THE COUNTRY CHURCH 439 



report at the quarterly meeting of the county committee which 

 works in close contact with the employed secretary and trained 

 experts. The county committee is responsible for a budget vary- 

 ing from $2,000 to $6,000 annually secured by voluntary contri- 

 butions, which enables it to employ a secretary who is a trained 

 expert as their executive officer. Thus the work is correlated and 

 coordinated and a central clearing house is established through 

 which any community and every community may find help and 

 counsel in promoting its internal welfare. In many instances 

 the county committee has thus saved a community from expensive 

 and painful experiences that have been previously proven im- 

 practicable. 



The County Secretary. He is usually the fittest type of the 

 college man, often not only a college graduate, but also with some 

 special training. He is a man who likes country life and be- 

 lieves in the country and has great faith in the immediate future 

 of the rural districts. He is usually a man of large capacity for 

 leadership, with a broad knowledge of human nature and a fine 

 friendliness as well as an earnest Christian purpose and a great 

 longing to help country boys and young men to well developed 

 Christian manhood. He is in a real sense a community builder. 

 As he is employed by a voluntary organization, his services and 

 his largest contribution to a county will be in reproducing his 

 expert knowledge and experience in volunteer service. There- 

 fore, his primary task is to discover, enlist, train, and utilize 

 leadership. He is also a servant. Pastors, Sunday School super- 

 intendents and teachers, public school superintendents and day 

 school teachers, fathers and mothers, granges, farmers' clubs and 

 institutes, women's clubs and many other organizations seek his 

 cooperation and advice. In the individual community having 

 discovered leaders and set them at work, he executes the plans 

 and policies adopted by the county committee through volunteer 

 leadership. His relationship is with the few men who are the 

 leaders rather than with the massses. In addition to the county 

 secretaries some of the older and larger counties are employing 

 assistant secretaries, physical directors, boys' work directors, etc. 

 There are now fifty such secretaries in forty-nine counties. 



County work is not an attempt to build up a new organization 

 in country communities. It recognizes as the primary institu- 



