WHERE IS HOME?
There are some things going on in the Church of Christ that I am ashamed of. There is hardly any other way to put it except to add that they embarrass me. I dislike being reminded that some of our folk are so arrogant and insulting in their sectarianism. It is so contrary to what we should stand for as a people, and it violates our heritage as part of that movement that had as its goal "to unite the Christians in all the sects" and that had as its slogan "We are Christians only but not the only Christians."
In a recent issue of World Radio News is an article by Marvin Bryant entitled "Preacher Comes Back Home," and the first sentence is: "David Macy, after spending almost 15 years with the one cup, no Sunday School division in the churches of Christ, has denounced his error and has come back home to the mainline church." How can anyone with straight face be so inexcusably and blatantly sectarian? How dare we be so self-righteous as to claim that we have no error, and that our brothers in the non-Sunday School churches are brothers in error and one had best leave them and come back home to "the mainline church." This is so sectarian as to be nauseating, and I would urge brother Bryant and the Mobile, Alabama church that supports him in the mission of "converting denominational preachers" to stop their factious work.
I have pointed out before that those who "convert" Church of Christ preachers, whether it be Disciples, Baptists or Presbyterians, are not so abrasive as to wave their scalps be-fore the world as signs of victory for their side. I have also observed that if we need a mission for converting denominational preachers, why not also get one up for converting Church of Christ preachers, as it is unlikely that the need for conversion is a respecter of pulpits. But Marvin now has Church of Christ preachers as part of his mission of conversion. He's converting them from one Church of Christ to another Church of Christ — the mainline Church of Christ!
Since when is one "in error" for not having the Sunday School or plural cups? And if those brethren are "a division in the churches of Christ," how about all the rest of us? We left the Disciples over the organ. Does that make us a division? The truth is that the non-class congregations are not and never have been a division in the sense that they "left" anybody. Two generations back none of the Churches of Christ had the Sunday School or plural cups. As we got bigger and richer we began to adopt the ways of our neighbors. In came stained-glass windows, carpets in the aisle, an oaken pulpit and the professional minister, expensive plants (rather than meetinghouses), and the Sunday School. History will testify that when the Sunday School began to emerge among us the Firm Foundation had articles against it as an innovation!
N. L. Clark is one of the great names in Church of Christ history. I used to "hear" him when I was a babe in arms. He was a favorite of my father, and from what I heard around the supper table all my life I take it that brother Clark could really lay it on. My parents heard him in school-houses and under brush arbors back in the days when the Church of Christ was separating from the Christian Church. Well, brother Clark became one of the leading protagonist against such innovations as the Sunday School, and he expressed himself time and again in the Firm Foundation as did numerous other of our leaders back in those days.
Gradually the class system of teaching took hold in our larger and richer churches, while many congregations remained "faithful" by holding to the plan of but one assembly (undivided), which is the pattern called for in I Cor. 14, they insisted. So, if anything, it was the class-system churches that "left" or divided, not the non-class since they continued doing what we had always done.
According to Marvin Bryant, N. L. Clark was "in error" and would need to be converted — but to what? The only Church of Christ there was in those days was non-Sunday School! They were the "mainline" Church of Christ since there was no other. Now that the Sunday School churches are in the majority, they are mainline, according to Marvin, and all other Churches of Christ are to be converted and become like us, the Sunday School churches. This is not only sectarian, it is silly.
Marvin tells us that David Macy made a public confession at one of our soul-winning workshops in San Antonio. He had been in the "main-line" church in his youth and attended David Lipscomb. Now he makes a confession and comes back home to the mainline church! Notice what we have here. A preacher in one kind of Church of Christ (non-instrumental) makes a public confession of his "sins" for being with another kind of Church of Christ (non-instrumental)!! This is called a "conversion" at a soul-winning workshop!! My God, what has happened to us? Must we go from bottom to rock bottom in our sectarianism?
