What You Can Do For Unity
Controversies among Churches of Christ are neither started nor stopped by command from a hierarchy. When controversies spread they infect personal relations. Family ties are broken. Congregations become estranged. Sects grow up with their own institutions to further them.
When reconciliation comes, it must be made real on every level where damage was done.
We may have the opportunity right now for the first time this century to heal a schism in the restoration movement.
When 27 men met in Arlington, Texas, last month to discuss the divisions over methods of local church cooperation, they agreed to go home and re-open private study with those in the community with whom discussion had all but ceased. They agreed to foster unity in every way they could.
But 27 men do not make a synod. They have no authority to change the religious climate, no matter how devoutly we might wish the climate could be changed.
It will take the earnest efforts of thousands of us if reconciliation is to come. If we pass up this opportunity, we will have only ourselves to blame as the critics of New Testament Christianity continue to attack the "fissiparous, jangling sects" that the churches appear to be.
Here are some suggestions:
Personal Level
Through prayers, Bible study, and fellowship, strive to overcome hostile feelings the controversy may have caused within you.
Express your convictions about the need for unity, particularly where unfair remarks or opinions have been going unchallenged.
Family Level
Recognize the importance of family ties in fostering, continuing, or breaking down the barriers.
Seek to develop Christian attitudes among the younger generation.
Find opportunities to make family friendships across the barriers.
Congregational Level
Encourage the preaching and teaching of Biblical truth concerning faith, opinion, and unity, so the congregation can set an example for the brotherhood.
Listen to knowledgeable speakers from both "sides" explain their views.
Leadership level Preachers, teachers, and elders should begin personal Bible study anew, to see if former conclusions stand the test of time.
Leaders should try to engage in private study with men with whom they differ.
Leaders should become aware of the many shades of opinion that make it impossible for us to be divided into two completely separate camps.
If necessary, meetings on the local level, similar to the one in Arlington, might also be fruitful.
As for the Christian Chronicle, we realize that the news columns of the paper have gradually, unofficially, but nonetheless effectively, cut off reports of missionaries and evangelists who have differed with the Chronicle's strong stand on cooperation issues. We want to re-open the news columns to those who have felt themselves cut off.
We have written several editors and preachers with whom communication had gradually diminished, asking their help in making this step known. Response so far has been gratifying.
The so-called "cooperation controversy" may well be a test case for Churches of Christ. If some semblance of unity can be restored during the current mood, a model may be established whereby divisions of deeper roots and of more ultimate significance can begin to be overcome.