The 1900s in the UB Church

One Hundred Years of Change, Expansion, and Other Versions
of Progress in the United Brethren in Christ Church.

The 1900s were interesting years for the United Brethren church. As they were for everybody. Here's a review of what transpired in our denomination during those 100 years.

Our Bearded Forebears

Once upon a time, all General Conferences were held in churches scattered across the denomination, rather than in Huntington, Ind. The century’s first edition of our highest governing body convened in May 1901 at the King Street church in Chambersburg, Pa. That conference had 50 delegates–four bishops, plus 46 ministers. They recessed one day so delegates could visit the Gettysburg battlefield.

Of the 50 delegates, 28 had beards, including two bishops (Milton Wright and Horace Barnaby). No bishops since then have sported beards. For whatever that’s worth.

Discussions were dominated by the still-painful division of 1889, in which our churches split from what is now the United Methodist Church and, in most cases, lost their church properties in the process.

We started the century with four bishops, went to two in 1949, back to three in 1969, up to four in 1973, back to three in 1989, and finally just one bishop in 1993.

The Rise of the Laity

Clergy ruled for most of the century, since only ministers could be delegates to General Conference. Laypersons gained that privilege starting in 1961. Today, at least half of the elected delegates must be laypersons.

In the early 1900s, conferences could have lay representatives, if they wanted–but a limit of one per church (and they couldn’t vote on receiving or expelling preachers).

Also of note: General Conferences even before 1901 would often have one or two women ministerial delegates. We used to have many women pastors. Now, only a handful.

Sierra Leone: Bad Endings

Sierra Leone began and ended the century recovering from war. In 1898, the Hut Tax War devastated the country; a thousand people were killed, and a number of missionaries were massacred. Fortunately, only one of our pastors was killed, and our only missionary, Mary Mullen, escaped harm and left the country. However, much of our mission property was destroyed and congregations were scattered.

Like today. Rebel warfare throughout the 1990s destroyed our property, scattered congregations, killed some UB members, and sent all UB missionaries packing.

Missions Secretary Daniel Flickinger reported in 1901: "It has been suggested that we better quit Africa and commence missions in Cuba or the Philippine Islands. To cease Africa would be like leaving a man with both limbs and arms broken, unhelped, for the sake of helping a man with one arm broken."

(Which brings up another interesting fact: while we are currently investigating the possibility of starting mission work in Cuba, the idea apparently existed at the start of the century.)

The Sierra Leonean field superintendent, Rev. D. F. Wilberforce, was replaced in November 1900 by an American, and Americans held that role until it was re-nationalized in the mid-1980s. In the meantime, scores of missionaries served in Sierra Leone.

We Started the Century with Three Colleges

Central College (later renamed Huntington College, and eventually Huntington University) opened in September 1897 in Huntington, Ind. The enrollment for the first four years was: 83, 95, 90, 102. So our college began the century celebrating going past the 100 mark, and is ending the century with a goal of passing 1000.

The other two colleges didn’t survive. Edwards College in Albion, Washington, started in 1899, went from 45 to 75 students in two years. The College of Philomath in Philomath, Oregon, had 60 students who collectively (not individually) paid the college a grand total of $675 in tuition. The library, it was proudly noted, had 60 books.

Early in the Century:

• We didn’t let preachers stay at the same church more than five years. That was actually an improvement from previous years, when the limit was two years.
• Watchcare membership included children and adults. The 1901 Discipline said Watchcare is for "Any person giving evidence that he is sincerely seeking the Lord." Today, it’s just for children.
• The 1913 General Conference urged churches to provide individual communion cups, for sanitary reasons.
• A church–or a "society"–consisted of a minimum of three or more members meeting regularly. Today, the standard is 10 families.
• Revivals lasting three or four weeks were the order of the day into the 1950s. Revivals were a key–if not the key–evangelistic tool.
• People used to attend the church nearest to where they live. Now, people drive long distances to attend the church they want.
• Nearly all UBs used the King James Bible. Now, the NIV prevails.

Missions Focus

In 1900, UB people gave $13,900 to missions. Daniel Flickinger envisioned reaching $50,000 within five years. When it came to giving, Flickinger reported, "Our people are generally liberal in comparison to others."

Membership vs. Attendance

It’s difficult finding attendance statistics from the early 1900s. That’s what we emphasize today as the key indicator of church size. But back then, it was membership.

In 1912, we had 20,800 members. We ended the century with about 40,000.

We had 386 churches in 1927 in North America. At the end of the century: 250. But they’re larger.

In 1927, we had an average of 48 persons per church. Today: about 103.

Better Late Than Never

M. F. Keiter, the publishing agent, urged the 1901 General Conference, "Provision should be made by this body to provide our people with a history of the denomination at the very earliest possible date." That date came in 1984, when Dr. Paul Fetters edited the UB history book Trials and Triumphs

Before Connect, There Was…

We started the century publishing a tabloid-size denominational paper called The Christian Conservator. (In 1901, the publishing agent suggested reducing the subscription cost to $1 per year.) It was replaced in 1954 with a semi-monthly magazine called The United Brethren, which later went monthly. The subscription-based magazine was replaced with a free newsletter, called UB, in 1994. The newsletter went four-color in 1998 under the name Connect. Which is what you’re reading now.

A Century of Mission Work

In 1900, we had just one foreign mission field: Sierra Leone. Our focus was Frontier missions–the American West. Sunday school was under the missions department, as home missions, since most new churches began by going into an area and starting a Sunday school.

