MINI-MEETING VIGNETTES

There will be neither pattern nor order to this report on my recent travels, but rather some loosely drawn descriptions of persons and incidents that may interest you. Moving as I do along the growing edge of an otherwise inexorable brotherhood makes for experiences that are dramatic. They can well be told, for they help to combat that debilitating notion that institutions cannot change. We’ve all heard for years that Rome cannot change, but recent events show that Rome is changing. Our own Church of Christ, along with its other Restoration heirs, is maturing far beyond the fondest dreams of a decade ago. These are revolutionary times, and it is amidst revolution that we not only have drama, but signals of significant and lasting new directions. These vignettes may help to show the color of the scenery.

Louisville, Ky. — As I drove along toward the Woodland Christian Encampment with three men from the Louisville area, I was under the impression that I was with Christian Church brothers, only to discover that they were premillennial Church of Christ. I had accepted the invitation not knowing just who was behind the effort, and not really caring, for it is real discipleship in Jesus that counts anyhow. Our conversation was about Jesus and his love and his people, and there was no concern on anyone’s part to check party labels. But it impressed the fellows that I had traversed several states to spend several days in a unity forum without even knowing who was behind it. And I was impressed that they did not wear any sectarian identification.

Linton, Indiana It was near this sleepy village that the Woodland Unity Forum took place. The forum was heavily laced with premills, who have not had many such experiences, and it was especially opportune for this area, where there are numerous premill congregations that have had almost no contact with other disciple groups. From the premills and main-liners came also the charismatics, including beards and long hair.

I spoke to this informal gathering of men for three nights on “Unity: How Far?” I gave a lesson each on the three great chapters on unity: Eph. 4, John 17, and Rom. 14. Despite the diversity of those assembled there was an enthusiastic response to the great biblical principles of the oneness of God’s people.

But the most dramatic feature was the emergence of the charismatic, and the charismatic does have a way of emerging! But it was ever so constrained and quiet. Paul and Mary Wheeler Logue were on hand, the wife being a stowaway at an otherwise all men’s conference. Known to have the gift of tongues, Paul Logue, longtime an elder in Central Church of Christ in St. Louis, was invited to state his case on glossolalia. So intrigued were the premills and Christian Church fellows, not having been around such folk as some of the rest of us, that they asked Paul if he would object to demonstrating his gift. Paul explained that he could pray in his tongue if requested to do so as well as in English. So there before the assembly, gathered in an open-air tabernacle, Paul lifted his hands and eyes toward heaven and prayed for some two minutes in a tongue.

Here was glossolalia at a unity forum and there were no signs at all of it being divisive, for faction is after all in men’s hearts and not in their diverse interpretations. There was a sweet and reasonable response on the part of the curious non charismatics. No one panicked. Paul did not leave the slightest impression that he believed that other disciples must have his experience. It was simply a case of his sharing with his brothers, and only at their request. My thought was that it would be well if there could be this kind of relaxed attitude in our congregations, freedom from the fear of the unfamiliar.

As a byproduct of this larger experience with Paul, Dr. Jim Kurfees, a Louisville physician, and I had a private session with Mary Wheeler Logue, who shared with us the intimate communion she enjoys with Jesus. She says that on occasion she “sees” the Lord in her presence, and talks with him as she would any friend. Jesus is sometimes humorous with her, she says, chiding her for supposing he would not come when she invites him. She also spoke in her tongue for us, which sounded more like Japanese than it did Hebrew. She explained a characteristic about glossolalia that I had not heard before, which is that the tongue spoken is always the same speech. It may be longer one time than the next, hut it IS always an extension of the same speech. That means that whenever the Logues speak in a tongue, it is always the same, no variation in words, though of course Paul’s is not the same as his wife’s. And yet those same words may have different interpretations!

Dr. Kurfees, like most physicians, is scientifically oriented, and is likely to be more skeptical of this sort of behavior, so I was interested in his reaction, especially to our sister’s visits with Jesus. The doctor readily conceded that Mrs. Logue is not the type person given to fancy, for she is obviously stable and well-adjusted. We agreed that she reflects that joyous faith that is all too rare in the modern church, and that her excitement about Jesus is for real. She caused us to realize that when one opens the door to Jesus’ knock at our heart something just that joyous will happen. It was sweet and tender. and rather than it leaving the impression that she is a wild-eyed mystic, one can conclude that out sister has been with Jesus, however her poetic heart may express it.

