3[ ^ome jWtsston Boarti BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS AND CHURCH EXTENSION METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 1701 Arch Street Philadelphia - Pennsylvania A HOME MISSION BOARD IN ACTION THE bare statement that the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church does "missionary work in accordance with its charter, in the United States and its possessions, not including the Philippine Islands" fails utterly to indicate the scope and magnitude of the work of this Board. Composed of twenty-eight laymen and twenty-seven ministers, with an Executive Committee of twenty-five which acts between its Annual Meetings, and an Administra- tive Committee, which acts in emergencies, the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension has a task which for scope, magnitude and variety can hardly be equaled. Its work is organized under five Departments and three Bureaus, — the Depart- ment of Church Extension, the Department of City Work, the Department of Rural Work, the Department of Frontier Work, the Department of Evangelism, the Bureau of Foreign-speaking Work, the Bureau of Negro Work, and the Bureau of Publicity. To prevent overlapping in a number of the great activities of the Methodist Episcopal Church provision is made for a number of Joint Committees with other Boards working in the same field. These are the Joint Committee on Religious Work among Students in State and Independent Educational Institutions, with the Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Joint Committee on Indian Work, with the Woman's Home Mission Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; the Joint Committee of Six on Foreign-speaking Literature, with the Board of Sunday Schools and the Methodist Book Concern ; the Joint Committee on Life Service, with the Committee on Conserva- tion and Advance of the Council of Boards of Benevolence of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; and the Bureau of Architecture, with the Board of Sunday Schools. The Board's Responsibility The responsibility of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, when analyzed, is seen to lie chiefly in three directions. 1. In giving co-operation in the development of a program compre- hensive enough to care for church needs in the various Mission fields of the United States. 2. To help secure and maintain an adequate corps of ministers and missionaries in Home Mission fields. 3. To give the necessary assistance in developing suitable churches and parsonages. The two great divisions of the funds of the Board are for (1) Maintenance and (2) Church Extension. These funds are distributed according to a program built The First Home Missions on the principles of responsibility and opportunity. A Memorial Church In Porto Rico Maintenance Helping To Support The Missionary The Board has been able the past year, because of Centenary income, to undertake a very much larger regular program than ever before. It has dis- tributed $2,295,824.16 during the year for maintenance, or help on the support of missionaries. All appropriations for such support are called Home Mission Appro- priations. Appropriations for building purposes are designated Church Extension. There are 800 pastors and 550 special workers in cities whose support has been cared for in part, 200 of whom are colored pastors. There are 2,9.50 pastors in rural and frontier fields whose support has been cared for in part out of Home Mission funds, of whom 500 are colored pastors. Of the total number of ministers whom the Board has assisted, 955 are working among foreign- speaking people. It is apparent from a study of these appropriations that every type of Home Mis- sions has been reinforced by the larger income of the Centenary. These larger Mainte- nance appropriations resulting from Centenary income make possible three things : 1. The Church was helped over the war period with its sharp increase in the cost of living and is being helped in this period of financial depression. 2. The ability to pay better salaries on the part of the Methodist Episcopal Church in mis- sionary centers has made possible at least a measure of improvement in our missionary force. Prior to the Centenary, Methodist Episcopal pastors in our Spanish-speaking fields in the Southwest were practically all part-time men. They worked in stores, on ranches and as section hands. The same was true in Porto Rico. And in our Negro work in the South the situation with reference to ab- sentee pastors was deplorable. The Centenary has changed all this. A recent traveller in the South says : "I recently rode from Jackson to Greenwood, Mississippi. It was Saturday afternoon and night. With the aid of the train porter I counted 68 preachers who lived away from their people, going to their country churches for Sunday services. The porter spoke of them as "Saturday Nighters." I do not think one of these ministers was of the Methodist Episcopal Church, thanks to the Centen- ary, which has made possible the keeping of our preachers on the field. But I say unhesitatingly that the rural church in the South suffers terribly from the absentee pastor and inefficient leadership." 