"Who Is Doing What?"
Frequently our liberal brethren throw slurs at those of us who are conservative by saying we do not believe in doing mission work. Actually the "institutional" brethren have left the field of harvest and the work that Christ has charged them to do. With their Pat Boone for sponsored youth rallies, recreation centers, church ball teams, summer camps provided by the church, and church kitchens to fill the belly instead of the spiritual food to fill the soul, they have little time or money to go forth and reap the fields that are white unto harvest.
This writer is preparing to go to East Georgia and start a new congregation. Support is needed and a visit was made to many of the "Anti" churches in the Houston-Beaumont area seeking support. No less than fifteen churches were visited and almost without exception each of these churches was supporting one or more preachers full time in a mission field and the one or two exceptions were in the process of building, but even they were partially supporting a preacher in the field. One of the churches visited is in Baytown where Brother Hugh Clarke preaches. Now this is a "Anti" church and "does not believe in mission work," but they are supporting four preachers full time in mission work and are going to add one more to the list by January 1959. That will be five preachers besides Brother Clarke supported by a church of 300 members.
The number of churches visited I am sure represent what the conservative churches are doing. Are the liberal churches in the brotherhood doing what these churches are? A few of the large ones through sponsoring work are. This "sponsoring church system" is actually harming the growth of the church rather than aiding it as the liberals would have us believe. Actually the system causes smaller churches to loose their initiative and planning power and being taught that it is best to work through a sponsoring church, their members with not too much enthusiasm give enough to the Lord to allow a little to trickle into the coffers of the "sponsoring church." The potentiality of these smaller churches would be great if they worked as Christ directs rather than through the wisdom of men. Many churches have been deceived into believing they can send a few dollars a month to an orphan home or to a "sponsoring church" and that they are doing the work that Christ charged them to do.
It would be wise for the liberals to look at themselves closely, before they criticize those doing a good work for the Lord, in the way he has directed it be done.