The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Sheet 123

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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“not in a position, even when willing, to as-

Le

Trinity Church, New York, a Down-town Church.

tory around them, the so-called metropolitan areas.
Metropolitan Chicago consists of a half dozen or
more cities and whole counties adjacent to it.
Metropolitan New York includes five boroughs and
an extensive commuting area reaching up-State
along the Hudson, over the East River out upon
Long Island, far into New Jersey, and even into
Connecticut. Metropolitan San Francisco includes
all the cities around San Francisco Bay.

These metropolitan areas present new problems
in transportation, sewering, drainage, water supply,
lighting, and the like. They present difficult prob-
lems from the standpoint of government. For these
smaller communities wish to remain independent;
they have a deep-seated aversion to being swallowed
up by the larger city. And yet some way must be
found to bring them together in order that problems
they share in common may be properly solved.

The Church is also greatly concerned in these
conditions. The commuter lives in the city, but
sleeps in a suburb. The city is his work-
shop and the suburb his dormitory. Because
of this divided way of living the commuter’s
interests are so much divided that he solves
the problem oftentimes to his own satisfac-
tion by assuming no responsibility for either
community. This holds good with regard
to the church as well as with social and civic
affairs. City churches find themselves dis-
tressed because so many of their former mem-
bers have moved away and given place to
foreign and industrial populations that are

sume the financial burdens which were borne
by those members who have left the city for
the suburb. On the other hand, the sub-
urban church grows rapidly at the expense

of the city church. It is by no means an -

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

unusual thing to see a suburban church
double its membership in a few years by
the reception of former members of city
churches. But this trend of the city towards
the suburbs forces upon church _boards, if
they actually are seriously concerned about
the welfare of the Church, to plan some new
alinement of forces.

In most cases our executive units as
they now exist do not seem to lend them-
selves much to a cooperative effort to solve
the problem. Administrative units of the
Church, more or less independent of one
another, find themselves unable to construct

4 plans and devise strategical movements under
present conditions. This is one of the most urgent
problems which our Home Missions should now
turn their hand to.

If suburban churches have no disposition to:
help bear the heavy burdens of city churches, what
is to be done? Sometimes city churches are able
to capitalize the unearned increment in the value
of their property and continue their services in the
old neighborhood even on a larger scale. In such
a case the problem is solved. But what if that can-
not be done? What if a down-town church can save
itself only by disposing of its old property and
moving up-town? Does the removal of such a
church relieve it of all responsibility for the neigh-
borhood it has left behind? May it simply build
a new church and provide for its future by estab-
lishing an endowment fund with the surplus real-
ized from the sale of the old property? Should not
such a congregation still feel its responsibility for
the community in which it was formerly located?

Lutheran Church at Bayside, Long Island,
a Suburban Church,