3. The Board has been placed in a position to begin laying the foundations of a more worthy missionary program in purely missionary fields. Building Houses Of God — Church Extension Church Extension Work has had a surprising development through the increased resources supplied by the Centenary. Organized Church Extension in the Methodist Episcopal Church began in 1869, so that the first half century of its history culminated in 1919. During this period of fifty years the total offering for this cause was $6,408,- 460.99. This money was distributed throughout the Home Field for 12,529 building projects. Church Extension has had just two years under the Centenary. Within these two years, from November 1, 1919, to October 31, 1921, the Church has contri- buted $5,315,912.53, or more than five- sixths as much as during the previous fifty years. The number of building pro- jects aided in the last two years is 2,041. Hence, in the first fifty years of organized Church Extension, aid was given to an average of about two hundred and fifty building projects annually. The yearly Making The city church Adequate average for the two years of the Centen- ary exceeds one thousand projects, or four times the average of the first fifty years. The total amount distributed for Church Extension purposes during 1921 was $2,761,863,81. This assisted in the development of 1,107 building enterprises. Two hundred and fifty- two of this total number were begun in the year 1920 and received their first appropriations at that time. ' Three hundred and ninety of these building enterprises are in cities of 10,000 and over. Seven hundred and seventeen are in rural and frontier communities. Eight hundred and five are in white English-speaking Conferences. Two hundred and seven are in Negro Conferences. Eighty-eight are in foreign-speaking neighborhoods, and seven are at student centers. Administering Church Extension Funds The method of administering Church Extension funds is not always understood, but is simple and democratic when the facts are studied. In administering Church Extension Funds three objects are kept constantly in mind : (1) To secure good locations. (2) To secure adequate equipment. (3) To secure permanent institutions. During the Centenary period every Church Extension project must be in either the five-year program of the District in which it is located or in the War Emergency and Reconstruction Survey, or be placed there by substitution, and must be endorsed by the District Superintendent and the local Conference Board of Home Missions and Church Extension. Certain legal requirements must be fulfilled and the regular requests for information met as to the title to the property, financial condition, a record of the church's subscriptions and payments on their Centenary quota, and other facts required by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Illustrations Of Churches Built The Centenary has made possible a new Summerfield Methodist Episcopal Church, in a section of Baltimore, Maryland, where wage-earners had tried for fifteen years single-handed to replace the fifty-two year old frame building with a church equal to the demands made by a rapidly growing population. The Baltimore City Missionary and Church Extension Society took over the property, the people raised all that they could, and the Centenary came to the rescue. Now where car barns, stock yards and abattoir hold forth, in one year the membership has grown from 259 to 373 and the Sunday School of 700 members is outgrowing its new quarters. When the government in San Juan, Porto Rico, offered a plot of ground in the Barrio Obrero section for a church to that denomination which would agree to begin building in thirty days, the Methodist Episcopal Church said, "I will!" And now in the midst of over 1,500 homes of 3,000 laborers and their families, stands the Colonel John Vrooman Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, so named for the $1,000 gift toward the $4,000 cost of this neat little chapel of Spanish Mission type, with two rooms for church services and Sunday School work, the only church ministering in this com- munity. At Clyde Park, Montana, a farming community of two hundred and fifty people, a small appropriation made possible the purchase of a vacant Congregational Church building needed for additional Sunday School room, social work with the Epworth League and Ladies Aid Society and other community welfare work. The Congrega- tionalists disbanded and joined the Methodists. The one-room Methodist Episcopal Church is now augmented in a way that makes it possible to minister to the needs of the community. At Benchland, Montana, a village of fifty people, the center of a large rural population, where the nearest Methodist Episcopal Church was twelve miles distant, a small appropriation has provided for a house of worship for the nineteen Methodists and other worshippers to the number of seventy, and a place for the fifty Sunday School pupils. There were formerly two Methodist Episcopal Churches for Negroes in Greenwood, Mississippi. One burned down and the other was sold. The two congregations united in erecting a church which the local daily press states is the pride of the entire city. The whole transaction came about through inspira- tion received from the program of the Board and a Church Extension appropriation. Located in a section where moral conditions have been very bad, this church with thirty rooms for its social program is rebuilding the life of the entire community, and promises to make for high moral and religious ideals