HOLIDAY TRAVEL NOTES

We’ve held up this first issue of the new year long enough for me to chronicle some of the events over the holidays that I think will be both interesting and encouraging. It is the latter that concerns me most — encouragement, for I see this as a great need in our distraught brotherhood. “If there is any encouragement in Christ …” pleads the apostle in Philip. 2: I, and this he does in reference to joy, like-mindedness, mutual love, and unity. The ability to encourage may well be a gift of the Spirit, closely akin to the gift of exhortation in Rom. 12:8. Anyway, far more than any tongue it is this gift, miraculous or not, that I especially covet.

But God’s gifts are bestowed in what the Germans call sitz im le ben, among life’s situations, and not in isolation from the people. God is not likely to bestow the gift of healing to one who is indifferent to the diseased or the gift of teaching to one who places a premium on ignorance. I am at least open for the gift of encouragement in that I am concerned that so many of our people have about had it when it comes to our traditional merry-go-round. Multitudes have already walked out. Many more are holding on only because they now have a glimmer of hope that our folk at long last are looking to Jesus more than to tradition.

What encourages a lonely soul more than anything else is for him to realize that he is not so alone after all. Not only is Jesus with him, but there are multitudes of others across the brotherhood who are really getting turned on to such strange values as love, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. We are pleased that this little journal is encouraging to at least some. We frequently hear such as “I didn’t realize anyone else believed like I did until someone sent me your paper.”

Too, our folk who have grown downcast amidst all the oppression really get excited when they learn what is going on across the land. They can hardly believe their ears when I share with them some of my mail, tell what some congregation is doing, or what some editor is writing, or give an account of a unity meeting. “Really’” is a common response, and yet the good news is what a lot of them have been hoping for and praying about for years. We had better be careful how we pray to the Father and rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit unless we are prepared for things to happen!

This first story I am relating to you even took me by surprise, as hopeful as I’ve become in recent years. I was hardly prepared for the prospect of our having a journal issued among all wings of the Restoration Movement, edited jointly by a brother from the Christian Church, one from the Disciples of Christ, and one from the Church of Christ, the purpose of which is “to foster open and free discussion, and to rediscover the principles of our cherished heritage in reference to our present task.”

Meetings over the holidays in Atlanta and St. Louis have led to such a consummation devoutly to be wished. Committees have been at work for sometime among the Disciples and Independents with a view of dialogue between the two groups and in hopes of meaningful communication with the Disciples who are uneasy about what is going on in the Consultation on Church Union, which is threatening to take the Disciples of Christ completely away from their Restoration heritage.

The Atlanta meeting was different in that some Church of Christ leaders were invited to take part. Several were invited who could not attend, including Reuel Lemmons, who was kind enough to send a letter to the committees expressing his views. Ralph Sweet of the Sweet Publishing Co. was there, along with Gene Shelburne, editor of Christian Appeal of the non-class churches, Andrew Hairston of the Simpson St. Church of Christ in Atlanta, Victor Hunter, new editor of Mission, and myself accepted the invitation to share.

There were about 16 of us in all, mostly publishers and editors, and it was a soul-stirring experience. We began by each one giving a kind of resume of his spiritual pilgrimage. It was something else to listen to these prominent churchmen, either pastors of influential churches or executives in large publishing houses, let their hair down and talk “down home” about what God had done in their lives, their victories and their defeats. This sealed us even more in a bond of love, preparing us for fruitful discussion. But when it comes to reciting one’s ups and downs (they call that vicissitudes) I have to watch myself lest I overdo it. If I bore in on what has really happened in my life, they either would not believe me or would be uncomfortable in my presence. Since such a gathering needed no credibility gap I decided to move only in the periphery this time around.

I t would be a fine thing for our people if this kind of sharing were practiced extensively. Let brothers and sisters sit in a circle together on a first name basis and really become acquainted with each other, praying and rejoicing together in the Lord. We are going to have to do more than sit together in a large auditorium, in an atmosphere that makes us almost strangers, if we really come to enjoy the fellowship of the saints.

The Atlanta meeting decided that there should be such a publication as I have described, hopefully underwritten by some of our moneyed people, and to circulate among15,000 of our leaders in all major wings. W. F. Lown, president of Manhattan Christian College was asked to serve as editor among the Independent Christian Churches, Robert H. Muley, pastor of Court St. Christian Church, Salem, Oregon will edit from among Disciples of Christ, and I was asked to stand in for Churches of Christ, the last choice based more upon my willingness to be so daring than my journalistic ability. Ralph Sweet thought the choice wise since “You are considered something of a prophet among us,” which, translated into more common language, means that since I have already lost all that one can lose with the powers that be I might as well take it on.

The St. Louis meeting was a gathering of the three editors and the committee chairmen with a view of deciding upon the format of the new journal. It will be a quarterly, drawing material from Restoration sources and from those who speak to the issues of our time, and its name will be Fellowship.

How exciting it is that in these blessed times in which we live things that are too good to be true are indeed happening! Look what is happening: a journal emanating from a group of concerned brethren representing our three major divisions, a publication that will face up to the issues that trouble us in a three-way dialogue, Praise the Lord!

