
 
 The Indians at Sacaton, Arizona, in addition to using a 
 number of the methods which have been described, set an 
 
34 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 example to other Christians in that frequently, for months 
 at a time, they are willing to leave their work to go to a 
 village of pagan Indians and do evangelistic work among 
 them. One convert, lately a hard drinker, was the only one 
 to respond to a call for such work in a mining village where 
 conditions were very bad. The minister let him go with 
 strong misgivings. He made a striking success. He cleaned 
 up politics, stopped some bad drinking places, and got a new 
 sheriff as a result of his work. This man has since become 
 one of the assistants in the Mission. 
 
 EXTENSION EVANGELISM 
 
 Virtually all of the churches located in villages and towns 
 extend their influence considerably beyond the corporate limits 
 of their communities. Three churches in particular have 
 penetrated far into the areas of no-man’s land such as are 
 found too often outlying small communities. The California 
 Federated Church at Imperial has a Gospel Extension De¬ 
 partment which conducts Sunday schools and services at 
 four or five nearby points with emphasis on evangelism. 
 Volunteer lay workers handle all of this work under the 
 direction of a minister. At Arnold, Nebraska, the Baptist 
 Church discovered that the congregations in the town in¬ 
 cluded few if any from the surrounding country. Investiga¬ 
 tion showed that whole neighborhoods had few or no church 
 members. Therefore this congregation, by extending an 
 energetic campaign that centered in the new church plant 
 in the town, has carried its evangelistic work to the farming 
 population. Three Sunday schools and preaching points 
 have been established in neighborhoods where before there 
 was no religious work. 
 
 The same plan is being used in two or three other churches, 
 in one instance under the direction of an extension worker 
 who is employed by the congregation. It is of course a plan 
 that is particularly applicable in the larger parish type of 
 work by which a church seeks to minister not only to those 
 upon its roll but also to people of the entire area in which 
 it is felt that its responsibility lies. 5 
 
 5 See “Churches of Distinction in Town and Country,” Chapter VI. 
 
EVANGELISM 
 
 35 
 
 COMPARATIVE RESULTS 
 
 One question the experience of these churches entirely 
 fails to answer. It is impossible to tell from their records 
 whether the church that conducts an evangelistic campaign 
 is more successful in enlisting new members than the 
 church that does not. The proportionate gain in the two 
 groups of these churches is almost identical. There are 
 some churches in which the normal type of evangelistic 
 campaign simply would not work, and pastors for the most 
 part have been wise enough not to try it. Here and there 
 it has been attempted and has failed; not because it was a 
 campaign but because the conditions required at that time 
 a different kind of evangelism. There are other places 
 where an evangelistic campaign has been attempted with 
 success. Many people, especially Sunday school members 
 accustomed to such meetings, wait till the meetings are held 
 to declare themselves and unite with the church. This, of 
 course, is a matter of tradition and inheritance rather than 
 of method; and in the last analysis it is probably by such 
 considerations that the success or failure of an evangelistic 
 campaign is determined. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The evangelistic program of any church may therefore, 
 with good reason, include many of the following features: 
 
 1. An annual house-to-house religious census or survey, union 
 in nature where there is more than one church, to locate the 
 unchurched and ascertain the ideas of the people regarding 
 the program of the church. 
 
 2 . An enlistment of the entire membership in the evangelistic 
 work through letters, cottage prayer meetings, training of 
 personal workers, publicity, and the actual use of member¬ 
 ship in services, especially in outlying neighborhoods. 
 
 3. The cultivation of all prospective members through every 
 possible person or agency by means of—r 
 
 (a) A class to prepare for church membership. 
 
 (b) Decision Day in the Sunday school. 
 
36 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 (c) Use of social occasions for tactful cultivation of 
 prospects. 
 
 (d) Use of special occasions as church-joining days. 
 
 (e) Evangelistic note in sermons prior to an evangel¬ 
 istic campaign, if one is held, and at intervals 
 throughout the year. 
 
 (f) An evangelistic campaign. 
 
 (g) An effort to reach the entire community and every 
 age, sex and economic group within it. 
 
 4. A careful follow-up of the campaign, and an enlistment of 
 new members in the service and activities of the church. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Making of a Country Parish — Harlow S. Mills. Mis¬ 
 sionary Education Movement in the United States and Canada, 
 1914. 126 pp. $.50. 
 
 Parish Evangelism — F. L. Fagley. Revell, 1921. 121 pp. $1.00. 
 Evangelism —F. W. Hannan. Abingdon Press. $1.50. 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 1. State how a church may best bring into membership per¬ 
 sons of the following groups: 
 
 (a) Children of members. 
 
 (b) Children of non-church members. 
 
 (c) Persons belonging to churches elsewhere. 
 
 (d) Church-goers, outside the membership. 
 
 (e) People in outlying districts who in the ordinary 
 course of things come into contact with a church only 
 at weddings and funerals. 
 
 2. Ask a dozen men who are outside the church why they are 
 not church members, and classify their replies. 
 
 3. Why do people who have been active church workers for 
 years often leave their church letters at the bottom of their 
 trunks when they move to a new place ? What special 
 measures may be taken to win such people to membership 
 in a church of their new community? 
 
 4. “The best tract is the tract in boots.” Explain and discuss 
 this statement. 
 
 5. State reasons why so many churches fail to retain a hold 
 on their Sunday school children after the age of 14. 
 
 6. In holding Decision Day in the Sunday school, how may 
 
EVANGELISM 37 
 
 those in charge guard against the danger of the same child 
 making a “decision” year after year? 
 
 7. Give whatever suggestions you can in regard to classes to 
 prepare for church membership. Should they be connected 
 with the Sunday school? When and where should they be 
 held? Over how long a period should the session last? 
 What should be the subjects taught? Should the teacher 
 be a Sunday school teacher, or the pastor? 
 
 8. How old ought children to be before they are permitted to 
 join the church? 
 
 9. Which of the three times of year usually chosen for special 
 services—the first week in January, the week or weeks 
 before Easter, and some time in the fall—seems to you to 
 have the most advantages? State those advantages. 
 
 10. Give reasons for beginning preparation some time in ad¬ 
 vance for a series of special meetings. How long should 
 this preparatory period last? 
 
 11. Why do successful churches do well in conducting their 
 evangelistic campaigns as churches, rather than in leaving 
 the matter entirely in the hands of the pastor or of a paid 
 evangelist ? 
 
 12. Compare the effectiveness as leaders of evangelistic serv¬ 
 ices of the pastor, a neighboring pastor, a professional 
 evangelist. 
 
 13. What danger lies in the practice of some churches of re¬ 
 ceiving immediately into full membership persons professing 
 a change of heart under excitement of a revival service ? 
 
 14. Suggest a course of action by which persons converted at 
 special services may be brought into permanent and mu¬ 
 tually helpful relationship with the church. 
 
 15. In your own community, are evangelistic meetings held with 
 good effect ? Explain. 
 
Chapter II 
 
 WORSHIP AND SERVICES 
 
 Worship has been from time immemorial one of the most 
 important expressions of religion. Whether the devotional 
 spirit of the services might have been weakened by the 
 multiplicity of activities in the churches studied, was a 
 pressing question in the minds of the investigators. But 
 the testimony of the field workers on this point was almost 
 unanimous—the services of worship were found to fulfill 
 their purpose. These churches surpass the average church 
 in this part of their program as much as in their other 
 activities. 
 
 Reports from the field frequently alluded to the “atmos¬ 
 phere” of services. This atmosphere is partly explained, 
 perhaps, by the feeling of expectancy with which the people 
 week after week enter the sanctuary. They come desiring 
 to worship. In the past they have not been disappointed. 
 Another partial explanation concerns the ministers. These 
 men are described as quiet but dynamic, restrained but 
 forceful; and such a temper helps to arouse a spirit of 
 worship. 
 
 Study of the mechanics of the services shows that these 
 churches pay close attention to every detail. In the churches 
 of liturgical denominations the liturgy was read not as a 
 mere matter of form but with understanding and feeling. 
 Of one pastor of a non-liturgical church a member ex¬ 
 claimed : “His prayers alone are worth his salary.” The 
 scripture readings, too, are selected with care and read with 
 understanding and impressiveness. The ministers do not 
 look upon the prayers and the reading of scripture as mere 
 preliminaries to the sermon. Every detail is directed toward 
 an end; and that end is to lift the people out of their ordinary 
 material concerns into the realm of the Spirit. 
 
 38 
 
WORSHIP AND SERVICES 
 
 39 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 The music of these churches is such as to add to the im¬ 
 pressiveness of the worship. Many of the churches have 
 pipe organs, and not infrequently the organ has recently been 
 installed. The music is usually under the charge of trained 
 musicians, some of them volunteers, others working on 
 salary. Some of these leaders have for years given con¬ 
 siderable time to weekly rehearsals, to preparation for special 
 musical features like trios or quartettes, and to the long 
 periods of training necessary for rendering oratorios or 
 cantatas. One church, besides having a mixed choir, has a 
 double male quartette; another has both junior and senior 
 choirs; another has a chorus; others have bands or 
 orchestras. 
 
 SERMONS 
 
 The sermons showed a considerable variety. The minis¬ 
 ters do not over-emphasize any one phase of Christian ex¬ 
 perience. They are equally at home in dealing with the 
 ethical aspects of Christianity and with its greater spiritual 
 realities. They do not shrink from a vigorous application 
 of the principles of Jesus Christ either to a local situation 
 or to the great mysteries of life. As one of these men 
 said: “The first element of success in the ministry of a 
 small town community church is emphasis on those things 
 that all have in common. The minister must not ride 
 theological hobbies. As sure as he does, the people disagree 
 with him. I don’t preach special beliefs. I do preach the 
 Kingdom of God as hard as I can,.” 
 
 THE MORNING SERVICE 
 
 A number of these churches make a contrast between 
 their morning and evening services. In the morning comes 
 the formal service of worship, when the theme of the sermon 
 is related to some great fundamental Christian truth, and 
 when the music is dignified and classical. 
 
40 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 Worship for Children 
 
 The opening part of the morning service is frequently 
 devoted to the children. From Sunday school they march 
 into the church for their own brief period of worship and 
 a sermonette, sometimes illustrated. At Collbran, though 
 adults may attend, none may enter after the opening of the 
 service. At the conclusion of their special exercises the 
 children leave. At the Methodist Church of Rolla, Missouri, 
 the children are regularly organized as a junior congrega¬ 
 tion. Once a month they have a special morning service, 
 with their own choir and ushers. 
 
 THE SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE 
 
 The service in the evening is less formal. There is more 
 congregational singing, and this may be led by such groups 
 as a junior choir or a Sunday school orchestra. At the 
 Lutheran Church of Stanton, Iowa, every other Sunday 
 evening service is preceded by an organ recital of classical 
 music; and the singing is led by a vested choir of fifty 
 members who also frequently render special numbers. Some 
 churches occasionally devote the whole evening hour to a 
 service of song. Such musical services are not designed to 
 make it unnecessary for the minister to preach a sermon; 
 they form parts of a plan covering the whole church year, 
 and are always organized around some one idea. 
 
 The Sermon 
 
 The evening sermon deals with some topic of ethical and 
 often of local interest. The Baptist Church of New Mon¬ 
 mouth, New Jersey, generally plans to cover at the evening 
 services the wider interests of the church. The first Sunday 
 evening of each month is given to the church and missions; 
 and frequent use is made of the stereopticon. The second 
 Sunday evening concerns the church and the school. The 
 third is devoted to the church and the government; to such 
 subjects as “Law Enforcement,” “The Duties of Christian 
 Citizenship,” and “The Ethics of Taxation.” On the fourth 
 
WORSHIP AND SERVICES 
 
 41 
 
 and fifth Sundays the theme is the community; and among 
 more usual topics a place is given to “The Home” and to 
 “Good Health.” 
 
 M oving-Pictures 
 
 Moving-pictures are used in the evening by a number of 
 churches either to illustrate Biblical scenes and passages or 
 to present ethical truths. One Sunday evening program at 
 a frontier church included not only the picture but a violin 
 solo, congregational singing of favorite hymns, scripture 
 readings to illustrate the picture which was Biblical, and a 
 brief talk by the pastor. 
 
 Addresses by Invited Speakers 
 
 Occasionally the address at an evening service is made by 
 an outsider. The use of special speakers may, of course, be 
 a confession of laziness on the part of the pastor. The wise 
 minister, however, is eager to induce men better qualified 
 than he to speak on topics of special interest and appeal. 
 Among the speakers who had recently addressed the churches 
 studied were a judge of a State Supreme Court, a 
 Y. M. C. A. secretary, denominational leaders, and returned 
 missionaries. 
 
 Using the Membership 
 
 To give variety to the evening program, some churches 
 put the service in charge of one or another of the organiza¬ 
 tions, such as the men’s class or the young people’s society. 
 Sometimes an individual leads the service; sometimes the 
 group in charge presents a program. 
 
 Forum 
 
 None of the churches makes use of the open forum on 
 Sunday evenings. This recent development has proved 
 valuable, however, in the experience of certain churches 
 investigated by the Committee on Social and Religious Sur¬ 
 veys in other rural studies. At Sheridan, Wyoming, for 
 
42 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 example, a forum is conducted under the auspices of the 
 men’s clubs of two churches which draws an average attend¬ 
 ance of four hundred. Its principles are as follows: 
 
 The complete development of democracy in America. 
 
 A common meeting ground for all the people in the interest 
 of truth and mutual understanding, and for the cultivation of 
 community spirit. 
 
 The freest and fullest open discussion of all vital questions 
 affecting human welfare. 
 
 Participation on the part of the audience from the Forum 
 Floor whether by questions or discussion. 
 
 The freedom of the Forum management from responsibility 
 for utterances by speakers from the platform or floor. 
 
 Among the subjects presented have been Community Prob¬ 
 lems, The Church and Industrial Conflict, The Golden Rule 
 in Business: Is It Practicable?, The Farmers’ Movement 
 in America, Bolshevism, Feeding the World: Is It America’s 
 Job? 1 
 
 In another instance a forum held by a country church 
 doubled the evening attendance in three months. A subject 
 is given out in advance and a committee of six is appointed, 
 three representing one side and three the other. The formal 
 debate is followed by a general discussion. Over half the 
 audience is made up of young people. 
 
 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE 
 
 A number of these churches have strong mid-week meet¬ 
 ings which are not stereotyped but vary from week to week, 
 usually in accordance with a previously arranged program. 
 At Rolla, Missouri, the congregation is divided into groups, 
 one of which in the absence of the minister takes charge of 
 the meeting and leads a discussion upon modern implica¬ 
 tions of some part of the New Testament. An interesting 
 experiment has been made in Garrettsville, Ohio, where the 
 United Church has set apart the evening hours of every 
 Wednesday as “Church Night.” At six o’clock the women 
 
 1 See the Committee’s publication, “The Church on the Changing 
 Frontier” (George H. Doran Company), page 87. 
 
WORSHIP AND SERVICES 
 
 43 
 
 serve a supper at cost to all that may come; and the supper 
 is followed by community singing lasting about twenty min¬ 
 utes. Then there is a short devotional service; and after 
 that either an open forum or an address, perhaps by some 
 outside speaker, followed by discussion. The average at¬ 
 tendance is just short of ioo. Church nights are also ob¬ 
 served by the Presbyterian Church of Davis, California, a 
 short address being delivered on some topic of community 
 interest adapted to attract young people. 
 
 At the Brick Presbyterian Church at Perry, New York, 
 every other Wednesday evening is devoted to a course in 
 Church History. The class uses a textbook, copies of which 
 are owned by twenty-four families; and the average attend¬ 
 ance is thirty-five. The mid-week service of Grace Church, 
 at Spencer, Iowa, is varied in character, sometimes taking 
 the form of a study course in evangelism; sometimes that of 
 an old-fashioned Methodist experience meeting; while at 
 other times there are talks by the minister. The Presby¬ 
 terian Church in Novato, California, has replaced the prayer¬ 
 meeting with a moving-picture program. 
 
 One of the most unusual contributions to worship made 
 by any of these churches is found at Buckhorn, Kentucky. 
 At irregular hours once a day for years, a woman of this 
 congregation has rung the church bell. That ringing has 
 become known as the “Prayer Bell. ,, Whenever it is heard 
 through the mountain valleys, every one stops for a moment 
 of prayer. If the children are on the playground, instantly 
 there is silence and reverence. If transactions are going on 
 at the community store, proprietor and purchaser, at the 
 sound of the bell, stand for a moment together before their 
 God. 
 
 On the program of these churches the services of worship 
 hold a conspicuous place. The churches do not attract their 
 members solely through their Sunday schools and their com¬ 
 munity activities. They make their appeals through many- 
 sided programs of Christian service, which include religious 
 education, community service, and worship. Among these 
 indispensable activities, each church apportions time and 
 effort in its own way. 
 
44 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 Every detail of the service is considered important, and each 
 is made to contribute to the effect of the whole. 
 
 Music is used in many forms and ways. 
 
 Sermons are varied in topic but cover in the course of a year 
 the full range of Christian experience. For the children some 
 of the churches provide a service of worship of their own. 
 
 The moving-picture or stereopticon is used at evening services 
 to illustrate Biblical events and moral truths. Use may also be 
 made of a forum. Some of the churches conduct mid-week 
 services along familiar lines; but a larger number are trying 
 new departures. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Public Worship —T. Harwood Pattison. American Baptist 
 
 Publication Society. 1900. 265 pp. $1.25. 
 
 Art of Public Worship — Percy Dearmer. London: Standard 
 
 Publishing Company. 1920. 213 pp. $2.00. 
 
 The prayers that close the daily reading in Dr. Harry Emer¬ 
 son Fosdick’s books, “The Meaning of Prayer” ($1.15), “The 
 Meaning of Service” ($1.25), and “The Meaning of Faith” 
 ($ T * 35 ) (ah published by the Association Press), should prove 
 very suggestive. In this connection should also be mentioned 
 “Prayers of the Social Awakening” by Walter Rauschenbusch 
 (published by Pilgrim Press—$1.00). 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 I. “Worship exists primarily for the sake of making articulate 
 the voice of the Spirit. And for this a group of earnest 
 souls is a prime requisite.” 2 If this statement of the pur¬ 
 pose of worship does not satisfy you, write a substitute. 
 Then, having in mind the purpose of worship, draw prac¬ 
 tical conclusions as to the morning service of the country 
 church, considering in particular: 
 
 (1) Frequency 
 
 (2) Attendance 
 
 (3) Music 
 
 (4) Sermon 
 
 (5) Other parts of the program. 
 
 2 From an editorial in the “Community Churchman,” January, 1923 
 p. 260. 
 
WORSHIP AND SERVICES 
 
 45 
 
 2. “Will the radio supplant the church?” 3 Support your 
 opinion. 
 
 3. Is the recital of the Apostles’ Creed a helpful part of wor¬ 
 ship for an audience today? Explain. 
 
 4. Several collections of prayers for common worship have 
 been recently published. May judicious use of such prayers, 
 and of the Episcopal prayer book, contribute to the effec¬ 
 tiveness of the service for churches whose worship is free? 
 If so, how? 
 
 5. What connection is possible between the spirit of worship 
 and church music ? How adequately does the music of your 
 church fulfill its office? How may it be improved? 
 
 6. Explain the psychological reason why many people believe 
 that the church auditorium should be kept sacred to worship. 
 Where there is no other place for entertainments and social 
 occasions, what should be done? 
 
 7. “The day is past when one man can stand up and tell every¬ 
 body what’s what.” Discuss this assertion, made by a 
 thoughtful woman living in the country. Mention any ten¬ 
 dencies that may have lessened the authority of the preacher. 
 How should the new attitude of his hearers be met by the 
 minister? 
 
 8. “I see a Sunday morning in the future, with all the people 
 gathered in one great temple for devotion. . . . Houses are 
 empty, theaters closed, books and newspapers laid aside, the 
 noise of the streets become a silence. The Community is at 
 worship !” 1 Discuss the practicability of : 
 
 (1) Getting everybody to church. 
 
 (2) Getting all sorts of people into the same church. 
 
 9. State the respective advantages, for the training of children 
 in worship, of the three following courses: 
 
 (1) A separate service. 
 
 (2) A part of the general service, including a brief 
 children’s sermon. 
 
 (3) The modification_of the whole service in con¬ 
 sideration of the needs of children. 
 
 10. What religious needs of your community, not fully met by 
 the Sunday morning service, should be satisfied on Sunday 
 evening? Outline a series of services lasting from the first 
 of November to the end of April, adapted to meet these needs. 
 
 11. “In too many communities . . . religion is treated no longer 
 
 8 Title of an editorial in a religious periodical. 
 
 4 J. H. Holmes, “New Churches for Old,” p. 312, Dodd, 1922. 
 
46 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 as a primary need, but is introduced surreptitiously between 
 stereopticon slides.” 5 Does this statement set forth a real 
 danger? If so, how may the danger be avoided? 
 
 12. If the prayer meeting is attended only by half a dozen aged 
 saints, what should the church do—drop it altogether, 
 modify it, or substitute something else? Make your answer 
 specific and contributory. 
 
 8 Shailer Mathews, “Scientific Management in the Churches/’ p. 2. 
 
Chapter III 
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 Religious education in these churches gives evidence of 
 hopeful experimentation in better methods of training their 
 constituency. 
 
 THE EQUIPMENT 
 
 The chapter on “The Plant and Its Equipment” tells of 
 the efforts made to provide their church schools with the 
 best equipment within their means. Almost all now have 
 separate rooms or curtained spaces for certain classes. The 
 reader will find information regarding these and other parts 
 of the equipment in the chapter referred to. 
 
 PUPILS 
 
 The total Sunday school enrollment of these churches 
 equals about 90 per cent, of the total resident church mem¬ 
 bership. In twenty of the churches the enrollment of the 
 Sunday school is larger than that of the church. In six the 
 school is decidedly the smaller; but there is an unusually 
 large school in connection with an even larger church in each 
 of four of these. The high ratio is even more significant in 
 the light of the fact that half the pupils come from farm 
 homes, and of the further fact that the parishes are far more 
 extended than is the average parish. 
 
 1 
 
 Non-Evangelical Pupils 
 
 In about a fourth of the communities in which these 
 churches are situated, there are non-evangelical elements in 
 
 47 
 
48 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 the population which are either not reached or not closely 
 held by religious institutions of their own. From families 
 among these a small number of pupils, most of them Roman 
 Catholic, attend the Sunday schools. At Bingham Canyon, 
 Utah, the regular attendants of the Sunday school include 
 thirteen children of Mormon families. These few schools 
 draw more pupils from non-evangelical groups than do all 
 the 1,000 schools investigated by the Committee on Social 
 and Religious Surveys in its follow-up study of the Town 
 and Country surveys begun by the Interchurch World 
 Movement. 
 
 Attendance 
 
 The average attendance, for all the schools taken to¬ 
 gether, is 66 per cent, of the total enrollment; which is 
 virtually the same as the average for the schools in the 
 twenty-five typical counties surveyed by the Committee on 
 Social and Religious Surveys. As for the schools under the 
 average, almost all were contending with serious difficulties, 
 such as Sunday work that kept people away, unusually large 
 parishes, very bad roads in the spring, or student members 
 absent during long vacations. Ten of the schools had a 
 proportion of attendance about equal to the average; the 
 other twelve exceeded it, six reaching 75 per cent, or more, 
 with three of these exceeding 88 per cent. The records of 
 these last schools approximate or exceed the ordinary ratio 
 of attendance of public schools. On the whole, then, the 
 record of attendance for the schools of these forty churches 
 is decidedly good. 
 
 For this there are several reasons. (1) Their work is of 
 interest and value. In the younger classes, for example, 
 handwork and sand-tables are commonly used in teaching 
 the lesson. (2) The school spirit is high. (3) Many of the 
 teachers make personal calls at the homes of their pupils. 
 (4) A large part of the general program of the church is, 
 in many cases, conducted through organized classes. Eligi¬ 
 bility for athletic teams depends upon regular attendance at 
 Sunday school. (5) The schools themselves emphasize 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 49 
 
 regularity of attendance by using perfect-attendance diplo¬ 
 mas, by drawing attention to the record of the day in com¬ 
 parison with that of the corresponding Sunday of the pre¬ 
 vious year, and by rewarding perfect attendance throughout 
 a given period with honorable mention or prizes. (6) A 
 healthy rivalry is cultivated between classes and between 
 departments of the school. 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 The organization of these church schools follows the 
 usual lines. The differences between them and many other 
 schools is that in every one of them the organization works. 
 The superintendent is usually a man prominent in the com¬ 
 munity. A few of the larger schools have two superinten¬ 
 dents ; and in the very largest schools, which are graded, a 
 superintendent has been chosen for each department. The 
 organization, which follows the usual lines, includes in the 
 school proper the departments suggested by the Interna¬ 
 tional Sunday School Association, namely, Beginners, 
 Primary, Junior, Intermediate, Senior and Adult. In addi¬ 
 tion, there is a Cradle Roll and a Home Department, both 
 of which are recruiting grounds for the school itself. 
 
 To the practice suggested in the abundant literature upon 
 these departments, no significant exceptions were discovered. 
 
 Home Department and Cradle Roll 
 
 The Home Department is adapted ideally for those unable 
 to attend the church school. Many such, especially shut-ins, 
 are found in the Home Departments of the schools under 
 consideration. Those not so incapacitated as to make their 
 attendance impossible, are urged by several schools to join 
 adult classes. The Cradle Roll, too, is carefully watched. 
 Birthdays of the children are not forgotten. Several schools 
 hold annual parties for the babies and their mothers. One 
 church has appropriated to the Cradle Roll an attractive 
 room in the church building, which has been decorated with 
 flowers and with pictures of the members. Here there is 
 held for the babies a service with a brief and simple program. 
 
50 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 The parish visitors cooperate with the Cradle Roll Super¬ 
 intendent. The church shows genuine interest in the de¬ 
 velopment of the children. 1 
 
 Classes 
 
 The number of classes varies from three or four in the 
 very smallest schools, to thirty in the largest. In all these 
 classes the morale is high. Many are organized and have 
 names and mottoes. 2 Since the work of the school is taken 
 in real earnest, there is no difficulty in enlisting the interest 
 of the classes in the curriculum. 
 
 CURRICULUM 
 
 Graded Lessons 
 
 More than half the schools use graded lessons. For the 
 most part, these are the International Graded, but several 
 employ other systems, a few of which are rather ambitious 
 in scope. Graded lessons, of course, call for some home 
 work. The schools report no difficulty in having this work 
 done. The class and school spirit, the interest in the work 
 itself, the excellence of the teaching, all help to insure suc¬ 
 cess. Graded lessons are found even in some of the smaller 
 schools, under the modified graded plan which provides for 
 each department, one class covering the work of the depart¬ 
 ment in several successive years. The experience of these 
 churches shows that the use of graded lessons is possible in 
 the church schools in the country and in the smaller towns. 
 
 Bible Study for Public School Credit 
 
 Three of the communities recognize the importance of 
 Bible study by giving it public school credit. The work is 
 
 1 One church not included in this investigation distributed the 
 government bulletins on child-care to the mothers of the babies on 
 the Cradle Roll. Another church holds in its building a child-clinic 
 where, under the wise guidance of a woman physician, it is but a 
 short step from discussion of the child’s physical to that of his 
 spiritual welfare. 
 
 2 See chapter on “Work for Age and Sex Groups.” 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 51 
 
 done eitner in connection with the public school, in classes 
 taught by the minister, or in classes of the church school. 
 The first method is used in Bible study in the high school at 
 Dayton, Indiana, where a part of the regular work of the 
 Junior year is a course on the life of Christ. Bible study 
 by special classes of the church school is given credit in the 
 public schools of Whiting, Iowa, and in those of Montrose, 
 Colorado. At the end of the year there is an examination; 
 and the pupils who pass it receive credit for a half-year’s 
 work. 
 
 At Duncannon, Pennsylvania, a similar plan is now being 
 developed. Daily religious instruction, in connection with 
 that given in the Sunday schools, will be provided in the 
 public schools if all the churches agree to the plan, and if 
 the teachers employed for the classes are of as high grade 
 as the present public school teachers. 
 
 CHURCH SCHOOL TEACHERS AND THEIR PREPARATION 
 
 More than a sweet Christian character is demanded of the 
 teachers in the schools of the successful churches. An honest 
 effort is made to select individuals fitted to the particular 
 task. 
 
 One-fourth of the teachers are men, a surprisingly high 
 average. Another cause of surprise is the number of teach¬ 
 ers belonging to the professional class. Among these the 
 doctors lead, a fact that is a tribute to the program and to 
 the ideals of these schools; for no one is busier than a 
 country doctor. His investment of time in such an enter¬ 
 prise is a real contribution. 
 
