consider without prejudice the possibility of its needing to change its
manner of functioning. It is, however, possible that life has been so
changed, so fundamentally changed, that the Church to meet its present
duties and to use its present resources must make profound changes in
its method of service. When the situation advances to the point where
such changes receive serious consideration, some of us believe that the
following questions will be asked and finally answered on the basis of
experiment and experience:

1. Must not the rural church give less attention to preaching? The
theological student is still taught by many of our Protestant
seminaries, just as he was a decade ago, that the minister's chief
function is preaching. There can be no doubt concerning the supreme
importance of preaching in the past. Is not, however, its effectiveness
decreasing? If the Church were starting its work at the present time, in
the light of the methods of other organizations, would we expect it to
put the stress upon preaching that it does at present? There are two
reasons why preaching ought not to have the emphasis it has had in the
past. Much of its former importance was due to influences that are now
exerted by the newspaper, the magazine, the library, the public lecture,
and even by the theater. The sermon no longer has the monopoly it once
had in the bringing of moral truth to the attention of the people. Many
people are more deeply impressed by the methods of presenting truth
exercised by some of the Church's rivals for popular attention. It is
also true that, since religion has tried to function more in social life
and the Church has not so much tried to build up an experience of dogma
within the life of the individual, the sermon has, as a means of public
influence, suffered some handicap. It is largely because of this that
the Church has undertaken so much new work in addition to the preaching.

There is, of course, a limit in the process of taking on new forms of
service and eliminating nothing. The minister is human and he simply can
not do so much as is asked of him. Charles M. Sheldon, in a very
interesting essay in regard to the work of the minister,[2] says that
the man does not live who can produce two good, new sermons each week.
In the long run the rural church must decrease the emphasis upon
preaching, if it is successfully to carry on the new work that from time
to time it is adding. And the new activities