USA > Michigan > Jackson County > Jackson > Minutes of the Michigan Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1919 > Part 6
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That denominations are coming closer together and uniting forces for more efficient work is shown at Evart, where the Presbyterians have formed a league offensive and defensive with the Methodists, and these two societies, under properly guarded agreement have merged their congregations in the Presbyterian meeting house, with the Methodist preacher as pastor of the flock, and the plan so far works well.
We regret that not so many converts were made this year as last. and we fear that our reports will show a decrease in our church membership this year. The season usually devoted to revival effort was when the influenza epidemic broke out and spread over our Conference quarantining our churches, making public services impossible. This, with the attention of our people fixed on the Centenary Campaign will, in the main, account for this falling off, if such there was. Our pastors have not lost their desire to win souls as the chief end of their ministry, and they are now girding themselves to prove it in the coming days.
It has been a year of unusual mortality among us. Fourteen of our ministers have died-the largest numher in any single year of our history-and six preachers' wives and widows have also died. Fitly to characterize these men and women would take the time of this entire hour. We have held memorial service for them, and laid down our sorrowful tribute of respect and love, and we only give their names again.
M. A. Daugherty, aged 95; T. T. George, whose ministry hegan in 1857. aged 89; D. F. Barnes, ministry beginning in 1858, aged 86; J. W. White, aged 77; A. W. Busbee, 77; A. M Gould, 74; M. M. Callen, 70; O. J. Blackford ; R. R. Atchison, II. W. Thompson, E. E. Sprague, John Bretz, C. A. Brown and W. B Benn have died.
The sainted women arc : Mrs. H. M. Joy ; Mrs. A. A. Geiger. Mrs. J. P. Durham, Mrs. W. W. Johnson, Mrs. J. W. Davids, Mrs. R. M. Millard. All these are now in the Church Triumphant heforc the throne of God.
They fought the good fight, they died in the faith, and they have entered into rest and eternal blessedness.
And now we may set our faces to the difficulties before us which we may call our problems.
Our Conference presents a diversified field of City, Town, Hamlet and Open Country. We have rich, fertile sections and almost desert regions. Some of our people are well-to-do, others comfortable, and many are poor. A few of our pastors are well supported, others have just a bare living wage, and many cannot live on what the people pay and must have outside help. This diversified field with diversified conditions present varied and complex problems, some of which we desire to bring to your attention.
1. OUR CITY PROBLEM.
In the city, conditions are most complex. Foreigners gather here in the largest numbers-people of all sorts of notions concerning life. domestic, social. educational. political, and religious. These people are in most part without knowledge of God's saving grace, and without adequate conception or proper appreciation of the insti- tutions of our democracy. They are here because they chose to come. They came to escape oppression and to gain liberty, and opportunity to improve their condition. We have the right to insist that they adjust themselves to our ways and be loyal to our flag. or go back whence they came. We can tolerate no people here wbo perjure themselves by swearing allegiance to our flag, and then try to overthrow our free institutions bought hy the blood of our fathers.
Our problem is how to make them Christians, and American Christians; how to teach them what true religion is and what it means to he good citizens of our Republic. Our problem is how to make our churches, surrounded by these people, forces for their salvation and their uplift, and forces also to make them American patriots.
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We must teach them and their children to love our Christ and our flag. To do it, we must go among them as one who serves. Men and women we must have, who will just as truly consecrate themseives to this work as a life task, as they would to go to China for such a task. They must live among these people and with them, and iearn their language and their racial peculiarities, and identify themselves with them as truly as do our missionaries with the people they go to serve.
To get our young people to feel this and do this is not an easy task, but it must be so if we ever solve the city foreign problem. It is easy to become a reformer here, and taik ahout class distinctions and a living wage, and good housing, and social betterment, but we can never save and upiift the city's submerged and depressed classes by these methods alone. A bar of soap and a kettle of water and moving pictures will not do it ali.
The salvation process is hy individuais through the new birth in individual souis, and no modern socialistic wholesaling will ever accomplish the task. The progress wiii be slow, the road traveled will be hard and long, but it ieadeth unto life.
In Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Jackson, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Albion, and other cities, we have problems pertaining to diverse populations there which wili require unusuai methods without doubt-perhaps the institutionai church, the social settle- ment, the Community house, or something else-methods which have promise in them, even at large cost of money and iife.
We are not now attempting to discuss the grave and great problems of social unrest and the relation of the Church to it. We will leave that for other men. But we do express our conviction that the church must face this problem with courage, and our church must take her share of the responsibility for its solution. until the good day of the Lord shail come when employers and employes shall count themselves partners in their business-laborers together with God-both entitled to a fair share of the profits, the combined result of the toll of brain and hrawn.
