The History of the Negro ChurchWoodson, Carter Godwin
Religion
The History of the Negro Church
Woodson, Carter Godwin
African Americans -- Religion
A church on this order takes the name of the institutional church. At
the head of this body, of course, is the pastor of the church; but in
charge of this work sometimes is a director well trained in the social
sciences and with the modern method of attacking the problems of to-day.
The work scheduled is more than the mere supervision of clubs
voluntarily organized. The director has a program which that particular
community needs, and he is there to show the people how to work out
their social salvation. If he is wise in presenting the case, he usually
secures the cooperation necessary to organize the community for the
purpose of self-education. The community is given an introduction to
itself. Every talent lying dormant is here given an opportunity to be
helpful in some way. What the individual from afar may bring for the
good of a few through this well-organized community service becomes the
heritage of all. No club can be large enough to accommodate the large
membership in a city, but what the clubs of one church acquire is
communicated to similar groups in another through such friendly rivalry
as athletic contests, debates, periodical reports, and conferences. Many
of the persons participating in this work are not in the beginning
spiritually inclined, but the experience of the church in working with
such groups has shown that the church has a better chance for success in
making its evangelical appeal to persons under its control than in the
case of delivering its message to those who have not been to any great
extent influenced by Christian contact.
Churches which have undertaken this work have had varied experiences.
The Institutional Church in Chicago under Dr. R. C. Ransom helped to
blaze the way in this new field of endeavor. Under Dr. J. Milton Waldron
and later under Dr. J. E. Ford, the Baptist Church of Jacksonville,
Florida, made itself, through its clubs and Bible Institute, an
effective community center. Dr. H. H. Proctor, a Congregational minister
of Atlanta, practically converted his church into an organization of
such groups as the day nursery, kindergarten, gymnasium, school of
music, employment bureau, and Bible school.
Dr. W. N. DeBerry, the pastor of a Congregational church in Springfield,
Massachusetts, has probably solved the problem about as well as any of
these workers. In the first place, the church has a well-equipped modern
plant so beautifully located and managed as to attract large numbers. It
has, moreover, a parish home for working girls and a branch church at
Amherst, Massachusetts. In the main plant are maintained a free
employment bureau, a women's welfare league, a night school of domestic
training, a girls' and a boys' club emphasizing the handicrafts, music,
and athletics. This church has solved the problem of supplying the needs
of the people during the week as well as their spiritual needs on
Sunday, by emphasizing some life activity for every day in the week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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