Escape from the deadening environment of the country church circuit is the ardent desire of most country ministers who have had any reasonable degree of equipment for their vocation, and self-improvement as a preacher seems to be the only way out. The circuit minister of such equipment naturally regards his present work as temporary. He looks forward to leaving the country through promotion to a town church. The city, where he hopes to be, and not the country, where he is, becomes for him the only field for success in the ministry.

It is evident, therefore, that country parishes to be successful must be more compact. As a substitute for the circuit, churches in a small community where there are too many should be united in the support of one resident minister. If they cannot support him, then other adjacent churches should join with them in a federated circuit under a single pastor. Such is the right use of the circuit in the country.

The territory thus placed under one minister may be so large as to make it desirable to employ a paid assistant to the pastor. Freed from the necessity of long drives to other communities, the pastor can make many calls nearer home. Community enterprises, under this system made possible, will bring the pastor into personal touch with the people. He will become their friend and they will wish him a long term of service among them. And only when a minister has been two or three years in a community can he begin to render his most effective service. The enlarged and unified parish, such as that of Benzonia, Michigan, or Hanover, New Jersey, should be carefully distinguished from the misused circuit, which now plays so significant a part in the church life of Ohio. Parishes like these afford all the benefits of the circuit with none of its defects.

Map 11

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(6) More Resident Ministers

While the preaching of a good pastor is an indispensable factor in the individual development of his parishioners and in the progress of community life, that of the non-resident is by comparison of little value. It is shooting in the air without seeing the target, like the fire of artillery without the aid of air scouts. There is no greater force for righteousness in a country community than a church with a resident minister, well educated, well equipped, wisely selected, whose term of service is not too short. The church is the only institution which can hope to employ a man of this type to give his whole time, as a minister can, to the service of his community.