OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

In July I attended the Preachers’ Meeting in Dallas that was called to discuss once more the issues that have divided “conservatives” and “liberals” in Churches of Christ, primarily institutionalism. The dispute began more than a generation ago over Herald of Truth, a TV-radio outreach, which was conducted by a single “sponsoring church” in Abilene but supported by hundreds of congregations. The disputed “issues” came to include such institutions as orphanages and colleges (Can these be supported from the church treasury?) and today includes such innovations as a church having a gymnasium, athletic teams, suppers, etc. Since most all these brethren on both sides were “right wing” (not the Abilene and Pepperdine variety!) they all seemed to agree that a gymnasium was a symbol of apostasy, and there I was probably the only one present from a Church of Christ that has a gymnasium! Except we call it our Family Activities Center. We recently used it for a prayer rally in sending one of our own families as missionaries to Africa, but we also use it to eat together and the kids play there. Someone raised the question: If a gym is wrong how about a vestibule, and how big can the vestibule be? It may sound like nitpicking but these brethren are sincerely concerned with what is and what is not the work of the church. Is the church to preach the gospel or play ping pong? I was accepted warmly by many old friends, some of whom I have known for 40 and 50 years. When I got home I told Ouida that I was amazed how old they all looked! Some new brethren seemed pleased to meet the old editor that they had heard so much about, mostly bad of course. I was treated with civility (Incivility sometimes pervades such gatherings). A good spirit prevailed in the discussions, but there is no possibility at all that these two sides will ever be “united” if that means they have to see all the questions alike. One leading “noninstitutional”brother said to me, “These issues mean nothing to you, do they?” I told him that the issues being discussed were not very important to me, but the ones discussing them were, that I was there to see and be with my brethren on both sides and try to understand better how they are thinking. I disagreed with both sides while loving and accepting them all. But they tell me I can’t do that, that I have to line up and see it their way. When I asked, in a written question to a panel, if two congregations in a given city, one choosing to support Herald of Truth and the other choosing not to, could not love and accept each other and do things together that they did agree on, the answer was no. That is the fallacy that has plagued us with divisions all these years. We have to agree on all these things to be in fellowship! We can’t be united unless we see all “the issues” alike, and each sect among us has its own list of issues. True unity in Christ has never been of that nature, from the time of Peter and Paul to our own day. Such unity would not be unity at all, but an imposed and blind conformity. And it would be as undesirable, unfruitful, and boring as it is impossible.

Ouida was confined to home all summer in order to care for her mother whose condition continues to deteriorate. Since it now takes two to care for her, I am at home more than usual. When I am away Ouida has to call in help. But we did import some help and flew to San Antonio together in June where I performed the wedding ceremony of a dear old friend and his new bride, Ralph and Mildred Hancock. Mildred is a great gal and we welcomed her to the old gang unconditionally. She had been a widow for a long time. I helped Ralph bury his first wife of many years, also a beloved friend, sometime back. It is great that Ralph and Mildred found each other for their sunset years together, which we all know are the very best years. Ouida, by the way, had another (admitted) birthday during the summer, which I understand is the last (admitted) birthday she plans to have. No matter, she continues to be more precious to me every year, and I marvel at her patience in caring for her mother.

With grandson Ashley I made a hurried trip to Calico Rock, Arkansas in the Ozarks, an annual affair for us, to visit with old friends Dr. and Mrs. Robert Lane. I’ve watched their four children grow up, all of whom were at home when we were there, and all of whom are either in college or medical school this fall, which may be some kind of a record and enough to challenge any family financially. While there I spoke as usual at the Church of Christ. There is one dear old sister in that church, who is a delight to be around, that has lived in the same house for over 80 years, and in that little mountain village she dated boys in a buggy. I tried to impress upon Ashley that it is very rare to meet somebody that had dates in horse and buggy, and what it must have been like to go to singings and taffy-pullings in such a vehicle. But I am not sure I got through to him. Ours is such a different world!

With Ashley in tow I went from Arkansas to Joplin, Mo. where I made seven video recordings on the pastoral epistles at the Good News Productions, a series that Carl Ketcherside began but had not finished at the time of his death. The Good News folk are a super organization and are impressively equipped. I told them I was impressed by both their facility and their felicity. As I concluded the series I told my potential viewers that it was a delight to work with Carl Ketcherside once more, that we had done many things together for almost 40 years, and that we both rejoiced that our unity efforts were now being carried on by others. And then I told Carl that I was pleased to finish what he had begun, and as for his part it was a jolly good job. The camera girls may have been surprised that I would talk like that to someone who had passed on, so I explained to them afterward that we continue to be in fellowship with those who have gone on to be with the Lord, and that it is OK to talk to them if we are a mind to. It is all right for us to talk to them, and who knows but what they can hear us, but it is not all right for us to try to get them to talk to us, I told them.

After giving the Commencement address at Minnesota Bible College in May, I spoke at New Brighton (Ws.) Christian Church where Dale Erickson is the minister. In the afternoon I called on some dear old souls at a nursing home as I nearly always do on Sunday afternoon wherever I am. Then to Christian Harbor Youth Camp near Ladysmith, Ws. where I joined a number of preachers in worshiping around an open fireplace (I had to borrow a heavy sweater). I led them in a series on our heritage. In late August I will be in a retreat in the mountains of northern Georgia with the Brookvalley Church of Christ in Atlanta, this time on great moments in Scripture. I will fly to Nashville, rent a car, visit friends at the Disciples of Christ Historical Society and in Chattanooga, and drive through the mountains to my destination.

I try to keep up with how women are faring in the ministry in other churches (They are not doing so well among the Campbellites!). Receiving alumni mail outs from Princeton Seminary provides tidbits on what is going on with women among the Presbyterians. A recent article told of a number of man and wife co-pastor arrangements. One woman co-pastor explained that her husband does nearly all the weddings, for it just doesn’t seem right to most people to be married by a woman! The same Princeton bulletin had an article on how the military chaplaincy is changing. There were no women chaplains until the mid 70’s, but it is now almost common, and the women chaplains say they are freer in the military than in civilian churches where it is almost impossible to become a senior minister. One woman chaplain says she has been fully accepted, with “positive curiosity.” Another Princeton graduate reports that after seven years as a Navy chaplain she has had no gender problem at all. I think I have never put this into the record before, but when I was quite young, just out of college, I applied to serve as a chaplain in the Navy early in World War II. They indicated they might call me, but they never did. I may have been too young or not well enough educated, or it may have been, as some thought, that I already had five older brothers who were in the military, two of them already in combat, all of whom came home. When I told Ouida about the women chaplains and reminded her how close I came to being a chaplain during the war, she said it is was just as well that I spent the war years in graduate school, that the Lord knew what he was doing, for if I had gone I might have been the one in the family not to have come back. And look what she would have missed!

More openness toward those in other churches continues to grow among Churches of Christ. Recent instances: Pepperdine University conferred a doctoral degree on Charles Swindol, pastor of First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, Ca. and author of 28 books, who was their Commencement speaker; the Burke Road Church of Christ in Houston recently visited their neighbors, the Asbury United Methodist Church in a joint service in which their minister, John Wright, spoke, and their chorus sang.

A woman in Iowa wrote to The Disciple that she was a Disciple by choice, not by birth, but that she was grieved over our divisions and hairsplitting. She says we need to get on with our job of preaching the gospel.