News And Views
News Of Interest
It is good to announce that there is a sound congregation now meeting in Jackson, Mississippi. They are temporarily meeting at Poplar and North Jefferson. A. H. Payne moved to Jackson in June to work with this new church. Payne was with the church in Columbus, Mississippi, before moving to Jackson. The new church is apparently off to a good start. Payne is a good, solid man and the work there should do well. He has been in need of some additional financial support, and any church would do well to help him. A sound church in Jackson has been needed for a long time, for the three other churches have really gone into liberalism....Walter N. Henderson is moving from Meridian, Mississippi, to labor with the church in Clermont, Florida....dames Shear has recently moved to Deland, Florida, to live and labor. He was with the church in Savannah, Georgia.....Harold Dowdy, who was at Deland, is now with the Marietta congregation in Jacksonville, Florida. Here is another good man who is in need of some additional financial support...."Walking In Truth" is the name of a dandy monthly paper published by the McArthur Heights church, just out of Jasper, Alabama. It is edited by Tom O'Neal, the preacher. Seven issues have now gone forth and it is doing a lot of good. It is free to all who desire it and is certainly worth reading. Requests should be sent to O'Neal P O. Box 763, Jasper, Alabama....L. E. Sloan has moved from Palmetto, Florida, to Jasper, Georgia, where he will help in establishing a church there. There has never been a NT church in that city as far as anyone knows....I am scheduled to assist the church in Willow, Oklahoma, in a gospel meeting, August 27-September 2. This is a small congregation in Western Oklahoma; and it is one of the only two churches, as far as I can learn, in Western Oklahoma, standing opposed to all the liberalism of the day. If you know anyone in that area, please urge them to attend the meeting. The other sound church is at Lone Wolf. I ant to be there in a meeting in late September or October. There are prospects for a sound church in Fredrick, Oklahoma Our radio program (each Sunday, 8-8:30 A.M., over KWFT, 620 on the dial) here in Wichita Falls reaches all of Western Oklahoma, and many in that area are listening. All along we are getting in contact with some scattered among the many congregations of that section who are sick and tired of the growing digressive practices. They are waking up and there is quite a "rumble" in many of these liberal churches as a result. It is hoped that all such brethren will rise up and do something about the matter...."Mooresville Memo" is the name of a neat, printed bulletin of the Mooresville Pike church in Columbia, Tennessee. Jimmy Thomas, the preacher, is the editor. It is a good paper; and is sent free to all who request it.... T. T. Carney, after over two years with the Jackson Heights church In Columbia, Tennessee has moved to labor with the Elm Street church in St. Charles, Missouri.... Roy S. Fudge has moved from Smith's Grove, Kentucky, to Lafayette, Louisiana.... Frank Perigo, who was at Lafayette, has moved to Lake Jackson, Texas, where he will work with the Southern Oaks church....PRETTY GOOD BUSINESS. In the June issue of Childhaven News, I note the report that that benevolent corporation has at least two good business enterprises. They sell around "24,000 pounds of milk per month" and they "gather approximately 21,000 eggs each day." That is a sizable number of eggs! The income from such projects must be considerable, but "begging" is still their most profitable source of revenue...."Little Dixie Bible Digest" is the name of a paper recently started by "brethren throughout south-eastern Oklahoma," who stand solidly upon the truth. I have received ONLY the first (April) copy (and I hope that I am on the mailing list to receive it regularly). It is a neat, eight-page paper, and it should do a lot of good. I suppose it will be sent to all who desire it. No one is listed as editor and no publisher is given. However, J. R. Pope, Box 399, McAlester, Oklahoma, can handle and receive such requests, I am sure.
Church Grows More Robust
(Editor's note: Under the above heading, I lift the following article from our local paper here in Wichita Falls. The report on this modern church is rather interesting and significant in several ways. Take note of some of their unique activities and the emphasis placed upon Sunday School. Their building is pretty well equipped with recreational facilities. Indeed one would have to agree that this church is growing "more robust." Relatively speaking, there are many churches of Christ (?) not far behind this "robust" church.)
Church Grows More Robust by Marshall Comerer DALLAS, Tex. (AP) — At a time when many downtown churches have been forced to move to new neighborhoods or the suburbs to serve the members, the First Baptist Church of Dallas becomes more robust each year.
The massive red brick church, built in 1890, occupies a block on the edge of the business district. Three buildings nearby house many of its weekday functions and recreational activities that range from hobby rooms and a library to a complete gymnasium, a 4-lane bowling alley and skating rink. The first three floors of one building are a parking garage which members use free of charge on Sunday.
Less than 3 per cent of its 12,000 members live within a 2-mile radius of the church, the largest in the Southern Baptist Convention. Most live 15 to 20 miles away.
Largest One
Last December members oversubscribed a $1,218,600 budget, called by the pastor, Dr. W. A. Griswell, "the largest of any church in the history of Christendom."
"We are not a wealthy congregation," said Dean Willis, business administrator. "About half of our members give between $50 and $300 per year. A fourth give less than $50 and a fourth more than $300. Forty-five per cent of those who made pledges said they tithed."
Although First Baptist has 12,000 members, it counts only 7,500 persons as active in its giving program. Of these 6,500 are enrolled in Sunday School.
Great Emphasis
The church places great emphasis on its Sunday School. A paid, full-time staff member supervises each age division from nursery to adult. With a few exceptions classes have 8 to 30 members.