throughout the Delta of Mississippi. A combination dining room, kitchen and dormitory is being erected with Centenary funds at the Spanish-American Institute, a boy's school, at Gardena, California. Here 100 boys, many of whom were born in Old Mexico and could not speak English when they arrived, are being taught in the grades, manual training, agriculture, the Bible and Christian living. From here will come many leaders for our Spanish-American work. The Manual Arts Building was one of the first Centen- ary buildings to be erected in the United States. Where Miners Xoil In the very center of New Mexico, which boasts the largest percentage of illiteracy among native born population of any State in the country, Albuquerque College is train- ing Spanish-American boys of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Old Mexico for Christian American citizenship and leadership among their own people. One hun- dred and one is the present enrollment. The equipment for the work which Albu- querque College is doing among these boys from the little adobe huts is now augmented with an Administration Building, a Gymnasium and a Cottage — all Centenary products. People often wonder whether missionary money expended in mining camps whose continued existence is uncertain, is wisely spent. A striking example of this is the town of Mercer, Utah. Formerly it was the fourth town in size in the State, boasting several thousand people. Now there are two people in the entire place. These are watchmen who are hired to chinery. There are houses, any one of cured for $50 to Methodist Episcopal to which a Home priation was granted of the population the money wasted? District Superinten- largest and most on the Pacific Coast this same Mercer District Superinten- Mountain State was church, and while call to the ministry. all over the inner-mountain country are to be found Sunday School teachers, Epworth League leaders, and Church stewards who owe their loyalty to their church and their intelligent grasp of its activities to the training they received in this church which no longer exists. The City's Urgent Gall One hundred years ago only four per cent, of the population of this country was living in cities. Today fifty-five per cent, are living under urban conditions. During the last ten years 7,000,000 people living in the open country drifted into cities of 100,000 and over. This tremendous shifting of population imposes new and gigantic obligations on the city church, and at the same time opens new and splendid fields of opportunity for effective service. In the face of this challenge it is necessary for the church to use every available phase of Christian endeavor, such as evangelism, re- ligious education, social service, community welfare and recreation. The types of churches which the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension is helping according to the need are: down-town, foreign-speaking, polyglot, industrial, suburban and residential. Community Service In Negro Churches watch mining ma- hundreds of empty which could be se- $100. There is a church located here Missionary appro- so long as the size warranted it. Was Absolutely no. The dent of one of our benevolent Districts was a layman in Church. Another dent in a Rocky a layman in this there received his In a score of towns The Department of City Work is giving careful attention to a study of the Church situation in American cities. As a result it has seemed wise in some cases to regroup our Methodist Episcopal Churches in order to strengthen our position and meet our responsibilities. This is well illustrated in the city of Detroit, Michigan, where all our missionary institutions are grouped in one City Parish. In other cities it has seemed wise to consolidate a number of existing churches into one. St. Pauls Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Paul, Minnesota, is a good example of this method. Two English-speaking churches were located about a mile apart with a German-speaking church in between. Under the inspiration of the Centenary these three churches amalgamated their congregations, sold their properties, pooled their equities and built the new St. Pauls Methodist Episcopal Church, costing $115,000, a building adapted in all its appointments and equipment for the entire program of the church as needed in the life of this great community. The membership is now 600 and there are 600 in Sunday School, about 400 better than the combined attendance of the three churches two years ago. Six y* different nationali- ties worship here; choir of 60 boys and ' "" ^ ' : every ^ay and even- ing the church is ► alive with ministries of service to the > - /. . g ^ * J^ t + community. In other instances , - * the Department of City Work has co- , > operated in strength- ening and bringing fB/g ^j*,- ,- m ". HsE/ • to efficiency down- town churches that ,|, had been practically abandoned or had become very weak. The members of ' * ~ ||- Kaighn Avenue Methodist Episcopal * Church, Camden, New Jersey, were A Literature That Must Be Rep]aced so discouraged four years ago that they were rea dy to sell their property. Think if they had! For with Centenary help by way of leader- ship and program the whole attitude of the people has been changed, the congre- gation has grown from 8 to 400 and there are 395 in the Sunday School. The "Happy Hour" for the children and