The Challenge of the Country: A Study of Country Life OpportunityFiske, George Walter
History
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of Country Life Opportunity
Fiske, George Walter
Sociology, Rural
One of the signs of a decadent church is excessive emphasis upon sectarian
trifles. When adult Sunday school classes have not studied the lesson for
the day they fall back on denominational hobbies! A holy zeal for
righteousness costs something. The selfish zeal for one's sect is cheap.
There is little of this now in the cities; but the country is scourged by
petty sectarian teaching both in the pulpit and in the Sunday school; and
the country is very tired of it. Ordinary mortals are simply bored by it
and will no longer come to hear it.
People are still hungry for the real gospel. The great affirmations of
religion: The priceless value of human life, the reality of God our loving
Father, the immortality of the soul, the law of the harvest, the gospel of
a Saviour, et cetera, still challenge the attention and win the hearts of
men. Let us emphasize the great Christian fundamentals on which most
Christian people heartily agree. Let us add to these high teachings of
universal Christianity the simple social teachings of Jesus, his every day
practical teachings for human life in mutual relations, and we shall have
a winning message for the sensible minds and hearts of country people.
8. _A Loyal Country Ministry, Adequately Trained and Supported_
This is one of the ultimate factors in our problem, perhaps the most
difficult of all. Leadership is always of utmost importance in social
problems. A splendid leader often brings real success out of serious
difficulties. There are hundreds of such splendid leaders in country
parsonages to-day, and they deserve all the high appreciation and cordial
recognition they have won. But when we consider our 70,000 rural
ministers as a body, we find three things to be true: They are miserably
paid. They are usually untrained. Their pastorates are too short to be
really successful. The churches are of course more to blame for this
condition than the ministers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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