Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1923

THE MINISTER AND THE SOCIAL WORKER-HOLT

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spiritual refreshment in their own souls, which shall constantly replenish their courage,
faith, development, and singleness of purpose. I wish that every service of public
worship in the churches might contribute to the inspiration and strengthening of those
who attend, so that the social worker could count upon what he needs when he goes
to church. I suggest this to the pastors as a matter for serious consideration.
I wish also that social workers were more keenly alive to how much the church needs
them for its own awakening and better organization for community work. It would be
worth while, I am sure, for any social worker to devote a certain amount of his time
to a church of his own faith or to some other church, not for what he would get out of it
in inspiration, but for what he can do in helping the pastor and membership to understand the social movement, and in bringing the church more effectively into social
action.
HOW CAN THE MINISTER CO-OPERATE WITH THE SOCIAL WORKER?
Arthur E. Holt, Secretary Congregational Education Society, Boston.
First, the minister can join with the social worker in reducing to a minimum the
social anarchy which reigns in the average modem community because of the competitive drive of a multitude of voluntary religious and social agencies. A friend of
mine recently enumerated sixty-two agencies which were being projected across the
country in an uncorrelated way for the salvation of American youth. Take a community which I know. We once had one church, and then by a process of competitive
drift we acquired five. Then the Young Mens' Christian Association came in and
organized the boys away from the churches. The Boy Scouts came in and organized
the boys away from the Young Men's Christian Association. The Camp Fire Girls
came in and organized the girls unto itself. Then the Girl Scouts came in and entered
into competition with the Camp Fire Girls. Then the Young Women's Christian
Association came and offered, if the girls would join the Girl Reserves, to organize them
back to the churches. Two or three other organizations have entered into the competition, and just at present one of the community organizations which heads out of
New York City is surveying the community with the purpose of putting up a clubhouse and making itself the center of life for the Boy Scouts and similar organizations.
Our community is like a divorce court-the plaintiff for separation always wins. It
is a standard of life which is being betrayed. Most of these organizations are competing
for the support of the same group of young people. As a result, the organizations make
membership possible on the easiest terms.
From one of the more recent attempts to organize the young people of our community I received the following report. I asked the young girl who attended as a delegate to tell me what was done at the meeting.
"First," she said, "we sang songs, then the leader of the meeting had us all stand
up in our chairs. We put one finger up on top of our heads and all spun around singing:
I'm a little prairie flower
Growing wilder every hour,
No one ever cultivated me
I'm as wild as I can be.
"What did you do then?" I said. "Oh we were told to go home and put some life
in our home churches," she replied.