church, finally, come the young men and women who must provide the ministry of the future. To form an intelligent idea of the prospects of the Church as a whole we must begin by studying the local congregation.
In the local church we meet the difficulties which thwart our effort to realize the ideal in their most acute form. The local church stands on Main Street, and is exposed to all the influences which go to make up the life of the average community. Here the individual displays his powers for harm with least check. Whatever there may be of provincialism or narrowness or self-satisfaction in the com- munity at large is reflected in the local church. Yet it is of such churches that the Church consists, and it is in the strength of the spiritual forces found in them that we must go forward, if we go at all.
It is difficult to gather reliable information as to what goes on in our local churches. Statistics can tell us something of their number; of their relative growth and decline; of the number of members in each and how many are without a pastor; of the serv- ices they hold; of what they pay for their own support, and what they give to the Church at large. But these statistics mean little without interpretation, and for this interpretation we lack a stand- ard. 1 All that we can hope to do is to register symptoms and tendencies.
An interesting attempt to establish such a standard was made by the Town and Country Divisions of the Interchurch World Movement. In co- operation with the Home Missions Council, they worked out a "par standard" for the local church covering thirty-one points, all of which are regarded as obtainable by many town and country churches. These include "social and recreational equipment, including a stage; a well-equipped kitchen; an organ or piano; separate Sunday-school room or curtained spaces for classes or departments; stereopticon or motion picture equipment; adequate sanitary toilets; horse-sheds or parking space for automobiles; a pastor resident within the same community as the church, who gives full time to the work of that church, conducts services every Sunday, and receives a salary of at least $1,200 a year and house; an annual budget for all money raised; a yearly canvass of all members; sum for benevolences equal to at least twenty-five per cent. of the current expenses; services to all racial and occupational groups which have not their own Protestant churches; Sunday school the entire year; Sunday-school enrollment equal to church membership; provision for bringing pupils into the church; special instruction for church member- ship; teacher training or normal class; provision for leadership training; sys- tematic evangelism, aimed to reach the entire community and all classes of the community; co-operation with other churches of the community; organ- ized activities for age and sex groups; co-operation with church boards and
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Publication Information: Book Title: The Church in America. Contributors: William Adams Brown - author. Publisher: The Macmillan Company. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1922. Page Number: 196.
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