No. 17, April 1996

 

ARE YOU A BAPTIST, PRESBYTERIAN, EPISCOPALIAN,

CONGREGATIONALIST, METHODIST, CATHOLIC?

 

            I am a Baptist, a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian, a Congregationalist, a Methodist, a Catholic, in the proper unappropriated sense of these words. But not one of them, or all of them, express my views, my profession, or my practice as a disciple of Christ. - Alexander Campbell, Mill. Harb., 1839, p. 339.

 

            It might surprise you that our own Alexander Campbell would claim to be any or all of these things in any sense at all. Yet hardly any statement he ever made better expresses his catholic or universal view of the Christian faith. And it points up his view of the nature of unity in that it recognizes that the Body of Christ is all of these things and more.

 

            It also shows how each party name within Christendom tends to particularize one dimension of the church, such as a doctrine or a polity, to the neglect of the whole. Campbell is really saying that he is a baptist (not Baptist) because he believes in and practices immersion.

 

            He is presbyterial and episcopal (not a Presbyterian or an Episcopalian) because these are descriptive of the church’s government with its elders/overseers. He is congregational (not a Congregationalist) in that he believes in the autonomy of a congregation. He is catholic, but not Roman or Greek Catholic, in that he believes in the universality of the gospel and the community that it creates.

 

            He could just as well have said that he was Pentecostal, Holiness, Covenant, Evangelical, Missionary, Apostolic, Adventist, and even a Latter-Day Saint, for all these denote some aspect of “the ancient faith” which he sought to restore to the church of his day. He did not believe that any of these sects or denominations was the Body of Christ, or all of them together, but still each reflected an important truth of the total picture. Each contributes to the church catholic.

 

            This is why Campbell increasingly came to speak of “the catholic rule of unity,” which meant that all Christians could unite upon what they held in common - the fundamental or basic truths of the Christian faith. Thus the motto: “In fundamentals (or matters of faith) unity; in opinions (methods, theology) liberty; in all things love.

 

            The “catholic” faith thus embraces all the truths that are disseminated among the churches, for it is presbyterial, covenantal, missionary, pentecostal, holy, evangelical, apostolic, etc., etc. And it finds its authority in a latter-day revelation, vouchsafed to the apostles of Christ. We all become true catholics, and thus one in Christ, by accepting all the truth of all the churches of all the ages, and that without compromising any truth we now hold.

 

            We would not even have to give up any opinions or surrender any theology or preferential methods (like acappella singing!) so long as they did not conflict with the universal truths that make us one - and so long as we did not try to impose them on others as if they were catholic.

 

            To the degree that this would be effected there would be no more churches, sects, or denominations, but only the ecclesia, the Body of Christ. And it would be holy, apostolic, latter-day, presbyterial, evangelical, pentecostal. . . You take it from there.

 

            Truths are beautiful, especially when conjoined. – Leroy

 

LET’S HAVE A BIG FUNERAL

 

            The Beecher family was one of the most notable and controversial of 19th century America. The father of this family of social activists, Lyman Beecher, was a Congregational pastor in Cincinnati and a leader of the abolitionist movement. His son, Henry Ward Beecher (d. 1887), was pastor of the renowned New Plymouth Church in Brooklyn for 40 years, and may well have been the best known preacher in the nation at the time.

 

            Henry Ward’s sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, also an activist in the abolitionist movement, wrote one of America’s most explosive books, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. When Abraham Lincoln met her during the Civil War, he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady that wrote the book that started this awful war!”

 

            You may wonder what all this has to do with having a funeral. Well, it so happens that in one of his famous orations Lyman Beecher suggested that the churches get together and have a big funeral. Our own Barton W. Stone, a contemporary to Beecher, picked up on it, urging Beecher to follow through and have the funeral. It was to be a very unusual funeral!

 

            Beecher called for a delegation from all Christian denominations to assemble and conduct a funeral for bigotry and heresy. He insisted that they be buried so deep in the same grave that they will not rise until the archangel summons them to judgment to answer for their crimes against humanity.

