id* Sv 
 
 THE 
 
 Home Mission Task 
 
 An Introductory Statement 
 
 By 
 
 ALFRED WILLIAMS ANTHONY 
 
 Executive Secretary of the Home 
 Missions Council 
 
 156 FIFTH AVENUE 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
♦ 
 
THE REASON On March 22, 1918, a com- 
 WHT plimentary luncheon was giv- 
 
 en the new Executive Secretary of the Home 
 Missions Council in the rooms of the Aldine 
 Club of New York City by representatives of 
 the Boards of the different denominational 
 home mission organizations composing the 
 Home Missions Council, and by representatives 
 of other kindred bodies. 
 
 Not for the purposes of instruction, nor with 
 any novel program, or even fresh and original 
 statement, yet for the purpose of imparting 
 an atmosphere, and of indicating a spirit in 
 which home missionary enterprises must to-day 
 be considered, the new Secretary uttered the 
 following address as a kind of inaugural. The 
 value of these words, if they have value, con- 
 sists in their socializing common sentiments; 
 or, to use an Apostle's phrase, they are in- 
 tended to stir up pure minds by way of re- 
 membrance. 
 
 Alfred Williams Anthony, 
 
 Executive Secretary. 
 
 156 Fifth Avenue, 
 
 New York City. 
 
 3 
 
THE HOME MISSION TASK 
 
 A COMMON 
 MISSION 
 
 The task of Foreign Missions 
 and the task of Home Missions 
 are one and the same, — it is to 
 
 win the world to Jesus^ Christ, or, to use the 
 New Testament phrase, "to make disciples of 
 nil nations. ' ' It is an ethnic, a cosmic task. 
 Altho energies be used, and at times be almost 
 exhausted, in attention to minor details and in 
 the doing of lesser deeds, yet the Christian's 
 ambition must not lose sight of the ultimate 
 goal, the coming of the Kingdom throughout 
 the entire world. 
 
 The task is staggering, yet it is ours. No 
 inan is equal to it, yet he must face it. And 
 no man should lose sight of world missions, or 
 content himself with anjrthing less. 
 
 MUTUAL AND conducted more successful- 
 INTRO-ACTIVE ^^^^ Mission task 
 
 would be reduced, for then the coming immi- 
 grant might arrive already converted to Christ. 
 Happy the day for America if this were the 
 case even ten fold that which is now true! 
 If the Home Mission task were more perfectly 
 accomplished, then would the Foreign Mission 
 task be relieved and marvelously promoted, for 
 then the multitude of strangers who have 
 
 Were Foreign Missions 
 
 4 
 
sojouined in America for a season, and are 
 returning to their native land, would carry- 
 back, emplanted in their own breasts, the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ, and would become the 
 most effective missionaries to their own peoples. 
 In their inter-Yelations and cross-cuttings of 
 influeiice and achievement the two missions are 
 inseparable, — home and foreign. 
 
 advantage over Home Missions. There is a 
 glamour of remoteness and mystery; "distance 
 lends enchantment to the view." In important 
 ways Home Missions have an advantage over 
 Foreign Missions, inasmuch as home mission 
 funds are not heavily drained by the expense 
 of administering work at great distances, — 
 even half around the globe. Perhaps the ad- 
 vantage of close supervision by administrative 
 heads in the home mission fields is more than 
 offset by the necessity upon the Foreign Mis- 
 sionary of determining weighty matters by his 
 own judgment, and of developing his own 
 initiative and independence. But however the 
 advantages and disadvantages may lie, they 
 are but mere matters of administration and of 
 human adjustment. In the sight of Heaven 
 neither, we may well believe, takes' precedence 
 over the other. It is doubtful whether Heaven, 
 or indeed whether we, if we ' were in Heaven, 
 would use these distinguishing terms, ' ' home ' ' 
 and "foreign." Is America nearer the throne 
 
 ANTI- 
 PROVINCIAL 
 
 In some respects Foreign Mis- 
 sions in their appeal to the 
 home constituency have an 
 
of Go<i than is I^iUrope or Asia or Africa? 
 Are other continents, or the islands of the 
 seas, any more ' ' foreign ' ' to the Great Father 
 than is America? We must avoid provincial- 
 ism, if we would be truly Christian. We must 
 yearn for, and work for, the world, if we would 
 be ijerfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect, 
 who because of love for the world, gave His 
 Only Begotten Son. 
 
