[15] During this interval Ward developed rheumatic heart problems which forced his removal from school to live with aunts in the rural environs of Lyndhurst, Hampshire.

[16] In addition to these and other jobs, Ward dedicated part of his time to Methodist evangelism as a lay minister preaching to passersby on street corners.

[13][17] Ward majored in philosophy and minored in political science at Northwestern, with his background in populist Christian evangelism and social gospel–driven concern for the poor gradually taking on a more politicized flavor, influenced at least to some extent by the anti-capitalist critique of Karl Marx.

[13][22] Ward would remain in this position as a resident amongst the urban poor until being forced out by the settlement's governing council due to personal conflicts in the summer of 1900.

[23] The English-born Ward gained American citizenship on October 10, 1898, at Cook County Courthouse in Chicago, shortly after beginning his life at Northwestern University Settlement.

[24] Ward first became an outspoken advocate of participation in "Christian politics" in this interval, declaring the necessity to put pressure for social reform upon the Chicago political structure without compromise, so as to help establish the "divine ideal, working out the dreams of the prophets, bringing in the Kingdom of God, establishing a true theocracy, a democracy led by God in the shape of the teachings of His Son.

"[25] In October 1900, Ward was moved to the 47th Street Methodist Episcopal Church, another pastorate in the Chicago stockyards district with a congregation composed largely of working-class immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Ward himself joined the fledgling Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America in a show of solidarity with his parishioners.

[27] Ward evangelized the social gospel, sermonizing on matters of economics and poverty and the potential role of the church in the rectification of the structural failings of society.

This group, the Methodist Federation for Social Service (MFSS), was formally brought into being at a National Conference held in Washington, DC, on December 3, 1907.

[12][13][29] Ward addressed this initial gathering and served as head of the Committee on Programs, establishing an agenda for the organization based upon the publication of pamphlet literature and the dispatch of speakers.

By the fall of 1908, Ward was assigned to a new parish, this time in the Chicago suburbs at the Euclid Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in Oak Park.

[33] Ward oversaw the launch of the MFSS's official organ, Social Service Bulletin, in 1911 as well as the publication of a series of pamphlets, activity which was well-received within the hierarchy of the Methodist Church.

[12] Toward the end of his life, Ward consulted to the Religious Freedom Committee, which organized a national campaign to abolish HUAC, which changed its name in 1969 and disbanded in 1975.

[12][43] A public memorial service was held at Union Theological Seminary on January 4, 1967, with fewer than the chapel's capacity of 500 persons in attendance.