 Training Classes 
 
 Half these churches give their teachers definite training. 
 In some instances the class meets each week; sometimes the 
 sessions are less frequent. The meeting is held either during 
 the hour of the church school or on the evening of the mid¬ 
 week service. The various courses used have been recom¬ 
 mended either by the denominational authorities in religious 
 
52 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 education or by the state or national Sunday school associa¬ 
 tion. A number of the courses cover three or four years, 
 and include not only the Bible but the elements of pedagogy 
 and child psychology. A number of the churches supplement 
 the work of the teacher of the training class by bringing in 
 on occasion specialists in different phases of religious edu¬ 
 cation, whose lectures are followed by general discussion. 
 These teacher-training courses enroll both prospective 
 teachers and teachers in service. 
 
 Workers' Conferences 
 
 In addition to training classes, many of the churches con¬ 
 duct workers’ conferences or boards of religious education. 
 Such gatherings are often called faculty meetings. The 
 business routine of the school, which too often consumes 
 the time of a teacher’s meeting, is sometimes relegated to a 
 small Executive Committee, so that the whole period may 
 be given over to the discussion of improved methods. The 
 Methodist school at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, requires from 
 every teacher a monthly report under sixteen heads. Upon 
 the blank provided the teacher must state how he has in¬ 
 creased the knowledge and interest of the class; to what 
 extent he has followed up absentees; and how much time he 
 has devoted to preparation of the lessons and to other Sun¬ 
 day school activities. Space is also provided for suggestions 
 from the teacher. 
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES 
 
 The church schools under consideration utilize for their 
 purposes a number of special occasions. At Christmas and 
 Easter are special services for the whole school intended to 
 fix in the minds of the children the meaning of these festi¬ 
 vals. In such celebrations a large place is given to music 
 and pageantry. 
 
 Rally Day 
 
 On Rally Day, these schools make special efforts to rally 
 the members for the work of the opening year and to enlist 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 53 
 
 additional members. Some of the schools have two Rally 
 Days, one in the fall at the end of harvest and another in the 
 spring after the roads have dried up so that attendance at 
 church is more regular. For these Rally Days, the schools 
 make careful preparation. They stimulate attendance in 
 the ways described in the chapter on “Publicity.” The 
 teachers visit the homes of their pupils. Every detail, from 
 program to decorations, is referred to some member of the 
 faculty or workers’ council. Preparation for the fall rally 
 frequently begins in early August. Just before Rally Day 
 some schools conduct a religious census or survey. Some 
 churches have adopted names suggestive of the activities of 
 their respective regions. At Collbran, Colorado, for ex¬ 
 ample, Rally Day has been rechristened “Round-up Day.” 
 A few schools have set aside the entire week prior to the 
 Rally Day as church school week. Meetings every evening 
 cover the different departments and activities ; and during 
 the week a special drive for new members is conducted. 
 
 Decision Day 
 
 To Decision Day reference has already been made in the 
 chapter on “Evangelism.” Where this is used, it is not a 
 mere matter of form. In some schools the decision of a 
 child for the Christian life results in his enrollment in a 
 class to prepare for church membership. 
 
 Other Days 
 
 Almost all the schools observe Promotion Day, on which 
 pupils who have finished the work of one grade or depart¬ 
 ment are transferred to a higher grade or another depart¬ 
 ment. Other schools make use of a Stewardship Day, on 
 which the principle of stewardship is impressed by appro¬ 
 priate lessons, responsive readings and hymns. Still others, 
 on such occasions as Thanksgiving and Christmas, take 
 offerings for special benevolent enterprises. 
 
54 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 General Social Occasions 
 
 Most of the churches, in addition to the activities of 
 organized classes, have various social occasions for the school 
 as a whole. Chief among these is the annual picnic. In a 
 few communities this is an interdenominational affair and in 
 others a community affair. The arrangements are usually 
 planned so as to provide enjoyment for the whole family, 
 the various activities enlisting every age- and sex-group, so 
 that the day becomes a veritable play festival. Preparations 
 are made with extreme care, and the program is carried out 
 with dispatch. Of other socials for the school as a whole, 
 some are held quarterly, some on particular occasions such 
 as Hallowe’en, Valentine’s Day, or St. Patrick’s Day. 
 
 INTERDENOMINATIONAL COOPERATION 
 
 More than half the schools are active in the larger work 
 of religious education, being represented by delegates at 
 institutes or state and county conventions. These delegates 
 for the most part pay their own expenses; but in case of 
 larger meetings farther away the school often assumes 
 financial responsibility. The benefit of representation in 
 such meetings is fully recognized by these schools. To the 
 application of ideas received at such a convention one of 
 them attributes the fact that in the past few years it has 
 nearly trebled its attendance. 
 
 DAILY VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL 
 
 For over a decade progressive city churches have con¬ 
 ducted Daily Vacation Bible Schools. The experiences of 
 certain of the churches surveyed proves that this form of 
 work is also useful in town and country. Such schools were 
 conducted by eleven churches of the forty, a very high 
 proportion. Among the eleven were churches in towns, in 
 villages and in open country. Activities of the various 
 schools vary somewhat. They include religious instruction, 
 mission study, Bible study, dramatization of Biblical inch 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 55 
 
 dents, organized play, story-telling hours, and classes in 
 carpentry, basketry, sewing and home-making. Liturgical 
 churches also taught the catechism. Several schools used 
 sand-tables, especially for the younger classes. During the 
 course of the morning, every school devoted a period to 
 organized play. 
 
 Leadership 
 
 The securing of teachers for this work presents difficulties 
 that are serious but not insuperable. Responsibility was 
 assumed, in several instances, by the minister or his wife; 
 in other cases by teachers, by college students home for vaca¬ 
 tion, or by married women with training and leisure. In a 
 few instances the leaders gave their services; but these were 
 cases in which the schools lasted only two weeks. In all 
 other cases, full-time teachers were paid. The money needed 
 was raised, in part by an offering from the children en¬ 
 rolled, and in part by one from parents who attended the 
 final demonstration session of the school. The full-time 
 workers, of whom there were from three to six, were 
 assisted by volunteers, who in one case numbered seventeen. 
 To house the enterprise, public school buildings were turned 
 over to the church in two instances. In one of these the 
 school was an interdenominational affair whose creation was 
 inspired, and which was led, by the church covered in this 
 study. 
 
 Terms and Enrollment 
 
 The average term was one month. A few of the schools 
 ran six weeks; some of the others only two. In none was 
 the enrollment under fifty; in six it exceeded ioo. The 
 proportion of attendance fell below 75 per cent, in only 
 one instance. I11 other words, the Daily Vacation Bible 
 School made a better attendance record during its session 
 than the Sunday schools of these churches made during the 
 year. 
 
 Parents were usually much impressed by the work of the 
 school, and almost all the churches were encouraged by 
 
56 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 enthusiastic comments. One business man became so much 
 interested that he asked permission to have a moving-picture 
 reel made of the activities. Later this was shown at the 
 State Synod of the denomination concerned. So far as 
 known, it is the only reel of its kind in the country. 
 
 MISSIONARY EDUCATION 
 
 In each of these church schools the curriculum includes 
 mission study. The lessons are sometimes weekly and 
 sometimes monthly. In a few instances, a longer period is 
 set aside once a quarter. In giving instruction regarding 
 missionary matters the schools use either of two methods, 
 or both. They specialize in the study of the particular field 
 which is served by a missionary or native worker supported 
 by the school or by the foreign pastor of the church and use 
 for the purpose letters sent from the field; or they use 
 leaflets or textbooks, denominational or not, and conduct the 
 recitations by questions and answers. The church in the 
 Baptist Rural Parish of Arnold, Nebraska, has even set aside 
 in the tower of its new building a Missionary Room. Here 
 are to be gathered curios from the foreign field and pictures 
 of missionary work. In this room the classes of the school 
 will meet in rotation under the direction of a special teacher 
 of Missions. 
 
 Mission Study Outside the Church School 
 
 Other church organizations study Missions, either topi¬ 
 cally or through the use of denominational or interdenomina¬ 
 tional textbooks. The activity in this field of societies of 
 women and of young women is well known. Young people’s 
 societies or junior societies often include in their program 
 for the year provision for mission study either at regular 
 intervals or weekly during certain periods. A few Sunday 
 school classes devote to the subject periods outside the 
 regular session. Groups of small children, such as the 
 King’s Heralds of some Methodist churches, follow with 
 surprising regularity the little mission courses prepared for 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 57 
 
 them. Of such groups several of our churches have from 
 two to five, with a combined roll for each church of over a 
 hundred children. In connection with the Methodist Epis¬ 
 copal church at Rolla, Missouri, for instance, 116 children 
 in five groups hold monthly meetings two and a half hours 
 long, at which the combined average attendance is 107. 
 
 Schools of Missions 
 
 In four churches missionary interest is so keen that the 
 entire congregation in each case is annually organized into 
 a graded school of missions. The Interdenominational Text 
 Books for different age-groups are used. These schools 
 meet once a week for six weeks, sometimes on Sunday 
 evenings at the hour usually devoted to Christian Endeavor; 
 in other cases on the evening of a week-day. At Imperial, 
 California, the session is held Sunday evening, from six 
 o'clock to seven; then refreshments are served and after¬ 
 ward the entire school attends the evening service. To make 
 their teaching the more interesting and impressive, all these 
 schools of missions use stereopticon slides and pageantry. 
 The Middle Octoraro Presbyterian church, situated in the 
 open country, divides its school membership into seven 
 groups, making it convenient for sessions to be held at the 
 seven neighborhood centers of the parish. Each group has 
 two teachers enlisted from the residents of the neighbor¬ 
 hood. Last year, the average attendance for each group was 
 twenty-two per week, so that the total weekly average was 
 154, equivalent to more than half the resident church mem¬ 
 bership. The teachers have, of course, the advice and assist¬ 
 ance of the pastor; but as he was the leader of one of the 
 sections, he could not visit any of the others. This interest¬ 
 ing variation of method shows how a church with a large 
 parish can follow its members into their home neighborhoods. 
 
 Other Methods of Missionary Education 
 
 The churches that either support or assist in supporting 
 workers on the foreign field, utilize in missionary education 
 
58 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 letters from these foreign representatives. Frequent refer¬ 
 ence has been made to the place given to pageantry. Some 
 of these pageants proved so popular that they were repeated 
 before audiences averaging more than 200. The churches 
 also circulate denominational periodicals, both general and 
 missionary; distribute leaflets; and utilize to the full the 
 resources and the property of the Boards of Home and 
 Foreign Missions. They also give missionary entertainments 
 and plays, provide stereopticon lectures, and invite special 
 speakers on missions. 
 
 LIFE SERVICE RECRUITS 
 
 During the past ten years eighteen of these forty churches 
 have sent sixty-four young people into professional Chris¬ 
 tian service. Of the sixty-four, forty-two have gone from 
 fourteen churches in the past five years. 3 Some of these 
 churches, and others which have no such representatives yet, 
 have several preparing for Christian service. One church 
 has eight of these recruits. In most of the churches there 
 are from one to three. This record, compared with that of 
 the average church, is phenomenal. The Committee on 
 Social and Religious Surveys has discovered that for the 
 entire country it has taken nearly three schools to furnish a 
 single recruit in the whole period of the last decade. 
 
 ENLISTING FOR PARISH SERVICE 
 
 Enlistment in local work also is important, and in the last 
 analysis a problem of education. This is not left to occa¬ 
 sional appeals and haphazard volunteering on the part of the 
 membership in the various church activities. The strength 
 of these churches is derived in part from the constant pres- 
 
 3 These figures do not include those from a nineteenth church, 
 Buckhorn, Kentucky. This church in the southern mountains has 
 a school as part of its plant. It has not kept complete records 
 but it is a conservative estimate that in the last decade more than 
 100 of its members have gone into one or another type of Christian 
 service. It is perhaps significant that the one church of all the 
 forty which controls the education of its community is the one 
 which has been able to accomplish this significant achievement. 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 59 
 
 sure put upon every available individual to give some regular 
 service in connection with the church program. Several 
 methods of enlistment are used. The Methodist Episcopal 
 church of Duncannon, Pennsylvania, conducts a campaign 
 for service at the time of the annual financial campaign. 
 Members are asked to sign a church loyalty covenant which 
 indicates the kind of service they are willing to accept. A 
 similar method is used by quite a number of other churches, 
 though “Volunteer Day,” as it is sometimes called, is not set 
 at the same time as the financial campaign. One of the cards 
 distributed for volunteers to sign follows: 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH 
 Prairie Grove, Arkansas 
 The Church with a Community Program 
 VOLUNTEER DAY 
 
 Realizing that the success of the church depends upon my 
 efforts, I volunteer for the period of one year, to give my best 
 to the MASTER in every way. And, to do special work as 
 indicated: 
 
 i. Personal work...., 2. Sunday school work...., 3. Group 
 work with boys...., 4. Group work with girls...., 5. Commu¬ 
 nity Social Work...., 6. Gospel Team Work...., 7. Automo¬ 
 bile Service...., 8. Epworth League Work...., 9. Prayer 
 
 Meeting Work...., 10. Boosters’ Work...., 11. Woman’s Mis¬ 
 sionary Society Work... ., 12. Junior Missionary Work...., 
 13. Choir Work...., 14. Gospel Visitation Work...., 15. Gen¬ 
 eral Church Work...., 16. Special Daily Prayer for Revival.... 
 
 Many of us can do several different things; check with pencil 
 the special works you will undertake for the coming year. 
 “Give God Your Best.” 
 
 ..Name-Date. 
 
 LEADERSHIP TRAINING 
 
 Constant efforts are made to train new leaders. Those 
 who accept responsibility are made to exercise it. Member¬ 
 ship on committees, wise distribution of chairmanships, 
 duties in connection with social organizations and the social 
 program are all helpful in developing in young, new, or 
 diffident members those qualities of self-possession and 
 
60 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 leadership upon which so much of the program of these 
 churches depends. Several of the churches have definite 
 classes in leadership-training conducted for periods of from 
 two to four months. In these classes matters of church 
 leadership, social service, Bible Study, and missions are 
 considered. 4 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 Tn regard to religious education, which is one of the most 
 important tasks of the Church, these significant points stand out 
 in the experience of the churches studied: 
 
 So far as possible, classes meet in separate rooms. 
 
 Attendance, which should equal at least 75 per cent, of the 
 enrollment, is stimulated by good teaching, by personal calls in 
 the follow-up of absentees, by rivalry between classes and by an 
 adequate program. 
 
 The general types of organization follow the satisfactory sys¬ 
 tems recommended by denominational boards and by the Inter¬ 
 national Sunday School Association. Many classes are organ¬ 
 ized. 
 
 The Home Department and the Cradle Roll are actively used 
 for recruiting members for the school proper. 
 
 Graded lessons are in general use. 
 
 In connection with a few schools, Bible Study is conducted 
 for high school credit. 
 
 The teachers are of high grade; and the schools use training- 
 classes, workers’ conferences and other means to assist the 
 present teachers and to prepare new ones. 
 
 Special days celebrated include Christmas, Easter, Thanks¬ 
 giving and Rally Day. 
 
 Social life is not neglected. 
 
 Denominational cooperation is general, and has proved 
 valuable. 
 
 Several schools conduct successful Daily Vacation Bible 
 Schools. 
 
 Mission study is part of the program of all the schools and of 
 various other church organizations. A few churches have con¬ 
 ducted successful Schools of Missions. 
 
 These churches have sent forth three times as many profes- 
 
 4 One church not included within the forty has a junior member 
 on each of the official boards and all important committees have at 
 least one member under twenty-one years of age. 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 61 
 
 sional Christian workers proportionately in the past decade as 
 have the churches of typical counties studied by the Committee 
 on Social and Religious Surveys. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Sunday School at Work in Town and Country — William 
 H. Brabham. Doran, 1922. 217 pp. $1.50. 
 
 Week Day Religious Education — Henry F. Cope. Doran, 1921. 
 191 pp. $1.50. 
 
 Organizing the Church School — Henry F. Cope. Doran, 1922. 
 $1.75. A Manual. 
 
 The Teens and the Rural Sunday School — John L. Alexander. 
 
 Association Press, 1914. 151 pp. $.50. 
 
 Principles of Religious Teaching —W. C. Barclay. Abingdon 
 Press. $1.00. 
 
 Many pamphlets of denominational hoards and state Sunday 
 school associations , covering all phases of the work of a 
 church school. 
 
 Indiana Survey of Religious Education — Walter S. Athearn. 
 Committee on Social and Religious Surveys. 3 vols. (Forth¬ 
 coming.) 
 
 Mission Study: 
 
 Training World Christians: A Handbook in Missionary Edu¬ 
 cation— Gilbert Loveland. Methodist Book Concern, 1921. 
 240 pp. $1.25. 
 
 How To Teach Training World Christians — Gilbert Loveland. 
 Paper, $.20. 
 
 The King’s Business: A Study of Increased Efficiency for 
 Women’s Missionary Societies— Maud F. Raymond. Central 
 Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. 1913. 
 Pamphlets of denominational boards, Foreign Missions Con¬ 
 ference of North America arid Missionary Education Move¬ 
 ment. 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 1. “Sunday school,” “church school,” “Bible school,” “school 
 of religion”—What aspect is emphasized by each name? 
 Which aspect is the most important? State clearly your 
 personal conception of the aim of the Sunday school. How 
 nearly is this ideal reached by your own school? 
 
62 
 
 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 2. “One of the chief problems before the Sunday school today 
 is how to make of it a real school.” 1 What lessons may 
 the Sunday school learn from the practice of the public 
 school? 
 
 3. Get from the secretary of your school the average attend¬ 
 ance and the enrollment (omitting Cradle Roll and Home 
 Department) for the past year. What proportion of the 
 enrollment was the average attendance ? The per cent, of 
 attendance for the public school in most places will aver¬ 
 age 85 per cent, and is sometimes over 95 per cent. How 
 does the ratio for your Sunday school bear comparison with 
 this public school standard? With the public school record 
 in your own community? 
 
 4. Is a good Christian necessarily a good Sunday school 
 teacher? State the principal qualification for a successful 
 teacher of (1) children of kindergarten age, (2) boys of 
 twelve, (3) girls of fourteen, (4) young men 18-25. 
 
 5. What may the Sunday school teacher learn by visiting the 
 public school classes in which her pupils are enrolled? 
 
 6. The pastor of one of the forty churches believes that all 
 boys should be taught by men. Do you agree with him? 
 Give reasons for or against this opinion. 
 
 7. Of the boys and young men between 14 and 21 in your 
 community, what proportion are enrolled in the Sunday 
 school? Why are the others outside? 
 
 8. What can the men in the church do to keep the boys in 
 Sunday school? 
 
 9. “In our Sunday school we young people have been made 
 either the ‘cracker’ on the end of the adult whip, or the 
 overhead to the ‘kids.’ We do not like either place.” 2 * * 
 How may a Sunday school prevent its young people feeling 
 that they are in either of these uncomfortable positions? 
 
 10. “But what do we find in the Sunday schools? Study of 
 Israelites, Canaanites, Midianites, Edomites, of no more 
 importance to our age than Scythians and Bactrians.” 8 
 Show how the study of the Bible may be made of great 
 “importance to our age.” What element of truth has Dr. 
 Holmes’s charge, as applied to some Sunday schools ? Does 
 it hit yours? 
 
 1 Coe, George A., “Education in Religion and Morals” p. 287. 
 
 2 Thompson, James V., “Handbook for Workers with Young 
 
 People.” 
 
 'Holmes, J. H., “New Churches for Old,” p. 21. 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 63 
 
 11. Should the Bible be the only textbook in the Sunday school? 
 If not, what subjects should also be treated? 
 
 12. “The educational efforts of the church ... do not have 
 Christian efficiency as their goal. The Sunday school is 
 committed to informational ideals.” 5 In what respects do 
 the Sunday schools of our forty churches really pursue the 
 ideal of Christian efficiency as distinct from the mere im¬ 
 parting of information ? What is the state of things in this 
 respect in your own Sunday school ? 
 
 13. “Spiritual illiteracy abounds in the churches themselves.” a 
 Just what does Professor Coe mean by this? Do you con¬ 
 sider the statement true? If so, how can the Sunday school 
 help to remedy the condition? 
 
 14. “A church must ultimately rise and fall with its Sunday 
 school. . . . And yet, I fancy, most churches will appro¬ 
 priate more money for a quartette choir than for maps, 
 apparatus, textbooks, instruction, and other indispensable 
 requirements of a thoroughly equipped Sunday school.” 7 
 Make a list of items of equipment urgently needed by your 
 own Sunday school, and ascertain the price of each. How 
 does the total compare with the sum spent annually on the 
 choir ? 
 
 15. How may contests be so used that they may not be mere 
 devices for “speeding up” but may have results that are 
 deeper and more permanent? 
 
 16. If a church should include in the budget an appropriation 
 for the support of the Sunday school, what would be the 
 effect on 
 
 (1) The attitude of the church to the Sunday school ? 
 
 (2) The attitude of the Sunday school to the church? 
 
 17. What lessons should children learn through the collection? 
 How may these lessons be more deeply impressed through 
 
 (1) Choice of the object to which money is applied? 
 
 (2) Means by which this object is determined? 
 
 ( 3 ) Lessons in stewardship from teachers and super¬ 
 intendent? 
 
 (4) Christmas and Easter offerings? 
 
 B Mathews, Shailer, “Scientific Management in the Churches,” 
 
 p. 39 - 
 
 6 “Religious Breakdown of the Ministry.” Journal of Religion, 
 
 January, 1921. Vol. I, p. 18. 
 
 7 Mathews, Shailer, ibid., p. 55. 
 
64 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 18. What advantages has an organized Sunday school class as 
 compared with other church societies for the same age- 
 group ? 
 
 19. What may a Sunday school do to prepare for its own per¬ 
 petuation and progress through 
 
 (1) Cradle Roll? 
 
 (2) Teacher Training? 
 
 (3) Teachers’and officers’council? 
 
 (4) Sending delegates to conventions and confer¬ 
 ences ? 
 
 20. Describe specific methods by which the Sunday school may 
 train up the men and women of the future to 
 
 (1) Attend church services. 
 
 (2) Contribute to church finances. 
 
 (3) Take part in church work. 
 
 21. If a young man leaves your Sunday school with a definite 
 purpose to “serve God in his own village,” is it an accident ? 
 Or has the Sunday school made definite provision to this 
 end? If so, what provision? 
 
 MISSIONS 
 
 22. How may the sending of benevolence money to a denomi¬ 
 national board, to be applied to a great campaign, be made to 
 arouse world-wide sympathies and enthusiastic generosity? 
 
 23. What, on the other hand, are the advantages of applying 
 contributions to the support of individual missionary 
 workers? How is it possible to combine the advantages of 
 both systems? 
 
 24. What bond exists in your community with some foreign 
 land or home missionary field? (e.g., missionary or other 
 person gone thither or foreigner or traveler come thence). 
 Show in detail how you may use this link in the missionary 
 education of your church. 
 
 25. Which have proved in your experience better adapted to 
 arouse interest in missions, regular lessons in Sunday school, 
 or children’s missionary societies? Give instances and 
 explanation. 
 
 26. What special advantages are presented by the concentrated 
 work of a School of Missions lasting for several weeks? 
 How may the interest aroused be carried over into the 
 routine work of missionary societies and Sunday school 
 lessons ? 
 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 65 
 
 27. Describe suggestive applications of the following: 
 
 (1) Talk by returned missionary. 
 
 (2) Use of native costumes and curios. 
 
 (3) Textbooks. (Give title and characteristics of 
 each.) 
 
 (4) Special room for Sunday school mission classes. 
 
 (5) Special teacher for Sunday school mission classes. 
 
 (6) Missionary plays and pageants. 
 
 (7) Handwork. 
 
 To what age and to what sort of group (e.g., Sunday school 
 class, children’s society, etc.) is each method best adapted? 
 
 28. Describe methods of mission study devised by your own 
 denomination for use with children. Take into account 
 textbooks, outlines of work, plays, pageants, games, illus¬ 
 trated lectures, exhibits, etc. Which does your church 
 need? What other means can be used? 
 
 29. Make a close estimate of the minutes spent annually in 
 mission study by your Sunday school. What are the effects 
 of this study ? Is this a sufficient amount of time ? 
 
Chapter IV 
 
 WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 I: Boys and Girls 
 
 Four out of five of the churches studied have each at least 
 one organization for boys, one for girls, and one for both 
 boys and girls. In this respect their situation is in marked 
 contrast with that of the churches in 300 rural counties sur¬ 
 veyed by the Interchurch World Movement, only one in 
 twenty of which had such organizations. 
 
 RECREATIONAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 
 
 In their work for boys and girls, most of the churches 
 studied endeavor, without discrimination or thought of re¬ 
 turn, to provide all children within reach with opportunity 
 for wholesome recreation and social intercourse, for har¬ 
 monious development of body, mind and character, and for 
 religious training as well as for active service with the 
 church. 
 
 The organizations include Boy and Girl Scouts, organized 
 Sunday school classes, Intermediate Societies of Christian 
 Endeavor, or similar groups. Form of organization has 
 proved less important than program and leadership. Boys 
 and girls are often banded in separate groups; but the activ¬ 
 ities for the two sexes though differing in detail are essen¬ 
 tially alike. The fact, however, that many groups are 
 following well known, clear-cut programs, such as that of 
 the Boy and Girl Scouts, or that of the secondary department 
 of the Sunday school, which are presented and explained in 
 the literature of those organizations, obviates the necessity 
 for any detailed description of their activities. Even 
 
 66 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 67 
 
 churches that have not adopted scouting make use of certain 
 scouting activities. 
 
 Athletics 
 
 An important part in the program is assigned to athletics. 
 Indoor or playground baseball, volley ball, tennis, swim¬ 
 ming, and basket ball are good games for church use, for 
 several reasons. They can be played by the two sexes with 
 the same equipment, either together or in alternating periods. 
 All are inexpensive. All can be played out of doors; al¬ 
 though basket ball is more of an indoor game. Only tennis 
 and basket ball need specially prepared courts. 
 
 A church owning a gymnasium or having the use of a 
 school gymnasium is able to conduct classes in gymnastics, 
 and to make more extended use of indoor games in winter. 
 Churches so equipped find it well to assign to the different 
 age- and sex-groups certain afternoons or evenings of every 
 week. In a number of the churches this work is under the 
 charge of a salaried physical director. Though a director 
 and expensive equipment are desirable, they are not essential, 
 as the present emphasis of specialists in recreation is upon 
 activities requiring no equipment. 
 
 Baseball League 
 
 For the boys, of course, the most attractive sport is base¬ 
 ball. The pastors of two of our churches who had organized 
 their boys and young men into baseball teams, found it neces¬ 
 sary to organize similar teams in other churches throughout 
 their respective counties in order to provide contestants. 
 The resulting baseball leagues have proved of great benefit 
 to all organizations participating. In both cases, further¬ 
 more, they completely broke up Sunday baseball. In one 
 case the organization of the league was made possible by 
 the minister who, backed by a guarantee from his boys, 
 persuaded the parents to give them Saturday half-holidays 
 from farm work regularly in return for the abandonment of 
 Sunday baseball. 
 
68 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 Hiking 
 
 Another activity favored by church leaders is hiking. 
 Hikes are something more than walks in the open; they have 
 objectives, such as the study of geology or bird lore. The 
 pastor of the Methodist Church at Bingham Canyon, Utah, 
 the greatest copper camp in the world, uses hiking with 
 unusual effect. The single, squalid street of the camp runs 
 for thirteen miles through a narrow ravine without a single 
 tree. At four in the morning the pastor arouses his scouts, 
 that they may be ready to tramp two and a quarter miles, 
 through a tunnel before the movement of cars of ore begins. 
 At the other end of the tunnel the boys come to a beautiful 
 camp-site of the Methodist Epworth League, where they can 
 study nature to their heart’s content . 1 Hikes for boys and 
 girls together have sometimes proved successful. 
 
 Coasting 
 
 In winter some churches provide facilities for coasting. 
 Several own their own bobsleds, which are much in demand 
 when the snow is on the ground . 2 
 
 Rodeo 
 
 Out on the western slope of the Rockies the boys of the 
 Collbran Congregational church have an annual junior rodeo, 
 including a baseball game, a wild west show with real 
 broncho busting, steer riding and horse racing. 
 
 Camping 
 
 At least five of the churches have camps. Camping is no 
 longer a very costly enterprise. The Boy Scouts and the 
 Y. M. C. A. furnish in pamphlet form many useful hints. 
 
