Rev. Stanford served as a delegate to General Conferences of his denomination in 1883, 1887, 1891, 1894 and 1898. He was also a delegate to the annual sessions of the Board of Missions. During the memorable 1887 General Conference of the Evangelical Association, meeting in Buffalo, New York, the beginnings of the 1891 schism were felt. Rev. Stanford, along with Dr. Hartzler, were allied with the so-called American spirited element of the Church, which opposed the so-called ecclesiastical autocracy of the denomination. This opposition, being in the minority at that time, was defeated.