OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

Enos Dowling, longtime dean at Lincoln Christian Seminary, was recently asked in an interview with the Christian Standard if he had hope of a better relationship between the Christian Churches and “the acappella brethren,” to which he replied: “With some, there is hope; with some, there is no hope. I’ve had mixed reception from the acappella brethren—some would refuse to recognize me as a brother in any sense and accord me little or no hope of salvation; and, on the other hand, some accorded me recognition as a fellow Christian. With them I have and do enjoy a sweet and wonderful relationship.”

President Pearson of Andover Newton Theological Seminary wrote a word in Today’s Ministry, published by that institution, that touched my heart. I wrote and told him so, and I pass it along to you. Quoting Joseph Conrad in reference to living in a world of misadventures, he said, “Facing it, always facing it—that’s the way to get through. Face it! That’s enough for any man!” He went on to say, “God loved the world, and so must we. Not selected aspects of the world congenial to ourselves, but simply and wholly the world.” How insightful that is! We are all inclined to carve out that part of the world that we want to love, while we remain oblivious to the rest. But God loved the world, not a select part of it.

Motivated by the Guyana tragedy, William D. Brown, writing in The Christian, suggests some tests for a healthful church, one of which especially impressed me: a church should cooperate with other churches; such interaction makes it more likely that it will be reality-oriented. Other tests: Are members abused by the group for any reason? Does a church feel that its answers are the only ones and that its uniqueness is based on some divine right?

The West Main Church of Christ in Medford, Oregon in its bulletin recently identified the church as a hospital. Noting that a hospital is a place of healing and not of death, it stated, quoting Maurice Hall: “It is a hospital for repairing the social, physical, mental and spiritual ills of every person.”

One of our readers sent us a news item out of David Lipscomb College with a picture of a class of 65 preachers in its Preacher Training Center. Circled in red (by the reader) were two women sitting among all the men, with Bible and notebooks before them like all the rest. The writeup did not make it clear whether the women were among “the 65 preachers” or not. If so, we can look forward to more attraction in Tennessee pulpits ere long!