The churches' growing educational interests--Sunday schools, youth groups, colleges, and seminaries--used the lesson sheets, books and periodicals pouring from their publishing houses, several of which faced trials.
Southern Methodism had to reconstruct its printing work after the Civil War. Financial wrongdoing was uncovered in the 1860s in the northern church's Book Concern in New York City. The United Brethren survived a contest in 1869 between liberals and conservatives for control of their denominational paper. Milton Wright, father of aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright, captained the conservative team and won the editor's chair. Despite these problems the churches used their newspapers and a flood of books to promote the cause of the 1866-1918 era: winning the world for Christ.