FREEDOM RINGS AT WYNNEWOOD CHAPEL

The greatest chapters in the history of Christianity have been written in relatively obscure settings, virtually unnoticed by a preoccupied world and even ignored by the religious establishments. The birth of our Lord caused angels to sing, but here on earth there were but a handful of humble shepherds paid any mind. The great events of Pentecost have influenced the history of man for 2,000 years, but the important cultural centers of Athens, Rome, and Alexandria knew nothing of what had happened, and even the Jewish hierarchy that sat on the Sanhedrin a few blocks away were probably unaware.

The church at Antioch was responsible for the gospel reaching out beyond the confines of Judaism, thus making Christianity the universal religion that God intended it to be, which made that little church one of the great congregations in history. Yet the passing world, including the clergy of the Jewish and Hellenistic religions, knew little of what was going on and could not have cared less. Even though what that little church did has become one of the greatest stories ever told, it would never have made the front page of the Antioch Herald, had there been such a publication.

The doubtings of an obscure monk named Martin Luther attracted little notice from his superiors, but God used those doubts to shake the religious establishments as a storm tosses the waves of the sea, and thus to change the course of history. Likewise God used John Knox, a man of humble birth and a galley slave, to stand before Mary, Queen of Scots, and save Scotland for the Reformation.

And in our own Movement we can appreciate how insignificant the little group at Brush Run, tucked away as they were in the isolated hills of Northern Virginia, must have felt. That Alexander Campbell realized their obscurity is evident from the fact that he chose Job 8:7 as the text for his remarks at the congregation’s first service, even before the log house was erected: “Though thy beginning was small, thy latter end should greatly increase.” As young Alex stood there on a temporary stand tinder the shade of a spreading tree even he little realized what God had in store for him. Four millions of us who are heirs of the Movement that started then can testify to the use that God can make of obscure efforts.

And little did Thomas Campbell realize that the Declaration and Address that he composed in an attic on Addison Welch’s farm would inspire reformatory efforts that would sweep like a prairie fire across the American frontier. When he moved his pen to say: “The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one,” and when he called people to be free from “the bitter jarrings and janglings of a party spirit,” he little dreamed that he would influence countless thousands and make a significant contribution to the unity of all churches that we see emerging in our day.

God is still making history according to His own good purposes, and we can be assured that He will continue to choose “what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Cor. 1:28-29). We can believe that God is at work in the lives of men --- little men as the world would appraise them --- who are little noticed by their own generation, but who are making an important contribution toward the realization of the prayer uttered by our Lord for the oneness of his people. God, we can believe, is also using churches to this end, however small or despised they may be. No doubt there are many of these across the earth, both large and small, where the Spirit is at work to cultivate brotherhood among people distraught by faction.

This is why we believe something important is taking place at Wynnewood Chapel in Dallas, June 15-18. Men are meeting together who come from most all the backgrounds of the Restoration Movement in order to understand each other better. There will be a few other concerned people outside our Movement who will also be on the program, men who believe that the Spirit of God is at work in our time to bind up the wounds of party strife. The brethren that will be gathered for this seminar on unity would hardly have spoken to each other ten years ago, much less sharing ideas with each other on how we can best “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace:’

We think something is achieved if we do no more than to cultivate that charity that will at least listen to what a brother has to say. At this meeting some will really listen to a premillennialist for the first time in their lives. “Class” brethren and “anti-class” brethren will talk together and pray together without feeling obligated to indulge in the endless and profitless debate on classes. They can talk about classes, of course, and nearly everything comes up sooner or later at these meetings, but they are free simply to be together as brethren, and not for a big debate.

A basic assumption underlying such gatherings is that we will never achieve the oneness for which our Lord prayed until we learn to talk and visit with each other. Too long we have followed the fallacy that we must first unite before we can be together. We move toward unity only when we are able to be with one another and come to understand each other better.

One only needs to attend such a meeting to see that no one advocates “fellowshipping anybody and everybody,” as some of the critics charge. It is assumed that we are already brethren because we are all “in Christ” together. We are only saying that people who are brothers should treat each other like brothers. No one is saying that we should honor as a brother anyone who is not a brother.

Neither does the meeting mean that anybody is asked to endorse anything that he disapproves, or to give his approval to something that he does not believe in. No one is asked to surrender any truth he holds. We furthermore contend that the opinions that a man holds are his own private property and that they are between him and his God. He acts unbrotherly if he tries to impose his opinions upon me, and I behave uncharitably if I seek to force mine upon him. Such is the spirit of these unity meetings.

This does not mean that everything is sugar and spice and everything nice, or that issues are not sometimes fervently and candidly discussed, for they usually are. The subjects to be discussed at Wynnewood Chapel are fraught with such deep meaning that there will certainly be disagreement. Some of the subjects are: the nature of faith and opinion, the pattern of Christian unity, law and grace, preaching and teaching, congregational discipline, heresy, the church and the individual, who is my Christian brother?, and the Holy Spirit and unity.