2. OUR RURAL PROBLEM.
This may not be our most difficuit problem, but it is important because of the fact that the farmer ciass is the largest and most indispensible single class we have, furnishing the food and clothing for the world and a large part of the world's leadership.
Back on the farms, out of sight of the world's eye, is the source of the stream of population constantiy flowing into the city, to make the city's leaders, and largely to repienish the membership of our city churches and keep them out of the Cemetery.
Take out of the city churches today those who were country born and bred and these city churches would die. The deht of the city church to the little obscure country church has not yet been figured up. The country church is doing a bigger business than appears at first glance. It is furnishing religion for the people of its community, and exporting religion every year to the towns and cities round about it. as its sons and daughters leave the farm for city life, or its older memhers move to town.
These young people must be converted and given a vision of life before they reach the city or sorrows may be multiplied. This is one task of the country church, and one reason why we must take care of the country church.
This. we haven't done. and the rural church has heen dying for years and the open country is thickly strewn with closed church buildings, where once the people thronged to hear the word of God : and closed, not because these country communities are depopulated now. People are there yet, as many as ever before, but indifferent to religion. and the children are growing up like heathen.
We used to get our preachers in large numbers from these communities. hut the supply is falling off. There is one Open Country Community in our Conference which boasts of having sent six men into our ministry. hut not a single one of them during the past quarter of a century. The sons of this community now, if they leave the farms, head toward the money-making industries at six or seren dollars a day. Their daughters learn stenography and work in offices at $15 or $20 a week. They do not go to the ministry or the mission field as formerly.
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There is a lot of academic talk concerning the rural church problem by men who know very little about the real thing, which may help to advertise a condition we face in every country charge in our Conference, but it helps little In the solution of the problem.
For the proper development of the life of the country community, the country church is absolutely indispensable. You can't call these people to the churches in the town. They won't come. They have automobiles, and could if they would, but they wont. They are a class by themselves, and If we reach them at all, we must have churches out where they live, and these churches, if they reach them, must put on a program which sweeps the whole circle of community needs-god roads, good soil, good seed, good stock, good homes, good soclal and recreational llfe, good schools, and good churches. And the whole community must be brought together on such a program, which if continued through the years will work a work of con- struction.
Not only must we have good churches in the country, we must have good country schools, which now we have not. The Church and School are the two foundatlon stones of civilization, and we cannot have a democracy without education and morality.
The farmers children do not have a fair chance for education or religlon-no such chance as the city boys and girls have.
We can never have a true democracy here and continue to spend $1.00 in educating a country boy while we spend $2.50 to educate the city boy.
The country boy must get his education in a little one-room, unsanitary building where an immature and unequipped teacher struggles vainly to impart knowledge in all the branches from A, B, C, to algebra. It can't be done and it isn't done, and some of the more well-to-do farmers send thelr more ambitious children off to the High School in the town, and then trouble begins-trouble for the child mayhap, out from under parental care : trouble for the farm almost Invariably, for four out of five who go tbus never come back ; and presently the old folks must rent the farm and follow their children to the town, and then the community goes down the hill.
It is not falr that clty children should have a hetter chance than farmers' children to get an education and a Ilfe equipment, and It must not continue so, or we will never make the country a place of permanent residence where young people will grow up and marry and establish homes.
The church alone cannot solve the rural llfe problem, but the church and the school together can. They together can make an atmosphere In which the com- munity can develop.
We must have a rural High School where our country children can get a High School tralning with a curiculum fitted to thelr needs without separating them from tbelr environments, and where they can be at home every night, and then enough of them will mate and marry and remaln upon the farms, to identify themselves with tbe country community interests and qualified to shape these interests. Then the country home life will be made as comfortable as city home life and the country church will come back to her own and agaln be the fountain of supply for ministers and church workers.
The farmer may he a conservative and slow to see visions and dream dreams, slower than the people in the towns, but he hasn't had so good a chance for develop- ment In vision seeing. or dreaming dreams. Give him a chance and he will do it.
In our Centenary movement. farmers who saw the vision and caught the spirit gave splendidiy of time and money to reach the goal. They will do this for community betterment also when they see the vision, and then we shall have the rural High School. and the rural Church with a program and an equipment and a pastoral leadership as efficient as the city has, and as well supported.
We must set ourselves to this task and our first need is leadership, men well- equipped who have the consecreation to take a country church and stay by it, counting it a task absolutely worth while. It Isnt so today, but It must be made so or bankruptcy is ahead of us.
We have our foreign problem in the country too, as well as In the city. For- elgners are buying up the farms and crowding our American born people out, and
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unless we, as a church, adapt ourselves to these changed conditions; and undertake to give religious care and education, and direct the social life of these people, "Ichabod" is written on these Methodist country churches.
