BIRTH OF THE CONSERVATIVE CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE
This year we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference. My articles this year will focus on the history of our conference, and I will start with how the conference began.
The origin of the CCCC can be traced to the influence of a publication which provided a voice for the conservative Evangelical viewpoint within the Congregational churches. The Congregational Beacon was founded by Hilmer B. Sandine in 1935 or 1936. Rev. Sandine was serving as pastor of the First Congregational Church of Hancock, Minnesota. He was concerned about the prevalence of theological liberalism within the Congregational churches, which represented a departure from a high view of Scripture and a low view of the nature of Christ. The Congregational Beacon went through a number of name changes and editor changes, but was more or less consistently published until 1958, and eventually became the official publication of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.
Originally there was only one denomination to which Congregational churches belonged, the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches. Although conservative Congregationalists were concerned about the theological drift seen in many churches in the denomination, they did not initially feel the need to separate because of the freedom the Congregational system gave to churches to follow their own convictions. It was the plans for a merger of the General Council with the Evangelical and Reformed Church that put things in a different light. Many Congregationalists were concerned that this merger would compromise the autonomy which their churches enjoyed in their system of church government, since the Evangelical and Reformed Church functioned in a more Presbyterian way with more denominational control over the churches. Congregationalists who were alarmed by the prospect of the merger brought a lawsuit, which initially seemed to block the merger from happening. However, an appeals court reversed the earlier ruling and the merger to form the United Church of Christ went forward.
With the fear that their freedom would be lost in a more tightly structured denomination dominated by liberal theology, conservative Congregationalists felt the need to organize for mutual support. At a meeting in Chicago in February 1945 the Conservative Congregational Christian Fellowship was born. The initial intent of this organization was to be a fellowship of conservative churches within the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches. However, as plans for the merger to create the United Church of Christ went forward despite all efforts to oppose it, conservative Congregationalists felt the need to create a new denomination to preserve historic Congregationalism.
A call went out under the auspices of the Conservative Congregational Christian Fellowship to all Bible believing Congregational Christian Churches to a meeting October 19-22, 1948 in Chicago. At this meeting the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference was born. The structure of the Conference was established and officers were elected. Rev. Sandine was elected Executive Secretary and Field Director.
Rev. Sandine had been a guiding spirit in the formation of the CCCC through his editorship of the Congregational Beacon and his efforts to rally conservative Congregationalists. Sadly, he did not live to exercise leadership in the new denomination for very long. He developed a heart condition and died in May 1949, before the second meeting of the Conference that he had been so influential in starting. The new denomination suffered a devastating loss, but other leaders would emerge to carry on the cause of reviving historic Congregationalism. (The information in this article is from Wesley D. Blood’s chapter on “The Birth of a Conference” in Modern Day Pilgrims. A new edition of this book will be coming out this summer in conjunction with the 2023 Annual Gathering.)