If the poet Vachel Lindsey in his Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight can see the martyred President walking “Near the old courthouse pacing up and down, or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards he lingers where his children used to play,” it should not be strange if a believer in Jesus sees the risen Lord in the confines of his own home. We sing of going to the garden alone where Jesus walks and talks with us, but the poetry somehow fails in translation into real life. Mary Wheeler Logue really means it when she sings of walking and talking with Jesus!

Nashville, Tenn. to Kentucky when I was en route I stopped over in “Jerusalem” for part of two days. It was great to be with Jim Bevis and Don Finto of the now controversial Belmont Church of Christ. They are now having four or five major services each Lord’s day to accommodate those who hunger for a free man’s worship. The Belmont elders are now on record for not making glossolalia a test of fellowship, which means they welcome our Nashville charismatics, some of whom have been excluded from other congregations, without either approving or disapproving of the phenomenon. As a result there are a number of charismatics in the assembly, though none of them speaks in tongues in such meetings. This is the first congregation among us that I know of that is on record for not making this controversial experience a test of fellowship. In the light of the apostolic instructions in 1 Cor. 14, I see them standing on solid ground. They love and accept these “freaks” that others have rejected, just as Jesus did. This vivacious church is ministering to children in a day school center and has a halfway house and a farm for its ministry to dope addicts. It is planning a coffee house ministry and a paperback reading center. A byproduct of it all, and possibly its most fruitful ministry of all, is that it is frightening scores of “Jerusalem” churches into a reappraisal of their Christian witness.

Don Finto went with me to visit Louis and Bess Cochran, those great historians of discipledom. Louie can write no more, nor even read, for his eyes have grown weak. Bess reads to him. I assured them that our folk in the Churches of Christ would ever be indebted to them, who arc members of the Disciples of Christ, for both The Fool of God and Raccoon John Smith that everywhere I go I meet people who have been wonderfully blessed by these words, not to mention their Captives of the Word, a history of our movement. Louie is pleased that Church of Christ folk have shown such enthusiasm for his efforts. I could tell that my gratitude touched him, now that he has grown old. Bess assured Don and me that our visit buoyed them up, for their spirits were low. Maybe it is our neglect of history that is part of the reason for our lack of appreciation for those who would preserve it for us. If The Fool of God does not thrill one’s heart, then his heart is in a serious state of disrepair.

I had dinner with Archie and Margaret Boone, Pat’s parents, only to learn that the Granny White congregation, next to Lipscomb College, had at last excluded them from fellowship. They had been exemplary members for a generation, rearing their children there and serving in the deaconate. The charge against them: being charismatic, with such attending criticism as not being sound on instrumental music and denominationalism. They now attend Belmont, but still go to Granny White for some services. Archie is confident that the action was taken because of Pat, for other members of the Boone family, Pat’s brother and sisters, are also having a hard time of it in their respective churches, apparently because they are Boones. Archie is a working man, as down to earth as Sam the barber, and being with him reminds one of the virtues that gave birth to this land of the free and home of the brave. Margaret is everybody’s Mom, and the innocent joy in her life is a confirmation that Jesus indeed lives in people’s hearts. They both love those who exclude them as much, if not more, than those who include them. How delightful it is to be in their presence. There is no way for me to express the horror of my heart that such devoted saints of God should be expelled by one of our leading churches. But still I believe, still I hope. We are a better people than to be cruel like that. Granny White is a better church than that. Fear sometimes causes us to act little when really we are big of heart. God help us to please him rather than big preachers and big editors — or little preachers and little editors, for that matter.

Harlan, Ky. — In this Appalachian town, and at nearby Baxter, I addressed both the Christian Church and the Elm St. Church of Christ, and one evening there was a men’s fellowship composed of both groups. Dr. Thomas Pruitt, an ophthalmologist, presently presides over the Elm St. congregation. He and his wife Shake entertained me most graciously in their home. She is an Armenian, and a lovely one, and she intrigued me with stories of how her forebears were persecuted by the Turks because of their Christian faith, some of them murdered because they would not renounce Jesus. Shake is audacious enough to suppose that those poor Armenians might also have been Christians, albeit ignorant of what we call the Church of Christ and the Restoration Movement.

While in this coal mining community I spoke on radio station WHLN. The owner of the station, a brother in the Lord, played to me a tape of a sermon by the local Episcopalian rector, broadcast during a time of a coal mine dispute, with bombings, ambush, shootings. Civic leaders attribute the community’s return to sanity to the plea from this concerned pastor. Taking his text “God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows that shall he reap,” he pointed to God’s judgment upon those that stalk their neighbors in the night to harm them. “When you hide in the bushes to shoot at your brother, God is there and he knows,” he would warn. “When you bomb your neighbor’s home, God is saying ‘That is my man and my house that you are destroying,’ and God will bring you to account for what you are doing to him.”