 1 See “Churches of Distinction in Town and Country/’ Chapter IV. 
 
 3 Because one boys’ club in a church not included in this study 
 owned a bobsled and raced it against the boys of another church, 
 two whole counties have come to have a bobsled league, the annual 
 tournament of which draws hundreds of people from interested 
 neighborhoods. 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 
 69 
 
 Men’s Bible classes in several of these churches have under¬ 
 taken to finance the enterprise at least in part. In one church 
 the cost per boy is as low as $2.50 for two weeks. The 
 church owns permanent camp equipment; and to reduce 
 transportation expenses the boys are taken to the camp in 
 automobiles. 
 
 In camp programs, an important part is given to athletics, 
 particularly water sports, and to nature study. Discipline of 
 the camp is easily maintained by the infliction of penalties 
 for the infraction of rules. It is of the utmost importance 
 to have a program and to keep it running on schedule time. 
 The arrangement of the program is of less importance. For 
 impressionable adolescents the free life in the open, the 
 study of nature and woodcraft, the heart-to-heart talks 
 around the camp fire in the evening, the mystery of the night 
 as sleep closes about the camper—all these help to build 
 character and to deepen Christian loyalty. Some of the 
 leaders are volunteers. Some churches which do not main¬ 
 tain camps, send boys to county or regional camps of the 
 Y. M. C. A. or of the Boy Scouts. 
 
 Vocational Training 
 
 The program is by no means exclusively one of physical 
 activity. Several of the churches have weekly or fortnightly 
 club meetings for organizations of both sexes. No feature 
 of these meetings seems to be more appreciated by the 
 youngsters than that relating to vocational guidance. The 
 leader invites representatives of various professions and 
 occupations to address the group. The lawyer, the doctor, 
 the contractor, or if it be a girls’ club, the teacher, the Home 
 Demonstration Agent, the landscape gardener, or the nurse 
 each talks to the group about his or her profession. The 
 talk is followed by a general questioning of the speaker. 
 On such occasions the boys and girls show unusual interest. 
 The addresses supplement in an ideal way any vocational 
 work that may be undertaken by the school. 
 
70 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 Character Reading 
 
 Character reading has attracted to one minister, for an 
 interview, virtually every boy and girl in his community. 
 They have been intensely interested in what he has told them 
 of themselves. Organized athletic activities are of very 
 great value to a leader possessed of insight, in that they 
 enable him to understand the characters of the boys and girls, 
 which understanding may be put to good use in the effort 
 to lead them to the great decision of the Christian life. 
 
 Other Activities 
 
 A number of these churches include in their programs 
 provision for sex education. 
 
 Several churches, moreover, make effective use of training 
 in music. One conducts an orchestra of seventeen pieces; 
 several have bands. Others, under the leadership of pro¬ 
 fessional musicians, have trained junior choirs, or choruses. 
 One church has two choirs, one of children and one of young 
 people. The young people sing each Sunday at the evening 
 service. From the point of view of church leaders, work 
 with musical groups has several peculiar advantages. The 
 children develop a real love of music, and enjoy the practice 
 hours. The group effort, by its curbing of the natural desire 
 of the young to win personal approval, affords a training in 
 teamwork of the utmost value. The singing for services, 
 especially as this is ordered by liturgical churches, stimulates 
 love of the church, and habits of church-going. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 A number of the churches conduct educational activities 
 adapted to the life of the boys and girls. Through church 
 initiative, pig-clubs, calf-clubs, tomato-clubs, or canning- 
 clubs are organized under the charge of the county agent or 
 the home demonstration agent. The colored churches of the 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 
 71 
 
 Methodist Episcopal circuit near Gonzales, Texas, hold an 
 annual exhibit of cotton, vegetables, fruit, and hogs raised 
 by the boys and girls under the direction of the club leader. 
 Prize winners are given a free trip to San Antonio. Through 
 these exhibitions, the fathers are challenged to equal or 
 improve upon the work of their children. 
 
 Simple courses are sometimes given in hygiene, nursing, 
 and cooking. 
 
 Collections 
 
 Some of the churches take advantage of the normal in¬ 
 terest of adolescents in collecting. It little matters at this 
 age just what is collected, whether butterflies or arrow-heads 
 or stamps. A wise leader can make good use educationally 
 of this interest in collecting. Annual exhibits of collections 
 can be made to focus the attention of the parents and the 
 community upon what is being done. 
 
 Radio 
 
 Two of the boys’ clubs in these churches have radio outfits. 
 The boys and their friends gather in the clubroom at the 
 church or at the community house to listen to the voices that 
 come through the air. 
 
 The Clubroom 
 
 With boys’ and girls’ organizations, proprietorship in a 
 special room means a great deal. Most of the churches 
 having such facilities allow the different groups to express 
 themselves in their own rooms by means of pictures and 
 other decorations. Besides promoting a sense of ownership 
 in the youngsters, this allows a group leader to cultivate 
 habits of neatness in them and to teach them elementary 
 principles of interior decoration. Boys and girls who feel 
 that a part of a building is actually theirs are more inclined 
 to respect the entire edifice. 
 
72 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 SERVICE 
 
 Adolescents naturally receive more from the church than 
 they can contribute in return; yet it is the experience of 
 these churches that the boys and girls are eager to serve 
 when they can. They help distribute the church papers. 
 They aid in helping the sick and those in need. Since the 
 boys of one community were organized by the church, a 
 certain widow has never been obliged to chop a stick of 
 wood. The boys also usher at the church services; though 
 they doubtless prefer taking care of the stereopticon and 
 other parts of the recreational equipment. 
 
 The Boy Scouts of the Presbyterian Church at Dayton, 
 Indiana, form the Village Fire Department; they have charge 
 of the apparatus and respond to all alarms, which are 
 sounded on the village church bell. Their prompt work has 
 checked more than one serious conflagration. 
 
 II: Children 
 
 Activities for younger children are almost entirely within 
 the Sunday school or the Junior Christian Endeavor, and 
 are simple in their nature. A large number of the churches 
 have the children at morning worship for what is called a 
 “Junior Sermon/’ and two have them fully organized ac¬ 
 cording to the well-known Junior Congregation plan . 3 
 
 Some organizations, among them the Queen Esthers and 
 the King’s Heralds, study interesting courses on missions 
 and undertake their own definite part of the work of mis¬ 
 sions. Of seven children’s groups so engaged, one supports 
 an orphan at a mission school and one a bed at a hospital, 
 while the others perform some similar service. 
 
 In each of several of the churches a monthly social for 
 children is given over to simple games of various kinds. A 
 successful experiment has been made at Centerton, Arkansas, 
 with a “weekly hour of story-telling.” 
 
 ^ s The subject is further treated in the chapter on “Worship.” 
 See also “The Junior Congregation,” Farrar. Published by Fleming 
 H. Revell. 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 73 
 III: Young People’s Organizations 
 
 Most of the young people’s organizations of these churches 
 belong to the Christian Endeavor type, and include such 
 denominational organizations as the Epworth League, the 
 Luther League, and the Baptist Young People’s Union. 
 The young people’s societies are kept by these churches for 
 the young people alone. The younger married folk and 
 those still older are absorbed by other organizations either 
 in or out of the Sunday school. 
 
 The significant thing in connection with these young 
 people’s organizations is that they have so generally suc¬ 
 ceeded in working out their own relationship with the church 
 school. The church school is specifically for religious educa¬ 
 tion. Each class is a one-sex group. Even where there are 
 graded lessons there is hardly any opportunity for the young 
 people to express themselves. A teacher is in charge, over 
 the teacher is a superintendent and then an organization, and 
 the young people have little control. 
 
 In the young people’s organizations, there is quite a dif¬ 
 ferent state of affairs. The sexes are not separated. Com¬ 
 mon problems are discussed. In the programs the leaders 
 do not hesitate either to alter the topics or to give local 
 application to the discussion. The national overhead organ¬ 
 izations, such as the United Society of Christian Endeavor, 
 help materially. They suggest numerous committees with 
 very definite tasks and the ingenious young folk soon discover 
 the necessary local adaptations. Through these they share 
 in the missionary program as well as the local program. The 
 methods and activities employed by all these organizations 
 are too well known to require description. 
 
 SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 
 
 Socials and “sings” are of frequent occurrence, as are 
 musicals, pageants, and more ambitious forms of dramatics. 
 The Centerton Methodist Church has a chorus of fifty voices 
 gathered from both village and country. The young people 
 of two churches have produced operettas, both of which 
 have been given by request in neighboring communities. 
 
74 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 The plays frequently staged always prove popular and are 
 sometimes repeated in places near-by. It is important that 
 plays selected have educational value as well as that they be 
 interesting enough to insure financial success. 4 Literary 
 meetings are frequent, and debates that are keen and full of 
 zest. On the programs appear such topics of practical or 
 current interest as the European crises, the present economic 
 situation in rural America, and the county Juvenile court in 
 its relation to the prevention of crime. 
 
 A few societies are organized to pursue together some 
 common interest, such as dramatics, music or photography. 
 At Bingham Canyon, for instance, where the pastor found 
 the young people going off on Sundays to take all sorts of 
 pictures, many of which he knew they would some day be 
 ashamed to own, he organized them as a Camera Club and 
 taught them photography, including the making of lantern 
 slides. 
 
 A number of the activities of the boys and girls already 
 mentioned carry over into the program of young people’s 
 societies; for example, athletics, hiking and other outdoor 
 activities. During the summer many young people’s societies 
 hold swimming socials. 
 
 Social and religious activities are happily combined at the 
 Brick Presbyterian Church at Perry, New York. Groups 
 of men, women, boys and girls use the recreation rooms, 
 each group having a special night for its activities; and each 
 month there are suppers, sometimes for separate groups and 
 sometimes for several groups together. After the meal, 
 which is never omitted except in case of absolute necessity, 
 there is a religious discussion, usually led by an outsider, 
 often by a minister, or the school superintendent. In 1922, 
 three groups studied Fosdick’s “The Meaning of Service.” 
 No pressure is needed to arouse interest. Following the 
 discussion the group has the use of the recreation rooms 
 
 4 Community Service, Inc., of New York City, will furnish a 
 list of plays. Some denominational headquarters, especially those 
 of the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, can make excellent 
 suggestions. 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 
 75 
 
 which are under the charge of a director, a former 
 Y. M. C. A. over-seas man. The average attehdance 
 ranges from seventeen for the junior boys to fifty for the 
 men. 
 
 SERVICE FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 Leadership 
 
 The greatest service rendered to the church by the young 
 people is the leadership they exercise over the boys and girls. 
 To supervise this matter some societies appoint committees. 
 Orchestras of young people with musical ability play not only 
 for the young people’s meetings but at the Sunday school 
 sessions, sometimes at the evening service, and at church 
 socials or entertainments. 
 
 Frequently, too, the young people have assisted in a house- 
 to-house survey of the community. In some parishes they 
 give clerical assistance to the pastor, address letters to the 
 members and secure advertisements for programs of enter¬ 
 tainments or for the church paper. Frequently under the 
 oversight of some older person they manage the church 
 paper entirely. 
 
 In not a few instances they have been successful in evan¬ 
 gelistic work among others of their own age. The stimulus 
 for this work, however, has come, in each instance, from the 
 pastor or some other experienced leader. 
 
 Conferences 
 
 The Christian Endeavor Societies of Collbran and Mont¬ 
 rose, Colorado, conducted in 1921 a Western Slope Young 
 People’s Conference, attended by delegates from many 
 churches in that region. The topic was “The Relation of 
 the Young People to the Church.” During the conference 
 the Collbran society staged a religious play; and both organ¬ 
 izations made it plain that the future leaders of the Church 
 were alive to social and religious problems. 
 
76 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 COMMUNITY SERVICE 
 
 Young people’s societies are responsible for a significant 
 amount of community service. A number take charge of 
 annual lecture courses. Dramatic and musical efforts, though 
 their purpose is generally to raise money, make nevertheless 
 a real contribution to community life. In two instances, 
 societies have cooperated with membership drives of the 
 Farm Bureau. At Centerton, Arkansas, the young people 
 were active in an anti-fly campaign and paraded the town, 
 advertising by effective pageantry the importance of sanitary 
 precautions against disease. 
 
 Meeting an Unusual Opportunity 
 
 When hundreds of migrant harvest laborers flocked to 
 Larned, Kansas, ten or twelve days before the wheat was 
 ripe, the young people there helped to man a welfare room 
 and every evening while the harvesters were waiting for 
 work to begin gave musical and dramatic entertainments. 
 They were able to do this because the four Epworth Leagues 
 of the Lamed Circuit had been conducting an excellent social 
 and religious program in preparation for an annual booth 
 festival. At this festival or fair there are always exhibits of 
 farm and home products as well as games and amusements 
 of various kinds, a track meet, a baseball game and other 
 athletic contests. The proceeds are given to benevolent 
 causes. 
 
 Value of Full Program 
 
 In these churches the young people’s problem is not a 
 serious one. It may not be said perhaps that they have 
 solved the problem; but rather that in many of the com¬ 
 munities there has been no young people’s problem because 
 the churches have conducted a program adapted to successive 
 ages which has carried each individual through his full 
 religious experience. 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 
 77 
 
 IV: Societies for Men 
 
 About two-thirds of these successful churches have socie¬ 
 ties for men. This proportion is far above the average. 
 Only one in twenty of the rural churches in the twenty-five 
 typical counties with which comparisons have frequently 
 been made, had such organizations. In the successful 
 churches the activities of the men are not only responsive to 
 their own social needs, but are directed to helping the church, 
 and to serving the community. The organizations fall into 
 two classes: (i) The men’s club, which may or may not 
 include in its work a certain amount of Bible study, and 
 (2) the men’s organized Bible class of the church school, 
 which meets on Sundays for religious education and also 
 carries on a week-day program. 
 
 MEETINGS 
 
 The activities include meetings for debates on topics of 
 national or local interest; for lectures or addresses by out¬ 
 side speakers; and for dinners. In more than half the men’s 
 organizations the belief prevails that dinners add to the 
 interest of the monthly meetings. In some churches these 
 dinners are served by one of the women’s organizations, 
 which thereby enriches its own treasury. In two churches 
 they are served by the domestic science class of the high 
 school. 
 
 These dinners afford good opportunities for the discussing 
 of matters of community concern. Often an address is given 
 by the county agent or by some representative of the college 
 of agriculture. The school superintendent talks of the needs 
 of the local school. A member of the board of education 
 explains the school budget. A state Y. M. C. A. secretary 
 impresses upon the men their obligation to the boys. One of 
 their own number who has returned from a trip describes 
 conditions in some distant part of America or in a foreign 
 land. 
 
 One dinner each year is almost always a “Father and Son 
 Banquet.” Some of the churches strengthen the feeling of 
 
78 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 fellowship there established between the boys and the men 
 by occasional discussions, participated in by fathers and boys 
 under the auspices of the church school. These discussions 
 of course deal with the problems in which both groups are 
 interested. Where the organization has a room of its own 
 the men often play checkers, pool, billiards and other games. 
 
 SERVICE TO THE CHURCH 
 
 Once organized, men are no more backward than women 
 in helping with church business. One club was responsible 
 for part of the work, and for all the money needed, to adapt 
 the church basement to the purposes of a social program. 
 Another has laid new cement walks from the road to the 
 church. Others raise funds for the general work of the 
 congregations. Some of the projects for raising money, 
 such as concerts, lectures, entertainments and moving-pic¬ 
 ture shows, are also forms of community service. One class 
 arranged for an exhibit of local products. A number have 
 baseball teams which, besides furnishing funds for the class, 
 provide entertainment for those who look on, and recreation 
 for the participants. Teams are often under the auspices of 
 the athletic associations. Such an association at Sacaton has 
 a membership of seventy men, and a football team that has 
 become famous. 
 
 LARGER RELIGIOUS SERVICE 
 
 The ‘‘Home-like Church” of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, 
 has a Men’s Bible Class which has grown from sixteen mem¬ 
 bers to forty. Its motto is “My Brother and I.” To each 
 of the members is assigned a particular task. For each of 
 six districts into which the community has been divided, a 
 club representative is appointed who introduces strangers 
 to the local church of their preferred denomination, or if 
 such a church be lacking, issues a cordial invitation in behalf 
 of the “Home-like Church.” 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 
 79 
 
 REACHING AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY 
 
 The Congregational Brotherhood of Whiting, Iowa, not 
 wishing to grow at the expense of other denominations, 
 brought committees from all three churches into conference. 
 Obtaining a list of all the men in the community, the joint 
 committee assigned to the different churches all the men 
 that had shown any denominational preference; the others 
 they divided equally. The Congregational Brotherhood re¬ 
 ceived the names of 240 members and prospects. The pros¬ 
 pects were interviewed and cultivated; and all the 240 mem¬ 
 bers and the prospects were arbitrarily divided into four 
 teams, with a captain and a lieutenant assigned to each. A 
 spirited contest between these teams was then conducted on 
 the basis of attendance at the Sunday school sessions and at 
 the monthly meetings of the Brotherhood. Progress was 
 recorded on a chart outside the Men’s Room. The contest 
 not only brought fifty new members into the Congregational 
 Brotherhood, but resulted in a similar club being formed by 
 the Methodists. Two important by-products, so far as the 
 Congregational church was concerned, were increased at¬ 
 tendance and the addition of several new families to the 
 membership. 
 
 In three communities the men have been particularly suc¬ 
 cessful in evangelistic work, as evidenced either in personal 
 work or services in remote school houses. 5 
 
 In many of these churches, moreover, the men are prompt 
 in responding to cases requiring local relief. 
 
 COMMUNITY SERVICE 
 
 Successful campaigns for new school houses have resulted 
 from the discussions in three men’s organizations. Many 
 clubs assist in carrying on work for boys. One brought 
 about the purchase of an athletic field, and a number have 
 sent boys to camp for several weeks. Farmers’ Institutes 
 have been held by a number of these clubs, and still others 
 cooperate with the various activities of the Farm Bureau. 
 
 5 See Chapter I, “Evangelism.” 
 
80 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Several provide community picnics, one of which, boasting 
 a speaker, a dinner, a baseball game and an athletic contest, 
 was attended by 600 to 1,000 persons. Two, ceasing to be 
 merely church clubs, have come to include the men of the 
 entire community. They are still, however, largely inspired 
 and led by the church. One of these has active committees 
 concerning themselves with institutions and fairs, marketing, 
 roads, recreation, benevolences, publicity and membership. 
 
 CIVIC RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 The esprit de corps born of working shoulder to shoulder 
 has been responsible for many significant political victories. 
 In two instances, members of the men’s club of the church 
 were stationed in various parts of the community on elec¬ 
 tion day to furnish information to voters and to interest them 
 in performing their civic duties. One of the communities in 
 consequence cast a 90 per cent. vote. 
 
 Many of these brotherhoods perform for church and com¬ 
 munity virile tasks of many kinds. This fact, taken together 
 with the unusually large number of brotherhoods among the 
 churches studied, makes it probable that to these organized 
 groups of men is due in some measure the notable success 
 of the churches. 
 
 V: Societies for Women 
 
 Every one of the churches studied has at least one women’s 
 organization. The activities of these societies are neither so 
 diverse nor so unusual, compared with the activities of cor¬ 
 responding societies in other churches, as are those of some of 
 the other groups in these successful churches. Like most 
 Ladies’ Aid Societies for the past two hundred years, they 
 concern themselves with the general housekeeping of their 
 churches, with the repair and improvement of church prop¬ 
 erty, and with missionary activities. Like some of their 
 contemporaries, they have begun to enter the field of com¬ 
 munity service. Much of their energy they spend in earning 
 money, which in the aggregate amounts to a large sum. They 
 sew, quilt, and hold bazaars, suppers, and entertainments. 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 
 81 
 
 A few of these societies distinguish themselves by con¬ 
 ducting these activities on a strictly business basis. Unlike 
 the women whose minister figured out that their labor 
 brought the church one and two-thirds cents an hour, they 
 justly estimate the value of time and of materials and exact 
 a just return for both. 
 
 Two societies have furnished meals, not with the idea of 
 seeing how many different foods could be put upon the table 
 at the same time, but with a regard to food values. Another 
 society used the church land for a garden and sold the 
 produce. 6 
 
 An organization in a county-seat town maintains at a 
 county fair a booth whose annual proceeds run into hundreds 
 of dollars. 
 
 NURSERIES 
 
 A form of service of other than monetary value is carried 
 on by the women’s organizations of several congregations. 
 They maintain nurseries in which babies and younger chil¬ 
 dren can be left during church services. Sometimes younger 
 women and sometimes one or two of the mothers care for 
 these children and amuse them with kindergarten activities. 
 Two churches supply cribs for infants. Surveys have shown 
 that responsibility for the care of small children causes one- 
 tenth of the non-attendance of women at church services, 
 and that when the mother stays at home the rest of the family 
 usually stays also. A church nursery makes it possible for 
 everybody to attend church. 
 
 OTHER SERVICE TO THE CHURCH 
 
 The parish visiting, which is the women’s task in a large 
 number of churches, is, in a few cases, conducted through 
 one of the women’s organizations. A society at Parma, 
 
 9 It has been the practice of several country churches not included 
 in this investigation to sell produce of a church garden, in the form 
 of canned vegetables, to city consumers, through the society of a 
 city church. The canning of produce, whether from a church 
 garden or from home gardens, serves as a demonstration of 
 this industry. 
 
82 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Idaho, commandeers the cars of husbands and friends twice 
 a year to take shut-ins to the church for special services. 
 
 WOMEN AND MISSIONS 
 
 The activities of the women’s missionary societies need 
 little description. Like similar organizations the country 
 over, they support native workers on the field through stated 
 collections, mite boxes, or paid entertainments ; they pack 
 missionary boxes or send canned goods to mission stations; 
 and at their meetings they study textbooks on missions and 
 listen to papers by members, or to addresses, sometimes from 
 returned missionaries. 
 
 Some of the missionary organizations, however, have un¬ 
 dertaken more unusual enterprises. Half a dozen or more, 
 capitalizing the dramatic instinct particularly of younger 
 people, are giving plays and pageants. 
 
 In some churches, one women’s society combines both local 
 and missionary interests. Mission study is carried on, or 
 papers are read, while the members quilt or sew. In a small 
 congregation this works for efficiency, since the same women 
 usually make up both organizations. The plan is much more 
 successful when local and missionary interests are both con¬ 
 sidered at each meeting than when these interests are consid¬ 
 ered singly at alternate meetings. The latter plan is apt to 
 result in many absences from every other meeting. 
 
 j 
 
 SERVICE FOR THE COMMUNITY 
 
 A number of women’s organizations sponsor a Chautauqua 
 or a Lyceum Course or both. Moved to action by addresses 
 on the subject, some women’s organizations have undertaken 
 work for the betterment of schools, for stricter observance 
 of quarantine, and for regulations to safeguard the purity of 
 milk. One society has brought about the employment of a 
 community nurse, and another has contributed $20 a month 
 during the school year to provide milk for under-nourished 
 school children. 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 
 83 
 
 A Restroom 
 
 The Community Circle -of the United Church at Garrets- 
 ville, Ohio, has furnished in the basement of the church a 
 large, comfortable room which is open at all times to the 
 public. When the room was equipped, the women distributed 
 through the Gar rets ville trade area the following attractive 
 invitation: 
 
 TO OUT-OF-TOWN PEOPLE 
 
 Friends: 
 
 A restroom for your comfort and convenience is now awaiting 
 you in the Social Rooms of the United Church of Garrettsville— 
 warm in winter, cool in summer, comfortable chairs, drinking 
 water, lavatories, light, and cordial welcome. Bring your lunch 
 if you wish. 
 
 The United Church is very glad to freely offer its Social 
 Rooms to the general public, and sincerely desires that large use 
 be made of them. We hope you will repay us by coming. 
 
 COMMUNITY CIRCLE COMMITTEE 
 
 In this restroom the Community Circle holds its regular 
 meeting, as does the Mothers’ Club of Garretsville. 
 
 The Ladies’ Aid Society of Honey Creek, Wisconsin, has 
 been for years one of the most influential factors in com¬ 
 munity well-being. It has organized, among other things, a 
 Civic Club the object of which is to beautify the town. 
 
 Missions at Home 
 
 A piece of effective community service which is also mis¬ 
 sionary work of a high type, is rendered by the women of 
 the church at Imperial, California, to the local Mexican 
 women. One of the church women was chosen as a social 
 service worker. On her committee, besides other women of 
 the church, was a trained worker engaged by the Superin¬ 
 tendent of Schools to teach the Mexicans and to work among 
 them out of school hours. As the plan worked out the 
 Mexican women were taken to the parish house on Friday 
 afternoons in the school busses, and about a dozen were en- 
 
84 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 rolled in various classes. Women of the church taught them 
 sewing and other domestic arts. The director of the choir 
 gave them instruction in English. Each week, church women 
 served refreshments. At first the Mexicans were shy, but 
 they soon became acquainted and friendly. Toward the end 
 of the year the W. C. T. U., whose members had been asked 
 to become Big Sisters to the Mexican women, invited them 
 and their husbands to the high school for an entertainment, 
 which was followed by games and refreshments. 
 
 With a few exceptions, these women’s societies are en¬ 
 gaged in the kinds of work that have long been familiar. 
 Either because their earlier start may already have enabled 
 them to standardize their methods, or because women are 
 conservative, their organized work in the churches that have 
 been studied, presents fewer features of striking originality 
 than does the work of the men. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 Some of the activities possible for various age- and sex-groups 
 are given below. 
 
 BOYS AND GIRLS 
 
 Athletics, including baseball, basket ball and volley ball, tennis, 
 swimming, etc. 
 
 Hiking, with definite objectives. 
 
 Coasting. 
 
 Class in gymnastics. 
 
 Scouting. 
 
 Annual Camp. 
 
 Vocational guidance. 
 
 Character reading. 
 
 Sex education. 
 
 Collections. 
 
 Radio. 
 
 Orchestra. 
 
 Band. 
 
 Junior Choir. 
 
 Special club in church, assisting pastor as directed. 
 Cooperation with Farm Bureau in various production clubs. 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 
 85 
 
 CHILDREN 
 
 Junior congregation or children’s service, sometimes in con¬ 
 nection with regular Sunday morning service. 
 
 Monthly socials. 
 
 Weekly story-telling hour. 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 Many of the activities listed under boys and girls apply also 
 to young people. Others are: 
 
 Weekly religious meeting. 
 
 Socials. 
 
 Sings. 
 
 Musicals, concerts. 
 
 Dramatic, including missionary pageants and plays involving 
 character analysis. 
 
 Debates, discussions, addresses. 
 
 Leadership in boys’ and girls’ work. 
 
 Assistance in program of church when called upon by pastor. 
 Cooperation with school, farm bureau, and other community 
 organizations. 
 
 MEN 
 
 Game and reading room. 
 
 Debates and forums. 
 
 Lectures. 
 
 Dinners. 
 
 Cooperation in boys’ work. 
 
 Service to the church through raising money and making 
 improvements to property. 
 
 Community service through concerts, Chautauquas, moving 
 pictures, community picnics. 
 
 Organized athletics, especially baseball. 
 
 Evangelistic activities. 
 
 Welcoming and locating newcomers. 
 
 Local charitable relief. 
 
 Electing Christians to public office. 
 
 WOMEN 
 
 Raising money through sewing, quilting, bazaars, sales, etc. 
 Utilizing meals as domestic science exhibitions served. 
 Maintaining nursery at church during morning or special 
 services. 
 
 Support of native worker on mission field. 
 
 Raising money for missions. 
 
 Mission study. 
 
 Guaranteeing a Lyceum Course or Chautauqua. 
 
86 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Bringing shut-ins to special services. 
 
 Providing outside speakers on missionary and local topics. 
 Work toward better schools, quarantine observance, pure food. 
 Maintaining a restroom. 
 
 Service to foreign-speaking groups. 
 
 Parish visiting. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Efficient Layman, or, The Religious Training of Men .— 
 Henry F. Cope. Griffith and Rowland Press, 1911. 244 pp. 
 Church Officers —F. A. Agar. Revell, 1918. $. 75 . 91 pp. 
 Help These Women —F. A. Agar. Revell, 1917. $. 75 . §3 PP- 
 The Ladies’ Aid Manual — Robert E. Smith. Abingdon Press, 
 1911. $.50. 72 pp. 
 
 Five Hundred Ways to Help Your Church — Theresa Woll- 
 cott. Sunday School Times Co., 1912. $1.00. 364 pp. 
 
 The Boy and the Church — Eugene C. Foster. Sunday School 
 Times Co., 1909. $.75. 
 
 Boy Behavior — W. H. Burger. Association Press, 1919. $1.25. 
 108 pp. 
 
 Leaders of Girls — Clara Espey. Abingdon Press, 1915. $1.25. 
 216 pp. 
 