It is a problem of no small proportions how to adapt ourselves to these changed conditions and minister to the needs of these new settlers, but the problem must be solved, or we who claim the world is our parish must restrict our claim. We are weakly lying down before this task and seelng ourselves dispossessed of the land. We do not here offer a solution of this country forelgn problem, but we urge atten- tion to it most earnestly.
One word right here about our overchurched small town. It is easy to get the hysterics over this and do a lot of foolish talking.
What can we do about it? In four cases out of five, and more too, we can't do anything ; for our small town church is almost always hitched up with two or three open country churches, which themselves would perish If separated from the little church in the village.
Until we can solve the country problem and so develop our country communities that they can stand alone, we can't talk very much about abandoning the little village heads of circuits. It is easy for other denominations to talk that way, for they have almost no circuit system, and the question of their churches uniting with others in the town affects only themselves ; but with us in these small towns it is "others"-the country churches outside, and "others" Is the spirit of the gospel.
3. THE PROBLEM OF MINISTERIAL SUPPLY.
No business can get on well without competent leadership-the ministry not excepted. We need a well-equipped ministry, for the preacher is the divinely called and church ordained leader, and we cannot get on without him. Say what you will about high class lay ability in our churches. the highest success of these churches as industrial plants putting out Kingdom products, depends very largely upon the efficient leadership of our preachers.
Where would there be revivals but for the preacher who arouses his people to prayer and faith and leads them in soul-saving endeavor ?
Where would churches be built. or improvements made, or debts paid. in nine cases out of ten, but for the preacher? In almost every case where the Centenary went over the top, it was largely due to the pastors leadership.
Leadership is what we need, efficient pastoral leadership. And if we as Superin- tendents might assume to give advice to the young preachers now entering our ranks, it would be that they pause at the door long enough to find out what efficiency in our ministry really means, and what thorough equipment for this high calling really is, and what will make for their success. They need not worry then about appointments. but may be concerned about personal equipment and giving full proof of their ministry. Appointments will be given them as big and important as they are competent to fill.
We are losing out In effective ministerlal leadership. In our Conference today. we are doing more work than twenty years ago. but with fewer Conference men to do it with.
Our appointments have Increased in number. our membership has increased 50 per cent. our property has doubled in value, but with a steadily decreasing force of effective Conference men. Our Conference roll has been growing shorter, our supply roll has been growing longer, and It is now almost 30 per cent. This means that disaster is ahead of us unless something can be done to avert it. The Church must be aroused to a sense of this danger, and parents must be aroused to teach their children seriously where they may best invest their lives.
True it is that the ministry is underpaid, and there is little to attract highly equipped young men to the ministry from the point of view of adequate compensation. They can sell their talents at a higher price in other parts. But it was always so and always will be so. The ministry will never be pald what its service is worth. This perhaps may be God's plan. The Levites had no part in the division of the land. but God himself was to be their reward. The preacher who
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gives himself to money getting and hoarding generally loses out in his high calling.
But the preacher ought to have a comfortable support. Bread should be given him, his waters should be sure. It is a crime to compel the preacher's wife, from sheer necessity, to make one dollar do the work of two or three, as many preachers' wives are doing. It isn't fair to make the preachers do all the sacrificing. The only man whose wage has not been materially increased during the past five years to keep pace with the increased cost of living is the preacher.
The cost of living has practically doubled in the five years past, but the average increase In preacher's support in our Conference during that same period is about 25 per cent.
To be as well supported today as five years ago, our preachers should have received this year $170,000 more than they did receive.
We must insist on a living wage for our preachers. A minimum of $1,200 cash for a man with wife and children who must keep a conveyance, leaves very little margin for doctor's bills or a rainy day. And if the Centenary receipts do not permit our Board of Home Missions to add very materially to the apropriation for our Conference, it will be deeply regretted. The two upper districts should have largely increased appropriations and some other sections of our Conference also, or Methodism must sound retreat.
If we do not insist on a living wage and do not get It, then our Conference list will continue to go down, but our supply list will not go up, and closed churches will be in towns and cities as well as in open country.
But when we have done all this, the ministry will not call men who would sell their wares to the highest bidder. The ministry has always been, and must always continue to be, a life of self-sacrifice for others, in which the preacher shall count not his life dear unto himself.
He must lose his life to gain it, and count all things but loss that he may win Christ and show forth the power of his resurrection. The attraction to the ministry must always continue to be its self-sacrificing spirit. and its obedience to a divine call. This is not easy in the age in which we live, and parents must be taught the war of the Lord themselves, and what it means to dedicate from the day of birth their children to God for a life's work as God wills.
4. THE CENTENARY.
The most stupendous and daring undertaking crer projected by any branch of the Christian church since the beginning has been achieved by the people called Methodists.
