Our Religious Neighbors
"Sixteen years ago we came to Minnesota." So writes Harvey A. Childress in the Firm Foundation, a journalistic organ of our anti (musical) organ and piano brethren. There follows a summary of the 16 years of work he pioneered, undergirded by more than ordinary financial backing from Texas congregations.
It was our fortune to tangle with Mr. Childress early in his sojourn among us. We have not seen him since. We have been religious neighbors, but hardly brethren. This is regrettable for we have much more in common than we have in contest. But that is the way the non-instrumentalists prefer it.
Occasionally our paths have crossed with others who have followed him in the "Minnesota mission." These men exude confidence. They seem to lack for nothing. They have regular religious broadcasts over many Minnesota stations. They have built attractive edifices in several communities. They staffed a booth at the recent State Fair. Reports in various journals of the movement speak glowingly of new fields entered. We confess that in the face of all this we were inclined to regard with awe their progress and wonder at our own slow advance in contrast.
"Whistling In The Dark?"
Imagine our surprise to read the statistics as published in the Firm Foundation — "fourteen congregations meeting with over 400 members.... two congregations are now self supporting....We now have eleven full time preachers.... eleven meeting houses." This figures out at a membership gain of only 25 per year for all the churches and evangelists combined and establishes the average membership at only 27 members per congregation.
We are personally acquainted with several of the "14 congregations." Not a few are known to number little more than a family or two. Nevertheless the total progress is much less than we were yet led to expect.
We do not write to gloat over the meager results achieved. But on the basis of the facts reported we do wish to make a point by way of answering some who have been critical of our results. The non-instrumentalist missionaries to Minnesota are personally known to be above average, dedicated, competent well trained evangelists, zealous for God, laboring generally without the handicap of having to "make tents" to support themselves. They have had the financial backing to secure property, build meeting houses, advertise extensively and give themselves wholly to their task. Yet 16 years of earnest labor and thousands of dollars invested have produced but two self-supporting churches and a dozen lesser congregations.
In a state where the religious population is 41% Lutheran and 39% Roman Catholic, and the ethnic background predominately continental European, relatively recently removed, we can not match the achievements of our brethren in areas where Old World ties and traditions are long severed and Christian churches, churches of Christ, have for some generations been "standard brands."
Friends of long acquaintance whom we have invited to come and share with us in our labors generally make such discovery right early and depart soon for greener pastures.
"What Of Our Own Accomplishments?"
Our own accomplishments are nothing of which to boast. But neither do they suffer by comparison. In the same 16 years we have witnessed 17 new congregations formed, 13 of them now housed in their own buildings, 10 of them self-supporting. In a sense all but 3 or 4 are self-supporting, for only one field in Minnesota is known to be financed by out-of-state capital and only 2 or 3 congregations receive any appreciable assistance from other churches within the state. The membership of our new congregations number some 800 brethren by conservative estimate.
These results have been achieved largely by novices in new church evangelism — college students with a zeal for God, ministers willing to drive busses, work in filling stations, sell insurance, etc. to support themselves while the church was a borning. Out-of-state assistance has been spotty, at no time consistent. We have borne the handicap of financial stringency in every field we have entered. But as one church was begun, and sometimes before, we have set about to establish another.
There is room in Minnesota for both our acapella brethren and ourselves. We would do well to pray that there will be room in our hearts to receive one another as brethren. Here and there across the state there is the sad spectacle of the duplication of feeble efforts while hundreds of other communities are untouched. The superficial difference which divide us cannot but confuse the more an already confused populace.
No, we do not gloat over the slow progress of others, or boast of our own. We suspect that until we find a way of witnessing together to that oneness for which Christ prayed we will continue to have little effect in Minnesota upon the solid front of entrenched, old line denominationalism with its hoary traditions, stately ritual and general respectability as representing the leading churches — "the churches to which all the right people belong, you know."
We congratulate Harvey A. Childress on his perseverence. Sixteen years is a long time to labor against great odds when easier fields are constantly calling. That his dedication has inspired ten other men to give themselves also to this ministry is a tribute to his vision and zeal. We suspect that the unwarranted prohibition against the use of musical instruments by a people so keenly alert to the advantages to be gained through the employment of virtually every other contrivance and invention will continue to be a barrier to the fellowship of our two struggling movements and the greatest barrier he and his fellow workers encounter in their efforts to free other men of their man made laws and doctrines.