SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES A Study in the Practice of Fellowship By ARTHUR E. HOLT 4400 .H72 ============= 1922 tibvavy of Che theological ^eminarp PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY FROM THE LIBRARY OF ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER BV 4400 .H72 1922 Holt, Arthur Erastus, 1876- 1942. Social work in the churches H SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES APR 1 1959 fa \*$ SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES A STUDY IN THE PRACTICE OF FELLOWSHIP V By ARTHUR E. HOLT Prepared for the Educational Committee of the Commission Commission on the Church and Social Service Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America 105 East 22nd Street, New York City Copyright 1922 By SIDNEY A. WESTON THE JORDAN & MORE PRESS BOSTON TO G. B. H. WHO LIVES WHAT THIS BOOK TALKS ABOUT CONTENTS Part I. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS Chapter Page I. The Church and Men in Their Natural Groupings.. . . 3 II. Can the Protestant Churches be a Brotherhood which Seeks Justice? 13 III. The Church Educating Its Own Membership for Brotherhood 24 IV. The Church as an Organizer of Benevolence 43 V. The Authority of the Church in a Free Society 51 VI. The Church Allied with the Home 54 VII. The Church and Men in Their Occupations 60 VIII. The Church and the Immediate Geographical Com- munity 72 IX. The Mind of the Church and the World Community.. 85 Part II. PRACTICAL METHODS AND SUGGESTIONS Section A. The Fellowship Principle in Social Action 91 B. The Fellowship Principle in Social Education 95 C. Examples of Occupational Adaptation by Some American Churches 105 D. Equipment of Church 119 E. Directory of Social Service Agencies 129 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Part I PART I Chapter I THE CHURCH AND MEN IN THEIR NATURAL GROUPINGS The social judgments of men are built up out of experience gained in search for the goods of life. Some men love to whip a mountain stream with a trout line and they never see the clear waters of a rushing brook break around the large boulders and then come together at the lower edge of the pool, that they do not ex- perience the peculiar thrill of fishermen who know where the trout generally strike. It is an instinctive attitude in which reason plays a smaller part than countless pleasurable experiences in the past. They see the stream in terms of trout pools. Other men have for fifty years been perfecting an irrigation system largely by the con- struction of storage reservoirs. As they see the mountain canon separate and then come together until the walls allow the river to pass through a narrow channel, they are certain to remark, " What a place for a storage reservoir!" "And," remarks the electrical engi- neer, "Along with your storage reservoir, we'll build a power-site." Both judgments are instinctive and root in the life experiences of the men. Some men see a factory and immediately begin to ask questions concerning profits. They are investors of capital. Other men see the same factory and begin to inquire about hours and wages. They are men with labor to invest. Now these instinctive judgments which root in the practical interests of men are the vital realities of the moral and social world with which the seekers of the " good life " must deal. When these judgments are partial or warped, men act badly; when they are adequate, men build civili- zation. It is with organized mental attitudes such as these that the church in its social work must deal. As the Apostle Paul said, " For ours is not a conflict with mere flesh and blood but with the despotisms, the empires and the forces that control and govern this dark world — the spiritual host of evil arrayed against us in the heavenly warfare." 4 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES The church in its social work is concerned primarily with mental and in a secondary way with physical facts. The first duty of the minister is to understand and to construct the mind of the church, and, second, to relate through fellowship the mind of the church to the minds of men who are organized in the major social groups of society. In these social groups physical facts are important as they are related to the mental facts. For instance, the mind of the farmer is related to what is on the land, but the church is primarily interested in " what is on the mind " of the farmer, and, secondarily to what is on the land. If this book has special value, it is in the insistence that the socially minded church knows and takes account of the organized mental life with which it is surrounded. Fellowship is the process by which mind meets mind in a realm which is real to persons. The Mind of the Church The historic Christian fellowship which comes down to us is a religious fraternity. Under the leadership of Jesus, it became a fellowship open to all who possessed the spirit of Jesus. Jesus set before his followers the ideal of being sons of our Father in heaven, who sends his rain on the just and the unjust and causes his sun to shine on the evil and the good. His plan for the redemption of society looked forward to the creation of brotherly men who loved justice enough to be willing to give it in thought as well as in deed, and to give it even sacri- ficially, where the reward to be had was reaped by those who come after rather than by those who gave justice. Social faith and trust can only be built upon social justice. Social justice means that men and groups of men have good will and deal fairly, and that fairness or righteousness is secured by the organization of the social order itself. Communities which lack social faith and trust ultimately disintegrate in social anarchy. All communities held together by force and fear will break down by virtue of their own self -generated hatred. Christians are those who make permanent community life possible because they are willing to give justice, and give it first, and thus become the crea- tors of social faith and good will. In ideal Christian churches are social groups of people who have heard the call to the Christian vocation which comes from Jesus Christ, and are pledged to the working out of social justice MEN IN THEIR NATURAL GROUPINGS 5 in the human vocations which come to them out of the communities in which they live. As Christians, they are banded together for the task of promoting social justice in themselves and in others. THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY AN INNER COMMUNITY There is a certain strategic primacy that characterizes the religious community. It can be set up and become vigorous with- out waiting for the perfection of economic, social and political conditions. It is right here that religion has its opportunity. This is why it can be the leaven which leavens the whole lump. The religious community is not dependent on social conditions to the extent that it cannot begin until social conditions are perfect. Thus the minister has a first obligation to make the religious community strong and vigorous, even before the political and social relationships have been completely readjusted. The power of a religious community to project a social influence is dependent on the intensity of its experience of God. The church has influenced society most when it has been most preoccupied with the vital experience of God. The minister who makes the most profound social contribution is not necessarily the one who talks most about the social order, but the one who most profoundly leads his people in a successful religious experience. This is both a consciousness of God, and of fellowship in the kingdom of God. The religious community must be vigorous if it is to influence society. The Inevitable Extension of the Religious Community The religious expeiience cannot be held in a compartment by itself. Man's nature demands unity. Either the religious concept will influence the economic and political departments of a man's thoughts, or the economic and the political will determine the religious. A vigorous Christianity has always projected its great ideas about God, salvation, and human duty into the ordinary relationships of human living. 6 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES THE REACTION OF THE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL LIFE ON THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY Our religion since its beginning has always been influenced by the natural associations of men in tribes, home life, cities, nations, and industrial relationships. From the tribe, it gained the concep- tion of God, the Father, and also its first interpretations of brother- hood. From the kingship it learned the idea of a kingdom of God and of the Prince of Peace. From the city came the idea of the Holy City of God let down upon the earth. From the Roman Empire it gained a concept of universality and of world-wide citizenship. The early associations in commerce and business gave new meaning and value to honesty. Association in these communi- ties, where men have tried to work out the laws of justice, has given to the Christian religion a richness of content which it could not otherwise have attained. The Present Industrial Order About the year 1850 the American people began to learn a new way of making a living. This change in the way of making a living has been characterized as the " Industrial Revolution." It is the most significant fact about all of our present civilization. Through modern science machine labor has displaced hand labor. Large scale organization of capital has made possible the organiza- tion of the modern corporation. Modern transportation has offered the world-wide market. High-powered, specialized produc- tion in factory and on farm has become the order of the day. The seamstress of the simple community of one hundred years ago is now represented by the thousands of people in the garment workers' factory. The blacksmith has moved to the steel mills of western Pennsylvania. The butcher now lives by the thousands in the stockyard district of Chicago. The shoemaker is now a specialized worker in a factory town in eastern Massachusetts. The farmer has become a specialist. The New Social Groupings When we speak of new social groupings, we do not for a moment imply that there has been a displacement of old social groupings such as the home, or the nation, or the political party, and similar associations which are of long standing in the human race. Rather MEN IN THEIR NATURAL GROUPINGS 7 we have in mind that, with the new industrial conditions, men have been thrown together in a new grouping and that these groups are gradually coming to self-consciousness. This self-consciousness has infinite possibilities for good or evil. The following very dis- tinct types are much in evidence : Labor Groups Employers' Associations Cooperative Societies Farmers' Organizations Consumers' Leagues Merchants' Associations Professional Associations Chambers of Commerce The New Communities Modern industry segregates our people in specialized com- munities. As a result, most of our communities have an over- whelming predominance of some class of people who represent the major industrial interests of those communities. There are at the present time several very distinct types in American community life: Open Country Rural Industrial Village Town College Community Resort Community City Suburban Industrial Down-town Residential The Challenge of the New Order The new group and the new communities constitute a distinct challenge to the people who have the Christian consciousness. The new communities offer a chance for a fresh interpretation of the meaning of the kingdom of God on earth. The new associa- tions offer opportunities for a new interpretation of the meaning 8 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES of brotherhood. The Christian fellowship faces a dilemma. Either it will be dragged down to the plane of these natural groupings, which are so vigorous at the present time, and will fall a victim to a new type of social provincialism, or it will be vigorous enough to rise above these and temper all of them with a true humility and a recognition of the universal laws and the universal values of the Christian fellowship. It is a very serious question which confronts the Christian church. Only a vigorous, vital Christianity will be able to meet the challenge. With something of the old vigor with which early Christianity faced the problems of the Roman Empire, the modern church faces the necessity of becoming a universal fellowship which can lift all the natural associations of men onto the high plane of the supernatural and the ethically universal. " The Mind of the Flesh is Death " Society is sick from an overdose of materialism and of pro- vincial loyalties. Paul was perfectly right when he said, " The mind of the flesh is death." Out of the untempered loyalty to race, class, and nation, — the ultimate reality for many people, — come "enmities, strife, jealousies, wrath, factions, and divisions." The hatreds of the world are cumulative. A society based on force and fear will always disintegrate through its own self-generated hatred. Our deepest maladies are moral and spiritual. Only a sense of a Reality which stands over against the natural world, and which is of such infinite value that it makes the lesser goals of human striving seem small in comparison, will dispel the fevers which annoy the souls of modern men. The church must offer to men the opportunity to enter into this realm. It is open to the " pure in heart " and to those " who hunger and thirst after righteousness." The Church and Class Consciousness Jesus launched a religious fraternity. In its place we have the modern church. Can the modern church be a brotherhood? From the social standpoint, all other questions are secondary. Can the modern church achieve a group consciousness which rises to something of universality? If so, it must become more to men than their consciousness of nationality, class, race and provincial locality. It will see in the strife and hatred between classes, races and nations an essential defeat of its own desire for a growing friend- MEN IN THEIR NATURAL GROUPINGS 9 ship between men of Christian profession of every race, class and nation. No greater offense against a brotherly church can be committed than to permit the church to fall a victim to factions and become a faction alongside other factions. To a great extent, it may be said that the church will stand or fall in its social ministry, by its ability to lift its people onto a plane of friendship which transcends national, racial, and class divisions. Such an organization as the World Alliance for International Friendship Through the Churches illus- trates a principle which should be put into practice in every com- munity. The church channels should be channels through which real friendship can easily pass from man to man without regard to class, race, or nationality. Not until members of the Christian church feel a bond of unity which cannot be disrupted by slogans of nationalism and class prejudice, will the church have made its greatest contribution to social living. When Does the Church Degenerate into a Social Club? It is not possible to create into a church a body of people who do not like each other, but on the other hand a Christian brother- hood is not a social club. A group of nice people who like each other, and who meet and enjoy fellowship together, fall short of that which Jesus intended the church to be. The friendships of the church must not be selfish. It is here that the church finds itself in danger of being impaled on one of two horns of a dilemma. It can, on the one hand, ignore the natural groupings of men and women, and devote itself entirely to being a universal fellowship which knows neither bond nor free, neither Jew nor Gentile. The danger in this case is that it will fail to reach both the bond and the free, and the Jew and the Gentile. The church remembers that the apostle who coined the above phrase considered that he himself was specially ordained to the Gentiles, and that he shaped his ministry to that end. There is a danger, on the other hand , that the church, in adapting itself to the congenial groupings of men and women, will fall a victim to these natural tendencies and will cease to be a universal fellowship. The wise course for the church is to recognize the need of both courses of action. It must organize churches to meet the needs of groups which take account of their natural tendencies, — tendencies shaped by the ways in which they make their living, by national conditions, and by previous condi- io SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES tions of race and training. Having made this concession, it must strive with all its might to carry out its gospel of reconciliation, which will make all men one in the fellowship and calling which they have from Jesus Christ. Christian fellowship must be creative. It always seeks to extend itself into new fields. It is happiest when it is bridging gaps. Its sweetest moments are those in which it rises in new discoveries into the richness of universal friendship. The Christian Philosophy of the Face-to-Face Relationship The law of right in the Christian community was not a legal code but was that which a group of men sitting about a fellowship table decided to be the law of love in their relationships. In this face-to-face conference there was accomplished a real reconciliation and a bridging of the gaps which often separate human beings. Here master and slave found a unity which tempered the relation- ship, robbed it of its harshness, and ultimately led to a change in the status of the slave. All this is a part of the philosophy of friendship by which Christianity would solve the problems of the social order. The clashes between races in the United States, especially between the black and the white race, have been so serious as to endanger the peace of large sections of our country. The churches in the South organized " The Better Race Relationship Com- mittee," which is made up of a number of leading Christians from both races who meet together for conference and receive into themselves the shock of the racial conflict. They seek to do away with the cause for irritation before the irritation becomes so intense that it breaks forth in open controversy. This plan for promoting understanding between races is so thoroughly Christian that it deserves the encouragement of all Christian people. The " Conference " as a Part of the Ministry of Reconciliation The church promotes a ministry of reconciliation by bringing people together for reasonable conference. Wherever there are gaps to be bridged, there the church seeks to bring the Christian spirit to bear by bringing people together in the face-to-face rela- tionship, in order that they may seek by reasonable discussion to find the way of right in human living. This is the living righteous- ness not of the law code but of the Spirit. The " Conference " is a part of the technique of the Christian philosophy of reconciliation. MEN IN THEIR NATURAL GROUPINGS II The Breaking of Fellowship The giving and the breaking of fellowship is a most serious crisis in the church. When Jesus extends fellowship to the Woman at the Well, something real and fundamental is happening in Jewish society. It was a historic chasm which was bridged by this act. The breaking of fellowship is just as serious. We have taken too lightly the social consequences which follow when religious people break fellowship. When the Methodist Church of America broke fellowship over the slavery issue, Henry Clay was moved to write the following words: "... Scarcely any public occurrence has happened for a long time that gave me so much real concern and pain as the menaced separation of the church by a line throwing all the free states on one side and all the slave states on the other. " I will not say that such a separation would necessarily pro- duce a dissolution of the political union of these states; but the example would be fraught with imminent danger, and, in coopera- tion with other causes unfortunately existing, its tendency on the stability of the confederacy would be perilous and alarming. " Entertaining these views, it would afford me the highest satisfaction to hear an adjustment of the controversy, a reconcilia- tion between the opposing parties in the church, and the preserva- tion of its unity." At the risk of cumbersome statement, we have linked at the head of one chapter the word " justice " with " brotherhood." The church was under obligation to seek fellowship with the negro as well as the white man, and it could not have sought fellowship with him while at the same time acquiescing in his slavery. The fellowship which the church seeks to realize is not an " easy-going " affair. It is not to be easily given; neither is it to be easily broken. It must be broken only in the interest of moral progress and with the aim of ultimate good to the one to whom it is denied. It must be given, not on the basis of race or class, but on the basis of charac- ter. Christians must be slow to anger and quick to forgive. If the church draws a line, it must be a line which defines real moral boundaries and which yearns for the ultimate restoration of un- broken communion. The real indictment against the divisions of Christendom is that they have ceased to have moral significance, and distort the Christian conscience rather than clarify it. The church can only have the confidence of all men by standing for 12 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES justice for all. When it permits special privilege for any, it forfeits the respect of all. It can be claimed with reason that had the churches of America, when they were all declaring slavery to be wrong, been so concerned about the ultimate breaking of fellowship over the issue that they had started a campaign of education against its evils, they had won a majority against it and saved the country the agony of the Civil War. This would have been the program of redemptive fellowship. It is a harder and more rewarding task than the pro- gram of those who use fellowship to reward and punish. Schism is always better than apostasy, but redemptive fellow- ship is better than either. Something happens in human society when fellowship is given or denied. Discussion Questions 1. How would you define the early church? 2. What characteristics of the early church ought we to revive in the present church? 3. What is the relation of the religious life of a people to the social institutions under which they live? 4. What change in industrial life has come in the past century? 5. How has it affected your community? 6. What effect has this had upon your church life? Chapter II CAN THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES BE A BROTHERHOOD WHICH SEEKS JUSTICE ? It is necessary to draw a distinction between the realm in which the church has definite responsibility for its own membership, and those realms in which society is not organized by the church. In this chapter and the two which follow, we are dealing primarily with the responsibilities of the church for its own life and its own social organization. In later chapters we deal with social organiza- tions which are outside the church, and with forms of social organiza- tion for which the church has not the same responsibility that it has in that intimate realm where it is dealing with its own people, and with social organization which it controls. The Church and Denominational Consciousness If the church is to promote brotherliness, it must subordinate the denominational spirit to the Christian fellowship. For the church to try to teach brotherhood without achieving brotherhood is ineffectual and the purest kind of Phariseeism. Brotherliness was a simple problem in the early church compared with its compli- cations in the present. Let us face the question with deep sincerity. There can be no projection of brotherliness into the social order by the church until the church first wins brotherliness in her own life. The church has, during recent years, criticized certain organiza- tions for unbrotherly action. They have retaliated with the charge that the church is wasteful in its organization, that Protestantism is built by drift rather than by cooperative purpose, that laborers in the church are underpaid, and that the competitive organization of modern Protestantism is a fruitful source of unbrotherly tempers. All of this, if true, is an indictment which the church cannot avoid by refusing to recognize it. Before denominational resolutions calling for brotherliness in the social order are released, they should 14 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES be visaed for sincerity by the inter-denominational Committee on Comity between the churches. Brotherhood Through Ecclesiastical Mechanism When trees cease to grow bark, when individuals cease to de- velop habits, when patriotism ceases to express itself through political parties, when culture abandons customs, religion will cease to develop forms, creeds, social codes, and organizations. Nothing is more futile than a revolt against this tendency in religion. We abandon one form only to start another. The church must be a brotherhood in spite of necessary mechan- ism. The cultured home is not the home devoid of organization and established ways of procedure. The cultured home is the home in which mechanism has been reduced to a subordinate place. True culture makes mechanism the servant of neighborliness, friendship, and love. The church, especially the numerous branches of the church, can only become a brotherhood by the subordination of necessary ecclesiastical mechanism to the brotherly spirit. It is a task of present-day Christianity to make the church a brotherhood, not by starting a new church, but by the understanding of an old church and the subordination of the " letter which killeth" to " the spirit which maketh alive." Systems A brotherly church has a two-fold struggle with the necessary systems which are a part of its life. It is a perpetual struggle with old systems. Tennyson has said: " Our little systems have their day ; they have their day and cease to be." Every one who has struggled with the problem of church organization knows that these little systems do not " cease to be." They are liable to hang around for a thousand years and complicate progress. Long after they have ceased to be useful, they have power to claim loyalty from their devotees. The church has a perpetual fight to free itself from the good systems which it devised to meet the needs of past generations. Only a living church can accomplish this. On the other hand, the church is always faced with the task of devising new systems to meet new occasions. " New occasions teach new duties." New industrial orders demand new organiza- tion and codes of action. The church which cannot project these CAN THE CHURCHES BE A BROTHERHOOD? 15 also fails. The church should not be afraid of itemizing programs for good action. It must keep its moralizing up-to-date. In a word — the church succeeds, not by avoiding systems, but by subordinating them to the spirit. The church becomes a brotherhood, not by stripping itself of all established forms and customs and codes, but by making these the servant of the spirit of true brotherliness. The Law of Service and Ecclesiastical Organization The coming of brotherliness in Protestantism does not demand organic unity in Protestant organization. It is very easy to think of conditions under which organic unity would be an obstacle to the practice of brotherliness. For three hundred years the Protes- tant churches have been undergirding a fight for individual rights. If the shift is to be made to new slogans which imply solidarity, it must be clearly borne in mind that this solidarity must make room for a distinct freedom. The solidarity of Protestantism will not ignore three hundred years of development in which the fight has been to find standing room for the individual. It is doubtful as to whether it is desirable for Protestantism to so perfect its ecclesiasti- cal machinery that it will become over-sensitive about scrapping unnecessary parts of it. The organic unity of Protestantism should be like the unity of a loose-leaf notebook where one can discard certain parts and add new parts without destroying the unity of the book. Protestantism will always be ragged behind and in front. In the front will be those groups which desire to push ahead. Behind will be those which are lagging in the march of progress. And yet it ought to be possible for these varied groups to be conscious of their participation in a great free brotherhood whose efficiency is dependent on its power to give expression to a great ideal. To this great objective, all ecclesiastical organization is to be looked upon as a means to an end. To it must be applied the law of service. This law will require varied adaptations of ecclesiastical machinery in varied situations. Organic unity would probably hinder rather than help. Protestantism should not develop a theory which makes sacred that which must always be secondary and which can only justify itself on the basis of its ability to serve something higher. 16 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES When Organization Defeats Brotherhood " The Year Book of the Churches " l gives us the following statistical picture of modern American Protestantism: S. S. Total Denominations Churches Ministers Members S. S. Members Expenditures 54 214,430 163,360 26,009,799 185,389 18,929,948 $252,045,529 Of the total holdings of American Protestantism, however, by far the larger part belongs to nine great denominations: S. 5. Total Denominations Churches Ministers Members S. S. Members Expenditures Baptist 61,992 46,086 7,598,280 48,750 4,305,170 $44,460,716 Congregational 6,019 5,722 808,122 5,804 709,859 11,608,650 Disciples of Christ 8,912 6,031 1,193,423 8,643 961,723 10,413,823 Lutherans 15,638 9,731 2,451,997 7,429 995,336 24,587,529 Methodist 67,493 46,364 7,867,863 69,078 7,287,381 69,114,296 Presbyterian 16,066 14,623 2,243,678 14,627 1,847,945 36,536,465 Protestant Episcopal 8,103 5,677 1,065,825 5,790 435,761 22,509,942 Reformed 2,779 2,236 535,040 2,758 484,548 7,042,538 United Brethren 3,907 2,810 367,087 3,599 478,119 4,716,157 Totals 190,909 139,280 24,131,315 166,478 17,505,842 $230,990,116 Do these Christians think of themselves and of each other as the early Christians thought of themselves and of each other? Few would venture to say that they do. What has a "Balkanized" Protestantism to say to a " Balkanized " Central Europe ? The " Balkanization " of Central Europe is a moral fact which grows out of an uneconomic organization of nations. This uneco- nomic organization is due to the survival of political systems and ethnic migrations which were instituted before railroads and modern means of communication made possible the organization of peoples in large geographical units. A modern world of industry has outgrown the old organization of peoples, and demands a sub- ordination of them in the interest of progress. Until this unity can be had, this political situation will be the fruitful source of tempers which complicate the task of statesmanship. The " Balkaniza- tion " of modern Protestantism is due partly to the survival in a new world of old world religious organization. It is due also to an undue emphasis on the right of self-determination and separate organization for every religious group which desires self-expression. There are two reasons why any discussion of the church and brotherhood must face this question of the organization of modern Protestantism. The first reason grows out of the fact that whenever the church organizes people, it gives them either a successful or an unsuccessful experience in organized living which has much to do with their U920 CAN THE CHURCHES BE A BROTHERHOOD? 