A MASSIVE WALKOUT IN DALLAS
It
isn’t unusual for some brother or a family of believers, or
even two or three families, to leave a congregation, and go elsewhere
in search of more freedom in Christ, but it is most impressive when
over 200 souls, representing half or more of the congregation, do so.
Such was the case when 68 families walked out of the Wynnewood Hills
Church of Christ in Dallas in order to become a free people in a new
congregation. For several weeks, in late summer, they met in
temporary quarters, but they finally merged with an old Oak Cliff
group known as the Hampton Place Church of Christ. Interestingly
enough, I was the preacher at Hampton Place when I married back in
1944, while also teaching at a junior high school.
Hampton
Place had dwindled in size because of various difficulties in recent
years, leaving only a handful meeting in a building that will
accommodate 300 or so. In a stroke of good sense that is all too rare
for our folk a congregation without a building and a building without
a congregation got together, and they now wear the name Southwest
Church of Christ.
It
is a red ‘hot news item whenever half of a large Church of
Christ gets up and walks out in protest, and we are sure that our
readers are interested in what happened and why. For this to have
happened in Dallas is especially significant, for Dallas has long
been a bastion of bedrock Church of Christism. You can be sure that
the old conservative leadership of our Dallas churches is taking a
long look at this one, and with some uneasiness. It can happen
(perhaps again and again) in Dallas too! All over the country I’ve
heard brethren acquainted with the situation in Dallas say that
Dallas needs “a free Church of Christ,” to which
I’d reply, “It will happen one day.” Well, from
what I hear from Southwest brethren in “Big D,” freedom
in Christ is what this is all about.
As
for the facts of the case, it is the same story that is being told
all across the land by those who have tired of oppression and
obscurantism. The cry, “Let my people go!” comes to mean
Let us think! Let us explore! Let us grow and glow’ And
when all the isms of Church of Christ tradition bar the way
and they can neither think, explore, grow or glow, then they go. An
exodus can be a glorious thing to folk who have been held down and
fenced up by partyism, and there is no indication that our partyism
is any better than the next church’s.
This
Dallas walkout was hardly a few disgruntled souls that were
frustrated because they couldn’t run the show. They were the
show, for the most part. It included both of the preachers and three
of the elders, eight of the deacons (out of 14), and 21 of the
church’s 30 teachers! There were 150 bona fide members
in all, and over 200 counting the children, that formed the exodus.
The report of the remaining elders of Wynnewood Hills to the other
Dallas churches that “several families left” was
therefore a gross understatement.
The
Wynnewood Hills story is remarkably similar to what happened to about
half the congregation in Caruthersville, Mo., recounted in these
pages some months ago. The strategy there was to disband the
congregation, rendering everyone memberless for the moment, and then
reorganize it by having all members subscribe to “a statement
of faith” by stepping forward. This left 80 or 90 people
standing at their seats with nowhere to go. Today they are a happy,
vibrant Church of Christ in another part of the city. The device
employed at Caruthersville is something I’d see Gen. George
Patton using had he been an elder among us rather than an army
commander.
The
ploy used by the Wynnewood Hills elders was similar. Drawing up a
statement of faith, they read it to the congregation and ruled that
every elder, deacon, teacher and staff member would have to subscribe
completely with the items therein or else take no active role in the
church’s program. It so happened, as it often does, that the
dissenters had no particular objections to the items set forth, but
they didn’t like the idea of having to subscribe to what they
considered a creed. In a statement to the other Dallas churches, the
new Southwest group explained that this “creed” was the
principal reason for the exodus. But this was not resorted to until
every effort was made to dissuade the remaining elders from their
creedal demands. One of the elders who left pled with his fellow
shepherds not to impose a creedal statement upon the church, for it
was deliverance from just such tyranny that brought our people into
existence. An elder at Caruthersville, one who had led the flock for
many years, made a similar plea when the church there was invited to
step forward in the name of some man’s creed. Too bad we don’t
have such speeches on tape, for they surely represent some of the
greatest moments in our glorious history. Someday, when I am
cavorting with the angels, I may ask one of them if I can’t
listen to those pleas for freedom given by those elders in Dallas and
Caruthersville. Better still, I just might ask the elders themselves
to run them by again! And to hear Luther’s “Here I stand”
speech and Campbell’s “Sermon on the Law” would be
something, wouldn’t it?
The
Wynnewood Hills elders have charged the new group with “false
doctrine,” namely: believing in the direct operation of the
Holy Spirit, tongue speaking, Christians in all denominations, and in
signs, miracles and special gifts. The truth is that the dissenters
are not what we call “charismatic,” but they are freer
and more tolerant on the subject than usual, and they are exploring
the resources of power available to the believer in the Holy Spirit.
The
charge of believing there are Christians among the denominations is a
most interesting one. That means that our most renowned leaders in
the Church of Christ, including Alexander Campbell and David Lipscomb
couldn’t teach a class at Wynnewood Hills! The Campbells and
the Stones launched our Movement. “to unite the Christians in
all the sects.” What did that wise man say about those who
ignore history having to repeat its mistakes? What has happened to us
when we drive half the congregation away for not believing that we’re
the only Christians? Fruits of long years of Church of Christ
legalism in Dallas, that’s what it is.
It
is in little ways that people reveal their love of freedom. A young
sister at Wynnewood Hills expressed her hunger for more spiritual
experiences. One of these concerned elders advised that she might
visit a nearby Baptist church, which has been causing a lot of
excitement with its dynamic services. That shepherd just happened to
be more concerned for that little lamb’s spiritual growth than
he was to keep her tied to a Church of Christ mentality. It was that
kind of thing that started it all at Wynnewood Hills. When you start
thinking and questioning, when you put Jesus before the party, when
you teach the Bible without Church of Christ glasses, when you really
become free as the Lord’s man and not some sect’s man,
you are different in most every way. So that’s the long and
short of the story from south Oak Cliff: a bunch of our brothers and
sisters tasted the liberty that is in Christ Jesus, and for no
party’s sake were they willing to be bound again to a yoke of
bondage. The very idea, an elder in the Church of Christ suggesting
that one of his flock might visit a Baptist church! But things like
that happen when folk are free to be themselves and think in terms of
persons rather than party. Too bad there wasn’t a Church
of Christ with some spiritual vitality that he could have recommended
to the sister. Now maybe there’ll be one.
A side note to this story is that the Baptist church referred to above has also been “disfellowshipped” by its sister churches. That is not quite accurate, for the Baptist churches, being more autonomous than we are, haven’t that kind of power over each other. But the church was asked by the local Baptist association to voluntarily withdraw. Why? Same old story, freedom. The Baptists don’t like for their folk to be different either. What was it that old Georg Friedrich Hegel said about the story of human history being the story of man’s struggle to be free. Take our own history, the theme is the same. Praise the Lord!—the Editor
Each and everyone of us has one obligation, during the bewildered days of our pilgrimage here: the saving of his own soul, and secondarily and incidentally thereby affecting for good such other souls as come under our influence.—Kathleen Norris
When men do anything for God, the very least thing, they never know where it will end, nor what amount of work it will do for Him. Love’s secret, therefore, is to be always doing things for God, and not to mind because they are such very little ones.—Frederick William Faber