1989 and Churches of Christ
1989 was an interesting time in Churches of Christ. Three books had just been published that stirred the conversation: Discovering our Roots and Illusions of Innocence by Leonard Allen and Richard Hughes, and The Worldly Church by Leonard, Richard, and Michael Weed. (In 1990 Leonard’s The Cruciform Church would come out; and in 1996 Richard’s Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America would be published.)
These books challenged the notions that Churches of Christ represent an untainted, pure form of Christianity. And yet they affirmed the best aspects of our tribal tradition.
Let the truth of these words by Allen and Hughes (Illusions) set in:
“The restoration perspective has worked in American life in two important ways. Some Americans have enshrined first times as an ideal to be approximated and even as a kind of transcendent norm that stands in judgment on the ambiguities of the present age. In this case, the myth of first times has been a beacon summoning Americans to perfection. On the other hand, some Americans have fully identified their religious denomination or even their nation itself with the purity of first times. The illusion thereby fostered in the minds of these Americans is that they are an innocent and fundamentally natural people who, in effect, have stepped outside of history, thereby escaping the powerful influences of history, culture, and tradition. These Americans therefore have often confused the historic particularities of their limited experience with universal norms that should be embraced, they have thought, by all people in all cultures and all times.”
In February, 1989, there was a buzz at the ACU lectureship as people listened to Allen, Hughes, and Weed discuss their book. I taught a three-day class in the University Church auditorium called “Success: The Fatal Attraction.” (I remember this because they were still doing lectureship books. I just pulled it out. My chapter is the one right below one called “I Saw the Towers of Darkness Fall; I Saw the Morning Break” by . . . Landon Saunders.)
In March of 1989 I spoke at the Tulsa workshop on fellowship. It wasn’t my first time to come “out of the closet,” but it was the first time in such a public setting. Shortly after that, an elder in an Arkansas church wrote people in Searcy saying that if I wasn’t let go, they would bring home 24 Harding students from their church. (As if he had that power.)
In May, I did the opening night keynote at Pepperdine, introducing the book of Exodus. I called it “One Thing Worse Than Bondage.” (Want to guess?) Oliver Howard taught a packed house in Smothers Theater on the topic, “Maintaining Unity in the Face of Divisive Controversies.” Another major class, taught by Randy Mayeux was entitled, “A Local Minister Responds to the Warnings of The Worldly Church.”
Then in July, I gave the opening keynote of the first Nashville Jubilee — again on fellowship (and again a topic that I was asked to speak on). That time, some Nashville church — or perhaps it was a few churches — took out an ad in the Nashville paper (I kid you not!) to attack my speech. For reasons I still don’t understand — though I think just because it was such a large gathering of a group that doesn’t normally have “conventions” — there were summaries of that message everywhere from Christianity Today to the New York Times. Again, I kid you not.
What’s significant isn’t anything I said. That’s just the camera angle I had on everything that year. The real discussion, I think, came from those important books. What if our hermeneutical method wasn’t the only possible one? What if God’s family is much larger than those we know? What impulses in our heritage were worth remembering and emulating? What does it mean to follow Christ in this world?
I mentioned these three books. However, the discussion had begun a few years before. The real shot across the bow came from a Nashville preacher. It was entitled I Just Want to Be a Christian. Anyone remember that?
Mike,
Loved the remarks. I got to hear your songs in the heart riff at Pepperdine, I thank God for giving you that lesson and these historical comments. A famous theologian said there is a sequence. Movement, monument, musuem (sp). We must keep teaching Jesus and He is building and will build His church. He has for 2,000 years and I don’t believe He will stop. I heard great stories at Pepperdine of New Testament churches growing like wild fire all over, Carl Williams and his team member in New Jersey for one. 8 people to 80. All they want to do is glorify Jesus, the builder of His church.
Love,
Larry
I agree, Larry. It’s been interesting to reflect on the main class themes from twenty years ago and from this year. I hear much more interest from younger women and men on the mission of Christ in this world. (And I believe books like The Cruciform Church helped lead us in that direction.)
Thanks Mike for your courage to lead with humble boldness. I was only 9 in ’89 living in Abilene, TX and did not know obviously where I would be this day ministering in our CoC tribe. I am amazed by the growth (deep and wide) that has happened within our churches despite the talk about the decline. Talking with many of the emerging leaders I truly believe the best days our ahead of the Bride, thanks to many of you who paved the way and cleared the brush. However, there is still brush to be cleared as we try to reflect the glory of Christ and the refreshing thing about clearing the brush is that it may not look like it always has, but as long as we keep the Cross the crux of the matter than He will lead us in the right way.
I was baptized in 1989. I think that is an interesting thought in light of the fact I am a minister (and a woman) in the CofC tribe when you compare it to the “current” trends of the church at that time.
In some ways, that seems like a world away. And in some ways, I wonder if we’re still fighting the same battles, just with different names attached. Steps on the Way, I suppose.
and yet, there are so many ways in which the churches of christ have not grown or matured. the sentiment “i just want to be a christian” is a wonderful refrain but when followed with, “but there are stipulations as to how that actually plays out based upon race, gender, orientation and the like” one has to wonder how far we’ve really come. too many of my peers, me included, are exiting the church of christ scene hoping to find a denominational home that isn’t ten, twenty or thirty years behind the times.
this isn’t to say, however, that we don’t recognize the hard work done by so many to ask hard questions, preach hard sermons and write hard books. we do understand that some have been working (some even fighting) for justice all along. to them – to you, Mike – we say thank you for your efforts.
