opinion. Thus it is as democratic, if not more so, than the
school.

5. On the other hand, a large part of the time of the country minister
is available for pastoral service. The establishment of community
service activities under the auspices of the church bids fair to
rescue pastoral calling and service from a routine of personal
visitation by giving it a definite community service objective. Again,
in the beginnings in the medium-sized and larger villages and probably
continuously in the smaller places the pastor is the only salaried
servant of the community with free time during the week for the
organization and direction of community service.

6. The church building and parish house can be located conveniently at
the center of the village, thus obviating the objection to the school
building for this purpose.

7. True religion is a loyal supporter of everything that is safe in
social and recreational life. It is subject to the control of the
community in the same way as the school; excessive puritanism need not
be feared under its auspices more than under the auspices of other
agencies.

The usual argument against serious consideration of the church as the
center of community life is that religious agencies are so divided up
by dogmatism that it is impossible for any one religious organization
to assume leadership in this respect without incurring the opposition
of other agencies. While this is true in many cases, it should be
remembered that dogmatism does not have the influence in more highly
developed communities that it once had. Moreover, considerable
progress has already been made toward intergroup agreements, including
the two great divisions of the Christian Church giving responsibility
for community leadership to one denomination or another. In cases
where local adjustments have not been made it may be necessary to
depend on other agencies to conserve the social and recreational life.
In these cases the church loses its rightful heritage.

8. The popular response to projects of building community churches and
parish houses in small communities leads to the belief that the
general public accepts as the correct one the principle that the
church should provide these facilities. The Methodist Episcopal
denomination alone, through the aid of its Church Extension Board,
aided in 1920 in building or remodeling over four hundred church and
parish houses equipped to provide for all or a part of a community
se