be to bring together at some central point the focal
points of as many local interests as possible, thus strengthening the
community bonds and increasing the community consciousness. As this
end is achieved the necessity for the strict definition given above
disappears and the "community" becomes _that aggregation of people the
majority of whose local interests have a common center_. This is the
sense in which the term will be used in this discussion.

The term "rural" likewise conveys a different thought to different
people. Indeed, so likely has the term been to mislead that in a
recent national survey of religious conditions, the term was abandoned
and "town and country" substituted. The simpler plan is to arrive at a
definition of the word "rural" which will include what the latter
term connotes. To confuse "rural" with "agricultural" is to ignore
both the past and the present in movements of population and in
organization of interests. To an increasing degree the interests of
the open country are centering in the village, or even larger centers.
So that in discussing the problems of the agricultural population it
is often necessary to make the center of discussion the organization
of the village with an agricultural environment. The better plan is to
definitely discuss the problems of the open country under the term
"agricultural" and retain the other term for all interests of groups
of population in smaller communities, whether in the open country or
in the villages. In general, the division of the United States Census
will be observed and the term "rural" regularly applied to all groups
of under two thousand five hundred population.

At a recent meeting of country ministers an attempt was made to define
what is the problem of the rural church. The definition as framed is
herewith presented: "The rural task of the church is the nurture and
development of all phases of human welfare in those communities where
the general life and thinking of the people are related to matters
which pertain to material natural resources."

This definition is inadequate from the administrative point of view in
that it would exclude the small manufacturing community, the
educational center, the summer and winter resort communities, and
similar specialized groups where population is small. The problems of
these small communities not directly related to material natural
resources have many characteristics in common with those included