Who Is "Sound" In All His Teachings?
Sometimes I think that we as a group have rapidly built up our own traditions. When I hear a stranger speaking over radio, I know immediately if he is a member of the church of Christ, not altogether by the teaching but by the intangible and inexplicable attitude, manner of expression, and other things more easily recognized than explained. I think this comes from our nationwide programs, colleges, and papers. These things may not violate congregational autonomy, but they tend to make anything confined to one small church seem very insignificant. For instance, the brethren in one place where I preach regularly, pay the radio station to put on "The Herald of Truth," but my wife and a few friends who live out of reach of the station pay for time for me to speak weekly over the same station! You don't have to "organize" something besides the church, or outside the church, to destroy the local interest and efforts. "If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it?" Yes, indeed; we are in the day of "big things." Think on these things. I contend, and will continue to contend, that any one, or any group, may run a school, AS A PRIVATE UNDERTAKING, in which the Bible is a required subject. But in the psychology of the average Christian, they are "our colleges." And the orphan homes, with their extra and independent organizations, are in the minds of all Christians, NOT A PRIVATE INSTITUTION AT ALL, but the work of the churches of Christ in cooperation.
At my home, where I preach twice each month, and serve as an elder, too, we take up a special contribution every Lord's day for our "Love Fund." Three deacons are appointed to look after the expending of this fund, and to give it out as each man may have need. We believe that the only way to successfully meet and oppose the epidemic of Institutionalism among us is to demonstrate by actual example the way it should and can be done. We hope that other churches will see this need and begin in earnest to show their faith by their works.