Empty churches : $b The rural-urban dilemmaGalpin, Charles Josiah
Religion
Empty churches : $b The rural-urban dilemma
Galpin, Charles Josiah
Church attendance; Community churches; Rural churches -- United States
I will venture to forecast some of the things that would happen.
Every rural community would have a community church--a church for the
whomsoever, even to the last man, woman, and child in that community.
If topographically possible, every such church community would stretch
the bounds of its parish to include a thousand souls all told. In
communities of two thousand souls, there would be two churches--two
only, and both community churches. In communities of three thousand
souls, there would be three community churches, and three churches
only, every church, a community church; and no more churches than one
to one thousand of the community population; for it takes one thousand
of the population to maintain an effectual modern church; and every
church is to be a Christian community church as a safeguard against
paganism. But why am I so foolish as to foretell what would happen when
I can tell what is happening?
There are to-day, we are told by those who keep informed on the
matter, a thousand community churches in the United States, of which
the greater part are in rural territory. In fact, it is reported that
new community churches are being organized at the rate, at present,
of six a month. To say that there is a community church movement
well-started is no exaggeration. Some States such as Massachusetts,
Vermont, Connecticut, Ohio, California, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, are
outstanding in the movement.
Of course, the community church is not yet standardized, but it is
shaping up. To affirm that there are three types, as some say, or five,
as others put it, is more or less arbitrary. Still, for the sake of
the man who understands better by types, I may say that some community
churches like to be known as having arrived at the community ideal by
“federation” of two or more denominational churches, the new church
preserving connection with a national church body.
Other community churches pride themselves on being “union” churches,
each having originated from the organic union of two or more churches,
or having been established as a “union” church in a community
possessing no church, but containing families of various denominational
connections in the past. The union church once formed usually stands
alone, without any denominational affiliation.
Then there is the regular “denominational” church, which either
just happens to be or has come purposely to be the only church in
the community; and which makes the boast of existing for the whole
community rather than for its particular denominational group.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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