MINI-MEETING NOTES

In late October I was with the Emerson Street Church of Christ in Bloomington, Illinois. This is the congregation that is now known far and wide for having formed itself out of two groups, a Christian Church and a Church of Christ. They are aware of being pioneers and they are thankful for the example they have set. They have been described in the press as “reversing a trend,” and we will all agree that it is high time to reverse our ugly habit of division. While they took the name Church of Christ, they elected to use the organ since the non-instrument group saw no scriptural objection. Anyway, they love one another and are working for the Lord. And they are growing. Jack Thompson is supported by the group as minister both in the congregation and to the university community. My dear friends, Bob and Betty Duncan, are members, Bob being a professor at nearby Illinois State University. But I was able to visit in the homes of several other families. who are indeed a great credit to the work there. While the non-instrument churches in the area look askance at Emerson Street, seeing it as not quite a Church of Christ and not quite a Christian Church, the situation could be far worse, for there are some responsible contacts across the lines in the Restoration family.

But Emerson Street does make for an interesting question: Are they a Church of Christ with an organ or are they a Christian Church with the Church of Christ name? Having been with them somewhat now, I would say that they are simply the body of Christ with their own particular uniqueness in Jesus. Need they be anything else?

An interesting brother in the area is Flavil Yeakley, Jr., who ministers to the Four Seasons Road Church of Christ (non-instrument), a congregation that at least treats Emerson Street decently if not brotherly. Flavil is doing graduate work in psychology, and he is presently involved in trying to psychoanalyze the pattern of division in Church of Christ-Christian Churches. Why are some issues divisive and others not? Why do some factions survive and become permanent sects while others or not? What are the marks of a sect leader? In pursuance of such questions as these Flavil will likely make an important contribution to our better understanding ourselves.

November was about as tight a schedule as is possible in these days of jet travel. I addressed the First Christian Church in Miami on first Sunday, then spent that week at the Pan American Lectureship in Quito, Ecuador, flying from Miami. Next came a visit with two churches, one a Christian Church and the other a Church of Christ, in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The third Sunday found me with Eastside Church of Christ in Farmington, N. M., followed by a visit with the Gallup Christian Church in Gallup, N. M.

I spent Thanksgiving with Carroll and Maudine Wrinkle in Ft. Wingate, where they both teach in an Indian school Maudine is the younger sister of my own Ouida. and all that it will take for her to be as gracious and beautiful as Ouida is a few more years. It simply takes time, as with an Oak tree, for one to attain Ouida’s excellence, and that but for few.

The Wrinkles have a lovely family of three children, the oldest being taller than his Daddy and well on his way to beating all the Indians playing basketball. The girls are enough like Ouida to be her own. The Wrinkles have a ministry of love among the Indians. One red lad, who had been something of a problem (They all are problems!), surprised Carroll by blurting out “I love you.” Another, who has not yet been victimized by Carroll’s love, has threatened to kill him!

Maudine has group therapy with ten little Indian girls, but not necessarily sitting on a wall and not always just ten. What they want most is her tender loving care. They’ll come to her time and again during a session, asking for another kiss. I gather from what I saw and heard that the Indians who are in charge of other Indians have other than a love ministry.

I also had a session in the home of Alice O’Bryan in Albuquerque before coming home. At month’s end I was in Atlanta for a meeting with some 20 leaders of Disciples of Christ, Christian Churches, and Churches of Christ with a view of creating deeper fellowship at more creative levels, the further nature of which I am not at liberty to comment upon at this time.

I especially enjoyed my visit in the home of Bob and Virgie Lee Shaw and with First Christian (Disciples) in Miami. Bob has longtime been pastor there and is greatly loved and respected. He has shared in some of our unity meetings, and he is widely known for his work with the Fellowship for a Free and Responsible Church, a committee concerned for what is happening to the Disciples in their restructure plans. He continues to work for peace and harmony in the Restoration family of churches, and how I do love him for that. People who suppose that the Disciples are all wild-eyed liberals who want to flyaway to nether land in COCU need to visit with Dr. Shaw and learn what is going on. But the Disciples as a whole are in trouble, that’s for sure. It is too bad that we failed through the years to cultivate such love and friendship with them that we could not be of help. It may not be too late for us to do some things.

