OFFICE NOTES

 

The weekend of Feb. 28 I am to be with the Downtown Church of Christ in El Paso at 1007 N. El Paso St. W. L. Wilson is one of the preachers and the phone is 79902. And the weekend of March 14 I will be with the Central Church of Christ in New Orleans. For details contact Dr. C. L. Istre at 504241-1151. We will be pleased to have any of you at these meetings. The weekend of March 28 I am to be in Austin, Texas for mini-meetings. Contact Mike Johnson, 3500 B Southridge Drive, Austin 78704.

March 20-21 I am to be in Waco, Texas, primarily for a meeting with the Graduate Theological Fellowship at Baylor University. Both Baptist and Church of Christ graduate students have asked that I lead a discussion on Baptist-Disciples relations in history and to give a report on my work for the unity of all God’s people. I am going to share with them a number of interesting incidents in our history, such as the time some of the brethren reported to Alexander Campbell, while he was on his death bed, that a move was on to unite with the Baptists. “This is the happiest day of my life,” he told them, and then he wept for joy. Campbell stated his conviction again and again in later life that the Disciples and Baptists should never have separated. I’ll also have to tell them how the Baptists tried to run off old “Raccoon” John Smith, but he wouldn’t leave them, insisting, “I love you too much to do that.” There will be other activities in Waco, including a house meeting, so you should call Jim Sims, who is both a Church of Christ minister there and a graduate student at Baylor, at 387-799-5236, if you would like to be with us.

We urge you to attend the 10th (and last) Annual Unity Forum at Bethany, where it began ten years ago, July 3-5. This would be a great vacation for you, for you will visit the old Campbell sites, including Brush Run. Robert Lohman, Bethany College, Bethany, W. V. 26032 will give you information on housing on campus, which is a real good deal for a family. Four Seasons Travel Service, 934 W. Davis St., Dallas 75208 (214-942-4279) is considering a “Campbell Historical Tour” to Bethany, via Nashville and Cane Ridge, by motorcoach, 7 days, leaving from Dallas June 30. You might join the tour along the way if you cannot depart from Dallas. You should call or write Bernice Huggins in care of address given if you are interested. We are thinking of taking our entire family by this plan. It would be a great experience to visit the Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville and to have a special service at Cane Ridge, Ky., where Barton Stone did his thing, not to mention Bethany itself. And we can praise the Lord all the way there and back!

Several paperbacks by Elton Trueblood are now available, and we suggest you order any that you do not have. Alternative to Futility, 1.00; The Yoke of Christ, which is fresh insights into old texts, 1.25; Foundations of Reconstruction, the 10 commandments reapplied to your life, 1.00; Confronting Christ, a study of Jesus in the gospel of Mark, 1.25.

A very exciting, resourceful volume is Concise Dictionary of Religious Quotations, which is a wealth of easy-to-locate material. We guarantee that you will be edified even at a random opening to any page, and it will enrich your conversation. 7.95 in hardcover. This would make a beautiful gift for a loved one.

The response to our appeal for help in doubling our readership this year is thus far most gratifying. Already we have cut about 200 new plates and the names are still coming in. This encourages us! We thank you and praise God! If you intended to send us a list but have not, we urge you to do so. And at a’price you can afford:1.00 per name for a year, minimum of five names, no maximum. We do all the mailing, and we do not of course use your name in any way. But we suggest that you avoid people you know to be antagonistic to new ideas. There are too many of the other kind, and we believe, from the way our mail reads, this journal will both inform and encourage such ones. I t is common for us to receive a new list from people who were introduced to us by somebody else. Why not try it?