 The American Country Girl — Martha Foote Cross. Stokes, 
 N.Y., 1915. $2.50. 367 pp. 
 
 Serving the Neighborhood — Ralph Felton. Missionary Edu¬ 
 cation Movement, N. Y. $.75. 153 pp. 
 
 Ice Breaker and the Ice Breaker Herself — Edith Geisler. 
 
 Woman’s Press, 1921. $1.35. 163 pp. 
 
 Games for Home, School and Playground — Jessie Bancroft. 
 
 Macmillan, 1922. $3.00. 556 pp. 
 
 Handbook for Workers with Young People —J. V. Thompson. 
 Abingdon Press. $1.50. 
 
 The Boy Scout Movement Applied by the Church — Norman E. 
 Richardson and Ormond E. Loomis. Scribner, 1915. $2.00. 
 445 PP- 
 
 Literature may be obtained from: 
 
 International Committee, Y. M. C. A., County Work Depart¬ 
 ment, 347 Madison Avenue, N. Y. C. 
 
 National Board, Y. W. C. A., Town and Country Work De¬ 
 partment, 600 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. C. 
 
 Boy Scouts of America, 200 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. C. 
 
 Girl Scouts, 189 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. C. 
 
 Woodcraft League, 13 West 29th Street, N. Y. C. 
 
 
WORK FOR AGE AND SEX GROUPS 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 87 
 
 1. What specific things can a society of men contribute to the 
 well-being of a church that, in the absence of such an 
 organization, would be left undone or be performed less 
 effectively ? 
 
 2. List the aspects of community life that have been improved 
 by one or another of the men’s clubs described in this chap¬ 
 ter or in “Country Churches of Distinction.” Which of 
 these matters need improvement in your community? 
 
 3. Compare the kinds of service undertaken by men’s and by 
 women’s church societies. Do you see a specialization of 
 function that works to the advantage of the church? 
 
 4. Has the higher education of women, and the wider activity 
 of many women in welfare organizations and political life, 
 lessened or enlightened and intensified the work of women 
 in connection with churches? Support your opinion by 
 reference to specific instances. 
 
 5. What are the relative advantages of (1) separate societies 
 for home and foreign missions, and (2) a single society in 
 the interests of both? 
 
 6. Describe methods within your experience by which, through 
 church societies, young people have been trained to leader¬ 
 ship. 
 
 7. How may young people’s societies like the Christian En¬ 
 deavor and Epworth League guard against the danger of 
 emphasizing expression through speech rather than through 
 character and conduct? 
 
 8. Explain the value of esprit de corps. How may this spirit 
 be promoted by healthy rivalry among the various church 
 societies? 
 
 9. Are middle-aged people in a young people’s society a help 
 or a hindrance? Explain. 
 
 10. “We should probably find that the junior and intermediate 
 societies could easily attain all their ends in a Sunday school 
 properly organized and managed.” 7 Discuss this opinion. 
 
 11. What factors in the ideals and activities of the Boy Scouts 
 fit this organization to the use of church workers? 
 
 12. What traits and accomplishments are essential, and what 
 are desirable, in the leader of a boys’ club?—of a girls’ 
 club ? 
 
 T “Education in Religion and Morals,” George E. Coe, Revell, 
 
 1909, p. 319. 
 
88 
 
 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 13. “Young people should be given 80 per cent, of what they 
 think they want, and 20 per cent, of what their elders think 
 is good for them.” Defend the principle involved. How, 
 if at all, would you change the proportion? 
 
 14. What peculiar opportunities have musical groups, that is, 
 the bands, orchestras and choir, as means of (1) molding 
 character, (2) binding the members to the church, (3) 
 serving the church as a group ? 
 
 15. What should be the attitude of the church toward Sunday 
 ball games? 
 
 16. “My young people/’ said a certain pastor, “are going to 
 dance somewhere. To let them do so in the church vestry 
 would cause unfortunate talk. I let them dance in the 
 parsonage, where I can control conditions, and I play for 
 them myself.” Is this minister right or wrong, and why? 
 
Chapter V 
 
 THE PLANT AND ITS EQUIPMENT 
 
 An enlarging idea of the function of the Church has caused 
 congregations in these successful churches to modify existing 
 plants either as to use or as to structure and then to erect 
 additions, or new buildings, with rooms specially adapted 
 for the adequate performance of the complex religious pro¬ 
 gram of today. 
 
 But some of these vigorous organizations are still in the 
 early stages of development; and, with respect to five or 
 six of them, all work has to be done in one room or in one 
 room and a basement. These churches make better use of 
 poor plants than many others make of adequate ones. The 
 Methodist Episcopal Church at Bingham Canyon, Utah, for 
 example, which has only one small, poorly equipped room for 
 social activities, nevertheless conducts a live program for 
 every day in the year. The full use of what is available 
 holds out the best promise of eventual extension. 
 
 This chapter, therefore, is not intended as a compendium 
 on church buildings and equipment. It merely records the 
 progress of these churches in obtaining, despite many handi¬ 
 caps, a material equipment sufficient to help them realize their 
 spiritual ideals. 
 
 EXTERNAL APPEARANCE 
 
 The newer buildings possessed by these churches combine 
 the distinctive features of church architecture with an appear¬ 
 ance of adaptability to service. Each is designed to be in 
 keeping with the physical characteristics of its site, and with 
 the style of neighboring buildings. They are set in ample 
 grounds; their lawns are graded and often planted with 
 
 89 
 
90 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 shrubbery. They suggest by their appearance the ideals for 
 which it is the mission of a church to stand. Said the sur¬ 
 veyor of one of them, “The brick and stucco walls have 
 simple dignity; and the whole building seems to say ‘come 
 in.’ ” 
 
 The average cost of the church plants of these successful 
 churches, together with the parsonages and community 
 houses when the plants include these, was $30,418. The 
 average cost of the church plants of the twenty-five counties 
 surveyed by the Interchurch World Movement and re¬ 
 surveyed by the Committee on Social and Religious Sur¬ 
 veys, was $6,048. 
 
 AUDITORIUM 
 
 The most important room in the church building is, of 
 course, the main auditorium. In the larger plants its appear¬ 
 ance is properly suggestive of its use for religious services. 
 There is no gaudy frescoing and the coloring is in soft tones. 
 The indirect system of electric lighting provides a diffused 
 illumination without glare. Real care has been exercised in 
 planning the seating arrangements. One or two churches 
 have opera chairs, but the majority have retained the time- 
 honored pews. Pews or chairs are so placed as to insure 
 a maximum of comfort; and their color and design have 
 been made to harmonize with the general scheme. In build¬ 
 ings where the main auditorium must be used for many 
 different purposes, some of these features have necessarily 
 been sacrificed for practical ends. The tendency has been, 
 however, to reserve the main auditorium exclusively for 
 worship or for worship and for meetings whose main feature 
 is either music or speaking. 
 
 PROVIDING FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 Planning for the accommodation of the church school is an 
 important problem, especially as the school in a successful 
 church is apt to grow even more rapidly than the congrega¬ 
 tion and to overflow the plant. In the rural churches the best 
 
THE PLANT AND ITS EQUIPMENT 
 
 91 
 
 plan has been to build, along the sides of the main auditorium, 
 classrooms which may be opened into it. Such an arrange¬ 
 ment makes it possible not only for the school to assemble 
 in its entirety but for an overflow attendance to be accom¬ 
 modated at church services. An architect can easily adapt 
 rooms so placed to the general scheme of a church building. 
 
 A small church whose Sunday school meets only in the 
 main auditorium or in one assembly room in the basement, 
 has, of course, a more difficult problem. As a rule, a church 
 with a large building, especially a single-story one, dis¬ 
 tributes its Sunday school rooms all through the building. 
 One has constructed a mezzanine floor which is given over 
 entirely to classrooms. Others have placed rooms behind 
 the pulpit alcove and organ. The slight addition to the 
 length of the building occasioned by this arrangement allows 
 for the inclusion of still larger rooms on the floor above. 
 On week-days these additional rooms, wherever placed, can 
 be put to many other uses. 
 
 THE BASEMENT 
 
 The location of the church school in the basement is not to 
 be recommended. A church organization about to erect a 
 building ought not to plan for this arrangement unless the 
 land lies so that the basement may stand far enough out of 
 the ground to allow for sufficient light and ventilation. The 
 larger churches have utilized their basements for heating 
 plants, for storage, for gymnasium purposes and occasionally 
 for rooms for the Scouts or for a few Sunday school classes. 
 Many a small congregation, however, finds in an existing 
 basement the first outlet for an expanding program. During 
 sessions of the church school, folding doors or curtains, even 
 of such light material as burlap, afford classes some degree of 
 seclusion. When these curtains or partitions are put back 
 against the wall or run into their grooves, the room is once 
 more available for social purposes. 
 
 The Wayland Christian Church at Gresham, Nebraska, 
 which is in a small open country neighborhood that is un¬ 
 likely ever to grow very much, affords an example of the 
 
92 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 skillful utilization of a basement. This basement was forty 
 feet long and thirty-two feet wide. An areaway of consid¬ 
 erable size at each window changed the apartment into a 
 reasonably bright and cheerful one. At one end a kitchen 
 was constructed; at the other a stage with curtains sus¬ 
 pended from wire rods. Below the stage was a place to 
 store folding chairs. Curtains provided means of dividing 
 the space into six classrooms for the use of the school on 
 Sunday. 
 
 SPACE AND EQUIPMENT FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE 
 
 Community service has a real place in the program of 
 these churches, though it is incidental to their other activities. 
 The adapting of their plants to various community uses, 
 including recreation, has presented little difficulty. Rooms 
 used on Sunday for organized classes are clubrooms, game- 
 rooms, or reading-rooms during the week. Restrooms open 
 on holidays to farmer’s wives, and where country families 
 may even eat their luncheons, become on Sundays nurseries 
 and kindergartens where mothers wishing to attend services 
 may leave their babies in the care of trustworthy persons. 
 
 Much of the community program is carried on in the 
 basement or the community house. The Brick Presbyterian 
 Church at Perry, New York, has in its basement a kitchen, 
 a serving-room, and five recreation rooms which are pro¬ 
 vided with reading matter and games. The equipment in¬ 
 cludes two bowling alleys (the best in the town), a pool 
 table, a cue-rocque table (primarily for boys and girls 
 under fifteen but used by persons of all ages), a shuffle 
 board, and provision for table baseball and half a dozen 
 smaller games. 
 
 THE KITCHEN 
 
 A kitchen has become so generally recognized as an im¬ 
 portant part of the social equipment of a church that it is 
 not surprising to find that each of thirty-four of the church 
 plants has one. In some instances advice regarding equip¬ 
 ment has been given by the Home Economics Department of 
 
THE PLANT AND ITS EQUIPMENT 
 
 93 
 
 the college of agriculture of the state, and in one or two 
 cases by the county Home Demonstration Agent. There 
 has been effort to make the kitchen a model one. Tables, 
 range, sink, and cupboard have been so placed as to make 
 for the highest degree of efficiency and the fewest possible 
 steps for the worker. In some cases sinks have been built in, 
 and draining boards have been made ample for the number 
 of dishes to be cared for. To remove danger of waiters 
 bumping into one another at church suppers, with resulting 
 breakage of dishes, most of the kitchens have two serving 
 windows, one for outgoing and one for incoming trays. 
 
 The kitchen equipment is surprisingly complete. In the 
 church at Parma there is a modern electric range instead of 
 the rusty old stove usually provided for the women’s so¬ 
 cieties; and the same church has a hot-water heater. An¬ 
 other church has a five-gallon electric coffee-maker. The 
 churches are well stocked with china; one has in its cup¬ 
 boards six dozen of everything needed for the tables. Often 
 too the china is of attractive design and adds to the effec¬ 
 tiveness of tables set for a banquet. In some cases it is 
 marked, as is the glassware as well as the silverware, with 
 the initials of the church, which occasionally lends this part 
 of its equipment to less fortunate organizations. The equip¬ 
 ment also includes such necessary articles as soap-shakers, 
 can-openers, measuring-cups, and other devices that make 
 for efficiency in the kitchen. 
 
 Kitchen utensils are sometimes acquired through a kitchen- 
 shower. The women of one church had a supply of articles 
 they wanted placed in a store window and people chose their 
 gifts from these. As a result articles not needed were not 
 included among the gifts. 
 
 THE STAGE 
 
 In the programs of a dozen of the churches considerable 
 prominence is given to amateur theatricals. One, with 
 hardly any equipment, places screens of various colors, 
 heights, and designs across one end of the Sunday school 
 as a stage setting. Another has built a good platform, upon 
 
94 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 which the pulpit is placed on Sunday. A properly con¬ 
 structed stage may become a gallery from which an audience 
 may watch a basket ball game on the floor below; and should 
 be large enough for use by an orchestra during Sunday 
 school sessions. Painted scenery and drops of expensive 
 material are unnecessary. For both front drop and back¬ 
 ground, excellent substitutes for these may be made of gray 
 canton flannel. This costs little, is of neutral color, does not 
 soil easily and falls in graceful folds. With proper lighting 
 and carefully selected stage furniture, it can be made to 
 create the desired illusion. To avoid embarrassment to 
 amateur Thespians trying to rid themselves of make-up after 
 a performance, a certain church has running water in dress¬ 
 ing-rooms at the end of the stage. 
 
 OTHER DETAILS 
 
 The rooms in the buildings of these churches are all as 
 serviceable as they can possibly be. Just as the lessons in 
 the church school are graded to suit the ages of the pupils, 
 so the chairs are graded to suit the size. Pictures and coat- 
 hooks are placed low for the use of the smaller children. 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church at Cimarron, New Mexico, 
 has a checkroom for hats and coats. It also has a social-room 
 with soft green hangings, reed tables, easy-chairs, and 
 shaded lights, making it not only attractive but a model of 
 good taste. A model in its way also is the room for the 
 girls at Parma, with its blue and brown floor, its leather 
 couch and its attractive wicker chairs. More than one of 
 these churches has grouped rooms around a fireplace to give 
 the homelike atmosphere of a living-room or the cozy effect 
 of a woodman’s cabin. And effects of this kind are worth 
 far more than their small additional cost, which is easily met 
 when the interested church organizations provide the equip¬ 
 ment for their own rooms. 
 
 Both the success of these churches in arranging for de¬ 
 tails and the few mistakes which some of them have made, 
 lead to the recommendation that a congregation ought not 
 to go far with any plans for building or remodeling a 
 
THE PLANT AND ITS EQUIPMENT 
 
 95 
 
 church without consulting experts. Not many small-town 
 architects are likely to be informed regarding all the features 
 of a comfortable and efficient church plant. To their aid 
 can be summoned the experts of the architectural bureau of 
 the denomination; and workers from the state college of 
 agriculture will advise concerning such matters as grounds, 
 interior decoration, and the kitchen. In nothing is expert 
 advice more needed than in the selection of the church organ 
 and the heating plant. 
 
 GYMNASIUM AND COMMUNITY HOUSE 
 
 Nearly half the churches have gymnasiums. Some of 
 these are in separate community houses, some under the same 
 roof as the auditorium for worship. In a number of in¬ 
 stances the gymnasium of the week day is the church school 
 room of the Sunday; and this is not a bad adaptation. The 
 minimum equipment for a gymnasium is inexpensive and 
 useful. A pair of basket ball goals can be attached to back¬ 
 ing boards of the proper size and erected on poles by volun¬ 
 teer labor. A volley ball with net can be purchased for less 
 than $10. This game, too little known, is suited to both 
 sexes and almost all ages. Another useful game involving 
 little expense is indoor baseball. Even with the minimum of 
 athletic equipment a great deal can be accomplished, espe¬ 
 cially if there are local leaders to conduct gymnastics not 
 requiring the use of apparatus. The equipment can be in¬ 
 definitely expanded. Suitable mats are needed with some 
 apparatus and for wrestling; but with these begin the larger 
 costs. It would be better at first to install shower baths, 
 lest overheated children leave the building without taking 
 proper precautions for putting their bodies in normal con¬ 
 dition. 
 
 The experience of these churches proves that a com¬ 
 munity house is not beyond the reach of even a small church. 
 Two of the smallest and poorest of the group own such 
 buildings. True, these structures are not expensive; they 
 have been contrived in each case out of a combination store 
 and dwelling. The one at Shuford, Mississippi, which is 
 
96 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 emphatically in the class of “less favored” agricultural com¬ 
 munities, contains a hall and four other rooms. The hall is 
 being fitted up as a gymnasium-auditorium, with facilities 
 for community meetings, musicals, and indoor athletics. 
 Another room will serve as a library and sitting-room; an¬ 
 other as a kitchen; still another, a large apartment, as dining 
 room. The last is to be a nursery to which the mothers may 
 bring their babies. Canoga, New York, is another village 
 below the average in economic status which has yet been 
 able to add to its church plant an effective community hall. 2 
 
 At Lander, Pennsylvania, a little village of 500 inhabi¬ 
 tants six miles from a railroad, a Methodist Episcopal church 
 has added to its one-room building a two-story “ell” to be 
 used as a community house. Here it was not only possible to 
 have a gymnasium-auditorium, but to house in separate 
 classrooms several departments of the church school. 
 Where there is a community house, it almost invariably 
 houses the town library, if there be one, or packages of 
 books from the State Library Commission. 
 
 At the other extreme from the simple community houses 
 already described is the Lanier Boys’ Club building of Grace 
 Methodist Episcopal church at Spencer, Iowa, which in¬ 
 cludes a gymnasium with a complete line of apparatus, and 
 which is connected by an underground passage with a swim¬ 
 ming pool. 
 
 STEREOPTICON 
 
 Three-fourths of the churches have stereopticons. These 
 they find invaluable not only for purposes of recreation but 
 for use in giving instruction. The stereopticon has become 
 an established feature of the equipment of the average 
 church. All necessary information concerning makes and 
 prices can be obtained through denominational boards or 
 from the advertising columns of most religious periodicals. 
 The churches in this group obtain their slides either from the 
 denominational boards or from various state agencies, par- 
 
 3 For a description of the Canoga plant see “Churches of Distinc¬ 
 tion in Town and Country,” Chapter III. 
 
THE PLANT AND ITS EQUIPMENT 97 
 
 ticularly from state library commissions and state colleges 
 of agriculture. 
 
 MOVING-PICTURE MACHINE 
 
 More than a quarter of the churches studied own moving- 
 picture machines. The moving-picture, as an instrument of 
 religious work, is winning its way more slowly than the 
 stereopticon; but none of the churches using one would he 
 without it. Two or three machines of excellent make are 
 obtainable. Advice as to which is best in any given case 
 may be obtained from the local moving-picture operator or 
 from the extension department of the state university. 
 
 Cost of Machine 
 
 Machines of a number of makes can be purchased for 
 from $400 to $550; and as most of these are fireproof, 
 they may be used without booths, provided the proper 
 authorities are given opportunity to test them thoroughly. 
 It is necessary, however, that they be submitted to this 
 test and that the fire insurance agent who handles the policy 
 of the church be notified in order that the proper under¬ 
 writer’s permit for showing pictures may be obtained. 
 
 Program 
 
 The machines are used for various purposes. Most of the 
 churches do not hesitate to show, on Sunday evenings, films 
 picturing incidents from the Bible, or such pictures as “The 
 Stream of Life,” “Modern Samaritans,” and the like. The 
 picture, when used for evening service, is almost always 
 preceded or followed by a short talk by the pastor, and is 
 often made a part of a religious service. 
 
 At community meetings, or gatherings for recreation, such 
 educational or entertaining films are shown as “Our Daily 
 Bread,” “The Land of Cotton,” “Consolidated Schools” or 
 “Gravel Road Construction.” Of all the churches studied, 
 the Methodist Episcopal church at Rolla, Missouri, had the 
 
98 
 
 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 finest selection of general pictures. They included last 
 year: 
 
 “Miles Standish.” 
 
 “The Last of the Mohicans.” 
 
 “Mistress of Shenstone.” 
 
 “Ann of Green Gables.” 
 
 “Daddy Longlegs.” 
 
 “Les Miserables.” 
 
 “Evangeline.” 
 
 “Turn of the Road.” 
 
 “The Servant in the House.” 
 
 “Shepherd of the Hills.” 
 
 “Little Women.” 
 
 Various Tarkington comedies. 
 
 Cost of Service 
 
 The cost of film service varies with location. A church 
 in a county-seat on the main line of a railroad has to pay 
 far more for its films than one miles back in the mountains, or 
 on the prairie, which does not enter into competition with 
 moving-picture houses. Virtually all these churches, how¬ 
 ever, and many others, have found it possible to pay for the 
 machine with the profits from a number of week-night enter¬ 
 tainments ; after which either pictures may be shown at cost 
 or the proceeds may be utilized for other purposes. A film 
 from a commercial distributor seldom costs a church more 
 than $50; and a large number of good films can be obtained 
 for from $5 to $20 each, plus transportation expenses. 
 
 Sources of Films 
 
 Of almost a score of organizations which at present 
 furnish films to churches, all have been employed by one or 
 another of our group of churches. A number of concerns, 
 commercial in character but serving only non-theatrical or¬ 
 ganizations, include the International Church Film Service, 
 the Sacred Film Corporation in America, Community Mo¬ 
 tion Picture Bureau, and others. All these companies, too, 
 have been utilized by at least one of our churches. 
 
THE PLANT AND ITS EQUIPMENT 
 
 99 
 
 These churches also obtain films from commercial dis¬ 
 tributors who have been brought to understand the situation 
 and who send only suitable material. The Famous Players 
 Lasky Corporation, controlling Paramount Pictures, has a 
 non-theatrical department for churches, schools, and com¬ 
 munity organizations which furnishes excellent films such as 
 “The Old Homestead” and “The Little Minister.” Similar 
 departments either have been organized or are being or¬ 
 ganized by several other commercial distributors. 
 
 Certain state universities, state libraries, and similar pub¬ 
 lic agencies send out on circuits to schools, churches, and 
 community organizations excellent films at charges suffi¬ 
 cient only to cover expenses. 
 
 In a number of cases a church that does not own a mov¬ 
 ing-picture machine has the use of one belonging to a school; 
 and two churches obtain them at commercial moving-picture 
 theatres. One church has agreed not to purchase a machine 
 so long as the quality of entertainment offered by the 
 theatre in the community continues to be good; and another 
 has promised to refrain from showing pictures on Sunday 
 evenings so long as the village moving-picture theatre is 
 closed on that evening. 
 
 DEFINITE BUILDING PLANS 
 
 Perhaps it should be repeated that a single chapter on 
 this subject cannot be expected to cover the entire question 
 of church erection and equipment. It ought, however, to 
 draw attention to certain definite situations and to present 
 concrete examples of what these churches do. Three plans 
 are therefore submitted here to make clear some of the points 
 covered in this chapter. The first is that of the Southern 
 Methodist Church of Centerton, Arkansas, in the foothills 
 of the Ozark Mountains—the plan of a new building. The 
 second is that of the Congregational Church at Collbran, 
 Colorado, representing the church as it has been rebuilt and 
 enlarged to meet the demands of community service. The 
 third, that of the Presbyterian church of Parma, Idaho, 
 
Main Floor 
 
 o rs 30 . 
 Scale in Feet 
 
 FLOOR PLANS OF COMMUNITY CHURCH AT CENTERTON, ARKANSAS 
 
 IOO 
 
Basement 
 
 FLOOR PLANS OF FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PARMA, IDAHO 
 
 IOI 
 
Second Floor 
 
 --t- -essa-- wsam -^- 
 
 PIT 
 
 80WLI NO AULEY 
 
 RUN WAY 
 
 FU£L 
 
 Furnace 
 
 e ^E 
 
 f « 1 < 4 
 
 ^ca(e in r«.< 
 
 
 6YVINASIWC* 
 
 1 
 
 Vestibule 
 
 SHOWERS 
 j LOCKERS 
 TOILET 
 
 rriixi- 
 
 3 c. 
 
 
 Furnace 
 
 FUEL 
 
 HJ C-S 
 
 Gymnasium 
 
 FLOOR PLANS OF FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PARMA, IDAHO 
 
 102 
 
 C!laS3 rooms 
 
front entrance I front 
 
 Basement 
 
 Main Floor 
 
 FLOOR PLANS OF CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, COLLBRAN, COLORADO 
 
 103 
 
104 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 represents the best plant possessed by any of the churches 
 studied with the possible exception of the Methodist Episco¬ 
 pal church at Spencer, Iowa. 
 
 CENTERTON 
 
 The plans of Centerton well illustrate the use of rooms 
 on either side of the main auditorium and at the rear of the 
 pulpit; also the use of the basement for an assembly room 
 with a stage. 
 
 The plan of the main floor is self-explanatory. The side 
 rooms, which during the study period of the Sunday school 
 accommodate some of the classes, may at will be thrown into 
 the main auditorium. Because these rooms extend only part 
 way toward the entrance, the building approaches in its 
 architecture the cruciform type; but the unusual advantage 
 possessed by this particular church is that the pulpit may be 
 seen from virtually every point in any of the rooms. The 
 basement, besides allowing for utilities, provides separate 
 rooms for some departments of the Sunday school. The 
 assembly room on the basement floor is to be used for ath¬ 
 letics. The height is adequate, but the length and breadth 
 are hardly sufficient for basket ball. Another objectionable 
 feature is the use of the two columns which support the 
 girder running across the middle of the ceiling. It is pos¬ 
 sible to support such girders without columns, which not 
 only obstruct floor space but add an unnecessary element of 
 peril during indoor athletics. An interesting feature of this 
 basement is a mothers’-room. 
 
 The most uncommon feature in connection with the church 
 is to be found in the layout of the grounds. Set far back 
 from the street, it has a generous expanse of lawn and plenty 
 of shade trees. A large space to the right of the building is 
 to be used for tennis courts, croquet grounds, children’s play¬ 
 ground, and basket ball court. With an equipment like this 
 and a climate such as that of Centerton, the handicaps of 
 the basement will not prove so serious as in the cases of 
 churches farther north or west. 
 
THE PLANT AND ITS EQUIPMENT 
 
 105 
 
 COLLBRAN 
 
 The basement plan of the church at Collbran illustrates 
 a commendable utilization of what was a single-cell church 
 plant. The building as now constructed is in the shape of 
 an L. The church auditorium, facing the street, is practi¬ 
 cally removed from the recreational activities. In the addi¬ 
 tion there are classrooms for the Sunday school on either 
 side of a hall between the auditorium for worship and a 
 gymnasium. The gymnasium is used not only for athletics 
 but for entertainments, fairs, institutes, and similar func¬ 
 tions. The stage, which is at one end, is provided with a 
 dressing room at either side. This part of the building has a 
 separate entrance so that those assembling for social activi¬ 
 ties need not pass through the church auditorium. 
 
 PARMA 
 
 Community House 
 
 The plant at Parma consists of a beautiful church building 
 and an attractive and useful community house. The plans 
 need little explanation. The gymnasium is large enough for 
 any kind of winter athletics and is provided with shower 
 baths and locker-rooms. Along one side is a bowling alley, 
 and over it is a gallery for spectators. On the second floor 
 is a radio-room, a reading-room and clubrooms for boys and 
 girls. Part of this story is open to the roof, which is pro¬ 
 vided with skylights. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 Certain observations are true of all these buildings. 
 
 1. The edifice is attractive, and the grounds are well kept. 
 
 2. The auditorium suggests in design and decoration its use 
 for church purposes. 
 
 3. The church school is provided with suitable facilities, 
 including classrooms, whenever possible, and provision 
 for separating different groups by the use of curtains. 
 
 4. There are facilities for community service. Where there 
 are classrooms, these are used during the week by or¬ 
 ganizations. The basement, a wing of the church or a 
 
106 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 separate parish building houses the cultural and recrea¬ 
 tional program. 
 
 5. All available space is used to the maximum. 
 
 6. Equipment is up to date. The kitchen is a model of 
 arrangement and furnishings; chairs are comfortable; 
 heating, lighting and sanitation are efficient. There is 
 regard for utility, comfort and dignity. 
 
 7. The use of the stereopticon and the moving-picture ma¬ 
 chine is increasing. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Adapting the Church Building for the Purposes of Religious 
 Education —Bulletin No. 5, Presbyterian Board of Publication 
 and Sabbath School Work, 1922, Philadelphia. 
 
 Planning Church Buildings — Henry E. Tralle. The Judson 
 Press, Philadelphia, 1921. 162 pp. $1.25. 
 
 Progressive Suggestions for Planning Church Buildings —E. M. 
 Conover. The Home Missions Council, New York, 1923. 
 $.50. 
 
 Better Rural Church Houses — Frank G. Dillard. Bureau of 
 Architecture, Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia and 
 Chicago, 1921. 24 pp. $.25. 
 
 The New Country Church Building — Edmund deS. Brunner. 
 The Missionary Education Movement, New York. 141 pp. 
 