17 social education. Our democratic political experience owes much to the democratic religious training fostered by the early American churches. In speaking of the early political organization in America, one writer says: " It is quite certain that they (the Colonists) copied largely, in their formation of the scheme of town government, from the form of church government of that branch of dissenters from the Es- tablished church of England which afterwards developed into the Congregational Church in this country. Indeed, the common name ' Moderator ' was applied alike to the presiding officers of both town and church meeting." " In 1776 Jonathan Mayhew wrote to James Otis: ' You have heard of the Communion of Churches. . . . While I was thinking of this in my bed the great use and importance of a communion of colonies appeared to me in a strong light, which led me immediately to set down these hints and transmit to you.' " The contribution which the church makes to social education, in training people in organized purposeful social activity, in its own organization, is by no means small. The churches should look upon this organization with a serious purpose because of its edu- cational value. The second reason is the obverse of the first, namely, that bad organization becomes a fruitful source of wrong attitudes and bad tempers on the part of the people organized. Despite the high- mindedness of many Protestant leaders, the organization of Protes- tantism sags to the low plane of competitive strife between religious groups. The churches are often not realizing among themselves a brotherly relationship, and thereby forfeit their moral right to urge this upon others. In the third place, public opinion is strongly prejudiced against denominational assertion of community leadership. What a local church or a denomination cannot do in a community when it works alone, it can freely do with public confidence when it is part of a religious community solidarity. Here again the remedy is not a hasty rejection of all the ecclesi- astical organization, but a subordination of organization to the spirit and purpose of Christianity. Organization should be recog- nized as everywhere necessary and always secondary. That which the churches urge upon industry, namely, organization for service, must also become the rule of the church. Until ecclesiasti- 18 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES cal leaders can practise this moral self-renunciation, they have no right to speak to a world whose greatest sin is the failure to sub- ordinate social organization to the principle of service. The Denominational Unit as a Basis of Social Cooperation Although the denominational organization of society is not at present always effective, it is necessary to admit that probably more people have learned voluntary brotherly cooperation through denominational action than in any other non-political way. The denominational unit of organization has led millions of people in great cooperative activity. By it, churches were planted in almost every community in America, from New England to California. The American people during every decade of the last century settled a territory almost as large as Central Europe, and the denomina- tional organizations of America have belted the globe with their benevolent undertakings. This has been a voluntary cooperation in obedience to a common ideal. Although large and necessary readjustments must be made in denominational organization, the church has given to millions of people an experience in social co-operation in denominational groups which has been their most successful and significant experience in social action. It is not necessary to scrap this unit, but rather to eliminate the waste which grows out of it, by comity and cooperation. The Community Church The community church represents an attempt to apply the law of service to ecclesiastical organization, in places where the de- nominational organization has broken down. The denominational divisions of the city are often an intrusion in a small community. Many people see in the community church movement a sign of progress and a tendency in the right direction. In so far as this movement unifies the body of Christ and gives freedom and vigor to Christian action, it is worthy of support. Many of the com- munity churches which have been organized have accomplished these results. The Essence of the Community Church The essence of the community church is an idea, not a form of organization. This is clearly brought out in an article by David R. Piper, managing editor of The Community Churchman, in which CAN THE CHURCHES BE A BROTHERHOOD? 19 he is discussing the question of national organization for com- munity churches. " To form an organization of such churches is to endanger the larger success of the movement. First of all, the very uniformity of type of the churches which would join such an organization would stamp them as a new denomination in the eyes of the world, and that uniformity might even tend actually to make them to all intents and purposes another sect. Inevitably also, the formation of such an organization would give to the organization a sort of patent on the name ' Community Church,' to which it would not be entitled, inasmuch as any church with a broad enough basis of membership to include all Christians of the community on their own terms of membership is a community church, if it also serves the whole community. The difference in the membership basis of the denominational church and the community church is this: that to become a member of a denominational church one must become also a member of the denomination, whereas to become a member of a community church this may be optional but never necessary. Permission to retain denominational affiliation as in- dividuals is as vital a part of the community church program as is the ideal of bringing all Christians of the community together to serve the community in one organization. To deny this privilege to those desiring it, is to restrict the basis of membership as truly as to insist that they all join a given denomination. Federated churches offering membership privileges to those not desiring to affiliate with any sect, and denominational churches offering similar privileges, are true community churches if they serve their com- munities. We cannot read them out. And the movement will lose much influence and be greatly retarded if any one type of community churches ever organized on a basis which would exclude other types. " Variety in organization is desirable to the growth of the movement. It guarantees that plasticity, that community auton- omy which is necessary if the community church idea is to sweep the country. And the community church idea must sweep the country, as local option spreads over the nation, if sectarianism ever gives way to a broader central organization of religious forces." 20 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Tendencies to be Guarded Against in the Community Church There are two tendencies in this movement, however, which must be avoided largely because they will injure the Christian consciousness. If the community church is an isolated church in an isolated community,- — that is, a church having no ecclesiastical affiliations, — it will compound a felony. It will represent an old kind of individualism in a new form. The isolated community needs, least of all, the service of an isolated church, and most of all the rich associations of the larger Christian relationships. If the word " Community Church " means that the church is organized on a community basis instead of a Christian basis, it will mean the displacement of the Christian consciousness by a naturalistic ex- perience. The community which Jesus had in mind may bring a sword instead of peace. He always considered that in the name of the Christian community, the ordinary earthly communities might be divided in twain. Christianity has a selective mission and reserves the right to divide in the interest of purifying. The Federated Church By no one type of organization will the overcoming of waste in modern Protestantism be accomplished. The Federated Church recognizes the lead of the great denominational agencies because they have great wealth of resources on which to draw. To them it looks for trained leadership and expert advice. It sees in them the opportunity for world-wide outreach in missionary activities. In the federation of two churches there is generally the preservation of the old denominational religious corporation, which gives contact with the larger denominational bodies, and by which delegates are elected to the national body. All local church activities, however, for worship and work are organized in a unified way under a com- bined board of church officers. Interchurch Organization Not only does the individual church have the opportunity to give to its people training in social organization, but there is a still greater training in the association of the churches. Christianity in learning cooperation has the chance to win the moral right to commend cooperation to others. The over-multiplication of denominations in the past century may be a means of grace to the Christianity of the present century as it rises above the limitation. CAN THE CHURCHES BE A BROTHERHOOD? 21 This will not be the first tfime that the church has been compelled to have in her own life the experience she would recommend to others. There are a number of plans and methods which are now in operation by which the church is seeking to overcome its own wastefulness. In working at the problem in its many forms, the church members are winning real experience in social living. The Union Service The Christian consciousness has been re-invigorated through the union services, generally in the interest of community evangel- ism, which have been held during the last quarter of a century. Often the rising tide of community spirit has been advanced by them, and they have found splendid cooperation in the various com- munity organizations which express the unity of the community. It is hard to over-estimate the value of a great community service which is attended by men of all the different churches, by various welfare organizations, all of them singing the great Christian songs and listening to a Christian message and joining in the great service of worship. Out of such services of community worship there have often come movements for community welfare which have been far-reaching. Union services have been too exclusively evangel- istic, and have not often enough met to consider the meaning of religion to the complicated every-day life of the world. The in- vigorated Christian consciousness feels a new sense of confidence in attacking community evils and in outlining new plans for the bet- terment of community life. Church Federations Without disturbing the autonomy and organization of denomi- national units, much good has been accomplished through the feder- ation of the churches for common activities. The interchurch federations have power to baptize the denominational church with a new spirit of service and cooperation. The denomination ceases to be a good unit of administration when it leaves the religious consciousness less vigorous, and it is manifestly unfitted for com- munity purposes, which demand united religious action. The answer of the Protestant churches to the need for greater unity has been partially answered by the Protestant Federations, such as the Local or Town Federation, the County Federation, the State Feder- ation, and the National Federation. 22 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES In general there are certain valid principles which will introduce the law of service into church organization, and relieve the denomi- national consciousness of the embarrassment of a suspected and often a merited charge of selfishness. a. The churches should exemplify the cooperative spirit which they are seeking to recommend to society. b. The churches should respect the integrity of the community of which they are a part. c. All the churches should recognize that the social interests of the community have been best served when the churches have cooperated in the various efforts for social betterment. d. The churches should recognize the special character of the communities of which they are a part, and should adapt their work thereto. e. The churches should cooperate in the effort to: Define their parishes. Know their people. Diagnose their problems. Organize their worship, fellowship, education, and ministrations of mercy to meet the needs of the community. The Protestant Churches as a Free Fellowship A true fellowship demands freedom. It also demands variety and difference. It cannot be forced nor manipulated. For this reason, the freedom and variety of development in religious life which has come during the last three hundred years has prepared the way for a free fellowship in religion, which was never possible under the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages. The principle of individual choice has, however, been sufficiently emphasized and we now face the necessity of a unity which shall also include freedom. Such a unity must ultimately include the total church, both Catho- lic and Protestant. There are signs, at least, which are prophetic of the day when the Church of Christ will be an inclusive fellowship which rises above the chasms created by race, caste and nation- ality, and becomes a universal order of men. Discussion Questions 1. What do we mean by group consciousness? 2. Is race consciousness right or wrong? 3. What do you think of class consciousness? 4. What is to be said for nationalism? CAN THE CHURCHES BE A BROTHERHOOD? 23 5. Do you believe in denominationalism? 6. What problems do these various forms of group consciousness create for Christianity? 7. By what principles must the church be guided in dealing with them? 8. What do you mean by the service principle applied to group organization? 9. What practical plans can a church follow to meet the problems created by denominationalism? Chapter III THE CHURCH EDUCATING ITS OWN MEMBER- SHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD The hunger for brotherhood is one of the primary longings of men. The " Cracker Box Club " at the corner store bears eloquent tribute to the natural desire of men for fellowship. This instinct is not something which the church creates. It finds it in man along with man's hunger for God. It is the part of those interested in the salvation of man and in the perfection of the social order to stimu- late and direct this longing, because around it we build up the super- structure we call civilization. Just about the least helpful definition of social service is to say that it is something which a man " goes out and does," after he has received an impulsive impression through listening to some one preach or teach. Unfortunately, a great deal of the discussion of social service is built up on this scholastic and fruitless conception. Such people concede a place for Christian action under the formula " no impression without expression." It is that impression which is badly in need of scrutiny. In the first place, the impression itself is very much dependent on the voluntary desires and activities of the individual. Jesus did not say, " Know the doctrine and ye will do the will," but rather " Do the will and ye shall know the doctrine." He also said, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." All of his definitions of purity of heart portrayed a very active purpose, and not a static condition. What a man seeks very much limits the range of the impression which will reach his mind. " The hardening of the heart " so often spoken of in the Bible is the graphic way of saying that a man of bad purpose and action soon limits the impressions which can reach him. Again, unless we are prepared to precipitate modern Chris- tianity into a new legalism, outlining programs of Christian action EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 25 which are unrelated to states of Christian feeling is a very poor task. Social Service, if it is to be taken seriously at all, is the expres- sion of man in his search for human brotherhood. It is something first of all in the realm of feelings. It is a transaction between persons, and must first of all be stated in terms of personal relation- ships. Ethical codes for the personal life then follow. They are profitable courses of action which are of value to man in his search for brotherhood. Fellowship is enriched and strengthened by comradeship in common tasks. The tasks are good or bad in pro- portion as they enrich or defeat the Christian in his search for fellowship. The church is limited in social service, not by ignorance as to programs of good action, but by the moral neutrality which charac- terizes its definitions of church membership. The church must be more concerned about what it ought to be, then it will be prepared to know what it ought to do. Education and Brotherhood Education is a means and a method for enlarging the brother- hood consciousness and program of the church. Brotherly activi- ties are not for the sake of religious education. Education by setting before people the goal of life, by enlarging their knowledge of each other, helps the church on toward its goal. Action and purpose are primary. Education is their servant. Worship and Brotherhood From the standpoint of one interested in brotherhood, the perfecting of the church in the worship of God is most important. The greatest contribution ever made to social science was made by the Hebrews in their doctrine of one God who demanded social righteousness. If all the churches were abolished, we would not get rid of religion. In the place of the present manifestations of religion we would get soothsayers, clairvoyants, necromancers, ouija board artists, astrologers, and palm readers; there would be a multiplication of all those devices by which the unaided human spirit seeks to answer for itself the great mysteries of life. We could not build a law-abiding social order out of people who assume as the major thesis of their thinking that the universe is petulant and freakish in its central economy. 26 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES The idea of God as Father guarantees both democracy and brotherliness. This is more than the doctrine of self-determina- tion, which can very easily lead to anarchy. It is the social solidarity of free men who are held together by the compulsion of love and faith. Now the perfection of the worship of God as Father is a first charge on every church. It is the business of every church to lead into every community an invasion of a true experience of God. A true idea of God is the tap root of all true social experience. In the worship of the church there is a chance for the most profound type of social ministry. The individual loses himself in a consciousness of God when he is led in a great service of worship. Not in every service where men say " Lord, Lord! " is this purpose accomplished. But every service where men really worship binds them together in a new solidarity which is not manipulated from without, but grows from within. When Worship Defeats Brotherhood While recognizing, however, the power of worship to promote brotherhood, we must recognize the power of worship to defeat brotherhood. Brotherhood is defeated whenever an undue empha- sis on the form of worship causes men to exalt that which should be secondary into a place of primacy, and when such a sacred function as worship is made an instrument of pride and exclusiveness. In such a case religion easily becomes a faction alongside of other factions. Brotherhood is also defeated by worship when an undue emphasis is placed upon the individual and his experiences with God, to the neglect of man's relationship to his fellow men. Puritan- ism so magnified the importance of an inner experience of religion that the attention of men was introspective, and they became neglectful of those other expressions of personal life which had to do with their brotherly obligations to those round about them. The Social Value of Prayer in the Church Service Prayer is directed toward God and not toward the congrega- tion. Nevertheless, leaders in prayer should bear in mind that all the congregation are to be united in prayer to God. This can be accomplished in the liturgical churches by careful planning of the prayers which are to be used by the congregation. It can be also EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 27 accomplished in the non-liturgical churches if the one who leads in prayer will bear in mind the power of this prayer, when rightly conceived, to bind the people together in a great experience of unity before the throne of God. Services of liturgical churches are more effective in socializing worship and enabling men to feel their unity not only with men of the present but with saints who have gone before. The Christian fellowship must always include that vaster communion of the saints. The Social Value of a Community Service It is often possible in the smaller communities to lead the whole community in a great service of worship. This is accom- plished at times in great union services, sometimes in what has been called " The Tabernacle Service " under the leadership of a popular preacher or revivalist. They represent a desire of the people to gather together in community worship where men from all walks of life feel a unity which they gain in no other way. From this standpoint such services are to be commended. It is to be hoped that we shall see in the future not less, but more, out-door preaching. The habit of conducting worship indoors is a late development in religious history. If the downtown churches could have outdoor audi- toriums, they would minister to many people who are reluctant about going inside church walls. The Prophetic Message of the Minister The church exercises a prophetic ministry in all its functions, if these functions are well performed. There is a prophetic ministry in the church organization if it gives to people successful experience in associated living. The spoken word from the pulpit is peculiarly the channel by which the social message could be carried to the people. There is a fire which burns in the hearts of men, a passion for righteousness, and this passion must ever kindle anew the heart of the true minister. The pulpit, after all, must be depended upon to interpret all other activities of the church. The minister, if he is so inclined, can turn the whole church with all of its activities into " sounding brass and clanging cymbals." On the other hand, he may interpret even the giving of the cup of cold water and make of it a true social ministry. The apostolic succession in which we are all interested is the passing on of that prophetic spirit which 28 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES burned in the heart of Moses and Isaiah, to the succeeding genera- tions of men who stand in the Christian pulpit and interpret the ways of God to men. EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND BROTHERHOOD In one sense, all the activities of the church are educational. In another sense, there are special functions which the church per- forms in which it is specifically seeking to educate its own people and the people of the community. The Protestant Churches of America very early saw the necessity of an intelligent leadership and an educated membership. The Church and Its Colleges The Christian college constitutes the first and most ambitious attempt of the church to enter the field of education. The contri- bution of these colleges to the citizenship of America is a monu- mental tribute to the social ministry of the church. In its earliest days Harvard University was recognized as a bulwark of political freedom, and the representatives of the British Crown recommended the closing of its doors as the first condition, if revolutionary sentiment was to be put down. There are at the present time in the United States, representing the American Protestant Churches in the field of higher education, 265 colleges with 180,811 students, with accumulated endowments totalling $180,954,088, with campus property valued at approxi- mately $200,000,000, These statistics do not include the valuation of such institutions as Yale and Harvard and Princeton, and such independent institutions which owe their origin to the initiative of the churches. These colleges constitute a contribution on the part of the church to social education, and they are themselves making a contribution to intelligent social thinking. The churches should see in the sociology and economic departments of the college allies of importance for social education. There should be confer- ences in which the faculties of these departments are called into consultation with church leaders. Together they should formulate social education programs and policies for the church. The churches stand for brotherhood in human relationships and should encourage the colleges to the same end. In the history depart- EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 29 ments there is the opportunity for intelligent knowledge of peoples which will promote brotherhood. The Church and College Support Over eighty per cent of the students in our universities and colleges come from religious homes. The church is influential with these parents in helping them decide as to the type of college to which they will send their children. The amount of money re- quired for the support can be distributed over a wide territory and secured from a large number of givers, or the colleges will be de- pendent upon a few men of extreme wealth. Such a condition of affairs is undemocratic and fraught with great peril. The churches may help to democratize the support of the colleges. A very large part of the benevolence on which the college must rely is inside of church circles. In shaping the ideals of benevolent-minded citizens as to the type of institution to which they will give, the church will in a very real way determine the type of college which will survive. The church group probably offers the largest oppor- tunity for mobilizing the interest of a large number of small givers for college support. By thus broadening the basis of support of our colleges the church can help them win the right to be the servants of the democratic spirit. The Colleges as Brotherhoods Many of the colleges constitute splendid examples of what a Christian brotherly community should be. The law of service clearly penetrates all their thinking and planning. Their outlook is that of a service organization. There is a fraternal spirit among the students which is surcharged with religious idealism. Under the leadership of the church or the Christian Association many are carrying on, from time to time, social and industrial conferences which cover such subjects as Industrial Relations, International Relations, and the problems which have to do with racial conflict. The church leaders have a remarkable opportunity to assist in such work and should help to mobilize college sentiment in support of Christian standards. The Church and the Church Press The papers which are devoted to the religious news of the churches number four hundred and forty-five, and the circulation 3o SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES is about four million. There is a social ministry which these papers can perform which is extremely important. Protestant social opinion cannot be powerful unless it can get the facts which are vital to its programs of Christian brotherhood. Around every great social controversy there goes up a "smokescreen" which effectively hides the real issues, and makes it impossible for Chris- tian opinion to register. If the Protestant religious press could furnish to their constituencies a larger amount of real fact material, they would increase their importance. It is the only large group of papers which does not have some kind of a news service on which it can rely. The Protestant churches are spending millions of dollars in studying " What happened in the Past." A few of these millions should be spent in finding out what is happening in the present, and this fact material should be channeled out to the people through the religious press. THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCH SCHOOL The Year Book of the Churches reports Sunday Schools among the Protestant denominations of America to the number of 185,389, and the Sunday school members to the number 18,929,948. It is not possible to give an accurate estimate of the number of periodi- cals published for the Sunday schools of the United States, but a record compiled from the major publishing houses which are en- gaged almost entirely in the publication of material for the Sunday schools, shows that these periodicals have a circulation of approxi- mately 30,000,000. It is evident that we have in these church schools, if their work is rightly directed, a tremendous force for social education. Planning for a True Social Experience A true Christian education will train for Christian brotherhood. The deepest maladies of human society are the evil tempers which negative the spirit of love. The finished product of Christian education will be a man with a brotherly disposition. Such a man must be trained in social judgment. Herein Christianity is dis- tinguished from those religions which make dependents of men and expect of them only obedience to law and custom. A true Christian education will make men courageous to challenge old systems and rise in rebellion against ancient tyrannies. In the fellowship of EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 31 Jesus men are to be called sons, and not servants. The salvation of Jesus offers to a man a moral vocation, and not a law code. The indictment against many of the educational programs of the church may be itemized as follows: 1. The churches have not consciously trained for brotherhood but have allowed conduct to root in some form of ecclesiasticism. They have often made a man a skillful performer of petty ecclesiastical chores rather than a man of moral judgment and action. 2. The motives most depended upon for ethical conduct have been fear motives rather than those which are naturally implied in the character of God as Father who calls upon men to be brothers. 3. Christian training has not given to men a clear vision of the goals of Christian conduct which would make them free builders in the realm of righteous- ness. A housebuilder is free only when he has a vision of a house, knows the laws of architecture and has a knowledge of building materials. The church has not paid the price of training its members for great social action. Only as it, with fidelity, sets forth the goals of Christian conduct and in alliance with science gives a knowledge of principles and materials can it produce free workmen for a better social order. 4. Christian training has often been sentimental and has not carried through and registered in the areas of practical living. Is it possible that Christian training without landing in casuistry cannot train for citizenship in the present world ? 