A year ago our Conference passed a resolution affirming its full sympathy with the Centenary plan and purpose, but concerning the "Financial Drive" expressed itself in the following language :
"In the present scrious war situation, demanding such unusual financial sacrifices by our people, which are imperative and must continue until the war is ended, we deem it inopportunc for the church to project an 80 million-dollar drive while these conditions continue."
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Military leaders and others then believed the war would continue through another summer, but two months later, to the surprise of everybody, the enemy sued for peacc. and the war closed. That entirely changed the situation with us and we immediately swung into line and set ourselves to the program for the accomplishment of the stupendous task.
The program was built on sane principles of philosophy. and every step from beginning to end was upward, and every succeeding part of the program was cumula- tive.
Not a single part could be omitted without danger of great loss in the final outcome. To play the game aceording to the rules was imperative. Some didn't see it so at the begining, but they found it out-soon enough some of them to recover and win the victory, others all too late.
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The program started with the prayer covenant, and what would have happened in our Methodism if every member of our church had signed that covenant and lived up to it? The heavens would have broken above us, and the power of God would have come down upon us, and we would have had the greatest religious awakening in our history. As it was, so many did sign, and so many did take to their knees, that the testimony widely given by our pastors is that there was a mighty religious awakening which deeply stirred the heart life of multitudes of our people.
Then came the "Stewardship of Life" call, and never was that call so needed in our church. Our young people were still singing :
"We'll go where you want us to go, dear Lord, O'er mountain or plain or sea,"
but they seemingly were not pausing when the song was over to hearken within their hearts as they said, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth," because the ranks of our ministry were getting thinner and thinner, and for the first time in our history our Board of Foreign Missions found it necessary to send a deputation across the continent in search of young people to go this year into our Mission fields.
The Centenary did not come too quick for us with its appeal for life stewardship, for bankruptcy was ahead of us if it hadn't come.
The appeal for the Stewardship of money followed, as night follows day, and the financial call for one hundred million dollars plus.
This call did not come first. Some thought that was all there was to it and that the Centenary was a pocket-picking scheme. But it wasn't.
It was first of all spiritual, and then everything that followed became spiritual. This money test was our supreme test, for money giving after all is the acid test of a man's devotion.
The response to the appeal for tithers surprised everybody except those who know the ways of God in the hearts of men.
It wasn't a return to Judaism, nor a mechanical scheme to enrich the treasury. It was based on broad and deep principles, easily defended by an appeal to reason and the word of God.
As a "war measure," it was surely justifiable, and as such should have claimed the unqualified support of every preacher, and God so clearly put the seal of His approval upon it, that it may well be continued as a "peace measure" in the church.
One of our Superintendents who got the start of most of us by introducing the system on his District a year before the program started and who claims that his District was "first over the top," declares that nine-tenths of his Centenary money came from his tithers, and they numbered less than one-quarter of his membership.
Let all quibblers over legal aspects, and Judaic tendencies and the like, take notice here and inquire whether or not the finger of God is seen pointing along this trail.
But as we confronted tbe task and saw how big it was, we were pretty nearly overwhelmed with its magnitude and its seeming impossible. Our people had been giving lavishly for war measures and pouring out their money as they never before bad done, and we who were slow of heart to believe were dazed, and stunned, and sick over our Centenary quotas, and our hands fell weakly down, for we did not think we could accomplisb the impossible.
But as the days went by, and the prayers of intercession multiplied, the darkness began to get light before us, and our doubts to disappear, and we "highly resolved" to set ourselves to the task.
We knew we could do that. We could spend and be spent upon the task, and "play up ! and play the game," keeping step with the army. And this we did, hoping in God.
One young preacher hadn't any faith for his insuperable task, nor courage. up to the night before the drive began. With clouds of darkness still about him, he turned desperately into his closet for an all night vigil with his God, and wrestled till the break of day. When the new day dawned, his name was no longer "Jacob" but "Israel," and he went out unable still to see one inch before his face, but assured
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of victory. As truly as Abraham walked by faitb, he walked, and "over the top," on a most difficult country circuit. He said that he had never so dreaded anything in all bis life, and had never so enjoyed doing anything. God, he said, went with him all the way.
And tbus it always was, and is, and will be, with men who walk by faith.
The Centenary taught us one important lesson. "To play the game accordng to the rules."
It was hard to do it for many of our preachers. Tbe influenza broke out with violence and many of our people died. almost putting some of our cburcbes entirely out of business, and on many of our charges tbe continuity of the program was utterly broken. Churches were closed three and four and six weeks, and were closed again for four weeks more, and the pastors could not work the whole program through and needed more time. If the "Flu" had not broken in so disastrously upon the program of education, or if the financial drive had been postponed six weeks, many who failed would have won out.
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