 $- 75 - 
 
 The Moving Picture and the Church — Roy Smith. Abingdon 
 Press. $.35. 
 
 Motion Pictures: The Experience of One Church — George E. 
 Bevans. Board of Home Missions, New York. $.05. 
 
 Any church contemplating the erection of a community house 
 or gymnasium should not fail to get one of the handbooks on 
 gymnasium construction and equipment, published by such con¬ 
 cerns as Spaldings or the Narragansett Machine Company of 
 Providence, R. I. The books published by these firms, particu¬ 
 larly by the latter, are extremely suggestive. They may be 
 obtained either directly or through a sporting goods dealer. 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 1. “Many great leaders of the Protestant churches are today 
 debating whether the modern church should be in the style 
 of an office building or in the style of a cathedral.” 3 State 
 
 3 “The Future of the Churches,” R. W. Babson, p. 59. 
 
THE PLANT AND ITS EQUIPMENT 107 
 
 the case in favor of each of these types of church archi¬ 
 tecture. 
 
 2. “Its equipment is for a church what its factory building and 
 its machinery are for a manufacturing establishment.” 4 
 Considering the open country church as comparable to a 
 factory, tell (i) what it should produce, (2) what rooms 
 and equipment are therefore requisite. 
 
 3. “If the churches are to have a brilliant future, they must 
 capitalize art and music in some worth-while, practical 
 way.” 5 How may the church building “capitalize art” ? 
 
 4. A certain church has a gingerbread style of trimming, gaudy 
 windows, and on the platform a bowl of paper flowers of 
 clashing hues. Even if these things truly express the taste 
 in the congregation, is it right to gratify this taste in the 
 church building? 
 
 5. Explain the psychological basis for the view held as early 
 as the days of the apostles, that it is a function of the 
 Church to “serve tables.” What does the proper perform¬ 
 ance of this function make requisite in the church building ? 
 
 6. Give instances of church buildings in which features that 
 make for efficiency are combined with those inspiring 
 beauty; and explain as fully as possible how in each case 
 the double aim was attained. 
 
 7. There were in the U. S., in 1916, 203,432 buildings used 
 for worship. Church edifices are exempt from taxation. 
 Some persons feel that the public ought to have the use 
 of all this untaxed property for a longer time than a few 
 hours a week. How can the church plant be equipped to 
 serve the community a greater part of the time? 
 
 8. “Get the spindle and distaff ready, and the Lord will supply 
 the flax.” Should this motto be applied to church equip¬ 
 ment? That is, shall a church with a “one-celled” building 
 start on a new career by erecting an elaborate edifice with 
 many classrooms, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a gym¬ 
 nasium? Or should it begin by entering upon work for 
 its community and build only when there is imperative need ? 
 
 9. A church has received a legacy to be used either for the 
 purchase of an electric motor, a pipe organ, or a moving- 
 picture machine. What conditions should determine the 
 choice ? 
 
 4 Shailer, Mathews, “Scientific Management in the Churches,” p. 53. 
 e R, W. Babson, Ibid., p. 59. 
 
108 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 10. State several reasons for equipping a church plant with 
 clubrooms. 
 
 11. Write specifications for a new building, or for enlargement 
 of the present building, which will enable your own church 
 to fulfill its mission to the community. 
 
 MOVING-PICTURES 
 
 12. Many people in a certain village prefer cowboy pictures to 
 any others. To what extent should their taste be decisive 
 in choosing the films presented? 
 
 13. Would it be advisable to have moving-pictures in your 
 community on Sunday evening? Explain. 
 
 14. Should moving-pictures be given in the church auditorium 
 in any circumstances? Give reasons for or against this 
 course. 
 
 15. A certain village has a commercial moving-picture show 
 that presents films not only trashy but questionable. Point 
 out several courses that might be adopted by a church or 
 a ministerial association to combat the evil. 
 
 16. Let each student name any films which churches have used 
 or might use with good results, giving, when possible, the 
 name of the agency from which each picture may be 
 obtained. 
 
 17. How may moving-pictures be so used as to prevent the 
 audience from tiring of them? 
 
Chapter VI 
 
 CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 Not one of the churches studied is without a system for 
 conducting its finances; and not one fails to operate that 
 system with vigor and efficiency. As a result they secure 
 without difficulty the funds required to defray the cost of 
 their extensive programs. 
 
 BUDGET 
 
 In every case the governing body of the church, after a 
 careful study of the receipts and expenditures of the past 
 year and of the requirements and the program for the year 
 to come, determines upon a budget. As a rule, this budget 
 covers all local expenditures, sometimes including the mainte* 
 nance of the church school. In a few instances, however, 
 there is a separate budget for the recreational activities or 
 for the expenses connected with a community house; and 
 in two cases there is a separate budget for missionary 
 offerings. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE EVERY-MEMBER CANVASS 
 
 Almost all the churches conduct annually an every-member 
 canvass. After the budget has been determined, those in 
 charge appoint a date for the financial campaign, and begin 
 to prepare the members of the congregation for the making 
 of their contributions or pledges. Everything possible is 
 done to inform the constituency of the church’s needs. The 
 pastor discusses the budget in the meeting of his Council, 
 and the members of the Council representing church societies 
 report upon it to their respective organizations. A circular 
 
 109 
 
110 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 letter is distributed to all the members of the church, and 
 often where the church is alone in the field to all the families 
 in the community. 
 
 These letters clearly and impersonally state the case for 
 the church. There is no scolding, no begging, no cajoling 
 in them. They ask contributions on the basis of service to 
 the community and to the world-wide interests of the 
 church. 
 
 CAMPAIGN PUBLICITY 
 
 The budget is published and explained in the parish 
 paper, if there is one. Often, too, topics relating to steward¬ 
 ship are treated in one or more sermons from the pulpit. 
 Talks on the budget are, in several cases, given at services 
 by laymen. Two churches have used to good efifect a play 
 published by the Missionary Education Movement, entitled 
 “The Canvasser and Mr. Brown.” 
 
 Some churches employ what amounts to display advertis¬ 
 ing in their parish papers, in dodgers, or as headlines for the 
 letter of appeal. Thus the Presbyterian church at Canoga, 
 New York, began its statement as follows: 
 
 It Is Coming! 
 
 WHAT? 
 
 Our Annual 
 Every Member Canvass 
 when ? 
 
 Next Week, February 9th to nth. 
 
 Kindly be at Home. 
 
 Motto: “Every Person Giving Something Every Week.” 
 
 Toward the end appeared this appeal: 
 
 When this letter reaches you, stop and think—What would 
 Canoga be without a church? What would you do without it? 
 What would your wife and children do without it? In the light 
 of these things decide what you will do so that when you are 
 approached next week you may cheer the solicitors with a 
 generous response. 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 111 
 
 The letter used in 1922 by the Union Congregational 
 Church at Montrose, Colorado, gave for each day in the 
 week the average number of persons using the community 
 building during the preceding six weeks, the total showing 
 an average weekly attendance of 2,907. 
 
 You may readily see [the letter continued] that it means 
 both work and expense to take care of more than 2,000 people 
 per week. It will take $175 per week to underwrite this budget. 
 
 $175 Per Week—This Will Do It 
 
 10 persons giving $3. 
 
 JC “ “ 2 
 
 per 
 
 u 
 
 week. 
 
 a 
 
 . $ 30.00 
 
 . 70.00 
 
 30 
 
 100 “ “ 
 
 1. 
 
 u 
 
 a 
 
 . 70.00 
 
 •50 
 
 •25 
 
 it 
 
 a 
 
 . C10.00 
 
 120 
 
 it 
 
 u 
 
 .. 70.00 
 
 Loose offering ... 
 
 
 
 . 5-00 
 
 $175.00 
 
 All who contribute $25 or more to the general budget shall 
 be given a gymnasium ticket for the year 1922. 
 
 Besides distributing circular letters, the Community 
 Church at Parma, Idaho, published in a local paper an article 
 called “What the Budget Means.” This article began: 
 
 Not a single cent has been included in the budget that is not 
 essential to the continuance of the Community Church enterprise. 
 It seems high at first thought, but let us see what it means to 
 the community. 
 
 Numbered paragraphs then presented in some detail ten 
 contributions made by the church to the common life. These 
 were in brief: Religious services; church building open for 
 any public meeting; dining-room at the disposal of the 
 community; community house; gymnasium; shower baths ; 
 auditorium; quarters for public library; beautiful grounds, 
 and institutional activities. Each paragraph ended with a 
 question, such as: “Would you want to be without it ?” 
 The article concludes: 
 
112 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 If you believe these ten things are worth while, do your full 
 part toward next year’s budget. The canvass is Sunday after¬ 
 noon at 2 p. m. If you prefer, mail a check to W. E. Babcoks, 
 treasurer. 
 
 Giving the treasurer’s name at the end is particularly 
 effective. Reprints of this article were distributed at the 
 church. 
 
 THE CANVASS 
 
 After such preparation as this comes the canvass, usually 
 made on a Sunday afternoon, by the men of the parish 
 going out in pairs. The number of teams varies from a 
 dozen to as many as twenty-two. These men, of course, 
 have been thoroughly instructed concerning the items of the 
 budget, so that they can answer questions. Such coaching 
 the church at Collbran accomplishes at a banquet. It is 
 impressed upon the men that they are rendering a service 
 vital to the cause of God and the Church. Every effort is 
 made to gain interviews with every one, even at the cost 
 of a second or a third visit. Characteristic of the prevailing 
 spirit of thoroughness is the following extract from a set 
 of instructions used in a cattle-raising country: “Get a sub¬ 
 scription from each member of the family. If they cannot 
 give cash they may give a calf or something else.” 
 
 The canvassers for several churches emphasize the fact 
 that the budget covers the funds needed during the coming 
 year for the entire work of the church, including on the one 
 hand all benevolences and assessments, and on the other 
 all items of local expense; so that if the budget is covered, 
 the church program can be carried into operation for the 
 year without further appeal. In some cases, they also 
 explain that the church treasurer will remit money to any 
 denominational board desired. 
 
 Teams are usually assigned to districts of the parish. 
 Occasionally, canvassers are allotted persons with whom 
 they have influence. The calls are brief and businesslike 
 and often prove agreeable both to guests and to hosts. At a 
 number of places the church office is open through the 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 113 
 
 afternoon to receive returns, and at the evening service at 
 least a partial report is always presented. The names of 
 persons not found are assigned to other canvassers, who 
 call during the week. By the following Sunday, as a rule, 
 the task has been completed. 
 
 An interesting variation of this method has been tried 
 at Grace Church, Spencer, Iowa, where the stewards were 
 stationed at tables in the church before and after services to 
 receive subscriptions. Other churches hold what is called 
 a volunteer day, in order to lessen the work of the can¬ 
 vassers by letting those who wish to do so subscribe volun¬ 
 tarily. For some of the churches the budget has been 
 oversubscribed. 
 
 OTHER FINANCIAL METHODS 
 
 A small number of the churches, instead of conducting 
 an every-member canvass, raise their funds by other meth¬ 
 ods equally systematic. Not one of them lives from hand 
 to mouth, by passing the hat or by selling chicken-pie and 
 ice-cream at less than cost. 
 
 Assessments 
 
 At New Monmouth, New Jersey, the members of a 
 Baptist congregation gather to make their pledges at what 
 is called an Annual Roll Call. The Lutheran church at 
 Stanton, Iowa, with more than 1,000 members and a budget 
 of more than $23,000, raises all its money through indi¬ 
 vidual assessments upon members. A financial committee 
 of twelve men divides the entire communicant list into 
 groups. Those in the first group are assessed $5 a year 
 each; those in the second group $10 each, and so on up to 
 groups of those assessed $50 each. Every one accepts his 
 quota as a matter of course and makes the payments either 
 annually or semi-annually. The treasurer, who is a bank 
 president, keeps his books at the bank; and thither the people 
 go to pay their church dues, as in some places they go to 
 pay for gas, water or telephone service. 
 
114 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Tithing 
 
 A few churches use the method of tithing. Of the mem¬ 
 bers of the Southern Methodist church at Prairie Grove, 
 Arkansas, 40 per cent, are tithers. At the Memorial Pres¬ 
 byterian Church at Dayton, Indiana, a Tithe r’s League of 
 twenty-one men contributes a little over one-fourth of the 
 total amount received. One objection to tithing is that it is 
 seldom adopted by the entire church membership. 
 
 PER CAPITA EXPENDITURE 
 
 The amounts contributed, though in the aggregate con¬ 
 siderable, are usually made up of many subscriptions not 
 individually large. In Perry, New York, for example, 
 though the congregation is wealthy and the annual budget 
 amounts to over $8,000, few subscribers contribute more 
 than $5 per week. At Stanton, Iowa, as has been implied, 
 the quotas set by the Finance Committee do not in any case 
 exceed $50 a year. 
 
 Where there is a large building program the annual per 
 capita expenditure per resident member is above the normal. 
 Building programs bring marked but probably temporary 
 spurts in per capita giving. The ranchers of the Baptist 
 rural parish at Arnold, Nebraska, who live in straitened 
 circumstances, are contributing an average of $42.97 a year 
 per resident member. At Cimarron, New Mexico, the 
 average contribution is $70.24. The average annual con¬ 
 tribution per active member for the 1,046 churches covered 
 in the typical counties surveyed by the Committee on Social 
 and Religious Surveys in 1920 was $15.69. These con¬ 
 tributions include, of course, those of churches with building 
 campaigns. The contributions, per resident member, of 
 those of the successful churches now being studied averaged 
 $19.93. The larger membership, and the support from out¬ 
 siders attracted by the work of these churches, as well as 
 from members, make possible the financing of an extended 
 program on per capita expenditure little above the average. 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 115 
 
 SPECIAL OFFERINGS 
 
 A number of these churches colled* special offerings at 
 
 such times as Christmas and Easterf in addition to the 
 
 « 
 
 subscriptions gained through the every-member canvass. 
 The Brick Presbyterian Church of Perry, New York, 
 reserves from $500 to $600 a year of the denominational 
 benevolence quota to be raised at Christmas time. 
 
 Sometimes these special offerings apply toward the sup¬ 
 port of the church’s foreign pastor. More often workers 
 supported on the foreign field, usually native evangelists, 
 are cared for by subordinate organizations. Considerable 
 sums are often raised for this purpose which do not pass 
 through the hands of the church treasurer. Grace Meth¬ 
 odist Episcopal Church at Spencer, Iowa, for example, not 
 only supports nineteen native workers but the missionary 
 superintendent of Meerut,. India, whose name appears on 
 service bulletins as “Pastor Abroad.” The church at Day- 
 ton, Indiana, likewise, pays half the salary of a missionary 
 who is referred to as its “Foreign Pastor.” On a smaller 
 scale the support of workers is undertaken by other churches 
 or by their organizations, especially by societies of women 
 or young people. The money thus applied is sent to the 
 denominational board, sometimes through the church treas¬ 
 urer, sometimes directly from a society. Such contribu¬ 
 tions for special workers are allowed to count on assessments. 
 
 DENOMINATIONAL CAMPAIGNS 
 
 The far-reaching campaigns of the various church bodies 
 —such as the New Era Movement, the Baptist Forward 
 Movement, and the Centenary—with their inspiring pur¬ 
 poses, their definite objectives and time limits, and their 
 remarkably telling publicity, combined with the pressure put 
 upon each local church to meet an augmented quota—have 
 effected for the churches studied, as well as for live churches 
 in general, a considerable increase in denominational benev¬ 
 olences. In more than a few cases, benevolences have 
 increased from two to five times as fast as has even the 
 
116 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 rapidly growing total of disbursements. The church at 
 Davis, California, for example, raised its contribution to 
 denominational purposes from $40 in 1912 to $868 in 1922; 
 and last year it over-subscribed its quota by 20 per cent. 
 In the past three years, the Presbyterian church at Middle 
 Octoraro, Pennsylvania, has applied to benevolences a sum 
 equal to the total amount contributed in the preceding fifteen 
 years. 
 
 THE FOLLOW-UP 
 
 The best of budgets and the most thorough every-member 
 canvass will not be of great value unless subsciiptions are 
 paid. These churches have little difficulty with their follow¬ 
 up. The money pledged is usually paid in weekly install¬ 
 ments through the use of the duplex envelope. 
 
 In many cases treasurers mail, to all subscribers, quar¬ 
 terly statements of account. Often each of these is accom¬ 
 panied by a communication such as that employed at Parma, 
 Idaho, which is as follows: 
 
 Enclosed you will find an exact duplicate of your account on 
 the treasurer’s books. If you are paid up, accept this as a 
 receipt with appreciation. If your account is in arrears, will 
 you not pay up promptly as the church has no other means of 
 support ? 
 
 These quarterly statements, with occasional reminders 
 from the pulpit or through a church paper, seem to furnish 
 all the persuasion necessary. As a matter of fact, the best 
 follow-up of these churches is afforded by their many- 
 sided programs, with the accompanying publicity. People 
 know that failure to pay means injury to a program justified 
 in their eyes by its service to individuals, to the community, 
 and to the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 AMOUNT AND APPORTIONMENT OF EXPENDITURES 
 
 The average amount raised annually by these churches, 
 exclusive of mission stations, is $4,900. This sum is more 
 than three times as large as the average for the twenty-five 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 117 
 
 typical counties, which was found to be only $1,445. The 
 amounts raised by many of the churches, moreover, were 
 well above the average for the group; and the largest budget 
 of all, as has been said, amounted to more than $23,000. 
 
 In considering the distribution of these large amounts, it 
 is necessary to remember that many of these churches under 
 inquiry support large programs either of building or of 
 community service; and that all pay the larger salary re¬ 
 quired by a resident minister. Even so, the part of the 
 total devoted to benevolence was, on an average, 26 per 
 cent., surprisingly near to the 30.4 per cent, for the twenty- 
 five typical counties. This average, moreover, was con¬ 
 siderably exceeded by some of the churches; and two reached 
 the high figure of more than 42 per cent. 
 
 The portion of the budget of the successful churches 
 which was applied to salary of minister was 33.9 per cent., 
 a figure noticeably lower than the average for the typical 
 counties, where though only about half the churches had 
 resident ministers, 41 per cent, of the total expenditure 
 was for salary. The church with the largest budget applies 
 only 10.6 per cent, to salary of minister. This ratio is 
 comparatively low owing, of course, not to niggardliness, 
 but to the large scale of the operations. 
 
 DEBTS 
 
 Over a dozen of the churches are in debt in amounts vary¬ 
 ing from less than $100 to $15,000. In most cases the debts 
 were incurred for extensive building operations. Like a 
 business firm or a school board, the churches accept debt 
 as a natural part of their financial operations. Most of them 
 have made arrangements for repaying the loans either 
 through a sinking fund provided for in the budget; by 
 pledges which are to run for a series of years; or in other 
 legitimate ways. One church, for example, is making pay¬ 
 ments on its building out of the receipts from moving- 
 picture shows. Debt is not incurred, however, at the end of 
 a year in order to make up a deficit in the current expense 
 account. 
 
118 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 HOME MISSION AID 
 
 Fifteen of the churches, that is to say, three in every eight, 
 receive home mission aid. The ratio is about twice as high 
 as was found to prevail in more than two hundred counties 
 subjected to special study. The large proportion of aided 
 churches results naturally from the attempt to include among 
 the communities studied at least one representing each 
 special type of rural home mission need. In many of these 
 communities, such as one in the open country in the cotton 
 belt, or a mining town with a large foreign element, a 
 church could hardly attain notable success in the absence of 
 aid from a church board. 
 
 In each of a number of cases, money was appropriated 
 by the board to enable a church to seize what is called by 
 one denomination a “strategic service opportunity.” Thus 
 churches at Sacaton, Arizona, San Gabriel, California, and 
 Buckhorn, Kentucky, are conducted as mission stations, 
 serving respectively Indians, Mexicans and southern moun¬ 
 taineers. Others, such as those at Collbran and Cimarron, 
 are each at the center of a wide area standing to the church 
 as a larger parish, the evangelization of which is financed in 
 part with home-missionary money. Of still others, each is 
 assuming for the first time a heavy program of community 
 service; while there are some which are being conducted as 
 demonstration parishes, to guide and inspire other churches 
 of the denomination that lie in the same area. No doubt all 
 of these last named will eventually come to self-support. 
 
 This statement in regard to home mission aid is limited 
 to grants made for salaries and general maintenance ex¬ 
 penses. It does not include grants made to five of these 
 churches for buildings. Denominational boards dealing with 
 church erection make outright grants under certain condi¬ 
 tions to local congregations needing new equipment. These 
 are not continuing grants to be renewed annually, but each 
 of them represents a completed transaction. They should 
 not, therefore, be confused with appropriations made by 
 home mission agencies for the continuing support of a field, 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 119 
 
 which, in the usage of most denominations, are annually 
 renewable for as long a period as conditions warrant. 
 
 In some instances, because of peculiar local conditions, 
 the grant must be indefinitely continued: at Bingham Can¬ 
 yon, for example, the constantly shifting population of a 
 rough mining camp is not likely ever to support a greatly 
 needed religious ministry. But with some such exceptions, 
 the aid is given to help a weak church become strong enough 
 in time to meet successfully and unaided the test of a great 
 opportunity. In many instances the money has been granted 
 in regularly decreasing amounts for a stated period of five 
 or six years. Few of the aided congregations have received 
 help long. Some of them are rapidly approaching self- 
 support ; one, in fact, which was aided last year, is able this 
 year to stand alone. It is reassuring to find that churches 
 so weak as to require home mission aid have been able, with 
 its help and with the leadership it ensures, to make such 
 progress and to perform such notable service as to justify 
 their inclusion in this group of successful churches. 
 
 FINANCING THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 The maintenance of the church school is included by seven 
 of the churches in their budget; in the other cases the schools 
 are supported from their own weekly offerings. The run¬ 
 ning expenses vary from less than $100 to $448. The 
 average annual cost per pupil is $1.18. Six schools with 
 more than 300 pupils are conducted more economically, at 
 an annual cost per pupil of $1.00. The six schools with 
 fewer than 100 pupils each have, on the other hand, the still 
 lower cost of $0.92 per pupil; but this is due presumably to 
 their making less adequate provision for work. The highest 
 cost per pupil is $2.15; and the next highest, for what is 
 perhaps the most efficient of all the schools, is $1.95. 
 
 STEWARDSHIP TRAINING 
 
 Both the members and the young people of these churches 
 are trained in the habit of giving. Reference has already 
 been made to measures connected with the canvass. Pro- 
 
120 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 vision for training in stewardship is in many cases provided 
 throughout the year for all groups, beginning with the 
 Sunday school. At the Methodist Episcopal church of Lan¬ 
 der, Pennsylvania, a large proportion of the Sunday school 
 members took part in 1921 in a reading course in steward¬ 
 ship ending with a contest. Denominational textbooks are 
 studied by Sunday school classes or other study groups. In 
 some instances the maintenance of the Sunday school by 
 the church is designed to instill habits of giving through the 
 presentation of all offerings to benevolences, especially to 
 missions. 
 
 In other cases schools pay their own expenses and learn 
 thereby to bear responsibility for the support of religious 
 work. Several schools have a budget, one item of which is 
 applied to the running expenses or to the building program 
 of the church. Sometimes money is voted by the school 
 to a neighboring hospital or to local relief. Letters from 
 missionary representatives of the church or of the special 
 organization are read before the Sunday school or mis¬ 
 sionary society to bring home the fact that contributions 
 actually produce results on the field. A number of the 
 churches distribute the effective literature provided by de¬ 
 nominational boards. For example, the St. Mary’s 
 Reformed Church at Silver Run, Maryland, distributed a 
 denominational questionnaire on tithing, and later discussed 
 it at a meeting. Stewardship, again, is the concern of one 
 of the eight departments of the Community Church at 
 Imperial, California. 
 
 The churches studied have, in brief, a well-rounded finan¬ 
 cial program. Beginning with a budget, they raise the neces¬ 
 sary funds through every-member canvass or other 
 systematic procedure, and distribute them with due regard 
 to the claims of both work at home and the Kingdom through 
 the world. Generosity is cultivated and justified through 
 constant emphasis upon the duty of Christian giving. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 Some of the essentials of a good financial system as deter¬ 
 mined by the experience of these churches are: 
 
CHURCH FINANCE 
 
 121 
 
 A carefully prepared*budget. 
 
 Thorough explanation of the budget to the membership and 
 constituency by publicity, discussion and sermon. 
 
 An every-member canvass or some other system to reach the 
 entire membership. 
 
 A careful, continuing follow-up. 
 
 Stewardship training in Sunday school and church. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Modern Church Finance, Its Principles and Practice — Albert 
 
 F. McGarrah. Revell, 1916. 328 pp. $1.25. 
 
 Church Finance and Social Ethics — Francis J. McConnell. 
 
 Macmillan, 1920. 130 pp. $1.50. 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 1. “The spiritual welfare of a church is closely related to its 
 financial self-respect.” 1 Is this true? Just how does 
 “financial self-respect” promote “spiritual welfare”? 
 
 2. Does an annual canvass tend to distribute the financial sup¬ 
 port of church work more generally throughout the member¬ 
 ship and the community? 
 
 3. Which of the methods of raising money described in this 
 chapter would in your judgment be efficacious for the church 
 with which you are most familiar? Why? 
 
 4. Are special offerings at Christmas and Easter— 
 
 (1) The expression, in psychologically desirable ac¬ 
 tion, of the feelings stimulated by these festivals; 
 or 
 
 (2) Unworthy attempts to make capital of, for ex¬ 
 ample, the Christmas spirit? 
 
 5. Do church fairs and suppers make the “Father’s house a 
 house of merchandise” ? Or can such methods of raising 
 money be justified on grounds of (1) financial stress, (2) 
 by better social life and recreation? 
 
 6. “The more money I put into my farm, the more I get out. 
 It’s the same way with a church.” Give arguments for or 
 against this familiar assertion. 
 
 7. A church gives $150 to foreign missions, while receiving 
 $200 home mission aid. Is this state of things justifiable? 
 If so, how? 
 
 1 “The Church and Country Life,” edited by Dr. Paul L. Vogt. 
 
122 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 8. “The vital religion of a church will grow with its generosity. 
 Even the weaker church should have some share in the 
 world-wide work of missions and should strive to meet its 
 apportionment, adopting it definitely as a part of its regular 
 budget.” 2 Discuss the pros and cons of this opinion. 
 
 3 “The Church and Country Life,” edited by Dr. Paul L. Vogt. 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR THE PROGRAM 
 
 From early Colonial days until recently, all Protestant 
 churches in America, whatever their denomination, had in 
 respect to organization certain characteristics in common. 
 Local authority was vested in the congregation, which met 
 at least annually. Responsible to the congregation were two 
 boards, one charged with authority in material matters, the 
 other having to do with spiritual affairs. The members of 
 these boards were known as stewards, trustees, elders and 
 deacons. The two groups were seldom coordinated. In 
 addition to the pastor, the organist, and the janitor, there 
 were usually two other officers, a clerk or secretary, and a 
 treasurer. Even this minimum organization was simplified 
 in some cases by a single board having both spiritual and 
 material tasks assigned to it. Many churches had two 
 subordinate organizations, the Sunday school and the Ladies’ 
 Aid Society, over the work of which the official boards 
 seldom if ever exercised any supervision. Terms of office 
 were usually long, and officers often grew very old and 
 conservative in service. Long ago the accepted duties of 
 both boards became stereotyped. 
 
 But in late years there has been a marked change. Denom¬ 
 inational overhead organizations have become far more ag¬ 
 gressive, and have set tasks and fixed quotas for the local 
 church. Spurred by the strengthening hold of new interests 
 upon the time and energy of its members, the Church has 
 developed new enterprises and undertaken new tasks partly 
 in the way of self-preservation. Moreover, the social gospel 
 has been widely preached, and has been carried more and 
 more into practice. Finally, denominational campaigns and 
 the example of modern business have set the Church new 
 standards of efficiency. 
 
 123 
 
124 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 In the two generations within which the change has come, 
 church organization has greatly increased in complexity. 
 Development has been chiefly along three lines. The first 
 change was in the formation of additional societies to per¬ 
 form new functions. The missionary awakening of the 
 early Nineteenth Century, for instance, resulted in the 
 formation in the local church of women’s missionary socie¬ 
 ties. Half a century later came the spread of societies for 
 young people, and then the extension of the system of special 
 organizations to other age- and sex-groups. The usual 
 number of such organizations in the churches studied is from 
 four to seven. Five congregations have from nine to thirteen. 
 
 A second development was evidenced by the appointment 
 of committees to care for each need as it might arise. The 
 members of the committees have been selected from the 
 different parts of the parish, so that people of each neighbor¬ 
 hood might be brought into relation with every interest of 
 the church. 
 
