Produced by Tom Roch, Karen Dalrymple, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University.) Church Cooperation in Community Life By PAUL L. VOGT THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1921, by PAUL L. VOGT Printed in the United States of America TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER WHOSE PUBLIC-SPIRITED AND LIFELONG LOYALTY TO RELIGIOUS WORK IN A COUNTRY COMMUNITY HAS BEEN A CONSTANT INSPIRATION TO CHRISTIAN SERVICE CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE 7 I. SOME PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS 9 II. THE BASIS FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE 26 III. THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGE TO THE CHURCH 44 IV. THE SOCIAL CHALLENGE TO THE CHURCH 69 V. BUILDING FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE 84 VI. THE CHURCH AND RURAL PUBLIC THOUGHT 94 VII. ADJUSTING THE LOCAL CHURCH TO THE COMMUNITY 104 VIII. INTERDENOMINATIONAL READJUSTMENT 124 IX. THE CHURCH AND OTHER RURAL AGENCIES 142 X. MISSIONARY PROGRAMS AND RURAL COMMUNITY SERVICE 152 XI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 169 PREFACE Many books have been written during the past few years on the rural church. Some of these have given excellent concrete illustrations of methods that are proving successful in solving local problems. Others have discussed the general rural church situation. The rural life movement, however, has been so rapid that it is believed that a brief restatement of the place of the church in the rural life movement is desirable at the present time. It has been the task and privilege of the writer for the past four years to be almost constantly in the field traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canadian border to the limits of Florida and getting so far as possible first-hand impressions of rural church and community conditions. It is the purpose of the present essay to discuss some of the general problems in rural life presenting themselves to the religious forces of America, and to note some conclusions as to the next steps to be taken if these forces are to render the service in rural advance that it is believed is theirs to render. Suggestions as to local programs will be made only as evidence that when the church undertakes in an adequate manner the solution of problems whose solution is demanded of it, it receives both the moral and the financial support of the people served. The chapters on phases of the local program are intended only to help in preparing the way for the larger service contemplated.