The Conference in Retrospect / 279

tire history of the conference. It is perhaps safe to say that without this feeling the churches would not have survived and grown.

A successful adjustment to religious patterns of the frontier. Much has been said on how the frontier compelled churches to adjust to environments that were often destructive of religious values. Living far apart from each other and lacking communication, it was easy for the frontier religious communities to decline or to be eclipsed. But by an intense group life and through the encouragement of itinerant ministers the Mennonite and Amish pioneer settlements continued. The formation of a conference in the first generation of organized Mennonite congregations must have been a support to them, for here they could face problems together and grow in fellowship.

The frontier seemed to have a leveling influence on the Mennonite and Amish congregations. As seen above, the Mennonites and certain of the more progressive Amish united by 1927. In the East the respective Amish and Mennonite groups have tended to go their separate ways with less feeling of unity.

A conscious effort to keep church and community together. The churches and church leaders believed that spiritual life and community living should be integrated into one whole. The church showed a concern for the total life of its members and felt a responsibility to apply religion to everyday affairs in the community-until the mid-twentieth century largely rural. Both in Europe and later in America the spiritual leader (minister, bishop, or deacon) was often also an economic leader and adviser. Numerous examples of such men can be cited in the history of the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference. They contributed much to the growth of strong communities and strong churches.

Innovations in church life. These include the Sunday school, youth meetings, and church publications to be followed by missions and charitable institutions, and finally by higher education. Having broken certain patterns in church worship and competing with other religions a transition to new methods was gradually made, though it was not always easy to do so without straining the unity of the congregation or conference. The introduction of English preaching and Sunday schools, often done hesitatively, illustrates the difficulty of making changes.

Revivalism and evangelism adapted to the church's needs. The Great Awakening of the eighteenth century did not affect the