 Later the people of any neighborhood who served on the 
 different committees were organized into a local group 
 committee. This third form of development, which has 
 come to be known as the unit or group system, has been 
 extensively promoted by denominational agencies. 
 
 The committee form of organization is largely concerned 
 with the internal working of the church. Two churches, 
 each with many committees, have assigned to them the fol¬ 
 lowing interests : ushers, finance, estimating minister’s sal¬ 
 ary, parsonage and furniture, fuel, music, benevolences, 
 Sunday school, auditing, church records, gymnasium, etc. 
 One of these churches has a total of thirty-two committees 
 and sub-committees. Each of two small colored churches 
 has sixteen committees, in one or the other of which is 
 enlisted a representative of almost every family. 
 
 In the second place, some of the committees supervise 
 such organizations as the Sunday school and the young 
 people’s society. Such supervision presents difficulties, 
 unless, as in the churches in question, the committees are 
 made up of persons vitally interested in the organization 
 concerned. Organizations and committees alike ought to be 
 
ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR PROGRAM 125 
 
 supervised by one or the other of the official boards. Finally, 
 the committee system is apt to fail in presenting a compre¬ 
 hensive, carefully balanced program. 
 
 Where the committee system is carefully coordinated with 
 the program and is well administered, it has real value. 
 Several churches that use it successfully have avoided the 
 dangers of lack of balance and of overemphasis on local 
 needs. The Community Church of Imperial, California, 
 has eight so-called departments, with a membership range 
 of from four to ten. These cover spiritual resources, re¬ 
 ligious education, social service, gospel extension, publicity, 
 finance, music, and stewardship. The gospel extension de¬ 
 partment is responsible for the conducting of the Sunday 
 schools and for preaching services at five outlying points. 
 The chief task of the department of social service is Amer¬ 
 icanization work among Mexicans. The religious educa¬ 
 tional department, in addition to supervising the home 
 Sunday school, conducts the annual School of Missions. 
 The department of spiritual resources, composed of the 
 pastor and the elders, has oversight of evangelistic campaigns 
 and of all personal work. Three of the chairmen are women. 
 Every department holds a business meeting once a month. 
 
 The Memorial Presbyterian Church of Dayton, Indiana, 
 uses the same system with virtually the same departments. 
 It has, however, a department of every-member mobilization, 
 the duties of which are to assign to every active member 
 some definite task, to keep individual records, and to award 
 suitable recognition for services. The department of gospel 
 extension cooperates with all boards of the denomination 
 except that of foreign missions. The department of spiritual 
 resources is responsible for increasing attendance, for pro¬ 
 moting family worship in homes and for organizing and 
 directing bands of personal workers. This church makes a 
 practise of assigning to the same department men and their 
 wives. 
 
 The departmental system in use in three of the forty 
 churches differs from the committee system, of which it is a 
 recent outgrowth, in not being an accidental aggregation of 
 separate teams but the result of a deliberate endeavor to 
 
126 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 make due provision for all parts of a well-balanced program 
 devoted not only to internal affairs but to the larger interests 
 of the community and the Kingdom. 
 
 The use of committees or departments does not neces¬ 
 sarily do away with societies. The church at Dayton, for 
 instance, with eight departments, has also eight organiza¬ 
 tions. Moreover the districting of the parish and the use 
 of committees are often combined in one system, as has 
 been pointed out; and there may be districting not in com¬ 
 bination with the committees, even when the same church 
 employs both systems, as is the case both at Dayton and at 
 Imperial. The multiplication of committees has been accom¬ 
 panied in some cases by an increase in the number of church 
 officers. For example, the Methodist Episcopal church at 
 Randolph, Iowa, has not only seven committees, but ten 
 trustees, thirty-four stewards, and sixteen other officers. 
 
 This more complex organization, extreme examples of 
 which have been cited, makes it necessary for the official 
 boards responsible to the congregation to be kept fully in¬ 
 formed as to all church activities; and for the various 
 agencies to be made to function smoothly in a single well- 
 rounded program. 
 
 THE PASTOR’S COUNCIL 
 
 Sometimes these ends are accomplished by the creation 
 of a pastor’s council or Cabinet, composed perhaps of one 
 member from each of the official boards, the president or 
 secretary of each organization, and sometimes, if either 
 exists, the heads of departments or the chairman of the 
 group leaders. 
 
 This Cabinet becomes the right arm of the pastor, and 
 meets at least monthly or on call. It has four principal 
 functions. Primarily it is concerned with coordination. At 
 its meetings the program of the church as a whole is dis¬ 
 cussed, as well as the part to be played by each organization. 
 It clears up misunderstandings between organizations. No 
 society may schedule any event without consultation with the 
 Cabinet. The representatives of the official boards, being in 
 
ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR PROGRAM 127 
 
 constant touch with all developments, become interpreters 
 to their colleagues of all activities. In one case the board 
 representatives have the power of veto over all decisions. 
 
 The Pastor’s Council is also the central agency through 
 which in any exigency the minister can get his plans before 
 all the other agencies. In some churches, prior to the 
 every-member canvass, this Council holds a meeting at 
 which the budget is explained, after which the representa¬ 
 tives of the other organizations explain it to their con¬ 
 stituencies. A similar course is followed at the time of the 
 adoption of the annual program. The recommendation of 
 each representative to his society is conclusive because it 
 has behind it the decision of the Cabinet. 
 
 A third important function of the Pastor’s Council is the 
 initiation of plans. To it may be proposed new projects 
 favored by any board or society. The ensuing discussions 
 reveal the positions of all elements in the church on all 
 proposals. Because it is representative of so many interests, 
 the Council’s measures are generally well considered and 
 its recommendations favorably received by the congregation. 
 
 Finally, the Pastor’s Cabinet makes it possible to correlate 
 the suggestions of the various national or sectional overhead 
 organizations. The advice upon work for adolescents given 
 to one church by the state officers of the Sunday School 
 Association, and that of the Christian Endeavor Society, 
 contained more than 50 per cent, of duplication. The sug¬ 
 gestions in themselves were admirable; but just how they 
 were to be carried into effect by local organizations could be 
 decided only when the entire local situation was understood. 
 
 Of the forty churches, the one that best combines several 
 methods into one is perhaps the Presbyterian church at 
 Parma, Idaho. This church has eleven subordinate organ¬ 
 izations besides the Sunday school. The parish, moreover, 
 is divided into nineteen districts, within each of which are 
 several group leaders, one of them serving as chairman. The 
 duties of these group leaders are to visit people in the 
 district, especially newcomers, upon whom they report to 
 the pastor; to make persons acquainted with one another; 
 to report changes of residence and cases of misunderstand- 
 
128 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 ing in church matters; and to announce forthcoming church 
 events. They have also responsibilities in connection with 
 the semi-annual surveys and with the evangelistic campaign. 
 With the nineteen chairmen the pastor holds periodic con¬ 
 sultations. An Executive Council includes the chairman of 
 the group leaders, the pastor as representative of the Session, 
 and the head of each organization, as well as extra repre¬ 
 sentatives from important divisions of the Sunday school. 
 
 The overhead advisory body of some churches is so large 
 as to be cumbrous and to constitute sometimes a clique 
 within the church. Occasionally, too, the presence of three 
 or four groups of teams, organized in accordance with 
 different systems, causes too great a complication of 
 machinery. The three systems are most effectively combined 
 when the societies perform the greater part of the work 
 under the general supervision of departments or commit¬ 
 tees, and when the units of the parish are used almost 
 exclusively for evangelistic effort and volunteer parish 
 visiting. 
 
 As has already been implied, these churches have definite 
 programs. In half of them the first step toward the building 
 of a program has been a survey. 
 
 THE SURVEYS 
 
 These churches recognize the dependence of their work 
 on thorough knowledge. Many of them have conducted 
 community surveys, and three undertake to keep their in¬ 
 formation up to date by restudying the community either 
 every year or every six months. The surveys have varied 
 from a simple house-to-house religious census to a careful 
 analysis of the church and the community in relation to each 
 other. The studies have sometimes been conducted under 
 the leadership of the minister, by either the Sunday school 
 teachers, the group leaders, or the young people . 1 In all the 
 most ambitious undertakings the minister himself has joined 
 actively in survey work. 
 
 1 One definite illustration of the work of men’s Bible classes in 
 such surveys is noted on p. 79. 
 
ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR PROGRAM 129 
 
 Parish Map 
 
 After the survey has been made a map of the parish is 
 drawn. It is useful to include in the map every home in the 
 area, and to indicate the church affiliations of the residents. 
 There are many simple devices for this based chiefly on the 
 use of different colors for different denominations. One of 
 the best is the parish chart of M. C. Bishop, which can be 
 obtained by writing to Mr. Bishop at LaCrosse, Indiana. 
 
 Records 
 
 A valuable adjunct to the church survey map is a card 
 index of the membership and constituency. The cards re¬ 
 quired may be obtained from denominational or undenom¬ 
 inational publishing houses, or they can be ruled by the 
 minister himself and placed in a home-made box-file. On a 
 simple 3 x 5 card there is plenty of space for the family 
 address, the names and birthdays of all members of the 
 household, their membership in the church and its organ¬ 
 izations, the church offices they may have held, and the 
 status of each as to marriage, dismissal, and the like. On 
 the back of the card can be kept a record of pastoral calls. 
 A church having sole responsibility for an entire community 
 should have a card for every household. 
 
 In several communities with more than one church, the 
 survey and mapping of the parish were undertaken 
 cooperatively. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 When the results of the survey have been tabulated and 
 interpreted and the parish has been mapped, the whole 
 matter is considered by the official boards of the church and, 
 where such a thing exists, by the Pastor’s Cabinet. Those 
 in charge then construct, in the light of the survey findings, 
 one of the most important things in the work of the church 
 —its program. Where there is a Cabinet, that body dis¬ 
 cusses the part to be taken by every church agency in carry¬ 
 ing out the program. In some cases, where there is no 
 
130 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Cabinet, each organization makes its own program, and 
 these are assembled into a unit which is presented by the 
 minister to the congregation at its annual business meeting. 
 
 How a survey may result in a program enlisting all 
 church agencies is well illustrated by the example of the 
 Community Church of Imperial, California. The survey 
 disclosed within the trade and school community a large 
 unevangelized area containing 2,100 people with virtually 
 no religious affiliations. At a so-called “Set-Up Meeting” 
 preceded by a dinner, the findings of this survey were pre¬ 
 sented by the pastor to the whole congregation; and to meet 
 the needs revealed a broad program of church activities, to 
 be divided among eight departments, was outlined and 
 enthusiastically adopted. Thereupon a “Covenant of Wor¬ 
 ship and Service” was distributed, thus giving every one an 
 immediate opportunity to volunteer for some phase of the 
 new work. For the gospel extension activities alone the 
 number of volunteers was fifty. This survey and the meet¬ 
 ing following it have become annual institutions. 
 
 Many of the churches have constructed their programs, at 
 least as far as the more important undertakings are con¬ 
 cerned, for more than one year. Whether for a year or for 
 a longer period, the program keeps a goal before the church 
 whose progress then may be definitely marked. When it 
 has adopted a clear-cut program to which every individual 
 and organization in the church is geared, it knows where it 
 is going and it is on the way. 
 
 Typical of these programs are the two that follow. One 
 of them, at Collbran, Colorado, is in two sections. The first 
 of these deals with the year directly ahead, and the second 
 with objectives for a period of four years. The former ex¬ 
 emplifies the departmental type of organization, showing 
 the parts taken by the various groups and societies. The two 
 programs together suggest that the year of a successful 
 church has pretty constant features. It includes a Rally 
 Day—sometimes two—a financial campaign, an evangelistic 
 campaign, and the celebration of the great festivals of the 
 Church and of the nation. 
 
ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR PROGRAM 131 
 
 UNIFIED CHURCH PROGRAM FOR 1922-23 
 
 Church Motto for all departments: “Seek ye first His King¬ 
 dom and His Righteousness; and all these things shall be added 
 unto you/’ Matt, vi, 33. 
 
 I. Program for Department of Social Service: 
 
 1. Promote young people’s organizations 
 Boy Scouts 
 
 Camp Fire Girls 
 
 Christian Endeavor, Junior and Intermediate 
 
 Societies 
 
 Sunday school. 
 
 2 . Sustain Community House Activities 
 Library 
 
 Game Room 
 Men’s Club 
 Ladies’ Work. 
 
 3. Provide Entertainment 
 Weekly moving pictures 
 Home talent plays 
 Debates 
 
 Forum. 
 
 4. Develop Extension Activities 
 
 Movies in outlying schoolhouses and churches 
 
 C. E. meetings in outlying schoolhouses and churches 
 
 Children’s Hours in outlying districts. 
 
 II. Program for Department of Religious Education: 
 
 1. Emphasize responsibility of religious education com¬ 
 mittee 
 
 2. Through preaching, teach all truth regarding the Ideal 
 Commonwealth of the Kingdom of God 
 
 3. In the church school organize teacher training school 
 
 4. Hold Summer School of Religious Instruction: Collbran 
 Plan 
 
 5. Encourage reading of library books on the Kingdom of 
 God 
 
 6. In C. E. and all other organizations further study of 
 the Kingdom 
 
 7. Stress to limit religious education through the local 
 press. 
 
 III. Program for the Department of Missions: 
 
 1. Have study group on “Modern Conquests of the King¬ 
 dom” 
 
132 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 2. Have every society give to missions 
 
 3. Have the church meet its benevolence quota in full 
 
 4. Have the church select a particular mission field as its 
 own and the American Board assign a missionary repre¬ 
 sentative as ours 
 
 5. Instruct in work of Fred White, worker supported by 
 this church, in Florence, Alabama 
 
 6. Provide books and literature on missions 
 
 7. Cultivate the missionary committee. 
 
 IV. Program for Department of “Worship and Fellowship”: 
 
 1. Develop reverence in worship through Children’s Church, 
 in C. E., in adult worship 
 
 2. Stress the “Practice of Life in the Kingdom,” learning 
 to live together in a relationship which continues fox*ever 
 
 3. Emphasize worship through music 
 
 4. Stress Bible study and prayer 
 
 5. Cultivate fellowship through socials and emphasize on 
 goodwill. 
 
 V. Program for Department of Evangelism: 
 
 1. Special drive until Easter for commitments to the Chris¬ 
 tian life 
 
 2. Maintain evangelistic effort through religious education, 
 through personal work, through literature, through mass 
 evangelism, and pulpit utterance 
 
 3. Seek to avoid leakage in adolescent age. 
 
 VI. Program for Department of Business: 
 
 1. Advance work on church manual; prepare constitution 
 in 19 22 
 
 2. Organize church; elect deaconate, board of trustees 
 
 3. Adopt (a) duplex envelope system, (b) weekly payments 
 to church and for benevolences 
 
 4. Work for beautifying of church grounds, and improve¬ 
 ments such as a cement walk in front of the church. 
 
 THE FOUR-YEAR PROGRAM 
 
 1922- 23 Religious Education stressed: “Kingdom of God” cen¬ 
 
 tral idea. 
 
 1923- 24 Social Service stressed: Survey made and program 
 
 made according to needs revealed. 
 
 1924- 25 World Christianity stressed: Review of world situa¬ 
 
 tion made, study of societies for world work, etc. 
 
ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR PROGRAM 1 S3 
 
 1925-26 Spiritual Quickening stressed: Emphasis on personal 
 religion and evangelism through religious education, 
 personal evangelism and mass evangelism. 
 
 At Silver Anniversary present souvenir pamphlet containing 
 history of church, its organization, its membership, its constitu¬ 
 tion (in brief, a complete manual). 
 
 The second program, that of the Methodist church of 
 Randolph, Iowa, presents the events of the ensuing year, 
 grouped according to the organization in charge. This 
 arrangement conduces to the proportionate sharing of labor, 
 and to the sense of responsibility. Certain other churches 
 publish their programs in order of dates, an arrangement 
 that is perhaps more convenient for reference. 
 
 CHURCH CALENDAR 
 
 1922 
 
 Ladies’ Aid Society: 
 
 Feb. 1, Wed. Father-Son-Big-Brother Banquet. 
 Apr. 15, Sat. Easter Sale and Banquet. 
 
 May 13, Sat. Annual Banquet, Epworth League. 
 Aug. 23, Wed. Membership Rally. 
 
 Sept. 6, Wed. Reception for Sunset Club. 
 
 Oct. 15, Sun. Harvest Home Dinner. 
 
 Oct. 20, Fri. Reception for Official Board. 
 
 Nov. 4, Sat. Colonial Supper. 
 
 Dec. 6, Sat. Annual Supper and Bazaar. 
 
 Dec. 27, Wed. Annual Social Meeting. 
 
 Sunday School: 
 Apr. 16, Sun. 
 June 11, Sun. 
 Aug. 1, Tues. 
 Sept. 12, Tues. 
 Sept. 24, Sun. 
 Oct. 22, Sun. 
 Dec. 24, Sun. 
 
 Easter Program. 
 Children’s Day. 
 Sunday School Picnic. 
 Annual Meeting. 
 Promotion Sunday. 
 Rally Day. 
 
 Christmas Program. 
 
 Children’s Socials: 
 Feb. 11, Sat. 
 Mar. 18, Sat. 
 May 6, Sat. 
 Aug. 26, Sat. 
 Oct. 28, Sat. 
 
 Valentine Social. 
 
 St. Patrick’s Social. 
 May Day Festival. 
 Lawn Party. 
 Hallowe’en Social. 
 
134 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Union Meetings: 
 May 21, Sun. 
 May 28, Sun. 
 Nov. 30, Thur. 
 
 Baccalaureate Services. 
 Memorial Sunday. 
 Thanksgiving Services. 
 
 Women’s Home Missionary Society: 
 
 Jan. 27, Fri. 
 Mar. 2, Thur. 
 June 5, Mon. 
 June 15, Thur. 
 Sept. 7, Thur. 
 Oct. 5, Thur. 
 
 Annual Program, Queen Esthers. 
 Mite Box Opening. 
 
 Annual Meeting, Queen Esthers. 
 Mother-Daughter Meeting. 
 Annual Meeting. 
 
 Reception for Families. 
 
 Epworth League: 
 Jan. 12, Thur. 
 Feb. 9, Thur. 
 Feb. 13, Mon. 
 Mar. 17, Fri. 
 Apr. 1, Sat. 
 Apr. 16, .Sun. 
 May 13, Sat. 
 May 14, Sun. 
 June 19, Sun. 
 June 23, Fri. 
 July 4, Tues. 
 Sept. 1, Fri. 
 Sept. 10, Sun. 
 Oct. 31, Tues. 
 Dec. 24, Sun. 
 Dec. 29, Fri. 
 
 Church: 
 
 Feb. 1, Wed. 
 Feb. 16, Thur. 
 Apr. 16, Sun. 
 May 14, Sun. 
 June 14, Wed. 
 June 25, Sun. 
 July 2, Sun. 
 Aug. 22, Tues. 
 Oct. 15, Sun. 
 Oct. 20, Fri. 
 Nov. 3, Fri. 
 Dec. 31, Sun. 
 
 Baseball Tournament. 
 
 Baseball Tournament. 
 
 Valentine Social. 
 
 St. Patrick’s Social. 
 
 All Fools’ Day. 
 
 Easter Morning Watch Service. 
 Annual Banquet. 
 
 Anniversary Service. 
 
 College Night Services. 
 
 Ice Cream Social. 
 
 Fourth of July Picnic. 
 
 Fall Reception. 
 
 Rally Day. 
 
 Hallowe’en Social. 
 
 Christmas Program. 
 Home-Coming Rally. 
 
 Father-Son-Big-Brother Banquet. 
 Men’s Reception for Ladies. 
 Easter. 
 
 Mothers’ Day. 
 
 Flag Day. 
 
 Automobile Sunday. 
 
 American Sunday. 
 
 Every Member-Friend Canvass. 
 Harvest Home Services. 
 
 Reception for Official Board. 
 Baseball Tournament. 
 
 Watch Night Services. 
 
ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR PROGRAM 185 
 
 STAFF 
 
 Programs such as these are ambitious indeed. To assist in 
 carrying out such programs about one-third of the forty 
 churches employ besides the minister, an organist, a janitor 
 and other paid workers. The churches at Buckhorn, Ken¬ 
 tucky, and Sacaton, Arizona, are mission churches existing 
 under exceptional conditions. Buckhorn’s church plant in¬ 
 cludes a school, a hospital, an orphanage and a sawmill, so 
 that the staff is large. For its work among the Indians 
 of a large territory, the church at Sacaton has ten workers. 
 The other eleven churches that have staffs vary in their 
 procedure. Several have ordained assistants who serve as 
 extension workers or care for outlying churches of a circuit 
 while the pastor in charge devotes his attention to the church 
 at the center and to executive duties. A number of the 
 churches also employ women as deaconesses, parish vis¬ 
 itors, or directors of religious education and of young 
 people’s activities. In two instances the staff is enlarged 
 in summer when the roads are good and the more isolated 
 neighborhoods are accessible. Some churches have physical 
 directors or directors of recreation. The total number of 
 staff workers exclusive of those at Buckhorn and Sacaton is 
 twenty-three. Half of the churches that have staffs are without 
 competition from any other recognized Protestant church . 2 
 
 The average country church never dreams of engaging the 
 time of any one except the minister. These successful 
 churches, however, have taken on staffs made necessary by 
 their work without financial difficulty, because their tasks 
 are such as to meet general approval. In the light of their 
 experience, it is impossible to resist calling attention to the 
 fact that many small communities now receiving only the 
 part-time services of a number of men, might revolutionize 
 their religious and social life if they were to unite in one 
 church and obtain high-grade professional leadership. At 
 Collbran, Colorado, the Congregational church had for years 
 barely managed to live. The larger program inaugurated in 
 
 2 These figures on staff do not include workers supported on the 
 foreign field. 
 
136 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 1920 has more than justified support of a staff. Nor is this 
 case exceptional among these churches. One of the greatest 
 achievements of the churches with staffs is perhaps their 
 winning of the church members so completely as to be able 
 to utilize their loyalty and service in further expansion of 
 the work. 
 
 Valuable as these staff workers have proved, two-thirds of 
 the churches have achieved their success through the unaided 
 efforts of pastor and members. They have shown skill in 
 selecting and training volunteer leaders and workers. At 
 Imperial, California, two former ministers, one of them 
 from another community, have been persuaded to devote 
 nearly all their leisure to the work of the church. In other 
 places, other persons contribute, in volunteer labor, three 
 working days each week. The work, moreover, has been so 
 organized as to give maximum results for the time expended. 
 
 These churches have not yet evolved the ideal organiza¬ 
 tion for the town and country church. Their numerous 
 promising experiments indicate, however, that they are 
 making progress. Already we can see several healthy tend¬ 
 encies at work. Some of the churches, especially those 
 with departments, conceive the ideal system to be one in 
 which the agencies all function as structural parts of the 
 whole. Almost all try to enlist all their members in church 
 work and to find for each a suitable specialized task. More¬ 
 over, the boards, the societies, the units or groups, and the 
 committees or departments are not operating in the proud 
 independence and isolation of two generations ago; on the 
 contrary, efforts are being made in some cases to coordinate 
 them, and to provide a representative cabinet as a unifying 
 overhead body. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 Types of local church organizations are varied and changing. 
 Among agencies that seem to be essential to the smooth function¬ 
 ing of the church as a whole are these: 
 
 Two official boards, one responsible for spiritual affairs, the 
 other for material matters, but holding joint sessions at infre¬ 
 quent intervals. 
 
ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR PROGRAM 137 
 
 A clearly defined field of service for each organization in the 
 church. 
 
 Committees or departments to meet certain major needs un¬ 
 cared for by existing organizations. 
 
 A pastor’s Cabinet or Council, on which serves one member 
 from each official board and from each organization or major 
 committee in the church, and which shall correlate all work, 
 initiate plans and keep each organization informed as to the 
 general policy and program. 
 
 Local leaders or groups in each neighborhood or block to care 
 for immediate needs on behalf of the church, to welcome new¬ 
 comers and to do personal work. 
 
 A thorough survey of the parish and community. 
 
 A parish map locating every home. 
 
 A definite program, setting goals for each year’s work, 
 adopted annually by the officers and congregation. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Modern Church Management: A Study in Efficiency — Albert F. 
 
 McGarrah. Revell, 1917. 215 pp. $1.25. 
 
 Scientific Management in the Churches — Shailer Mathews. 
 
 University of Chicago Press, 1912. 66 pp. $.50. 
 
 A Modern Church Program: A Study in Efficiency — Albert F. 
 McGarrah. Revell. $.50. 
 
 The Study of a Rural Parish — Ralph A. Felton. Missionary 
 Education Movement, New York, 1914. $.50. Contains 
 
 blanks for 99 homes and 38 pages of suggestions as to pro¬ 
 cedure and program. 
 
 Pastor's Manual of Survey and Program — William L. Bailey 
 and Clare John Hewitt. Abingdon Press, New York, 1922. 
 $5.00. Written from a Methodist point of view, but the most 
 thoroughgoing manual of its kind and adaptable for any 
 denomination. 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 1. a. “Christianity is essentially unorganized. When we or¬ 
 ganize it we destroy its chief charm. Organization . . . 
 should be shunned by the Church.” 1 
 
 b. “The more perfectly organized and managed is . . . the 
 
 1 Babson, R. W., “The Future of the Churches,” p. 103. 
 
138 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 ‘church-temple/ the larger are the results which the in¬ 
 dwelling Spirit can produce/’ 2 
 
 Defend one of the opposed positions set forth in (a) and 
 
 (b). 
 
 2. Beneath all differences in application, point out certain 
 large tendencies pretty general in the organization of the 
 forty successful churches. 
 
 3. “Theoretically the church should be regarded as a body of 
 workmen ready to perform definite tasks as these tasks are 
 outlined for them by its committee of management.” 3 
 Does the organization of the forty churches endeavor to put 
 into practise the theory here set forth? If so, how? 
 
 4. Describe the organization of your own church. Is it such 
 as to insure— 
 
 (1) Service to the whole parish? 
 
 (2) Adequate and progressive performance of all 
 church functions? 
 
 (3) Enlistment for service of every church member? 
 
 (4) Avoidance of duplication in work of subordinate 
 organizations ? 
 
 (5) Conflict of dates? 
 
 In what respects, when compared with the organization of 
 the forty churches studied, is it capable of improvement ? 
 
 5. Where a parish is divided into geographical groups or units 
 with a leader for each, what offices within the districts may 
 be given to boys and girls ? 
 
 6. Among the handicaps of rural churches, President Butter¬ 
 field includes the “boss system.” 4 What does he mean ? 
 How may its organization insure a church against this 
 danger ? 
 
 7. What parts of the work of your church might well be under 
 the supervision of departments? How many members 
 would you appoint to each? 
 
 8. In your church, is there any waste effort as a result of the 
 same thing being done by two agencies ? E. g., does the 
 Boy Scout Troop parallel an organized Sunday school class, 
 or the Young Ladies’ Society duplicate the work of the 
 Ladies’ Aid? How may such duplication be avoided? 
 
 a McGarrah, A. W., “Modern Church Management,” p. 21. 
 
 8 Mathews, Shailer, “Scientific Management in the Churches,” 
 
 p. 36. 
 
 4 Butterfield, K. L., “The Country Church and the Rural Problem,” 
 
 P- 73 - 
 
ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR PROGRAM 139 
 
 In what circumstances is a four- or five-year program more 
 effective than a program for one year ? What is the danger 
 in a cumulative series of objectives? 
 
 Prepare for your church a program for next year, following 
 the arrangement used in either of the two programs given 
 in this chapter. 
 
Chapter VIII 
 
 PUBLICITY 
 
 From the dim past down to less than a century ago, organ¬ 
 ized religion obtained all the publicity it required through 
 the peal of a bell. Now that life has become so complex, so 
 crowded with distractions and duties, the church must com¬ 
 pete for attention with many other interests. In this com¬ 
 petition it has three objectives: to inform its own members 
 and keep them interested in its life and work; to reach and 
 capture persons not yet interested; and to permeate with its 
 uplifting influences community life and standards. 
 
 To attain these three ends amidst the turmoil of the new 
 day, it must have a definite and efficacious publicity pro¬ 
 gram. Every one of the successful churches here studied 
 has known this. 
 
