The Making of a Country Parish: A StoryMills, Harlow S. (Harlow Spencer)
Philosophy
The Making of a Country Parish: A Story
Mills, Harlow S. (Harlow Spencer)
Rural churches; Rural clergy
I believe that the rank and file of our churches are more ready to march
forth to larger service than most of us have thought. There is really more
willingness to take up new tasks and to engage in aggressive enterprises
than they have had credit for. The people want something to do. They want
a work that is worth while. Many churches are languishing for a job which
they may apprehend and accept--for something large enough and difficult
enough to challenge their powers and kindle their enthusiasm. And when a
proposition is made to them that seems sane and sensible, when they can
have confidence in their leaders, they are generally ready to fall in line
and to march forward with firm and steady tread. That was the case with
this particular church, and they have stood behind the work of the Larger
Parish from the first in solid phalanx. There have been no kickers, no
knockers. In all this work I have had the satisfaction of knowing that the
people were with me. They have been helpers all the way and not hinderers.
3. But how should we begin? How can we move out into this Larger Parish
and get hold of this greater work? In some way we must be something to all
these people. We must find a way by which the church may make itself felt
as a force in all these five hundred homes. But how? Well, I began to
hold services in the schoolhouses around. I could at least hold one
meeting a week in these out-stations in addition to my regular duties.
That seemed a very small beginning, but it was a beginning. It was the
entering wedge to the larger work that followed. On Wednesday nights some
of my people would take me to these more distant points, where I was
almost invariably greeted by a good and attentive congregation. I had no
conveyance of my own, and of this I was glad, for it gave an excuse to
call upon my people for transportation, and gave them a chance to have a
part in the work; for I considered that the success of the work depended,
not so much upon what I did or said, as upon the attitude that the people
of the church took toward it. And the presence of the men with me in these
services greatly increased the effectiveness of the efforts. I was a
preacher and I was simply "on my job." _They_ represented the church and
proclaimed to the people in the outlying regions its attitude toward them.
In some of the neighborhoods there were no schoolhouses, and the services
were held in private homes. In this simple way the work began to grow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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