OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

The program has been set for the conference at the Central Church of Christ, 1710 W. Airport Frwy., Irving, TX 75062, for freer, changing churches, Jan. 17-19, 1985. Subjects to be discussed include changes churches face from our cultural pluralism, the ministry of women, are we preaching good news?, problems related to polity, nature of worship, how to deal with our sectarianism and exclusivism, how we relate to our heritage. Also reports from changing churches. Speakers include Ivory James, Nancy Meyers, Larry James, Nan Dean, Bob Douglas, Ken Roger, Bobbie Lee Holley, Ervin Waters, Joe Jones, Jim Bevis, Paul McGee, Lynn Mitchell, Roxie and Harold Thomas, Phil Elkins, and Jim Reynolds. The format will be panels and group discussions. It begins at 2 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 17, and ends at noon, Saturday, Jan. 19. It is open to all members of Churches of Christ, but special invitations go to those who are known to be caught up in the winds of change. Those who attend will really be participants in that they will be part of well-planned study groups that will be digging for answers. For information on housing, etc., or a printed program, call the church at 214-259-2631. I personally see this as the conference for our people of the 80’s.

The Phil Donahue Show on TV provided some bad press for the Church of Christ when it aired “the Collinsville trial” controversy one day last month. Marian Guinn, the one who sued the elders for exposing her as an adulteress, was present with her volatile lawyer, along with a dozen or more representatives from the Church of Christ, who were led by Garland Elkins. Phil had his usual sizable audience participating in the give-and-take, most of whom were hostile and resentful to the church for the way it handled the Guinn case. The audience also appeared turned off by Garland Elkins, who defended the church’s position, mostly by effusive quotations from Scripture, some of which were hardly relevant and few of which seemed appropriate to the occasion. We do not clarify complex issues simply by quoting Scripture, and, as someone in the audience implied, those who quote the Bible the most are often the ones who understand it the least. However that might be, the Church of Christ on the Donahue Show came across as a narrow, self-righteous, bigoted sect that is out of touch with reality and, when challenged for badgering truant members (Who spys on the elders?, asked the audience), knows only to quote the Bible. Phil really took our “image” to the woodshed! As I watched the spectacle I imagined how different it would have been if someone like J. Harold Thomas or Jim Carter (referred to above) had been our spokesman. In that case all parties, including Marian Guinn and the church elders, would have been treated with loving forbearance and the audience would have seen (what is really the case) that even if we, like other churches, sometimes err in our zeal we are for the most part a reasonable and responsible people. Compassion and sweet reasonableness would have been our image, even amidst unfortunate publicity. In subsequent segments of the show both Pat Robinson and Jerry Falwell manifested the spirit I am referring to, which proved disarming to a potentially hostile audience.

I f you are of the persuasion that older folk don’t change, then you should read this prayer from Stewart Hanson, Sr., 88, of Long Beach, Ca.: “Holy Father, I would that all men were not almost, but altogether such as I am today, except for these haunting memories of when for a half century I zealously contended that I was not a member of a denomination and with the same misguided zeal asserted that Jesus the great shepherd of the flock had no sheep which were not of our fold worthy of our brotherly love and Christian fellowship. Only a loving and benevolent Heavenly Father could forgive such blind ignorance.”

With the next issue we begin our 32nd year of publication and our new theme will be Adventures of the Early Church, which will run for two years, the Lord willing. We hope you will not only stay with us, but introduce us to others. The cost is nominal in that you can send the paper to others for only 3.00 per name in clubs of four or more, which can include your own renewal. Single subs are 5.00, one year; 8.00, two years. The issues for 1983-84 will soon be available in a bound volume, under the title The Doe of the Dawn, which will match previous volumes. This will have a table of contents and an introduction, with colorful dust jacket. If you have placed your order, we will send you the book when it is ready with invoice enclosed. Since many have taken advantage of our offer of a free copy of The Stone-Campbell Movement by Leroy Garrett, which the rank and file sometimes refer to as “a history that I can understand and enjoy,” when you send us seven subs at 3.00 each (total 24.(0), we are extending the offer into 1985.