The rural church and organized community activity; a study of church-community relations in two East Tennessee communities

“The Rural Church and Organized Community Activity," a study of church-community relations in two East Tennessee communities, originated out of another study. The University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural Extension Service, and the Tennessee Valley Authority were cooperating in a study of six select East Tennessee communities. The writer was asked to assist the rural sociologist of the Experiment Station in conducting the study. It was further suggested that this was a good opportunity to gain field research experience and first hand acquaintance with the East Tennessee area. The opportunity was accepted on the basis that permission would be granted to utilize any extra time available in the course of field research to study church-community relations in the six communities.

A working church program called a Rural Life Conference was found at work in three of six communities. No equivalent community oriented church program was found in the other communities. In one of the three communities the Rural Life Conference was unable to work through the local churches. As a result the scope of the study was limited to the study of church-community relations in the two communities in which a community oriented church program and the Tennessee Community Improvement Program were at work.

At the beginning of the study the writer had been interested in developing the hypothesis: a church with an adequate community oriented program is a primary community integrating force. This hypothesis was abandoned when only two of the communities were found with community oriented church programs, and both lacked sufficient longevity to provide satisfactory results.