Faith-based organization

“ Without some such organization as is proposed the churches cannot accomplish their social redemptive work. Through such organization they can demonstrate the vitality of the Christian religion by manifesting its power to meet existing needs, thus molding the civilization of the new century. ”

“ Here, then, is the state of organized religion today in our churches. They are voluntary groups of men and women, long since emancipated from the control of the church as such, or of the minister as an official, set free also from allegiance to historic statements, traditional, intellectual sanctions of our faith; moulded by the time spirit which enfolds them to a half-unconscious ignoring or depreciation of what must always be the fundamental problem of religion—the relationship of the soul, not to its neighbor, but to God. ”

“ But, I go a step farther and ask whether the Church as an organization—not any one denomination, but the Church universal—appreciates its great opportunities, its tremendous responsibility, and the infinite power behind it. If the Church is what we believe it to be it must be prepared to grapple with every problem, individual and social, whether it affects only a community or involves a state, a nation, or a world. There must be some intelligence large enough to direct the world or the world will run amuck. ”

“ A Church is an organization, a social body, with a certain doctrine to proclaim, a certain faith to hand down to men. The doctrine is not in all details final—each phase of faith may change. But the organization, to protect its own purity and integrity—however generous in allowing individual research, and the expression of individual ideas—must exert authority over the teachers in her midst, those who are called by her name, who have her children in their charge, and for whose teaching the Church, as a whole, is responsible. ”

“ It is impossible, however, that the work which they strive singly to accomplish, whether for education, philanthropy, political reform and progress, or the promotion of the Christian religion, should be successfully performed except through Catholic unity and organization in the communion of the one true Church. ”

“ But in the movement of the churches toward a truer charity, a grander catholicity, a larger liberty, and a higher unity, foreshadowing the ultimate attainment of a form of the church on earth akin to that of the church in heaven, it cannot be denied that the new organization, so far as it is faithful to the revealings it accepts, is leading all the others. ”

“ Church with the Church of God, and seeks the fusion of all denominations into one external body on account of difficulty in conceiving of the Church as one amid a multiplicity of forms of organization, creed, and life. The last few years have given birth to many schemes to secure Church unity by some external means, or in some external sense—by inclusion in a common organization, as if unity were attainable "by building a great house around a divided family," or by enforced uniformity in forms of worship, or the like—none of them the product of a truly liberal spirit. ”

“ In the midst of this relaxation of every rule of life, grew surely, but unobserved, the Christian Church, which drew strength from the very helplessness of the civil state, and was forced, in self-defence, to establish a regular organization in order to extend to its members the inestimable benefits of regularity and law. ”

“ On the contrary, my belief is that Christianity should permeate all the relations, and all the institutions of society; and hence that there is no true, faithful, exercise of the Christian ministry, unless that ministry causes the faith to touch everywhere with an illuminating, life-giving energy. ”

“ Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. ”

“ Indeed the Church of itself, because of its wonderful propagation, its pre-eminent sanctity and inexhaustible fecundity in everything good, its Catholic unity and invincible duration, is a grand permanent proof of its credibility and irrefutable testimony in behalf of its divine mission. Thus, like a 'standard unto the nations,' it invites those to come to it who have not yet believed, and assures its children that the faith they profess rests upon a most firm foundation. ”

“ Now with the intrusion of the social question into religion, a new concept of church organization came immediately to the fore. The unit of fellowship was now no longer the denomination, but the community. The centre of life and allegiance was no longer the challenge of ancient controversy, but the cry of present day human need. ”

“ Man after man has returned from the front, to tell us that the denominational church is dead. A new ordering of Christendom is at hand. The unit of organization will be not the one belief, nor even the one spirit, but the one field of service. Not the sect, but the community, will be the nucleus of integration. We will have groupings not of Methodist churches, and Baptist churches, and Unitarian churches, to remind the world of ancient differences, but of New York churches, and Boston churches, and San Francisco churches, to teach the world of present needs and future hopes. ”

“ What right have the churches to delegate this tremendous work of raising up the entire heathen world to a few overburdened societies? Let every church arise and do its share directly for the salvation of mankind, and the problem of the world's evangelization will soon be solved. ”

“ The aim of the Federation was to bring all the evangelical Nonconformist churches into closer association in order that they might in various localities take concerted action on questions affecting their common faith and interests and the social, moral, and religious welfare of the community. ”

“ On this subject—on the real nature and unity of that great and widely-scattered society which we call the Church of God, and its real claims on the heart and conscience—on the question whether it is intrinsically desirable that the organization of a Church should be vigorous and firmly strung, or lax and pliant—on these and other questions lying outside the range of the foregoing remarks every man has a right to his own opinions, and I have mine. ”

“ This movement then aims at the christianizing of society in all its interests and activities, and at the salvation of the whole man, spiritual and physical, without which society cannot be saved. Anything less comprehensive would not grasp the situation and be equal to the existing emergency. Is it not, therefore, quite evident, that those who do not sympathize with these objects, and those who do not regard Christ as a Saviour either of the individual or of society cannot participate in the management of the organization? ”