I strongly and unequivocally pro-test this paganizing and dechristianizing of our brothers in Christ of the non-class, one-cup persuasion. In these two groups there are some 800 Churches of Christ. In these congregations are some of the dearest, most committed, and most knowledgeable disciples that Jesus has on this earth. I take it that neither David Macy or Marvin Bryant knows what is going on among these churches, especially the non-class. Their leadership is growing more and more open toward other churches. They may not have a single minister under 50 who would now take the hard line of making the class question a test of fellowship. They are reaching out into foreign missions and cooperating with other churches. Some of their churches have held unity meetings. Some of their editors, such as Thomas Langford, Larry Brannum and Gene Shelburne, have taken part in unity efforts far and wide and have deposited in our literary archives some of the very best material on the problems we face in our divided Movement. The same can be said for Ervin Waters and Jim Russell, editors among the one-cup segment.
And now Marvin Bryant brings us David Macy, who confesses his sins for being amongst these people. He's coming home! Well, I for one don't buy it, and I view it as one of the most sickening manifestations of party-ism demonstrated among us in this generation. Marvin is the one who ought to "confess" for foisting this sectarian pride upon the churches. Imagine being paid to do this sort of thing!
If David Macy has been sectarian in his attitude where he has been laboring for Jesus, then let him turn from that and become more open and responsible, as so many in the non-class and one-cup churches have done and are doing — just as a lot of folk in the "mainline" churches need to do the same thing, as many have. The only confession he needs to make for being sectarian is to the Lord, or perhaps to the people with whom he has labored. Why should he move from one sect to another sect in order to get "right" with the Lord. Let him — let us all — work for love, unity and fellowship where we are. When a "mainline" Church of Christ preacher realizes he's been sectarian and wants to correct that, I don't see that he has to go back "home" to the Disciples.
Ervin Waters, longtime the champion debater of the one-cup, anti-class persuasion, has set the example for us all. I heard him deliver his magna charter to his brethren (I was the only "cups-class brother" in the house!), explaining that he would no longer be a party man, even though his conviction about classes and cups remained the same. He has since been a prince of peace rather than a son of war among those brethren. But he didn't leave and won't leave. Why should he? They are the ones that need him most.
Now if Marvin wants David Macy in our wing of the Church of Christ, if he wants him to leave one sect and join another one, then he is going at it the right way. But those of us watching from the sidelines have the right to call it for what it is — sectarianism.
And if David Macy would rather have a job with one of our kind of Church of Christ churches (I think I put it right that time!), then I presume it's appropriate for him to make the switch, but not under the subterfuge that what he is leaving is a sect and what he is coming to is the true church. There is only one true church, and I take it that David was in that Body when he obeyed Jesus back in his David Lipscomb days. When he "converted" to the one-cup position, he was still in that one Body. So he is now in the mainline church. He has been our brother in Christ all along, however sectarian. Some in Corinth were sectarians but still in the Body. All our Restoration congregations demonstrate that we can be (though we ought not to be) sectarian and still be the Lord's people. I fear he would have but few people if his only children were those free of party-ism. But his prayer and will is that we not be factious, and so we should strive to preserve the Spirit's unity in the bond of peace. This we cannot do by each segment among us arrogating to itself the claim that it and it alone is the true church, and that lines can be crossed only by repentance and confession.
But this is nothing new to Marvin Bryant and the Mobile church. They have been "converting" Christian Church preachers for years, and always they are held up to the world as converts for our side, and always they are after a job with a church. I have visited with some of these "converts" personally, and I have reason to believe that they are bankrupt financially and otherwise, and they make easy prey when our folk move in and hold up a lucrative job as an incentive. This is surely among the most carnal and unchristian programs going on among us. The only right thing to do is to stop it.
The only "home" the believer has is in Jesus. In that home we are all God's family, brothers and sisters together. If I persuade a Baptist or Methodist to accept the principles we stand for, it doesn't follow that he is "converted" and has to come with us. He might best serve the ideals we espouse by staying where he is. He is my brother already if he has been initiated into the Body, and he is at home already, not in the Methodist or Baptist churches, but in Jesus. The church of our time is tragically divided and God's sheep are scattered. No one group can lay claim of being the true church to the exclusion of all others. In the true Restoration ideal, we want to reach out and accept all God's children as our brothers and sisters, encouraging them to labor and pray for the oneness of the Body. We defeat all this when we strive to win each other over to our particular party. Indeed, we sin when we do it. — the Editor