 With sympathies comprehensive and universal 
 we take up the task of Home Missions. It iis 
 not something over against some other thing. 
 It is not a piece of work isolated and detached. 
 It is a part of a great whole, and we must 
 undertake it in the spirit of co-operation, to 
 harmonize it and co-ordinate it with all other 
 wholesome undertakings of the church and of 
 society. 
 
 may seem to separate the Home Mission field 
 from the world field, nevertheless as a matter 
 of convenience for concentrating our attention, 
 and directing our energies and efforts, we rec- 
 ognize that Home Mission activities are the 
 activities of the church, chiefly in the United 
 States and its dependencies, put forth in be- 
 Kalf of those who are not now already within 
 her membership and fellowship. It is the task 
 af the Christian Church in America, — meaning 
 by America, the United States, Alaska, Porto 
 Rieo, the Sandwich Islands, and, in the phrase- 
 
 CHRISTIANIZ- 
 ING AMERICA 
 
 Free then of any divisive 
 spirit, and opposed to any 
 acts, or even phrases, which 
 
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ology of many l)oards, in some instances Mex- 
 ico, and in one instace at least San Sal- 
 vador. Horo is purely a geographical limita- 
 tion . 
 
 tasli of Chi'istianizing America. This is in 
 itself almost appalling when looked at as a 
 responsibility. . almost impossible when aimed 
 at as an achievement. How can America be 
 Christianized! She is not safeguarded; there 
 are no dykes nor bulwarks about her; she is 
 threatened, indeed is flooded, with every relig- 
 ion, every irreligion. evejy evil, every mon- 
 strous perversion known in any part of the 
 world. She has, too, her own peculiar perils, 
 ])erils incident to a democracy, where liberty, 
 niisjudgerl. is ever advocated in terms of license. 
 That the task is vast is evidenced by the fact 
 that there still remains so much to be accomp- 
 lished, and that the progress of more than 
 three centuries has. after all. been relatively 
 so slight. 
 
 great home mission undertaking? How can we 
 point them out and phrase them in their sim- 
 plest terms'? I can think of but two single 
 and simple objects with which the church, the 
 church universal, should be content, if she can 
 
 DIPPING OUT 
 THE SEA? 
 
 With this limitation in mind, 
 we may then define the 
 Home Mission task as the 
 
 TWO 
 
 OBJECTIVES 
 
 What are the concrete object» 
 toward which we should strive 
 in our attempts to fulfill this 
 
 7 
 
by any means attain them. The first is to 
 promote the spirit of brotherhood amongst 
 men, and the second is to make keen in the 
 hearts and lives of men the sense of God. 
 
 ntr-DTomxA-KT ^^Ip men to realize 
 
 BROTHERHOOD t^' '^'^ ^^"^^/'jf' 
 We have not yet fully 
 
 Bucceeded in making Christians realize that 
 they are of one household, brethren of one 
 Elder Brother, children of one common Father, 
 who should live together in peace, work 
 together in concord, and worship togeth- 
 er in the fulness of brotherly love. Can 
 we break down religious barriers? We must. 
 It is our task. There must be tolerated no 
 hatred, no bitterness, no strife, not even compe- 
 tition. We must co-operate; we must think 
 kindly and speak kindly one of another; we 
 must help, not hinder each other; wo must 
 liave common purposes, common plans, a com- 
 mon strategy. Here we must begin within the 
 household of faith to re-establish and confirm 
 the spirit of brotherhood. With nothing less 
 must we be satisfied. 
 
 BETWEEN '^^^ Mission task begins 
 
 BOARDS establishment of right 
 
 relations between the Home Mis- 
 sion Boards, between churches, between denomi- 
 nations and amongst Christians. For the spirit 
 of strife and competition, if it has ever existed, 
 we must substitute the principles of arbitration 
 and the equitable adjudication of differences 
 
 8 
 
and the allotment of spheres of influence. We 
 need not reduce different bodies to flat agree- 
 ment and conformity. Far enough have we 
 gone already to clearly understand this. We 
 must 1)0 tolerant and inclusive, recognizing 
 essential unity in the midst of many and ap- 
 parently great diversities. 
 
 We must have quarrel 
 mCLUSIVENESS ^^j^^^ 
 
 tion \Vhich is seeking the improvement of men, 
 and the betterment of human institutions. 
 There are religious organizations, not directly 
 representing the church, but nevertheless tribu- 
 tary to the great objects of the church, with 
 ^vllieh we must coalesce and co-operate. 
 
 There are philanthropic, 
 PHILANTHROPIC ,eforma- 
 
 toiy associations which, in the spirit of Christ, 
 are promoting the objects for which He came 
 amongst men. 
 
