CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface [7]

  1. Some Preliminary Definitions [9]
  2. The Basis for Community Service [26]
  3. The Economic Challenge to the Church [44]
  4. The Social Challenge to the Church [69]
  5. Building for Community Service [84]
  6. The Church and Rural Public Thought [94]
  7. Adjusting the Local Church to the Community [104]
  8. Interdenominational Readjustment [124]
  9. The Church and Other Rural Agencies [142]
  10. Missionary Programs and Rural Community Service [152]
  11. Summary and Conclusion [169]

PREFACE

Many books have been written during the past few years on the rural church. Some of these have given excellent concrete illustrations of methods that are proving successful in solving local problems. Others have discussed the general rural church situation. The rural life movement, however, has been so rapid that it is believed that a brief restatement of the place of the church in the rural life movement is desirable at the present time.