The Christian Endeavor Collection III
Badge from the 1897 San Francisco Convention
By: Robert Danielson
This April, the B. L. Fisher Library Archives and Special Collections will welcome the donation of the Christian Endeavor Collection with an official opening. This collection of material from both the International Christian Endeavor and the World Christian Endeavor organizations will make Asbury Theological Seminary an international center for research on this important historic movement, which was pivotal to the development of Youth Ministry within the Church.
For the youth if its day, the Christian Endeavor Society sought to find ways to make Christianity more colorful and more exciting. It did this primarily through the use of conventions which were first held every year and then eventually every other year. These conventions were exciting times when the youth could come together and fellowship with other like-minded Christian youth from other parts of the U.S. or even the world. They heard inspiring popular speakers of their day, and went back encouraged to continue the work in their local societies with new ideas. Protestant Christianity had really not experienced anything like these massive energetic youth rallies before!
Convention Material from the Boston Convention of 1895
The earliest conventions were rather small affairs where delegates from the local societies conducted the business of the society, but as Christian Endeavor grew, so did their conventions. The 1892 convention in New York City is considered to be one of the first of the major conventions. The city was unprepared for the flood of 30,000 young people, and even the Christian Endeavor Society had underestimated the number, expecting Madison Square Gardens, which sat 14,000 people to be sufficient. They even ran out of official badges for the delegates.
The Boston Convention of 1895 is considered to have been the largest of the conventions, with a formal count of 56,425 registered delegates and large outside tents set up on Boston Common to accommodate some of the larger meetings. Colorful banners and decorations filled the city as the newspapers put out special issues devoted to the Christian Endeavor Convention. The 1897 San Francisco Convention brought huge numbers of delegates west by train, often taking nine or ten days of travel. The numbers even overwhelmed the train system of the day! The 1898 Nashville Convention purposely brought together Christian youth and leaders from North and South to help heal the wounds from a Civil War that was still fresh in the minds of many adults.
Assorted Badges from the Christian Endeavor Collection
Conventions and local societies developed colorful badges to proudly display their affiliation with Christian Endeavor, and banners were even made from collected ribbons to be given out in competitions for the state societies, which had the most growth. Not like somber religious meetings of the 18th and early 19th century, speakers included celebrities and important politicians. A high point came in the 1911 Atlantic City Convention, when for the only time a sitting U.S. President, William Taft came and addressed the delegates and applauded the moral reforms of Christian Endeavor and their effect on citizenship.
The B. L. Fisher Library Archives and Special Collections are excited about this large collection and its potential for research on the global Church as well as the historical importance of this movement for understanding Youth Ministry. We would love to hear from any alumni involved in Christian Endeavor and about their memories of how this movement impacted their lives!
Grace Yoder, Archivist, B.L. Fisher Library
grace.yoder@asburyseminary.edu
I made profession of faith at a Junior Christian Endeavor meeting at First Baptist Church, Hingham, MA, when I was 9 years old. I much remember consecration Sundays and a CE rally at Boston’s Park St. Church, for which I nervously played the piano. CE memories mean a lot to me.