 SLOGANS AND MOTTOES 
 
 Among simple devices, one of the most effective is a name 
 or slogan. A certain open country church has assumed the 
 role of “The Church of Community Interest.” The Meth¬ 
 odist church at Bingham Canyon, Utah, among the squalid 
 surroundings of a rural industrial copper camp, dares to be 
 known as “The Home of Happiness.” Another congrega¬ 
 tion advertises itself as belonging to “a church with a pur¬ 
 pose,” the purpose being further emphasized by a seal which 
 appears upon all printed matter issued by the church. “The 
 Church on the Heights” has traded on its geographical 
 location to suggest loftiness of spirit. Whatever the name 
 or slogan adopted, these successful churches use it on every 
 occasion. No printed matter, no newspaper article, appears 
 without it. It becomes a synonym for the church, an em¬ 
 bodiment of the idea for which the church stands. 
 
 140 
 
PUBLICITY 
 
 141 
 
 BULLETIN BOARDS 
 
 The next experiment in publicity after that with the 
 church bell, was in the use of the formal board outside the 
 church announcing the church’s name and the hours of its 
 services. A modern equivalent extensively used by the 
 churches is the bulletin board. These boards are of all sizes 
 up to seven feet square. Some of them are of the com¬ 
 mercial variety provided with removable letters. Others are 
 made by some local carpenter. Of the latter type some are 
 designed to have printed or typewritten announcements 
 nailed to them; and some are constructed of blackboard 
 material, so that notices may be written on them with chalk. 
 
 Many churches use more than one board. Several have 
 as many as five, to provide for each of the neighborhoods 
 from which the church draws or for strategic locations in the 
 town. In certain cases, where the church is the only one 
 in its community, a bulletin board is placed either within or 
 immediately outside the post office, so that people may read 
 the church notices while waiting for the mail to be dis¬ 
 tributed. In another instance messages from the church and 
 announcements of its services appear day after day in the 
 window of the village bank. A number of grocers extend 
 to their pastors bulletin board space in one of the best 
 locations for rural publicity, namely, the grocery store. One 
 church places a bulletin outside the local creamery. To make 
 announcements from the pulpit unnecessary, a bulletin board 
 is sometimes used in the church itself. The advertising value 
 of this plan needs, however, careful consideration. It is not 
 certain that it is as effective as are announcements from the 
 pulpit, or as are notices in the parish paper or church 
 calendar. 
 
 Outdoor bulletin boards illumined by electric light have 
 been found very effective. Such illumined boards invariably 
 attract the attention of the passer-by who expects a church 
 to be dark. By this method, at a daily cost of a few cents, 
 a church can advertise twenty-four hours a day, and through 
 the use of suggestive sentences can preach seven days a 
 week. 
 
142 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 The mere ownership of a bulletin board does not in itself 
 produce results. Since effective publicity must attract and 
 hold the interest, announcements must be skillfully drafted 
 and frequently changed. For certain fortunate churches 
 members with a talent for drawing produce clever posters 
 that he who runs cannot help but read. 
 
 Freshness and interest, however, are not associated solely 
 with posters and striking illustrations. Some of the churches 
 studied have found considerable value in simple crayon 
 announcements or, for interior bulletin boards, typewritten 
 statements. All agree, however, that no notice should remain 
 longer than a week, and that all announcements should be 
 so worded as to contain nothing either stereotyped or 
 ambiguous. 
 
 Beside the new cement automobile highway half a mile in 
 either direction from Post Falls, Idaho, billboards bear this 
 sign in large letters: “On Sunday park your cars at the 
 Post Falls Community Church and worship with us.” 
 
 THE PRESS 
 
 In town and country districts the most effective and popu¬ 
 lar medium of church advertisement is perhaps the news¬ 
 paper. Through it the church reaches with the least possible 
 expenditure of time and energy the largest possible con¬ 
 stituency. The country newspaper, featuring as it does local 
 rather than national and foreign news, must consider all 
 the social and religious activities of the church. These 
 successful churches make full use of the newspapers. The 
 editors welcome live items of church news. They are also 
 ready to publish the programs of church services for the 
 week, the month, and occasionally the year. Announcements 
 for the longer periods are clipped for reference by church 
 members; sometimes the church obtains reprints for 
 distribution. 
 
 The task of reporting church news is often assigned to a 
 particular person, who on occasion may also contribute spe¬ 
 cial articles dealing with church happenings. Everything 
 from the topic of the pastor’s sermon and the church music 
 
PUBLICITY 
 
 143 
 
 to a hike by the Boy Scouts and a thrilling account of a 
 basket ball victory, is timely and acceptable. Since, however, 
 articles are not propaganda but news, personalities are not 
 emphasized; the church and its work are made the central 
 theme. Annual reports of the church and its organizations 
 are succinctly summarized. Some of the papers publish 
 notable sermons by the local ministers or by visiting clergy¬ 
 men, particularly when there has been a special service. 
 Occasions such as anniversaries, annual meetings, Children’s 
 Day or Christmas are valuable from the point of view of 
 publicity, for they give an opportunity to explain the ideals 
 and history of the church or the meaning of the celebration. 
 The challenge of the church and its appeal can be dwelt on 
 also in connection with announcements and reports of 
 evangelism. This kind of matter is particularly important 
 in reaching outsiders; and it can be made a large factor in 
 bringing about favorable decisions by persons almost per¬ 
 suaded to unite with the church. 
 
 Nearly half the forty churches, including most of those 
 in larger villages and towns, use to great advantage paid 
 advertising space. The editor is often willing to give pre¬ 
 ferred location to a church that has self-respect enough to 
 pay its own way when it desires to advertise. Rates vary 
 greatly; but churches spending more than $100 annually on 
 publicity may well apply from one-fifth to one-quarter of 
 the sum to the purchase of paid-for space. 
 
 In the communities in which the successful churches here 
 studied are found, the relations between the ministers and 
 the editors are most cordial. The local papers welcome news 
 or editorial contributions from the pastor and in some in¬ 
 stances from the lay leaders of the church. At Rolla, 
 Missouri, a Methodist church conducts in the local news¬ 
 paper a regular column headed “Methodist Magnets.” The 
 Congregational pastor of Collbran, Colorado, edits regularly 
 a similar column in the only paper published in the entire 
 Plateau Valley. The Presbyterian church at Novato, Cali¬ 
 fornia, goes further than any of the others in that it is part- 
 owner of the local newspaper, while the minister shares the 
 editorial chair. At another place the pastor has successfully 
 
144 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 acted as substitute for the local editor during the latter’s 
 vacation. 
 
 public "movie” 
 
 Second only to the public press, as a useful and com¬ 
 paratively inexpensive medium of advertising, is the com¬ 
 mercial moving-picture house. For several of the churches 
 that have kept on friendly terms with these powerful modern 
 institutions, the proprietors willingly advertise church serv¬ 
 ices on the screen before shows and between reels. If such 
 advertisements are carefully prepared they can be tremen¬ 
 dously effective, especially as a means of reaching those who 
 are not church members. With a little instruction from the 
 proprietor, almost any one can prepare the necessary slides 
 easily and cheaply. 
 
 THE CHURCH PRINT 
 
 A rural church seldom owns a printing press, and one 
 whose pastor is a master printer is extremely rare; but a 
 press that is an adjunct not only to the church but to the 
 whole community is the rarest find of all. Dayton, Indiana, 
 has such a printing press and such a pastor. The Memorial 
 Presbyterian Church of that village houses its press in the 
 Dayton high school, where the pastor conducts a manual 
 training course for which school credit is given. Upon 
 this press, moreover, are printed the high school paper, which 
 is the only community organ, and the constant stream of 
 postcards, letters, leaflets, programs, bulletins and posters 
 sent by the church to its members and to the community at 
 large. Two other churches own small hand-presses, on which 
 are printed attractive, well-edited bulletins. 
 
 In all, half of the churches have parish papers of one 
 kind or another. A few of these papers are issued weekly, 
 usually as bulletins distributed at church services; some are 
 produced fortnightly; and a few monthly or quarterly. Such 
 a publication provides one of the most effective means of 
 church publicity. It may carry all the announcements of 
 
PUBLICITY 
 
 145 
 
 church activities, and serve as a reminder to congregation 
 and to friends that the church is at work and ready to serve. 
 
 These papers, with their comments on parish events, 
 appeal to the general interest in events in which one has 
 shared or in which one’s acquaintances have figured. They 
 also furnish a continuous record of the work of the church. 
 The columns of the parish journal, moreover, can emphasize 
 the great appeals of the Church at large. By way of “filler,” 
 the wise editor may employ thought-provoking epigrams and 
 slogans. 
 
 The majority of these church papers are well edited. 
 Their excellence of form is ascribed by some pastors to 
 helpful suggestions from the local newspaper man. Most 
 of the papers show good page arrangement, with clear-cut 
 heads to articles and sufficient space between lines to attract 
 the reader who might be repelled by a crowded page. The 
 tone of a number of these organs may be characterized as 
 breezy. The editors, whether they be pastors or laymen, 
 have acquired the knack of what may be called snappy writ¬ 
 ing; of putting the important feature of the story well in 
 the lead, and of rousing and holding the reader’s interest. 
 These papers are not issued merely for pastime, but because 
 those who understand the labor of their production are con¬ 
 vinced their publication is warranted by the results. 
 
 The expense of publishing them is met in various ways. 
 Some are financed by means of commercial advertisements. 
 Others are paid for, at least in part, by a small annual sub¬ 
 scription price of from twenty-five to fifty cents. Occa¬ 
 sionally the paper is published by the Christian Endeavor 
 Society, the details of its business management being handled 
 by the young people, with the pastor serving as editor-in- 
 chief. In some instances the expense is borne by a publicity 
 appropriation in the Church budget. A paper of this kind, 
 as the local printer soon proves, is riot expensive; a hundred 
 dollars more or less represents the average outlay. These 
 successful churches are convinced that sustained, energetic, 
 live publicity brings in, either directly or indirectly, much 
 more than it costs. 
 
 The problem of distribution is not serious. Generally the 
 
146 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 paper is distributed at church, copies being mailed to those 
 not in attendance. Sometimes the entire edition is mailed 
 in advance of Sunday. In other cases the paper is dis¬ 
 tributed by the Boy Scouts; in still others several Sunday 
 school classes attend to the distribution, each distributing 
 an issue. The local church paper averages from four to 
 eight pages, and is of a size that will enable it to be slipped 
 into a large envelope, or when folded, into an envelope of 
 ordinary size. 
 
 Some churches print instead of the parish newspaper, or 
 in addition to it, an annual which contains a directory of the 
 members and a program of activities, more or less detailed, 
 for the year ahead. Some of these annuals, bound as 
 attractive booklets, are meant to be preserved by the mem¬ 
 bers for reference. The cost of publication is often paid 
 for in part by advertisements. It is to be doubted whether 
 an annual is as effective as a less ambitious parish news¬ 
 paper appearing at more frequent intervals. An annual 
 might be put out as one of the numbers of such a paper. 
 
 CALENDARS 
 
 A similar publicity device employed by several of the 
 churches is an annual calendar carrying a picture of the 
 church and containing reminders of the services and of the 
 seasons of the church year. Through denominational pub¬ 
 lishing houses it is possible to obtain calendars of various 
 sizes and designs, provided with blank spaces for the inser¬ 
 tion of local matter. 
 
 Another form of printed publicity matter, which is used 
 by the Methodist church of Rolla, Missouri, consists of cards 
 with perforations at the top and the request, “Please hang 
 me up in a conspicuous place.” On one such card, below an 
 attractive picture of the church, was a general invitation to a 
 series of Sunday evening services. Toward the bottom 
 were attached, calendar fashion, several uniform slips of 
 paper, upon each of which, beside a portrait of the minister, 
 was a detailed announcement of one of the services. Upon 
 the card itself, hidden by the detachable slips, was a calendar 
 of regular church activities. 
 
PUBLICITY 
 
 147 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS ADVERTISING 
 
 These churches use the printing press in still other ways. 
 Half of them employ at irregular intervals printed circulars 
 announcing anything from a lawn party to the lenten serv¬ 
 ices. More than half these churches also use large cards, 
 placing them not only on their own bulletin boards but in 
 the windows of various stores and at the hotels, the school 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 THE MAIL SERVICE 
 
 Uncle Sam is a willing carrier, at a minimum of expense, 
 of such advertisements as postal cards, folders, money- 
 envelopes and letters. The publicity value of these is un¬ 
 deniable, especially in the country where the average person 
 does not receive a large amount of mail. Virtually all the 
 churches studied attribute great value to the personal letter. 
 After an evangelistic campaign, in particular, the new mem¬ 
 ber is glad to feel that the church is writing to him, proudly 
 remembering his entry into the ranks and looking to him 
 for cooperation and service. The minister of the Methodist 
 Circuit at Larned, Kansas, sends to migrant harvest hands 
 letters welcoming them as guests of the church and of the 
 community during the season. The human and spiritual 
 link established by mail with these homeless, friendless 
 migrants is of incalculable value. 
 
 Letters, even when mimeographed or otherwise mani¬ 
 folded, enable the pastor to speak in a more direct and per¬ 
 sonal way than he can even in a parish paper. On a given 
 subject a letter may be sent to members, a variant of it to 
 friends of the church, another to men, and another to women 
 or to young people. Postal cards are used, especially as 
 announcements or reminders of coming events, by three- 
 fourths of the churches. The Presbyterian church at Day- 
 ton, Indiana, keeps a special guest book in which visitors 
 are asked to sign their names. Long after they have re¬ 
 turned to their homes these visitors receive printed com¬ 
 munications from the church. 
 
148 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 GOOD TASTE AND STYLE 
 
 Writing of news is not made effective by exaggeration or 
 by the piling up of adjectives, but by accuracy, crispness 
 and naturalness. Conditions vary and so must style. The 
 pastor who knows just what his church has to offer and 
 just how much it means to the community, will know what 
 to say. The pastor will know how to say it who knows the 
 problems of the individuals and the families in his com¬ 
 munity. But the mechanics of advertising he usually has 
 to study. From the local printer he should learn the beauty 
 and the appropriate uses of the various fonts of type, the 
 psychology of tasteful display methods, and the most 
 effective uses of cuts. Failure properly to employ such 
 mechanical devices results in expenditure of money without 
 adequate return. Attention to details like these has gone 
 far to render the publicity of the churches here studied 
 unusually productive of results. The Church should not 
 stoop, however, to vulgar advertising “stunts.” Its publicity 
 should be distinguished from the ordinary flood of advertise¬ 
 ments by dignity and good taste. 
 
 THE TELEPHONE 
 
 Another common medium of publicity is the telephone, 
 establishing as it does in a scattered rural community a 
 personal and direct contact with church and pastor. The 
 Methodist pastor at Lander, Pennsylvania, for example, 
 with lieutenants on each of the five rural telephone lines, is 
 able to spread rapidly throughout his community any church 
 announcements. 
 
 PULPIT NOTICES 
 
 The obvious and time-honored method of spreading in¬ 
 formation through announcements from the pulpit has its 
 value and still forms part of the publicity program in almost 
 all churches. Surveyors were impressed, however, where 
 this device was employed, with the brevity of the announce- 
 
PUBLICITY 
 
 149 
 
 ments. No time was lost over this part of the exercises. 
 The minister had something to say; he said it and stopped. 
 
 In several communities so fortunate as to have but one 
 church, announcements of church activities were made at 
 various community gatherings; and in one case such notices 
 were regularly given in each classroom of the consolidated 
 school. 
 
 STEREOPTICON AND MOTION-PICTURES 
 
 Through its benevolences the local church takes part in the 
 work of the Kingdom of God throughout the world. The 
 scope of its publicity program, therefore, should also be 
 world-wide. In this field of church publicity—which, of 
 course, is more commonly known as missionary education— 
 virtually all the successful churches make use of the stereop- 
 ticon, or the moving-picture machine, or of both. Through 
 these instruments, especially if care and taste are used in the 
 choice of subjects and slides or films, both home and foreign 
 missionary work can be vividly portrayed. The churches 
 studied are unusually keen in ferreting out good sources 
 of material. They draw not only upon the resources of their 
 denominational boards, but where such service is rendered 
 by the state university or state library, upon the many really 
 beautiful lectures which these agencies put at their disposal 
 at a very nominal cost . 1 
 
 THE CHURCH MAGAZINE 
 
 Akin to this type of educational material are the national 
 or regional periodicals of the denominations, which most of 
 these churches recommend to their members in order to link 
 them to the larger work of the denominational bodies. Sub¬ 
 scriptions are obtained through the parish paper, pulpit 
 announcements, and solicitation by one or another of the 
 church societies. If the work is done by a society, this 
 organization receives in some cases a considerable com¬ 
 mission for its work. 
 
 J For further discussion of this topic see the chapters on Equip¬ 
 ment and Missionary Education. 
 
150 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 MANAGING AND PAYING FOR PUBLICITY 
 
 In four out of every five of these churches full responsi¬ 
 bility for the publicity program rests with the pastor, who is, 
 however, often assisted by individuals or by committees. 
 For the rest of the churches, the matter is under the charge 
 of a committee, or of an individual who sometimes is con¬ 
 nected with the local paper. 
 
 The financing of the publicity program shows greater 
 variety. In some churches the program is supported either 
 by the proceeds of advertisements, by individual contribu¬ 
 tions or by a combination of the two methods. In three 
 instances the pastor pays the bills, an indefensible pro¬ 
 cedure adopted only because these three churches are of the 
 smaller, weaker, missionary type. One church sets aside 
 for its publicity expenses the prayer meeting offerings for 
 the year. In a few other instances, one or another of the 
 organizations of the church pays the bills. In the majority 
 of cases, however, a definite sum is written into the church 
 budget, and against this appropriation the publicity expenses 
 are charged. These sums range from $20 to $500, and 
 average $121; and in the greater number of cases the 
 amount is between $50 and $100. In some instances the 
 appropriations named are over and above the receipts from 
 advertisements and subscriptions. The churches all feel 
 that the expense is more than justified. Only one church 
 is reported to have reduced its appropriation; and even that 
 one still applies $100 a year to publicity. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The publicity program of an average town or country church 
 should include several, and may include most, of the following 
 methods and articles of equipment: 
 
 1. An inventory of the means at hand, as newspapers, movies, 
 mail, telephone, other organizations, frequented centers 
 including stores. 
 
 2. Connections with, and cooperation of editor, moving-pic¬ 
 ture theater proprietor, storekeepers, etc. 
 
PUBLICITY 
 
 151 
 
 3. A church slogan or motto to be used in all articles, on 
 stationery, etc. 
 
 4. A church seal. A die made from pen-and-ink drawing 
 should not cost more than $2.00. 
 
 5. A typewriter for director of publicity. A machine of 
 junior or portable type can be purchased for from $50 to 
 $60. 
 
 6. A duplicator or mimeograph. Advertising pages of re¬ 
 ligious journals present various kinds, with prices. A 
 duplicator may be had for about $10. Mimeographs come 
 at various prices, the maximum price being $150. 
 
 7. One or more bulletin boards. A neat hand-made board 
 for the posting of notices can be constructed for from $10 
 to $20. A manufactured board with movable letters ranges 
 in price from $40 to $105. 
 
 8. A program of methods of publicity adopted, as parish 
 paper, letters, etc., with frequency of each. 
 
 9. An organization, probably a publicity committee, with 
 power to appoint a correspondent from each organization, 
 an editor to check up on copy and prepare it for publica¬ 
 tion, a business manager to secure advertisements and sub¬ 
 scriptions, to prepare and keep up-to-date mailing lists, 
 and to arrange for distribution of all material published. 
 
 The above program includes many items. Not all need be 
 used by any one church. Assuming there is a certain amount 
 of equipment, the following is suggested as a maintenance 
 budget for the year’s publicity, adapted to a church of 150 
 members: 
 
 Paid advertising. $ 20.00 
 
 Window cards, leaflets and folders. 30.00 
 
 Monthly letter to all members and friends 
 
 (postage and stationery). 50.00 
 
 Stencils, typewriter ribbons, incidentals. 7.50 
 
 Maintenance of bulletin boards, news letters, 
 etc. 3.50 
 
 $111.00 
 
 A four-page parish paper, costing from $8.00 to $10.00 per 
 issue, can be made self-sustaining through advertisements and 
 subscriptions. 
 
152 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Church Advertising —W. B. Ashley. Lippincott, 1917. $1.50. 
 Church and Sunday School Publicity — Herbert H. Smith. 
 
 Westminster Press, 1922. $1.25. 
 
 Handbook of Church Advertising — Francis Case. Abingdon 
 Press, 1921. $1.25. 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 1. What should be the concrete objectives of a church’s pub¬ 
 licity ? 
 
 2. What forms of publicity are best adapted to reach (a) 
 non-church members; (b) church members rarely present 
 at services; (c) regular attendants? 
 
 3. How may publicity be made a means not only of drawing 
 people to services, lectures, etc., but of increasing the loyalty 
 of members toward their church? 
 
 4. “The children of this world are in their generation wiser 
 than the children of light.” How true is this as applied to 
 average methods of church and commercial advertising? 
 
 5. Outline publicity campaigns adapted to the following situa¬ 
 tions : 
 
 (a) An open country church, alone in its community. 
 Many non-members irregularly attend the services 
 and other activities. Sum available for the year, $50. 
 
 (b) A village community with two churches, both sparsely 
 attended. A large Protestant factory element is un¬ 
 touched by local church influences. Sum available 
 for the year, $150. 
 
 6. In what circumstances, if at all, should commercial adver¬ 
 
 tisements appear on church publicity material? 
 
 7. How can church organizations such as the Boy Scouts be 
 
 helpful in a campaign of publicity? 
 
 8. In conducting publicity for the church, against what dangers 
 
 should we be on our guard? 
 
 9. How would you carry on an advertising campaign to in¬ 
 
 crease interest in the mid-week service? What re¬ 
 turn can be expected from this type of announce¬ 
 ment : 
 
 “The minister and the janitor will hold their usual 
 prayer meeting on Wednesday evening”? 
 
PUBLICITY 
 
 153 
 
 What has your church to advertise? List in order of im¬ 
 portance. Why should these attractions be advertised in 
 the order you adopt? What proportion of time and money 
 should be allotted to each of the various items? 
 
Chapter IX 
 
 COMMUNITY WELFARE AND CHURCH 
 
 COOPERATION 
 
 The churches dealt with here have community service as 
 an ideal. They show how a church can minister to the wel¬ 
 fare of the community and how it can cooperate with other 
 agencies that have kindred ideals, as well as with other 
 churches. Much of the community service work of the 
 churches has already been described. Their organizations 
 do a great deal of it; their parish houses are community 
 assets. Details already given will not be repeated in this 
 chapter; but the more important facts will be summarized. 
 
 COMMUNITY WELFARE 
 
 I. Cooperation with the School 
 At Parma, Idaho, the church and schools cooperate at 
 every point. Together they employ a man to take charge of 
 music, who also leads all community singing. The school 
 uses the community house gymnasium. The Superintendent 
 of Schools is the adviser for the Senior Christian Endeavor 
 Society, a large proportion of whose members are high school 
 students. At Honey Creek, Wisconsin, the school, church 
 and community house are regarded by the community almost 
 as one plant, and the respective buildings are open alike to 
 school, church and community for all reasonable purposes. 
 The same situation exists in a number of other communities 
 each of which has only one church. Many school auditoriums 
 are open to the churches for lectures and entertainments. 
 Three of the churches have lent the full weight of their in¬ 
 fluence to school consolidation campaigns, all of which have 
 been successful. A number of ministers and of leading 
 
 i 54 
 
COMMUNITY WELFARE 
 
 1 55 
 
 church members cooperate freely with parent-teacher as¬ 
 sociations. Several of the churches give annual receptions 
 to the school teachers. One Sunday each year is also given 
 to a discussion of the spiritual implications of education, and 
 the relationship between the church and the school. 
 
 II. Civic Improvement 
 
 (a) Roads —Good roads are vital to the country church, 
 and the larger the parish the more important they are. There 
 have been several instances of cooperation between church 
 and community in behalf of good roads. The cooperative 
 action at Collbran, Colorado, and Prairie Grove, Arkansas, 
 may be taken as typical of these. The Collbran Congrega¬ 
 tional church held a special “Good Roads” meeting. After 
 the exhibition of a moving-picture showing roads in the 
 making, there was a discussion which led to immediate favor¬ 
 able action on the part of the citizens. At Prairie Grove, 
 the Methodist church sent its Boy Scouts under the leader¬ 
 ship of the pastor to help the business men who actually 
 built a part of the Ozark Trail. Onlookers said that when 
 the boys got to work “it was enough to make a steam shovel 
 jealous.” 
 
 (b) Fire Department —As described in Chapter IV, the 
 Boy Scouts of Dayton, Indiana, under the leadership of the 
 Presbyterian church, are also the town fire department. 
 Their equipment includes a sixty gallon chemical engine, a 
 few smaller chemical tanks, buckets, roof and extension 
 ladders. 
 
 (c) Law Enforcement —These churches stand fearlessly 
 for law enforcement. At Post Falls, Idaho, the pastor of 
 the community church (Presbyterian) discovered that a good 
 many of the townspeople, including the town marshal, were 
 intoxicated at a lodge dance. He called a meeting for the 
 next Sunday evening, at which the district judge and the 
 prosecuting attorney were asked to speak, the pastor preach¬ 
 ing on the topic—“The Disgrace of Post Falls.” As a result 
 the town marshal resigned, and the dance with booze is 
 ended. 
 
156 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 (d) Politics —The part of several of the men’s organiza¬ 
 tions in insuring clean town government has already been 
 discussed (see page 80). 
 
 (e) Village Improvement —Women’s organizations in sev¬ 
 eral churches have conducted campaigns for town improve¬ 
 ment, have encouraged residents to plant flowers, furnished 
 the community with playground equipment, beautified the 
 railroad station, and campaigned for modern buildings along 
 the main street and for modern appliances in the homes. 
 
 (f) Poor Relief —In several of the communities having 
 only one church each, all poor relief efforts center in the 
 church or in one of its subsidiary organizations. 
 
 (g) Cultural Activities —The concerts, lectures, lyceum 
 courses and occasional Chautauquas promoted by these 
 churches, are all of value to the community. A number of 
 church buildings either house the community library or both 
 house and manage it. To the small library of the church 
 is added, in several of these, the traveling library of the 
 state which was secured through the initiative of the pastor. 
 
 (h) Citizenship Building —All the character-building work 
 of the church is citizenship building; but three of these 
 churches have been peculiarly successful among special types 
 of people, the Negroes, Mexicans, Indians. The Lone Oak— 
 Montholia—Methodist circuit in Texas has restored to self- 
 respect two discouraged Negro communities. Bank ac¬ 
 counts have been started, farms purchased and educational 
 activities carried on. 1 The Presbyterian mission at San 
 Gabriel, California, has done a similar service for Mexicans. 
 At Sacaton a mission, also conducted by the Presbyterians, 
 has shown the fitness of the Indians for civilization and for 
 Christianity. 2 To teach the Indians to value their land and 
 to understand that debts incurred by the borrowing of 
 money must be paid, the Mission maintains a loan fund. 
 Through the influence of the Mission, a bank in a near-by 
 town has also created such a fund. 
 
 (i) Health —The health work of these churches has been 
 
 1 See “Churches of Distinction in Town and Country,” Chapter 
 VIII. 
 
 2 Ibid., Chapter VII. 
 
COMMUNITY WELFARE 
 
 157 
 
 particularly significant. Two conduct medical clinics. One 
 has both a medical clinic and a dental clinic which give serv¬ 
 ice at very low rates. Clean-up week has been initiated in the 
 communities of several. Hospitals at the county seat have 
 been financially aided, and there has been active cooperation 
 with the county Child Welfare organization and the Anti¬ 
 tuberculosis Society. At Collbran, Colorado, there has been 
 particularly effective cooperation with the board of health 
 and the district nurse; while the exceptional church at Buck- 
 horn, Kentucky, conducts its own small hospital with a resi¬ 
 dent staff of physicians and nurses. Health bulletins have 
 been distributed. Pulpits have been opened occasionally to 
 county health-nurses or officers of the state health depart¬ 
 ment. A fearless, timely word by one pastor decided the 
 citizens in favor of a much-needed sewerage project which 
 did away with open cesspools that had long endangered the 
 health of a prosperous village. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL WELFARE 
 
 These churches understand that it is not their business to 
 preach scientific farming; but they do understand, as one 
 pastor said, that—“If God’s house is to prosper the soil must 
 be kept fertile, the flocks and herds built up and the farm 
 homes made contented and happy.” Hence they have helped 
 in many ways to improve methods and conditions of 
 agriculture. 
 
 I. The Survey 
 
 A survey of one church indicated that the economic con¬ 
 dition of the community was not as serious as the people had 
 believed it to be. The result was a revival of confidence 
 and a new interest in crop diversification. 
 