young people of the community on Monday night is reach- ing 600 every week. A new heating and lighting system has cheered the place up, so that the kindergarten, Junior League, Girls' Choir and Daily Vacation Bible School have a homey atmosphere in which to gather. In Philadelphia, the Fifth Street Methodist Episcopal Temple had fallen on evil days. The church building was built eighty-eight years ago and looks it. Folks by the name of Cominsky, Mestel, Suscoski, Slupas, and Kopelka have succeeded those once dwelling in this one-time aristocratic center. A new building and a new type of leader- ship was needed. This the Centenary made possible. The Fifth Street Community Center, across the street, is now serving this new population through clubs for all ages, gymnasium, domestic science classes and a day nursery, reading rooms and kinder- garten, community baths, neighborhood concerts, a departmentalized Sunday School, all helping to meet the social, educational, recreational and religious needs of the com- munity, as a part of the old church, which is now alive with a new and practical ministry. Goodwill Industries Goodwill Industries work has thrived during the year. They are now operating in 22 cities, ministering in jobs for the unemployed and the Gospel for all. Five hun- dred thousand well-to-do contributors gave their discarded clothes, shoes and furniture through Goodwill Bags. Ten million articles were contributed, of which 5,000,000 were garments, 2,000,000 were shoes, 2,000,000 were bundles of papers, 1,000,000 were pieces of furniture, pictures, dishes, bric-a-brac, etc. Ten thousand old, disabled and needy workers renovate them and 750,000 very needy people purchase them. Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars was received in 1921 from the sale of salvaged material, and $500,000 was paid in wages to the handicapped. These Goodwill Industries are coming to self-support. In Rural Fields Dudley, Pennsylvania, a five-point Circuit with a population of 6,000, forty per cent, of whom are foreign born, which eighteen months ago paid $965 salary to one man, today pays $2,800 to pastor in charge and his associate. A new parsonage has been built and paid for with Centenary aid, making two modern homes for the pastors. Eighteen months ago there was no program except the preaching and visiting. There are now two community houses with full program being put on which is result- ing in bigger and better Sunday Schools and congregations, a full program of religious education, and recreation, a religious week-day vacation school, industrial classes, basketry, woodworking, Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, and a night school for Italians (beginners in English and advanced classes) with a faculty of four, and the pastors becoming the real community leaders. The parish plan on the Proctorville and Haverhill Circuit of the Portsmouth District, Ohio Conference, has made possible the following results : Membership 1916 1921 Proctorville 340 470 Haverhill 100 290 Salary 1916 1921 1,200 2,500 520 1,700 Mexico's Contribution Our Opportunity 440 760 1,720 4,200 Membership increase 320. Salary increase $2,480 Three years ago a new pastor was appointed to the Methodist Episcopal Church at Harrisville, New York. He found things in a dilapidated condition. The two outposts of the charge, a school house and an old church, were both closed. He made a survey of the parish, opened the closed church, had it repaired and added twenty new members. He then opened the school house, where Sun- day School services are held with an average attendance of twenty-two. At present there are three Sunday Schools, with enrollment increased from 144 to 347, and the average attendance from 40 , ** S| * S ^ VT '* mmmm^mmsammKmm^m wm tO 149. The Primary Department haS 70 Rural Recreation Creating New Atmosphere on its roll, the Home Department 80, and the Cradle Roll 47. Eighty-two have been added to the church membership and the pastor's salary has been increased from $624 the first year to $1,600 present time. The total Disciplinary benevolences have increased from $385 to $1,595, with thirty-one adult tithers and eighteen children. The parsonage which was almost uninhabitable, — roof almost gone, rooms in bad condition and piazza falling down, has been thoroughly reno- vated, and a Community Hall, under the direction of the church, is in process of con- struction. Whereas formerly the people took no interest in the social life of the com- munity, there being no community center, now the church is the leading force in the community and is consulted on all matters of community life. Centenary aid in pastoral support and building program has made possible the change. The pastor of the Duncannon and Roseglen Circuit, the former an industrial com- munity of 1,970 people, the latter an agricultural community of 500 people, fifteen miles northwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, attended one of the twenty-one Summer Schools for Rural Pastors conducted by the Department of Rural Work of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension. The vision he caught resulted in his organizing a parish program. After making a careful survey he planned his work under the group- ings of worship, evangelism, community service, world service and administration. Some of the first year's results of the new vision are: an