ther reason for believing in a larger function and mission of the
church is found in the fact that every strikingly successful country
church is found to be deeply concerned with the needs of the community,
and is carrying out a broad and comprehensive program of service. This is
true not only in the State of Ohio, but throughout the Nation.

Finally and conclusively, it may be added that the broader program was
instituted and carried out by the Founder of the Christian religion, and
was by Him enjoined upon His followers.

What the new program for the local country church should be is no longer
a matter of conjecture. Country ministers in very many widely separated
parishes of the United States have worked it out independently in trying
to meet the needs of their communities, and have everywhere reached
substantially the same conclusion. The program is essentially the same in
all places where the most successful country church work is done. It has
found an embodiment in the mass of country church literature which has
been published during the past eight years, and it has been studied,
tried, and proved to meet the need of large numbers of country pastors in
Ohio and in many of the other States. How it has been carried out in some
Ohio parishes is described in Chapter VIII, pages 75-87.

(2) _A Better Ministry_

To carry out the better program for the local country church requires an
educated ministry. Ohio has suffered greatly from ministerial quackery.
Very imperfectly equipped ministers, such as are found in nearly every
county of the State, and unsound ignorant men, such as are so common in
the Eighteen Counties, cannot meet the requirements of the new program.
Doubtless the educational requirements of the discipline of many of the
denominations are set too low, but even so, if the rules of the discipline
were strictly obeyed, a large proportion of the present ministers would be
eliminated. The new program requires trained men.

To get better men, better opportunity and better pay must be supplied.
Fields of service must be created large enough, yet sufficiently compact
and free from competing rivals, to make good work possible. The farmers
must be convinced that better support of the ministry is essential, in
their own interest. At the same time the best young men of the churches
must be assured that the new program offers a field so promising as to
make it worth their while to enter the ministry. The churches