The Church in the Country

Abstract

About few things in the religious world is there at the present time more interest than about the country church. The needs of the country are so appalling, the attempt to meet them has been so imperfect and half-hearted, if not unintelligent, that it is a most encouraging sign that so many denominations, as well as the Young Men's Christian Association, and state universities, and a commission of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, should be thinking seriously of the matter. Theory and practice are both much needed. But the theorist ought to have had experience in the actual working of the country church, and the practical man ought to know something about the ideals of religion as well as about the machinery of community service. We have had an amazing amount of ill-considered advice to ministers and theological seminaries in this field. From some of this advice one would think that the chief business of a minister is to be a sort of inexpensive expert on crops, hog cholera, and ch...