Reading The Bulletins
From Here And There
The first of January, 1957, Harris J. Dark, who has been the preacher for the Franklin Road church in Nashville, Tennessee, will begin work with the Eastland church in the same city. Dark has also served the Franklin Road church as one of the elders during the last two years. The church owns some splendid property on Franklin Road and they have started the erection of a wonderful church building . . . . Robert Jackson, who has labored with the Riverside Drive church in Nashville, for three years, will begin work with the Franklin Road church in April, 1957. Jackson has done an outstanding work at Riverside Drive . . . . Charles Crouch has moved to Columbus, Mississippi, to work with the new congregation in that city. He moved to Columbus from Bessemer, Alabama . . . . The Central church in Jackson, Mississippi is soon to begin a new congregation in the city. They purchased some valuable property in the Belvedere section of the city and a building is now being erected. Orlan Miller, who has been with the West Capitol Street church in Jackson for four years, will begin work with the new church on September 1. This will make the third church in Jackson . . . . Bill Veteto has moved to Kansas City, Kansas, to work with the Winner Road church . . . . In September Richard Weaver, who has been with the Humboldt, Tennessee, church for two years, will move to Chicago to labor with the Grand Avenue church. James Needham, of Bellaire, Texas, recently conducted a fine meeting with the 'Grand Avenue church. The churches in the Chicago area are making some positive progress of lath in the fight against modernism . . . . The first 27 Sundays in 1956, the contributions of the Skillman Avenue church in Dallas, have averaged $2,873.84. Is there a church anywhere in the nation (among us) which has a larger contribution? .... "KRLD has offered the churches of Christ of the Dallas area a free 30-minute TV program on Sunday mornings between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 beginning about November 1st." "At a meeting of about 75 brethren recently, from 28 different congregations of the Dallas area, it was decided that the elders of 'Skillman Avenue will take the lead in directing the TV program which has been offered the Dallas churches of Christ by KRLD-TV as a public service. The elders have begun work on the project. The program will go on the air around November 1st . . . ." (From Skillman Avenue bulletins) .. .. W. C. Sawyer is to move to Bowling, Green, Kentucky, in September to work with the Park Street church. He has been with the church in Russellville, Kentucky, for several years . . . James L. Denison, who has labored with the church in Marianna, Florida, for about two years, has moved to Agua Dulce, Texas to work with the church there. The church in Marianna is small and the work has been hard, but Denison did a good job . . . . The North Kansas City (Missouri) church recently moved into their new building. The auditorium will seat 525, and they have ten classrooms, study, nursery, and parking lot. The building is completely air-conditioned" A new congregation is about to be started at Plano, Illinois, by the Aurora church. This Aurora church (near Chicago) has already helped start one at Morris, and one at Elgin, Illinois." (From bulletin of Brookfield church, Brookfield, Illinois) . . . . "The Brookfield church is assisting in getting a congregation started in Berwyn, and the plans call for the first services to be August 5th. Brother Leslie Diestelkamp will be preaching there, and here too for the present. The meeting place will be at 15th and Ridgeland Avenues (which is 1500 South Ridgeland), in the 'Good News Center' building." (From the same source as above)
... Carl Vernon has moved to Taft, Texas to labor with the church there. He did a fine work with the church in Burnet, Texas — where he spent nearly two years before moving to Taft.
Who Are Your Enemies?
Sometimes men boast that they have no enemies. It is not wholesome, of course, to go around making deliberate efforts to be offensive to people, but the man who thinks he has no enemies might well ask himself whether he is doing his duty.
Jesus said, "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you . . . ." The man who has no enemies enjoys a distinction ( ?) that was never accorded the Lord. He had them by the thousands, and some of them hated him so vehemently that they murdered him.
Simon Cameron declared that a man who makes no enemies is never a positive force. If you stand for right you will incur the enmity of those who love evil, but if you do it the right way you will earn the respect of all right-thinking people.