Every-Member Canvass; salary increase from $900 to $1,800 (and a summer resort preaching station added, raising it to $2,100) ; large increase in benevolences; net increase of 83 members; 30 new Epworth Leaguers at Duncannon and a new League at Roseglen; Sunday School attendance increased from 85 to 207 ; unit system organized ; and a community spirit that is felt in every home. And the Every-Member Canvass brought, in addition to the money pledged, the following: 229 persons joined the Fellowship of Intercession, 45 families became members of the Family Worship League, 60 signed a covenant for daily individual worship, 160 promised to attend at least one church service on Sunday, 75 promised to attend at least fifteen prayer meetings a year, 64 joined the Pocket Testament League, 51 accepted positions as "unit" workers in the church, 27 desired definite responsibility in church work, 12 accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, 25 became tithers. The entire local financial budget was taken care of and $400 was added to Centenary subscriptions. On the Dayton District of the West Ohio Conference the new rural program is showing results. Centerville Church, in a town of 150 people, was paying $900 in 1919. The salary increased to $1,500 in 1920 and to $1,800 in 1921. Tithing and the Every-Member Canvass was the secret of this success. Gordon Circuit, a four point charge, which paid $1,600 and house, is now broken up into three charges, the first of which is Pittsburg, Darke County, Ohio, now paying $1,800 and house. It has never paid more than $400 before. The second point was Brookville, which now pays $1,500 and house. Gordon and Verona, the two remaining churches, are still paying $1,600 and house, the amount that was paid by the entire Circuit before. The total salary paid to pastors on the former Gordon Circuit has accordingly increased from $1,600 and house to $4,900 and three houses. This advance which is typical of many places on this District is largely due to a District Conference held for the special purpose of discussing finances on rural charges. On The Nation's Frontier The Methodist Episcopal Church made early response to the religious needs of the Frontier. It is still ministering to missionary opportunities and obligations which modern conditions have evolved from out the old days. The types of missionary work in this field are pretty well determined for years to come. In a word, they include the sparsely settled sections, mining centers, great sections reclaimed through irrigation, special foreign-speaking groups, the American Indian and the rapidly developing cities and industrial centers. A recent study of Whitman County, Washington, affords a splendid illustration of conditions that are still quite common in the West. This county covers 1,146,847 acres, 90 per cent, of which are under cultivation, with a population of 35,000. Twenty-three of its 107 school districts, each of which has schools of two or more rooms, and whose population numbers 22,000, were found to be without religious services of any character whatever. This is indeed real missionary opportunity and responsibility. In this field the Board is backing a man and his wife who travel from one school district to another organizing and directing Sunday Schools and holding preaching services. During the past year they visited 27 districts. In addition to this, Moscow District, in which Whit- man County is located, and which is an average Conference District in agricultural sections of the West, has been given assistance in five building enterprises during the two years of the Centenary period. The mining sections of the West are predominatingly foreign, and are removed from large centers. Bigham Canyon, Utah, twelve miles long and twelve rods wide, with thirteen thousand people of eighteen different nationalities, is typical. So was the old Methodist Episcopal Church and program. But the Centenary made possible send- ing a trained pastor there. He found five members of the church. But in a year he had one hundred, a Sunday School of 400, and he had revolutionized the boy life of the entire community. The Methodist Episcopal Church is winning its way into the heart of the Oriental in our midst both for America and for Christ. The following letter was written by an enlisted Japanese boy, who had been in our Berkeley, California, church, to a friend who was about to enlist. The latter was a member of our Sunday School in Oakland, California : "I know you will live straight and be a true and loyal soldier of democracy. Don't for a moment think that the army is full of immoral or degraded fellows. No, not by a long shot. They are few, or rather in the minority. But my advice to you is to keep your book of life a clean sheet. Use pure English and avoid and abstain from language unbecoming a true American. It is only in that way, by your actions and daily life, that -you can prove to the American people the true worth of Japanese blood in an American community. You are one of the few chosen ones, and upon you and me rests a great responsibility. You are the link of friendship and the bond which will tie the East and West. All I can ask of you is to do your level best and be worthy of the people who bid you God speed and await the news of your progress. And last, the most important of all, be true, be loyal, be faithful to the land of