The visit to Ecuador was slightly disappointing, one reason being I got sick, as did a number of the 140 American visitors, including Reuel Lemmons. But I got to be with good friends like Dick and Nell Smith (and Nell’s mother), Oles and Bernice Pinson, and Ruby Hicks and her sister all who live within 150 miles of Denton, Texas in a foreign land. And I was able to renew acquaintance with a number of ministers working in Latin countries, including Harlan Overton and Dan Coker. Dan is quite a tease. He told the planeload of our folk that it would really take care of the boredom if they’d let Leroy Garrett tell about the time that they threw him in jail at Freed-Hardeman College!

I didn’t buy that, but rather spent much of the night talking with two widows from Pensacola, Florida, both of whom lost their husbands this year! I told them I thought they were real troopers for going on and making the trip that the four of them had planned together. Besides, they’d never heard of Leroy Garrett, so I took refuge by their warm side as we glided through the night in a prop jet for Ecuador. I figured that what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them!

In Quito I drew a roommate from, of all places, Sunset School of Preaching. I figured that only the Lord would have arranged that, and it was indeed a beautiful new friendship. And it confirmed what I have long come to see, that we can no longer categorize people as this or that, no matter where they hang their hat or attended school, including Sunset School of Preaching.

While I found Ecuador beautiful, I was disappointed in the format of the program. It was a listening lectureship, with no questions or discussion. And the speakers were not all that interesting nor were the subjects all that vital. The blessings were in being with brothers and sisters in the Lord, and the affair makes for good tourism. Too, it motivates an awareness and concern for foreign work.

One day we were there was Election Day, U. S. A., and we all wondered how much McGovern was beating Nixon, until Reuel Lemmons came in with word from the U. S. Embassy that Nixon was indeed ahead of McGovern. We were all really shocked, but the lectureship droned on, awaiting those breaks when we could visit each other. I enjoyed the visit I had with Reuel. He told of the beginning of the lectureship nine years ago when but five attended, and “Now we have all this,” he said thankfully as he nodded to a crowd of upwards of 200. He agreed that the lectureship, which he is largely responsible for, is one of the most satisfying accomplishments in his ministry.

But I still say that they should take a page from J. D. Thomas and his Preacher’s Workshop or from our Unity Forums and enliven the thing with some old-fashioned give and take. They would also do well to reach out and include missionaries from other wings of the brotherhood. It is too mainline Church of Christ. The Independent Christian Church brethren in Brazil have a similar lectureship in which they include our folk. No problem really, for it is easy to be nonsectarian that far from home, unless indeed we take too much of home along with us!

December will not be so hectic, and I plan to be home more during the winter, tying up loose ends and getting acquainted with the family. I will be in Plano with the Westview Church of Christ on Dec. 3 and with the Central Texas Preachers’ Meeting in Waco on Dec. 4, but these are near home. Later in the month I go to Arkansas City, Kansas, and then to the Hartford Forum in Illinois, Dec. 28-29. Then Jan. 8-10 will be “the Great Shootout” at Abilene at the Preachers’ Workshop, where I’ll be responding to Dr. Frank Pack on the cessation of spiritual gifts and Carl Ketcherside will present his views on fellowship. And where Reuel Lemmons will be responding to none other than Cecil Willis on the cooperation question, and where G. B. Shelburnc and Norman Gipson will discuss the Sunday School question. And where Don Finto. of the controversial Belmont congregation in Nashville, will state his case, with Delmar Owens responding.

Whew! I’ll stop there. We may all stop there. — the Editor