The rural teacher and his work in community leadership, in school administration, and in mastery of the school subjects . e nation lived a primitive life. A churchwhich is satisfied with periodic outbursts to save souls in-stead of utilizing well-organized plans for continued effortcannot long remain a vital community force. The simpleideals of the past, calling for occasional protracted meet-ings with their emotional conversions followed by back-slidings and re-conversions, can no longer appeal must be to intelligence and to the will, andgrowth of noble Christian character, which
The rural teacher and his work in community leadership, in school administration, and in mastery of the school subjects . e nation lived a primitive life. A churchwhich is satisfied with periodic outbursts to save souls in-stead of utilizing well-organized plans for continued effortcannot long remain a vital community force. The simpleideals of the past, calling for occasional protracted meet-ings with their emotional conversions followed by back-slidings and re-conversions, can no longer appeal must be to intelligence and to the will, andgrowth of noble Christian character, which is a continuousprocess. Neither will the old rivalry of sect or denomination bepossible under the new dispensation — each struggling forlargest membership and greatest local influence. The newideals call for cooperation of churches on the broadestChristian lines to lift the whole community and to make it A Rural Survey of Missouri, p. 3. 56 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK The Winning* of the West After B^yeacscf organi-zfed (Shurch work of Ihelolal population(exciu5iveofEu^ne) areMembers of the Local (lurches. .^^^rze (2>u/i^, ^re^ Fig. 2. — Illustration from A Survey of Lane Comity, Oregon. THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 57 morally and socially wholesome. The new rural church,in other words, will not alone have the priestly functionsand mediate between God and men; it will mediate be-tween rnan and man as well and will help the farmers tolive useful, wholesome lives in the community, by taking aninterest in their work-a-day life — in their social and recre-ational affairs, in their institutes and granges, and theircooperative creameries and fruit-growing associations. TheAmerican people of to-day are above everything else prac-tical. To make a winning appeal to strong men the church,too, must be practical, and learn again to preach, as Mosesdid of old, the holiness of the land. Community Service the Test of Church Efficiency. —The rural survey
Size: 1574px × 1588px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorf, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfarmlife
