The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 89

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER 89

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Because of its great missionary value in the past
and because of the promise it gives of being an even
greater missionary factor in the future it is proper
that the Pioneer should call attention to this in-
stitution’s diamond jubilee.

We are happy to be able to bring in connection
with these brief paragraphs a picture of one of the
founders of this great institution, which, to our
knowledge, has never before appeared in any of our
publications. We refer to the late Pastor L. Dulitz,
the cofounder, with Pastors F. Lochner and Ph.
Fleischmann, of the first normal school of the Mis-
souri Synod. In this connection let us not forget
that Teachers Eckert and Diez were the loyal sup-
porters of their pastors in the new enterprise.
F.J.L.

The Rural Church Problem.

Writes a Southern editor: “The great problem
of the Church to-day is in the rural communities.
The tendency toward the urbanization of our na-
tion, its industrialization, and the steady drift of

‘the population from the country to the city has

created a real challenge for the Church. If the
Church is to meet this challenge, its ministers in the
rural charges must have a genuine understanding of
the problems of the people among whom they live
and whose servants they would be. Their attitude
must be entirely sympathetic. Many of our rural
churches are threatened with slow starvation and
ultimate extinction. The Christian religion is the
basic foundation upon which rests our civilization.
We cannot conceive of the development and ad-
vancement of this great Republic of ours without
the vitalizing influence of Christianity. Aside en-
tirely from the religious point of view, the decline
of our rural churches would be nothing short of a
calamity. The churches occupy a place in our social
scheme that can be filled by-no other agency. More-
over, we know that proximity to churches and
schools is a vital economic factor in every rural
neighborhood. A community whose church doors
were closed would not be a desirable place for any
family. This is recognized even by the most ir-
religious man, who would never purchase property
or establish a home for the rearing of his children
ina community deprived of the cultural and spir-
itual benefits that flow alone from the Church of

- God.” So far the secular newspaper editor.

The danger that threatens the rural church in
general also threatens our churches in: the villages
and open country. The country church is not hold-

ing its own. Nor is it proving itself the recruiting
station for gaining new members from among the
unchurched population of its community. The sur-
prising fact is that the percentage of church-
membership in the country communities is smaller
than in the cities. A recent rural-church survey made
in Virginia revealed the astonishing fact that the
white population enrolled as church-members is 15.5
per cent. smaller in the country than in the city.
Furthermore, taking the country over, the smaller
the community, the larger its percentage of un-
churched. For example in towns of 2,550 to 5,000
the percentage of church-members is 24.3; in towns
of 250 to 2,500 the percentage of church-members
is only 22.8; in the open country, which represents
one-third of the so-called rural population, the per-
centage of church-members is 13.1. As the popula-
tion of a community decreases, the percentage of
the unchurched increases. In one section of Ten-
nessee, comprising eleven counties, out of a total
population of 138,000 less than 28,000 were church-
members — 20.3 per cent. In twenty-two counties
of Southeast Missouri of a population of 350,000
only 50,000 belonged to church—14.2 per cent.
The country church fails to reach the people. Why?
Where lies the cause? There are, of course, several

reasons.
Where Lies the Cause?

The main reason is that the country churches,
just like so many town churches, do not recognize
their duty to the unchurched. Members of rural
churches, not unlike their city brothers and sisters,
think that the church is there for them and their
individual needs, and for nobody else. They do not
realize that the object of the Church and the in-
dividual congregation is to help build the kingdom
of God on earth through the conversion of men from
a life of sin to righteousness, the calling of men to
Christ, the Savior, and training them to become
His efficient servants. In short, the rural churches
are not as mission-minded as they should be.
Neither pastors nor members are as conscious as
they should be of their task as disciples of Jesus.

Our country churches should in a greater
measure than they do look upon all the unchurched
families within reasonable distance as their mission-
material. It shows a woeful lack of mission-
mindedness to have people living within the sound
of the bells of possibly several churches and yet be
a part of the attentive concern of none. The average
church only serves its own members and those that
seek it. The country will not be properly evan-
gelized until the churches realize it to be their duty