It was a dramatic instance of God’s word at work in a community crisis. I was so touched by this application of God’s grace and judgment in a time of peril that the brother gave me a copy of the tape. I was even more impressed when I listened to it again with my family at home, for it allowed my children to see how a man who loves God can use his Word to help a troubled people in a time of emergency. I will be pleased to lend you the cassette for the asking. Jon R. and Lynne Milam and Larry and Linda Fiscus minister to those mountaineers, and they were my hosts while there. Jon and Larry are students at Milligan College.

Arab, Alabama Here we had a unity meeting with Dallas Burdette, Charles Holt, Norman Parks, and John Acuff on the program. A session on Thomas Campbell’s “Declaration and Address” was most rewarding, with those attending having his own copy to study and mark. What a tremendous piece of work that is, and its background is real life drama! But that which stands out above all else in this forum is Dallas Burdette’s address on the nature of fellowship. Dallas is from the one-cup, non-class end of the brotherhood, serving such a congregation in Montgomery. I have not heard a more forceful and resourceful presentation on fellowship than he gave, and coming from one of his background it has special meaning to me. He is one big reason why all of us can believe in the future.

Huntsville, Alabama — This was really a stopover while en route, and mainly for a visit with beloved friends James and Clovis Ledbetter, though we did have a parlor meeting with friends one evening. I stayed around an extra two days in order to use their quiet home as a place to write for Restoration Review. Out walking one morning I came upon a new Christian Church building. Noticing what was probably the pastor’s car parked nearby, I invaded the place and discovered for myself another dear brother in the Lord, one Joe Loy, who had on his book shelves such contraband as volumes of Mission Messenger. Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves, and we were soon talking of a unity meeting for Huntsville. He was a bit surprised that the likes of me would come walking in out of nowhere. I felt like Saul of old, who went out in search of asses and found a kingdom. I went for a walk and found a brother. You have to admit that it is something to outsaul Saul! Only “a man after God’s own heart” can do that! Serendipity some folk call that, but a believer will think of it as God’s leading or providence (but don’t dare call it a miracle, for they have all ceased, you know).

Waiting for a bus for Nashville, I called an old Princeton classmate, who is now pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, Edward Gartrell. I always remember him because in the alphabetical roll calls his name always followed mine. He was recently president of Huntsville’s ministerial association and was perplexed by his inability to gain the cooperation of our folk in some of the community projects. He attributed it all to his own ineptness as a leader, which I thought was gracious of him.

Wichita, Kansas — For years I had wanted to be with the Riverside Church of Christ, pioneers in freedom and broader fellowship among us. John Smith has replaced Robert Meyers, and the congregation has had some difficulty finding itself since Bob’s departure, for he was their preacher for ten years. Bob was present at some of our meetings, and we had lunch together. He took me to see the large Plymouth Congregational Church where he serves as “pulpit minister,” along with his professorship at Wichita State. Once the Congregationalists heard Bob, nothing would do but to hire him, and under most any conditions. When he would not leave his university post and serve them full-time, the matter was resolved by employing another minister to do most of the other chores, leaving Bob to do the pulpit work. Their gain is our loss, that’s for sure, for there is hardly a keener mind before any audience than Robert Meyers. But Bob hasn’t’ “left” us, whatever we are making that term mean these days. As he put it, “Leroy, I’m still an old Campbellite boy.” How I do love and admire that guy, and I am thankful that the Congregationalists have a man like that around — for awhile. Already Bob has brought more meaning to the Lord’s Supper to these people, not only because they now partake more frequently, but because of the deeper implications which he discerns. Our pulpit ministers could take a page from Bob Meyers, who really prepares his sermons. His wife Billie told me that he revises his lessons as many as four or five times. When Sunday comes it is all written out, timed for precisely 20 minutes, and set for his speaking cadence. And he always says something. He is a skilled craftsman of his trade, whether in classroom or pulpit.

Riverside is not excluded as much as before, not SD much because Bob has left or the church has changed, but because of our maturing brotherhood. Younger preachers who now serve other churches are friendlier, some of them attending our meetings. John Smith encourages this kind of contact. The old boycotting days arc about gone. thank God. The saints at Riverside are a delightful group and enjoy each other as much as any congregation I know. — the Editor