The holidays also found me in Hartford, Illinois (near St. Louis) for the annual forum for unity and fellowship, which I have attended each year, save two, since 1958. It was a humble beginning, with Carl Ketcherside and I leading in the sessions, and with no one paying it much attention. But today it is different. They were there from 15 states or so and several foreign countries. The sessions are surely the ultimate in Christian freedom, with each invited brother at liberty to say what he pleases on virtually every controversial topic you can think of. No one gets excited if a thesis is presented in favor of situation ethics, evolution, or interracial marriage, One may get clobbered in the question session that follows each presentation, but even this is in a spirit of love without compromise of conviction.

The sisters of the little Hartford congregation prepare meals for the two-day affair, enabling those who come not only the convenience of a meal right on the premises, but several hours of exciting vis-a-vis communion. Even here charity rules, for an announcement is made that if anyone objects to eating in a meetinghouse he should feel perfectly free to go elsewhere!

This year we had represented the main-line Churches of Christ, non-class and one-cup churches, Independent Christian Church, the non-cooperative churches, as well as a lad from “Jesus People” and one from campus ministries. The spirit was out of this world, which I suppose is what spiritual is. Subjects covered were the validity of the “street Christian” movement, the basis of excluding one from the fellowship, the work of women, the nature of worship, and interracial marriage.

It was my lot to contribute to the last topic, sharing the podium with Hoy Ledbetter, editor of Integrity, who presented about as fine a paper as I ever heard. Down to almost the last person I surprised the audience, for they were expecting me to marry off their white children to the blacks, perhaps because of my known concern for the Negroes and minorities in general and for having taught in a black college. Some even complained to those who selected the speakers for that topic with “Why did you choose two liberals for that subject?” But it was because of my concern for both blacks and whites that I did something short of advocating interracial marriage.

Tapes are available of all the sessions, including an outstanding presentation by Carl Ketcherside on worship, who also presided over the sessions in a fair and effective manner. Berdell McCann, 127 Donna Dr., Hartford, IL 62048 can give you information.

On my way home I had sessions in Tulsa at the home of Dr. and Mrs. L. E. Edwards, where, on New Year’s Eve, we had some 25 people gathered. I shared with them my views of God’s intention for the oneness of man and nature in the Messiah as set forth in Ephesians. This was followed by each one in the circle saying a word of thanks or praise to God for his blessings in 1972 or what he hoped for in the Lord in 1973. How heartwarming it was to hear brothers and sisters together relating to each other in this way. Some of the sisters, with tear-dimmed eyes, praised God for their husbands, with the husbands responding in like kind. Others were thankful for their free congregation and for the help they received from each other. One brother told a touching story of how the Lord had delivered him from a tragic automobile accident. One young brother even dared to thank the Lord for fried chicken “so that Leroy can get out and help us like this’” That is one time I said amen. I explain to folk that I doff my hat every time I pass a chicken farm! This went on well past midnight into the New Year, with prayers, praise and thanksgiving. Then someone started that old song, “Count your blessings, name them one by one; count your blessings and see what God hath done.” When someone observed that church life would be entirely different if “worship services” had such experiences, I explained that this illustrates the task before us, to restore this kind of spiritual excitement to our congregations. But it will have to begin in the homes at the grassroot level. The great lost power of the primitive church is the dynamic of “breaking bread” (almost certainly a reference to fellowship rather than the Supper per se) from house to house, where they praised God together, shared together, and demonstrated their love for each other. Big church house religion can be and often is debilitation, but the chief problem is that nothing happens in the homes of those who attend the big congregation, or the little one for that matter.

On the last Sunday of the year I spoke twice to the Grissom Church of Christ, which meets in a school named for the deceased astronaut. One address was on “More than Conquerors,” based on Rom. 8:35-39. I observed that in Jesus we not only conquer but more than conquer in that with each victory we are conditioned for an even greater conquest. My lesson on the nature of the church pointed to its oneness, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity.

Beside this the Grissom group ask me to take an hour to tell them what was going on here and there across the land. So I told them of the new journal that is in the offing, the Hartford Forum, the Workshop at Abilene that should attract 1,000 preachers with Carl Ketcherside and I both on the program. 1 told of the renewed interest, the increasing number of free churches, the changing attitudes in papers and pulpits. They were wonderfully encouraged by all this, realizing that they were by no means alone in the struggle. One sister told me that if I could give a monthly report on what is going on it would provide the incentive that the new group needs. I do this in part through reports in this journal. and that is the reason why, but I realize that paper and ink cannot do what 1 personal visit can do. This is why I want to be used as much as time and energy will allow in just such contacts. So don’t hesitate to invite me to come your way, if you think I can be of service, for I plan to accept every invitation sooner or later.

While in Tulsa we also began work on the 9th Annual Unity Forum, which is to be conducted there next summer or fall, the Lord willing. —the Editor

A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking. —Emerson

Souls are not saved in bundles. —Emerson