Reading The Bulletins
News From Here And There
Gary Scott is now working with the church in Pittsburg, Texas and he is doing a good work . . . Jerry F. Bassett has moved from San Diego, California to Eugene, Oregon, where he is laboring with the church . . . From the bulletin of the South Park church in Beaumont, Texas we have this: "Gene Priest returns home this week to take over the work of Educational Director for this congregation, and to be Director of the Bible Chair at Lamar Tech." His official title in the affairs there is: "Educational Director." Wonder what they do? I have not been able to learn from the Bible, so maybe some of my brethren can tell me. I have noticed that we are getting more and more "Educational Directors" among us. It is about time that some church secured a "Recreational Director" as a part of the regular staff . . . L. Arnold Watson has moved from Dearborn, Michigan to Memphis, Tennessee where he "is taking over the work at the Highland Avenue church." That is the way it was expressed in the bulletin of the Dearborn church. What does a preacher do when he "takes over the work" at some place? Does he do it all? Does he become the one in charge of all the work? Of course, we do not have a "pastor system" among us and preachers are just preachers of the gospel — not pastors! ... James L. Yopp has moved from Luxora, Arkansas to Tampa. Florida where he will labor with the Belmont Heights church ... Roy J. Hearn, who was with the Lehman Avenue church in Bowling Green, Kentucky for over two years, has moved to Nashville, Tennessee to teach in the DLC high school and to further his education . .. In the July, 1957 issue of the bulletin of The Children's Home. of Lubbock, Texas, there is a notice about an encampment. This paper plainly states that "This encampment is sponsored by the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock" . . . BIG FIZZLE: Did you notice the reports of the results of the big, promotional drive to raise a million dollars in one day for the Manhattan church in New York? Well, they were rather meager and Skimpy. There wasn't much "blowing and bragging" about the outcome. Why? Could it be the fact that they flopped by nearly $900.000? It could be that some brethren are getting tired of the constant promotional, begging campaigns conducted by all the promoters among us. It is about time that brethren waked up to what is going on in this regard. If churches would quit playing the "sucker" for every scheme our promoters and big operators worked up, it would put a stop to them in a hurry. Read the following article dealing with this sort of thing.
Sea Gulls Starving
I read recently where many sea gulls near St. Augustine, Florida, were starving to death. This did not result from a shortage of food but because they had forgotten how to get food as many other sea gulls do. These sea Gulls had for years depended on the shrimp boats for their food and the shrimp fleet operating out of the harbor there moved to Key West, Florida, so the gulls began to starve.
I am reasonably sure that if a lot of the brotherhood projects which our brethren have fostered in recent years and the "bumming" congregations presently plaguing us were to be cut off by the contributing congregations that they would starve out too. They have begged for so long that they simply could not get along without somebody's else's money. I am further convinced that if brethren would transfer their "shrimp-boats" back to the home congregation and get away from brotherhood projects and institutions that more good would actually be accomplished in the long run even though we might not have a radio and television program as large as the Lutherans do. We do not consider a leach in the vegetable or animal kingdom a thing to be desired. Why should brethren highly praise it in the spiritual realm?
— Floral Heights Mirror
Speak For Yourself, Norvel
Time magazine, Aug. 5, 1957 carried an article about Bro. M. Norvel Young leaving Lubbock in which numerous erroneous statements occurred -- some of them of far reaching consequence.
The statement that "the Churches of Christ are the result of a split from the Disciples of Christ in 1906" is false, and also an indictment against the Divine Origin of the Church of Christ. (Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:47; Rom. 16:16).
Bro. Young's statement that "Each generation must interpret the Bible for itself . If our generation were to write down it's interpretation of the Bible in another 100 years we would be just another denomination," is an indictment against the Divine Doctrine of the Church of Christ. It is an admission of the false premise that the Bible can be interpreted differently by different people, and is saying that what the Church of Christ preaches is an "interpretation" of the Bible. This may be true of Bro. Young and the Broadway church, but it certainly is not true of faithful gospel preachers. The Bible says and means (has the same interpretation) the same thing today that it said and meant 1900 years ago. Its meaning doesn't change with each generation, nor from person to person. Every person in every generation must believe the same thing if they are to be saved. (Mark 16:16; 2 John 9-11; Eph. 4:5; 1 Cor. 1: 10; 2 Pet. 1:1; Ga.1 1:6-9).
In keeping with the same tone and tenor of the whole article, the reporter says, "Bro. Young is the nearest thing to a binding force among them." This is an indictment against the Divine Organization of the Church of Christ. Even the suggestion of the possibility of a "binding force" smacks of Roman Catholicism, and supports the idea of a tangible, outward representation of the Churches of Christ. The expressions "fully autonomous" and "binding force" are as contradictory as the title "Roman Catholic." "Roman" is local and "catholic" is universal. Autonomous means independent and "binding force" suggests consolidation. In this very article Bro. Young sets himself up as the spokesman for the whole church. How can churches be "fully autonomous" when some individual assumes the prerogative of being the voice of the church and leaves the impression on outsiders that he is something like a "binding force."
Bro. Young might have represented the Broadway church in his remarks that is for them to say, but he certainly did not represent the Caprock congregation, and I will affirm that he did not represent the church of New Testament days.
Grover Stevens
Origin Of The Article
A few weeks ago, I carried an article in this column called, A MILLION FOR MANHATTAN. I have had about twenty-five requests from all over the nation wanting to know the exact source of the article. It was written by some denominational person and really "struck home." I saw the article in two or three bulletins. It appeared first (I think) in the bulletin edited by Bro. Bill Cavender. of Cooper. Texas. He copied it from a bulletin Published by a Baptist church in Richmond, Virginia. Perhaps this is the original source and the writer was a Baptist. We are checking on the matter further and will report in this column anything else learned about this point. If you can help to establish definitely the original source of the article, please advise me. I take this means of letting brethren who inquired about the matter know what I know about it.