Many books have been written during the past few years on the ruralchurch. Some of these have given excellent concrete illustrations ofmethods that are proving successful in solving local problems. Othershave discussed the general rural church situation. The rural lifemovement, however, has been so rapid that it is believed that a briefrestatement of the place of the church in the rural life movement isdesirable at the present time.
It has been the task and privilege of the writer for the past fouryears to be almost constantly in the field traveling from the Atlanticto the Pacific and from Canadian border to the limits of Florida andgetting so far as possible first-hand impressions of rural church andcommunity conditions. It is the purpose of the present essay todiscuss some of the general problems in rural life presentingthe