Success in this parish, according to the testimony of the minister, is due to the program brought to light by the modern country church movement. Indeed, we have observed no notably progressive country churches in small communities where the new country church program has not been an essential factor of success. Lakeville is a case in point.
In the village of Lakeville, as in a large proportion of Ohio rural communities, opportunities for wholesome recreation were few. The church not only felt no responsibility for providing a better environment for the young people, but looked upon matters which have to do with recreation, entertainment, and physical development as foreign to it. To give them attention was regarded as beneath its dignity. This attitude, both here and in a large proportion of the rural churches, has been responsible in no small degree for a general moral laxness in communities, and often for the separation of the young people from the church.
The moral and social conditions in Lakeville have been revolutionized by a resident minister in three years. His conception of his work and the methods he used did not differ materially from those of the pastors of Ashley, Ontario, and Old Fort. Every wholesome feature of community life was regarded by him as a matter of interest to the church. Thus, to promote a deeper interest in agriculture, lecturers and demonstrators upon various phases of it were invited into the community.
Under the leadership of this minister a wholesome, normal, interesting life, leading to the high development of the young people, and a marked increase in the general happiness of the community, has been brought to pass. The excellent auditorium of the consolidated school was made the social center of the community. The pastor and the members of his church were the initiators and chief supporters of the program of recreation, instruction, and entertainment which was carried out largely in this building. Although in Lakeville the church wisely kept itself in the background in much of its work, its activities were none the less effective, while this policy also reacted favorably upon the church itself.
Although there were two churches yoked together in this field, they were but a mile and a half apart, and the parish was therefore compact. Consequently the pastor could and did make much of his pastoral work. The close touch of the minister with the members of his church and community greatly added to the effectiveness of the evangelistic services which he held, for he befriended those who had need of friends. Hence there was not only a large increase in membership, but the results of it promised to be of a durable character.
It will be noted that the minister was pastor of all the churches in the community and so encountered none of the difficulties which come from interchurch competition.
The kind of community service which is illustrated at Ashley, Ontario, Old Fort, White Cottage, and Lakeville offers abundant opportunity to a young man of good equipment for using his knowledge and native ability, and should therefore attract a better type of man to the rural ministry. The church as a whole should be active in presenting it to young men, for the purpose of getting the best of them to enlist in it. The conservation of the high character of our rural population depends on just such work.