University of Virginia Library

Where Are the Churches?: Denominational Response to Crisis

In a very real sense, the Congregation for Reconciliation was the Miami (Ohio) Presbytery's response to the editorial cry of the Dayton Daily News. Within a year Richard Righter was in Dayton organizing the mission. Although the city had been bitterly polarized by the series of riots, a renewed sense of urgency to deal with underlying problems pervaded some sectors. Righter sought these pockets of support during his first month in town. The soil and climate of Dayton appeared favorable for rooting a

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The Confession served two important and interrelated functions. First, it provided unambiguous legitimacy for involvement in the struggle for social justice. It is explicit in stating that the churches' role goes beyond ministering to the victims of injustice and changing the hearts and minds of individuals responsible for injustice. Rather, The Confession makes clear the responsibility of the corporate church to act against the social structures of society which perpetuate injustice and inequality. Duty to act thus becomes the second consequence of The Confession. The church and its leadership not only have the right to be involved but, if true to their faith, they are also obligated to be involved. [6] The following passages (with our emphasis added) underscore the merging of the legitimacy to act upon the perceived social crisis of the 1960s with the duties of faith:

The members of the church are emissaries of peace and seek the good of man in cooperation with powers and authorities in politics, culture, and economics. But they have to fight against pretensions and injustices when these same powers endanger human welfare. . . .
In each time and place there are particular problems and crises through which God calls the church to act. The church . . . seeks to discern the will of God and learn how to obey in these concrete situations. . . .
God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. In his reconciling love he overcomes the barriers between

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brothers and breaks down every form of discrimination based on racial or ethnic differences, real or imaginary. . . . Therefore the church labors for the abolition of all racial discrimination and ministers to those injured by it. Congregations, individuals, or groups of Christians who exclude, dominate, or patronize their fellow men, however subtly, resist the Spirit of God and bring contempt on the faith they profess. . . .
The reconciliation of man through Jesus makes it plain that enslaving poverty in a world of abundance is an intolerable violation of God's good creation. Because Jesus identified himself with the needy and exploited, the cause of the world's poor is the cause of his disciples. The church cannot condone poverty, whether it is the product of unjust social structures, exploitation of the defenseless, lack of national resources, absence of technological understanding, or rapid expansions of populations. . . . A church that is indifferent to poverty, or evades responsibility in economic affairs, or is open to one social class only, or expects gratitude for its beneficence makes a mockery of reconciliation and offers no acceptable worship to God. . . .
The church responds to the message of reconciliation in praise and prayer. In that response it commits itself afresh to its mission, experiences a deepening of faith and obedience, and bears open testimony to the gospel. [7]

In 1967 a task force organized by the Board of National Missions and entrusted with the goal of devising new church development policies issued a pamphlet entitled "Strategies for the Development of New Congregations." [8] This publication proposed the testing of the thesis that thecongregation can be an "effective organizational form for the ministry of the church in the face of tremendous social change." [9] It encouraged the development of experimental missions of a goal-oriented, flexible, and ecumenical nature, and oriented toward interest and involvement.

The thrust of this document is clearly toward challenge rather than comfort. It urged avoidance of the excessive concern with survival which characterizes most new missions: "Size and safety are not the basic issues. To follow Christ in the life-structures of this society, to probe the foundations of Christian service, to build

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Even more important than discouraging emphasis upon survival goals, the document called for active concern in what The Confession of 1967 had identified as the central task of the church-the process of reconciliation, defined by the task force as "the breaking down of those barriers which separate God and man. [11] But it expressed equal concern with the "forces of evil that divide men from each other and produce enslavement, hostility, and alienation in the world." [12] Furthermore, as with The Confession of 1967, this document insisted that reconciliation cannot be equated with peace, for "peace for one side rooted in injustice for the other side represents an unjust relationship and not reconciliation according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ." [13] In short, "new" missions would be actively involved in the world even to the extent of "relationships of hostility and conflict." [14] The thesis of the congregation as a potentially viable vehicle for the prophetic work of the church in social action stood to be tested.

Finally, the document charged the judicatory with the responsibility for developing plans for the new congregations so that "their ministries are interrelated with the ministries of other [established] congregations." [15] Although they were to be given flexibility sufficient to respond to changing needs, these taskoriented congregations were to do nothing separately which might be done cooperatively and jointly with the established churches. Interdependence and unity in mission were the stated structural goals.