Missouri Counlry Life Conference. 183 



gently in the onslaught on economic and moral country con- 

 ditions as the cities are, and there are just as marked changes for 

 a better and happier society over the country field as over the 

 municipal field. 



Our Plant. — Five years ago I came to the church which I 

 serve. My coming was in obedience to an urgent call from the 

 president of the district and from the congregation. When I 

 looked the field over I found a very good church building. I also 

 found a parsonage just adjacent to the church, but not in nearly 

 so good a condition. The weeds had grown up about it so that 

 it was hardly to be seen from the road, which was just a few 

 yards away. I accepted this place as not only a field of oppor- 

 tunity, but as a call to a new service as well. This (indicating 

 picture on the screen) represents very nicely our church. This 

 building was the realization of the efforts of a predecessor, a 

 man who some years ago, by the co-operation of a certain pro- 

 gressive element of the community, built and paid for it. But 

 that church had gone nearly two years without a pastor pre- 

 ceding my coming to it. There had not been a Sunday school 

 for some time (just how long I am unable to state), and other 

 phases of the church life were running in the same ratio. 



This (indicating picture) is the parsonage as it is now. 

 When I first came to this place the parsonage was much smaller, 

 but the people have added to it and beautified the grounds until 

 it has become a very comfortable place for us to live. Now, 

 other than this plant (the church and the parsonage just shown), 

 this place was just like average country churches. I want to 

 show you a picture of an abandoned church that I know of 

 situated in the open country. It stands there, an eyesore to the 

 community. Services are held only occasionally, as some one 

 comes along and preaches to the people. There is nothing here 

 that anyone can take pride in, and the sad thing about it is that 

 there are hundreds and thousands of just such churches dotted 

 here and there over the country. 



When I began this work I fixed definitely in my mind this 

 idea: There are enough Christians in every community to properly 

 support a Christian institution in their midst — // they are Christian 

 enough. I hope that you will read that thoughtfully — if there 

 are Christians enough. 



It was to be my work to correlate these Christians and bring 

 them together so that they would, unitedly, support the enter- 

 prises of the church. In this I had great satisfaction, in that I 