 

            Beecher believed that the churches with their “limited views and selfish ends” would never unite in the cause of winning the world for Christ until “the spirit of proselytism is frowned into non-existence.” And so he called for its execution and burial. Let’s have a big funeral!

 

            Stone published Beecher’s appeal in his 1835 Christian Messenger, urging him to proceed with his proposal for such a funeral. “Let him designate the time and place,” Stone wrote, and called upon all journals in the nation to make them known. “Then we shall see realized,” he went on to say, “at least in part, what Christians of every name, have been long sighing and praying for- the UNITY OF CHRISTIANS.” (Emphasis his).

 

            We do not know what became of Beecher’s proposal. What is important is that it reveals a Barton W. Stone who was in touch with the leading thinkers of his day, and that when anyone called for an end to division he was there to support it. His initial reaction to Beecher was: “Never did language more fully express the sentiments of my heart.”

 

            Stone called on all Christians to sound a hearty AMEN to Beecher’s idea, and to attend the funeral and once for all lay bigotry and heresy to rest. This further explains Stone’s famous motto, “Let Christian unity be our polar star.”

 

            He found special meaning in Beecher’s appeal to bury heresy, for he understood that heresy has more to do with a factious attitude than with doctrinal errancy. A funeral for the divisive spirit!

 

            For sometime now I have called on Churches of Christ to reclaim their heritage as a unity people, and that they begin this by making a public apology (in pulpits across the country) for our sectarianism. We might now borrow a page from Beecher/ Stone and have a big funeral or a series of them - and bury our sectarianism once for all! We could make quite an exciting ceremony of it, including appropriate dirges. With our exclusivism once for all dead and buried we could justly claim to be a unity people.

 

            In doing so we would please the Lord, surprise our neighbors, astonish ourselves - and almost certainly impress Barton Stone and Lyman Beecher! – Leroy

 

REVIVAL OF AWE

 

            A new book coming out of England has the intriguing title of England Needs Revival. The author, a Methodist minister who also drives a bus, is concerned for his nation’s “video culture,” along with drugs and “violent and unremitting change.” He anguishes over his people’s rejection of religion.

 

            He observes, however, that there is a revival that England does not need, which he describes as “a head full of texts and a heart full of hardness.” This he identifies as fundamentalism.

 

            Call it what one might, we should all agree that in our own passion for the renewal of the church in America, this is not the kind of renewal we need. This includes our own Churches of Christ.

 

            Yes, we all have learned too well that one can have a head full of the Bible and a heart empty of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Yes, even “a heart full of hardness,” as the Briton puts it. We shoot our wounded with prooftexts, unmindful of the grace of God.

 

            But this is not an either/or, is it? We can have both a head full of the Bible and a heart full of Christ.

 

            There is the apparently true story of the crusty old elder among us that actually counted the number of prooftexts in the preacher’s sermons. He would take it up with him: “Last Sunday you only quoted nine passages!” He never said to “his” preachers (He hired and fired them!): “We would see Jesus.” He rather wanted the party line, and he measured “soundness” by the number of prooftexts. This often produces hardness – toward those suffering through a divorce, looking for meaningful change, harboring doubts about our absolutes, hungry for a gracious word.

 

            Alexander Campbell dared to suggest to the preachers of his day that they might project more truth by using less Scripture. He noted that one might string out numerous verses and yet poorly teach, and one might delve into the deepest truths from but a single passage. The point of preaching should be to solve problems, to inspire and encourage, to show relevance to our lives, and to project Jesus Christ, our living pattern.

 

            Christlikeness must always be the end in view of all our teaching and preaching. I care less about how many degrees a preacher may have to his name than how much of Christ he has in his heart. And let him preach to the heart as well as to the head! But to do this he has to feel it himself, doesn’t he? That has been part of our problem – not enough feeling and emotion.

 

            The English minister/bus driver (Maybe our preachers need occasionally to drive a bus or work a garbage truck or visit a pregnancy crisis center) named one thing he wanted in revival that caught my eye: “a revival of a sense of wonder.” He sees the British as increasingly aweless. Everything is dull, vapid, humdrum. Life has lost its sparkle, even in the church.

