Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 



289 



THE RURAL CHURCH. 



Rev. Chas. King. 



(Rev. Charles King, Ashland, Mo.) 



The great national problem of today is the rehabilitation of 



rural life, while the great religious problem 

 is the salvation of the rural church. 



The rural districts in all the settled 

 portions of the United States are losing in 

 population, and our rural churches are on 

 the decline, both in numbers, spiritual 

 power and usefulness. Many thousands of 

 churches have died in recent years, and 

 many more thousands are in a sick and 

 dying condition. This situation calls for 

 careful diagnosis and immediate repair. 



Thousands of our choicest young men 

 and young women who go from the country 

 to the colleges do not return, but find their 

 life work in the cities and in the towns, and in their choice of a 

 calling they are but carrying out the life plan and ambition of their 

 fathers and mothers and are finding the place toward which all 

 their college training and environment has led them. In this de- 

 plorable exodus from the country many of our churches have suf- 

 fered irreparable loss, both in their leaders of the present and in 

 their prospective leaders of the future. 



In some rural communities there are few young people and 

 especially is there a dearth of young men. In five rural churches 

 which I have served in recent years the resident membership num- 

 bers 283. Of this number 124 are men and boys, 74 of them being 

 heads of families and all past fifty years of age. These 74, repre- 

 senting 74 homes, have only 19 sons who are now identified with 

 these churches. These figures fairly represent conditions on many 

 other fields. 



There is in all our rural churches a general indifference to- 

 ward religion, and the obligations of church membership are by 

 many regarded with absolute unconcern. The rural church is re- 

 cruiting but few men for the ministry, and is developing but few 

 preachers of marked ability and spiritual power. 



It is the general opinion that our young men are not respond- 

 ing to God's call to preach. This does not cover the situation. The 

 fact is God is not calling them. If He calls, they will answer. The 



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