 There are political orgauiza- 
 POLITICAL ^.^^g fpj.j^g government 
 
 Avliich ai-(! as worthy of our countenance and 
 support as arc any of those organizations which 
 steady and make safe the foundations of human 
 society. Can we be broadminded enough, and 
 inclusive enough, to discover ever the good, to 
 be judiciously tolerant and patient with im- 
 perfection, and to uphold and promote all of , 
 these manifold agencies for social regeneration 
 and reconsecration? 
 
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SOCIAL 
 
 Are we willing to enter into the 
 spirit of the new age and behold 
 
 how truly and how fully Jesus Christ, our 
 Master, may become reincarnated by His spirit 
 in institutions which wo have been wont to call 
 secular ? Can wo recognize essential Christian- 
 ity, when, divested of ecclesiastical garb and 
 liabiliments, when expressed in n on -liturgical 
 and un-theological phrases? Are we prepared 
 to find fellowship with the mind of Christ when 
 it is formulated in the enactments of a legisla- 
 ture, or has liecome the current speech of men 
 in business, or is met face to face on some 
 street corner in a deed of mercy and gentle- 
 ness, or is sacrificially expended in some heroic 
 gift of life on a battlefield for one's country, 
 or in an endeavor to save one 's fellow-beings 
 from disease, or from suffering, or from death? 
 8hall barriers stand between us, and we walk 
 within little precincts which we are pleased to 
 fall holy, when just over the border are other 
 men as holy as we, judged by standards which 
 in itho minds of earnest men are as sound as 
 the standards by which we judge? 
 
 shall we insist upon having externals to our 
 liking? It is a part of the Home Mission task 
 to bring the churches of Jesus Christ into 
 sympathy and fellowship with all those institu- 
 tions and organizations and men, who are seek- 
 
 THE ESSENTIAL 
 SPIRIT 
 
 Are we prepared to recog- 
 nize the essential spirit 
 of men, and of Christ, or 
 
 10 
 
ing in any measure the sound expression of 
 rigliteousness and justice and mercy. 
 
 BROTHERHOOD 
 IN DEMOCRACY 
 
 Can we go further? Can 
 we acknowledge the task 
 as Home Missionary 
 
 which relates to the purification of polities and 
 the dehiocratization of American life? As I 
 step from the door of my office building all 
 Jewry seems to surge around me. These people 
 ■coming and going, speaking many of them an 
 unknowT: tongue, are not Christians, but by 
 i(>sidence, l)y reason of proximity and propin- 
 quity, and in many instances by a transfer of 
 allegiance, they are American. They are a 
 part of my environment. Without asking it, 
 perhaps even resenting it, they claim my sym- 
 patlu'tic" attention, they should have my fra- 
 ternal regard and consideration. Toward them 
 I must manifest the spirit of brotherhood. 
 That is n part of niy. Home Missionary task; 
 tliat is the task of the church in America 
 to-day, — not simply to found missions in som,e 
 extraneous sense, but to be gracious, to be 
 brotherly, to overcome objections and prej- 
 udices, to claim and secure attention when there 
 is indifference, if not indeed dislike. 
 
 Oh ! this big task of exemplifying brother- 
 hood amongst men, of moving in the spirit of 
 Christ as he nioved amongst the Galileans, the 
 .rudeans, and the Samaritans, unto whom Syro- 
 Phenicians, Greeks and Romans came! It is 
 our task. It has never been accomplished. 
 But it claims us. We must hold it steadily 
 
 11 
 
before us as a goal though we be years in at- 
 taining unto it. 
 
 The spirit of brotherhood is needed in the 
 cluirch, is needed by democracy, and is needed 
 in the world. 
 
 men. We know already in a theological and in 
 a forensic way that men are "religious ani- 
 mals;" we know that they are " ineradicably 
 religious. ' ' But we are told also that they 
 have become religiously indifferent; that they 
 have become commercialized and secularized, 
 and are gradually becoming hardened to all 
 religious feelings. I have no case to argue. 
 If the trend and tendency be in one direction, 
 we must stay it; if it be in the other direction 
 .we must aid and accelerate it. 
 
 in their hands, go steadily forward into the 
 trenches, and ' ' over the top ' ', having already 
 deliberately thought out what it may mean to 
 them? Are they religious? Many of them 
 have no connection with any church, — have in 
 many instances been apparently opposed to the 
 church and all it stood for; and yet here they 
 are altruistically oft'eiing the supreme sacrifice! 
 .1 put the question again, are they religious? 
 1 must put another question, what is religion? 
 
