Program of the Department of Rural Work of the Board of Home Missions and ChurchExtension of the Methodist Episcopal ChurchAuthor(s): Paul VogtSource: Journal of Social Forces, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Jan., 1923), pp. 141-142Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3004917 .

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The Journal of Social Forces 141

tem. Its scope is complete. It is to include the

home, the Sunday school, the Christian Endeavor

Society work, the schools, colleges, and semi-

naries, and such other educational agencies and activities as the board may elect. The week-day religious schools, the daily vacation Bible schools, the summer schools of Christian methods, the various conferences on Christian work, the Boy and Girl Scouts and allied organizations will

through this board be unified and correlated into a system and program of Christian nurture and

religious education and training.

The new department of Christian education is

authorized to cooperate with other organizations such as the Boy Scouts and the Christian En- deavor Society, but is especially empowered to alter their programs to suit the denominational needs and so as to integrate the same in the de? nominational program of Christian education. In the days ahead the educational work of the American Christian Convention will be horizontal as well as vertical in organization and function, and a cross section anywhere will reveal a uni- fied program of all its activities and agencies.

PROGRAM OF THE DEPARTMENT OF RURAL WORK OF THE BOARD

OF HOME MISSIONS AND CHURCH EXTENSION OF THE

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH1

Paul Vogt

ACCORDING

to the legislation of the General Conference of the Methodist

* Episcopal Church, 1916, the Department of Rural Work of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of that denomination was directed to develop five leading types of service:

1. To study the field of rural church work in relation to rural life.

2. To train for rural church service. 3. To organize for more effective rural service. 4. To establish rural church demonstrations at

selected points. 5. To administer funds available for the sup-

port of rural missionaries.

Under the heading of "investigation" the de?

partment is now engaged in making a map of the entire northern part of the United States, which will show the location of all churches of all de-

nominations, residences of all pastors, and whether the churches are located in the towns or in the open country. It also carries on special investigations, such as study of abandoned churches, charges without regular supply, facts of interdenominational competition.

In its educational program it has for the past four years conducted summer schools for rural

pastors. It has to date given training for three weeks to nearly 4,000 country and village min- isters. It also has established directorships of

xThe similar work done by the Southern church was de? scribed in the November issue of the Journal.

religious extension work in connection with 34 educational institutions. These directors teach a limited number of courses dealing with rural life and rural church work, supervise student

pastoral appointments as training stations for the rural ministry, conduct week-end institutes for

groups of churches and extension schools for rural pastors in addition to carrying on a large number of other activities required of them by the central office and by the field.

The organized activities of the department have been directed first, toward the formation of Dis? trict Missionary Societies, whose business it is to unify and make more effective the missionary and church extension program in the rural field. It has also formed Rural Ministers Associations in nearly half the American Methodist Episcopal Conferences for the purpose of stimulating in- terest in the rural ministry.

Demonstration work consists principally in

seeking out and giving publicity to the results of efficient service in rural ministry wherever it may appear.

Types of special work have been going on con-

tinuously in many parts of the country but have not been publicly recognized as demonstration

places. The administration of missionary f unds is car?

ried on as a part of the general work of the central office.

Among the results that it is believed the de-

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142 The Journal of Social Forces

partment has assisted in achieving during the

past six years may be mentioned the following:

1. 4,000 rural pastors given three weeks train?

ing in summer schools. Same plan being fol- lowed by the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church.

2. Surveys going on by the rural departments of the two churches working cooperatively which will show the location of all churches of all de-

nominations, pastoral residences, circuit systems, whether churches are in villages or in open coun?

try. Much of the country has already been

completed.

3. The vision of an all-round church program is not popular and all over the country are spring- ing up church buildings planned for worship, re?

ligious education and community service.

4. The post-centenary survey of missionary

and church extension needs is showing in a most remarkable way the effects of the past few years special attention to the rural work. District super- cial attention to the rural work. District super? intendents and others are now able to present in?

telligent and fair programs to missionary service for rural work.

5. Thirty-four Methodist Episcopal educa? tional institutions now have special departments for rural service. The number of trained men devoted to rural work has been greatly increased.

6. Movements have been started in a number of conferences looking toward equity in minis- terial reward.

7. Districts all over the country are being organized into parishes so that the Methodist

Episcopal Church can reach the last family in the country and know definitely when all families have pastoral oversight.

SUMMER SCHOOLS FOR PASTORS OF THE METHODIST

EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH1

A. C. ZUMBRUNNEN

THE

holding of summer schools for pastors is a comparatively new activity in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

They were first introduced in 1921. Only two were held that year, one at Hendrix College, Con-

way, Arkansas, and the other at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. These were under the direction of the General Board of Missions. During the summer of 1922, five were held under the direct

management of this board and it cooperated in another which had its own board of managers. The Home Department of the Board of Missions

proposes to hold and cooperate in fifteen such schools during the summer of 1923. It is the

plan of this department to provide such a number of schools that one shall be easily accessible for

every minister in the home field by 1925.

Why this new departure on the part of this church? What courses are offered in them? What is the character of the work done by them? A brief answer to each of these questions follows.

This new departure on the part of this denomi- nation was largely due to its centenary movement.

1 A short report of the schools for rural pastors was given in the November number of the Journal. Reports from other denominations are being presented as rapidly as material can be obtained.

Extensive surveys were made while it was being put on which revealed the largeness of the task before this church both at home and abroad. It revealed the work to be done and also the re? sources in hand both as to men and money for

doing it. The responsibilities and largeness of the unfinished task was surprisingly great. These

surveys showed that in the home field we had an

evangelistic responsibility of five million or twice the present membership; that there were large unoccupied areas in rural communities; that eleven per cent of the churches in rural com? munities were dead, i.e., without any services; that it hardly touched the large field of immi-

grants within its bounds; that there were many wide open communities in our cities unoccupied by any churches; that many of the churches in the cities were not at all measuring up to their

responsibilities and opportunities in the com? munities in which they were located; that it had a large social service mission in both rural and urban communities which it had scarcely realized existed and had not begun to perform.

Furthermore, it discovered the largeness of its

foreign mission task with an evangelistic respon? sibility of fifty millions of people in Mexico, South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. In

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