The right kind of resident minister will have a strong and intelligent desire to secure opportunities for the best development of his children and to create a favorable environment for them. He will therefore take a keen interest in the schools, in the establishing of libraries, in play and social life, in keeping out evil influences and promoting general decency. He may fairly expect to see the fruits of his labor, and will be all the more likely on that account to become interested in the economic betterment of the community. Such a man will stimulate it and help it to make use of all available means to further the general welfare. A church with such a pastor is community insurance against degeneracy and decay.
One of the most striking examples of the service of a resident minister during a long pastorate is found in the life of the well-known John Frederick Oberlin, a free biography of whom has recently been made available to all country ministers. Large numbers of modern examples may also readily be found. One is given on pages 77-80 of this report.
There are few more deplorable wastes than that of the church in the use of its rural ministry. This waste alone is enough to account for much of the decline in country life, because under the present system only a small fraction of the normal influence of the ministry can be exerted. And it is a needless waste, for it is fully within the power of the churches through their officials to correct it. The minister must be given a field of such a character that it is possible for him to do his work, and he must be given that adequate support which proper church administration can most assuredly secure for him. Only when these readjustments have been made will it be fair and right to appeal to the young men of education and ability to enter the rural ministry, and stay in it.
The thing can be done. We have in mind a rural township with less than 2,000 inhabitants, lying in a hill country, which has six resident ministers in its five villages, while the term of service of the minister of each of the parishes is nearly always long. To establish at least one resident minister in every township is not too high an aim. The people can and should be brought to understand that the value of a successful minister rises in increasing proportion with his knowledge of the community and the length of his service.
(7) Interchurch Coöperation
To substitute coöperation for competition is an essential condition of rural church progress, at least in Ohio. Whenever the new program is adopted by a community it will discover that interchurch competition is hostile to community prosperity. Many rural communities already know that interchurch coöperation is desirable. But the great question is how to secure it. Nearly every community is aware that it has too many churches, but the task of reducing the number or securing interchurch comity is a problem beset with difficulties. These difficulties, however, are by no means insuperable. Many communities have already found ways to overcome them.
In every community which really requires more than one church or pastor, there should be a federation of churches; that is, a joint committee of pastors and delegates officially appointed by the several churches to learn and meet the needs, religious, or social, which require concerted action. While such federations, which are carefully to be distinguished from federated churches, are common in our cities, comparatively few are found in the country. One of these is in Shiloh, Ohio, a description of which may be found on page 75. There appear to be no very great difficulties in the way of bringing such federations about.
In communities whose compactness permits, and whose population and resources require, that there should be only one congregation and pastor, but where two or more churches already exist, the churches clearly should either be united organically in a single denominational church, or a federated church should be formed. Descriptions of federated churches may be found on pages 59-69.
In a township or community where population and resources are inadequate to support more than one pastor, but where the population is so distributed that more than one place of worship and organized church are required, a federated circuit may well be formed and a common pastor be employed. In such case the several churches should be officially represented by a joint committee which would act for the circuit not only in employing the common pastor, but also in learning and meeting all the religious and social needs which require concerted church action.
In securing pastors and in other matters where assistance is needed, the local federated churches and federated circuits should be aided by the State Federation of Churches if there is one, and if not by such bodies as the Committee of Interchurch Coöperation of the Ohio Rural Life Association. Both Federation and Association are necessary for other purposes, and therefore no ground whatever exists for the objection sometimes made that federated churches will require the formation of new organizations to supervise them.