5. Christian education has not been creative of public opinion in a way which prevents the major disasters in human society. It is inadequate in its day of opportunity and then tends to exhaust itself in palliative measures. It is too much to expect that the church shall be able to control public opinion, but it may be legitimately expected to exert a much greater influence. 6. A large amount of the graded lesson material which is now at the dis- posal of the Sunday school forces was based on the adaptation of the material to the " natural age groupings " of the children. The boundaries of these groups were the "epochal changes" discovered by modern psychology in the life of the person as he progressed from childhood to adult life. These lessons, however, often neglected the social organization of child life, and when carried out in many Sunday schools divided the children into such minute divisions as to defeat all social organization, and prevented them from having a successful experience in organized living. Graded Progress in Social Training It is not the task of this thesis to outline in detail the methods of such an educational system. In Part II we give a graded list of social activities for the de- 32 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES partments of the Sunday school, which is suggestive for the natural social activities of the organized departments of the church school. Heaven forbid that any group should take them so seriously as to try to " do " them without regard to the inner motive to do them. The process of personal growth is from dependency through obedi- ence to self-determination and cooperation. We wish to point out that in passing from one grade to another there should be a recog- nized growth in moral and social development. The child who comes up through such a system should arrive at a certain moral and social maturity which represents fitness for citizenship in the kingdom of God. In order to accomplish this, there must be the thought of the church itself as a brotherhood of people who are banded together in the seeking of social justice in all its varied forms. Any organized group in the church school or in the church should be but an adapted form of that larger brotherhood. The total organism is the Chris- tian Church. The local church is a cell in the larger organism which possesses the properties of the whole. In a similar way, every group organization inside the local church should think of itself as an adapted form of the larger Christian brotherhood. If this is done, we will not commit the mistake — which has been too common in the past, — of making of a Sunday school department a scholastic thing not possessed of the power to win even the moral and spiritual devo- tion which we find in such organizations as the Boy Scouts or the Camp Fire Girls. Membership in any organized group in the church should enrich one's consciousness of the total church as a brotherhood. Too many of our organizations promote a disintegra- tion of this consciousness. When the child joins its first organized group in the church, it should find in that group an enlargement of its own personal life which definitely prepares it for its member- ship in the great Christian brotherhood. Graded progress in social education means natural progress into full membership in that order of brotherly men who are seeking justice, and who are willing to give justice first and allow the rewards of their seeking to be reaped by those who are about them and who come after them. The Local Church as a Training School in Social Living If we will study the multitude of churches in America we will find that they are all more or less successful variations from the old New England village church. This was the church of the simple EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 33 community and a rural civilization. It remained the typical church in America for two hundred years. It was a one group church in which the minister was militant and the group passive. But the democratic spirit has had its way with this church. Under its leadership there have emerged a number of varied groups. The key to all the development has been the assumption of responsibility and self-direction by important groups inside the church. We have women's work for women, young people's work for young people, boys' work for boys, and highly organized community relations. We have the various organized Bible classes and Brotherhood organizations. This has resulted in a church of much complexity but great power and democracy. The modern minister should be the promoter of a federation of self-governing groups, who shepherd themselves better than he was ever able to do when he gave individual treatment to individuals. In these groups, millions of people get their first experience in social organization. Here they learn cooperation and the laws of democratic organiza- tion. The modern church in a very real sense is a cooperating democratic organization. Brotherhoods Within the Church Every church school group, which is organized for educational purposes, should contain some of the characteristics of a brother- hood. The way it is organized is not so important as the objectives for which it is organized. By the organization of the smaller brotherhoods within the church, which keep clearly before them- selves the social objectives of a brotherly organization, the whole temper and purpose of a church may be transformed. We give in Part II the annual calendar of two organizations which have so organized their group life. One is a class in a church school, the other is a men's club. Both rightly possess certain characteristics. The groups set for themselves certain goals to be accomplished. There is common conference and discussion. The study of the class is subordinate to its social purpose. There is no reason why every organized educational group in the church should not have those characteristics. The Church and the Boy Scout Movement Until the church has thoroughly absorbed the technique of such organizations as the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls the 34 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES road of progress lies in cooperation with these great organizations. In 1917, 7,319 boy-scout troops were on record as organized under jurisdiction of churches and among the scout masters there were 1,394 Sunday School teachers and 426 ministers or priests. All large denominations have approved and endorsed the Boy Scout Movement as a part of their program for work with boys. The tendency is for the denominational authorities to assume direct control of religious scout organizations, so as to bring them closely into line with the methods, purposes and educational ideals of the churches. There is no reason why loyalty to the right kind of church school department should not mean more for a young person than loyalty to the Boy Scout Organization, provided the Sunday School Department itself takes the form of a group which embodies in itself social idealism, and has the right to challenge the loyalty of those who are its members. When a person joins any organization in the Sunday School there should be some of the moral challenge which the boy feels when he takes the Scout oath. PLANNING THE CHRISTIAN ACTION PROGRAM OF THE CHURCH When the churches are organized as they should be, the most important and responsible people in the church will meet together in solemn conference and ask two questions which are not mutually exclusive. One will be, " How can we lead the people for whom we are responsible in a true experience of God? " The other will be, " How can we lead the people for whom we are responsible in a true experience of human brotherhood? " The answer to that question will reach deep down into the motives of those who are members of the church, and will carry far out into the expressions of their lives in social action. We find ourselves at the present time in a transition period, and we are forced to work through measures which are confessedly inadequate because based on conditions which must pass. In the local church there should be a Social Service Committee which gives special attention to the social responsibilities and obli- gations of the church in the local community, and those obligations which extend to the state and the nation. Sometimes, instead of a Social Service Committee, an Adult Bible Class or a Men's Club or a Woman's Organization can be made responsible for the leadership EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 35 of the church in its social responsibilities. The activities of either a Social Service Committee or an Adult Bible Class will itemize under the following head: A. Encouraging Classes and Institutes for Social Education. B. Providing Study Courses. C. Stimulating Discussion Groups and Open Forums. D. Gathering Information through a Survey Committee about Community Conditions. E. Making Suggestions as to Christian Courses of Action in Times of Social Crises. F. Systematic Organization of Relief and Case Work with Individuals and Families in the Church. G. Development of the Church as a Social and Recreational Center for the Membership and the Neighborhood. H. Relating the Church to Community Agencies and Movements. (It is necessary to emphasize the responsibility of the local church in building the Christian conscience of America. Such a conscience cannot be handed down from the top. It must be built up, community by community, and state by state. National bodies are too remote to be reliable sources of information as to what is happening in any state. The national bodies cannot take responsi- bility for action, except in unusual circumstances, in any local field. Unless there are cooperating study groups widely scattered over the United States, the work of the national Research and Educational Commissions is practically useless.) In the cities where churches and denominations have multiplied, the Social Service Commission of the Protestant Federation of Churches provides the necessary step in an approach to a com- munity too large and too complex for the ministry of any one church. The work of such a Commission is to do for a number of churches what a Social Service Committee can do for one church. It can take the leadership in holding institutes, suggesting study courses, encouraging open forums, gathering information, making suggestions as to Christian courses of action in times of social crisis, and relating the churches intelligently to social and civic agencies, and to things being done for the improvement of the community. In Part II we give the program of a typical industrial relations conference held by such a Social Service Commission. 36 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES THE FELLOWSHIP METHOD IN EDUCATION The principle of fellowship not only furnishes a motive and goal in education, — it also suggests a method. In a fellowship group men build something together. They build a common con- science which is authority for all of them, and to which each makes a contribution. The corporate conscience can be more authori- tative than the individual conscience, if in securing it the individual has had a chance to play his part. The fellowship group meeting is true to the genius of the Protestant Churches. In whatever ways people have met together for prayer and conference, they have built the common conscience. The discussion class is a possibility in most churches and is a modern expression of an old idea. There are three plans which have proved successful in these classes. a. With regular outside speakers. The value of this method lies in the fact that it gives a specialist every Sunday who can probably bring a larger technical knowledge than could be otherwise available. It is often hard, however, to secure a succession of speakers for the period over which the class is con- ducted. Often a central committee representing all the churches of the city can prepare a list of speakers which can be made available for all the forum classes and thus make easier the problems of securing speakers. b. With study outlines. The Social Service Commission of the various churches has prepared special study courses designed for use in groups oft his kind. The courses take up such questions as the Christian view of work and wealth and questions having to do with the practice of citizenship and while open- ing up the course in a large way, they throw upon the class the necessity of formulating its own conclusions. c. The third method which has been successfully used is for the class to choose some topic which it wishes to discuss for four Sundays. A questionnaire of this topic is sent to some one hundred and fifty or two hundred people in the community asking them certain specific questions bearing on the topic. Their answers are analyzed by a committee of the class, part of the answers are read and form the basis for discussion during the time when the class is studying this subject. As an illustration, one class was discussing industrial questions. One hundred letters were sent out to as many employers, asking this question: " If my employees saw my industry from my standpoint, what would they do? " A similar question was sent to one hundred employ- ees. They were asked: " If my employer saw the business from my stand- point, what would he do? " The answers were of value in themselves and when analyzed and the best of them read before the class, they provoked an EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 37 interesting and profitable discussion. Incidentally they brought a large attendance of people to the class. The class then formulates its conclusions in the shape of resolutions which can be published or used by the pastor as the basis of sermon or discussion. Church Forums The Forum on Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening is being used to a large extent by our churches. Over fifty per cent of the Open Forums in the United States are in the churches. They have contributed much to freedom of speech and intelligent discussion on public questions. Mr. George W. Coleman, who is America's greatest authority on forums, says, " The whole genius of the forum idea is found in the character of the subjects treated, the quality of the set of speakers, and the democratic freedom and absolute orderliness of the discussion by the audience. It is essential to avoid the pit-falls of debating and to save the audience from being bored to death by cranks, and yet every one must have precisely the same chance after the speaker has had full and uninterrupted opportunity to give his message. All this is accomplished by the simple yet subtle device of limiting every one to a question, and having the Chairman repeat the question before the speaker answers it. Written questions handed up to the Chairman rob the discus- sion of more than half its value. It is essential to get something of the personality of the questioner, and it is vital that the audience sees for itself that no question has been dodged or suppressed." Shop Forums The Shop Forum, sometimes under the leadership of the church but frequently under the leadership of Christian associations, affords an opportunity of reaching men at leisure periods in the shops, and has proven to be an effective means of education. The rules gov- erning such forum groups are similar to those which govern forums in other places. Organized Play It is always a question as to how far the church should seek to organize the play life of its people. Manifestly, it cannot hope to control or even to direct all of the play life of vigorous young people who are provided with opportunities for recreation by their homes. Again, a great deal of the organized play can be turned over by the 38 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES church to the Christian associations which should always be con- sidered the allies of the church in any work of this kind. True sportsmanship offers finer opportunity for self-discipline than any system of military training. One of the great reasons why the church should be interested in play is that the young people learn some of their finest lessons in democracy and fair dealing in their associations on the playground. In thousands of communities and neighborhoods, however, the basement of the church building, or its parish house, could easily be made into a center for supervised recreational life. This is in itself an economy, in that it makes use of an existing building. Whatever draws people to the church also tends to interest them in its other features, such as worship and relieious education. WHAT WILL THE BROTHERHOOD GROUPS STUDY? They will study first the story of the early Christian brother- hood which rooted in the Old Testament social experience. Here is the material for stimulating in the finest way the social passion of the modern Christian. For such courses there are available the following: a. The Making of a Nation. C. F. Kent and J. W. Jenks. 12 Studies. Scribner's b. The Testing of a Nation's Ideals. C. F. Kent and J. W. Jenks. 12 Studies. Scribner's c. The Bible as a Community Book. A. E. Holt. 9 Studies. The Woman's Press d. Social Teachings of Prophets and Jesus. C. F. Kent. 28 Studies. Scribner's e. The Bible and Social Living. International Graded Lesson Series. Graded Lessons Syndicate f. Jesus' Principles of Living. C. F. Kent and J. W. Jenks. 12 Chapters. Scribner's g. Social Significance of the Teachings of Jesus. J. W. Jenks. 12 Studies. Y. M. C. A. Press h. Social Teachings of Christ Jesus. W. Beatty Jennings. 20 Studies. Revell Company i. The Social Principles of Jesus. Walter Rauschenbusch. 12 Studies. Y. M. C. A. Press j. Christ and the Nations. S. Z. Batten. 12 Studies. Baptist Publishing Society EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 39 k. Psalms of the Social Life. Cleland B. McAfee. 13 Studies. Association Press I. The World a Field for Christian Service. Sidney A. Weston. 52 Lessons — 4 Quarters. Pilgrim Press But the education which furthers brotherhood cannot stop with the study of the men of two thousand years ago. Such educa- tion must study the men of the present. Classes, races and nations must be brought into brotherly relationship through intelligent understanding of each other. Especially must the Christians in one class and race understand the motive and purposes of Christians in other classes and races. By its educational program the Church must promote a mutual understanding which will make the breaking of fellowship impossible. This is the place for all the great mis- sionary literature which is being so splendidly set forth by the Departments of Missionary Education. This education must also deal with the ethical problems which face the modern Christian. There will be courses dealing with special phases of the Christian attitude as he faces the conscience problems of the present. Among such courses are the following: a. Christianity and Economic Problems. Educational Committee, Federal Council. 11 Chapters. For discussion groups. Association Press b. The Liquor Problem. Norman E. Richardson. 13 Lessons. Methodist Book Concern c. Poverty and Wealth. Harry F. Ward. 13 Lessons. Methodist Book Concern d. The Gospel for a Working World. Harry F. Ward. 8 Chapters. Missionary Education Movement e. Christian Teachings on Social and Economic Questions. Clarence E. Robin- son. 20 Lessons. Association Press f. Christianity and Amusement. Richard H. Edwards. 8 Lessons. Association Press g. Men and Things. Henry A. Atkinson. 12 Chapters. Missionary Elucation Movement. There will also be courses dealing with the Christian com- munity in its modern expression. a. The Redemption of the City. Charles H. Sears. 8 Chapters. Griffith & Rowland Press b. Evolution of a Country Community. Warren H. Wilson. 14 Chapters. Pilgrim Press 40 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES c. The Church and the Community. R. W. Diffendorfer. 6 Chapters. Missionary Education Movement d. Community Programs for Cooperating Churches. Roy B. Guild. Federal Council of Churches e. Christianizing Community Life. H. F. Ward and R. H. Edwards. 12 Chapters. Association Press f. The City and Its Social Mission. A. M. Trawick. 6 Chapters. Association Press g. The Christian and the Community. Protestant-Episcopal Studies. 38 Lessons. Morehouse Publishing Company h. Christian Life in the Community. A. J. W. Myers. 9 Chapters. Association Press i. The Church a Community Force. Worth M. Tippy. 12 Chapters. Missionary Education Movement j. Serving the Neighborhood. R. A. Felton. Missionary Education Movement THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS If there is to be great action, there must be great learning. If there is to be great learning, there must be great teaching. This calls for the preparation of teachers. The need of developing special institutes for leaders is as real as the need for the development of officers' training camps in times of military mobilization. Industrial institutes in both rural and city fields should be promoted by the church. A. Institutes for rural leaders. For a number of years the churches have been promoting successful institutes for rural leaders, sometimes at the agricultural colleges and other schools, and often in connection with some church conference or synod. The remark- able success of these institutes in creating an ideal for a new social order in the countty districts justifies their encouragement in every possible way. B. Institutes for industrial leaders in the city. That which has proven so successful in the country should be duplicated in the city. To these institutes should be invited representatives of both capital and labor, as well as the ministers. By the multiplication of such conferences, a mutual understanding between all parties concerned may be promoted. C. Young people's institutes for social education. Next to the training of special leaders, the training of young people in sum- mer institutes along lines of social education is important. This EDUCATING MEMBERSHIP FOR BROTHERHOOD 41 can often be accomplished in connection with gatherings at which other interests are also promoted. The summer conferences of the Christian associations and the various educational organiza- tions of the church and the Missionary Education Movement afford remarkable opportunities for such instruction. D. Church institutes. One of the most effective methods by which social education is being promoted at the present time is through the special institutes held over a series of weeks in some of our churches. Lenten institutes held on Friday evenings during Lent, when the church people gathered together for an evening meal and then spent the evening in study of various problems, have proved very successful. Special Opportunities for Social Education — Special Sundays The use of the Sunday evening service for community worship and for social education has proved to be an effective means for creating social sentiment. The Union Sunday evening service generated a great deal of the sentiment which drove the saloon out of America. The readaptation of this service to the promotion of other causes offered large possibilities. In some communities, a Union Sunday evening service is turned over to a committee which represents the community and with all the churches co-operating, a service is planned to further the community life in whatever way seems best. In another town the Sunday evening services during the summer are used to promote various common causes which are important from the standpoint of community welfare. The churches thus observe Labor Sunday, Educational Sunday, Tem- perance Sunday, Good Health Sunday, and the various patriotic causes which come before them. There is much to be said for such use of the Sunday evening services during part of the year. The rapidly developing church calendar, which is filling the church year with Sundays which have special significance for a large number of churches, affords a remarkable opportunity for social education. Children's Day and Mother's Day afford oppor- tunity for special teaching concerning the sacredness of home life and childhood. The various patriotic Sundays are opportunities which have long been used by the church for a social message. It is not necessary to develop special Sundays for social education. It is necessary to make the largest use of the days which have al- ready been established. 42 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Discussion Questions 1. How can a church educate for brotherhood? 2. What is the place of worship in the brotherhood experiences of the church? 3. How can the colleges help in the education for brotherhood? 4. What help might come from the religious press? 5. What could the organized group in the church do to promote the spirit of brotherhood in the church? 6. Is the educational program of your church one which will train people for citizenship in a brotherly social order? 7. Study section B in Part II for Methods in Education. Chapter IV THE CHURCH AS AN ORGANIZER OF BENEVOLENCE The first organization of the early church grew out of the necessity of greater efficiency in ministering to the physical needs of the " brethren." At the time of this organization there was the distinct recognition, however, that this ministration for the physical needs was not the primary task of the church. There is clearly set forth in the New Testament documents the idea that the church is primarily a fellowship. The giving, however, of the earthly posses- sions of the members of this fellowship in ministry to the physical needs of others is recognized as a distinct obligation. There is also recognized in the early church an obligation to dedicate the material wealth of the church to the extension of the gospel message among men. In the fulfilling of this obligation the churches have built up organizations for the extension of the gospel at home and abroad. The Year Book of Missions of the Protestant Churches gives the following statistics, relative to the work of these American Protestant Churches during the year 1920: Foreign Missionary Societies 27 American Missionaries Men 3,664 Women 4,602 Native Laborers 45,347 Communicants 854,479 Total enrolled in schools 623,901 Total Income $21,890,878 In the same period the American Protestant Churches expended approximately ten million dollars in the extension of their work at home. 44 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES The Benevolent Outreach of One Church The pastor of a Greater Boston Church furnishes the following annual list of benevolent objects to which his church contributes: American Board Home Missionary Society (Nat'l) Mass. Home Missionary Society Congregational Education Society Congregational Church Building Society American Missionary Association Congregational Sunday School Exten- sion Society Board of Ministerial Aid Congregational Church Union Boston City Missionary Society Seaman's Friend Society Woman's Seaman's Friend Society Federal Council of Church of Christ in America Mass. Federation of Churches Greater Boston Federation of Churches North Church (Nonantum) Italian Mission (Nonantum) Pilgrim Memorial Fund American Bible Society Massachusetts Bible Society Newton Hospital Newton Y. M. C. A. Boston Chinese Mission Newton Welfare Bureau International College at Springfield House of Good Will (East Boston) Walker Missionary Home (Auburndale) Pomeroy Home for Orphans Newton Home for Aged People American McCall Association Starving Children of Europe Federal Council of Churches (Entertainment) International Council (Entertainment) Hampton Institute (Virginia) General Theological Library Evangelistic Association of New Eng- land Hospital Visitation Daily Vacation Bible School Church Relief Fund Vacation Fund Florence Crittendon League of Com- passion Stearns School Settlement Newton District Nursing Association Berea College Springfield Y. M. C. A. Training School New England Home for Little Wanderers Boston Dispensary New England Peabody Home Tuskegee Institute Boston Children's Aid Society Boston North End Mission Y. W. C. A. Interchurch Campaign Northland College American Women's Hospital Armenian and Syrian Relief Serbian Relief Straight University Armenian Relief Total about $40,000. The list is stupendous. Can any one show any other social group, except a church, which year in and year out has a comparable benevolent outreach? Its giving is not provincial nor narrowly denominational. As monuments to its benevolent outreach there stand, at this present moment, some of the noblest of human institu- tions. THE CHURCH AND BENEVOLENCE 45 Again, this list of causes has grown up naturally and is not of sporadic growth, nor has it been put over on the church by pro- moters skilled in the exploitation of religious groups. Only a possible three or four are of recent origin. The others represent the " old line " enthusiasms of a New England church. The reaction of such a program of giving on the social temper of a church will always be helpful if the people give with intelligence and discernment. No church can remain narrow in its social sympathy and interest which year after year contributes to such a wide variety of interests. The social conscience of the American churches has been enlarged by the programs of missionary giving. The American people have been taught to think helpfully with reference to the nations of the world. Our international attitude in political life must ultimately bear some relationship to our mis- sionary program. WHEN BENEVOLENCE DEFEATS BROTHERHOOD Commendable as are the great organized benevolences of the church, it is necessary to recognize that it is entirely possible for benevolence to defeat the brotherly spirit. The church is not primarily a benevolent institution. " Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto Thee," expresses a fundamental philosophy which will always be true for the church. The church is primarily a fellowship, and it is a corruption of the purpose of the church to look upon any local church as an organi- zation of people whose primary function is the giving of money. The promoter's spirit which has crept into some of our American churches and with high-powered advertising is seeking to extort large sums of money for denominational purposes, will ultimately injure the cause it professes to advance. The church is not primarily a benevolent institution, and the organization of modern Protestantism should not be around the promotion boards of the great benevolent societies. These societies cannot give the highest expression to the organic brotherly life of the Christian churches. They are the servants of the churches and should be kept in the place of servants. To exalt them to a central place means the corruption of Protestantism, and the development of a new officialdom which will be false to the character of the church as a brotherhood. 