Automobiles have had major impact on American Christianity

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I have said to students . . . the church has never really come to terms with the invention of the internal combustion engine. --  Church Historian Carl Trueman

Few things have had a greater impact on American Christianity than the introduction of the automobile. It begs the question of how much impact culture and technology have on the way we practice our faith? What cannot be denied is in both positive and negative ways, it changed the landscape of American Christianity.

It began with the introduction of the Ford Model T in 1908, the first mass produced car in history. The incorporation of the assembly line resulted in lower production cost and cut the retail price of the car almost in half. Lower production cost and increased wages paid meant line workers building the Model T could afford to purchase a car or other items beginning to be mass produced, items previously considered luxuries.

At the same time on farms mechanization (gas powered tractors and combines) made it possible for fewer farmers to produce more crops at a lower cost. This further spurred migration from the farms to urban areas. Within 15 years of the introduction of the Model T, for the first time in America’s history, there were more people living in urban areas than on farms.

The impact of these changes in industry and agriculture produced a shift in the American economy. Before this era the economy had been production-based, creating food and goods. With a decrease in production cost and increase in wages, the economy shifted to a consumer-based model.

Among the Baptists of Georgia and across the South, the migration from the farms and shift to a consumer mentality created what began to be called, “the rural problem.” Baptist in the south had historically been strongest in rural areas. One GBC publication in 1927 discussing the rural problem stated that “the strength of Baptists would always be from her rural churches.” It was inconceivable, to the writer, that there would ever be a time when most Baptists would not live in rural areas.

The shift to a consumer-based mentality across the nation began to be applied to churches as well. Prior to the automobile church members did not wander far from the community church. If there was conflict, the membership was more likely to work through it. The local church, often for generations, was a place of worship and service. The production mentality prior to the automobile asked, “How can I worship and serve through the local church?” The new consumer mentality began to ask, “What can a local church give/provide me?” Increased mobility meant people could shop for a church with “better” preaching, music, or ministries for their children.

One of the biggest changes was the impact on local church discipline. If a member wanted to change their lifestyle to something previously considered unacceptable by the church, they could find a more tolerant church. Church minutes of this era begin to reflect fewer cases of church discipline. To keep members, churches had to lower their expectations of church membership. Prior to this era dancing, card playing, drunkenness, unexcused absence from church, profanity, “partying with the Methodist” or any one of the Ten Commandments was reason for church discipline and removal from the church roll.

Fewer people living in rural communities, increased mobility, and a consumer mentality towards churches hit the rural churches hard. Many rural churches began to close their doors. The Georgia Baptist Mission Board moved to strengthen these churches several ways. The first was by providing financial support to help a field of churches secure and keep bi-vocational pastors. Most rural churches at this time had Sunday School weekly and preaching one weekend a month. Turnover was high and it was not uncommon for churches who typically paid their pastors after the sale of cotton in the fall to get behind, sometimes several years pay.

The second way the State Mission Board responded was providing funds to build parsonages. Several churches who shared a pastor could receive funding to build a parsonage. Pastoral support was seen as a short-term solution, a parsonage was considered a long-term investment in these churches.

It's worth noting that at least one wealthy Baptist layman during this era, Dr. L. G. Hardman, of Commerce, who would become Georgia’s governor (1927-1931) addressed the rural problem out his own pocket. He gave several rural churches funds to help rehab their buildings before they fell into total disrepair. Dr. Hartman was active in Baptist life serving in leadership through the Sarepta Baptist Association and the Georgia Baptist Convention.

On the other hand, it was during this era that the noted humorist Will Rogers observed, “The states of Texas and Oklahoma have been paving roads . . . so the Baptists and Methodists to wear them out going back and forth to meetings.”

The automobile did have a positive impact in other areas of religious life. It allowed bi-vocational pastors, the majority of pastors, the opportunity to serve church fields farther from their personal residence. Prior to the automobile pastors might arrive on a train, horseback, foot, or wagon to be housed over the weekend at a church members home. Automobiles allowed more mobility for pastors to travel between home and church fields.

The automobile changed the operation of state mission work. Prior to the automobile the railroads provided complementary rail passes for State Missionaries to travel. Each year missionaries included the milage in their reports. As the automobile began to be used it increased mobility and allowed for more time for ministry on the field. Catching the spirt of the age in 1923 the State Mission Board sponsored “The All-Georgia Baptist Motor Tours.” For five days cars were packed with preachers and State Missionaries who traveled the state preaching at stops advertised in The Christian Index.

The shift from fewer rural to more urban churches had already impacted mission support across Georgia, even before the Model T. In 1901, S.Y. Jameson, the third Executive Director of the State Mission Board observed that half of mission giving had come from only 3 percent of the churches. These 78 churches of the approximately 2,600 GBC churches were all located in urban settings. The two leading associations in giving were the Rehoboth (Macon) and the Stone Mountain which included most of the Atlanta area churches. As more Baptists moved off the farm and began to be engaged in work that included steady income, mission offerings increased.

Following WWII, the automobile fostered suburban growth. In the post war years, the shifts in populations were two-fold, from rural to urban and from downtowns to surrounding areas outside cities. As people relocated many large downtown congregations began to lose membership to churches being planted in the suburbs. New churches were organized in the growing suburbs. At the same time some older rural congregations became suburban congregations as communities grew up around them.

Some credit to W.A. Criswell, pastor of FBC Dallas with the development of the megachurch. Although the Atlanta Baptist Tabernacle for many years shared the same mentality. For downtown churches to maintain their membership they would have to have exceptional ministries’ that made it “worth” the effort for members to drive pass neighborhood churches back to a downtown location. Ironically many of these churches had become large because of the automobile as people began to “drive into town” to go to church. A generation later it would be the same consumer mentality which propelled them to market ministries to keep people driving into town to go to church. It might be argued that this was the genesis of “the church growth movement.”

This begs the questions, had America after the introduction of the Model T not shifted from a production to a consumer mentality; Would people have continued to look at their local church as a place of devotion and service (production mentality) as opposed to what can the church offer me (consumer mentality)? Would churches have maintained higher standards of church membership and discipline? Would the church growth movement have ever been born? Would the dynamic mission efforts of the 20th century have been funded?

Like any technology, there is the potential for good and for bad. The automobile has greatly impacted American Christianity in the last century. Today the church is learning to use social media and undoubtedly there will be more technological and cultural opportunities and challenges to come. The key for using any new technology is discovering how to use it to carry out the Great Commission and not as a distraction from doing the same.
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Charles Jones is a  Southern Baptist historian, retired, and newspaper columnist.