OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

Ouida has recovered from her recent illness and has been supervising the remodeling job on our home. Even as I make this report new cabinets are being installed in our kitchen, along with new appliances. Our bedrooms have new paint and new carpets, all grey, and Ouida made new drapes to match. She enjoys this sort of thing and has lots of expertise, lining up plumbers and carpenters like an old line foreman. She could run General Motors, and would she ever give the Japanese a run for their money!

In a recent service at the Central Church of Christin Irving (Dallas), Texas two women were ordained as deacons. The church tried this a few years back, but the woman nominees did not receive the necessary 75% of the votes. This time they did. Women also make announcements and read Scripture in public worship. The church believes it has Biblical authority for women serving as deacons.

At the Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, according to a Denton visitor, the minister stated publicly in a recent Sunday sermon that he was tired of hearing that the only Christians are in the Church of Christ, and he hoped he would never hear it again. Another report from this church tells how an AIDS victim came forward, confessed the sin of his lifestyle, and asked for the prayers of the church. He was afterwards joyously embraced by hundreds. A rare scene for any church, certainly a Church of Christ.

I had the privilege of listening to a tape recording of an address by Prof. Carroll Osborn to the faculty at ACU, which was the first chapter of a book he will soon publish titled Christians Only, But Not the Only Christians. In his presentation he said there is no question about whether the Church of Christ will change, but how its leaders will direct the change. The church has been caught in the backwaters of sectarianism, he insisted, and its only escape is by rigorous self-examination. He left some doubt that the church would be able to escape its sectarian past, but if so it would have to be by way of a Christ-centered emphasis rather than issue-centeredness. Instrumental music cannot be a central issue, he ventured, and it never should have been. He called for a critical look at the way we use terms like fellowship, brotherhood, and denomination. We will inform you when his book is available.

On May 23 there is to be a praise march for Jesus by hundreds of thousands of Christians throughout Europe, including Russia, and in at least 90 cities in the U.S. It is not a protest march, but an affirmation that Jesus is the answer to the world’s predicament. Such marches draw believers closer together. The blurb for the affair states that “We will never agree on many lesser points of doctrine, but let’s come together and show the world that Christ is what matters most!” Shouldn’t we in Churches of Christ be ready to march to that drum beat? Ouida and I plan to join a host of Denton Christians who will join the march in Dallas on that day. On the same day 100,000 believers will march through the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin, thousands more will march in Moscow and every other major city of Europe, filling the streets with praise.

Ouida and I will be driving to Austin on April 22 where I will be a guest speaker at the Westlake Church of Christ where my old roommate at ACU is an elder. The following week we will be in Abilene for the 50th anniversary of my graduating class at ACU. It will be a close call to see which has changed the most in a half century, ACU or me. While Ouida did not graduate from ACU but from Texas Woman’s University, she will fit into the celebration.