Reformed Church. Board of Home Missions.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the main focus of missions for the German Reformed Church in the United States was to provide enough ministers to serve the ever-growing number of congregations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio and points west. Finally, Synod authorized the establishment of the American Missionary Society of the German Reformed Church on September 28, 1826. Membership in the Society was one dollar annually. From the membership persons were elected to a 24 member Board of Missions. In addition to missionary activity the Society also was assigned responsibility for the educational and publication interests of the Church. Two auxiliary societies were established by women in Frederick, Maryland and Germantown, Pennsylvania. Financial support for the Society came from individual memberships, local church contributions and the regional classes. Unfortunately, as the regional classes formed their own mission societies, they kept the contributions for home mission work in their own area. Even with the change in the composition of the Society to a Board of Missions with two representatives from each Classis and four at-large members, the classes continued to retain financial contributions for their own use. In 1844 the name was changed to the Board of Domestic Missions with headquarters in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania until 1854 when it was moved to Lancaster. In a parallel movement, the Ohio Classis split from the Synod in 1824 and formed their own Synod because of distance from the Eastern Synod and wanting the right to ordain ministers. In 1833 the Ohio Synod appointed a Committee on Missions which also had responsibility for examining, licensing and ordaining ministers. A formal Board of Missions was established in 1844 but received little financial support, most of the money to support local missions in the Ohio Synod being provided through the Board of Domestic Missions of the Eastern Synod. This division of the two Synods was healed when the Ohio Synod reunited with the Eastern Synod to form the General Synod in 1863. With that reunification, the General Synod moved to consolidate the two home mission boards. This was completed in November 1865. However, even with the consolidation and newly elected Board members and much enthusiasm, the Classes continued to support their own home mission efforts rather than cooperate with the denominational Board. As a result, the regional synods formed their own boards of missions and most mission stations were transferred from the General Board to the synodical boards. This arrangement hampered the work of the church and many opportunities to expand the church's work were lost. The first glimmer of cooperation came with the formation of the Tri-Synodic Board on September 3, 1875. This was a cooperative agreement between the Eastern Synod, Pittsburgh Synod and Potomac Synod. Each synod was to maintain their own missions but to manage and coordinate the work they formed one corporate body, The Board of Missions of the Reformed Church in the United States. They worked not only within their own boundaries but also began missions on the Pacific coast and, in 1882, started work in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. With the success of this cooperative venture, General Synod once again began to work toward a unified home missions program under the denominational Board of Home Missions. The 1887 General Synod requested all the regional synods to place their home mission work under the General Board. By 1892 the consolidation was effected except for the German language regional synods which continued to maintain control of their home mission efforts. There were many individuals throughout the history of the home mission efforts of the Reformed Church that worked diligently. Two of the most outstanding were Rev. A. Carl Whitmer who served as superintendent of home missions from 1886 to 1914 and Rev. Charles E. Schaeffer who served as General Secretary of the Board of Home Missions from 1908 to 1941. One of the most perceived home mission needs was the building of churches to house the growing number of congregations. A number of efforts were made to establish a church building fund but none were successful until the Eastern Synod designated its Board of Missions as a church building board as well. The fund was to be used to help small, struggling congregations through loan and/or gift and to build church buildings for newly established congregations. To help finance these endeavors, the Eastern Synod mission board asked that a special collection in the local churches be taken each year and designated for the church building fund. In 1886 the Eastern Synod, for the first time, included the building fund in its annual budget. With the appointment of Rev. A. Carl Whitmer as superintendent of missions by the Tri-Synodic Board, the idea of a comprehensive plan for raising church building funds became reality. Whitmer's plan was to create individual church building funds of $500 each, which would bear a distinct name, either the giver of the fund or another name the giver would choose, the funds would be under the supervision of the Tri-Synodic Board, the interest on the funds would be used to help build churches, the loans being made for ten years at a low interest rate. With the consolidation of the regional synod Boards under the General Board, the building funds of the Tri-Synodic Board were also transferred in 1892. In 1899 the funds of the Tri-Synodic Board and the General Board were renamed Church Building Funds. The German language synods also established church building funds. Although the German Synod of the East initiated a fund, it did not raise as much money or aid as many churches as the Bi-Synodic Board established by the Synod of the Northwest and Central Synod. The territory covered by the Bi-Synodic Board was almost three quarters of the United States. The Bi-Synodic Board followed German immigrants throughout the mid-West, West, and into Canada. The German language Mission Board maintained a nominal relationship to the General Board by exchanging reports, by two of its members sitting on the General Board, and by receiving some funds from the General Board and from the Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society. By 1914 the total assets of all church building funds, including that of the German language synods, amounted to $448,000 and over 500 congregations had been helped. In addition to the Church Building Funds, the General Board of Home Missions also carried out mission work among a variety of groups in the rapidly expanding mid-west and west. Work among the Hungarian immigrants beginning January 1, 1891 in Cleveland, Ohio. Eventually eleven congregations were established in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, and Chicago. Additional Hungarian congregations joined the Reformed Church in the United States in 1922 with the completion of the Tiffin Agreement. Further mission work was carried out among Bohemians as early as 1859 in Iowa and Wisconsin. The General Board began its work in 1896 in Chicago. Additional churches were founded in Cleveland, Ohio and Iowa. Work with Japanese immigrants began in September 1910 with the appointment of Rev. J. Mori, a native of Japan and a graduate of Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio to San Francisco. The small congregation first met for worship, education and social gatherings in a rented three story house. Later the General Board purchased the building of Plymouth Congregational Church. Work among African Americans was begun by the Kentucky Classis in cooperation with the Presbyterian Church in Louisville and in 1911 the General Board was authorized to affiliate with the committee of the Council of Reformed Churches Holding the Presbyterian System in expanding their work among African Americans. Most of the work centered on education of both children and adults and training of pastors. Work among the Winnebago Indians in Wisconsin was begun by the Sheboygan Classis in 1878. A school was begun first, then a boarding school, and eventually, after the first conversions to Christianity in the 1890's, a church was built. In 1884 the General Board established the Harbor Mission on Ellis Island to aid newly arriving immigrants. The work included supplying immigrants with clothing, literature, counsel about work and living space, how to avoid being taken advantage of by ruthless people, supplying friendship, and ministry in times of illness and grief. The mission published a newsletter entitled "Der Einwanderer Freund”.