 VITAL 
 RELIGION 
 
 Then there is the other phase of 
 our great task, — that of making 
 religion real and vital amongst 
 
 WHAT IS 
 EELIGION? 
 
 What is the experience of men 
 who to-day on the battlefields 
 of Europe, taking their lives 
 
 12 
 
Do the churches represent it all? Has some of 
 it escaped from ecclesiastical vessels, and been- 
 gathered up by other less holy receptacles! 
 
 What is religion? . Have men caught a vis- 
 ion of it who use none of the phases with which 
 we are familiar? If they know it at all in 
 part, should we antagonize them, should we 
 condemn them? We need not approve, but 
 may we not sympathize with them and draw 
 forth a yet fuller exjierienee and expression 
 of religious truth? 
 
 THE QUESTION "^f 
 
 OF AUTHORITY ^^ T . 7 
 
 Shall a Pope be the last 
 
 Court of Appeal for religious faith and prac- 
 tice? Shall a man turn to the decisions and 
 edicts of councils? Shall a man take a book 
 and be governed literally by expressions which 
 Avere framed in the speech and for the neces- 
 sities of a people who lived under different 
 circumstances nineteen centuries ago? Or may 
 a man discover in his own soul, — illumined, 
 mystically, if you please, by the spirit of 
 Christ, — the principles which, tested as best he 
 ■may by judgment and conscience, he shall term 
 obligatory and binding upon him? 
 
 CHRISTIAN " 7. ^'""P!" ' n T"" "I 
 
 TOLERATION "bh§^ ^^^^ ^o ^Jod, and 
 ■ : . strengthen the authority of 
 
 ctonscience wit-hin men, and then willingly, even 
 •placixily, accept the consequences which may 
 ensue?, - -Unless we can do something of this 
 
 .18 
 
kind, it seems to me that we are in danger of 
 reverting to the times when debate was deemed 
 the needful remedy for differences of opinion, 
 and dogma was legarded as a sure panacea for 
 dou>)t. I trust we are happily by that time, 
 and that tendency. It is a part of the Home 
 Mission task to carry us by, and by the perils 
 of theological controversy and inquisitorial in- 
 sistence ujjon conformity. We are within the 
 region of freedom of conscience, where the 
 right of private of judgment may prevail, and 
 where, with a fraternal spirit, we may recognize 
 the essence of religion, though it be not at 
 all in the forms of our choosing. 
 
 Tt is a great task in this Ameri- 
 SPIRITUAL . ^ « 
 
 can lite of ours to find a com- 
 
 UNITY 
 
 mon basis upon which Jew and 
 (fcntile Tuay stand, unto which both Catholic 
 and Protestant may resort. There is a spirit 
 of which the great Apostle spoke, in which 
 ''there is neither .Tew nor Greek, there is 
 neither liond nor free, there is neither male 
 nor female ' ' ; —it is the spirit in which men, 
 united in Christ Jesus, performed different 
 functions, used diflPerent expressions, and vary 
 as individuals must. It is not the spirit of 
 uniformity, it is the spirit of unity. 
 
 In this larger spirit 
 of brotherhood and of 
 essential religious ex- 
 perience let me tell 
 y<m some of the minor things which T am called 
 
 THE DIVERSIFIED 
 HOME MISSION 
 TASK 
 
 14 
 
upon to do as I come to this great metropolis, 
 entrusted with the almost stupendous task of 
 representing the Home Mission interests, in a 
 very real sense, of all the Christians in America. 
 
 I am to maintain an office as a 
 
 AN OFFICE ^ . J v. - . ^ 
 
 center, concrete and objectified, 
 
 of Home Missions co-operation, in which sec- 
 tarian differences shall be forgotten, save as 
 })arts of wisdom to help one be wise. 
 
 I am to conduct the 
 CORRESPONDENCE , „ ^. 
 
 correspondence of the 
 
 Home Missions Council, answering so far as I 
 am able, all of the inquiries which may come to 
 lue, informing parties interested of obligations 
 entailed in the membership and fellowship of 
 the Home Missions Council, and seeing that 
 each assumes his share and ])erfoims his ]mrt. 
 
 I am to aatlier and have 
 
 LIBRARY OF ^, , • i +• 
 
 on file, as a kind ox clear- 
 
 INFORMATION . , .. 
 
 mg house of information, 
 
 reports and samples of literature issued by 
 different denominational boards, and also by 
 organizations working in collateral fields. This 
 may grow in time to a great library of Home 
 Missions. 
 
