Notes from a Travel Diary . . .

CONVENTIONS IN CALIFORNIA AND MEXICO

In July I spent several days at the North American Christian Convention in Anaheim, an annual affair of the Christian Churches. I had two assignments, one being to talk to the college career group on conflicts, the other being an address to the theological forum, a gathering mostly of teachers and scholars, on the authority of the Bible, which was published in the last issue of this journal. I suggested to the college kids that conflicts are best handled by a realistic acceptance of self, followed by some good old Socratic self-examination, and I laid down a few guide-lines, such as it is more important that I love than that I be loved.

The logistics of such a convention, which attracts around 15,000 a year, is itself staggering, and one wonders how Leonard Wymore, the director, puts it all together the way he does. He is known in “big convention” business as one of the best. There are literally hundreds of participants, and there is more going on than one can possibly keep up with. It succeeds in being “a family convention,” and there is some-thing for everyone. This time around it was next door to Disneyland, so there were a few days there when that famous park almost turned Christian. Since I did not have Ouida and the kids with me, as I had hoped, I had decided not to make my first visit to that attraction, but once I got out into my mini-meetings, two enterprising sisters and one of their husbands were resolved that I should not return to Texas without seeing Disneyland, if but for a few hours. In three hours we high-stepped it all over the place, and I must say that it was better than I expected, for it is certainly a delightful and fascinating experience. It is surely worth one’s while, especially if he can be guided by Ralph and Ruth Bales and Madge Archibald.

People are the most important thing about conventions. The NACC folk were my brothers and sisters and I love them dearly. The non-instrument brothers barely touch the life of this convention, partly due to their own exclusiveness, but it would be an appropriate experience for many of them. The Sweet Co. in Austin had some of its people there with a display of materials, and it was good to see Kip Jordan and Ron Durham manning that. John Allen Chalk from Abilene was on the program and did well for himself, and Harold Thomas from Los Angeles spoke to the gathering of Fellowship magazine. Hugh Tiner, David Reagen, Harry Fox Jr. and Sr., and Bob Denney were among some of the Church of Christ folk that were there. That is at least a beginning. But the NACC makes no serious effort to make it “an umbrella convention.” It is a denominational gathering, but let’s add, in the best sense of that term.

On the Lord’s day I was out there I spoke to the Westchester Church of Christ where Harold and Roxie Thomas, old friends, are ministering; and to the Torrance Church of Christ in the absense of their preacher, Bob Marshall. Bob Denney is an elder in that congregation. He and his wife Mary are also longtime friends to Ouida and me. One can feel good about our future when the church has leaders like Harold Thomas and Bob Denney. We also had house meetings in the home of Ralph and Ruth Bales in Long Beach, the Denneys, and the Thomas’. Everywhere people are rejoicing in the positive changes that are taking place among our congregations.

I also got in my first visit to the Malibu campus of Pepperdine, and saw such old friends as Bill Banowsky, the president, and Anthony Ash, a professor of Bible.

I was home just one day before enplaning for Mexico City for the World Convention of Churches of Christ. Some 4,000 people gathered from 30 or more nations, all of them from churches of the Restoration Movement. It is a preaching and fellowship convention with only minimum opportunity provided for serious exchange relative to our common problems. But it is the only gathering I know of in the larger discipledom that has any chance of being “the umbrella convention” that a number of us see a need for.

While it is loosely related to the Disciples of Christ and draws part of its support from them, it proposes to serve all our groups, and its leadership, which is now headquartered in Dallas, is interested in informing the Churches of Christ of its purposes, and there is going to be a greater effort made to draw our people into its program. Allan Lee is the general secretary, and he is both charming and irenic. Bill Banowsky was scheduled to speak this time around, but it did not materialize. There were numerous brethren on hand from the Christian Churches, which is most encouraging, for the Disciples and the so-called Independents have had their problems in recent years.

The convention meets only every five years, which is probably too infrequent for the purposes some hope for it, and has convened in such places as Edinburgh, Adelaide, and San Juan. Next time it will be in Hawaii. Our folk who like to vacation amidst such excitement as a world gathering of brothers, should be making their plans for 1980 (a year later than usual).

I was especially pleased to get to meet several leaders of our Movement from New Zealand and Australia. Keith Bowes, who is principal of a Disciple college in Australia, told me of how our people there are very diverse in their theological views, but they have not divided as they have in the U.S.A. But he was perplexed about some of the anti-organ attitudes. He had read a bulletin from one of our Australian churches to the effect that “there are now 26 Christians in South Australia,” and he was asking me what the brother could have meant. The Restoration plea, through British influence, reached Australia as early as 1840, and it has been active ever since with thousands of believers and scores of congregations.

My favorite speaker was Ken O’Grady of New Zealand, who made a plea for our people to be more sensitive to the Lord’s demand for social justice. He began his remarks with “Brothers and sisters. . . “, which he repeated several times. Finally he said, “You are my brothers and sisters, and I am your brother, whether you like it or not. You are stuck with me!” I liked it and was glad to be stuck with him.

I was pleased to get to meet some of the new Disciple leadership, such as Daniel Joyce, the convention president, and Donald Teagarten, the general minister and president of the Disciples of Christ, who told me that he shared my hope that all our people might be brought together in such a convention as that one. Barney Blakemore is WCCC’s new president.

I was back home only a day or so before leaving for two weeks’ of meetings in Illinois and Indiana, amongst both Churches of Christ and Christian Churches. My boys, Phil and Ben, took the trip with me in the family car, and we all had a big time meeting scores of new friends and brothers and renewing old acquaintances in Decatur, Illinois, and Sellersburg (near Louisville) and Lowell, at opposite ends of Indiana. Space forbids that I relate all the goodies, but it is enough to say that we returned more convinced than ever that the Spirit is at work among our people.—The Editor