DRILLING TOGETHER
DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS

There is a story out of west Texas that we think will encourage you, especially if you suppose the Churches of Christ are stuck on dead center and are unable to move toward a more fraternal relationship with other churches.

It is one of those typical Texas towns so small that it has but three churches, a Baptist, Methodist, and Church of Christ. The latter is ministered to by a student preacher from ACU. His sermons were of the more “open” variety, which led one of the elders to say something like this to him, “In view of what you are saying, maybe we should reach out more to other believers, such as doing something with the Baptists.” Once the minister recovered from the shock of his preaching having such a positive effect, he agreed that what he was saying implied that they should have fellowship with such folk as the Baptists. Our readers who live far from Texas, as most of you do, may not realize that Texans are congenial folk, probably friendlier than average when compared world-wide, and that west Texans are notoriously friendly. If you get west of Abilene they will even carry your wallet for you, and it just won’t do to talk about what they will do for you if you get west of Pecos. All of us Texans know that we have to doff the hat to west Texans when it comes to friendliness, if not pass the hat. Even church folk are very friendly, except on Sunday. Through the week you would suppose they were all kin or held stock in the same oil field or cattle ranch, but on Sunday they don’t speak to each other, not near their separate churches at least. And as often as not the churches are across the street from each other. Even unto the fourth generation there is no such thing as stepping across the street to say hello. Their kids date and they all do business with each other, but on Sunday there may be a furtive glance to the folk across the street, but it is strictly a matter of Look but don’t touch.

I violated this custom one Sunday when I was almost as far west as Pecos by bolting across the street and paying my Christian respects. They figured I was out there from Arkansas or maybe Oklahoma, or at least that I was up to something, for Baptists and Church of Christ folk skip Sundays when it comes to living together. So you can imagine what the Methodists thought when our folk invited the Baptists to a picnic, an old-fashioned church picnic. The report indicates that it was a super picnic and terrific fellowship.

The next step was for the two groups to get together one Sunday evening and pray, sing, and study. Now they are doing it on a regular basis, getting together once a month and praising God and studying His word, together.

As the apostle Paul spoke of the faith of the Gentiles moving the Jews to jealousy, this caused the Methodists to want to know why they were left out, so now they are in on it!

The vast majority of our people, as well as most Baptists, would be cheered by this report. We did not choose to be isolated from others as we have been so long; it was forced upon us by a well-meaning but misguided leadership. An old fallacy has hung heavily upon us: if we have fellowship with folk we thereby approve of their errors. This is to equate fellowship with endorsement, which is an impossible premise, even when applied to fellowship with each other in Churches of Christ, for we disagree with each other almost as much as we do with the Baptists. This oasis of good news from west Texas, where our folk usually wind it so tight that it breaks, is due to responsible leadership. An elder followed through on what he saw to be right, and dared to say what is seldom said, Then why don’t we . . .? There are always those that will say, But we never have! But that is what responsible leadership is about. When truth ­ glorious, liberating truth --- flashes a green light, the courageous leader will say, Let’s go! Forward! Never mind about the past, which is often dead, debilitating, and sectarian. Let my people go! It may not be all that important whether we picnic with the Baptists, but it is terribly important that we be free enough to do so.

And the Methodists wanting to get in on it! Baptists, Methodists, and Church of Christ people picnicking and praying and praising together, and that deep in the heart of Texas! And some of you wonder how I can be optimistic about the future! If these things are done while it is yet green, just wait until it is dry!

One thing further. When this happy report, which is wholly reliable, came this way, I thought of Thomas Campbell’s impressive line about the sinfulness of division. Division among believers, he said, is anti-Christian, anti-Scriptural, and anti-natural. Anti-natural! Most incisive. I think of this at family reunions where you can talk about everything but religion, even when they are all believers. What is more contrary to nature than for folk to force themselves not to talk about what is the dearest thing to them, their faith in Jesus. So often, even among ourselves, when the married kids come home with their families we can’t talk religion, for someone has had some new thought or experience that she dare not mention, lest it spoil the visit home.

And what is more natural than for believers, all believers, in west Texas to get together and enjoy each other in the Lord. After all, if they can drill together for oil in each other’s back yard, they ought to be able to mine the word together in each other’s churches. - the Editor