Missouri Country Life Conference. 203 



now, have a talent for leadership. As evidence of that you have 

 seen a group of boys or men on the street, for that matter; you 

 will find that one or two of them are doing nearly all the talking. 

 Now, those are the pivotal boys or the pivotal men. They have 

 influence over a lot of men, and it is wisdom for the churches to 

 discover those who have ability to lead and be sure to get them 

 into the places where leadership is required. There ought to be 

 a nominating committee for all the different offices, for the 

 Sunday school and for the different church offices, and there 

 ought to be time taken to look over the parish and study the 

 individuals and, to be sure, to get the men in the offices that are 

 designed for leadership. And I am sure the church that will 

 pay more attention to that, or the minister pay more attention 

 to that, will magnify his usefulness and the usefulness of the 

 church many times over. 



Next is the survey in the community. Make a survey. I 

 am constantly surprised at how ignorant country preachers 

 are very often of conditions in their own community, and the 

 people themselves don't know their community. We are living 

 in an age now of investigation. When business concerns of all 

 kinds are making a study, an extensive study, surveys of their 

 business, why should not the church make a study of its com- 

 munity — the work that is to be done. It is time we quit spend- 

 ing energy and money going on blindly. It would be just as 

 foolish for a doctor called in to see a patient to proceed to give 

 out a prescription without first having examined his patient and 

 diagnosed the case, getting the symptoms; and that is what we 

 are doing in a great many instances in our rural churches, simply 

 pushing along in the dark — don't know what we have to con- 

 tend with. Now there ought to be a careful survey made of 

 everything in a rural community, beginning with the home. 

 The minister or ministers, if there are more than one in a parish, 

 they ought to know what their people are reading, what maga- 

 zines and papers they are taking; they ought to know what 

 facilities they have in their homes for education and for culture. 

 It ought to be known where they are spending their evenings, 

 where they are going for their entertainments, and there 

 should be some facts developed by somebody as to the farmers' 

 economic condition. 



We cannot expect our farmers to build up their social insti- 

 tutions such as the church or the school except it be on a profit 

 or income. A man can borrow money at the bank to improve 