lands, 'my own United States!'" The Indian population of the United States is 336,000 not including the Indians of Alaska. There are Indians in every State in the Union, from five in Delaware to 120,000 in Oklahoma. The Methodist Episcopal Church is at work in thirty different centers and minis- ters to 28 tribes. It employs 41 pastors, eleven of whom are Indians, two school super- intendents, seven teachers, two house matrons, three field matrons; and participates in the support of three religious work directors in government schools. There are 1,643 Indian communicants of the Methodist Episcopal Church and 1,725 enrolled in its Sun- day Schools. Our Indian Mission property is valued at $106,000. The Indian work of the Methodist Episcopal Church is now organized under a Joint Committee on Indian Work of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension and the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Super- intendent of Indian Missions recently conducted a religious service at the home of a Cocopah Indian chief. When the sermon was concluded, the chief came forward and addressed him through an interpreter, saying, "My hair is very long (meaning I am a very old man) . You have come a little late for some of us, but we want you to teach our children and point them the way of the Jesus road." The "Happy Hour" Home Missions Gives To City Boys And Girls Before The Rural Church Has A Community Program The old chief was wise. The children are our hope. They constitute the most promising opportunity. We are at work among them in schools, where the train- ing is industrial as well as cultural. Out on the reservations field missionaries teach mothers how to care for their homes and train their children. While the adults are not overlooked in our ministry, we are endeavoring to direct special attention to the work suggested by the wise old chief. Evangelizing A Nation Forty-eight District evangelists are now at work under the direction of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, their salaries being paid in part or in full. This plan makes it possible for the evangelist to be paid a stipulated salary. He gives full time under the District Superintendent. Meetings are held in weak and needy churches, where the evangelist puts on a definite, constructive all-round local church program. In the morning he holds conferences with the pastor on the local church problems and program of the several Benevolent Boards. In the afternoon, he con- ducts a house-to-house visitation, seeking decisions, establishing family altars and dis- cussing church letters. In the evening, he holds special evangelistic meetings. Personal workers are secured and trained. The church is prepared to care for the converts, through the "Stand By" program. Intercessors and Stewards are enrolled. The full program of the Methodist Episcopal Church is presented at least once during the series of meetings. Lapsed Centenary pledges are recovered, new subscriptions are received and an Every-Member Canvass is made. In nearly every instance the pastor's salary is increased, church improvements are made, advocate subscriptions are secured and a free will offering is sent to the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension to apply on the salary paid the evangelist. Twenty-four other evangelists are engaged in special types of work. In the Puget Sound Conference there are 962 lumber camps, employing 25,690 men, and 1,031 mills, employing 72,545 men. Some of these camps are thirty-five miles or more from a settlement and are reached only by the logging camp railroad. The territory covered by one of our three lumber camp evangelists is thirty-six miles long, and here are more than 3,000 people of whom only two and one-half per cent, are pro- fessing Christians. Of the 700 public school children only a very few know what a Sunday School is like. In these camps Bolshevism, I. W. W.ism, and ultra radical teachings thrive. Work ceases early in the day and during the long winter nights the men gather in the bunkhouses where many of them gamble, argue and sometimes fight. Hospital visitation is an important part of the program of thrift, health, educa- tion and evangelism of the camps, and this Christlike ministration is not soon forgotten by the men. A number of regular pastors assist in this camp work. Sunday Schools are organized, and many men have united with the churches near the camps, over 200 taking this step in one camp. On the East Side, New York City, work is being done among the radicals by means of the "open forum" and street preaching. Students are being taught the fine art of street preaching in Chicago. Gospel tents are being provided where needed and the development of gospel teams is being fostered. Intercession is being stressed, large numbers continually signing the League of Intercession Card, and devoting time each day to specific intercessary prayer. As a help to this "A Calendar of Prayer for 1922," with one hundred and twelve pages of information concerning the world-wide work of the Methodist Episcopal Church has been prepared. This gives a definite theme for each week and a specific phase of that theme for each day. The Win-One-Stand-By program is calling church after church not only to the winning of folks to Christ but also to the "standing by" them while they become familiar with the doctrines of the Church