Methodist History: The Centenary Campaign


The Centenary Campaign was a joint venture by the Northern and Southern church of the Methodist Church. The efforts of the centenary campaign were two fold. The first and immediate end was a celebration in Columbus Ohio in 1919. This celebration was fused with a celebration of democracy due to the ending of World War I (WWI).
The second purpose was to increase missional giving and general missionary activity around the world. The amount of money was daunting. The North committed to raising, $113,741,455, and the South $35,787,338, both of these figures would be exceeded by pledges and subscriptions. At this time in history anything seemed possible. It wasn’t long though before this mindset backfired.
As the years went on there was a general malaise of participation with the church. America spun into the Great Depression, and mission activity was more difficult than in years past. The difficulty lied in the fact that the church could no longer depend on the sword of colonialism to support the spread of Christianity. The Northern and Southern churches were only able to make 70% of their joint targeted goal of $149,528,793; the amount was approximately $104,670,155 which is still a daunting figure.
The failure to make the whole amount shattered the hopes of many people. It won’t be for many years, in fact after WWII, until we will start to see a general recovery from this debacle.

Comments

John said…
I take it that you are taking a Methodist history class? If so, what is your primary text?
4:04 PM
wes said…
We are using "The Story of American Methodism," as well as quite a number of other books. The information for this was pulled from "The Methodist Conference in America."
4:12 PM
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