46 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES The Christian Doctrine of Stewardship As an organizer of benevolence, the church has proclaimed to the people a Christian doctrine of stewardship. This message has not always been wisely proclaimed. Sometimes the church has led people to believe that that which they gave to the church was sacred, and that which they gave to buy food and clothing for their children was secular. Sometimes the church has laid an undue emphasis upon the giving of a tenth as a Biblical standard. The moral implications of such a message left nine-tenths of a man's income still secularized. The Christian doctrine of stewardship calls for a clear-cut recognition that the moral right to all wealth demands righteousness in acquisition and the principle of service in its use. Stewardship is both to society and to God. The right to own any property lies in social justice, and in a man's ability to use it for welfare which includes both his neighbor and himself. The Christian statement for such welfare is the Kingdom of God on earth. Our right to own is only our right to use our property to advance the Kingdom of God in all its phases. " Tainted Money " Benevolence may be tainted in many ways. It is tainted when it injures the self-respect and the self-reliance of the person to whom it is given. It is tainted when it compromises the ideals of the organization which gives it. It is. tainted when it creates a false sense of security on the part of the person from whom the church receives it. It is tainted when it represents a fortune accumulated at the expense of unnecessary and involuntary suffering ©n the part of the people who were involved in its accumulation. These ethical issues the church must face as the solicitor and distributor of benevolence. MINISTRATIONS OF MERCY The churches of the United States have co-operated with non- church charities, and have at the same time given support to many institutions for the care of the sick, and the protection of children and those of advanced years. The list of hospitals, homes for the aged, and homes for chil- dren in the United States under denominational control is im- pressive. THE CHURCH AND BENEVOLENCE 47 Hos pitals Homes Homes for for Aged Children Adventist 9 .. Baptist 27 36 42 Brethren 17 Christian 3 11 11 Congregational 2 5 3 Disciples of Christ Evangelical 24 12 8 Friends 2 2 5 Lutheran 4 42 67 Mennonite 9 2 4 Methodist Episcopal 61 32 37 Methodist Episcopal South 7 3 28 Pentecostal Presbyterian 17 15 23 United Presbyterian 5 2 1 Reformed Church in America 4 § m Reformed Church in the United States 1 , . 5 United Brethren 1 1 Protestant Episcopal 88 53 85 Others 62 51 66 Totals 381 288 391 The Responsibility of the Local Church for its Own " Poor " The local church should be rich in ministrations of mercy to the physical needs of its own people. It should be the duty of a responsible committee in every church to look after the responsi- bilities of the church along this line. Strong churches should have a staff of Friendly Visitors, under the direction of a deaconess or trained social worker. The work of such a group should always be done with the purpose of stimulating self-help and removing the causes of dependence. There will always be people in every church for whom direct ministrations of mercy will be necessary. Certain churches provide for the aged, either in special homes maintained by themselves or in cooperation with larger Protestant institutions. Some churches maintain hospital beds in general hospitals, and some of the larger denominations are able to provide their own hospitals. A number of the churches have church loan funds, and 4 8 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES some go as far as to provide a sick benefit fund inside of some of the organizations in the church. When churches undertake such work it is vitally important that they use scientific methods, that whatever they do is sustained and equal to the need, and that they keep close relations with the great social agencies of the community, especially with charity organization. To work intermittently with families, or unscientifically, is worse than to do nothing. Churches should either do thorough work or turn it over to community agencies. Not all churches can carry forward large programs of social ministry for those who are in special need of mercy. A cooperating Protestantism will help churches with many dependents, and may designate certain churches and equip them especially for this task. We give here the program of such a church, through which a number of denominations minister in one of our large cities. Type of Church — Urban-Down-Town Distinctive Features: Religious Work. All denominations represented in its Board of Trustees and in its working force. Also in its membership. Six on the ministerial staff of whom four give only part time to this branch of the work. In addition there is an Italian pastor, a Syrian pastor, a Portuguese pastor, a Jewish pastor and a colored pastor. Of the membership, 19 are Italians, 10 Portuguese, 10 Syrians, 1 Russian, 2 Greeks, 4 Germans, 4 Swedes and 56 Colored. The parish of the church is estimated of 24,000 of whom 12,000 are foreign speak- ing. Five thousand one hundred and eighty-five calls were made during the year in about 1,000 homes of the community. An interdenominational staff of ministers has been organized which includes the following: Baptist, Congregational, Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Swedenborgian, Unitarian and Universalist. Day Nursery (10 cents a day) and Kindergarten for the children. Educational Program. School of music (teach organ, piano, vocal harmony, mandolin, banjo and the cornet, 20 cents a lesson in classes of four. 50 cents a private lesson). Industrial School : English courses; evening courses in religious education. Work graded — primary, junior, intermediate, senior and adult. Fresh Air Camps and Vacation School. For the camps, have a farm. Every year they care for about 40 babies, 60 boys and girls, and 30 men and women. There is also a rug factory there where men and women can work. THE CHURCH AND BENEVOLENCE 49 Industrial Work. Cooperative industries and stores, incorporated. Buildings cost $450,000 — no debt. Plan: Bags are sent to families over the city to be filled with clothing, shoes, furniture and every other known article which is no longer needed. There are 75,000 such contributors now. The con- tributions are sorted, fumigated, and either repaired or sold. The work involved gives jobs to many needy, while the income from the sales furnishes their wages. Settlement Work. For human reconstruction — the " down and outs." Plan: A man comes to the Mission Hall or is sent to the office from the Prison Parole Board or some other social agency. He hears a gospel message and after the service he approaches the Social Secretary and asks for help. Before he goes to bed he is asked to take a bath and see the doctor. If the doctor finds no reason for sending him to a hospital, he is given a night shirt and a bed. In the morning he finds his clothes pressed, — Breakfast, — Morning Prayers, — up to this time he is a guest, hence no charge is made. All the men must work. The Secretary directs him to the Industrial Buildings, and the supervisor there seeks to place him where he can best serve and develop. His work is checked up each day, and soon it is found if he is rightly placed. There are three grades of men — Juniors, Middlers and Seniors. Man remains a Junior about one month. All the men are given a mental examina- tion. Welfare Bureau. The Central Agency to correlate and unify all departments of the institution. Through this office there is also contact with other social agencies of the city and state, through the Confidential Exchange of the Associated Charities. Representatives of the different departments meet together once a week in the Welfare Conference to secure united action in solving problems. Employment Bureau. In charge of a graduate of the College of Liberal Arts of Boston University, who has also had three years' experience with the Asso- ciated Charities. Gymnasium and organized play. Protestant Responsibility for Protestant Poor As Protestant organization becomes more definite and more self-conscious in the large cities, it would be well if the Protestant charities could federate in order to look after their own responsi- bilities among the poor, and in order to cooperate more definitely with the general relief work of the whole city. Such work is now carried on to a very large extent by Protestant churches, but it is not so definitely organized as in the Jewish and Catholic charities. The church can furnish a religious purpose which is necessary in the reclamation of any individual, and though it may not always be 5o SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES able to furnish the material help which is necessary, it can con- tribute much which the civic charities will find essential to their complete work. This subject is further discussed in the chapter on The Church and Its Immediate Geographical Community. Cooperation with Civic Relief Agencies It is a first charge upon the Protestant Churches to cooperate in every way with the civic organizations which are engaged in relief work. Discussion Questions 1. What is the relationship of giving of money to Christian fellowship? 2. What is the most important gift in the possession of the church? 3. How may " giving to missions " build the social conscience of the church? 4. What is your church doing in ministrations of mercy to the poor in the com- munity? 5. Do you think that Protestant churches should look after their own poor? 6. What should be the relationship between your church and the public charities of your community? Chapter V THE AUTHORITY OF A CHURCH IN A FREE SOCIETY We have been considering the functions of the church and the contribution which each makes to the fullness of Christian brother- hood. We have dealt with relationships inside of church circles. We must now discuss the extension of brotherhood in a free society. The modern church must face the problem of being influential in a society in which it has lost the right to exercise anything but moral and spiritual authority. A free church in a free society means that most of the great social organizations have evolved by a necessary differentiation of function, through which the community as a whole can really attempt to meet its great and varied needs. They have become of necessity independent of the church, although in sympathy with it. It is also true that the modern church has freed itself from the state, and exercises a like freedom from any kind of political domination. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church claimed and exercised the right to compel all organizations to de- velop inside the church. The relation between the church and social organizations was a simple one. The church manipulated and controlled the social order. It cannot be said that the Puritans solved the problem of a free church in a free community. The American churches did not achieve freedom until the multiplication of denominations stimulated all the churches to accept the status of absolute separation between the church and state. But whereas this status was necessary from the standpoint of the church and other social organizations, it does not solve the problem which must ever arise so long as the church feels a sense of responsibility for the social order. The church cannot control society; society cannot control the church. The church cannot ignore the social order; the social order cannot ignore the church. The two must work together. 52 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES What the Church Can Contribute to a Social Group An individual gains in character when he imposes ethical standards upon himself. The case is not different in the various social organizations. The doctor's profession gains in nobility because of the ethical standards which the profession has imposed upon itself. The church can well afford to give up an authoritative relationship to any social group if it can see that group imposing upon itself the ethical standards for which the church stands. It is far better, from the standpoint of a stable social order, to see a group of business men taking for their motto : " He profits best who serves best," than to have these men dependent upon the edicts of the church for their social control. The development of national consciousness to the high degree to which it has recently been de- veloped will not be a misfortune if this national consciousness directs itself to the task of developing national codes of honor which are Christian. The rising tide of class consciousness in the laborer and the farmer will work out for good if class consciousness can be tempered by Christian consciousness, that is, by the consciousness of the larger brotherhood. If the church can by leadership, by the proclaiming of moral ideals, and by the contagion of its own high spirit, influence these organizations to impose on themselves Chris- tian standards and at the same time leave them free, we will have realized the ideal of a free church in a free society. The Technique of Cooperation The modern church has not been unmindful of this problem, and is struggling with the technique of cooperation among free churches, free social organizations, and institutions of government. We see a good illustration of this in the multiplication of auxiliary organizations which serve to relate the church to special problems while at the same time leaving the organic church free. We have, for instance, in the Community Club, an organization largely made up of church members who are banded together to promote com- munity welfare, and to carry the ideals of the church in the com- munity life without bringing in the complicating problems which would arise if the church, as church, tried to do this work. We see in the non-partisan Good Government Leagues and in the Anti- saloon League examples of a special organization developed, to a large extent, by church members who are dealing with political questions. The Young Men's Christian Association and Young THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH 53 Women's Christian Association are organizations which are relating the church to certain community problems in a very effective way. In the organization of the Gideons we have a group of men who are seeking to standardize the ethical codes of a business group in accordance with Christian principles. Thus, the modern church is working at the task of being influential in a social order which it does not desire to manipulate, but for which it feels a moral responsi- bility. In the succeeding chapters we shall discuss principles and methods by which the church is trying to cooperate with such institutions as the home, the labor union, the farmers' organizations, and the community at large. In every case, the church must main- tain its own freedom, and realize that society can be saved only when its various social groups impose upon themselves the stand- ards of service, and work together. The Educational Method In proportion as the church loses its power to dictate, it must enlarge its power to educate. Democracy will give large freedom to the militant group which seeks to live by the educational method. This education must not be satisfied with the education of a few. It must project itself until it leavens the mass mind. It is no easy task for the church to seek to educate the masses of the people, but that is its task. The great channels of publicity which reach to every part of the country must carry its message. It must make better use of its own publicity channels. It must organize its study groups and its discussion groups, its forums and its public assemblies. For only by so doing can it have discharged its obliga- tion to Christianize the public opinion of America, which is, after all, the ultimate source of American law and order. Discussion Questions 1. What conditions are imposed upon all the social work of the church because of separation of Church and State? 2. What other social groups are no longer under the control of the church? 3. What methods must the church use if it is to be influential in a free society? 4. What modern illustrations of such methods can you suggest? 5. Do you believe that the church should take part in political life? Chapter VI THE CHURCH ALLIED WITH THE HOME The original brotherhood ideals of our religion came through contact with the home. It was out of a tragic home experience that Hosea gained the thought of God's redemptive purpose for Israel. The prophets, in seeking to create a new mind for a new age in Israel, portrayed a divine economy which had a family ex- perience at its center. The early church exalted motherhood, and thus protected parenthood in the thoughts of the people. Jesus placed the seal of approval on home life and chose home symbolism in setting forth the character of God. Far back in history our religion formed a working alliance with the home, and the test of a socially minded church is still found in its ability to continue and perfect that relationship. There are those who would make the home the basic and primary institution and the church auxiliary. Such people are laying the basis for hereditary caste. They are footless when they are face-to-face with the racial antipathies of men. The Christian fellowship can exist where marriage is absolutely impossible. The Christian Attitude Toward Marriage The church does not believe that every one should enter into the marriage relation. Neither does it believe that this relation- ship is necessary to membership in the Christian fellowship. Paul distinctly recognized this principle. Under normal conditions, many will not marry, and under the abnormal conditions produced by the recent war, millions will not have the chance. The church recognizes that participation in the marriage relationship does offer, however, one opportunity to realize the Christian vocation in terms of human service, but it is the Christian view that marriage belongs to the temporal world and that long after men have ceased to marry and give in marriage the Christian fellowship will endure, for it is eternal. THE CHURCH ALLIED WITH THE HOME 55 American Home Life at the Present Time The Christian ideal for home life calls for the loyal association of free personalities who are held together, not by force and the compulsion of law, but by mutual devotedness to a lofty social ideal. It is in accordance with this principle that American custom grants to young people a larger freedom of choice and freedom of associa- tion in courtship than is known in any other part of the world. That this freedom, however, is not always intelligently used, is borne out by the fact that America, at the present time, leads the world in the number of divorces in comparison with the number of marriages. No other country, not even Japan, has as many broken homes as America. The following government statistics issued in 1916 tell something of our present conditions: " The United States, as a whole, had a divorce rate per 100,000 population of 112 for 1916, as compared with a rate of 84 for 1906, 73 for 1900, and 53 for 1890. The rate for 1880, as shown by the report of the former investigation, was 39, and that for 1870 was 28. " For each geographic division and for all but the District of Columbia and seven states — Colorado, South Dakota, West Virginia, Maine, Mississippi, Alabama, and North Dakota — the rate for 1916 was higher than that for 1906, but in all of these states, except Maine, North Dakota, and the District of Columbia, the rate for 1906 was higher than that for 1900." Reasons for the Alliance of the Church and the Home There are five good and sufficient reasons why the church should look upon the home as its greatest social opportunity. The first reason grows out of the strategic place which the home occupies in human society. Every child approaches social living by the pathway of the society of the family. The stamp of the home is indelible. The second reason grows out of what the church can contribute to the home. Home life is guaranteed, not by perfection of material equipment but by mutual devotedness to high ideals, and by habits of living which make possible close association of people without continued friction. The third reason lies in the contribution which the home can make to religion. Any appreciation of the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man will come directly out of home life. The meaning of the word fatherhood comes first to the life of the child 56 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES when he experiences the love of a good father. This experience is deepened still further when, in the home, he becomes a father. The fourth reason is found in the ethical possibilities of the home spirit. A home has a group spirit. It has character. It has a purpose. It has an atmosphere. When the Christian spirit takes up its abode in the home, society has gone a long way on the road to becoming Christian. The fifth reason for the alliance between the church and the home is found in the possibilities of the home as a' training school for citizenship and social living. Society is saved by the extension of successful experience in associated living. By the projection into human society of the home ethics of mutual service, care for the young, democratic government, and brotherhood, we can con- tribute to its perfection. In its service to the home, the ministry of the church is divided into three types. We should consider, first, that which the church can do in the organization of its own services of worship and educa- tion; second, the ministry which it can render inside the home; and third, the ministry in the community which will assist in build- ing and protecting the home. SERVICE TO THE HOME INSIDE THE CHURCH The Family Pew The family pew in the Protestant church represents a historic recognition which the church has given to the integrity of the home as a social unit in the church service. Although we are passing from the period when the church rents or sells its pews, there is a distinct value in the attendance of the family as a unit at the church service, and it can easily be arranged by a proper system of usher- ing, even when pews are free. The Sacrament of Baptism In the baptism of children, many of the Protestant Churches see a consecration service which recognizes the child's relation to the divine Father, and honors parenthood in its cooperative rela- tionships with the church in the training of the child. The value of this is to be recognized and the service honored because of its social message. THE CHURCH ALLIED WITH THE HOME 57 Children's Sunday In the institution of Children's Sunday the church has an opportunity to honor childhood in a special way, and to magnify in the minds of the people the sacredness of childhood and that institution from which the children come. Fathers and Sons Banquet The Fathers and Sons banquet which many churches have re- cently provided gives splendid recognition to responsibility of the fathers for their sons, and affords also an opportunity to increase the loyalty of the boy to the father and to the church. Mother's Day The churches are recognizing in Mother's Day a chance to exalt motherhood and to pay a tribute to one who makes home life possible. The day has a most distinct social message and should be so used by the churches. Education for Home Building in the Church The best preparation for home building which the church gives is the general preparation whereby the church exalts those ideals and virtues which make successful home builders. But there is a special type of education which the church can give, in classes which prepare young men and women for the duties and responsibilities of home life. Many churches have successfully provided mothers' clubs where the problem of home building is discussed by those who are deep in its responsibilities. Similar discussions are often taken up by men's organizations in the church. The Church as a Social Center for Future Home Builders The social life of the church has made possible the meeting of innumerable young people where acquaintance has ripened into love and love into marriage. This is a legitimate service to be planned for and encouraged in the church life. It guarantees the mating of people of religious ideals and ethical purposes. 58 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES SERVICES WHICH THE CHURCH CAN RENDER INSIDE THE HOME Many of the services which the church can render have as their purpose the Christianizing of the home spirit and are to be rendered inside the home itself. The Marriage Ceremony The great opportunity of the church to exalt the home is, of course, in the marriage ceremony. This should be for the minister a most solemn and sacred privilege. In every way in which he can cooperate, either by instruction, by advice, or by inspiration, he should magnify his social opportunity at this time. Many a pastor has made use of special literature which has been very acceptable to both bride and groom in helping them to enter the joys and responsibilities of home life. Family Worship Nothing binds a home together and guarantees its Christian quality quite like family worship. The church should encourage the family altar, both by urging it upon the people and by the sug- gestion of proper methods. Grace at Meals The family meal is lifted into the realm of the sacramental by many social courtesies which gather about this occasion. Most important among ceremonies is the custom of returning thanks to the heavenly Father for his goodness in making possible this occasion. Parish Visiting In the parish visiting of the pastor and the friendly visitors of the church, official and non-official, there is recognition of the home which is very important. The purpose of such visiting is not ex- hausted in a ministry to individuals. Its value lies in the seeking out and in the recognition of the home as a social group, which is of great importance from the standpoint of the church. The best parish visiting extends intimate pastoral care to the entire family, very much, in spiritual matters, like the work of the friendly visitor to a household. THE CHURCH ALLIED WITH THE HOME 59 COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES BY WHICH THE CHURCH CAN HELP BUILD THE HOME There are many community activities in which the church can legitimately engage which have as their ultimate purpose the protection of the home life in which the church is interested. Good Housing The church should be interested, from the point of view of public responsibility, in the way the people live, in where they live, in the type of houses in which they live, and in all the laws and regulations which help or hinder the housing of the people. Health Laws Public health is largely in the hands of the community, so far as quarantine regulation and the stamping out of disease is con- cerned. Just because the church is interested in home life, it should cooperate to the limit in all attempts to make the community a healthful place in which to live. Law Enforcement The enforcement of laws against gambling, sexual immorality, intemperance, should enlist the cooperation of the church, since it sees in such law enforcement the re-enforcement of its doctrine concerning the sacredness and importance of the home. Exaltation of the Home Above all, in its teaching from pulpit and in Sunday School, the church should exalt the beauty and sacredness of the home. Modern social life tends powerfully to draw its members away to social dancing, motion pictures, and all kinds of recreational features outside the home. These features are necessary because modern conditions under which the people live, and necessary in them- selves and this volume has advocated the development of the church as a social and recreational center; but at the same time the home must be reinforced, made beautiful and attractive to young people, and laid upon all as a divine institution to be loved and fostered by children and parents alike. Discussion Questions 1. Why is the home the greatest social opportunity of the church? 2. What is the Christian ideal for a home? 3. How may the church service help home life? 4. Do you think American churches should educate young people for home life? 5. What community conditions should be of interest to the church because of their influence on home life? Chapter VII THE CHURCH AND MEN IN THEIR OCCUPATIONS Every church ought to know the people for whom it is respon- sible and how the people live. This includes not only the adequacy of their living conditions, but the character of the work which they do. What men think about is very largely determined by the con- ditions under which they make their living. What they are is determined by what they think. The church should know " what's on the worker's mind " in every field, for it is with this " psy- chology " that it must deal. The Vocational Classification of People The principle of classification has been greatly elaborated in the adaptation of the work of the church to " natural age groups." The boundaries of these groups were certain " epochal changes " in the life of the person as he progressed from childhood to adult life. Only recently have we discovered the necessity of another type of adaptation, almost as important as that upon which we have been laying emphasis. The individual is shaped and moulded by the major activities of his life, and especially by the way in which he makes his living. This does not mean, however, that his spiritual conscience roots in the economic. The economic for some is primary and the spiritual, auxiliary. Such people are helpless in the face of class consciousness. For them there can be no tempering of class con- sciousness. There is no reality which can stand over against the warring classes and speak the word which can still the tempest. Out of a world of personality and personal relationships there can, however, come a voice which can be authoritative for the world of economics. MEN IN THEIR OCCUPATIONS 61 Dr. T. N. Carver gives the following chart of the "Ways of Getting a Living ": fWar Piracy Plunder 1. Destructive J Swindling Counterfeiting 1. Uneconomical { Adulteration of goods Monopolizing WAYS OF GETTING A i LIVING i Marrying Wealth | Inheriting Wealth 2. Neutral \ Benefiting through a rise in land values (■Farming I Mining 1. Primary Industries -{Hunting Fishing ^•Lumbering 2. Economical 2. Secondary Industries 3. Personal or Professional Service Manufacturing Transporting Storing Merchandising Healing Teaching Inspiring Governing Amusing I Etc. The Ethical Significance of the Way Men Get Their Living The church cannot neglect the ethical significance of the way its members get their living. Not all labor is to be commended. Some labor is destructive and adds to the burden which society carries. Some is neutral and does not justify the worker in a true self-respect. Productive labor is honorable, whether it be labor of the hand, as in farming and mining, or the intellectual service ren- 62 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES dered by the teacher or minister. The Christian should be engaged only in productive labor. The church is interested in developing a friendship between man and man. It cannot close its eyes to the hatreds which come out of modern industry. It finds its brotherhood programs defeated at every hand by the clash of class against class. The church urges upon its members to give faithful labor. It cannot be blind to the fact that modern industry is often so organ- ized as to put a premium on dishonesty and the slacker spirit. The Manifold Economic Adaptations of a Single Church Very few churches minister to a single unified group of people. This is fortunate from the view point of democracy. In a church in a university town, there will generally be four distinct groups of people. There will be the student group, the faculty, the local tradesmen, and the people who have made the university town a " residential center." In a resort community there will be the transient seeker of rest and pleasure, and the people who minister to them. The following analysis has recently been made of the vocational distribution of the membership of the churches in two of our large cities. City No. 1 Total number of churches 38 Total membership 21,915 Percentage of membership, male 40 Average membership 586 Analysis of Adult Male Membership: Classification Per Cent, of Total Professional men 9.5 Capitalists and large employers 6.5 Small business men 7.0 Wage-earners, total 77.0 Wage-earners, clerical 32.0 Wage-earners, total manual 45.0 Skilled mechanics 28.0 Unskilled labor 17.0 MEN IN THEIR OCCUPATIONS 63 City No. 2 47 per cent, of the adult church-members are men. 81 per cent, of the men church-members are wage-earners, as follows : Unskilled manual workers 25 per cent. Skilled manual workers 28 per cent. Clerical workers (including office and store clerks, salesmen, agents, etc.) 28 per cent. The farmer is more and more moving his church membership to the village church. Very few churches can escape the necessity of taking account of several different vocational groupings in their membership. Social Adaptation Does Not Mean a Class Church The adaptation of a church to the different social groups does not mean that the church needs to become a class church. The church should struggle against such a condition just as vigorously as it should seek to become all things to all men, if by any means it may save some. Whatever adaptation to the social and eco- nomic conditions of its people the church should make, it must be guided always with the ultimate determination to lift its people above the plane of their natural life conditions into the general brotherhood. Christian brotherhood knows neither bond nor free, neither Jew nor Gentile. In dealing with the individual, it is the purpose of the church to lift his consciousness into the Christian plane of consciousness. His life attitudes must be transformed into Christian attitudes. Paul's statement is that " Christ liveth in me." This is a good statement of the loss of the individual self and the partnership in the consciousness of Christ which takes place. This sharing in consciousness, of course, includes sharing in social outlook and purposes. What Every Church Ought to Know About the Major Industrial Groups of Its Community Every church should know the significant industrial groups of its community. It ought not to consider that it knows its com- munity when it knows only individuals. The best social survey will take account of such social groupings as the labor unions, chambers of commerce, professional groups — law, medicine, industrial engineers, social, professional. 