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                           College essay Feb.8,1950


             After serving about 2 years as pastor in Two-Rivers Nebraska,
    Dad accepted an invitation to pastor the church in Meadow Grove
    Nebraska. Two-Rivers was not a town but a country church and
    Meadow Grove was a town with a population of 498. This is an essay
    he wrote while attending college (17 miles east of Meadow Grove, in
    Norfolk Nebraska, Johnny Carsons home town.) His approval rating by
    his professor was “Good."

                             THE CONVERTED RURAL PREACHER

             The big town boy in the ministry can make the grade if he is willing
    to make many social and physical adjustments and to be made the
    object of many a laugh by the old native aboriginese.
          Small-town psychology is an art which cannot be mastered by one
    who does not first have the peoples’ souls at heart or is unwilling to
    surrender his urban prejudices and preferences. Conquering this
    barrier, the door of effective and colorful service is thrust wide open to
    the preacher. The city preacher enters Happy Village, bursting with
    ideas and projects for church promotion: methods that were eagerly
    utilized by the fast moving indigenous urbanites. He soon discovers
    that they are not ready to spoil life by rushing through it.  They may not
    seem to accomplish as much that way, but at least they take time to
    digest everything and enjoy what they do.
          He also learns that his business is everyone else’s and that
    everyone else’s is his--whether he likes it or not. He learns to like it.
          His son loses his appendix; the next day everyone in town is asking
    about the little boy. They just know these things. If the folks roll in
    laughter when the preacher asks if hennery eggs are sold by a farmer
    by the name of Hennery, if hay comes from a hay mow, if mules ever
    have offsprings, or if a heifer is a horse or a pig, the new preacher just
    has to laugh as hard as they do in the midst of his embarrassment.
    They think it is funny that people don’t know such things.
         The city preacher can make a “go” of it in the country if he does a
    lot of practicing what he preaches.
         When he conquers the chasm of rural folkways and makes all
    necessary adjustments his best days are then ahead.
         People will be more willing to accept his Gospel message if he has
    accepted their country style- which, he discovers, is as infectious as it
    is different………………………David