3. On a snowy Saturday the men of East Joyfield, under the lead of the assistant pastor, arranged “A Community Rabbit Hunt.” They met with their guns and went in pairs in different directions, scouring the woods and the fields in search of game. They were measurably successful, and a heap of forty-five “cotton tails” rewarded their efforts. They were distributed among fifteen families, who were to prepare them with other good things for a “Rabbit Social” on the next Tuesday night at the chapel. Though the night was stormy, the chapel was well filled, there was a fine program of music and games, and then a feast of rabbit pie that was appetizing and abundant. So the “cotton tails” served the community better by being eaten themselves than they would if they had been left to eat the bark from the young fruit trees on the surrounding farms.
4. Since the pursuit of athletics has so large a place in the minds of the young people in these days, it has been thought worth while to do something in this field. One of the assistant pastors having had some training when in school organized Athletic Clubs among the boys and young men in six or seven different neighborhoods. These clubs met from time to time for practise. They were combined into an Athletic League for the whole parish and occasionally held Field Days. They would come together on the Academy campus at Benzonia and spend the day in sports and games and contests in which a previously prepared schedule of events was carried on. There were junior contests for the boys and the girls too had a part in the last field-day sports. Occasionally they have a banquet with toasts and an opportunity for social intercourse. These athletic clubs have not only done much to encourage clean and healthful sports, but they have given the assistant pastor large influence over the young people, and most of them are noticeably regular in their attendance on the services he conducts on the Sabbath.
Ladies’ Aid Societies are organized in the various neighborhoods and they bring together in a social way, not only the ladies, but also the men in the winter season, who then find time to enjoy the good dinner that the ladies provide and to spend part of the day in social intercourse. These Aid Societies are ready to take hold in a helpful way of any enterprise that is for the good of the community, and any enterprise to which they devote themselves is bound to go.
5. One more way of working has proved to be valuable, and well worth while. Like nearly all small towns, we have a weekly newspaper which finds its way into most of the homes of the parish. The pastor and the editor work together in the effort to make it an organ of helpful power in the community life. For the past three years I have had each week a column—usually a column and a half—in this paper. It is my regular Monday forenoon work to write that column. I put into it whatever I think will be useful to the people, bringing them many a message that would hardly come appropriately into the pulpit, and reaching in that way many whom I would not often come in touch with otherwise. The themes are various, a few may serve as specimens. “How to Keep One’s Religion and Make It Pay,” “The Back Yard,” “The Test of the Summer Time,” “The Man You Happen to Meet,” “The Utility of the Yell,” “The Wedding Bells and Funeral Knells,” “Dr. Charles M. Sheldon and His Ideas of an Educated Man,” “Be a Columbus,” “The Keen Zest of Living.” Any local topic of general interest is taken up and discussed, and the activities of the church and the social and literary doings in the various out-stations are brought before the people. So they are kept constantly aware that something is going on that is worth while throughout the parish, and I have an opportunity to keep my ideas before the whole parish. This I consider one of my most valuable ways of working, and I find that the Pastor’s Column is eagerly looked for and widely read.
This suggests the question whether in the past the pastors of our churches have sufficiently appreciated the value of printer’s ink as an adjunct in carrying on religious and community work. If the pastor can speak through the press as well as the pulpit, he is duplicating his influence.
6. The Benzonia Christian Endeavor Society purchased a stereopticon for use in the Larger Parish. It was equipped with electrical apparatus to be used in the villages, and with acetylene light for the schoolhouses and country places where there was no electric current. It could be easily carried from place to place, and became a very practical and useful instrument in the work. Slides on various subjects were easily obtained, and the effect of lectures and talks was greatly increased. The people in these days want to see things as well as to hear about them, and the sight helps out the hearing. They never get tired of looking at good pictures. It became easy with the help of the lantern to provide an interesting and profitable evening entertainment, and the people showed their appreciation by their presence in large numbers and their careful attention. “The Panama Canal” was thus presented and illustrated, and “The Other Wise Man.” Some lectures by the pastor—“On Horseback through the Holy Land,” “A Week in and about Jerusalem,” “Three Months on an Ocean Steamer”—were made more vivid and attractive by views from photographs taken on a foreign trip. In many ways the stereopticon has proved a valuable acquisition, and especially in a country parish can it be used with great profit and satisfaction.
7. In a local option campaign the influence of the Larger Parish made itself felt in an effective way for the banishment of the saloon. Debates were arranged on the question in the neighborhood clubs.
The pastors preached on the subject and made addresses at the meetings held throughout the county. One of the assistant pastors gave valuable service on the Central Committee. In all such movements that have for their object the purifying of the community and the establishment of righteousness the forces that are active in the Larger Parish are lined up on the right side, ready to coöperate and promptly available for practical work.
An Every Member Canvass for home and foreign missions is carried on throughout the whole parish. Each year a letter is prepared, giving briefly the progress of the work for the year past and setting forth its present condition. These letters are sent by mail to nearly all the families in the parish, with small collection envelopes for the different members of the household, with the request that they bring the offerings to their accustomed places of worship. The children as well as the older people are encouraged to bring in their offerings, and we have found this an effective way of cultivating in them the spirit of benevolence. There is much gain in leading them to feel that they have a part in the work.