 

            A poet’s passion, an artist’s awe, a child’s wonder! We can feel for the poet who prayed:

 

            Backward, turn backward, O Time in your flight

            Make me a child again just for tonight!

 

            Is a sense of wonder not the answer to hardness of heart? Our English brother may well be right that this is the secret of true revival: awed by God’s grace and magnanimity; awed by the majesty of the universe; awed by the wonders of the Word. Above all, overwhelmed by God’s unspeakable gift, the Savior of the world.

 

            Do you suppose that is why David was the man after God’s own heart? How many in history could ever write such a line as: “At midnight I will arise to give thanks to you” (Ps. 119:62).

 

            It was in those midnight walks that David studied the stars in breathless wonder and asked, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Ps. 8:4)

 

            No room for hardness of heart there. – Leroy

 

 

OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

            In February I attended the ACU Lectures with Charles Turner, a lawyer in Commerce, Tx. who once served on the faculty at ACU and was fired, I might add, for cavorting with charismatics. But he doesn’t think that would happen today, considering the change. It was indeed different from the 1960s when Carl Ketcherside and I went to the Lectures and conducted underground meetings with the students and an occasional faculty member. And we were not exactly welcomed with open arms on campus! This time it was so different that I wished Carl could have been there to enjoy it. Many expressed appreciation for my long years of trying to effect change, and often it was “what you and Carl have done.” No one was of a contrary spirit, not even Buster Dobbs, editor of the Firm Foundation, who was the most “conservative” I visited with, but I think he was unhappy with what he saw and heard at the Lectures.

 

            The most dramatic moment to me was when Mark Henderson of Boulder, Co. received a standing ovation from thousands for a moving presentation on unity. I was stunned, for I saw it as an excellent summary of what Carl Ketcherside and I have been saying all these years. That was confirmed when old friends said to me afterwards, “Leroy, I didn’t know you were here. I thought of you.” One brother complained that “When they talk like that they ought to give you and Carl credit!”

 

            But the news isn’t as good as it sounds. I was so impressed that Mark received a standing ovation for saying what I would have said had I been in his place that I wanted to check it out and see if it were for real. So I quietly sought out folk among the rank and file who didn’t know me – such as elders from the churches across the country, and housewives – and asked them what they thought of the lecture on unity. Over the next two days I asked some 14 people, and all but one or two were upset by what was said, some very upset. It was too much when Mark told of meeting with “denominational” preachers and praying with them, noting that he could enjoy such fellowship in spite of differences. Several insisted that they wanted unity “only in truth.” It did no good for me to point out that that was what Mark was saying.

 

            I don’t know why nearly everyone stood and applauded, or so it seemed. It is enough to say that Mark’s “Let’s put our sectarianism behind us” speech was well received by most or many. Maybe I asked the wrong ones, but I have no illusions but what we still have our work cut out for us. Sectarianism is alive and well in Churches of Christ. The difference is that more are raising their voices against it, and it is becoming acceptable to do so, sort of.

 

            An old veteran, Bill Banowsky, who may well be the most gifted preacher among Churches of Christ, closed the Lectures with a call for more openness and an end to our sectarianism. He dared to suggest, as I did in my series on what the Churches of Christ must do to be saved, that we apologize to our neighbors for being “preachers of unity and practitioners of division.” He invoked names from the Lectureship’s honored past, back to the 1920s, including Batsell Baxter, Hall Calhoun, G. C. Brewer, F. L. Young, E. W. McMillan, Reuel Lemmons, to support his plea for “a universal, inclusive church” rather than a narrow, bigoted sect.

 

            I don’t know if Buster Dobbs stayed for it all, but if so it was a tough week for him. I fear that he was by no means alone. Change can be painful, you know, especially when you’re sitting on it.