and the ways of Christian living. Among Our New Americans There are 36,385,000 foreign born or of foreign parentage in the United States. New England is more Latin and Slavic than American. The coal regions are largely Slavic and Italian. Thousands of Russians have settled in North Dakota. The great rural wheat fields of the Northwest are largely Scandinavian and German. One million Mexicans live along the Southwestern border. The Japanese and Chinese have settled along the Pacific Coast. Millions of in the large cities. These people are America's Methodism is helping them to become day-a-week program of recreation, ism. The Methodist Episcopal Church jects in nineteen different languages, groups : (1) 800 in twenty-one language Con- glot under English-speaking pastors; (3) English-speaking Con- There are 1,508 foreign tongues in the 495 religious periodi- group 13 are Metho- The Methodist a Committee of Six on erature appointed by which is publishing 27 as follows: Czech, 2; Lithuanian, 2 ; Norweg- 3; Portuguese, 2; Rus- cerpts), 3; Slovak, 2; much more adequate When The Rural Church Has A Community Program these folks from other lands live greatest missionary challenge. Christian Americans by a seven- Americanization and evangel- has 1,344 foreign-speaking pro- They are organized in three ferences and Missions; (2) 300 poly- 244 independent foreign pastors in ferences. secular periodicals in United States and only cals. Of the religious dist Episcopal. Episcopal Church has Foreign-Language Lit- the General Conference tracts in 11 languages, Italian, 2 ; German 2 ; ian-Danish, 5 ; Polish, sian, 2; Russian (ex- Spanish, 2. But a literature is needed. More workers also are needed: (1) bilingual pastors of American parentage; (2) bilingual pastors of foreign parentage, but native born; (3) women workers, native born but of foreign parentage; (4) and Directors of Religious Education. The postman who delivers mail in the parish of the Clinton Street Methodist Epis- copal Church, Binghamton, New York, read the names of Smith, Jones and Stewart on the letters which he carried a few years ago. Today on the same street he delivers letters to folks by the name of Cejke, Pappandrikopolous, Kowaklski, Chriszanevicz, Gonzales and Turovish. On one morning each week he delivers eighty different papers printed in thirteen languages. Ten thousand of the 12,000 people living in the parish are Slovak, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukranian, Syrian, Armenian, Italian, Jewish or some other foreign-speaking folk. Out of 482 births in the parish, eighteen nationalities were represented. With Centenary help an educational program was put on. Sunday qualifies for membership in clubs, the first in the city. Home work copies of a Slovak paper are dis- to see groups of fine Polish and porch all Sunday afternoon, ing coal mine community without a woman worker. She started a hall, with a soft (?) and a gambling den on here she got permission this was too small for an abandoned saloon was bar, whiskey barrels, rough boards for seats, is done among the wo- a Girl's Club is taught | work and how to play Children's Class in Sew- building is now in sight, School attendance three times a month The Week Day School of Religion was is carried on among the women, and 100 tributed every month. It is not unusual Slovak boys visiting on the parsonage At Coalton, Illinois, a foreign-speak- any church, the Centenary made possible Sunday School in a dance drink parlor on one side the other. Driven from to use the local jail. But one hundred children, so secured. Here with the beer cases and a few the work continued. Work men in their homes and sewing, cooking, fancy games. There is also a ing and Music. A new S3K Before The District Evangelist Arrived the foreign-speaking folks paying for the lot, the Centenary helping on the building, carpenters donating service and the farmers furnishing the sand and gravel. Where the grimy toilers sweat at the smoking coke ovens, among the foothills of Southwestern Pennsylvania, we are meeting the challenge of the foreign-born through our Coke Missions. The Centenary has made possible expanding from a few scattered Sunday Schools and churches to a definite social and religious educational force of 11 full-time workers and over 200 volunteers. This splendid group of Christian workers is answering the challenge by organizing Sunday Schools, conducting preaching services in both English and foreign tongues, teaching Week Day Vacation Bible Schools, con- ducting sewing classes and other social activities, visiting in the homes, and by many other efforts they are making Jesus Christ and his Church real to the people. The Methodist Episcopal Church is meeting the challenge of the foreign-born with a ministry of service that is adapted to the needs of their daily life. Meeting The Negro Challenge There are 11,000,000 Negroes in the United States. Thirty per cent, of the popu- lation of the South is Negro, yet over forty per cent, of all the persons engaged in agriculture in the South are Negroes. It is here that the Church has its best oppor- tunities for the uplift of the masses of the Negro people. The Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, realizing this fact, is providing Summer Training Schools for Colored Rural Pastors. Three of these schools were conducted last Summer, one at Wiley