The Making of a Country Parish: A Story

by Harlow S. Mills

1. The village church, if it would do its proper work, must belong to the people and be in close touch with them. It must minister in some way to all the people and be a force in the life of all the people. Churches like individuals are known to have certain characteristics, to possess certain temperaments. Some are aristocratic and exclusive. They gather to themselves a number of select families who have common tastes and are congenial with one another. They have good times together, and within that narrow circle there is a delightful social life. Those few people are well trained, and well instructed in the facts and principles of religion as they are understood by them. But they do not seem to get hold of the idea that the church is for all the people; that as Jesus conceived it it is essentially democratic. They have no sense of obligation for the community at large, and make no effort to affect it as a whole and to lift it up to a higher level.

The village church that would do its work must be democratic and must have a community consciousness. It must belong to the people—be in close touch with those of each and every class.

2. The village church, if it would do its proper work, must recognize its obligation to minister in some way to the religious and social needs of the people in the outlying country districts. The village should not be its parish, but rather its base of operations, from which it goes forth to all the wide-stretching territory that lies beyond.

3. The church which has this vision, which recognizes this obligation and seeks to discharge it, will find some way of doing it. The work within the towns and villages is often great and difficult. Many churches have failed to reach all the people within the sound of their church-bell, and there is much work at their very doors that they have not yet accomplished. Shall they reach out and extend their parish threefold, and multiply their duties and obligations many times? If they do not do all that ought to be done in their smaller parish, shall they increase its boundaries and assume greater obligations? Yes. That is what many churches are languishing for—a bigger job, something that it is worth while to do; something that will challenge all their powers and awaken to enthusiasm their sleeping energies.

4. The only village church that will continue to abide in strength and vigor in the future years will be the church that is all buttressed about by a strong and vigorous country work. It must be done as a means of self-preservation. The village churches are as much in danger of losing their lives as the country churches are. The church that confines its efforts within the village boundaries is sure to languish and dwindle and after a while it will give up the ghost, as it ought to do. As the city is fed from the towns and villages, so the towns and villages are fed from the country. If the work goes down in the towns and villages, it will be felt in the city, and if it loses its hold in the country, it will soon lose its grip upon the villages and towns. The country needs the work of the Larger Parish, and it will perish without it. But the village church needs to do the work even more, and unless it takes it up with vigor it is doomed.

5. When the churches come to be more interested in the promotion of the Kingdom than they are in the promotion of their own particular denomination, they will begin to have that prosperity which only those can have who are really doing the Lord’s work. The chief hindrance to the work of the churches is often the churches themselves. One of the greatest needs of the villages and rural regions is fewer churches.

If in each small village there was a single church in which all the Christians of the community could unite, they could easily organize the work in all the surrounding country and carry it on successfully. But where there are a number of churches they are in the way of each other and effectually prevent any widespread and efficient work. Still, even in that unfortunate condition, something may be done in a systematic way to help the rural regions. Why cannot the representatives of the various churches get together, make a united survey of the country for miles in every direction, become fully acquainted with the situation and conditions, and seeing clearly what needs to be done, divide the territory up between them, giving each church its own particular field, and allowing it to arrange for its cultivation in its own way? I believe that some such arrangement is feasible when it is the Kingdom that the churches are chiefly interested to promote, instead of the particular denomination to which they happen to belong.

6. When all the religious forces in any community can combine and work together, all the work that needs to be done in the community can be done, and there will be no lack of resources to carry it on with vigor and success. In almost every community there are Christians enough, and there is money enough, for the work, if only they can be assembled and utilized. But when they are scattered about, lying around lose and uncombined, or when they are organized into competing camps, they are useless for any purpose of aggressive and effective work. It isn’t the poverty of the people that stands in the way, or the small number of professing Christians. It is the lack of team work, the lack of coöperation, that constitutes the weakness of the cause. No work can be done in the country that is at all effective without this coöperation and combination. With it, all the work that needs to be done, can be done.

7. The church that sees the vision and with faith and courage undertakes to make it a reality, will be prospered. Perhaps the experience of the Benzonia church may be cited as proof of this. Situated in a small village, composed of people of meager means, in a country that has not even yet emerged from pioneer conditions, it had for many years carried on its work only with much sacrifice and careful economy. Three years ago, by a unanimous vote, it formally adopted the policy of reaching out and annexing all the territory within a radius of five miles in every direction, thus greatly increasing its obligations and more than doubling its annual budget of expenses. There was some questioning as to how it could be done, but, without waiting for clearer light, it moved forward unanimously to the enlarged work.

What do we find to be the result of the three years? They have been the three most prosperous years of the church’s history. Two men have been added to the clerical force. The expenses of the church have been met, and the bills have been paid when they were due. The contributions for home and foreign missions have more than doubled. More members have been received than during any other similar period. There has been perfect harmony and the people have been glad and happy in their common work. Ten places of worship have been established in the country around where regular services are held. The people in these neighborhoods attend their own services and do not come into the village church as some of them formerly did. The present arrangement does not tend to build up a large central congregation, but has the opposite effect. Thirty former central members have become part of a newly formed church three miles away. There has been no great increase in the population, either of the village or of the country around. But the congregations and the Sunday-schools were never so large as they have been during this period. It has been found impossible to accommodate all those who wished to worship with the church, or properly to care for those attending the Sunday-school. A larger building became an actual necessity, and in the summer of 1913 an addition was made, increasing the seating capacity of the building by one third, and providing a number of rooms for Sunday-school and social purpose. Can we doubt that the blessing of God will attend any church that sees the vision, and with faith and courage and sacrifice gives itself to the work of making it a reality?