to its fellowship and expecting him to use his gifts in its communion.
We want the whole Body of Christ organized, so that it is vividly
conscious of its unity, so that it does not waste its energy in
maintaining needlessly separate churches, so that followers of Christ
feel themselves welcome at every Table of the Lord, and every gifted
leader, accredited in any part of the Church, is accepted as accredited
in every other where he can be profitably used. The practical problem in
Church reorganization is identical with that which confronts society in
politics and in industry--how to secure efficient administration while
safeguarding liberty, how to combine the solidarity of the group with
the full expression of its members' individualities. To be effective the
Church must work as a compactly ordered whole. Individuals must
surrender personal preferences in order that the Church may have
collective force. Teamwork often demands the suppression of
individuality. There will have to be sufficient authority lodged in
those who exercise oversight to enable them to lead the Christian forces
and administer their resources. But we dare not curtail the freedom of
conscience, or impede liberty of prophesying, or turn flexibility of
organization into rigidity, lest we hamper the Spirit, who divideth to
every man severally even as He will. We do not want "metallic beliefs
and regimental devotions," but the personal convictions of thinking sons
and daughters of the living God, the spontaneous and congenial
fellowship of children with their Father in heaven, and methods
sufficiently flexible to be adaptable to all needs. We look for an
organization of the Church of Christ that shall exclude no one who
shares His Spirit, and that shall provide an outlet for every gift the
Spirit bestows, that shall bind all followers of Christ together in
effort for the one purpose--the Kingdom of God--enabling them to feel
their corporate oneness, and that shall give them liberty to think, to
worship, to labor, as they are led by the Spirit of God.

Meanwhile there are some immediate personal obligations which rest upon
us. We cannot be factors in the organized Church of Christ, save as we
are members of one of the existing churches. A Christian should enroll
himself either in that communion in which he was born and to which he
owes his spiritual vitality, or else in that with which he finds he can
work most helpfully. A Christian who is not a Church m