64 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES It will seek to know why and how they are organized, and will see in them organizations of potential ethical power which are absolutely essential to a righteous social order. By contributing leadership and an ethical point of view, the church may profoundly influence a social group. It can contribute the Christian point of view of service, which insists that every social group must justify itself on a service basis. It can interpret the religious significance of the work which any organized group is trying to do, and thereby contribute to its morale. For instance, it can interpret the work of the farmers' organization in its signifi- cance, both from the point of view of God as a Great Creator, and from the human point of view of the farmer, as the one who stands between a hungry world and starvation. Such interpretation re- leases the highest motives in the life of the worker, and thereby contributes to his effectiveness and satisfaction. Brotherhood is enriched when it is interpreted in terms of specific human asso- ciation. If the associations of men in industry can be lifted up to the plane of Christian brotherhood, not only will industry be the gainer, but Christian brotherhood will be enriched and strengthened. But if the church is to accomplish such a vital function, its teaching must not be time serving, a mere good-natured " jollying " of these organizations, — but an intelligent, positive, morally authoritative interpretation of their spiritual significance and possibilities. The Occupational Adaptation of Our American Churches Gradually our American churches are accumulating experience in the adaptation of their functions to the occupational tendencies of the people whom they serve. In this adaptation the church has a double problem. Every church must have a ministry which is both general and special. For a church to adapt itself completely to any one social group would mean that the church would become as isolated as that group. Its task is to link that group to a brother- hood which is world wide, and to do this its worship and its services must reach out into the great human experience of the Christian fellowship which began with Jesus, and extends down into the present time. The test of a church's ministry is its success in accomplishing not one, but both of these tasks. We offer in Part II an example of the adaptation which a number of our American churches are accomplishing in communities which have specialized populations. In doing so we recognize that this new adaptation MEN IN THEIR OCCUPATIONS 65 of the church has not been as yet perfected, but that it is a realm in which the churches are seeking experience; and it is our aim to take the experiences of the best and place them at the disposal of the rest. THE CHURCH AND THE FARMER The church must take account, first of all of " What is on the farmer's mind." This is more important than what is on his field. In dealing with the present farmer in America, the church must take account of the period in which he is living. He has gone through three periods in his development, and is just emerging into a fourth period in which the church now finds him. He began as a pioneer who hewed out his farm from the forest. Following this came the land farmer, of the plains of the West. Then came the period which marks the large growth of tenancy in America. The farmer is just emerging into what might be called the period of cooperation and scientific farming. It is to this man, at his present stage of development, that the church must come with its ministry. There is an imperative necessity that the church shall adapt the organization of Protestantism to his needs. Denominationalism can thrive in a thickly populated city. It often stands as an ob- stacle to all true social experience in the open country. The rural church must educate the farmer for rural citizenship. The sins and the virtues of the farmer are not the same as those of the city man. Discussion groups in the rural church and church school will naturally discuss the issues which are vital to rural welfare. The benevolence program of a rural church manifestly differs from the church in the city or the suburb. The needs of the poor in the rural community are seldom the needs of the poor in the city, and the methods of dealing are modified by the fact that the church is probably the one institution for benevolence. In enlisting the giving power of the farmer, the church must recognize the conditions under which he acquires his money. The church must also press upon the farmer his obligation to give from his own standpoint, since by no other means can the farmer's thoughts be lifted onto a plane of world-wide interest. Friendship is not a different thing in the open country, but friendship in the open country must take account of certain natural 66 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES conditions in American farm life. The American farmer has lived as an isolated individual, as has no other farmer in the world. He has not yet developed the institutions of friendship, as have the farmers in Europe in their village life. The church has an obligation to promote friendliness through wholesome recreation, and in every way in which it can, call the people together in helpful association. The farmer does not worship another God, but his approach to God may be different from that of the man in the city street. He comes out of an experience of cooperation with God in close associa- tion with the processes of nature. The experience on the basis of which he can appreciate the Divine is different. The true socialization of the farmer takes place when, through worship, his consciousness is linked with the Divine consciousness and with the highest human consciousness. In worship he loses his deepest isolation. The church in its services of worship must spiritualize the great outstanding experiences of the farmer's life. The Bible festivals were originally rural festivals which exalted the time of planting and of harvesting, and called the people together in wholesome re- ligious association. It is the business of the rural church to re- introduce this adaptation to the farmer's experience into the worship of a church. In Part II we give condensed sketches of a number of rural churches which are working at the problem of group adaptation. THE CHURCH AND THE BUSINESS MAN The church has recognized the psychology of the business man because it has had large experience in organizing the business man and his group of churches. Some one has coined the expression " the church which walks like a business man." It is generally a church in a residential section of a city or town, which is well supported and has about it many of the same qualities which we find in a large business establishment. But the church must do something more than simply adapt itself to those tendencies of thought and feeling which are the product of experience in the modern business world. The church must lift that thought and feeling up to the plane of Christian attitudes in such situations. It is dealing here with men who have stewardship of great properties. It is dealing with men who are organizing large industries. It must press home the ethical MEN IN THEIR OCCUPATIONS 67 issues which center around the ownership of property and the management of industry. Unless it does this, it will have failed completely. It is not a question of a church's ability to assemble a congregation in the residential districts of town and city which is the test of success with the church of this group. So much of suc- cess the church has to quite an extent already accomplished. The real test lies in the ability of the church to Christianize the group which it has won. Here, especially, the church is called upon to denounce, with the courage of the old prophets, selfishness, luxury, dishonesty in the strong and the powerful. The sins of the modern business world are peculiarly their own, and the church should know them. THE CHURCH AND THE LABORER In dealing with the individual who works in the modern fac- tory, the church is dealing with a man whose psychology necessarily differs from that of the farmer or the business man. The laborer comes out of a collective experience. Daily he associates with many others in a common task. As the farmer is an individualist, so the laborer will think in terms of group relationships. Whiting Williams gives us a fair picture of " What's on the Worker's Mind." It is a story of anxiety about his job, of fear of unemployment, and of a desire for success and recognition in his particular field of work. He gives the following four factors which lie at the bottom of the labor problem : "I. The huge importance to the working man — and that means to us all — of that prayer of the industrial era: ' Give us this day our daily job! ' The job it is which affords to each of us the platform upon which we stand as members of the modern industrial commonwealth. The job it is which connects each of us with the doings of others in a way to make us important to them, and so to ourselves. The job it is which serves as a crank-shaft, by which we get the satisfaction of seeing the forces of our own lives geared up with the forces of others for turning the wheels of the world's work, — and so for finding ourselves not altogether value- less. Job gone? then the Tightness of the rest of the circle of our interests gives us little satisfaction — in spite of such testimony as that of the hopeful wife who got out to inspect the rear tire, and reported, ' Well, John, it is quite flat at the bottom, but the rest of it is fine! ' 68 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES "II. The importance of the part played by our bodies, as the result of their effort to adapt themselves to the conditions of work- ing and living imposed by the job. Especially the power for in- dustrial and civic evil possessed and wielded by those unheavenly twins of ' Tiredness and Temper ' — the TNT that causes so many explosions in the trenches of both the family and the factory life. " III. The importance of the mental condition of the man in the job — the threat of wide-spread evil to be found in the huge volume of misunderstanding between modern employer and modern employee. " IV. The vital importance of what can be called the spiritual conditions which all of us hope to find wrapped up in our job: the deep-down mainspring of our desire to ' be somebody ' and to ' count ' most of all by reason of the thing we do, — to show our- selves men, by virtue of showing ourselves workmen." Adaptation of the Church to the Laborer The main adaptations of a church in an industrial or working class neighborhood are as follows. The building should be large, with a parish-house like a settlement, to house highly-developed social and recreational features such as athletics, social evenings, night classes, club meetings, and various needed neighborhood activities. In such a neighborhood, so-called institutional methods have their greatest application. The pastor and his staff of helpers should know economics as thoroughly as theology. They should cast their lot with the upward struggle of labor. They should be experts in community organization. They should organize for case work, relief and unemployment, — and for preventative work with adolescent boys and girls, like modern school visitors. They should make the church house a center of social recreation, including carefully supervised social dancing, pageantry and dramatics. Cooperation with the Labor Group Fully as important as the ministry of the church to individual laboring men, is its cooperative ministry to labor groups. The labor union and the trade organizations, in which labor is organized, offer an opportunity for a very important ministry on the part of the church. The fraternal delegate from the Ministerial Associa- tion to the local Trades Council, which is a federation of the labor MEN IN THEIR OCCUPATIONS 69 unions, can often be a connecting link between the church and the important labor groups. Wherever possible, churches should wel- come the chance to appoint such a delegate, and should appoint a man who will make the most of this opportunity. Cooperation with Workers' Education Movement In England, the churches have cooperated with the Workers' Education Movement, and such cooperation will probably be pos- sible in the United States. As this movement grows, there will be a demand for liberal people who can teach in the classes organized by the workers themselves. Union Services on Labor Sunday Labor Sunday offers to the churches a great opportunity. Many of our churches hold union services on the evening of Labor Sunday, and invite the Labor Unions to attend and furnish part of the program. This cooperation should be democratic and fair to all parties concerned. In one community, all the churches join together in a union service in a public place, and the Labor Unions are invited to furnish the speaker, whose expenses are paid by the local churches. This custom has been kept up for a number of years with good results. The Industrial Conference The industrial conference, held under the auspices of the re- ligious forces, often brings together churchmen, laborers, and em- ployers for mutual conference and discussion. This is a service which the church has a right to render, and should be carried still further in all the industrial communities of the country. A pro- gram for such an industrial conference is given in Part II, Section A. A simpler type of industrial conference, which any church can hold, was conducted by one pastor as follows: He sent out to one hundred employed men in his congregation a question- naire with this one question: "If my employer could see the busi- ness from my standpoint, what would he do that he does not now do? " The people to whom this questionnaire was sent were asked to return it at an early date with the question answered, but it was expressly stipulated that the answer need not be signed. In the same manner a question was sent to one hundred employers: " If my employees could see the business from my standpoint, 70 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES what would they do that they do not now do? " The answers which came back were used as a basis for discussion on two Sunday evenings at the church services. THE MIGRANT GROUPS American Seamen. The men who come from the ships and who spend a short time in the various ports of America constitute a distinct and very important group of workmen. The church has recognized a re- sponsibility here by various kinds of institutional ministry, and has rendered a service. The American Seaman's Friend Society is a notable instance of this kind. Migrant Workers in the Agricultural Field We are coming to recognize that there is a distinct group of migrant workers in the agricultural field, for which the church has so far done very little. The old Hebrews made of the harvest time a religious festival, and all shared together in the task of furnishing the extra labor necessary for gathering in the harvest. Our modern churches are recognizing here a responsibility which has not yet been fulfilled. It is one of the unfinished tasks of Protestantism. Migrants in the Downtown Hotels In every large city there is a large hotel population which is unattached to any permanent community life, and which offers the opportunity for Christian service. Many of our downtown churches have so adjusted their program as to bring a distinct appeal to this hotel population, and they have been gratified by a large response. The Chicago Sunday Evening Club is a notable example of a church of this kind. THE STUDENT GROUP Next to the home, the church has had its best experience in cooperating with the student communities gathered in colleges and universities. The churches in college and university towns have developed a method based on several years' experience, which has brought success. Its first task has been to discover what was on the student's mind. The psychological aspect has been as impor- tant as the sociological. MEN IN THEIR OCCUPATIONS 71 What the Church ought to Know about the Student Community Most of the. student communities now make possible the ac- quiring by the churches of essential facts about its life and organiza- tion. In many universities and colleges, the student is required to indicate whether or not he has a religious preference, and this information is available for the churches. The church should know and cooperate with all volunteer organizations which the students and faculty may organize in the college community. The Christian Associations have, up to the present time, been vigorous and noble organizations inside the col- lege community, and it is the business of the church to cooperate with these wherever possible. Discussion Questions 1. What effect does the way men make their living have upon their character? 2. How would you classify the various ways in which men " make a living "? 3. Is the economic division of men in class groups inevitable? 4. How may the church adapt its work and life to a class group without becoming a class church? 5. What is the predominant economic group in your church? 6. How is your church adapting its work to the people whom it serves? 7. What is your church doing to link these people to the great Christian Brother- hood? Chapter VIII THE CHURCH AND THE IMMEDIATE GEO- GRAPHICAL COMMUNITY The conception of the geographical community as an entity is a late arrival in American thinking. We are coming to speak of the community as a larger home. Many of the functions once carried on by the home have been absorbed by the community. The rising tide of community spirit and community consciousness is an affair of the last few years. Very early, however, in the history of our religion, the geographical community came to be looked upon as a social entity which would be idealized and made a part of the divine economy on earth. The terms " Kingdom of God " and " Holy City " represent such idealization. It is now being realized, from the standpoint of science, what the old Hebrews instinctively felt, — that the people of a geographical community often have a mind and character, and have, as Professor MacDougall says, " The most interesting, most complex and most important kind of a group mind." The national consciousness of the modern state is an illustration of this group mind, and during recent years has often over-ridden all other group consciousness. It has thrust into the background the church consciousness, and has held undisputed sway until the recent war revealed some of its moral limitations. The larger community generally organizes as a political unit in the form of a city, a town, a village or a state government. The Church as the Inner Community The religious fellowship which is organized in the church is not to be identified too closely with the geographical community. It is an inner community of persons, bound together by ties which are more intimate and sacred than geographical relationships. Geog- raphy, after all, is a rather superficial condition. Men may be in THE IMMEDIATE GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNITY 73 the same geographical locality and not be very much alike in the important matters of life. The bonds which unite people in a Christian fellowship are moral and spiritual, and only incidentally have to do with geography. We cannot reduce them to the terms of physical relationships. The church will often draw a cultural line which divides a geographical community. The church is a fellowship of believers, and it refuses to be identified with the "weak and beggarly " elements of geography. But, on the other hand, this cultural fellowship cannot be true to itself and ignore the physical conditions which are basic to its physical life. The Rediscovery of the Geographical Parish During the first one hundred and eighty years of American history the majority of her churches had established geographical parishes for which they were responsible. With the final separa- tion of church and state and the recognized right of every group to organize as it pleased, the geographical parish gave way to the " self-chosen " parish, which paid little attention to geographical lines. This was a distinct gain for the church. A church was responsible for the people who came to it. This meant, however, constant overlapping of parishes, and a resultant waste which was to be regretted. A cooperating Protestantism is now returning to a new interest in the geographical parish. This it proposes to do without neglecting the gains which were won under the " self- chosen parish " plan. The proposed Protestant parish plan of the St. Louis Federation of Churches is instructive in this connection. 1. Define the word " parish " as meaning for the purpose of this classifica- tion a unit of territory in which intensive periodical, house-to-house and indi- vidual-by-individual work is done. 2. It is recommended that each church shall have in addition to its self- chosen parish, a neighborhood parish. 3. The limits of the neighborhood parish are to be determined by mutual counsel with other churches, usually had in this Commission. a. It is understood that from the neighborhood parish no other church is to be excluded, and to it the ministering church is not to be confined. b. The ministering church agrees to make a periodical visitation of its neighborhood parish, exchange information with other churches regard- ing families and individuals visited, through duplicate cards which will be furnished, if desired, by the Church Federation. 74 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES c. It is recommended that block visitors be appointed for each city block included in the neighborhood parish, with a system of reporting, so as to keep the ministering church in constant touch with incoming and out- going families and individuals. d. Eventually, the neighborhood parishes will cover the city without over- looking or overlapping. Self-chosen parishes may overlap. The Larger Parish Plan for the Rural Village The following larger Parish Plan centers in Wadena, Minne- sota, and includes six out-stations, of which Wadena is a natural trade center. 1. To carry on the Larger Parish under the guidance of a Parish Council which shall consist of two individuals nominated and elected by each one of the participating committees; this council to elect its own officers and decide upon its program, submitting the latter to the various groups as occasion requires. 2. To promote large and wide-spread interest in a seven-days-a-week program of varied activities which shall take into account the whole man and entire life process; special thought to be given to the needs and opportunities of the religious, social, educational and recreational life of the young people. 3. To bring about acquaintance among the people living within this area by- a. Promoting frequent visitation and interchange of courtesies among the homes, schools and churches. b. By holding occasional joint meetings of the men's, women's, and young people's organizations. c. By common effort of the allied groups to increase the prosperity, happiness and Christian character of all living within this common area. 4. To reinforce and maintain, — and not to destroy or absorb — the included groups and neighborhoods, by practicing a cooperation which shall build them up and increase their individuality, extending to each ownership in, and use of, helps and equipment, etc., to be used for the common good of all. What the Modern Community Does The modern community has taken over many of the functions which were once performed either by individuals or by groups of individuals. It has more recently, in America, taken over the task of popular education. It is regulating the economic life, public health, and to some extent taking charge of public recreation. In a very real sense, we are trying to make the larger community a people's home. Many of the services once rendered by the home have been taken over by the community. THE IMMEDIATE GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNITY 75 What is a Christian Community? If we grant to a community consciousness and character, the Christian Community will be defined as a social group which thinks of itself and of other groups in a Christian way. It will be a group which applies to itself the Christian law of service as the highest law in associated relationships. Since consciousness must express itself in action, the Christian state will be the state which follows the law of service in its public activities. It will provide for the public health; it will regulate the economic life; it will organize recreation in accordance with the best welfare of those whom it is supposed to serve. In its actions directed toward other groups, it will seek cooperation rather than domination. It will seek to live by friendliness rather than by force. The Church and the Community Every church should have a constructive and democratic pro- gram for serving the social needs, and expressing the social life, of its community, both individually and through the largest possible cooperation with other agencies for social uplift. This program should have as its objective the permeation of the community with the Christian spirit, and the raising of the community life to Chris- tian standards. This community policy should become a perma- nent part of the life and activity of the church. But the program itself should be revised and enlarged as the community advances and new needs appear. To formulate such a program, each church must know the outstanding social needs of its community by a survey of the com- munity. It must, from time to time, review this group of facts, in order to measure the progress of the community and to estimate its own success in putting religion into the community life. What Every Church Should Know about Its Community To discover the facts called for by this study, the best workers of the church and of the neighborhood should be brought together and specially trained, in order that when the study is completed, there shall be an effective body of persons to carry out the findings of needs. A section of the study should be assigned to small groups, or individuals, except that in the open country church the preacher had better himself do or carefully direct the work that involves the responsibility of individuals for community conditions. 76 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES The questions should never be answered by mere opinions. They call for facts, or judgments based on facts which are to be personally observed. Where the information is obtainable from public officials it should also be verified by personal observation. In planning this study, call into council any local trained social service workers; they will be able to offer valuable suggestions. When the inquiry is finished, the group should be gathered together to study the total results. They should determine the need that calls most urgently for immediate action, and then agree upon a plan to meet that need. In developing a program to meet the needs outlined by the results of this study, the churches should use their existing organiza- tions, assigning to each that sphere in which it is naturally interested. Church federations or federated groups of church men would be used to develop the program called for by these results. All other local agencies interested in social service work should also be called into consultation in developing a program. The results of the whole study should be charted whenever possible. These charts may be placed on exhibition for several days, prior to a public meeting called to present the conclusions of the committee. In small towns there should be a community meeting. First the broad results of the inquiry should be presented, and the general policy demanded by them set forth in outline. Then attention should be focussed on that particular need which the committee has selected for immediate action. The motto should be: " Take one thing at a time and con- centrate on it until results are secured." Bounding the Community The church or churches making this study must first determine what is their community. In a small town, village or suburb, the boundaries are naturally determined by governmental limits. In the city, a group of churches may determine their community by ward lines. A single church in the city and a church in the open country may bound its community by the limits of its parish rela- tive to other rural churches, or of its trade center, or of a consoli- dated school district, to be determined in each instance by local circumstances. THE IMMEDIATE GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNITY 77 Population The program of a church must change with the changes in population. Every church, therefore, must know whether the population is increasing so as to demand additional church work, or decreasing so as to demand the removal of a church, or whether it is so changing in character as to necessitate a different type of church work. Suggested Charts: 1. Showing proportion of nationalities. 2. Showing increase or decrease of population in last decade. 