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 Far Reach of the Church 
 m America 
 
 The Task of Home Missions 
 
The Abbott Press, N. Y. 
 
THE PAR REACH OF THE CHURCH 
 IN AMERICA 
 
 bp ■ 
 
 ALFRED WILLIAMS ANTHONY 
 
 Executive Secretary 
 
 Home Missions Council 
 
 FEW KNOW HOW LARGE A THING 
 IS, WITH WHICH THEY THEM- 
 SELVES ARE CONNECTED. TO SEE 
 THE HOME MISSION TASK AS A 
 WHOLE DISCLOSES THE EXTENT 
 OF AN INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN'S 
 
 CONNECTIONS AND CONTACTS. 
 NO LESS THAN SEVEN DISTINCT 
 AREAS OF INFLUENCE AND EFFORT 
 ARE INVOLVED IN BUILDING UF 
 THE 
 
 Christian Church in America 
 
The Far Reach of the Church in America 
 
 One 
 
 'HERE is the distinct effort to win in- 
 
 -■- dividuals to Christian confession and 
 service. This is the process of linking a man 
 on to Jesus Christ through discipleship 
 and devotion, the beginning of fellowship 
 in newness of life, with all the mysteries 
 which may be involved in Divine co-opera- 
 tion, and all of the practical consequences, 
 which manifest themselves in a perfecting 
 Christian life. Here is a beginning, the 
 end of which no one can foresee, as it 
 reaches from the individual through his 
 home, his social environment, and all his 
 relations in life. 
 
The Far Reach of the Church in America 
 
 Two 
 
 ^pHEN there is the building up of the 
 A local church, composed of Christian in- 
 dividuals, an instrument for the corpo- 
 rate manifestation of Jesus Christ among 
 men, and for the extension of his Kingdom 
 into all departments of human thought and 
 activity. A local church may have a place 
 of worship, a membership roll, and other 
 physical limitations, which seem to restrict 
 it within a purely local circle. But it has 
 in it the germs of vitality and immortality. 
 It may be imperfect; it may manifest a 
 great variety of vagaries; it may seem to 
 become extinct; but it has been proven to 
 be one of the most difficult organizations to 
 destroy, and to be one of the most fruitful, 
 even under inauspicious conditions, in af- 
 fording men inspiration, giving them com- 
 fort, and preparing them for life and 
 death. 
 
The Far Reach of the Church in America 
 
 Three 
 
 EACH community, whether small or 
 great, has within it, however many 
 local churches there may be, one body of 
 believers who may be called the Community 
 Church. Whether this name be given it or 
 not, it is the church of the community. 
 The Apostle Paul addressed all Christians 
 in Corinth as members of the Church of 
 Corinth, although they met in different 
 households as separate congregations, and 
 were even so divided as to use different 
 designations, some saying they were of 
 Paul, some of Apollos, some of Cephas, and 
 some of Christ. In a similar way, in every 
 village and every city, there is a Church 
 of Christians, although they meet in dif- 
 ferent places, bear different names, and re- 
 gard themselves at times as far apart. 
 There is nevertheless a unity of Christians 
 in every community. When one local con- 
 gregation prospers all Christians in every 
 community are benefited; if one suffers, all 
 suffer. This unity may be expressed in 
 some formal organization, as simple as a 
 Pastors' Union, or more formal as a Feder- 
 ation, or a Council of Churches. The Com- 
 munity unity may expand, as the conception 
 of a community expands. Even a common- 
 wealth may think in terms of the whole 
 number of Christians within its border, 
 who constitute, in no legally recognized 
 sense, but in a very practical reality, the 
 Church of that state. 
 
The Far Reach of the Church in America 
 
 Four 
 
 BOVE each local church is the denomi- 
 
 nation with which it is connected. 
 Some denominations regard themselves as 
 a collection of independent local churches; 
 other denominations regard themselves as 
 the church of their faith, their local 
 churches being but fragmentary parts 
 of the whole. But even in the ex- 
 treme type of the independent churches 
 there is growing a corporate consciousness 
 of a single body of believers, with com- 
 mon interests, which unify them as a 
 distinct group of believers, with an entity, 
 a life and a mission, peculiar each to 
 itself. 
 
The Far Reach of the Church in America 
 
 Five 
 
 HPHERE is also the Great Church of 
 America, which is composed of all 
 Christians in America, however distin- 
 guished and separated into groups, however 
 widely scattered, although unacquainted 
 part with part, and unaware of the unity 
 of the whole. This Great American Church 
 is knit together by common aims, and 
 common devotions. There are certain 
 characteristic fidelities to conscience, simi- 
 lar out-reachings toward Christian ideals, 
 and a likeness in commitment to social 
 welfare, to human betterment, and to the 
 fulfillment of the purposes of God as re- 
 vealed in Jesus Christ. These are the 
 people who make America Christian. An 
 organization like the Federal Council of 
 the Churches of Christ in America, may in 
 part represent them and speak for them, 
 but they are more numerous than its 
 membership, and more influential than it 
 and the sum total of all interdenomina- 
 tional organizations and movements. More 
 and more this American Church has dis- 
 covered the need and the opportunity for 
 expressing its good will, and giving its 
 kindly ministries to the churches of other 
 lands, both through the missionary enter- 
 prises long continued, and through the 
 special relationships which have been 
 established because of the great war. 
 
The Far Reach of the Church in America 
 
 Six 
 
 NOT all realize that there is a Church 
 Universal, which reaches back through 
 all lands and through all times. Every 
 local church and every individual Christian 
 is connected with this Church. It em- 
 braces all times, all colors, all races, all 
 conditions of men. It reaches back through 
 the centuries to the Apostles, and to Jesus 
 Christ himself. It includes in its fellow- 
 ship the Saints of all ages. 
 
The Far Reach of the Church in America 
 
 ND there is the Church Triumphant, 
 
 - r *- undefeated in the past, continuing 
 though misunderstood and mis-interpreted, 
 surviving though seemingly over-run by 
 barbarism, and by materialism, though 
 supposed to be lost in the dark ages and 
 in periods when "the world and the flesh 
 and the devil" have seemed to prevail; yet 
 this Church survives. It is also the Church 
 Invisible, gathering within its folds the 
 great multitudes which no man can number 
 out of every land and clime and time, who 
 have came up out of tribulations and ex- 
 periences, as diverse as the lot of man 
 can be. 
 
 Seven 
 
The Far Reach of the Church in America 
 
 The whole Home Mission task is related 
 to all these separate areas and spheres of 
 work, to the building up of personal char- 
 acter, the combination of men in local and 
 larger groups, the correlation of forces 
 for the extension of the Kingdom through 
 the country, and in every type of thought 
 and action which the country knows, and 
 the far reach of the nation's influence 
 through its Government, through its or- 
 ganizations, its commerce and its enter- 
 prises, and through its individual repre- 
 sentatives to the farthest corner of the 
 earth. America, if Christian, helps the 
 whole world become Christian. 
 
Home Missions Council 
 156 Fifth Avenue 
 New York 
 
 1922