Six Thousand Country Churches Part 5

A well-educated minister who has rendered nine successive years of effective service in one community has been secured as pastor, and there is now a most encouraging prospect of improvement in religious, moral, social, and economic life. The increased giving in Greene Towns.h.i.+p has also influenced the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in North Bloomfield. They have pledged $800, instead of the former $500, for the support of their minister, and expect to raise $1,000. Bloomfield Towns.h.i.+p also hereafter will have the undivided service of a minister.

As a result of this movement in Greene Towns.h.i.+p, therefore, four of the churches of these two towns.h.i.+ps will hereafter pay from $2,300 to $2,500 for the support of the ministry instead of $1,100 as. .h.i.therto, while two communities will each have the full time service of a resident pastor. The significance of this increase in the money support of the church will be apparent to those who have studied modern rural church problems. The failure of the rural churches to give a living wage, much less a working salary, to their ministers has been one of the most discouraging facts in the rural church situation.

If the three churches of North Bloomfield should federate as those of Greene Towns.h.i.+p have done, doubtless their people could raise $1,500 for the support of the ministry. Again, if all the churches of both North Bloomfield and Greene should federate it would be possible to employ a single pastor of even higher grade with an a.s.sistant. An automobile could be used effectively to cover both towns.h.i.+ps. In some cases, as in Benzonia, Michigan, one minister with one or more a.s.sistants has been able to get better results at less expense. The plan is worth trying.

_Aurora_

In the year 1913 in the village of Aurora, Portage County, there were two churches, the Congregational and Disciples of Christ. They were small in attendance and members.h.i.+p, and it was hard to get adequate support for the ministers. The usual results of underpaying the ministry were not wanting.

As a preliminary step in the improvement of this situation an organization of the men of the churches was formed to promote the general community welfare. As in so many other cases, to bring the churches together in cooperative service to the community was seen to be the only way to secure a vigorous church life for Aurora. That led to the decision to form a federated church under the leaders.h.i.+p of one pastor. Under the plan adopted, each church was to keep its denominational relations, contribute to its denominational benevolences, and fulfill all denominational obligations. But in Aurora, as in Greene Towns.h.i.+p, the people were to work together as in one church.

Owing to circ.u.mstances which were purely accidental, for the first year or two the church was not very prosperous and the federation was only partially successful. But after awhile the church began to take on life.

While at the beginning it was mutually understood that the arrangement was to be tried for but two years, at the end of that time the desirability of going back to the old way was not even discussed. So far as Mr. Gill could learn in a visit to the community, the one and only one person who still preferred the old way was a woman who had opposed the movement from the start and had always held aloof from it. The opinion of the people is now practically unanimous that both the community and the churches were greatly benefited by the change. The first pastor of this church was of the Disciples, the second a Presbyterian.

_Garrettsville_

Garrettsville is a prosperous community on the Erie Railroad between Youngstown and Cleveland. Its thousand inhabitants are engaged partly in farming, partly in manufacturing, and partly in supplying the various daily needs of the people. Its good houses, electric lights, paved streets, and trim sidewalks indicate progressiveness and community spirit.

Being progressive, the people not merely recognized the undesirability of interchurch compet.i.tion, but they were able to work out a plan whereby they have largely avoided it.

In April, 1916, there were four churches in the community, or on an average one to 250 persons. The highest salary paid to its minister by any of the churches was $800. Two of the other churches paid much smaller sums and shared the service of their ministers with the churches of other towns, while one of the pastors was the Educational Secretary of a Y. M.

C. A. in a town thirty miles away. The spirit of denominational rivalry was in no respect different from that commonly found where there are too many churches. When the pastor of the Congregational Church attempted to organize a branch of the Boy Scouts of America for all the boys in the community, he found that the members of the other churches feared he was attempting to win the boys over to his church. For this reason he thought it best to give up the enterprise.

In 1914, an unsuccessful attempt was made to unite the Congregational Church and the Disciples, and another to unite the Baptist and Congregational churches. In 1916, however, under the influence of the country church movement in Ohio, a successful effort was made to unite all three of them. In the spring of that year these three churches were all without pastors. They decided to hold union services and a Union Sunday school during the summer.

Upon trial the advantages of this arrangement became manifest. Not only was the church attendance larger than the aggregate attendance in the separate churches had ever been, but the Sunday school, formerly with separate attendances of 65, 20, and 12, now had an attendance of 130.

Besides the added enthusiasm of greater numbers, it had better teachers, better music, and a better Christian spirit.

In September, 1916, it was decided by separate vote of each church to form a permanent organization, which was incorporated with the name of "The United Church," and included all who were members of any of the three churches. No member was asked to alter any of his beliefs, and any candidate for admission might choose his own mode of being received, provided it was one used in some Evangelical church. Contributions for missionary work were sent to denominational bodies indicated by the givers or determined by a joint committee. For all local work the members were to act as one body. A committee of the United Church chose as pastor a young man of rural experience, a graduate of an eastern university and seminary, whose denominational affiliation was regarded as of so little importance that it was not even announced.