3. Showing neighborhood pockets or groups, and isolated groups or homes. Church Life No church can develop an adequate community program without cooperation with other churches. It must, therefore, see itself in relation to the total religious life of the community. Suggested Charts: 1. Showing ratio of churches to population. 2. Showing ratio of church membership and Sunday-school enrolment to population. 3. Showing ratio of church attendance to population and to church member- ship. 4. Showing churches of various denominations, location and parishes. Education The facts required can be secured from the educational authori- ties, but should be verified by close personal observation of the workings of the local educational system. Suggested Charts: 1. Showing proportion of children out of school to population of school age. 2. Showing proportion of people reached by facilities for popular education to entire population above school age. 3. Showing opportunities for vocational training. Recreation The facts required must be secured by personal observation of the workings of the agencies referred to. 78 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Suggested Charts: 1. Showing population capacity of recreation provided. a. By community. b. By religious agencies. c. By private organizations. 2. List the recreational institutions and agencies of the community affecting the social life of childhood and youth in three parallel columns, headed " health- ful, harmful, doubtful." 3. List recreational facilities and activities of the churches. Health The facts required can be secured from local health officers, but should be compared with the statements of physicians inter- ested in public health. Suggested Charts: 1. Showing death rate from various groups of diseases: contagious, bad air, infant, etc. 2. Showing in what section death rate from these diseases is greatest. 3. Showing what proportion of infants die before one year: before five years of age. 4. Showing per capita expenditures for health compared with expenditures for protection from fire, for police, education, etc. 5. Showing local conditions menacing health. Housing The facts required can be secured from local officials responsible for sanitation, from local citizens or associations interested in good housing, but personal observation is essential. Suggested Charts: 1. Showing density of population in most crowded section compared with other sections. 2. Showing number of people in most crowded rooms compared with number in average home. 3. Pictures of worst homes. Labor The figures here called for can be obtained from heads of in- dustrial and commercial establishments, from the Chamber of Commerce or similar body, from the State Factory Inspector, and from officials of labor organizations. They should be verified by THE IMMEDIATE GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNITY 79 conversation with wage earners and personal observation of con- ditions. Suggested Charts: 1. Proportion of those working more than ten hours to those working less; same for eight hours; same for seven-days' work. 2. Showing minimum living standards for family of five and proportion of male wage-earners getting less than this amount. 3. Same for single women. 4. Labor organization in the community. 5. Labor representation in community agencies. Immigrants Some of the facts here required can be obtained only from immigrants themselves, by some person who has business or friendly relations with them. Suggested Charts: 1. Showing immigrant population areas in colors. 2. Showing proportion of immigrant population to Protestant church mem- bership. 3. Showing Protestant church provision for immigrant groups. 4. Showing centers for education, religion, health, labor and recreation in immigrant colonies, and their relation to population needs. Charities The information here required may be secured from the officers of the various agencies and institutions referred to. Suggested Charts: 1. Comparing amount of relief work done by churches to that done by private agencies; by public institutions. 2. Showing relief agencies of all kinds and their inter-relations. Delinquency If the churches are to work adequately for the reclamation of delinquents they must know accurately the causes of delinquency and vice in their community, and work unceasingly for their removal. Suggested Charts: 1. Showing photographs of exterior and interior of jail, police station or lock- up, juvenile court, work house or farm colony. 2. Showing how prisoners pass their time by hours. 80 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES 3. Showing probation work with juvenile court and with other courts, and proportion of probationers reclaimed. 4. Showing preventive work in church clubs to keep boys and girls showing wayward tendencies from becoming delinquent. Public Morals The church cannot stand as the defender of public morals, it cannot even protect the moral life of youth, unless it knows defi- nitely the local institutions and agencies that endanger morality. This requires a close knowledge of evil forces and agencies in the community. The facts here required are to be secured by the personal observation of mature persons; by the testimony of police officers, and by conversation with persons of the " underworld." Suggested Charts: 1. Compare attendance at church services, Sunday schools and week-day activities with that of picture shows and theatres. 2. Showing location of places of public resorts such as theatres, moving pictures, dance halls, pool rooms and resorts on the water near the community. 3. Showing the policy of the churches with reference to (a) the moving picture industry; (b) theatres; (c) pool rooms; (d) public dance halls. " From Survey to Service " Manifestly the churches are interested in more than the academic gathering of facts about the total community. Survey is preliminary always to service. The first information called for, in the survey of the community life, was definite information con- cerning the churches. The first action, then, on the basis of the Survey, calls for mobilization of the religious forces in a united approach to community problems. This mobilization should be first of all denominational. It is easier to secure denominational cooperation, and this should be the type first attempted. Such a coordination of forces is illustrated in the City Missionary Society, 1 which professes to be the oldest city Missionary Society in America. Its organization and activities are reflected in the following brief summary : Staff: Executive Secretary, Office Secretary and eighteen missionaries in the field connected with specific churches. Number of Churches Served: Fifteen churches served by missionaries. Many others by consultation. 1 Boston, Mass. THE IMMEDIATE GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNITY 81 Supported: By contribution from local churches and individuals and by income from endowment. Type of Community: City of about 800,000 population. Distinctive Features of Work: The missionaries of the Society, in their dis- tricts, in the interest of Christian nurture administer relief where necessary, and cooperate with the other social agencies. Friendly assistance is given to the many foreigners in the city. The missionaries take the children to Sunday schools, and interest the women in Mothers' Meetings and other church activities. The Society conducts a summer home for mothers and small children, where rest and recreation can be had without charge. A summer camp has been secured where boys, during July, and girls, during August, can enjoy the pleasures of camp life and share the opportunities of inspiring Christian leadership. The Society has a definite program for the poor and needy for the Thanksgiving and the Christmas seasons. Fully as important, however, as the denominational approach to a city, should be the interdenominational approach. This can be secured through a City Federation of Protestant Churches or by a Committee on Cooperation upon which laymen as well as pastors are represented. It should be the object of such a federation or committee to link together the Protestant churches of the city for a united approach to the social problems of the community. The work of such a federation is illustrated in the following brief sum- mary of the activities of the Boston federation during the past year. Held an Institute on Evangelism for all pastors and churches. Maintained 33 Lenten noonday services, total attendance 8,000. Helped promote the enactment of laws for movie censorship, school nurses, 48-hour week for women, and physical training in schools. Cooperated with the Mayor's Committees on Americanization and unem- ployment. Conducted a memorial service in Fenway Park for 15,000 persons. Engineered a church efficiency institute, very helpful to churches and ministers. Established a much consulted bureau of information with files of churches, of church official personnel, of students, of forum and club speakers. Served as religious clearing house for all sorts of societies. Assisted welfare agencies. Welcomed 15,000 students away from home -with a Church Guide. 82 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Secured Catholic, Jewish and Central Labor Union Cooperation in a great conference on behalf of the Golden Rule in industry reaching 900,000 Catholics besides Protestants and Jews on one Sunday, November 13th. Outlined a definite plan for church consolidation and effective work on one of the city's densest districts. The Ultimate Program of the Church for the Community It is not possible for the churches in any one year to realize their ultimate program for the community. It is not wise to at- tempt the solution of all the problems at once. The church must deal first with those which are critical. It will find itself only one of a number of organizations which are organized for community welfare. With a real social mind, it must follow the leadings of the cooperative spirit. The church recognizes an equal moral obligation to cooperate in promoting public health, law enforce- ment, public recreation and education. There may be limitations on the power of the church to accomplish, but its moral obligation extends to every phase of community welfare. The method of the church in cooperating with other agencies and in promoting community welfare can be illustrated in the realm of education. The church should recognize a necessary division of labor be- tween itself and the state in promoting public education. That which the church is to do, it should seek to do in the best way possible. Some of its work it will do in cooperation with such organizations as the Boy and Girl Scouts and the Christian Associations. That part of education which belongs to the state is not outside the purview of the social interest of the church. The church should cooperate to the full extent of its ability by building the morale of the community for public education. It should arouse the people to a sense of obligation for their schools. It should seek to inspire the teachers with the consciousness of the importance of their work, and their divine commission to do it well. Many of the churches make the first Sunday after the public schools have opened an education day, and magnify the work of the schools in the interest of the people. School teachers are often invited as special guests, and are asked to select a special speaker for the occasion. In many such ways the church can fortify the work of the public-school system, and help guarantee an intelligent community. THE IMMEDIATE GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNITY 83 Pastors, leaders of clubs, and teachers in the public schools should keep in frequent helpful association, especially in construc- tive work with individual pupils. The Church and Public Health In a similar way the churches can cooperate for public health. By definite instruction they may promote public health among their members. Many churches, recognizing the close alliance between faith and health, have held special lectures and clinics for those who need to hear such a message. But more important than this is the work of the church in cooperation with the recognized health agencies of the community. Disease is no longer a private matter. The stamping out of disease calls for cooperative effort. Cooperative effort demands public sentiment. Church members should be trained until they have a Christian conscientiousness about those matters which affect public health. By this method the church can build the morale which will make it possible for the public health officers to do their best work. The Church and the Community Organization The modern science of community organization is growing rapidly. It aims to bind the citizens together for common pur- poses and organization, such as recreation, health, social life, dramatics, community singing, cooperative merchandising, the systematic development of social agencies, and the development of rural life and agriculture. It seeks community-wide relationships including all citizens. The church should always keep this ideal in mind. In thou- sands of communities it is in a position to lead and often to house this larger uniting of the community. In every community it is in a position to turn in and help, and to exert its influence for un- selfish organization of the common life. The church should also study to build the organization demo- cratically in the total population of its neighborhood so far as this is possible. Certainly its clubs and organizations for men and women can be so democratized and controlled by the membership. The church, as far as physically possible, can be open wide for legitimate community meetings and organizations. 84 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES The Commission on the Church and Social Service Several of the larger religious bodies are now cooperating through the Federal Council's Commission on the Church and Social Service. This organization is a clearing house for information con- cerning methods of social work in the churches. It is promoting community study and organization, child welfare, and in particular, a movement for more Christian industrial relations. Conferences of employers, labor leaders and ministers are being held in various parts of the country. The Educational Committee prepares social service literature and study courses. The Research Department issues a semi-monthly Information Service and occasional printed bulletins on social and industrial problems. The Commission is at the service of churches of all faiths. Discussion Questions 1. What do we mean by the Self-chosen Parish? 2. What do we mean by the Geographical Parish? 3. What is the " Larger Parish Plan " for rural communities? 4. How would you organize to study your immediate geographical parish? 5. What are the main facts which every church ought to know about its com- munity? 6. What do you know about your community? 7. What ought to be done with these facts when acquired? 8. What are the limitations of denominational organizations in approaching community problems? 9. What do you consider is the greatest evil in your community? 10. How might the churches organize to combat it? Chapter IX THE MIND OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD COMMUNITY As men have taken stock of the terrific waste of life and wealth in the recent World War, they are more and more convinced, as Lord Robert Cecil said, that the repetition of this tragedy will bring the " collapse of Western civilization." We cannot too often refresh our mind with some of its startling statistics. Direct cost not counting interest $186,000,000,000. All costs, direct and indirect, including loss of ship- ping, damaged property, loss of production, etc 355,291,719,815. Cost of all wars 1793-1910 23,000,000,000. Cost of World War 1914-1918 186,000,000,000. Killed in battle 19,658,000. Increased death rate 30,470,000. Decreased birth rate 40,500,000. Total 89,628,000. 1913 1920 United States of America $1,028,000,000 $24,974,000,000. Great Britain 3,485,000,000 39,314,000,000. France 6,346,000,000 46,025,000,000. International Friendship Through the Churches The greatest service which the church renders to international life is when it becomes in itself a fellowship which means more to men than nationality. When church channels are the channels through which friendship easily passes from Christians of one national group to Christians of another national group, we have a uniting bond which will temper the passions of patriotism. This relationship, when cultivated, can become a guiding and controlling force in the world of international politics. 86 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES The old world order, based on force and fear and the balance of power, has lost the confidence of thinking people. The church advances to a new situation with the proud consciousness that, for over a hundred years, in its missionary propaganda it has said that national lines are not the limits of love and justice. It looks upon the plan for a society of nations as the fulfillment of its own scheme of missionary activity. It is evident that a conscience which takes upon itself a world task must feel that it has its origin and authority in the will of God. The futility of a fragmentary, isolated code of ethics to control human society is apparent whenever one thinks of the colossal forces to be controlled. The task cannot be accomplished except as there is the marshalling of a great social force like the Christian church, whose corporate conscience is rooted in the very being of God, and whose outreach is in every province of human society. There can be no divorce between religion and ethics if the battle is to be won. There can be no minimizing of the church if the battle is to be won. The forces of a living church, which is also the his- toric church, in the name of the God of our fathers who is also the God of the present, must rally to the task of setting up the authority of the spirit, in a world which cannot be manipulated from without, but must be controlled from within. For the first time in the history of American Protestantism, there seems to be something of a common mind with reference to a new international world order, and for the first time there is the voice for the expression of this common mind of all the churches. The modern church is writing new decalogues. A decalogue is an itemized bill of particulars, setting forth the obligations of the Christian conscience, — international planks in our conscience platforms. The churches gladly recognize the opportunity to speak, through the Federal Council of churches, their common mind with reference to international matters. We are glad to in- corporate here a recent declaration of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. INTERNATIONAL IDEALS OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST 1. We believe that nations, no less than individuals, are subject to God's immutable moral laws. 2. We believe that nations achieve true welfare, greatness and honor only through just dealing and unselfish service. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 87 3. We believe that nations that regard themselves as Christian have special international obligations. 4. We believe that the spirit of Christian brotherliness can remove every unjust barrier of trade, color, creed and race. 5. We believe that CHRISTIAN patriotism demands the practice of good- will between nations. 6. We believe that international policies should secure equal justice for all races. 7. We believe that all nations should associate themselves permanently for world peace and good-will. 8. We believe in international law, and in the universal use of international courts of justice and boards of arbitration. 9. We believe in a sweeping reduction of armaments by all nations. 10. We believe in a warless world, and dedicate ourselves to its achievement. Organizing for Education But the churches cannot be content with a statement of general principles. There is still one step in the process which must not be overlooked. The mind of the church is not a given and finished product. It is always in the making. As churches, we must help to build the conscience of the church. For Protestants it is not something handed down from the top. It must be built up group by group, church by church, denomination by denomination. The will of God for human society has not been committed to any one individual for interpretation. The corporate conscience is truer in its outlook than the individual conscience. No one individual, or group, is good enough to determine the rule of God for the nations. On all of us is the obligation to seek by cooperative effort the way of God for our generation. It is here that the whole educational plan of the church finds its place. We cannot wait until people have reached adult life before we seek to determine their minds on international matters. We must begin with the children, to train their sympathies and their understanding concerning the people of other lands. The great advantage in missionary education in every department of the church school is that it early teaches people to think helpfully and unselfishly about people of other lands and other races. The new and better world cannot come until mis- sionary and social education is thoroughly incorporated in the whole educational scheme of the church. Until the church has paid the price of educating its people for citizenship, there will be wars and rumors of wars. The only kind of pacifism which will ever help 88 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES society is that militant type which energetically undertakes the task of creating a new mind for a new world order. We must match the large demands we are expecting in pi blic policy with a similar vigorous demand for a teaching program on the part of the church, which will guarantee that every church member has learned to think in more than national terms. The Work of the Social Service Committee in the Local Church It should be the work of the Social Service Committee in each local church to feel a responsibility for promoting Christian intelli- gence about America's international relations. The work of this committee will itemize somewhat as follows : 1. If there is a church library, the best literature along this line should be provided for it. These books should not only be on the shelves but they should be read by the people. Many pastors may help by recommending these books to their congregations, and by organizing study courses in the Sunday school. 2. The Social Service Committee can arrange for occasional public discus- sions, lectures and debates in the church on international questions. 3. The Social Service Committee can promote in all the various organizations those subjects which are vital to international policies of the church. Interdenominational Organization in the Local Community Through the City Federation, or in other ways, the Social Service Committees in the various churches may organize for inter- denominational and community promotion. Public meetings which will reach the whole community may be held, to promote interest in questions of international policy, and to register the mind of the community on issues such as those which came before the Dis- armament Conference. Such a group can well establish official connection with the Federal Council Commission and receive com- munications directly from them. The church can, in this way, secure the voice of the total conscience of the religious forces of the community. Commission on International Justice and Good-will The Protestant churches should organize nationally, under the Commission on International Justice and Good-will of the Federal Council of Churches. This Commission has been doing excellent work in voicing the mind of the Protestant churches relative to the issues which now face the nation . They also form a contact between THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 89 our national group of churches and the Protestant churches of other lands. This is essential, if the mind of the church is to be effective beyond national lands. The Church Peace Union The Church Peace Union may well form a connecting organiza- tion which will federate the activities of the Roman Catholic, Jewish and Protestant churches. This organization has been liberally endowed, and is able to carry forward projects not possible by any single religious group. At present, it represents an effective force for the co-ordination of the religious forces of America, which have a common point of view with reference to international relations. 1. What is the relationship between the Missionary Program of the church and international relations? 2. Does the Missionary Program imply certain political relationships if it is to be fulfilled? 3. What are some of the principles which a Christian policy in international relationships will demand? 4. How could a local church educate its own constituency and the public in such matters? 5. Who are your representatives in the Senate and in Congress, and how have they voted on recent questions of international moment? 90 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Part II PRACTICAL METHODS AND SUGGESTIONS Without overloading the text, it was not possible to insert material contained in Part II in Part I. For those who are inter- ested in formulating programs and courses of action this material is important, because it is suggestive and gives detailed information. We have chosen here to give concrete material rather than state- ments of principles. For instance, we believe that a program of a conference actually held, or a program actually carried out in a church, is more important in this section than the theory of what a conference ought to be, or what a church ought to do. By thorough study of this material, it ought to be possible for inter- ested persons or groups to formulate their own programs for social action, which is, after all, the most desirable from the standpoint of the author. He has not desired to furnish churches with " ready to-wear " social garments. He would rob no church or group the privilege of formulating its own program. PART II Section A THE FELLOWSHIP PRINCIPLE IN SOCIAL ACTION 1. THE INTER-RACIAL COMMITTEE One of the outstanding illustrations of the attempt to apply the fellowship method in the solution of social problems is the Atlanta Plan of Inter-Racial Cooperation. This is a straightfor- ward, honest effort of two races, — not independently, but face to face, — to solve their common problems. The organization is duplicated by both races, and the leaders thus elected come to- gether from time to time and receive into themselves the shock of the racial conflict, and seek to do away with the sources of irritation before they have become the cause of open conflict. The plan of organization is as follows : THE CHRISTIAN COUNCIL — CONSTITUENCY AND ORGANIZATION 1. Membership. a. The Evangelical Ministers' Association. All ministers in Atlanta and environs, acknowledging Jesus Christ as Divine Lord and Saviour. b. Congregational and Religious Institutional Representation. Pastor and two Lay Representatives from each constituent congregation, ap- pointed in regular form by the congregation. General secretaries of Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. Three Counsellors from Salvation Army and others. 2. Executive Committee. c. Officers of the Organization. b. Committee on Church Cooperation. c. Standing Committees on Racial Relationship, Civic Betterment, Law Enforcement, Education, Evangelism and Prayer Meetings, Indus- trial Relations, Public Presentation, Finance. 92 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES 3. Commissions. Consisting of twenty to twenty-five members each, includ- ing members of corresponding Standing Committees of Executive Committee. a. Religious Work. b. Racial Relationship. c. Industrial and Economic. d. Civic. e. Women's Work. Bishop R. E. Jones of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Louisiana thus outlines the program. " If the churches cannot function in the inter-racial program, we cannot hope for the movement to succeed. Everything in the church life is conducive to inter-racial cooperation. Within the church, there should be a minimum of suspicion and mistrust, and a maximum of good-will and mutual helpfulness, and if white and black alike regard Jesus Christ as the active leader of the church, and his teachings the basis of our Christian life, then we shall have little or no difficulty in inter-racial cooperation, for in Christ is neither Greek nor Jew nor Gentile, nor bond nor free." " Wherein may the White and Colored Churches Cooperate? " First. — White and colored preachers in every community in the South should meet at least once a month for the discussion of community, educational, and religious activities. Some will think this impossible, but it is quite practical and has been in vogue in a number of communities. " Second. — Each local inter-racial committee ought to have a sub-commit- tee on inter-racial cooperation between the churches. The members of this committee ought to be outstanding men of both races, — not less than three and perhaps not more than five, but they should be the best men; wise, discreet, tactful, but courageous. " Third. — For the present, the white ministers should fill the pulpits of Negro churches as often as possible, and they should preach a pure gospel without seeking to give the Negroes patronizing advice. " Fourth. — Negro choirs and quartettes and soloists could be asked to sing in the white churches of the South. " Fifth. — Community Sunday schools should be developed in the needy sections of the city, — and in the rural sections for that matter, — and consecrated white men and women invited to teach in them." 2. THE INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE Class consciousness, like racial consciousness, could be bridged by the fellowship method if a sufficient number of people really- believed in it and were willing to accept it as a way of life, rather than the war method in which men now seem to have such supreme confidence. The conferences on Religious Ideals in Industrial Relations, now being conducted by the churches, call for the coming THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 93 together of employer and employee with representatives of the church, in order that in common counsel the way of right may be discovered. The program of such a conference held in the city of Boston is here given: PROGRAM Sunday, November 13 Mass Meeting Faneuil Hall 2.30 P.M. under the auspices of THE BOSTON CENTRAL LABOR UNION Chairman, William Doherty, President Central Labor Union. Theme — Religious Ideals in Industrial Relations. Speakers Dr. Charles S. MacFarland, General Secretary, Federal Council. Rev. Louis N. Epstein, Rabbi, Beth Hamidrash Hagodol. Father Jones I. Corrigan, S. J., Professor of Social Ethics, Boston College. Arthur Nash, President A. Nash Company, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio. Daniel J. Tobin, Treasurer, American Federation of Labor. Forum 3.15 P.M. Old South Meeting House Washington and Milk Streets Chairman, George W. Coleman, President Babson Institute. Theme — Should Workers and Employers Cooperate or Fight? Speaker Rev. Richard W. Hogue, Secretary Church League for Industrial Democracy. Open Forum Unity House 7 Park Square 7.30 P.M. Speaker Arthur Nash of Cincinnati, Ohio. Monday, November 14 In the Church of the New Jerusalem, 136 Bowdoin Street. 