But in many districts it really seems that the fewer churches a county is able to afford, the more it is apt to have. Out of the 211 churches financially aided by home-missions societies in several counties where intensive studies were made by the Institute of Social and Religious Research, I am told that it was found that 149 of these churches could have been dispensed with without essential loss to anyone. All but thirty-four were competitive.
Untrained Country Preachers
Another grave charge is made against the church to-day in our country districts. Farmers feel that they are neglected by the ministers of their churches.
It is also charged that many rural pastors lack both adequate training and ability for their high calling. The real marvel is that so many of these men are of the high type they are.
It has to be admitted that there is ground for the charge of incompetency among some of the rural pastors of the United States. These men, it is true, are most inadequately prepared for their work. How are they to afford more training for a calling which will never pay them any returns upon it? That these men can develop into able preachers has been demonstrated by those who have had the opportunity to complete their courses in the summer school for ministers, inaugurated, I believe, by the Presbyterian Board and now conducted by several denominations. But most of them do not have this chance.
It is competitive religion that is largely responsible for these two dangerous factors in rural religious life—the non-resident pastor, too occupied to be a true spiritual shepherd; and the incompetent pastor, too incapable to be a leader of his people.
But Christianity will not vanish from our country districts. Nowhere is there better soil for the seeds of true religion than in the sturdy soul of rural America.
It is not so much isms or ologies that the rural population wants as it is religious facilities for themselves and for their children. Some time ago, when a study of fifteen Western States was made by the Home Mission Council, it mentioned the following fact:
“The general feeling manifested by the returns shows little care for denominationalism. What these people want is some one to present Bible facts in an acceptable manner.”
The Call Can Be Met