 I am to look after the 
 PUBLICATIONS publications, the annual re- 
 port, circulars of information, or periodical 
 literature, such as a quarterly, or monthly, if 
 
 15 
 
determined upon, and be a first editor as well 
 as business manager. 
 
 On invitation it will be my 
 
 PLATFORM , ^ ^ • 1 11 / 
 
 dutv, and privilege as well, to 
 
 MESSAGES .+1. % TT TvV- 
 
 present the cause of Home Mis- 
 sions in the broader, interdenominational, or 
 non-denominational aspects, to the denomina- 
 tional bodies in their annual or national as- 
 semblies. 
 
 I am to arrange for and 
 SURVEYS AND x ^ 
 
 inaugurate forms of co- 
 FEDERATIONS \. , . , 
 
 operative work m specified 
 
 areas, as in states for example. This perhaps 
 will be the greatest service I can render the ■ 
 cause of Christianity in America, if the Lord 
 give me healtli and wisdom for a few years, 
 and a fair amount of support from my breth- 
 ren. 
 
 I am to help brine in- 
 INTERDENOMINAL , ■ . 
 
 to more intimate ac- 
 
 AlilrlANCES • * 1 
 
 quamtance and closer 
 
 co-operation the work of the Christian churches 
 with other associations and organizations, both 
 religious and philanthropic, educational and 
 political. Here alone is a great piece of work, 
 requiring almost the strength of a Hercules. 
 
 Then there will come to me, 
 
 SPECIFIC .1, . • ^ . ^, 
 
 either by assignment from the 
 
 Home Missions Council, or by re- 
 (juest from some other source, or because I dia- 
 
 16 
 
cover them myself, opportunities for service in 
 specific cases, such for example as discovering 
 the significance of the migration of negroes 
 from the south, and aiding in relating certain 
 denominations to care for these negroes in the 
 centers of their new settlement; such as investi- 
 gating the needs of immigrants at our ports 
 of entry, or as they spread westward or east- 
 ward over this great land; such as devising 
 means by which there may be practical co- 
 operation, either by the publication of a com- 
 mon literature,' or by a union seminary for 
 the training of ministers, or by the assignment 
 of distinct nationalities to the different denomi- 
 nations, in ministering to the needs of foreign 
 speaking people in our land. The opportunity 
 for manifold and diversified activities in speci- 
 fic cases seems almost infinite, for there are 
 Indians, there are men in mines and lumber 
 camps, there are slums in great cities, there 
 are isolated, detached hamlets, and wide areas 
 with sparse population, there ^^re seamen, there 
 are men of almost every class and condition, 
 any and all of horn belong within my parisli 
 and my charge, as a concentrated and corporate 
 representative of the allied churches of Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 Then, above all else, if I were 
 
 A NEW 
 
 _ big enough and wise enough, 
 
 PEOGRAM? 1,^, , , 
 
 it would be my duty, as it 
 
 would be my privilege, to study the changed 
 
 conditions of the church and the religious life 
 
 in America, and, with the vision of a se«r, 
 
 17 
 
fonnulate a program for to-day, and for to- 
 morrow, and for time to come. 
 
 THE INSPIRATION 
 OP A GREAT 
 PURPOSE 
 
 Does any man think 
 there is but little to 
 do ? — that the open 
 doors before an Ex- 
 
 ecutive secretary of the Home Missions Council 
 give forth unto but meager opportunities? I 
 have said the task is vast; it is stupendous;^ — 
 exaggeration is scarcely possible;— and yet I 
 do not shrink from it, I am inspired by it; 
 it is a great opportunity. I am not equal to 
 it;, no man is equal to it; but I would rather 
 devote myself to a great, even an impossible 
 undertaking, than to spend myself upon trifles, 
 which after all may scarcely be worth while; 
 and I wish to talk with you, my associates, in 
 terms of the largest dimensions when we speak 
 of Home Mission tasks. I know our danger is 
 of slacking back and forgetting these great 
 aspects of our calling, of losing ourselves in 
 the mass of trifling details. I wish to remind 
 you and revive you, and have you remind me 
 and revive me, when I grow luke warm, or lose 
 my vision of the call. 
 
 America has been committed to our charge 
 for its safety and its salvation, as truly as the 
 world was committed to the few Apostles, the 
 many years ago on Calvary, when the Christ 
 left them to carry on His work. 
 
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