Religion: Saving the Country Church

In an age of superhighways and two cars in the farmer’s garage, America’s rural churches find it hard to compete with the attractions of the nearest town. The result, says the Town and Country department of the National Council of Churches, is that every year hundreds of one-room churches are abandoned and left to decay. All told, the council estimates, some 20,000 country churches have closed down in the last 25 years. Many have been converted into granaries and barns.

To find out why, and to see what can be done about it, 1,000 ministers and laymen from 250 communities in 30 states met last week in the First Presbyterian Church of Salina, Kans. The delegates represented 20 Protestant denominations; the theme of their meeting was “A United Christian Witness for Rural America.”

Why It Happens. Principal reasons why country churches close down: ¶ Shortage of clergy. Only about half the rural churches have full-time resident ministers.

¶ Uneven distribution of clerical funds and talent. A seven-county survey in Kansas showed 246 “overlapping and overlooking churches” in the urban areas, leaving many rural areas “unchurched” or overlooked.

¶ Wasteful competition between denominations. Example: Enigma, Ga. has three churches—Baptist, Congregational and Methodist. None has a regular pastor, but they will not combine to get one.

¶ The steady migration from farm to city.

What to Do. Almost every major denomination reported that it has set up a special department to pep up its rural ministry. Some have established bustling “group ministries” or “yoked field” plans in which three or four pastors move into an unchurched district. A Congregationalist delegate reported that in Broadus, Mont, the Rev. Harold Heckman, a former missionary in India, has built a central community church from which he and his wife serve six rural communities in an area the size of Connecticut. All six have consolidated their denominational congregations, and Mr. Heckman ministers to them all, using a Piper Cub to get about.

Other remedies being tried: ¶ Tiny churches are being “relocated”­a euphemism for merging them with the nearest bigger church. ¶ The major denominations are cutting off funds for church building in areas that are already overchurched. ¶ The National Council is taking over the work of the denominations in dealing with the 2,500,000 agricultural migrant workers who have no fixed churches at all. Churches already operate “harvesters”—station wagons or trailers equipped with everything from baseball bats to portable organs and altars.

The No. 1 conclusion of the Salina conference was that all rural churches should get rid of their “excessive denominationalism.” Said Congregationalist Delegate Stanley U. North: “In the country denominationalism is an anachronism. The whole community is the important thing to think about.”