10.00 A. M. Union meeting of all the ministers of Greater Boston. Theme — "The Church and Industrial Reconstruction." Chairman, Rev. Ernest G. Guthrie, President Greater Boston Federation. Speakers Rev. Worth M. Tippy, D.D., Executive Secretary Commission on the Church and Social Service, Federal Council. Twenty minute addresses with thirty minute periods of discussion. 94 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES The City Club 12.30 P.M. Labor, Management and Clergy at Lunch Speakers Address: Responsibilities of Management. William C. Coleman, President Coleman Lamp Company, Wichita, Kan. Address: A Message from the Church to the Leaders of Industry. Dr. Worth M. Tippy, Federal Council Commission on the Church and Social Service. In the Church of the New Jerusalem 136 Bowdoin Street Conference on Unemployment Chairman, Professor Felix Frankfurter, Harvard University Law School. Speakers 1. What can the Church do in the Present Emergency? Henry K. Rowe, Professor of Social Science and History, Newton Theological Institution. Discussion 2. Preparation for the Next Period of Unemployment. a. Deeper-Lying Causes of Industrial Depression. Edward E. Day, Professor of Economics, Harvard University. b. Corporation Sinking Funds. Dr. F. Ernest Johnson, Research Secretary, Federal Council. c. Organized System of Labor Exchange. Isaac Litchfield, Organizer of Public Service Reserve. d. Unemployment Insurance, Review of British Experience. Rev. Richard W. Hogue, Executive Secretary Church League for Industrial Democracy. Discussion Union Congregational Church 6.00 P.M. Columbus Avenue and West Newton Street Dinner for Adult Class Teachers, Forum Leaders, Presiding Officers of Men's and Women's Organizations in Greater Boston Churches. Theme — "Social and Industrial Study Courses." Speakers Rev. Samuel Z. Batten, D.D., Social Service Secretary, Baptist Churches. Rev. F. Ernest Johnson, Ph.D., Research Secretary, Federal Council's Com- mission on the Church and Social Service. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 95 Young Women's Christian Association Building 6.00 P.M. 37^ Beacon Street Business Women's Dinner Speakers William C. Coleman, President Coleman Lamp Company, Wichita, Kan. Mrs. Mary Thompson, Textile Workers' Union. Trinity Church Copley Square 8.00 P.M. Community Service Rev. Alexander Mann, D.D., Rector Trinity Church, officiating. Address: " The Golden Rule in Operation in a Factory." Arthur Nash, President A. Nash Company, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio. Tuesday, November 15 First Church in Boston 8 P.M. Marlboro and Newbury Streets Speaker Henry S. Dennison, President Dennison Manufacturing Company. Section B THE FELLOWSHIP PRINCIPLE IN SOCIAL EDUCATION 1. ORGANIZATION AND PROGRAM OF ACTIVITIES IN BIBLE CLASSES AND MEN'S CLUBS It cannot too often be said that any church and any group must first determine for itself what it wants to be and then let it decide what it wants to do. The fellowship idea in education calls for a cooperating group of people who are setting for themselves a common goal of Christian service in the life of which they are a part. The child moves forward from a period of dependence up through obedience to co- operation and independence. There will be less initiative in the groups of the younger departments in the church. And yet the activities of any group are not to be imposed from the outside. Only as the teacher or leader identifies himgelf with the group, so that his goal is also the goal which the group wants to set for itself, 96 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES are the activities wholesome and normal. We have purposely given first the adult groups, because they are examples of brotherly organizations which have developed capacity and initiative in out- lining their own program. A BROTHERHOOD WITHIN THE CHURCH Name The Men's Club. Type of Community Small rural community with a near-by Agricultural College. Type of Organization Community Club. Membership Open to all men in the community. Average attendance about fifty. Distinctive Features: The Club has the regular officers, but has no elaborate constitution and by- laws. Meetings held monthly. Supper served and paid for by the men at the table. When money is needed for special purposes the hat is passed around. Group singing is a feature of each meeting. A Men's Bible Class meets in the church each Sunday morning, where a large number of the members come together for Bible study. The Club adopts a program for each year's work and the program for the past year was as follows: A YEAR'S PROGRAM OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES September 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Get-together supper prepared by the men themselves. Subject: " Plans for Another Year." 2. Club Project for Community Service. Community Clam Bake in a grove by the sea, including field sports, out- door community singing, etc. All community organizations invited, namely: Women's Club, Parent-Teachers' Association, etc. The chief feature of this picnic was the series of reports which came from the several organizations. Thus the entire community sat in judgment on the work of its organizations and listened to future plans. October 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Harvest Home Supper and Barn Dance. 2. Club Project for Community Service. The securing of adequate athletic field for boys. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 97 November 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. " Two Bit Bean Supper " served by ladies of the church. Subject: " Our Schools." Speaker, School superintendent. 2. Club Project for Community Service. Raised funds to send delegation of boys to State " Y " Conference. Poor girl taken to hospital for operation. December 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Fifty Cent Supper served by Domestic Science Club in the high school. Subject: " The Club and the Church." 2. Club Project for Community Service. Cooperation with churches in arranging Christmas Eve Community Carol Service. January 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Beef Steak Supper prepared by the men themselves. Subject: " Public Health." Illustrated talk by a leading physician. 2. Club Project for Community Service. Committee appointed to cooperate with proper health authorities. Minstrel Show by members to replenish club treasury. February 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Father and Son Banquet. Subject: " Lincoln." Outside speaker. 2. Club Project for Community Service. Report of Health Committee. Plan to cooperate with community or- ganizations to secure and support a District Nurse. March 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Stand-up Supper at close of meeting. Subject: " The Town Warrant." Speakers: The Selectmen. 2. Club Project for Community Service. Farmers' Institute projected; housing committee appointed to take care of over-flow of students. April 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Regular Supper. Subject: " Civic Responsibility." 2. Club Project for Community Service. Planting Fruit Trees. " Clean Up and Paint Up Week." 98 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES May 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Ladies' Night with Banquet. Topic: " The Ladies." Musical program by men. 2. Club Project for Community Service. Projection of Community Memorial Day Services. June 1. Nature of Monthly Meeting. Regular Supper. Subject: " History of Our Town." 2. Club Project for Community Service. A pageant embodying the history of the town arranged and put on by the Club. July and August 1. No regular meetings and suppers. 2. Club Project for Community Service. Club raised funds and furnished automobiles to carry fifty boys on a camping trip to the mountains. They carried the Camp Fire Girls to the beach. They arranged and supervised the Fourth of July Celebra- tion. They cooperated with the Sunday schools in their summer picnics. They promoted outdoor athletics and gave their support to local baseball clubs. A SISTERHOOD WITHIN THE CHURCH Name The Worth -While Class. Membership Not denominational, any young woman interested in worth-while ideals eligible to membership, no age limit, majority of class composed of working girls, although there are a few married women with families. Officers President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Purchasing Agent, Corresponding Secretary, Em- ployment Secretary (finds out interest of new girls and places them at work in the class). Tele- phone Secretary. Distinctive Features 1. One central organization — the Bible Class, meeting Sunday morning for serious Bible study. Reference books such as those by Moulton, Shailer Mat- thews, Bade, Dodds, Rice and others used (alternating with Bible Study at pres- ent, the New Westminster Standard Course for Teacher Training, by Weigle, Kerr and Veach is being used as a text). THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 99 2. Departments of Work. All work arranged at hours in which the girls who work may attend. A girl may belong to one or all of these departments. There is no organization for the department other than a director for each. a. Glee Club — in second year; practices once a week, six o'clock. The club is frequently the guest of the Young Men's Club at their Thursday Night Supper. b. Athletic Club — in third year; tennis; basketball; swimming. Meets twice a week the year round. c. Social Service. Recently placed in Presbyterian orphanage a little seven- year-old girl, daughter of a former member of the class who died last spring. Class pays all expenses including board, clothing, etc. Helped build new Union Sunday school; support protective home for girls; numerous other activities. Conducted study of community and its social needs. 3. Monthly Business Meeting. Lunch served, the girls coming directly from work. Allowance per person from treasury for lunch. Girls take turn at being hostesses. Every girl has a chance to entertain the class. Success of business meeting and party depends upon interest and initiative of hostesses rather than on money expended. 4. The Class Bulletin. In third year; published every three weeks; keeps class informed of activities of different departments — mailing list of twenty-six. Girls who have gone to other cities to work or who have married and have moved away receive this Bulletin. 5. Annual Functions. Class Banquet, the one formal function of the year. Each girl is allowed to bring a guest. The Easter Breakfast. Home Coming Day. At this time effort is made to have a letter or message read from every girl who has ever belonged to the class, who is unable to attend. If the weather permits, the breakfast is given in a near-by park, otherwise in the class room of the church. 6. Money. No regular dues or public pledges, because of the varying financial status of the members. Each girl pays into the treasury what she wishes each Sunday. About once a year some entertainment is given to raise extra funds. 2. A SUGGESTED SOCIAL SERVICE IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL The Fellowship Method in the Church School The value of the following programs of action lies only in their suggestiveness. They are useless as catalogues of action which have value in themselves. Only as groups may undertake them with a self-imposed purpose, can they have any value. Even then IOO SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES it is entirely conceivable that any group may and should outline for itself courses of action which are more truly expressive of a common brotherly purpose. For a teacher to impose these activi- ties in a class would represent failure. KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT* Object of Service Church and Home The Community The Larger World Animals Ages three to five Forms of Service 1. Folding papers and inclosing them in envelopes to be sent to absent and sick classmates. 2. Preparing pictures and small scrapbooks for members suffering from prolonged illness. 1. Gift to a Day Nursery. 2. Filling envelopes with beads, thread and needle, and making small scrapbooks for children's hospital. 1. Providing equipment or contributing to the support of a kindergarten. 2. Making small scrapbooks with Biblical pictures for children in a mission field. 1. Providing water and food for birds. 2. When the kindergarten meets through the week as well as on Sunday this can easily be done. preparation of PRIMARY DEPARTMENT Ages six to nine Forms of Service 1. Assisting kindergarten teacher i material (girls). 2. Sunday-school messenger service (boys). 3. Beautifying their room. 4. Boys' choir. 1. Making paper houses, furniture, dolls and doll dresses for a home for foundlings. 2. Making scrapbooks for children's hospital. 3. Utilization of postcards. 4. Pooling toys for orphanage. (Quoted from " Graded Social Service for the Sunday School," by W. Norman Hutchins. Used by permission of the University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111.) Objects of Service Church and Home The Community THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD IOI The Larger World Animals 5. Making May baskets to be sent to a home for crippled children. 6. Occasional concerts by boys' choir at old people's home. 1. Supporting a kindergarten in a mission field. 2. Making collapsible paper houses and furniture and cutting out paper dolls and dresses to be sent to children in some mission field. 3. Making scrapbooks to be sent abroad. 4. Utilization of postcards. 1. Preparation of bandages for injured animals, to be used by Humane Society. Objects of Service Church and Home The Community The Larger World JUNIOR DEPARTMENT Ages ten to thirteen Forms of Service 1. Looking after their own classmates. 2. Beautifying their room by a gift. 3. Mass Club for boys. 4. Girls' chorus choir. 5. Making and securing illustrative objects for Sunday- school lessons. 6. Assisting at church functions. 1. Collecting and arranging duplicate stamps from their own collection for boys in a home for dependent boys. 2. Making games, puzzles, and reins for boys in orphan- age. 3. Raising popcorn and gathering nuts for home for crip- pled children. 4. Making candy and popcorn balls for orphanage for settlement. 5. Making kimonos, surprise bags, and bedroom slippers for hospitals. 6. Dressing dolls for orphanage. 7. Growing flowers for flower mission. 8. Occasional concerts by girls' chorus choir. 9. Selling Red Cross Christmas seals. 1. Gifts of games and puzzles of own make to Grenfell mission or an Indian mission, or southern mountain- eers. 2. Dressing dolls to be used in the same way. 102 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Animals Objects of Service Church and Home The Community The Larger World 3. Collecting Sunday-school papers and helps to be sent abroad. 4. July Christmas tree. 5. Making workbags and furnishing them with needles, thread, yarn, buttons, and other useful articles for seamen. 6. Gift of money to a school like Tuskegee. 1. Making birds' nests. 2. Gift of money to Humane Society. HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT Ages fourteen to seventeen Forms of Service 1. Looking after their own classmates. 2. Interesting themselves in younger boys and girls of the school. 3. Messenger cadets. 4. Editing Sunday-school department of church papers. 5. Beautifying their own room. 6. Designing posters and place-cards for the lunch func- tions. 7. Contributions to current expenses of the church. 1. Providing a scholarship for a boy or girl, under the the direction of the Juvenile Protective Association. 2. Remailing Youth's Companion and other papers. 3. Helping at social centers in games and gymnasium classes. 4. Telling stories and directing appropriate games of Sunday at social center. 5. Giving a picnic to a group of children. 6. Providing a week in the country for a boy or girl. 7. Making fireless cookers and ice-boxes and screens under the direction of the visiting housekeeper of the United Charities. 8. Making jelly or grape juice as a class, for District Nurses' Association. 9. Tearing up bandages for District Nurses' Association. 10. Making simple garments according to patterns. 11. Collecting magazines for almshouses or hospitals. 1. Collecting papers to be sent abroad. 2. Making sheets, pillow slips, quilts, and simple gar- ments for Grenfell mission. 3. Educating a boy or girl in some foreign country. 4. Simple missionary plays. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 103 Animals 1. Reporting to Anti-Cruelty Society all stray dogs and cats. 2. Furnishing a drinking fountain. YOUNG PEOPLE'S DEPARTMENT Ages eighteen to twenty-one Objects of Service Forms of Service Church and Home 1. Regular contributions to the current expenses of the church. 2. Promotion of class welfare and friendly oversight of class members. 3. Personal interest in boys and girls of the church. 4. Conducting walks and talks on Sunday afternoon. 5. Editing class paper. 6. Ushering. 7. Rallying of the young people to attend church func- tions. The Community 1. Entertaining at the home church a group from a settlement. 2. Friendly visiting. 3. Making layettes for District Nurses' Association. 4. Tutoring backward children. 5. Outings and picnics for poor children. 6. Serving at social centers — teaching, conducting games, leading classes. 7. Providing a pleasant Sunday afternoon for young men and women who live in boarding-houses. [8. Reading to the sick, the aged, and the blind. 9. Singing at Old People's Home. 10. Giving entertainments at almshouses and asylums. 11. Auto rides for shut-ins and convalescents. 12. Disposing of work made by inmates of almshouse. 13. Clerical work at district office of United Charities. 14. Accompanying patients to clinics, and friends of patients to visit them at hospital, house of correc- tion, etc. 15. Community Survey. 16. Cooperating with the United Charities in assisting family. 17. Assisting in Sunday evenjng chapel services at county hospital. 18. Contributing to outgoing patient's wardrobe. The Larger World 1. Adoption of the church scheme of benevolence. 2. More elaborate missionary plays. Animals Cooperation with humane and anti-cruelty societies. 104 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES 3. STATEMENT CONCERNING FORUM IN CHURCH The Forum is an attempt to apply the law of the face-to-face relationship in education. The following statement concerning a forum conducted in Sheridan, Wyoming, during the season of 1920-21, which was probably more expensive than the average forum, gives some indi- cation of what is to be expected if a church decides to conduct an Open Forum: Facts concerning the season of 1920-21: 1. The First open forum in Wyoming. 2. Fourteen meetings were held, commencing Sunday, Nov. 7th and con- cluding Sunday, Feb. 6th. 3. Attendance was 300 to 700 and an average of 400 for that period. 4. Cost was nearly $1,200. Due to the fact that one of the last speakers came without expense to the forum there is a balance of about $70. This will be held pending forum arrangements for next season. 5. Speakers from four states appeared on the Forum Platform. 6. The subjects presented were as follows: — " Feeding the World: Is it America's Job? " " The Truth about Russia." " The Golden Rule in Business: Is it Practicable? " " Community Problems." " The Church and Industrial Conflict." " The America of Tomorrow." " The City Manager Form of Municipal Government." " The Merchant and the Profiteer. " America and the Orient." " Bolshevism." " Our National Forests." " Organized Labor and the Community." " The Farmers' Movement in America." " The Present Price Situation." 7. The speakers are classified as follows: — Two Merchants Two Editors Five College Professors One Labor Leader One College President One United States Forester One United States Agriculturalist One Lecturer THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 105 Financial Statement Receipts Underwriters (men of St. Peter's and Congregational Churches) $473.00 Donations (January 2) 274.13 Collections (14 meetings) 521.30 $1,268.43 Disbursements Speakers Expenses and Fees $657.14 Printing and Advertising 194.60 Postage, wires and telephone 62.59 Stenographer's Service 3.50 Dues, National Forum Council 5.00 Heat, Light and Church Organist 70.00 Miscellaneous Expense 6.50 Balance on hand $69.10 $1,268.43 Section C EXAMPLES OF OCCUPATIONAL ADAPTATION BY SOME AMERICAN CHURCHES Group adaptation on the part of churches has not yet been standardized. That it will become increasingly so, there seems to be no doubt. We are not trying here to outline " par-calendars " for churches in various types of communities. It has been our purpose to reflect the important activities of churches which are making this adjustment, and to throw upon each church the neces- sity of outlining its own program while having before it the pro- grams of other churches. We have given the names of important churches, with the expectation that where ministers care to do so, they may investigate the programs of these churches still further. In studying these programs it is well to ask the following questions: 1. How far is the church succeeding in adjusting its message to the psychology of the group it is trying to reach? 2. How far is it adjusting its programs of worship, education, to the mental and moral conditions of the people? 106 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES 3. How far is the church adjusting itself, as an institution, to the other institutions of the community? Is it making an adequate social adaptation? 1. ADAPTATION TO THE FARMER'S GROUP CHURCH A Rural — Village. Distinctive Features: Work divided into three departments — Evangelism, Education and Social. Evangelism — Staff: Deacons, superintendent and his assistants, ali the teachers of the Sunday school, the chorister and members of the choir. Plan evangelistic campaigns once a year. Took in over 200 in the last four years. Educational Department — Staff: Superintendent of the Bible school, principal of the school, the doctor of the village, and president of the Farmers' Association, the County Agent, and two of the Agricultural Bureaus. Plan for lectures during fall and winter. Engage speakers who will interest farmers in their method of work. Social Program. Organization of men and young men called " The Com- munity League " of over one hundred members. Meet once a month. Also have women and young women members of the League. Seek to enlist every man and woman of good moral character. From this have: Orchestra and band; singing class of over 65 members (engage a professor at $10 a night for this work) ; have Farmers' Day once a year, with exhibits and prizes. Also have a staff of " select " young men and women to devise ways and means for wholesome recrea- tion. Plan " Rural Church Pageant " each year. Financial problem easiest of all. Generally place $1,000 in bank each year. CHURCH B Membership — 162. Sunday School — 154. Distinctive Features: Has Church and Community House. Latter is the former Wesley an Church, whose congregation has merged with the Methodist Episcopal. Has Lectures on Agriculture, by men from agricultural colleges. Gives special attention to good roads question. Has Boy and Girl Scouts. Has a Sunday Evening Forum Service six months a year, managed in form of lecture and debate. Committee on Current Problems has this in charge. It also reviews books on these subjects. Prayer Meeting. Has a Brotherhood Bible class instead of prayer meeting. It has interesting discussions. Sunday School has Graded Lessons. Frequently has debates between organized classes. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 107 CHURCH C Membership — 170. Distinctive Features: Community Church where there were Three Churches. $12,500 community house in a village of 569 people (including three-mile radius). Contains com- munity hall — which can be used for banquets, gymnasium, and socials, — showers, kitchen, social rooms and club rooms. Money for Community House. Two subscriptions came from Roman Catholic friends, one of which ($250) came unsolicited. $4,000 from Board of Home Missionary and Centenary Funds. Program. Movies every two weeks at least; men's Community Club to promote good roads, schools, marketing and other general interests; gymnasium; other church activities. CHURCH D Membership — 218. Sunday School — 236. Distinctive Features: Case Work and Poor Relief, in charge of men's Sunday-school class of forty members. Has an Out-door Gymnasium, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls and Girl Scouts. Church is being Made a Community Center under control of Community Church Committee. Forum. One night a month — discussions on controversial subjects — managed by Community Church Committee. Discussions allowed from the floor. Use of Buildings. Public library, local clubs, and other community meetings. Social and Athletic Club in Process of Organization. Baseball, tennis, and other sports. Methodist Brotherhood in course of organization. Has Old-type Revivals and prayer meetings. CHURCH E Rural — Village Membership — 130. Sunday School — 120. 30 per cent tenants; 70 per cent farmers and families. Distinctive Features: Night School for Tenant Population. Encourage tenants to own homes by securing tenants while paying for homes. Pastor Leads People in Road Building, farm betterment and school im- provement. Boy Scouts. Has Good Lyceum Course. Modern Building. Building open to community interest. Twelve-year pastorate. 108 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES CHURCH F Membership — 125. Sunday School — 140. Distinctive Features: Use of Buildings. " When completed our building will be used by Farmers' Union, Lyceum courses, and for public meetings of various kinds of community betterment. Best rooms for gatherings in the community." Community Church under Presbyterian Auspices. Methodists turned their buildings and work over to the Presbyterians here — a successful denominational consolidation. Motion Pictures. " A very helpful and necessary part of our work. Sun- day pictures used sparingly. Too many not helpful. Use them week-day even- ings too." Election Night had a special wire to receive election returns and give them to crowd in church. " This was the first time such a service was held in the church or anywhere else in the community; it was a pronounced success." Budget. $2,000. Cooperative with Farmers' Union and Grange. CHURCH G Membership — 150. Sunday School — 200. Distinctive Features: Church a Community Center. Building may be used by political groups local clubs, etc. Motion Pictures. Used Sunday and work-day evenings. Attendance good. Has Scouts. Two Buildings. Church and manse. Best Part is Cooperation of Pastor with people in all their interests. Good roads, pig clubs. He is also secretary and treasurer of Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics, and Road Overseer. CHURCH H Distinctive Features: Demonstration Church. Model manse, five acre lot for demonstration farm to be operated in connection with the church, playground for children and young people of the church. Also has a circulating library. Sunday School. Graded, A-l by both Presbyterian and interdenominational standards. Boys Organized into Farm Boy Cavaliers. An Organization modelled after the Boy Scouts with adaptations to meet the needs of farm boys. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 109 CHURCH I Rural — Village and surrounding country. Radius four miles. Membership — 190. Sunday School — 130. Distinctive Features: Use of Buildings. To build new $40,000 church. When they get it, will let local organizations use it — the Grange, Odd Fellows, Civic Club, Baseball Team, etc. Plans for church, call for regular church work; a banquet hall, kitchen and bowling alleys. Union Church. Congregational in form and policy. " We preferred to be identified with a great organization." Nearest church two miles away. Membership. One hundred and fifty well-to-do and middle class, 40 work- ing men. Nationalities: Danes, English and Americans. (Fifty or more Danes naturalized farmers.) Encourages leadership on part of Danes and English. Works of Mercy. " Board of Deacons, and the Women's Association (women organized in one group for all missionary purposes — and this is great), handle all relief work." Club Work. Has Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls. Experience. " Pastor ought not to do the leading in this type of work, that is, — ought not to have to be Scout Master, etc." Men's Class has discussions on controversial questions. Notable Rural Churches Chesterfield and Jacobstown Combined Baptist Churches, Chesterfield, N. J. Buckton Community Church, Brasher Falls, N. Y. Methodist Episcopal Church, Lander, Pa. Prairie Grove Community Church, Prairie Grove, Ark. Central Presbyterian Church, Cullucka, Tenn. Community Presbyterian Church, Post Falls, Idaho. Tennessee Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., Timpson, Texas. Wallace Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., College Station, Texas. Union Congregational Church, Hall, N. Y. 2. EXAMPLE OF THE ADAPTATION TO THE BUSINESS GROUP CHURCH A Membership — 1,000. Sunday school — 700. (Well-to-do and middle class.) Distinctive Features: Paid Staff. Pastor, church secretary, director of religious education, social service secretary. Buildings. Church and parish house. Use — polling and registration booths no SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES each year. Used also by local clubs and for home bureau, lectures. A Montes- sori school meets there regularly. Sunday Night Services. Has given them up. Has instead a young people's forum, with discussion on controversial questions such as labor, capitalism, socialism, political issues, and others; allow discussions from the floor. Does not pay speakers. Has it six or seven months a year. Prayer Meeting. Occasional week-night meetings. New series with supper, a few hymns, prayer, and address or lecture at tables, as at banquet. Evangelism. During Lent the minister meets, every week, a group of men of the church for lunch, and they divide up names of " prospects " for personal approach. No revivals. Sunday School. Graded. Has organized instruction of converts. Recreational Features. Club work for boys and girls (Scouts, etc.). Has Bowling Alleys but no Gymnasium. Experience — does not pay. Advice on These Features. " Do not put in any apparatus unless you are prepared to spend much more on trained supervision. Work without apparatus is better." Motion Pictures. Uses them occasionally on week-day evenings. In Federation of Churches. Cooperates with community agencies. Care for Poor. Has social service department with budget of $2,500. Work- ing almost entirely outside of church neighborhood. Parish House used for all manner of community enterprises. Annual Budget. $40,000. CHURCH B Membership — over 1,000. Sunday School about 700. 90 per cent well- to-do and middle class. Distinctive Features: Use of Buildings. Political groups; present election was held in church. Public school Fathers' and Sons' Banquet. Sunday Night Service. Musical Programs, good citizenship addresses, motion pictures, stereopticon. Masonic memorial services, pageants. Prayer Meeting. Dinners and special addresses once a month. Discussion of public questions. Motion Pictures. Uses them occasionally at Sunday school and week-day evenings, fairly satisfactory. CHURCH C Membership — 1,000, about three fourths well-to-do middle class. Distinctive Features: Neighborhood. Center of downtown district. Paid Staff. Besides the pastor, a secretary who is business manager and organizer; all the finances and records taken care of in secretary's office; an assistant secretary; a kindergartner. