Charles Otis Gill

“ The Eighteen Counties demand missionary activity on the part of the church as a whole, not only for the sake of the unfortunate people who live in them, but also for the sake of the other regions whose welfare is threatened by the transfer of low standards of all kinds, which, like a forest fire, are creeping away from the region where they originated.
Among the large number of intelligent persons who know and deplore the situation in typical communities of southeastern Ohio, very few seem to cherish hope of improvement. ”

“ When the circuit system is adopted by more than one competing denomination in a field as it is in Ohio it helps to perpetuate interchurch competition. When one adopts it all others must, or retire from the field. It cannot be held that the resulting competition helps to make more Christians, or that it tends to develop character or community life. On the contrary, it reduces both the power of the church as a whole and the influence of the individual churches for personal righteousness and community welfare. ”

“ Attention should be directed in passing to the fact that the low value of the land is due in part to the failure of the people who live upon it to develop and use the natural resources which are available. In some of the poorest regions in the Eighteen Counties an occasional farmer is making a good living from the soil, although his land by nature is no better than that of his poor neighbors. As a rule the agricultural opportunities of the region are neglected. For example, little fruit is grown, although both climate and soil in much of the region are very favorable to fruit production. ”

“ We have in mind a rural township with less than 2,000 inhabitants, lying in a hill country, which has six resident ministers in its five villages, while the term of service of the minister of each of the parishes is nearly always long. To establish at least one resident minister in every township is not too high an aim. The people can and should be brought to understand that the value of a successful minister rises in increasing proportion with his knowledge of the community and the length of his service. ”

“ A sound economic basis for a more attractive rural life can be provided in no other way. Through training and experience in successful coöperative enterprises, farmers may achieve a greater degree of solidarity, and acquire a larger share in the direction and control of industrial, political, and economic life of the Nation. With it will come larger respect for rural occupations, an added prestige and attractiveness to agricultural life, and the chance of real success for the modern country church. ”

“ It is a genuine pleasure to work for something that is going to help the whole community and not just a part. I believe the interests of the Kingdom will be advanced most where effort is united in rural communities. In our canvass for funds we were surprised to find that the non-church people were not willing that the churches should close their doors. In addition we found they had a deeper interest in the church than we could possibly expect. One old man, probably sixty-five, said that this was the first time he had ever been asked to give to the support of a church. ”

“ To substitute coöperation for competition is an essential condition of rural church progress, at least in Ohio. Whenever the new program is adopted by a community it will discover that interchurch competition is hostile to community prosperity. Many rural communities already know that interchurch coöperation is desirable. But the great question is how to secure it. Nearly every community is aware that it has too many churches, but the task of reducing the number or securing interchurch comity is a problem beset with difficulties. ”

“ In a township or community where population and resources are inadequate to support more than one pastor, but where the population is so distributed that more than one place of worship and organized church are required, a federated circuit may well be formed and a common pastor be employed. In such case the several churches should be officially represented by a joint committee which would act for the circuit not only in employing the common pastor, but also in learning and meeting all the religious and social needs which require concerted church action. ”

“ Under the circuit system as now applied in Ohio the churches too often provide for but little else than preaching. Even the Sunday school, one of the most hopeful and valuable kinds of church work, is hampered by it, for this work needs the leadership of a trained ministry, which the present circuit system tends to prevent. The minister with a circuit can rarely attend the services of his Sunday schools, and the task of promoting the Sunday school work during the week in the several communities of his charge is usually too arduous for him. ”

“ But it remains true that the natural conditions as a whole are not as favorable for agriculture, as they are to the north and northwest; and it is an unquestionable fact that the character and condition of the earth’s surface has a relation to the physical, intellectual, social, and moral conditions of the people who live upon it. ”

“ In order the better to look after the needs of the young people and to strengthen the moral life of the community, a committee representing both of the churches was appointed to provide and carry out a program for the community welfare.
One of the features of this program is a successful movement for the promotion of the social, athletic, and play life of this and neighboring communities. The life of the neighborhood has been made more attractive, especially for the young people, while some of the forms of petty vice have disappeared. Union services are frequently held by the two churches. ”

“ I am convinced of the sincerity of Christian unity and of the possibility of church efficiency, but it has not really approached that reality any more than some denominational churches have in rural centers. But it is a wholesome and generally satisfactory plan of religious service in a community of changing personnel. In the community is quite a large Catholic element and also a very progressive and influential Universalist element. ”

“ If the Government cannot meet the whole need, no more can the churches. Business coöperation, which they should encourage but cannot supply, is indispensable. For more than fifty years churches and clergymen in Europe have been rendering most effective service in the promotion of coöperative agricultural organization in business. In America likewise they can and should be of essential help in the same good work, for the principles of successful agricultural business are in close harmony with Christian ethics. ”

“ The rural ministry should, it possible, be so distributed that in each township there shall be a resident pastor.
Measures to prevent the recurrence of over-churched conditions should be taken by every branch of the church. Each should determine not to organize churches where they are not needed or certain to be needed. In a new community needing but one church, an expression of the people should be obtained as to the choice of the church to be established. The desires of the largest number should be followed. ”

“ Both Federation and Association are necessary for other purposes, and therefore no ground whatever exists for the objection sometimes made that federated churches will require the formation of new organizations to supervise them.
While it is true that an uneducated minister ordinarily cannot satisfy the people of various denominations, and that usually he is sectarian in his thinking and point of view, it is equally true that where a well-educated man is pastor, the needs of the people of various denominations can easily be met and church unity be made possible. ”