 

READER’S EXCHANGE

 

            Thank you for your efforts. I have been preaching over 40 years and I have become more and more disturbed over the sectarian mindset of our people. I do believe, however, that positive changes are taking place. This church is a refreshing oasis, for our 500 plus members are very undenominational. Even though we get a good bit of criticism, a few of our sister congregations are becoming more open as well. Even in the more restricted churches there are many who do lot allow themselves to be imprisoned by the pulpit – Name withheld

 

            I am reading the revised edition of your Stone-Campbell Movement and find it informative and stimulating. I read it in the mornings with my first cup of tea. The reading also brings a sense of your presence and the return of many precious memories of both you and Ouida. – Graeme Chapman, Churches of Christ Theological College, Mulgrave, Vic., Australia

 

            I am thrilled that you are going to speak at the Northside Church of Christ in Santa Ana, Ca. and be on the Pepperdine Lectures. It is an answer to prayer. It will be a real treat for our membership. Praise the Lord! – Denton Gillen, Westminster, Ca.

 

            We like the new name for the newsletter. While we devour each issue, the last one on the deeper meaning of baptism was special. It expressed our feelings about other Christians. – Burl/Louise Brown, Cedar Park, Tx.

 

            I am undertaking a project to republish the works of Carl Ketcherside, which would include 31 volumes, including his Mission Messenger. If you have interest in this, please contact me. – Bob D. Lewis, Box 427, DeFuniak Springs, Fl., 904-892-6257

 

            Once More With Love. I like the new title. Also your lead article on the deeper meaning of baptism. There are two aspects of baptism, the how and why, and I’m afraid we’ve made too much of the how and not enough of the why. Baptism must mean that self dies and Christ lives within us.  – Harold Fox, Edgar, Neb.

 

BOOK NOTES

 

            College Press informs me that my book, The Stone-Campbell Movement, is selling so well that they may soon have to do another printing. That may mean that you should order a copy, for yourself or another or both. Single copies are $25, two copies for $45, postpaid.

 

            Richard Hughes’ new book on Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America I have been studying in preparation for a review of it at the Pepperdine Lectures. I disagree with some of its conclusions, but it makes for worthwhile reading. It will likely be controversial in that it contends that while the Churches of Christ have always denied being either, they began as a sect and are now a denomination! We’ll send you a copy for $30, postpaid.

 

            We are blessed that College Press keeps in print The Fool of God, a historical novel on the life of Alexander Campbell, and Raccoon John Smith, the great pioneer preacher of Kentucky. If you want to capture the genius of our heritage, these books are highly recommended, and they make for exciting reading, both by Louis Cochran. $12.50 each, postpaid.

 

            Restoration Review, the journal we published for 40 years, is now history, having ended in 1992. We have five bound volumes that contain ten years of publication, 1983-1992, that are available at $15 each or all for $65, postpaid. These are hardback, matching volumes, with index and dust jacket, 400 pages each. If you want to get a feel for what we said over the years, we’ll send you a sampling of 25 back issues, back through the years, for only $5, postpaid.

 

            Certain ACU Press publications are evidence that we have begun to take our history seriously. We recommend: Distant Voices (Allen), $13; Will the Cycle Be Unbroken? (Foster), $12; Discovering Our Roots (Allen Hughes). Prices include postage.

 

            We would all do well to study the history of other denominations, especially those that have had such an impact upon our society as the Salvations Army, which is a denomination. Marching to Glory: The History of the Salvation Army in the U.S. is denominational history at its best. It will convince you that we all have much to learn from “The Army.” $25 postpaid.

 

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What Kind of a Church Does Jesus Want?

 

            This isn’t a question we often ask and it may not represent the way we think about church. On our more selfish side we likely think in terms of how we want the church to be. On our more gracious side we may think of a church that will attract our neighbors. If we are candid we may have to admit that we do not think about a church pleasing Jesus. And there just might be a big difference between a church that pleases ourselves or our neighbors and one that pleases Jesus.

 

            In a recent issue the Pentecostal Evangel, official organ of the Assemblies of God, tells us what kind of a church pleases Jesus. Unity in diversity is the key. The church is not to be made up only of those who are like us, for God has not called us to be like each other but like Jesus. So we must not reject those he receives.

 

            A local church is to be a microcosm of the church universal, with no lines drawn as to race, color, culture. “Successful” churches are homogeneous, but is this the kind of church Jesus wants?, the Evangel asks. God has not called His church to be a cookie cutter with its monotonous sameness, but to have the inward stamp of the Holy Spirit who bears witness that we are all children of God.