DYING CHURCHES

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 276, 18 May 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

DYING CHURCHES

LTY OF INEFFICIENCY,

interesting conclusions have ived at by the County V ork f the Presbyterian Church in.

Ed States. Qg ago a group of missionaries i came to the frank conclusion effort to teach religion before tne natives how to live more ble lives, in a physical sense, to manage their fields and lustry more profitably was all

—a waste of time both for the ie,s and the black people and a money that the home churches i tho foreign field. The Council Work Board of the Presbylurch has come to practically conclusion as to the farm and rellerg of tho United States, card (say 9 the "New York agazina'') has investigated in States on lioth coasts and in •ior of the country and l made surveys of many rural eound, for the sake of a generalisese investigators have found

decadence of the country he dwindling of its community to the vanishing point, and lg off of membership, have not to the farmers, but to the self and its failure to keep up laterial welfare of a communiently to give it any right to expect the privilege of any leadership. YOUNG MINISTER'S FAILING. lecifically the trouble has been ?Iy with the preacher vvho has ion work in a country church ssary bit of preliminary druduninteresting, low-pay period iticeship at soul-saving that got through with before any Igling could expect a call to a vn with a bigger salary.

lould he bother his head with of cultivating grain fields and stic economy puzzles of the vivos and daughters wiien, in so, ho would be transferred to , town to preach to men who irs seven days a week and to with the ladies who think interested in Browning and t was so pleasant to dream of that he -would thunder fearli the pulpit against robbery ilaees and see it all in the • next morning, that it never to him to thunder from his ulpit against the iniquity of le land every season by taking rop and not putting in the

his thoughts somewhere else, y preacher carried very little ntry congregation, -and that borne in mind with reference ry little his congregation > him in return. The pay of inisters, which averaged c-on->ss than ?GOO (£120) a year s ago, was small largely befarmers were not willing to tor something worth while.

itself, 6ays the Country aid, is neither an unknown velcome thing to the farmer, st have it in the terms of the century and in the terms of "e. The church as adminis-

! years ago does not yield which the farmer will value I the aid and sympathy he is Bm his Federal Government, ; agency of the Department ure, or from his State experion, or from any of several erment agencies tlvat have :ed the parson in getting to 1 the ploughed ground. And •mer is a religious man. The iiup?h Board finds him so in his difficulties. TING THE REMEDY. i workers of the Country [ird are not at all pessimistic future. On the contrary, hopeful a group to talk with d find.

1 the churches that are dying lie," asserts the Rev. Matn M'Nutt, a member of the There is nothing new about We are simply discovering applying the .remedies. We g a new type of young minv'll go to the new type of urch, not as to a steppingmething in town, but as to on thiat in itself offers a big ilac-o in which to accomplish by being a community lead•eal minister to all the inthe people. We are also lie church architecture as niet-Tiod of training the man it. The old-fashioned, boxn church building with only ind intended for only one irie. The new church of the have many doors and many ind it will throw away the SG THE MOTOR CAR. to better roads and the -the farmer's automobile—•an now serve a much larger iclude within its radius of ienee enough people to get ten.m-work. The automobile ctor 011 the right side. It aligned by those who have how to keep churches alive :ie agencies of the devil to away from church. 1 to hear the same old wail top bungy when that came 1 several generations ago. ?r who couldn't hold his to say, that as soon as a (ii afford a top buggy for >ad of the old spring wagon, ■ing to church n.nd went il r-nlls. But wherever there good preacher in those (lavs i.s many tcr> huL r <r : es under wagon-shed during service e''-arts'. It's the same way

iomobile. ■> that the au'totnobil > ha.s II the church that had no o. hut it. is equally true lelping to make the new e wherever we have 0.-tab-INf: DENOMINATIONS. >t difficulty that, lins not r solved is tlie (locking of in one small or four dying organi-a-small ((immunity with just e to -import - ne ad:«|uatetlled union church does not fficulfv, for there is never rent body b.T-k of such an The best solution offered lie form of federation in veral ( lunches may maiinnominational entit'es, hut, a. broad gauge way on all enterprises and social

tt then fell" the story of services being held s'multhree rival village ehurehwa.rm night, so the three -pen and the godless per-

son, loafing on the village green because ho 'couldn't decide which of the three doors to enter, heard the Methodists singing, "Oh will there bo any stars in my crown?" while the Baptists were going strong 011 the chorus of "No, not one," and the Presbyterians were declaring in song, "That will be glory for me."

But that isn't stieh a good story as that of the four churches with one stove in the village of Trezevant, Tenn., which the Country Church Board ran across in a recent survey of that State. At first each chuirh was used once a month by its own denomination, but by and by, for purposes of economy, it was decided to use only one for all denominations, each church getting a year's turn at a time. The stove is moved at tin end of the year to the church which is next to be tuned. The stove, says the report, was the only warm religious tiling in Trezevant. Their religion was denominational and verbal, hut the community spirit as expressed in the stove was united.