— Bond Stocks The Christian Journal Dickson, Tennessee
Psychiatry And The Sermon On The Mount
If you were to take the sum total of all the authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene, if you were to combine them and refine them and leave out the excess verbiage, if you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of pure scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summation of the Sermon on the Mount. (Dr. James T. Fisher in THE CASE BOOK OF A PSYCHIATRIST.)
— Gospel Visitor
False Accusations
1. Do you accuse brethren of being hobbyists if they disagree with you on something?
2. Do you accuse brethren of not believing in preaching the gospel when they oppose unscriptural organizations and arrangements for doing it?
3. Do you accuse brethren of being opposed to caring for orphans when they oppose church support of human institutions for doing it?
— J. Ed Nowlin The West-Ender
Atlanta, Georgia
Newspaper Clippings
We like to clip and keep items and articles of interest which we find in newspapers. Here we pass along two or three as food for thought.
This one was clipped from the FORT WORTH PRESS. It tells the story of a lady in a Pennsylvania town who sued her church for four thousand dollars which she claimed she had lost during the past two years playing bingo in the church basement. That would have been an interesting trial to set in on. I have wondered what scripture the church used in its defense to prove that her four thousand dollars was DONATED to the church instead of WON in a gambling game.
Here is another that tells of a tavern in St. Louis that installed a modern nursery. We imagine that this must be a bawl room in a ball room, barroom, or brawl room. Now all the mothers (?) can take their babies "HONKEY-TONKIN!" with them and start them early on the devil's well-greased slide to hell.
Then here is one clipped from the DALLAS TIMES HERALD which reports that Southern Methodist University, through her "MODERN DANCE CLUB" rendered a program entitled THE EVOLUTION OF THE DANCE." Fourteen couples participated in the demonstration. We could think of several things to say about this, but then we have another clipping which notes that the Methodist people noticed this item also; so we refrain and let a Methodist preacher carry the ball. One says:
"We sincerely hope that the whole evolution of the dance will not be depicted. If it is and the police should be present, some of those participating may wind up in the city jail for lewd performance. The evolution of the dance is a rather racy subject and when put in motion, even by a Methodist University, is apt to be quite startling."
We never did learn whether the Dallas police were present or not, but we imagine that Methodist preacher knew pretty well what he was talking about.
Does someone have an aspirin ? — The Apostolic Voice, Lafayette, Louisiana.
Sweetly We Answer, "The Lord Has A Plan"
Judson Woodbridge, Mulvane, Kansas
"When the critics get together, As the critics often do,
To discuss the whys and wherefores
Of the plan you're putting through;
When they've twisted it and torn it,
And they've done the worst they can,
Just stop and ask them sweetly,
'Have you a better plan'?"
This little verse was lifted from an orphan home publication. Did the author ever consider the plan of the Lord?
1. God planned for each congregation to care for its own needy. (Acts 6:1-6.)
2. He planned, if a congregation had more than it could care for, that other congregations help it. (Acts 11:29, 30.)
3. He planned that elders, "tend the flock of God among you." (1 Peter 5:2.) In this plan elders could not assume work beyond their ability which was the work of other congregations, and then ask for contributions from the churches that this work be done, and they would oversee and direct said work. This makes diocesan elders.
4. In God's plan men did not build institutions and create organizations through which the church did its work. The congregation was big enough and had the machinery to do all that the Lord wanted the church to do. (Acts 6:1-6; Phil. 1:5; 4:15-17; 2 Con 11:8; 1 Thess. 1:8.) An orphan society is no different from a missionary society.
Now, I think all can see that God's plan makes "havoc" of many of these present-day plans. If we would spend half the time, as well as the paper and ink, promoting God's way, instead of spending it in promoting man's, we would see the church functioning to the honor and glory of God; and we would see that the orphans, widows, and needy, for which the church is responsible, receiving the best of care. I have asked before, and I ask again: Tell me the church that has more needy than it can care for, and I give you my word, I will do my best to see that help goes to that church.
Frankly, some of us grow just a little, weary of these brethren who insist upon promoting their institutions asking for a better plan. The Lord's plan is better, it is best, it is the only plan. But as long as they continue to ask in a sweet way, we will in the same manner refer them to the scripture.