HOME MISSIONARY 
 
 PRIMER 
 
A Home 
 Missionary Primer 
 
 1922 
 
 By Ernest Milton Halliday 
 Lesson I. 
 
 A Missionary Church is a church whose 
 minister is supported in whole or in part 
 from funds contributed by other churches, 
 or by individuals living at a distance. The 
 donors of these funds are convinced that 
 the Apostle Paul was right when he argued 
 that the Gospel of Christ, to be practiced, 
 must first be proclaimed; that in order to 
 be proclaimed there must be preachers to 
 proclaim it; and that the only way to make 
 sure that preachers shall be found in com- 
 munities where the people are unable or 
 unwilling to procure them is to "send" 
 them. When they are sent across the seas, 
 we call them "foreign missionaries;" when 
 they remain within the territory of the 
 United States, they are "home mission- 
 aries." But they are all — "home" and 
 "foreign" missionaries alike — trying to do 
 just what the pastors of self-supporting 
 churches are trying to do: seeking to bring 
 men and women and boys and girls into the 
 joyous new life that Jesus lived. 
 
 2 
 
Lesson n. 
 
 Congregationalists, like many other 
 branches of the Christian Church, are firm 
 believers in missionary work. They have 
 no wish to keep the "Good News" to them- 
 selves. They are convinced that everybody 
 has a right to it. They are sure, too, that 
 this wicked old world will never become 
 what Jesus prayed that it might become, 
 a place where God's will is done as gladly 
 as it is in heaven, unless his "Way," as the 
 early Christians called it, shall come to be 
 the road that everybody travels. They know 
 that this is a tremendous task, and that it 
 will take a long time to accomplish it. But 
 their faith is that if they do their part by 
 sending missionaries, and starting churches, 
 and erecting houses of worship, and rear- 
 ing preachers, and practicing Christianity 
 themselves, God will work with them, and 
 with all the other Christians of whatever 
 name or sign; and our Lord's prayer will 
 one day be answered. 
 
 Lesson in. 
 
 The Congregational Home Missionary 
 Society, known for short as the "C.H.M.S.," 
 is the denominational agency through 
 which Congregationalists support home 
 missionaries in all parts of the United 
 States. They do it that way in the interests 
 
 3 
 
of efficiency; just as they send their chil- 
 dren to school instead of teaching them at 
 home; just as they put money in the sav- 
 ings-bank, where it may be joined to other 
 funds and wisely and safely invested. Very 
 few individual Christians are rich enough, 
 or well enough acquainted with the country's 
 needs, to hire home missionaries on their 
 own account; but by joining with others 
 they can make it possible for their servant, 
 the Home Missionary Society, to do the 
 work for them. This servant is something 
 like Methuselah, for though ninety-six 
 years of age, it is yet in its youth, and is 
 constantly growing stronger and more 
 robust. 
 
 Lesson iv. 
 
 Last year — from April 1, 1921 to March 
 31, 1922 — Congregationalists, working 
 through their Society, contributed to the 
 entire or partial support of 1,447 mission- 
 aries, most of them preachers. These 
 preachers ministered to 1780 churches, and, 
 in addition, to 122 Sunday Schools, many 
 of which will, in due time, become churches. 
 In this one year, 13,474 persons were re- 
 ceived into church membership, 8,427 of 
 whom came upon confession of their Chris- 
 tian faith. There was a total Sunday School 
 enrolment in these mission fields of 129,589. 
 Who can estimate the leavening power of 
 such work as this, carried on faithfully 
 year after year? 
 
 4 
 
Lesson v. 
 
 Congregationalists who support their 
 Home Missionary Society have a part in 
 helping the people from many lands who 
 
 come to our shores seeking a happier lot. 
 At Ellis Island, in New York harbor, under 
 the shadow of the Goddess of Liberty, 
 mothers and children find friends in our 
 women workers, who have a kindergarten 
 and playroom there for the little folks. 
 Some of them, after being detained for a 
 time, have to make the sad journey back 
 to the place from which they came, but at 
 any rate they carry with them the memory 
 of happy days spent in sewing, and draw- 
 ing, and learning to speak English, and per- 
 haps most wonderful of all, learning to 
 play. Of course the great majority of the 
 newcomers are allowed immediate admit- 
 tance, and go on to find their relatives who 
 are already here. These the Society attempts 
 to minister to in 280 foreign-speaking mis- 
 sions scattered throughout the country, 
 services being held in 19 languages other 
 than English. The children will, as ex- 
 perience has proved over and over again, 
 speak English by preference, but their 
 elders, naturally clinging to the speech of 
 the motherland, are glad to find religion 
 adapting itself to their needs in their new 
 home. 
 
 Lesson vi. 
 
 We have heard much in recent years of 
 the great exodus of Negroes from the South. 
 
 5 
 
There are now 1,550,900 persons of Negro 
 descent living in the North and West. Their 
 presence offers special problems and special 
 opportunities. The Congregational Home 
 Missionary Society is seeking to meet the 
 situation by assisting in the support of 
 qualified Negro ministers, and by keeping 
 in the field a Director of Negro Work, who 
 gives his time to the planting of new 
 churches and the counsel and encourage- 
 ment of those already in existence. 
 
 Lesson vn. 
 
 Increasingly, the people of the United 
 States are living in cities and towns instead 
 of in the country. In 1880, according to 
 the federal census reports, almost three- 
 fourths of them lived in rural districts; in 
 1920, the proportion had fallen to a little 
 less than half. On the other hand, because 
 of the increase in our total population, more 
 people are living in the country than ever 
 before. Home missionary workers, there- 
 fore, find themselves confronted with two 
 important questions: how shall the in- 
 rushing city throngs be cared for reli- 
 giously? and, how can life in rural com- 
 munities be made socially and religiously 
 attractive? Both country and city need 
 religion to keep their currents sweet and 
 pure. For these special problems, The Con- 
 gregational Home Missionary Society is 
 anxious to help find a solution. To that 
 end it has provided a Director of City Work 
 
 6 
 
and a Director of Rural Work, whose time 
 is freely placed at the disposal of churches 
 and communities most needing it. 
 
 Lesson vm. 
 
 And back of all the churches, both mis- 
 sionary and self-supporting, stands The 
 Congregational Commission on Evangelism 
 and Devotional Life, which the Home Mis- 
 sionary Society finances. By careful plan- 
 ning of a year's suggestive program for 
 the local church, by the publication of help- 
 ful and inspiring evangelistic literature, 
 by centering attention upon the church's 
 chief business — the securing of recruits for 
 the Captain of our Salvation — the Commis- 
 sion affords the Home Missionary Society 
 an added means of accomplishing its great 
 task. 
 
 Lesson ix. 
 
 Shall work like this go on, and be ex- 
 tended? Or shall it be curtailed, or even 
 given up? Congregationalists are the only 
 people who can answer that question. And 
 
 the answer will be recorded, month by 
 month, in the increasing or diminishing 
 receipts of the home missionary treasury. 
 If all our 6,000 churches will do what more 
 than 500 actually accomplished last year, 
 that is, meet their full quota of the appor- 
 tionment, they will be able through their 
 servant, The Congregational Home Mission- 
 ary Society, to insure the carrying on of 
 an aggressive Christian campaign whose 
 possibilities for good will be inestimable. 
 
 7 
 
Sty? (Euttgrrgattflttai ijom? 
 iitSBtflttara Ibamty 
 
 287 Fourth Avenue 
 New York