The United Church of Garrettsville, after two years of experience, affords religious opportunities and renders service to the people far beyond anything the town could supply before the federation was made.

While the three original churches remain intact, the main part of the business of the church is done by the committee of the United Church. The officials of the denominations of the three churches interested heartily encourage the project. The united force of church workers from three denominations has made a very efficient church.

The United Church is the result of a desire of the people to be as closely joined in their new church as they were in their different denominational churches. Its motto is "In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in diversities, charity, in all things, Christ first." It accepts the Scriptures as its sufficient rule of faith and practice, interpreted in the light of fundamental agreements in evangelical teaching, and in the spirit of its motto. Forms of ritual for the sacrament, for the public services, and for admission into the church are left to the decision of the minister, and are not provided for in the regulations. It was desired to keep the forms of sectarianism too feeble to be able to keep the people apart. Persons may join the United Church without joining any of the three denominations represented by the original const.i.tuent bodies.

The Sunday school is well organized, and is testing its work by the highest standard of Christian education. Its relation to the church is very close. The young people have a Christian Endeavor Society. The women's work is carried on by a most flouris.h.i.+ng society under the name of "The Community Circle," whose form of organization provides for taking care of both local and missionary needs. At the first meeting of each month, half of the time is given to local opportunities for service. The general social life of the church is largely cared for by this society.

The United Church has leased all the property of the old churches for a term of years and cares for the church buildings. It has decided to build a new community house for promoting the social life of the community and general community interests, but has postponed it until after the war. In the Articles of Incorporation one of the objects is regarded as the support of such enterprises as tend to the more perfect development of the children and young people spiritually, physically, morally, and socially.

Representatives of the old churches usually go to the meetings of their respective denominations, and are accompanied by such members of the United Church as may wish to attend as visitors. Reports of the meetings are made at meetings of the United Church. The pastor of the United Church is also pastor of each of the three denominational churches and so far as possible attends the district meetings of the denominational bodies in a representative capacity and cares for the local denominational interests.

Public services and meetings are held in the Congregational Church building because it is the largest and best equipped. A baptistry is now being installed, and various uses are being found for the other buildings.

It will be noted that the United Church of Garrettsville differs in some respects from the ordinary federated church.

_Northfield_

In Northfield, Summit County, the Presbyterian and Methodist Episcopal churches united by verbal agreement in a federated church on December 1, 1914. Written articles were adopted several months later. The pastor of the federated church, Rev. J. M. Keck, has kindly given us the following brief account:

"The consent of the higher officials of each denomination was first secured. Then the members of the local churches agreed to the following plan:

"The Presbyterians remain in the Cleveland Presbytery and the Methodists in the Northeast Ohio Conference as before. The legal organization of each local church continues intact. Each set of trustees has charge of its property. The Presbyterian Church being the better located, is used for wors.h.i.+p, and the Methodist for dinners, etc. When a building needs repairs, funds are raised from the entire congregation by voluntary contributions.

"The only additional organization is an Executive Committee, half Presbyterians and half Methodists, which has charge of current expenses and all matters relating to the congregation as a whole. An every-member canva.s.s for the local budget is made in which no account is taken of church relations, no one but the treasurer knowing how much is contributed by each denomination. Benevolent contributions are equally divided between the denominational boards or applied to the Presbyterian or Methodist funds as indicated on envelopes.

"Persons desiring to unite with the church elect whether they are to be Presbyterians or Methodists and are received accordingly. No one seems to care in which they are enrolled, since they work in the same congregation and contribute to the same funds. The order of public wors.h.i.+p is a modification of each of those formerly in use but retains the essential features of both.

"So far there has not been the slightest friction between the denominations. No one seems to think of ever going back to the old way.

WHAT THE PRESBYTERIANS GAINED

"1. A church was saved for the denomination which in time would probably have been forced to disband.

"2. Several hundred dollars of home missionary money was saved annually which had been expended in Northfield to keep the church open and alive.

Under the federation it is not needed.

"3. Offerings are made to the various boards and interests of Presbyterianism.

WHAT THE METHODIST CONFERENCE GAINED

"1. A church was saved that doubtless would have been closed in a few years for want of support.

"2. The salary of the pastor has been increased and also the stipends of the district superintendent, the bishops, conferences, and claimants.

"3. The contributions to all boards and benevolences have been increased.

WHAT THE COMMUNITY GAINED

"1. Federation saves paying two pastors and keeping two church buildings when one is sufficient. It makes the public more willing to aid.

"2. The congregation being more than doubled, there is more enthusiasm and willingness to work.

"3. It has silenced the criticism that the churches are competing instead of cooperating.

"4. The economic and fraternal features of federation appeal to the public and bring into line people who did not patronize either church before."

_Federated Churches in Other States_

More churches have been federated in New England than in any other section of the United States. Familiarity with the success or failure of these churches is therefore necessary to a reasonably full discussion of interchurch cooperation. Accordingly information blanks were sent to a number of these federated churches. The inquiries were expressed as follows:

1. Date of Federation?

2. Denominations of const.i.tuent bodies?