We believe one purpose of brotherhood is the cultivation of a free spirit within man so that he may grow toward his own self-realization. We are to help each other as brothers in Christ to think and to study, and we are to encourage differences. God never intended that we be carbon copies of each other. The Wynnewood gathering is intended to motivate that kind of fluidity of thought that makes one a true individual before God. All this means that we account each other as free men in Christ.

The overseers of the Wynnewood Chapel congregation, Guy Land and L. M. Roberts, are to be commended for making this meeting possible. One would think that our great Restoration Movement, born and bred in the unity concept, would rally behind such efforts; but the coolness of many of our groups is amazing. It makes one wonder if we really believe in unity. If you are one who does, and if you believe in giving it a try, however lame the effort, then we cordially invite you to sit with us these four days.

ONLY .006% OF WORLD ARE CHRISTIANS!

This business of trying to number the Christians in a given city or in the entire world is risky. It may reflect an attitude that brings one farther from the Kingdom of Heaven rather than closer, for we are to remember that Jesus said ‘You are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven” to a man who would not have been numbered by the orthodox of his day. But he believed that the greatest commandant of all was to love God with all one’s personality, and the second greatest was to love one’s neighbor as oneself, and he realized this meant more than being orthodox (Mk. 12:32-34). Lest we list someone as far that Jesus considers not far, we should think twice before we start twirling a globe and numbering the Christians in all the countries of the world.

Even Paul had to be told by God in a vision while the apostle was in Corinth: “I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:10). Elijah also had to be straightened out when he started numbering. He never got beyond one, supposing himself to be the only one worthy to be on the approved list. When the Lord gave his version it turned out to be about 7,000 times greater than the prophet had supposed (Rom. 11:4).

But the limitations of a Paul or an Elijah need not deter the wisdom that comes out of Abilene. The brethren out there who direct the Herald of Truth radio and TV programs are prepared to tell us precisely how many Christians there are in the world. It is .006%. Presto! they know just like that! Marvelous, isn’t it? I suppose we may conclude that we have some brethren so wise in the ways of heaven that they are prepared to help the Master when he sits upon His throne in judgment --- just in case He happens to need them.

Notice this paragraph from a leaflet sent out by the Abilene promoters in an effort to raise millions of dollars more from Churches of Christ:

There are fewer Christians today --- in relation to the world’s population --- than at the end of the first year of the Church’s establishment almost 2,000 years ago. Within 30 years after the establishment of the Church, Paul, in writing to the Colossians, stated that the Gospel had been preached “in all creation under Heaven.” Yet, today, there are only an estimated 2 million baptized believers --- .006% of the world’s population.

You will observe that “the estimated 2 millions baptized believers” includes only the non-instrument Churches of Christ that are more or less related to Herald of Truth. This leaves out 40 millions of Baptists in the world, as well as millions of others among the Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons who immerse only believers --- and always “for the remission of sins” by the way. There are many more believers among all the sects that practice sprinkling who choose to be immersed in obedience to the Lord.

The Abilene figure even leaves out other segments of the Restoration Movement, some of whom were insisting on immersion into Christ for the remission of sins before anybody ever heard of the Churches of Christ. Two millions of these are in what is now called the Independent Christian Churches, who bear down on Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16 as adamantly as any ACC graduate ever has. They are certainly baptized believers. It leaves out another two million Disciples of Christ who are by all means immersed believers.

The “estimated 2 million baptized believers” is a figure of some naive Church of Christ men who ought to go back to school and find out what is going on in the world. Only two million baptized believers? They have four million baptized believers in their own Restoration Movement that they ignore. And are not the 40 millions of Baptists baptized believers? Honest blunders coming out of Abilene we can take, but such downright irresponsibility and lack of charity as this is almost too much. It gives us the feeling that our Lord must have had in his encounters with the Pharisees.

It makes one wonder if the Abilene figure includes even those non-organ Churches of Christ that are different from Abilene and the Advocate, such as the premillennial and non-Sunday School churches. And how about Lufkin? Are they still to be counted as “baptized believers”? Are they among the two millions of Christians in the world? At what point is one removed from the list of Christians, or on what grounds does he get on to start with? The Christian Churches and Disciples are left out because of the organ, we suppose.

Our Abilene brethren have another problem in drawing their percentages: how can they be so sure that the two million in the Churches of Christ are Christians? How many were baptized so young that they knew not what they were doing, and have consequently never had a conversion experience? How many were baptized to please a wife or a husband rather than Jesus? How many who have been baptized are filled with so much carnality that they are anything but Christians?

Well, as I say, counting noses is bad business. Nobody knows how many Christians there are in the world. If one does try to draw some kind of an approximate figure, it is the height of arrogance to give only the full number of one’s own party. It assumes, first, that all those in one’s own party are Christians; and, second, that none in the other parties are. I beg to be excused from this kind of thing. People speak of my having “left” the Church of Christ. I have not ‘left” the Church of Christ, but I have left that.

