A Little Of This And A Little Of That
One For The Money; Two For The Show
A few weeks ago a picture of Pat Boone, the famous TV star, appeared in the Advocate. There was also a short article telling of Boone taking an active part in the church work at Manhattan. It seems that the church there plans to use Pat as a sort of main attraction to raise money for the big drive for "downtown New York." Pat appears on Arthur Godfrey's TV program, oftentimes with a gang of bathing beauties. But let the churches use him to get the MONEY. We must march!
In the same issue of the Advocate and on the same page there appeared a picture of the Governor of Tennessee who had made a talk at the Madison church in Tennessee. The Governor is a Baptist but he helped draw the crowd for the promotion that day. Let the churches use a Baptist Governor for the SHOW. We insist on being on the march!
This Is Our New Pastor
A church which expects the preacher to do all the visiting, to run after the members, to care for the sick, do all the personal work, nurse all the babies in the church, preach all the sermons, baptize all the people, see that all the work runs smoothly in the church .... I say that church doesn't need a preacher at all. It needs a first class funeral. For undoubtedly all the members are dead or they wouldn't expect the preacher to do all the work.
A lot of churches claim they don't want to hire a "Pastor," but when they get a preacher they want him to hop like a sectarian pastor, do the visiting like a sectarian pastor, butter the members like a sectarian pastor, preach soft sermons like a sectarian pastor, carry the burden like a sectarian pastor, and mess with society like a sectarian pastor. And if weak-kneed preachers submit to such unreasonable demands, I insist that they be called "Pastors" with a capital "P."
To Him Be Glory Through A Human Institution
All my life I have heard the proverb: "Any organization larger than the local church is too large; and any organization smaller than the local church is too small." This simply means that the church cannot set up human organization through which to do its work; whether the organization be smaller or larger than the local congregation. Orphan homes are human institutions, set up and operated by contributions from churches of Christ. That practice is a violation of the scriptures and diametrically opposed to the above mentioned proverb. This proverb knocks out the Homes just as surely as it knocks out the United Christian Missionary Society. Brethren, either alter your practice or change your slogan. Since it's easier perhaps to change your motto, may I suggest that you try: "Unto Him be glory through a human institution."
All Roads Lead To Rome
The Sponsoring Church type of cooperation, where the eldership of one church "oversees" the work of another church, is wrong because one eldership can be over the work of but one church at a time. (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2-3.) The New Testament does not authorize the Catholic practice of having one set of elders over the work of several churches. This is what caused the apostasy in the third and fourth centuries A.D. We must not let it happen again.
The Church And I
It is quite true that the church is made up of individuals and that each individual is a part of the church; but it is also true that the individual has many responsibilities that the church does not have. The argument that "whatever an individual 'Christian can do-the church can do" is an old Christian Church dodge. The Christian Church argued that "since the individual can have a piano in the home . . . . therefore the whole congregation can have a piano in the church." They also argued that "since an individual can have entertainment, a pie supper, and a kitchen . . . . therefore the church can have entertainment, pie suppers, and a kitchen." They reasoned (?) still further that since the individuals are called "Christians" therefore the whole church should be called the "Christian Church." And the way some of my brethren in the church of Christ are reasoning (?) today, the Christian Church may have some more company soon.