College, Marshall, Texas, one at Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia, and the third at Morgan College, Baltimore, Maryland (all schools of the Board of Education for Negroes, of the Methodist Episcopal Church). During the past three summer sessions, 413 Negro pastors have attended these training schools. They have gone back to their charges with a larger vision, and with greater enthusiasm to lead their people to better Christian living. ibis* After The District Evangelist Arrived Gonzales Circuit, Texas pidated church build- The people lived in log many as nine. His new plan program. A glar- ple was to be taught how way to get his program onstration. Therefore, he to purchase sixty acres church and started a gardening and good strated. Clubs for and girls of the meet on this farm, learn how to be- One of these men is the pastor of the Conference. His Circuit boasted two dila- ings and a parsonage unfit for habitation, cabin shacks which sometimes housed as vision inspired him to try out a parish ing need of his peo- to live. The best across was by dem- inspired his people of land for the model farm, where farming is demon- men, women, boys parish and church and by actual work come better Christians by making their labor produce more and better returns. The people of this parish are beginning to take an active interest in trying to better their conditions. The two church buildings have been improved and the parson- age made comfortable to live in. The home gardens are producing more and better vegetables. And the young people are staying on the farm because the church is meet- ing their needs. It is a difficult task to hold our young people to poorly built "four wooden walls and a roof" type of church, with straight back benches and boarded up windows. Especially is this true when these same young people are being trained in a well appointed modern State School. This was tried in Scotland, a suburb of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the Southern University, the State School for Negroes, is located. The State of Louisiana is planning to spend $500,000 for new buildings and equipment, $280,000 of which is already provided for. This last year an $80,000 dormitory was built, and a refectory is in course of construction. Southern University has an enroll- ment of 655 students. One hundred and seventy-two of these students, six of the 32 faculty members and 45 of the 92 soldier boys in vocational training are Methodists. A Church Extension appropriation for a church building worthy the name now marks the beginning of our first real effort to reach our own Methodist boys and girls in any adequate way. Five hundred thousand Negroes have recently shifted from agricultural life of the South to industrial centers of the North. In Harlem, New York City, there are 150,000 Negroes; the seating capacity of the Negro churches of Harlem is only 20,000. This unchurched situation has its counterpart in Chicago and is an acute problem in every large city of the North. The Methodist Episcopal Church has developed Negro institu- tional churches in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago and other Northern cities. During the thirteen years preceding the Centenary period, the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension invested for work among Negroes, $565,076.04 for Maintenance and $192,631.01 for Church Extension projects, a total of $759,707.05. During the two Centenary years it has invested $285,921.59 for Maintenance and $463,- 242.33 for Church Extension projects, a total of $749,163.92. The work of the Board among Negroes has resulted in the assumption of larger financial responsibilities by our Negro membership, a better trained leadership, more adequate church buildings in cities and rural communities, and a program for the local community. Training A New Leadership The Board is giving careful attention to the training of Home Mission workers for tomorrow. Home Mission leaders present the work of the Board at every possible type of institute or school of methods held throughout the Church. Summer schools of methods are conducted by the Department of Rural Work for rural pastors and by the Department of City Work for city pastors. Scholarships are granted to selected young men and women, usually college graduates, to enable them to take specialized training. The purpose is to train exceptional men and women for foreign-speaking and rural work, and for specialized tasks in institutional city churches. The Board has also given co-operation in religious work among Methodist Episco- pal students at tax-supported and independent educational institutions. In all it has assisted in the purchase of ground or in the erection of buildings at twenty of these student centers. It has assisted in the support of religious workers at seventy of these institutions. Here, future ministers, missionaries and laymen are ministered to by their own Church and trained for future leadership. The Call Of Tomorrow There is little occasion for misapprehension about the outcome of the task of ad- vancing the Kingdom of God in the United States, if we continue to make possible keeping our Board of Home Missions and Church Extension in action. And not only up to its present achievements for the Methodist Episcopal Church at large, but up to the full measure of faith that prays that America be fully Christ's!