 II. Demonstration Farm 
 
 Half a dozen of these churches have farms of their own. 
 Several are used as actual demonstration points for the 
 
158 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 community. One pastor, a former county agent, bettered 
 the whole life of a less favored agricultural community by 
 showing how profits could be made by intensive cultivation 
 and crop diversification. Two of the farms are the property 
 of the Negro circuit just mentioned. The people share in 
 the planting of the crops and divide the harvest from these 
 farms. Agricultural clubs were formed and prizes awarded 
 for the best specimens. Agricultural and canning clubs 
 among the boys and girls are, in fact, quite common. 
 
 III. Farm Institutes, etc. 
 
 Ten of the churches have held farm institutes of one kind 
 or another, bringing in specialists from the state depart¬ 
 ment of agriculture and discussing topics of interest to the 
 farmers and their communities. In two instances these in¬ 
 stitutes lasted for several days and there was a religious 
 service each evening. In addition to the agricultural topics 
 discussed at one of these institutes, the farm home, the 
 community center, the school and religious training were 
 given places on the program. 
 
 IV. Employment Service 
 
 Two churches operate a labor exchange or employment 
 bureau, especially during the height of the harvest. In each 
 instance there is no other agency to perform this service 
 and the church has the personnel, the equipment and the 
 office; more important still, it has the, confidence of the 
 community. 
 
 V. Agricultural Cooperation 
 
 Three churches have been directly or indirectly responsible 
 for the organization of local units of the County Farm Bu¬ 
 reau, or for the organization of the Grange. The influence 
 of one church and its pastor caused membership of the town 
 Chamber of Commerce to be opened to farmers. The 
 
COMMUNITY WELFARE 159 
 
 problem of relationship between town and country forthwith 
 disappeared. 3 
 
 COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 
 
 Naturally the church as a community institution co¬ 
 operates with other institutions and agencies. Such co¬ 
 operation has been indicated in the preceding paragraphs. 
 The major service of a number of these churches has re¬ 
 sulted, however, from their ability to organize the entire 
 community for effective service, rather than from their co¬ 
 operation with local agencies. Nevertheless, quite a number 
 of the churches have been identified with the creation of 
 community councils in which have centered virtually all 
 community interests. Representation in the council is 
 usually on an organizational basis, each lodge, and club, and 
 school, and church having at least one delegate. The council 
 functions through committees, each of which covers some 
 phase of community interest, such as recreation, agriculture, 
 home and school, health or civic improvement. This council 
 serves as a clearing house for the organizations, prevents 
 conflicts of dates, works out community programs upon 
 which all can agree, and makes possible the settling of all 
 the forces of the community in favor of an agreed-upon 
 program with a minimum of lost effort and friction. In 
 three instances the minister of the church is either president 
 or secretary of this organization. 
 
 I. Cooperation with National Agencies 
 
 A large number of these churches ally themselves definitely 
 with certain national agencies, or with local branches of 
 such agencies if these exist. Several give a room for the 
 use of the Red Cross; many cooperate in the national mem¬ 
 bership drive of this organization. Representatives of the 
 Near East Relief and similar agencies are given opportunity 
 
 3 The service of the Larned, Kan., Methodist circuit to migrant 
 laborers has been mentioned in this book and is also described in 
 Chapter V of “Churches of Distinction in Town and Country.” 
 
160 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 to present their causes to the people. There is cooperation 
 with the Y. M. C. A.; and two or three churches have 
 classes organized as Y. M. C. A. groups. It should be 
 said, however, that just because these churches are success¬ 
 ful and are performing functions which in some communities 
 fall to other agencies, there are instances in which they do 
 not cooperate with outside organizations. In a number of 
 cases the work for boys and girls is so well organized and 
 so efficiently conducted that the churches have no need for 
 the assistance of the Y. M. C. A. or the Y. W. C. A. They 
 are doing everything that the Association would do for its 
 boys; and in addition they are conducting activities for the 
 other age- and sex-groups included in their membership. 
 
 II. Interdenominational Cooperation 
 
 Naturally the agencies with which these churches ally them¬ 
 selves are most frequently religious. Ten of the forty, how¬ 
 ever, are in communities or neighborhoods where there are 
 no other evangelical churches. The other thirty are very 
 ready to cooperate. Such cooperation begins with union 
 services, particularly on occasions of special interest to the 
 nation or the community, such as Thanksgiving Day and 
 'Memorial Day or the Graduation Sunday of the high school. 
 Union services in summer are common. In one instance 
 there is a union Sunday school, and in another community 
 the women’s missionary societies of five churches have 
 weekly prayer services. Cooperation in special evangelistic 
 services is frequent, and union Christian Endeavor Society 
 meetings are common. Churches with community houses 
 frequently open them to sister denominations for special 
 events, and the parish house of one contains a community 
 kitchen which all can use. Plays or pageants staged by one 
 or another of the organizations are frequently repeated 
 throughout the area in which the church is known, for 
 the benefit of causes in which nearby churches are interested. 
 Teams of men, or of young folk, from the successful 
 churches frequently go out to assist congregations or com¬ 
 munities in which religious work or some department of 
 
COMMUNITY WELFARE 
 
 161 
 
 church organization seems to be languishing. Cooperation 
 in athletics has already been discussed. 
 
 These churches cooperate extensively in organized inter¬ 
 denominational activities. They are represented at church 
 and Sunday school conventions, and they make sure that 
 their delegates to such conferences report to them. Further¬ 
 more they give to interdominational agencies and causes. 
 Interdenominational cooperation is often directed by a min¬ 
 isterial association. 
 
 The extent to which these churches are willing to co¬ 
 operate with persons in other denominations is shown par¬ 
 ticularly by the ten which are the only churches in their com¬ 
 munities. These ten all have associate or affiliated member¬ 
 ships which are open to adherents of other denominations 
 who do not desire to surrender their original connection, 
 but who do desire to worship in the community in which 
 they live. These affiliated members are admitted either upon 
 certification from their churches or on signing a simple con¬ 
 fession of faith, acknowledging Jesus Christ as Savior and 
 promising to seek and obey His will. Under such condi¬ 
 tions tolerance of one another’s beliefs is imperative, and 
 this tolerance exists. At the Imperial, California, com¬ 
 munity church one Sunday evening the minister received 
 some members by sprinkling, some by immersion and some, 
 Friends, by a simple notice that they desired to unite with 
 the church. One elder, formerly a member of an immersion- 
 ist denomination, held the font while the minister performed 
 the rite of baptism by sprinkling; and another elder, a Friend, 
 who did not believe in any kind of baptism, helped to fill 
 the baptistry for the immersion. It will be seen, therefore, 
 why a number of these churches, though not Baptist in their 
 denominational affiliations, include the baptistry in their 
 equipment. 
 
 The results of this spirit of tolerance and cooperation are 
 clearly evident in the membership rolls. From a half-dozen 
 to sixteen denominations, including former Roman Catholics 
 and Mormons, are listed on the various membership rolls of 
 these churches. 
 
 These scattered instances are typical of many that have 
 
162 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 been gleaned from the study of these churches. It is to be 
 seen that they believe in teamwork. Where agencies exist 
 that they can trust they are willing to depute certain tasks 
 to them, and to cooperate to the full in the accomplishment 
 of these tasks. On the other hand, where the need exists 
 and other agencies are neither present nor within call, the 
 church does not flinch from its responsibility to see that in 
 every community there is an opportunity for a satisfying 
 life, and where necessary the program is extended to meet 
 the needs of the people. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Fear God In Your Own Village — Richard Morse. Holt, 1918. 
 212 pp. $1.30. 
 
 Church Cooperation in Community Life — Paul L. Vogt. 
 
 Abingdon Press, 1921. 171 pp. $1.00. 
 
 The Church at Play: A Manual for Directors of Social and 
 Recreational Life — Norman E. Richardson. Abingdon 
 Press, 1922. 317 pp. $1.50. 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 1. "Bad politics, social evils, insanitary streets and houses, 
 long hours for women workers, the labor of little children, 
 rotten municipal administrations will continue as long as 
 churches continue to regard themselves as rival groups 
 without social functions. They will be to a large extent 
 mitigated, if not in many cases destroyed, if the churches 
 of any community deliberately undertake the process of 
 evangelizing public opinion.” 4 Show how some church or 
 group of churches has improved each kind of bad conditions 
 named. 
 
 2. What levers has the country church by which to influence 
 public opinion? 
 
 3. Express in writing your conception of the phrase "social 
 gospel.” Do you accept the ideal it sets for the church? 
 
 4. Check any of the following that are needed in your com¬ 
 munity : improved roads, farmers’ cooperative organization, 
 public waterworks, hospital, sewers, inspection of milk, 
 
 4 Mathews, Shailer, "Scientific Management in the Churches,” pp. 
 49 , 50 . 
 
COMMUNITY WELFARE 
 
 163 
 
 campaign against flies or mosquitoes, laws about wells, laws 
 about sanitation, about quarantine against contagious dis¬ 
 eases, garbage collection, clean-up day, telephone, hall for 
 public gatherings, lecture course. What has your church 
 done to help bring about any such improvement? 
 
 5. What conditions in your community are worrying conscien¬ 
 tious parents? (E.g., jazz dancing, hooch, objectionable 
 movies, rowdyism among young people, a pool-room or 
 other place of resort where influences are bad, etc.) In 
 regard to each live issue, tell what your church is actually 
 doing to meet the situation, and what more it might do. 
 
 6. Has a church anything to do with running water in farm 
 kitchens? If so, what? Mention three ways in which a 
 community church can raise the standard of living in the 
 community. 
 
 7. What do people talk about in your community? Listen to 
 the conversation at the country store, the moving-picture 
 theater, the church steps, between church and Sunday school, 
 the Ladies’ Aid, jotting down topics. What proportion of 
 time is given to (1) people, (2) things, (3) ideas? How 
 much time is consumed in superficial or malicious gossip? 
 How much interest is indicated by the talk in the program 
 of the church? 
 
 8. “Nothing to do in the country.” Show how this complaint 
 may afford the country church (1) an opportunity, (2) a 
 challenge. 
 
 9. What is the practical reason why country churches should 
 concern themselves with agricultural prosperity? 
 
 10. To what extent did religion among the ancient Hebrews 
 concern itself with agriculture? Cite illustrative passages. 
 
 11. In what circumstances should calf or canning clubs be con¬ 
 ducted in connection with a church ? 
 
 12. From this chapter and from “Country Churches of Dis¬ 
 tinction,” draw varied illustrations of the cooperation of 
 churches with the Farm Bureau. 
 
 13. For a village community of 800 to 1,200 people in a Protes¬ 
 tant district where there is no marked separation between 
 racial, occupational or social groups, and where sectarian 
 differences are not strong, which of the following should be 
 the minister’s objective? Support your choice. 
 
 (a) Two churches working in cooperation. 
 
 (b) A single denominational church. 
 
 (c) A single federated church. 
 
164 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 14. Give accounts of specific cases where the influence of a 
 church through its members has accomplished indirectly 
 definite service for the community. 
 
 15. Ought it to be the ideal that the church members should do 
 welfare work solely through their church? Or should or¬ 
 ganizations specialized for certain forms of service be 
 deputed to perform it, the churches cooperating either as 
 such or through individual members ? 
 
 16. A minister goes into a town where there are a Business 
 Men’s Club, a Parent-Teacher Association, a Commercial 
 Club and three Protestant churches besides his own, all 
 these organizations working independently for what each 
 considers the good of the community. Should the minister 
 take steps to bring about cooperation? What can he do? 
 
 17. Describe how some church known to you has lessened its 
 own organized activities in order to promote Christian co¬ 
 operation more broadly conceived. 
 
 18. To what extent, if any, does a church by cooperating with 
 such an agency as, for example, the Anti-Saloon League, 
 vouch for that agency’s good faith? 
 
Chapter X 
 
 MEASURING SUCCESS 
 
 Reasons for the success of these churches were eagerly 
 sought. The testimony of the local people is interesting on 
 this point. Of the explanations they gave, the three that 
 seemed most important to the field worker have been selected. 
 For the forty churches, therefore, there are 120 possible 
 answers. In twenty-one instances the pastor receives credit. 
 In fifteen cases, success is accounted for by the all-round 
 program; in thirteen, by cooperation with other churches 
 and the community agencies. In nine cases the young 
 people receive credit, and in eight the recreational program. 
 In eight other instances the high quality and general level 
 of intelligence of the people themselves more than anything 
 else seemed to account for the success of the church. Long 
 pastorates are mentioned in seven instances; the economic 
 program of the church in four. The minister’s wife and 
 local lay leadership of the church also came in for their 
 share of the recognition in four cases each. The remaining 
 explanations cover such items as equipment, men’s organiza¬ 
 tions, publicity, and the annual survey. 
 
 THE PAR STANDARD 
 
 During the Interchurch World Movement much was made 
 of a so-called Par Standard for town and country churches, 
 which sought to set down those items of equipment and pro¬ 
 gram believed to be within the reach of any rural church. 
 No attempt was made to appraise the various items of this 
 standard; but it was divided under the five heads of Equip¬ 
 ment, Pastor and Services, Finance, Religious Education, 
 Community Service and Cooperation. This standard con- 
 
 165 
 
166 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 tained thirty points, only twenty-four of which were covered 
 in the schedules used by the Interchurch World Movement. 
 On the basis of the forty churches, a new standard has been 
 worked out, one that is probably above par, but which does 
 summarize the principal items of equipment and program 
 which these churches have in common. 
 
 In this standard, no item has been included unless at least 
 20 per cent, of the churches qualified. Furthermore, an at¬ 
 tempt has been made to avoid carrying classification to too 
 fine a point. Thus, while fourteen of these churches have 
 gymnasiums, a gymnasium as such was not included in the 
 standard. Instead, the church was graded on the basis of 
 having a space available for social and recreational purposes 
 which might or might not be in a gymnasium or separate 
 community house. 
 
 This summary of equipment and program follows; and 
 for each item is given the number of churches of the forty 
 which have made this particular point. The points that are 
 starred are those in the original studies on which the Inter¬ 
 church World Movement gathered data. At the conclusion 
 of the table will be found a comparison of the ranking of 
 the churches in the twenty-five typical counties studied by 
 the Committee 1 with the ranking of these forty churches. 
 
 PAR STANDARD 
 Physical Equipment 
 
 * i. A comfortable, attractive parsonage with modern 
 
 improvements, furnished rent free. 33 
 
 * 2. Auditorium with seating capacity adequate to maxi¬ 
 
 mum attendance at regular services. 34 
 
 3. Pipe organ or piano. 40 
 
 * 4. Space for social and recreational purposes fitted with 
 
 movable chairs and a platform, and large enough for the 
 largest crowds in the habit of assembling there.... 35 
 
 * 5. Separate rooms or curtained spaces for Sunday 
 
 school classes or departments. 32 
 
 * 6. Moving-picture machine or stereopticon facilities... 28 
 
 7. A well-planned, well-equipped kitchen. 34 
 
 1 Town and Country Series, in 12 volumes, by the Committee on 
 Social and Religious Surveys. 
 
MEASURING SUCCESS 167 
 
 8. Sanitary lavatories. 26 
 
 * 9. Parking space for automobiles or horsesheds. 39 
 
 *10. All property kept in good repair and sightly con¬ 
 dition . 35 
 
 11. Bulletin boards for display of church announce¬ 
 ments . 25 
 
 12. Playground . 12 
 
 13. Recreational equipment—games, volley ball, cro¬ 
 quet, quoits (indoor and outdoor) and the like.... 28 
 
 Religious and Missionary Education 
 
 *14. Sunday school maintained throughout the year.... 40 
 
 *15. Sunday school enrollment at least equal to church 
 membership, with an average attendance of at least 
 
 two-thirds of its membership. 20 
 
 *16. Definite and regular attempt to bring pupils into 
 church membership, and specific instruction in 
 
 preparation therefor. 40 
 
 *17. Teacher training or normal class regularly provided 20 
 *18. Definite provision for enlistment and training of 
 leaders for church and community work other than 
 
 in Sunday school. 27 
 
 *19. Communicant classes regularly held in preparation 
 
 for church membership. 23 
 
 20. Week-day religious instruction provided. 10 
 
 21. Daily Vacation Bible School held. 11 
 
 22. School of Missions, or systematic Mission Study 
 
 class regularly held. 8 
 
 23. The missionary work of the church regularly pre¬ 
 sented from the pulpit and in the Sunday school.... 33 
 
 24. At least one representative in professional Christian 
 
 service . 19 
 
 Finance 
 
 *25. The church budget, including both local expenses 
 and benevolences, adopted annually by the congre¬ 
 gation . 40 
 
 *26. Every-member canvass for weekly offerings made 
 annually on the basis of the local and benevolent 
 budget adopted; all church members and adherents 
 
 canvassed; envelope system used. 36 
 
 *27. The budget of benevolence either meeting the de¬ 
 
 nominational apportionment in full or equal to one- 
 
168 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 third of the current expense budget (Interchurch 
 standard 25 per cent.). 13 
 
 28. All current bills paid monthly. 39 
 
 29. A systematic plan of payments on principal and in¬ 
 terest of debt on the church property, if any. 18 
 
 30. Property insured. 38 
 
 Pastor 
 
 *31. A pastor resident within the bounds of the com¬ 
 munity . 40 
 
 *32. A pastor giving full time to the work of this church 33 
 *33. The pastor receiving a total salary of at least $1,500 
 a year and free use of house (Interchurch figure 
 $1,200). 34 
 
 Program 
 
 *34. At least one service of worship every Sunday. 40 
 
 35. Regular mid-week services. 24 
 
 *36. Church works systematically to extend its parish to 
 
 the limits of the community. 40 
 
 37. Church works systematically to serve all occupa¬ 
 
 tional classes in the community and all racial ele¬ 
 ments which do not have their own Protestant 
 churches. 35 
 
 38. A definite program setting goals for the year’s work 
 adopted annually by the officers and congregation 
 and held steadily before the attention of the church. 18 
 
 39. A definite assumption of responsibility with respect 
 to some part of this program (as in 38) by at least 
 
 25 per cent, of the active members. 37 
 
 40. Systematic evangelism aimed to reach the entire 
 
 community and every class in the community. 40 
 
 41. A minimum net membership increase of 10 per cent, 
 
 each year. 20 
 
 42. Community service a definite part of the church’s 
 work, including a definite program of community 
 cooperation led by or participated in by the church. 40 
 
 *43. Definite organized activities for all the various age- 
 and sex-groups in the congregation and community 
 (as in Young People’s Society, Men’s Brotherhood, 
 
 Boy Scouts, or similar efforts). 24 
 
 44. A systematic and cumulative survey of the parish 
 with a view to determining the church relationships 
 and religious needs of every family, and such a 
 
MEASURING SUCCESS 
 
 169 
 
 mapping of the parish as will show the relationships 
 of each family to local religious institutions together 
 with a continuous and cumulative study of the social, 
 moral and economic forces of the community with a 
 view to constant adaptation of program to need.... 16 
 
 Cooperation 
 
 *45. Cooperation with other churches of the community 
 
 in a definite program for community betterment 2 ... 31 
 
 46. Cooperation with state and county interdenomina¬ 
 tional religious agencies. 40 
 
 47. Cooperation with local community organizations.... 38 
 
 48. Cooperation with county, state, or national welfare 
 
 agencies. 38 
 
 49. Cooperation with local and county agricultural 
 
 agencies. 36 
 
 50. Cooperation with denominational boards. 40 
 
 A comparison of the ranking of the successful churches 
 and those in the twenty-five counties, to which allusion has 
 frequently been made, covering only those points found in 
 the Interchurch World Movement schedules, shows that these 
 churches rank more than twice as high as those in the twenty- 
 five counties. The proportion of points attained is 85.5 per 
 cent, in the one case and 40 per cent, in the other. In those 
 points relating to the minister and worship, finance, and 
 religious education, the successful churches better the records 
 of the average from 100 to 150 per cent. The nearest ap¬ 
 proach in the two groups is in the matter of physical equip¬ 
 ment where the superiority is a little less than 70 per cent. 
 
 This comparison shows only what is to be expected. If 
 these churches did not markedly exceed the average they 
 would not be successful. That they do exceed the average 
 simply proves that they are worthy to be studied and their 
 methods to be adapted. The most significant difference 
 disclosed by the comparison relates to community service and 
 cooperation. It is in this very important branch of church 
 work that the greatest difference is discernible, one of about 
 400 per cent. 
 
 One of the most interesting things which this survey 
 
 2 Nine churches are the only ones in their respective communities. 
 
170 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 reveals is the similarity in program between town, village, 
 and country churches. The extent to which the town 
 churches reach the outlying rural population has already been 
 pointed out. The experiences of these churches prove that 
 the town and the country to a remarkable degree respond alike 
 to the same kind of organized expression of religion. 
 
 This investigation, particularly summarized as it is in the 
 above standard, indicates very clearly that the rural church 
 is now in possession of a program that meets the needs of 
 the people. There is no occasion to flounder. There need 
 be no hesitancy in leadership. The dream of a church that 
 would stand central in the life and thought of its community 
 has become an actuality, in these instances and in others 
 equally significant. 
 
 The Country Church was challenged a dozen years ago to 
 rise to the full possibility of its powers. The challenge came 
 in the unimpassioned findings of a government report, that 
 made by the Roosevelt Country Life Commission. These 
 forty churches and the ideas and the ideals which they have 
 formulated are the answer to that challenge. They prove 
 that evangelistic zeal and social service can be combined 
 under adequate leadership in a program that will rouse the 
 interest and then command the loyalty of a community of 
 any kind in country or in town. 
 
Index 
 
 Advertising, miscellaneous, 147 
 Agriculture, 70 
 Agricultural cooperation, 158 
 Agricultural welfare, 157 
 Amount of expenditures, 116 
 Apportionment of expenditures, 
 116 
 
 Assessments, 113 
 Athletics, 67 
 Attendance, 48 
 Auditorium, the, 90 
 
 Baseball league, 67 
 Basement, the, 91 
 Bible study for public school 
 credit, 50 
 
 Bibliography, 36, 44, 61, 86, 106, 
 121, 137, 152, 162 
 Boy Scouts, 66 
 Boys and girls, 
 nurturing, 33 
 organizations for, 66 
 Budget, 109 
 Bulletin boards, 141 
 
 Calendars, 146 
 Campaign publicity, no 
 Camping, 68 
 
 Canvass, every-member, 109, 112 
 Centerton, church building at, 104 
 Character reading, 70 
 Children, 72 
 worship for, 40 
 Church, 
 
 external appearance, 89 
 definite building plans, 99 
 other details of building, 94 
 plans for, 100-103 
 service for the, 75, 78 
 Church calendar, 133 
 Church membership, classes to 
 prepare for, 31 
 Church press, 144 
 Church program, 123, 129 
 four year program, 132 
 unified, for 1922-1923, 131 
 
 Circuit evangelism, 33 
 Citizenship building, 156 
 Civic improvement, 155 
 Civic righteousness, 80 
 Classes, 50 
 Clubroom, the, 71 
 Coasting, 68 
 
 Collbran, church building at, 105 
 Collections, 71 
 Community house, 95 
 Community organization, 159 
 Community service, 76, 79 
 space and equipment for, £r 
 Community welfare, 154 
 Comparative results, 35 
 Conferences, 76 
 Cradle roll, 49 
 Curriculum* 50 
 Cultural activities, 156 
 
 Daily vacation bible school, 54 
 Debts, 117 
 Decision day, 53 
 Demonstration farm, 157 
 Denominational campaigns, 115 
 Discussion, topics for, 44, 61, 87, 
 106, 121, 137, 152, 162 
 
 Educational activities, 70 
 Employment service, 158 
 Enrollment, 55 
 
 Equipment for religious educa¬ 
 tion, 47 
 
 Evangelistic harvest, preparation 
 for, 26 
 
 Evening service, Sunday, 40 
 Extension evangelism, 34 
 Extra-curriculum activities, 52 
 
 Farm institutes, etc., 157 
 “Father and Son” banquet, 77 
 Finance, 109 
 
 Financial methods, other, 113 
 Financing the Sunday school, 119 
 Fire department, the, 155 
 
172 TESTED METHODS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 Follow-up, the, 116 
 Forum, 41 
 
 Four-year program, the, 132 
 
 Girl Scouts, 66 
 Girls and boys, 
 nurturing, 33 
 organizations for, 66 
 Good taste in writing church 
 news, 148 
 Graded lessons, 50 
 Gymnasium, 95 
 
 Health, 156 
 Home department, 49 
 Home mission aid, 118 
 Hiking, 68 
 
 Indians, set the pace, 33 
 Interchurch World Movement 
 schedules, 169 
 
 Interdenominational cooperation, 
 54, 160 
 
 Junior Christian Endeavor, 72 
 
 Kitchen, the, 92 
 
 Larger religious service, 78 
 Law enforcement, 155 
 Leadership, 55, 75 
 Leadership training, 59 
 Lessons, graded, 50 
 Life service recruits, 58 
 
 Magazine, the church, 149 
 Mail service, 147 
 Meetings, 77 
 evangelistic, 30 
 Membership, 
 enlisting the, 26 
 using the, 41 
 Men, societies for, 77 
 Methods, other evangelistic, 30 
 Mid-week service, 42 
 Mission study outside the church 
 school, 56 
 
 Missionary education, 56 
 other methods of, 57 
 Missions, 
 and women, 82 
 at home, 83 
 
 topics for discussion on, 64 
 
 Morning service, 39 
 Mottoes, 140 
 
 Motion-picture publicity, 149 
 Moving-pictures, 41, 97 
 cost of, 97 
 program, 97-98 
 sources of films, 98 
 topics of discussion on, 108, 
 112 
 
 Music, 39 
 
 National agencies, cooperation, 
 
 J59 
 
 Non-evangelical pupils, 47 
 Nurseries, 81 
 
 Opportunities, meeting unusual, 
 76 
 
 Organization, 49 
 
 Par standard, the, 165-169 
 Parish map, 129 
 Parish service, enlisting for, 58 
 Parish visiting, 81 
 Parma, church building and com¬ 
 munity house at, 105 
 Pastor’s council, 126 
 Per capita expenditure, 114 
 Politics, 156 
 Poor relief, 156 
 Prayer meetings, 27 
 Preparatory steps, 28 
 Press, the, 142 
 Printing-press, a, 144 
 Program, value of a full, 76 
 Promotion day, 53 
 Prospects, letters to, 29 
 Public “movie,” 144 
 Publicity, 28, no, 140 
 managing and paying for, 150 
 Pulpit notices, 148 
 Pupils, 47 
 
 Radio, 71 
 Rally day, 52 
 
 Reaching an entire community, 
 79 
 
 Records, 129 
 
 Recreational activities, 66, 70 
 Relief of poor, 156 
 Restroom, a, 83 
 
INDEX 
 
 173 
 
 Results, 
 
 comparative, 35 
 following up, 32 
 Roads, 155 
 Rodeo, 68 
 
 Schools, of missions, 57 
 Sermons, 39, 40 
 Service, 72 
 
 Service for the church, 75, 78 
 larger religious service, 78 
 Services, 38 
 
 Similarity in program of town, 
 village and county churches, 
 170 
 
 Slogans, 140 
 
 Social activities, 66, 70, 73 
 Social occasions, 54 
 Societies for men, 77 
 Societies for women, 80 
 Speakers, addresses by invited, 
 4 1 
 
 Special days, 31 
 Special offerings, 115 
 Staff, 135 
 Stage, the, 93 
 Stereopticon—publicity, 149 
 Stereopticons, 96 
 Stewardship day, 53 
 Stewardship training, ng 
 Style, in writing church news, 
 148 
 
 Success, measuring, 165 
 Sunday school, providing for, 90 
 Survey of the church, 128, 157 
 
 Taking shut-ins to services, 82 
 Teachers and their preparation, 
 5i 
 
 Telephone, the, 148 
 Terms, 55 
 Tithing, 114 
 Training classes, 51 
 
 Unified church program for 
 1922-1923, 131 
 
 Village improvement, 156 
 Vocational training, 69 
 Volunteer day, 59 
 
 Welfare, community, 154 
 Women, 
 
 and missions, 82 
 societies for, 80 
 Workers conference, 52 
 Workers, training personal, 27 
 Worship, 38 
 for children, 40 
 
 Young people’s organizations, 73 
 
THIS BOOK 
 
 Should Be Read in Connection 
 with Its Companion Volume 
 
 CHURCHES OF DISTINCTION 
 IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 
 
 In which are Told 
 
 The Life-stories of Fourteen of the Forty 
 Successful Churches whose Methods have 
 been Treated Topically in the foregoing 
 pages. Each story constitutes in itself 
 
 A ROMANCE OF PASTORAL SUCCESS 
 
 Published by GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY, New York 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS 
 
 SURVEYS 
 
 370 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
 Freely Illustrated 
 
 12 mo. Net , $1.50 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Princeton 
 
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 ogical Seminary Libraries 
 
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