“ When we consider the nature and extent of the work committed to the care of this organization, and that the appeal comes to us as a Christian duty, to help educate and Christianize these millions of our own citizens, now living in a condition of ignorance and degradation, we are forced to the conclusion, that our churches do not realize sufficiently, either their obligation or privilege, to meet the call with liberal and glad contributions. ”

“ Jesus did not establish a church; then why should any of his followers do what he did not even suggest, and besides, claim infallibility for what they have done? Certainly in human affairs organization is essential, but principles should be first of all, and instead of wasting time over dogmas and trivial rites and ceremonies, the church, as a society, should follow and imitate Jesus in doing the work he did. ”

“ The great forces of civilization, such as manufactures, commerce, education and politics, are becoming more and more perfectly organized. If, therefore, religion is to retain its position among them as one of the great determining forces of civilization, and much more, if it is to gain a decisive influence over them all, the churches also must avail themselves of the greatly increased effectiveness which is afforded by organization and cooperation. ”

“ When once these organizations have been formed and have secured a financial backing, they have continued to spread, until to-day rural America presents the spectacle of religious forces agreeing on the broad general program of the relation of the church to community needs but paralyzed because of dissensions over less essential principles of theological dogma. The reasons for separate organizations have often been forgotten and loyalty to a particular organization as such has taken its place. ”

“ And it is hardly to be expected that the people who are in these different states as to good and truth will ever be formed into any one religious organization. On the contrary, we should expect them to be distributed throughout the different organizations, and some, doubtless, outside of them all. ”

“ Those entering by primary obedience are received on their own terms. Such organizations, not daring to stress loyalty to Christ and the New Testament, must find an outlet for their religion in social service. Deeper than this they can not go. They cease to be churches of Christ, and, at best, are nothing but altruistic clubs.
We hear of one such church that has Jews, Mormons and Catholics in its membership. ”

“ So long as the new organisation claims to be Christian at all, it must go back for its foundation to Jesus Christ and His Apostles, and he himself can appear only as a reformer, a restorer of what professes, and must profess, to be the religion which they delivered to mankind. ”

“ The church must serve some distinct purpose—of ethical guidance, of emotional uplift, of social service—in character-building. Such are the forces to which we now are turning. Where ancient philosophy appealed through the lecturer at his desk, where Christianity sent its missionary to proclaim a faith, or set its priest to celebrate mass, or its minister to preach a sermon,—in place of these partial resources we now realize that every normal activity of humanity is to serve in building up man, and that "the true church of God is organized human society." ”

“ If I have succeeded in answering the cavils which seek to discredit the church as a social organization, and especially as an agency for the maintenance of social worship, let me go on to suggest some positive reasons for the existence of such an agency.
Such an opportunity as the church offers for social worship is essential to the maintenance of religion. Religious feeling the expression of which was confined to the relations between the individual and his God, would become self-centred, egoistic, and morbid. ”

“ It must also be recognized that until the two great branches of the Christian Church—Catholicism and Protestantism—learn to cooperate in their service to the community, the religious forces of America cannot present a united front in rendering the service that belongs peculiarly to them. ”

“ The Independents, and those called Missionaries, are no new party; but an old one revived, every congregation formeth a particular Church, hath no higher Court than its own members, and every member has a right to speak. They say that faith, human or divine, implies nothing more but simply believing.—That the difference between divine and human faith doth, not consist in its nature, but in the object of it. ”

“ Finally, and most important, we must recognize that no other institution can take the place of the Christian church as a source of those ideals of life which give religious sanction to loyalty to the common good—to the community—rather than to self or particular interests. ”

“ It has brought the Church to a new place of prominence in Christian thought. Men realize their indebtedness for their own spiritual life to the collective religious experience of the past, represented in the Church; their need of its fellowship for their growth in faith and usefulness; and the necessity of organized religious effort, if society is to be leavened with the Spirit of Christ. Church membership becomes a duty for every socially minded Christian. And the social purpose renders Church unity a pressing task for the existing Christian communions. ”

“ This unity of plan will bring the Catholic consciousness to a focus. It will create an intelligent interest in Catholic social work, and lead to the gradual formation of various specific social organizations. When luminous rays are brought to a focus their light and heat are most intense.
The best concerted plans, the greatest enthusiasm to execute them, will be of no avail without leadership. For the secret of the success and usefulness of an organization is to be found in the ability, character and ideals of its leader. ”

“ It presents a variety of group types to match the inclinations and opinions of different types of mind. One type is that of a closely knit, centralized organization, claiming ecclesiastical authority over individual opinions and practices on the principle that religion is a static thing, a law fixed in the eternal order, and not to be improved upon or questioned. Another type is that of loosely federated ecclesiastical units, flexible in organization and creed, cherishing religion as a dynamic thing, suiting itself to the changing mind of man and adjusting itself to individual and social need. ”

“ In this day of those shifting standards which mark the gradual transference of power from one group to another in the community, and the merging of a spent epoch in a new order, neither the chief opportunity nor the most serious peril of religious leadership is met by fresh and energetic programs of religion in action. ”