In 1899, we began sponsoring a Chinese church and school in Portland, Ore. It closed in 1931, but had served as a bridge to launch mission work in Canton, China. That work became the bridge into Hong Kong, which became the bridge back to the United States–to New York City’s Chinese community. Interesting how it works out.

A staff of about a dozen people, all Chinese, ran our large school in Canton, China. We were forced out of China in 1948 when the communists took over, and our work in China ended–though we can presume that our Christian influence remained in the lives of these kids, who became adults quite possibly worshiping secretly in house churches. Y. T. Chiu, the head of this school, ended up in Hong Kong, where he started the first UB churches there. Today, with both Hong Kong and Macau reunited with China, we can celebrate having churches in two locations in China. But we’ve all but forgotten the huge ministry we once had in the world’s most populous nation. A lot can happen in a century.

During the Rest of the Century, We Started Mission Work in:

• 1938: Big Laurel, Kentucky. The Women’s Missionary Association started this work.
• 1944: Jamaica. James O’Sullivan was headed to the Bahamas to start a new mission, but was shipwrecked on Jamaica. Where he stayed. We never made it to the Bahamas.
• 1945: Honduras. We assumed oversight of three independent churches.
• 1950: Hong Kong.
• 1965: Nicaragua. An outreach from Honduras.
• 1974. India.
• 1987: Macau. Hong Kong’s vision, plus North American people and money.
• 1993: Thailand. Hong Kong’s vision, North American dollars.
• 1996: Costa Rica. An outreach from Nicaragua.
• 1998: Myanmar. Hong Kong’s vision, North American dollars. Sound familiar?
• 1999: El Salvador. An outreach from Nicaragua.

Youth Ministry

In 1901, the UB youth program was officially named United Brethren Christian Endeavor. Christian Endeavor remained strong during the first half of the century, with annual conventions and fundraising which enabled us to send the first UB medical missionary to Sierra Leone. But CE has now all but disappeared from our churches.

Over the years, other names of children’s ministries have come and gone–Harvesters, Whirlybirds, Jet Cadets, Alpha Teens, Omega, Youth in Action. Now we emphasize Sonlife. Vacation Bible School arose around 1920 and is still around, making it our longest-running youth program.

Go Where You’re Sent, and Don’t Argue

Into the 1970s, pastors were assigned to churches without being consulted in advance. They would hear a report read on the conference floor, and at that time might learn for the first time that their family was being uprooted and moved to a different place, whether they liked it or not.

The stationing committee report had to be read at least six hours before conference adjourned, but that rule later fell by the wayside. Typically, it came last in the last service. There are stories of bishops promptly leaving the conference grounds after the service to avoid all the unhappy people being moved.

Professionalizing the Ministry

The requirements for obtaining an annual conference minister’s license keep rising. In 1925, you had to have at least entered high school–that’s all–to obtain an annual conference license. In 1929, it was raised to the completion of grade 10. In 1945, a high school degree was required.

The license demanded a year of college starting in 1965, and two years starting in 1977. Today, it’s safe to say most senior pastors have a Master’s degree. We also have ministers with special training in youth work, music, Christian education, and other areas. That’s a whole new concept this century.

Which brings up another new thing: church staffs. At one time, a pastor didn’t even have a secretary, and might serve a circuit of eight (or more) churches. Now, a single church can have a staff of eight ministers, or more.

Moral and Social Standards

We’ve always been a principled bunch, but at the start of the century, we held official stands on just these issues: alcohol, slavery, secret societies, war, and divorce (adultery was the only grounds). By century’s end, we had addressed:

• Homosexuality
• Domestic violence
• Illicit sex
• Remarriage
• Birth control
• Abortion
• Cloning
• Euthanasia
• Racism
• Tobacco
• Narcotics
• Gambling
• Pornography
• The Occult

Inventions We Used That Changed Us:

• The car
• Electric typewriters
• Telephones
• Filmstrip projectors
• Flannelgraph
• Mimeograph
• Air travel
• Air conditioning
• Liquid paper
• Overhead projectors
• Videos
• The IBM Correcting Selectric
• Fax machines
• Electronic projectors
• Desktop publishing
• White boards
• The internet

Mergers and Acquisitions

At the denominational level, a variety of departments have come and gone, or merged. In 1921, the Sunday school emphasis and Christian Endeavor united in a department called the Dept. of Religious Education, which merged with the Dept. of Publications into the Church Ministries Department in 1973, which merged with the Stewardship Department in 1981 to become the current Department of Church Services.

In 1900, our headquarters and publishing house had been recently relocated from Dayton, Ohio, to Huntington, Ind. We built a new HQ in 1976, and closed the printshop in 1981.

As the Century Comes to an End…

• Many small churches are closing, merging, or entering into other cooperative relationships. It requires a larger church to support a pastor than it once did.
• To choose a church, people place more emphasis on children’s programs.
• The conferences beyond North America, once called mission fields, have become fully organized conferences with educated leaders and their own mission outreach.
• In the 1930s, the denominational magazine often railed against all the immigrants entering the United States and taking jobs. Half a century later, we began developing strong ministries among those people–Chinese, Hispanics, Jamaicans, Sierra Leoneans, Haitians.
• Huntington University was transformed during the 1980s with many new buildings.

One Last Thing, This One Involving Two Centuries:

In September 1800, 13 ministers meeting in Maryland adopted the name "Church of the United Brethren in Christ." We started before that, in 1767, but this is the 200th year we’ve been using that name. It’s held up well.