Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 70:277 (Jan 1913)
Article: Christian Union in Problem and Practice
Author: George Frederick Wells

BSac 70:277 (Jan 1913) p. 1

Christian Union in Problem and Practice

George Frederick Wells

In a Middle-Western town a church, in the name of “church federation,” tried to form a union with a neighboring church and to appropriate the edifice and invested funds belonging to the second church. Those societies were of widely different denominations. That was not an attempt at church federation: it was a pure case of church graft.

A church in one small New England village where, in response to pressing needs, radical readjustments were under consideration, passed formal resolutions against “church federation.” This action was seemingly due to sectarian zeal, which naturally opposes the federation idea. Those resolutions were passed in the presence of the fact that the churches concerned had already been “federated” for many years.

Such is the humorous folly of human action under the influence of greed, ignorance, and prejudice. And thus is seen, in the great field in which constructive church federation is bound to play a leading part, the need of careful instruction and definition. If the general public thought that all a surgeon could do was to operate for appendicitis, it would have as clear an idea of surgery as many people have at the present time of the practical mission of church federation.

BSac 70:277 (Jan 1913) p. 2

The whole movement being yet in its infancy, we are too apt to judge of it from a partial knowledge of a few isolated instances viewed from a wrong standpoint.

There is confusion in the minds of many people as to the meaning, even in its most general relations, of the term “church federation.” It is the special purpose of this study, therefore, not only to remove confusion from the largest subject, but to lend incentive to the earnest study and practice of the central principles of federal church union.

The person who does not favor church federation because he believes it to be the massing of unrelated elements is aside from the point. Federation is partnership for efficiency. It is always the organized combination of purposeful forces on the principle of coordination and leadership. Neither is the federation of churches the formation of a new church or of a new denomination. It is a constructive method which is at the service of the missionary spirit of the churches. It is a form of remedial hospital treatment for existing disadvantages and evils. It is of the churches, by the churches, and for the churches. It is the churches in concerted action, each toward its own true goal, and all marshaled into one mighty army to realize the world’s culmination of righteousness.

Should a denomination choose to take a special hand in the federating or un...