Failing to
minister to any purely community need except on special occasions, or
to assume any responsibility of leadership in civic or social affairs,
it does not receive the cordial support of the community to which as a
social institution, conserving the highest interests, it is reasonably
entitled. It must be remembered that in America there can be no
established church supported by the State, as in England. The church
is on a different footing in every community from that of the public
school. It is therefore dependent on the good-will of the community
and must cultivate that good-will if it is to succeed. Most rural
churches have yet to become a vital force, not only energizing their
own members, but reaching out also to the whole community, seeking not
their own growth as their chief end, but by ministering to the
community's needs, realizing a fuller, richer life of their own.

167. =The Needs of the Church.=--The rural church needs reorganization
for efficiency, but changes must be gradual. A local church that is
democratic in its form of organization, with no external oversight, is
likely to need strengthening in administration; a church that intrusts
control to a small board or is governed from the outside probably
needs to get closer to the people, but differences in church
government are of small practical consequence. It does not appear that
it makes much difference in the success of a rural church whether its
organization is Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Congregational. The
machinery needs modernizing, whatever the pattern. It is a part of the
task to be undertaken by every up-to-date country minister to consider
possible improvements in the various departments of the church. It is
as likely that the children are being as inefficiently taught in the
Sunday-school as in the every-day school, that organizations and
opportunities for the young people are as lacking as in the community
at large, that discussions in the Bible class are as pointless as
those in any local forum. It is more than likely that the church is
failing to make good in a given locality because it is depending on a
few persons to carry on its activities, and these few do not
co-operate well with one another or with other Christian people. The
functions of the church are neither well understood nor properly
performed. It has small assets in community good-will, and it is in no
real sense a going concern.

168. =The New Rural Church.=--Here