To see how sick men can get in their self-righteousness, look at this sentence from the same leaflet: “Even though the church of our Lord has been termed the fastest growing group in America today, we are not keeping pace with the population growth.” I am not sure what news medium it was that said something about our being the fastest growing church in America, but I am sure that they did not say that “the Church of our Lord is the fastest growing group.” They rather said “the Church of Christ is the fastest growing group.” It takes no Solomon to see that this group that constitutes only .006% of the world’s population is “the Church of our Lord.” This excludes all other groups even within the Restoration Movement as being the Lord’s church. If this does not show how partyism can blind good men, pray tell me what does.

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get” (Matt. 7:1-2).

A WHISPER IN THE EAR

For several years now I have described my own relationship to the Restoration Movement as “a disciple at large,” a point of view that seems clear enough to me, but which is apparently confusing to some. I had opportunity recently to put the idea to the test in a gathering of ministers from both the Church of Christ and Christian Church. The brother who introduced me as the speaker was himself of “Church of Christ background” but now identified with the Disciples of Christ. He wanted to know how he should introduce me. What was my “religious home” --- Church of Christ, Independent, or Disciple? From what he had heard he wondered how I could very well belong to any, and he had the notion that none of them really accepted me. So he wanted to know how I classified myself.

The question was fair and reasonable, for we live in a world where some kind of tag must be on everything. Everybody must be neatly tucked away into some arbitrary classification. We like it that way. Life is easier and simpler that way. Tags are convenient things. They help us not to have to think. So I understood the brother’s question, I find myself tucking people away into little cubby holes, a habit that I find hard to break.

I explained to the inquiring brother and to the entire group that I saw no need in “leaving” anything (whether the Church of Christ, in which I was brought up, or anything else) or “joining” anything (whether Disciples or Independent Christian). Why cannot I be simply a disciple at large? This means that I will accept all who are in Christ, regardless of the differences of opinion. I reserve the right to love them all while differing with all. The Disciples of Christ are as much my brothers as those in the Church of Christ, and I can move as freely and comfortably among our premillennial churches and Independents as among those who nurtured me.

It is not a question with me as to which group among us holds views more in keeping with my own, but rather a matter of brotherhood. If a man is a son of my heavenly Father, he is my brother. If he is in union with Christ, as I believe I am, then we are saints together. I may differ with him about all sorts of things, whether instrumental music or salaried clergy --- and I probably do! --- but he is still my brother, and I accept him as such. And he is just as much my brother, and just as dear to me as a brother, as is the man who agrees with me on all my prejudices.

I also told this group that I do encounter difficulty in maintaining this posture, for no one group fully accepts a man unless he thinks of their party as the loyal church and rejects the others as disloyal. If you love all your brethren and treat them all as brethren, you are kept at arm’s length by all. Only by loving one of our segments and hating all the others can one really be accepted.

I was pleasantly surprised when this group of ministers interrupted my remarks with applause. I took it that they thought my position reasonable and scriptural. Afterwards two very prominent Disciples (you see, here I am classifying) told me that my position was the only way we could ever be one brotherhood again. I was encouraged.

But one brother dropped a word in my ear that has haunted me ever since. He said to me quietly: “The reason you can talk like that is because you are a college professor and have your own support!”

As long as I live I’ll never forget those words. He wasn’t rebuking me, nor was he in any sense criticizing. It was a matter of fact. Already I have passed his words along to a number of my friends. They continue to brew in my mind. I am now asking myself: suppose you had married that other girl and had not gone on for advanced degrees and become a college professor; and suppose you had gone on and became the minister for some Church of Christ, and with several children to support you had no other way to make $150.00 a week --- how then, ole boy, would you talk about being “a disciple at large” who is as willing to have fellowship with Christian Church folk as with Church of Christ people?

I humbly yield to the possibility, if not the probability, of it being different if I were dependent upon anyone of these groups among us for my subsistence. Beside the pressure of financial security there is esteem, reputation, and position that party loyalty provides. We must not deceive ourselves as to the severity of these pressures. We must be sympathetic.

This is one more reason, apart from scriptural considerations, why I oppose the professional, clerical system that obtains among all our groups. It will always be true that the man who pays the piper is the one that calls the tune. We like to think that one’s love for brotherhood should be enough to break him away from the narrow confines of partyism, but there is that gnawing question that each man must face: how will I make a living?

It takes us back to the question that this journal has raised several times: shall I choose Christ or the party? True, one might well have Christ within the party structure, but with Christ he transcends the party and begins to reach out beyond party lines . . . and then what does the party do to him? This is a problem that each man must face for himself, but we should all be willing to lend a helping hand, and especially to understand.

“You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections” (2 Cor. 6:12).