The $1,218,600 budget provides $502,045 for denominational, benevolent and missionary programs; $501,855 for local church programs and $214,700 for building indebtedness and capital outlays.
The largest item in the local church budget is $237,565 for salaries of the ministers, staff, office and maintenance personnel, workers in the nursery for children of mothers attending services and weekday programs and a supervisor for the recreational program.
A Doctor's Diagnosis And A Gospel Preacher's Comments
An Associated Press report given front page attention in our morning newspaper quotes a leading British surgeon, Dr. Ian Fraser, president of the British Medical Assn., as saying, "Alcohol, bad manners selfishness and carelessness — these are human diseases, bringing tragedy and unhappiness, which doctors are finding it difficult to combat." He continued, "A change in the mode of life that is causing great and genuine alarm is the deterioration in morals, manners, and ethics....Changed manners, morals, and the glamour of living dangerously with the exhibitionism that it entails have again raised the venereal disease rate and are filling our newspapers with reports of gangster attacks and murder."
A Sorry State Of Affairs
This is a sorry but none the less true commentary upon the state of affairs existing in this vaunted twentieth century civilization of ours, not only England, but in the world. And it is certain evidence that, in spite of our advances in education, with special emphasis on the material sciences and technology, resulting in this mechanized age, so called, in which the machine is taking place of the man, we have completely "missed the boat" when it comes to the production of a really higher type society, seeking for and capable of enjoying the really better things of life which bring genuine and lasting happiness.
We have produced instead a species of fine ANIMALS, possessing over developed passions and appetites and capable of enjoying only those things which they have in common with the rest of the brute creation.
Specific Causes
Notice the doctor's own mention of specific causes of this decline. It is our opinion that, with one exception, he has named the basic factors which have produced this well nigh universal breakdown. He mentions, "changed manners" — "changed morals" — "the glamour of living dangerously" — with the "EXHIBITIONISM that it entails, — and says that such have again raised the venereal disease rate and are filling our newspapers with reports of gangster attacks and murders. And don't forget the mention of ALCOHOL in connection with this list of vicious, specific causes.
Of course, back of all these things specifically mentioned by the good doctor, as the causes of the condition which he bemoans, is the real and basic cause of these very things he names, i.e., the almost total lack of that SPIRITUAL AND MORAL training which comes alone through and from the BIBLE. No matter what or how much other education men may have, when you leave out the spiritual and moral judgment and discipline which comes from a personal knowledge of the BIBLE ALONE and a practical application of its principles of TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS to human character, you have but a race of EDUCATED HEATHENS who, because of the advantage of their erudition, are capable of the invention of more ingenious ways of debauching themselves.
Poor, stupid, pig-headed man! How slow to learn can he be! This has been the graveyard of every civilization the world has developed from the beginning until now; and unless there is a radical change in our own, it will fall into the same dismal tomb!
Churches Partly Responsible
Many basic forces have contributed to the condition of course, but the churches of the land, including one called "church of Christ," generally speaking, cannot sidestep partial responsibility for the status quo. They have left off the plain teaching of the Bible even on morals and ethics and have substituted instead a watered down, vitiated system of sociology and fraternalism such as could as well be found in the Masonic Lodge or the Kiwanis Club! All such is a blotch on valid religion, and all such puppetry in the pulpits of the denominations, much less churches of Christ, is a disgrace to the name of Christ and a travesty upon gospel preaching.
The good doctor in his speech made before a congregation of British doctors, having diagnosed the diseases of our ailing society, continued by pointing out the hopelessness of the treatment being administered by the governments of the world through their social agencies, and which is apropos to the point we have under consideration regarding the treatment being given today by the churches. He says, "For them the external resources are not sufficient — such as unlimited playgrounds, television, golf courses, museums, amusements, hobbies, tennis courts. THEY ARE NOT THE ANSWER."
"You can always supply the toys but you cannot supply the play." And this writer says Amen!
— A. Hugh Clark, Caprock bulletin, Lubbock, Tex.
Two Churches In Canada
(Earlier in the year, Jere Frost, the faithful evangelist for the 77th St, church in Birmingham, Alabama, assisted two congregations in Canada in gospel meetings. I lift his report of these two meetings from the Bible Exalter, the 77th St. bulletin.)
Huntsville, Ontario: Difficulty is not new to the church of our Lord, but it is ever refreshing to see progress in adversity. Only a comparative handful (about 35) living over a rather wide area constitute the membership of this church. Some of them, of course, are indifferent, but some are most active and zealous, and the sectarians know of the church. The members talk, and their neighbors have opportunity to hear truth; a few of them are now Christians because they had a neighbor to interest them. None were baptized during the meeting. Gordon Dennis (preacher) writes, however, of one obeying immediately following.
Jordan, Ontario: Many churches are larger and richer, but few stronger in faith or zeal. Sound and alert elders, a nucleus of studious and zealous members, a conscientious and personable preacher, they aren't "on parade," sometimes called on the march, but it is notable that they are on the job and in the fight for souls with truth. There is very little difference between Bible study attendance and "eleven o'clock." There are less than 200 members, yet they help support two (or three) preachers elsewhere, and additionally fully pay for a weekly radio program in Owen Sound (where we help to support John Whitfield) and a daily radio program in Huntsville. Five were baptized during the meeting.