Both the work for the country church and for the promoting of rural business are rendered ineffective by lack of pecuniary support. In spite of this, however, plans for progressive work both for rural business and rural church are well developed, and have been tested; and moreover, the feasibility of progress in both these lines of endeavor has been thoroughly proved. Two things, then, are now required. These are funds and federated or independent direction of their use.
We may well expect that adequate funds will be given for carrying on this work in the years immediately following the war. After the sacrifices of war those of peace by comparison will not seem large—while the sacrifices of both peace and war are equally necessary for the realization of the high ideals which as Americans we cherish.
This war as nothing else has done, has caused men in general to realize that there are tasks for all other than the commercial enterprises of the day, and that each of us must accept his share of the responsibility for their performance. What is worth fighting for during the war is worth working for after the war.
CHAPTER VII
FEDERATED CHURCHES
There are many rural communities in Ohio where the churches exert a vital influence in community life, and where farm life succeeds in holding families of moral, intellectual, and physical vigor. In some instances the communities and their churches have not been seriously affected by the modern conditions and tendencies which elsewhere are acting unfavorably upon the country church and country life. In other instances, intelligent leadership on the part of the ministers has overcome these conditions. Many of these ministers highly appreciate the help they have received from the modern country church movement, while not a few have testified that without it they would have failed.
In a very large part of rural Ohio the need of interchurch coöperation is keenly realized. In the divided communities the people, for the most part, want to get together, but they do not know how. But in many communities practical methods have been found and tested, and by these methods Christian coöperation has been brought to pass and the rural church conditions have been greatly improved. For that reason descriptions of actual successful cases of interchurch coöperation are here supplied. These examples are intended to include federated churches, church federations, and denominational union churches, as well as certain striking cases of the work of the church in community service. The uniting of Christian forces will not by itself alone insure rural church progress. The new country church program must be added. In its absence, a real advance appears to be impossible.