Above all things else, let the country church be reorganized with reference to the interests of the young. Let the minister and the other leaders take a firm stand for a square deal for the farm boys and girls in respect to work and play and sociability. Let them place before country parents clear, concrete models and methods as to how to accord fair treatment to the children in every particular thing. Let them organize the young people of the community into groups for play and sociability and direct them in both of these matters.
It is high time we were considering all of our legitimate interests as a part of our religion. Indeed, there is no good reason why the young people could not meet together at the rural church and on the same evening have an oyster supper and a prayer meeting. They could very consistently discuss and participate in both a temporal and a spiritual affair on the same occasion and in such a way that each part of the program would be vitalized by the others. And likewise the smaller children. It should not be considered at all irreverent for one to go directly with them to the playground after the Sunday school lesson is ended and there lead and direct them in their health-giving enjoyments. Try this in your rural-church society centers and see if the boys and girls do not run with great enthusiasm to the whole affair.
One great error committed by many of us in the past is that of regarding work and things as arbitrarily high or low. But the author does not see why plowing corn may not be made just as sacred and just as divine a calling as preaching the gospel, provided the former be regarded in the light of service of some high spiritual purpose; as indeed it may be. So, here is a distinctive part of the function of the rural church; namely, to spiritualize work as well as workers—to urge upon the attention of the rural inhabitants the thought that their work must all be regarded as a means to the transformation of the community life and of each individual life into a thing of transcendent worth and beauty.
A summary
Now, here is the proposed plan in a nutshell. The country community is the best place in the world for bringing up a sturdy race of men and women and the country church is or can be made one of the greatest agencies in the achievement of this work. But such achievement can best be brought about only when the country church goes to work to save the whole boy and the whole girl. And that means that the church must understand better how human life grows up—that it must meet these growing boys and girls on their own level of everyday interest and socialize and spiritualize these interests through close contact with them. Then, make the rural church a social center for the young, including exercises in work and play and recreation, as well as a place for religious instruction. The child is a creature of activity and not of passivity. You cannot preach him into the kingdom in a lifetime; but you can get down with him and work with him and play with him and guide and direct him through his self-chosen, everyday interests, to the end that he may afterwards enter the ranks of the Lord’s anointed.
Again, it is urged, make your country church a center for the entire life of the community. Not only have the adults bring their practical affairs to this center for consideration, but have the boys and girls come with their implements of work and play, with their specimens of farm and home produce and handiwork, with their miniature menageries and workshops—all this with joy and reverence before and after the religious services.
REFERENCES
Efficient Democracy. W. H. Allen. Chapter X. “Efficiency in Religious Work.” Dodd, Mead & Co.
Rural Christendom. Charles Roads. Prize Essay. American Sunday-School Union, Philadelphia.
Report of the Commission on Country Life, pp. 137-144, Sturgis-Walton Co.
The Country Church and the Library. John Cotton Dana. Outlook, May 6, 1911.
The Country Church and the Rural Problem. Kenyon L. Butterfield. University of Chicago Press. A strong presentation of the entire situation.
The Rural Church and Community Development. President Kenyon L. Butterfield. The Association Press, New York. A collection of practical papers and discussions on several important topics.
The Day of the Country Church. J. O. Ashenhurst. Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York. Read especially the excellent chapter on “Leadership."”
The Church and the Rural Community. Symposium. American Journal of Sociology. March, 1911.
Philanthropy, A Trained Profession. Lewis. Forum, March, 1910.
Rural Manhood. The Association Press, New York Monthly. This magazine publishes many excellent articles on the Rural Church.
The Inefficient Minister. Literary Digest, April 10, 1909. A report of the criticisms of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, of the Carnegie Foundation, and Dr. Henry Aked, of San Francisco.
World’s Work, December, 1910. An interesting account of Reverend Matthew McNutt’s work in building up a country church.
The Country Church. George F. Wells, in Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, by L. H. Bailey, volume IV, page 297.