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD in Buildings. Church house. Auditorium building burned, another to be begun in spring, 1922. Services now held in down-town theatre, seating 1,400. Numerous agencies of all sorts have evening meetings and luncheons in the church house, which is in use night and day. Public Worship. Stress the preaching of a gospel fitted to modern needs, in spirit reverent and worshipful. No evening service since church burned. These will be resumed when new church is built — always had good congregations when evening service was held. Prayer Meeting. The week-night meetings are given up to group meetings for discussion of church work, social purposes, Sunday-school dinners, etc. Evangelism. No revivals, but carries on a constant educational campaign in the interests of what it believes to be fundamental Christianity. Religious Education. No week-day religious instruction, but plans are under consideration to open such a school as soon as new church and church house are built. Graded lessons used in Sunday school. Has organized instruction of converts. For many years had a successful class in applied Christianity; will be renewed. Has one-sided discussions on controversial subjects by pastor. Recreational Features. Has Boy Scouts. A play-room to be in the new church house. Advice to other churches — gymnastic work all depends on needs of community. Believes church should stress social and educational side more than physical. Church is divided into 50 districts for organization of social life. Women are organized in ten live-wire groups. General Education. Had, and will have again in new church, a Tuesday evening lecture and concert course — 22 lectures and concerts for $1.00. No profit — all proceeds used in making course best possible. Attendance averaged 1,400. They are making provisions for Moving Pictures in new church. Pastor used to give many travel lectures, using slides of pictures largely taken by himself in Europe, as he believed them to be educational and entertaining. Community Relations. No Federation of churches in city. Pastor states: " Every Board in city has one or more of our members; we help them by coopera- tion in every possible way." Believes in working through local existing agencies and constantly aims to keep the people informed about them. Works of Mercy. Only " our church poor." Women's organizations do much for all societies needing clothes, etc. Society numbers 350. Church Finance. Contributions on Sundays and pledges. No endowment. Annual budget, $26,000. Helps support a colored church and a white church. CHURCH D Membership — 2,478. Sunday School — 1,803. Middle class and well- to-do. Distinctive Features: Affiliated Church in foreign district. Men's Resort. Building for men in transient district, classes frequented by lumber-jacks. ii2 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Club Work, but no gymnasium, etc. Children's Sermon in morning service. University Extension Lectures and local clubs of foreign-speaking people in church building. Evangelism. " The steady appeal of an evangelistic ministry." Motion Pictures. Uses them weekday evenings occasionally. Experience good. Church in Federation of Churches. Care of Poor. Board of Deacons. In the churches in residential centers, there is the opportunity for a working alliance with the home, and many of the activities which have a place in other types of churches are absorbed by the home life. This is good. It is unwise for the church to enter into a competitive relationship with the home. Notable Churches Ministering to Business Men First Congregational Church, Montclair, N. J. Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, 111. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Va. Epworth-Eucled Methodist Episcopal Church, Cleveland, Ohio. First Baptist Church, St. Louis, Mo. First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Birmingham, Ala. 3. EXAMPLES OF ADAPTATION TO THE LABOR GROUP CHURCH A Membership — 244. Sunday-school (enrolment) 460. Average attend- ance 255, 23 nationalities. Distinctive Features: Paid Staff. Ten full time and three part time. Buildings. Church and Community House. Men's Clubs. Organized with Men's Bible Class as basis. Aim to interest men in " social, civic, political and religious welfare of neighborhood." Young Men's Clubs. Stress social and recreational, with gymnasium classes, debating clubs, public speaking, glee clubs and parties for ladies' night. Cooper- ate with Y. M. C. A. in their work. Boys' Club. Sunday-school classes as basis. Recreational, social and voca- tional. Two gymnasium periods a week. Two periods of one hour each in club room. Women's Clubs. Social, educational, recreational. Girls and Young Business Women's. Social. Also have musical and drama- tic study. Model Flat of three rooms and bath in community house. Instruction in housekeeping. " Rolling Pin " department has fourteen gas plates for use in teaching of cooking. Adjunct of model flat. Teaches 150 girls. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 113 Three Tubs and six shower baths for use of neighborhood. Dispensary. Later will have a modified milk station and kitchen. Library. Has story hour there for children. Kindergarten. Cellar. Has provision " for letting boys ' rough house ' it a little without reprimand." Has locker room there, with a dozen showers. Later when funds permit, carpentry will be taught in the basement. Auditorium on second floor, seats 1,000. Four afternoons and evenings a week it becomes a gymnasium. Friday nights, two movies. Six hundred children average attendance. Members of Sunday school admitted free — others, 2 cents apiece. Saturday nights, — dramatics, lyceum and open forum. No political or economic discussions. Sunday, after Sunday school, a neighborhood concert is given in the auditorium by church choirs and glee clubs. Religious moving pictures shown on subject on which the pastor is to preach in the evening. Legal Aid Bureau. Employment Bureau. CHURCH B Membership — 1,100. Sunday School — 500. Almost entirely working- men and families. Considerable number of union men. Also of foreign born. Distinctive Features: Paid Staff. Pastor, church assistant, printer and sexton, organist, chorister. Buildings. One. Church building fitted for socialized church life. Four tenement blocks rented to the Associated Charities, District Nursing Association and S. P. C. C. Used by labor unions, clinics, public library, local clubs, and others. Annual Budget, $8,000, of which $2,800 comes from mother church. Works of Mercy. Family case work and poor relief largely in hands of church assistant. Also does employment work. Uses Still Pictures instead of motion pictures. Recreational Activities. Club work and gymnasium for boys and girls. Swimming in city's natatorium. Also teaches swimming in connection with vacation school. An " Amherst College enterprise." Vacation school biggest thing going! Pilgrim field in heart of mill section for open-air activities. Forum Sunday Evening. Religious subjects. Six months. Has a Printing Plant for Propaganda. $2,000 invested. Runs all the time. CHURCH C Membership. Three hundred and thirty-three active and contributing. Three hundred and three in Sunday school. Distinctive Features: Membership. Ninety per cent workingmen and families. Neighborhood, "immigrant and industrial." Groups in order of numerical strength — Jewish, Czecho-Slovak, Negro, Italian, Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, Syrian,, Albanian. ii4 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Americanization Work. " English, forum activities, Parents' Council, Mothers' Clubs, and popular lectures and services." Paid Staff. Associate pastor and director of religious education; director of institutional work; director of women's work; director of girls' work; athletic director; office secretary. Buildings and Uses. Church auditorium, — general meetings. Sunday- school building: religious education, clubs, dramatics, movies, classes, gymna- sium, reading room and library, craft uses, socials, dinners, and parties. Also permits labor groups, political groups, and local clubs to use them. Service of Worship. Has stressed current events; European social and religious backgrounds; civic appeals; nationality groups; social gospel; special Christian teaching at the request of Jewish groups. In the Sunday-night services has stereopticon lectures; Zionism; musical gatherings; political meetings. Prayer Meeting. Uses church night plan with Bible study, current events, mission study, and club leaders classes. Evangelism. Does not have revivals. Works through Sunday school, — two months before Easter concerted personal work drive for new members among young people and community groups. Religious Education. Uses graded lessons in Sunday school. Has organized instruction of converts. Week-day instruction. Has play school on Saturday mornings. Religious school Wednesday afternoons supplementing regular Sun- day-school work. Daily Vacation Bible School. Ethical instruction in clubs under supervision of leaders. Forum. Has Thursday night community forum, with discussions on con- troversial subjects such as labor, capitalism, socialism, political issues, and others. Allows discussions from the floor. Does not pay speakers. Held from October to May. Recreational Features. Club work for boys and girls, including Boy and Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls and others totalling thirty-eight. Has gymna- sium. Uses motion pictures regularly Sunday and week-day evenings. Type: " general entertainment and educational, and what religious ones we can find." In Federation of Churches. Also cooperates with local community agencies. Works of Mercy. Care of poor and unemployed through Deacons' Board. Annual Budget. $30,000. Control. Community Council of adults. Suggestions on all institutional and public worship programs. House council of club representation — finance, discipline, and program here developed. Real control in hands of Joint Board made up of contributing agencies: local members, Presbytery, Synod, and Board of Home Missions. Fresh Air Work. Summer home for convalescent women and children. Two hundred and fifty women and children every summer, without regard to religious affiliations. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 115 CHURCH D Membership — 90 per cent industrial workers. Also foreign population: Armenian and Assyrian. Distinctive Features: Staff. Pastor and secretary. Rest volunteer workers. Distinctive work for foreign-speaking congregations. Nestorian (Assyrian) and Gregorian Ortho- dox (Armenian). Nestorian. Has own resident priest. Holds services every Sunday after- noon and one Sunday morning a month at 5 A.M. Salary of priest paid by his own congregation. Is not officially connected with the church. Gregorian Congregation. Under the direction of a deacon. Holds services only when one of its priests can visit the city, about four times a year. Has a week-day school in charge of its own teachers. Meets twice a week in the Parish house rooms. Children of both people sent to regular church school. Also found in all regular church organizations: Boy Scouts, Boy Choir, Girls' Friendly Society, etc. Parents are willing to have their children brought up in the church school. They realize that they will never use their native tongue. Pastor gives his " personal ministrations whenever their own priest cannot be secured, attending, occasionally, their festivals." CHURCH E Membership — 372 — mostly working men and their families. 50 per cent union men. Distinctive Features: Paid Staff. Pastor, and assistant superintendent of Neighborhood House. Neighborhood. 1 to 2 hours' walk from the heart of the city. Two miles in length. Once a creek bed. Narrow. Three thousand people live there. Homes crammed together and built up to the sidewalk. Practically no places for recreation. Fifteen nationalities. Religious affiliations, Lutheran and Catholic. Wants new church and neighborhood house. Needs money. Program. Visitation and relief. Needs loan fund. Education. Has lectures, entertainments, lantern slides, small circulating library, story hour for children. Daily Vacation Bible School in summer. Wants a motion picture machine. Industrial. Sewing classes, wood cutting, raffia work, manual training. Clubs and Classes. Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, Brotherhood, etc. Athletics. Calisthenic classes for girls and women. Athletic teams, games, small playground. Notable Churches in Industrial Communities St. Mark's Parish House, New Britain, Conn. Saint Luke's Parish, Detroit, Mich. North Congregational Church, Cleveland, Ohio. n6 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pittsburg, Pa. The Church By-the-Side-of-the-Road, Greensboro, N. C. Woodland Avenue Presbyterian Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, Denver, Colo. Peoples Church, St. Paul, Minn. 4. MIGRANT GROUPS A. THE ADAPTATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE AMERICAN SEAMEN Name and Address. Boston Seamen's Friend Society. 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. Location of Buildings. Sailor's Rest, Boston, Mass.; A Bethel at Vineyard Haven; Reading Room at Tarpaulin Cove on Naushon Island. Privileges Provided for Sailors. Over 50,000. Dormitory with clean, comfortable beds. Shower baths. Canteen. Lounge and Reading Rooms. Writing tables and stationery. Recreation and Social Hall. Free concerts, socials, lectures. Sunday religious services. Banking Earnings. Receiving mail. Checking luggage. Mufflers, sweaters, literature, etc., distributed among sailors. Motor boats furnished to carry men to and from their ships to the Society's religious services and entertainments. B. ADAPTATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE MIGRANT WORKERS IN THE AGRICULTURAL FIELD Type of Workers. Harvest hands. Type of Community. Small local harvest center. Program of the Church in the Community : Enlisted the interest and coopera- tion of the mayor, the business men's association, and the county commissioners, together with various agencies and other church organizations; conducted a harvest welfare service during the entire season. Cooperated with other organizations in furnishing and maintaining a harvest welfare room in the court house. Tables, chairs, stationery, reading matter and games were provided for the use of the men while they were waiting to find work. If necessary, the men were allowed to sleep in the room. Free entertainments were given several nights of each week. Religious services held in harvest welfare room on Sundays, as well as in the chapels in the open country easily accessible by the men employed on the farms. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 117 5. EXAMPLES OF ADAPTATION TO THE STUDENTS CHURCH A Student Population — 5,000. Many nationalities. Type of School — State University. Distinctive Features: Staff. Pastor, student pastor. Cooperates with Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A. and Interchurch Student Commit- tee in student activities. Bible Study. Pastor leads young men's group Sunday morning. Y. W. C. A. University secretary teaches class of young women. The students join the young people's devotional service in the evening. Student pastor conducts ser- vices for the Y. M. C. Associations during the week. Social Life. A " Church Mixer " is held at the opening of each semester. Socials, hikes, and week-end house parties are part of the season's program. CHURCH B Type of School — State Agricultural College. Distinctive Features: Staff. Pastor, college pastor, and matron. Cooperates with Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. in student activities. College Y. M. C. A. secretary has office in church building. Bible Study. Two large Bible classes, studying the principles relating to everyday Christian living, given over to students. Extension service by certain groups in the church. Conferences held for solving special student problems. Courses offered for training rural leaders: " Social Teachings of Jesus and the Prophets," " The Rural Church," " Religious Education in the County." Social Life. Church promotes fellowship and social activities among the students. The church greets each entering freshman class, and offers it the service of the church. College Pastor is supported by contributions of four denominations. CHURCH C Type of School — State University. Student Population — 7,500. About 1,000 students become affiliated with this church. Distinctive Features: Staff. College pastor in addition to regular church staff. " Immediately after the high school commencements, church sends requests to all Congregational ministers in state and district drawn upon by the university, asking for the names of all Congregational young people planning to enter the institution. Letters are written to these probable students." n8 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES When the school opens in the fall, a census is taken of the religious preference of the students, and those signifying the Congregational church as their choice are visited and welcomed to the church. Congregational Students' Association is made up of the student group in the church, and carries on an active social and religious program during the winter. This organization provides a link between the church and the student. It com- prises six departments: Church, Social, Music, Religious Education, Finance, Social Service. Students are accepted into the communion of the church as " Associate Members " without severing membership in their home churches. CHURCH D ( Note. — The following is the combined program of five local churches in a college community.) Type of School — University. Distinctive Features: Staff. Five student pastors, executive secretary, hostess of association building. Cooperation. Student pastors and assistants in the local church made a part of the staff of the Y. M. C. A. which represents the organization of the relig- ious forces inside the university community. Each student pastor is director of one phase of this united work. Religious Life. Twenty-seven Bible classes for students in the community. One open Forum. Plans are in course of development for a School of Religion. Special services and Bible classes for foreign students. Association Club House. Library, periodical reading room, committee rooms, lounge and auditorium. Coffee house where regular meals are served, or special lunches for noon-time committee meetings. Employment Service maintained for benefit of students desiring work while in the university. Extension Service. Student speakers and entertainers sent into the sur- rounding agricultural region in cooperation with College of Agriculture. Stu- dents conduct summer camps for boys. Boys' State Conference promoted by faculty and student association. Association publishes and distributes the College Handbook for Freshmen and arranges hospitality for new students. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 119 Section D EQUIPMENT OF CHURCH The friendly church must build for friendship and fellowship. Too many churches have tried to fit their groups into the church building. It would be wiser to build the building in a way which will adequately house the various groups of the church. The fol- lowing suggestions for community service rooms, rooms for recrea- tion and athletics, are given here not because they are the most important features of a modern church building, but because they are likely to be important to readers of this book who are interested in the socialized church. The suggestions are printed by permission of the Interchurch Press, and are taken from " Standards for City Church Plants." 1. COMMUNITY SERVICE ROOMS l A. ROOMS FOR GENERAL USE 1. Recreation and Dining Room. c. Size. Large enough to seat at table at least 50 per cent of the people served by the community church. Allow ten square feet per person to be served. b. Equipment. Material for take-down tables, temporary platform, piano, folding chairs. 2. Kitchen. a. Location. Convenient to the recreation and dining room. Size should be one tenth of the area of the larger room. Separate service entrance should be provided. b. Equipment. A range and, where possible, gas plates. Large kettles and other necessary utensils for cooking for large groups. Dishes, silver and linen for maximum number to be served. Sinks, hot and cold water, dish'washing facilities and drain racks, etc. Tables for scraping dirty dishes with garbage receptacle underneath. Broad and sufficient serving space between kitchen and dining room with counter shelves for quick service. Two-way swing doors between kitchen and dining room, with kicking plate and glass panel. Refrigerator equip- ment. Vegetable storage. Steam kettles, electric potato paring machines, electric cream freezers and electric dishwashers are desirable equipment. 1 Quoted from "Standards for City Church Plants " by permission of the Interchurch Press, New York City. 120 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES 3. Library and Reading Room. a. Location. Near main entrance or with separate r.'itside entrance. b. Equipment. (1) Library. Books and periodicals, reference books encyclopedias, church histories, and other church references, adjustable book shelves, libra- rian's desk, card catalogue, typewriter, repair marking equipment, charging system and records. (2) Reading Room. Tables or desks, preferably with seclusion partitions, individual reading lights, comfortable chairs, racks for wraps and umbrellas, holders for newspapers and magazines. B. ROOMS FOR SOCIAL PURPOSES 1. Women's Social Room and Mothers' Room. Equipped with tables, chairs, couches, and furnished in a way to make it an attractive meeting-place for women's clubs and organizations. Should adjoin the day nursery room. Should have large enough closet or anteroom to enclose sewing machines and other equipment which might be used by different organizations using the room. 2. Girls' Clubrooms. a. Location. Accessible and visible from street, with separate outside entrance. Convenient to library. b. Equipment. Should consist of chairs, tables, newspaper and magazine racks, trophy cases and bulletin boards. Wardrobes or closets to be used by separate organizations for keeping costumes and other equip- ment. Pictures and pennants to make room an attractive meeting and gathering place for girls. 3. Men's Clubroom. a. Location. Accessible and visible from the street. Direct entrance from outside of building. Convenient to library. b. Equipment should consist of comfortable chairs, tables, newspaper and magazine racks, chess tables, pictures, rugs, etc., to make the room an attractive lounging and rest room for men. 4. Boys' Clubrooms. Equipped similarly to the girls' clubroom. 5. Nurses' and Rest Room. a. Location. Convenient to school classrooms. b. Equipped with adequate first-aid outfit, chairs, reclining couch, wash- stand with hot and cold water and toilet. 6. Day Nursery. a. Located near mothers' room. b. Equipped with cribs, kindergarten chairs and tables, toys, etc. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 121 7. Civic Center Room. a. Used as a room for evening classes in citizenship for social gathering and special talks, and for committees and other bodies engaged in com- munity work. b. Equipped with text books, writing materials, lantern and reflectoscope, signs and placards, and other materials used in civic instruction. Pictures with American ideals should predominate. 8. Social Workers' Office. a. This room should be equipped with desk, table and chairs for conferences and small group meetings. Filing cases for card records of visits, cases, and follow-up work. A small reference library of special books to be referred to in personal consultations is desirable. 1 C. ROOMS FOR RECREATION AND ATHLETICS. 1. Gymnasium. a. Location. On ground floor, accessible from playground by outside door. b. Adequate dimensions are 50 x 75 x 16 feet. Where balcony is provided for audience or for running track, the height should be increased to 22 to 25 feet. Walls light colored. Windows and lights protected by heavy meshed wire. Where support columns are needed, they should be padded to a height of six feet. Should be sound proof. c. Equipment. Provision for basketball, volley ball, indoor baseball, and other group activities. Pulley weights, horizontal and parallel bars, climbing ropes, and ladders, jumping standards, flying rings, dumb bells, Indian clubs, boxing gloves, quoits, etc. d. Athletic Directors' Office. Fully equipped and located so as to control all athletic rooms. 2. Locker Rooms. Adjacent to the gymnasium. Separate for sexes. Steel lockers. Venti- lated. Minimum of large dressing lockers with maximum of small storage lockers. 3. Showers. Side showers, regulated with ease from entrance, curtained entrances, adjacent to locker rooms. Hot and cold water should be obtainable at all times at each shower. This last standard requires careful considera- tion when plumbing is being installed. 1 Quoted from " Standard for City Church Plants." Used by permission of the Interchurch Press, New York City. 122 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES 4. Swimming Pool. Easily accessible from locker rooms with separate entrances from each. Graduated depth. Tiled bottom and sides. Should be at least 15 or 30 feet. Provision for sanitary maintenance, for frequent and adequate cleansing of the pool, for a continuous and filtered water supply and for the sterilization and laundering of swimming suits and towels should be included. Provision for constant supervision of pool while in use requires a swimming attendant's office with wide window overlooking the pool. 5. Hand Ball Courts. Provision can be made for these in a small room, e. g., 12 x 16 feet. Out- door courts can often be made against blank walls of the building and if a concrete floor is provided can be used all year. Where separate provision is not made for hand ball, one or more wall spaces in the gymnasium should be left clear of apparatus for use with hand ball. 6. Game or Amusement Rooms. Equipped with stands for checkers, shuffle boards, chess, cards and other concentration games. Where separate room is not available for these games, they should be distributed through the several clubrooms. Where billiard or pool tables are installed, equipment for cues and their care should be provided. There should be space enough for chairs at sides or ends of rooms. Room 16 x 20 feet will accommodate two tables. Such a room is preferably located near physical director's office, or some other rooms where an officer is in constant attendance. Efficient upkeep of all equipment is essential. 7. Bowling Alley. Most economically built as a pair of alleys. Should be sound proof. Bank of seats at end for spectators and for contestants in tournaments. Two alleys require a space 11 feet 6 inches x 83 feet. Each additional alley will require an addition 5 feet 9 inches in width. Galley at rear will be additional to the above length. 2. MOTION PICTURES AND STEREOPTICON a. Stereopticon equipment (separate unit from motion picture machine). Stereopticon equipment, as a separate unit from a motion picture machine, is put on the market by many concerns, chief among which are: — Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., Rochester, N. Y. Charles Beseler Co., 131 E. 23rd St., New York. Mcintosh, Chicago. Spencer Lens Co., Buffalo, N. Y. Victor Animatograph Co., Davenport, la. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD 123 In the purchase of equipment, the first questions the manufacturers will ask are: (1) Alternating or direct current and voltage? (2) Length of " throw "? (i. e. distance from machine to the screen). (3) Size of picture desired? The great majority of churches are supplied with 110 volts alternating cur- rent. With a 600 watt incandescent lamp a 12 x 12 foot picture can be had, well illuminated, up to 75 feet. For distances over 75 feet the need is for a 1000 watt incandescent lamp, often requiring special house wiring for increased cur- rent, and a transformer, or, for a monoplane lamp machine designed for 1 10 volts, alternating current, with a transformer for monoplane lamps of 20 volts and 20 amperes. This machine ite nearly the equal of an arc machine using alter- nating current. An arc light is required only when theatre conditions (a long throw and large pictures) are to be met. For a throw of from 30 to 40 feet a 400 watt lamp is sufficient. These figures are for projection in a dark room. For daytime projection where a certain amount of light is unavoidable decrease diameter of picture by 25 per cent. The usual lens provided is half-size objective, and must be of the proper focal length. Roughly the expense of equipment is as follows: Machine Lens Throw Price *20 volts-20 amp. monoplane § objective lens 80-125 ft. $75.00 *1000 watt incandescent § objective lens 80-100 ft. 70-85.00 600 watt incandescent h objective lens 50- 75 ft. 65.00 400 watt incandescent \ objective lens 30- 45 ft. 60.00 400 watt incandescent \ objective lens 47.50 * Extra for transformer (about $35) and any change in wiring. The question has been asked, can a stereopticon ( or projection machine) be operated from a side aisle or gallery to a screen at the side front? These are not very fair conditions, but when necessary to be met the screen should be placed not over 105 degrees toward the audience from the direction of projection, or 15 degrees more than the prime condition of right angles. A plain white muslin or canvas screen should be used in this case. For screens, see under " Motion Picture Equipment." b. Motion picture equipment (1) BOOTH Every state except Michigan requires a booth for the housing of all projec- tion machines using standard film. Construction of booths is governed by the laws of the state and subject to inspection by the local authorities. Built-in booths, which have the advantage of being sound proof as well as fire proof, are 124 SOCIAL WORK IN THE CHURCHES usually of hollow tile, concrete or brick. Portable and semi-portable booths are constructed of sheet metal, Kalamein (metal over wood), asbestos panel or asbes- tos cloth. In some localities Kalamein and asbestos cloth are not permitted. The minimum dimension requirements are usually 5x5x6 feet or 6 feet 6 inches high. Among others, the equipment may be purchased of the following: cost about George Howard, N. Y. Sheet metal 5x5x6 $150.00 A. L. Raven, N. Y. Kalamein 5x5x6 200.00 Sharlow Bros., 440 West 42nd St., Sheet Metal 4x5x6 170.00 New York City Asbestos board 6x8x7 262.65 Johns Mansville Co., New York Asbestos panel 4x6x7 150.00 Asbestos cloth 5x5x6 320.00 Rialto Supply Co., Minneapolis 4x5x6 165.00 (2) MOTION PICTURE PROJECTORS For convenience, we will class motion picture projectors as arc and incan- descent equipped machines. Arc equipped machines are necessary for all throws over 70 feet for a 10 x 12 ft. picture. Arc machines can be operated on either alternating or direct cur- rents. For arc machines, the question of available current, wiring, reostats, transformer, resistance coils, etc., should be taken up with the manufacturer or dealer. Lighting circuits are usually 110 volts, sometimes 220 volts, and must be reduced to about 48 volts for the arc. The amperage requirements are roughly 23 to 50 on direct currents, and from 40 to 60 on alternating currents. 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