“ Camp meetings of a fanatical sect were often held in the neighborhood. In the churches of the town seasons of protracted meetings were characterized by excessive emotion at the time, but by few permanent good results. While respect for religion is necessary to a high degree of moral and social life in any country [Pg 78] community, a large proportion of the people in Ashley no longer respected the church because of the character of its religious activities. Many of the most influential citizens even doubted whether the church was good for the community or not. ”

“ He looks forward to leaving the country through promotion to a town church. The city, where he hopes to be, and not the country, where he is, becomes for him the only field for success in the ministry.
It is evident, therefore, that country parishes to be successful must be more compact. As a substitute for the circuit, churches in a small community where there are too many should be united in the support of one resident minister. If they cannot support him, then other adjacent churches should join with them in a federated circuit under a single pastor. ”

“ Unless a larger and stronger social and religious institution is created in the country districts than is now found in the country church, the more vigorous young people will for the most part leave the country, and an inferior class will take their places on the farm. A process of reverse selection will therefore set in which must result in the general debasement of our rural population and ultimately of our nation as a whole. ”

“ Equally effective are the incidental contacts of a minister engaged in community service, such as work with boys, or the promotion of welfare enterprises. Thus engaged he will inevitably get in touch with his parishioners, and supply the needs of individuals and of the community, at least as fully as the minister who devotes most of his working hours to pastoral calls. In such work less time is spent in the long drives or walks between houses which are necessary in systematic calling, while the minister gets to know the men better and bothers them less. ”

“ Assuming that there has been no change in the population since 1910, there is now one church for each 280 persons. But from 1900 to 1910 there was a decline of more than 3 per cent in the population of these townships. If we assume that this decline has continued since 1910 there are to-day on the average less than 280 men, women, and children, church people and non-church people, to give and do all that must be given and done for each country church in Ohio. In such a state of facts, poverty and weakness are inevitable. ”

“ Within the past three years agricultural agents of the Government in Ohio who attempted to promote a coöperative movement among farmers were forced by similar interests to abandon the work or leave the county where they were employed. It is well known that the faculties of certain State Agricultural colleges, though fully aware of the need for sound coöperative agricultural business, do not attempt to give instructions in its principles because of the effective opposition they anticipate from persons and corporations whose business makes their interests hostile to those of the farmer. ”

“ The movement for the conservation and improvement of rural life has no greater enemy than the misused circuit system. Not only does it weaken the churches, but it necessarily discourages the development of the community and of community life. With his efforts divided among three or more different communities, his parishioners mingled with members of competing churches, the country minister cannot hope for the coöperation necessary to effective leadership. ”

“ After the sacrifices of war those of peace by comparison will not seem large—while the sacrifices of both peace and war are equally necessary for the realization of the high ideals which as Americans we cherish. ”

“ It is my opinion that for a community that is like this one a federated church is a great means to secure Christian unity and efficiency. At our last meeting there were but two who were not enthusiastic for its continuance. Our field here would be much better if there were not another church in the community outside the federation. There is still the Unitarian Church outside the federation which necessarily makes a divided leadership in the small community. Our federated church has grown from two small churches to the position of dominance in the community. ”

“ A Church Federation
In the village of Shiloh in Richland County are two churches, Lutheran and Methodist Episcopal, each supporting a resident pastor. Each seems to be strong enough to sustain alone its ordinary activities. For this and other reasons there has been no desire to unite the churches into one congregation. But they had both neglected to provide means of meeting many of the community’s needs, such as opportunities for social life, recreation, and athletics, or to stimulate others to make provision for them. ”

“ There are few regions where coöperative organization is more needed, and would be more likely to succeed, if properly directed, than in southeastern Ohio. It would not only increase the economic prosperity of this region, but it would exert also a most wholesome moral and social effect, whereby the work of the church would be accelerated. The constant application of the principles of brotherhood in everyday business is an influence of the highest value, and it cannot safely be neglected as a means for the Christianizing of rural society. ”

“ It is equally evident that no institution could hope for a high degree of success unless more progressive in method and administration. Furthermore, unless the urban officials or directors in charge of rural churches come to appreciate the fundamental importance of the country church problem, address themselves more seriously to the task in hand, and make really effective use of improved organization and available human and material resources, the country church will continue to decline. ”

“ For a man to leave his own denomination and unite with another often involves action against the conscience. In some of the denominations, for example, the members have been trained to think it undesirable to subscribe to a creed. But creed subscription is required by the churches of many of the denominations as a condition of membership. In such cases the church officials may properly hesitate to urge a part of the people to do what they believe is not right. ”

“ There are many rural communities in Ohio where the churches exert a vital influence in community life, and where farm life succeeds in holding families of moral, intellectual, and physical vigor. In some instances the communities and their churches have not been seriously affected by the modern conditions and tendencies which elsewhere are acting unfavorably upon the country church and country life. In other instances, intelligent leadership on the part of the ministers has overcome these conditions. ”

“ In communities whose compactness permits, and whose population and resources require, that there should be only one congregation and pastor, but where two or more churches already exist, the churches clearly should either be united organically in a single denominational church, or a federated church should be formed. ”

“ While the churches at White Cottage were not united in any organic way, yet a spirit of Christian unity was brought about. The very best of feeling exists among the different churches, and their members work together gladly in community improvement. As the result of such an atmosphere the evils of overchurching are reduced to a minimum, and it becomes easier to bring about such reorganization as may be for the best religious and social welfare of the community. ”

“ The welfare of a man’s soul may be increased by promoting the welfare of the rest of him, and the aim of the church should be to bring every man to the highest possible development of all his powers. In seeking to do so it will not only be more effective in creating a higher manhood and womanhood, but will also make its message better understood and secure a greater number of church members and adherents. ”