RESPONSE FROM READERS

Have a wonderful, wonderful time in Bethany! Be sure to write the details for those of us who cannot get there. Our thoughts and prayers go with you. Good for Ouida for going along! —Colorado

(We plan to write about the Bethany meeting in the September issue. —Editor)

I am very pleased with your periodical and with the good it is doing. I hope I have changed my way of thinking toward others who are in Christ. I realize that I have a long way to go, but with the Lord’s help I will make progress. —Washington

I enjoy very much reading your publication. Not that I always agree with your thinking, but that you allow the right to disagree. Only by this attitude can brethren ever approach dwelling in unity as God’s family. —Michigan

We both admire you for the work you are doing and we are seeing many direct changes in the Church of Christ. For you and men like you we say Hurray! —Kansas

The March issue was handed me by a friend, and I enjoyed reading it so much I wish to subscribe for the year. —California

It appears to me that you are seeking to attain that for which Campbell strove, namely the unity of God’s people, but that you are endeavoring to accomplish it exactly by opposite means. He endeavored to bring people out of denominationalism, where as it seems you are agreeable to their remaining in it. —Texas.

(I most certainly seek to lead people out of sectarianism, but this does not necessarily mean they have to leave their denomination, whether it be Baptist or Church of Christ. One might be in a sect without being a sectarian. One does not “leave denominationalism” simply by changing churches, even when he changes to the right (?) church. It is the right relationship with Christ that delivers one from sectarianism, and I desire to deliver all from this evil. Campbell’s basis for unity was the Lordship of Christ, not doctrinal conformity. This is my position. —Editor)

From some of the reports that I have heard you can be sure that you are having a real influence among large groups of Church of Christ people. One preacher I talked to had just returned from Lubbock Christian College and he could not say “Leroy Garrett” with enough bitterness to suit him. I can only encourage you to keep working and to assure you that we pray for you often. I do hope that more of our brethren learn to really know Jesus and to experience the workings of the Spirit in their lives. —Oregon

(We want to thank all those who are praying for us and for our work in Restoration Review. We urge all our readers who believe in the power of prayer to pray for the union of all believers, and that this journal may be used in such a glorious work. —Editor)

I especially enjoyed your article on The Gift of the Holy Spirit. Robert Myers’ article should be helpful to the young preachers and others who have not yet been exposed to such thinking. He’s a sportwriter! —New Mexico

I like your style. Far too much discussion of divisive issues is in grim, ponderous humorlessness. The rapier of wit can do more than the bludgeon of logic. And perhaps the needle of irony can do better. —Nebraska

Your article on The Gift of the Holy Spirit is tops. Your keen analysis of the problems we face within Churches of Christ needs to be admitted by all of us. Recently I heard a C of C preacher on the radio on this very subject. He spent about two-thirds of his time saying what the Holy Spirit did not do. It was quite obvious that his guns were trained on the Holiness groups . . . I also enjoyed Robert Meyers’ penetrating article Custom or Command. He writes with much insight into our problems. —Louisiana

I was pleased to hear of your trip to ACC, though I can’t share the full measure of your optimism about its implications. Clearly, you could hardly expect a tumultuous welcome at ole DLC, which will be one of the last bastions of the old ways, even more now than ever before. But keep it up! I admire your pluck, envy your perseverance, and especially covet your faith. Yours is a voice of concern, mine of despair. —Tennessee

(No, no! Let us never despair. The prophet Jeremiah was sure there wasn’t a real man in all Jerusalem, and he went through the streets looking for one, just to prove his point. He just knew there wasn’t even one. And yet when he was brought before the Jewish clergy and was about to be put to death, enough young princes rose up in his defense that the clergy was forced to back down. Warning to DLC: watch out for the young princes! —Editor)

Let me pass an interesting incident about your paper along to you. One of my preaching friends has wondered aloud to me, “What is wrong with Leroy Garrett? He must be crazy or something.” Well, sir, just the other day he was using my telephone and noticed a copy of Restoration Review nearby. On the cover I had written see page 27. He turned and read it. He came to me open-mouthed and told me there just wasn’t a thing in that article he could disagree with. The article? “Fellowship and Brothers in Error.” —Canada

(My problem is not so much with those who read what I write, but with those who don’t or won’t. —Editor)