So much for the “christians only, but not the only christians” mantra… it’s sad that a fellowship which began with the notion that it didn’t hold a monopoly on theology and christian life still has trouble grasping that concept.
God calls us to unity, not uniformity. I can love my brother and still disagree with him as long as I remember that it is God that is the most important.
Such divisive conversation is still being circulated in our fellowship today. Recently, a Central Arkansas pulpit minister sent a widely distributed e-mail filled with inaccurate information about ACU and Lipscomb stating that these schools are no longer places to be trusted with the spiritual development of our young people. He then made a plea for parents to send their children to Harding since it remains true to our teaching.
I have yet to respond to this errant brother. However, I will do so as soon as I am certain it can be done in the correct way.
Church work is hard. It would be alot easier if were not for all of the people. May God keep our eyes and hearts open to those in our fellowship that are different.
I spent 1989 finishing up college at Harding in Searcy, AR as a youth ministry major. I was starting to think about life after college. I remember reading the books that are mentioned and rethinking many things. I even heard some of the talks that were mentioned in person or on a tape. (remember cassette tapes?) I began to question so much of what I thought I know and much of what I had been taught. The richest blessing of 1989 was the summer I spent in Kenya, Africa learning from some young missionaries. They somehow had made a life of following Christ into some muddy villages in the middle of no where. The attitude and faith that I saw in these young families help me put the church stuff in it’s right place. Somehow I learned that following God was so much more important than figuring out “church”.
Such interesting reflections, Mike. I remember those times because in 1989 I had just gotten my first preaching gig. A recent graduate of Freed-Hardeman and a new student at Harding Graduate School, I was struggling to define myself and what I believed.
If we took it back another step or two, it seems like the shifts you describe can all be traced back to the rise of graduate education for preachers among the Churches of Christ. I suspect that R. Hughes would say that that change was partly the result of this group coming into its own socio-economically.
Either way, how good it is to know that there are things for which neither historians nor economists nor sociologists can account.
Mike – I concur – It all started with “I Just Want To Be a Christian.”
Rubel turned my world upside down and the worlds of lots of other folks. He was the heir apparent to the Thomas B. Warren Spiritual Sword legacy and he comes out with this amazing book that was just like a drink of cool water in a very desert period in our history.
I read and reread it again – nothing was the same afterwards.
Wow! Was it really only 1989? I still use those books in the suggested reading list for high school students in my Church History class at Harding Academy in Searcy. “I Just Want to Be a Christian” was important in the development of my thinking about “church” things. Thank you, Mike, for today’s reminder about this part in our heritage and our journey.
I remember my first time at Jubilee and then Pepperdine. I thought I was a lone voice and having studied and attended CofC my entire life, well how could there be a disconnect? And I eagerly heard Rubel, you, Don McLaughlin. You all were saying the things I had discovered in my studies. FREEDOM!
Mike, I do remember reading “I Just Want To Be A Christian”. I also remember, or at least I think I do, Landon Saunders saying something like this while I was at Harding, “In the near future, I see a new restoration movement arising. I fear that we will not only refuse to join this new movement, but that we will actually opppose it.” Does anyone else remember Landon saying something like that? I may have dreamed it. I also remember Jimmy Allen resigning as an elder at the College Church because they wouldn’t change the name of the church every week. He then gave a sermon on a Sunday night called “Undenominational Christianity”. That sermon rocked my world. Anyone remember that sermon? I can still see that vein in Allen’s forehead popping out. Good times in the College Church!
1989 — moved back to Arkansas after 3 years in Boston — ‘nough said.
all of those books were incredibly helpful to me — I’m still very grateful for the timing.
Mike, I well remember that year. I was the youth minister at the church where the elder set off the letter-writing campaign. I was saddened by his actions; today, he is, too. Those 24 kids had been a part of a most remarkable youth group. I’m still in contact with many of them. You were such a positive influence on them, even while you endured the darts. I appreciate all you did for ‘my kids’ (youth ministers’ get pretty possessive, huh?). You were their favorite. Frankly, I never figured that out. Oh sure, you were witty, smart, learned and a fine speaker, and while you had good speed, you had only an average arm, not much range and Terry Rush was more of a long-ball threat. Now that I think about it, I have seen Randy Harris play shortstop, so, all-in-all, you weren’t so bad! Seriously, now: I love you, Mike. I pray your efforts will continue to bless others.
I remember 1989 well (it was the year I got married!) — and I remember most of the events of which you speak. I read “I Just Want To Be A Christian” while a student at Harding and, as others have said, it rocked my world. It should be noted that throughout the mid-eighties, a young minister at the College Church in Searcy helped shape my spiritual outlook and my future ministry.
(Side note: Mike, do you remember speaking at the Mid American Evangelism Workshop in Indianapolis during the summer of 1987? I was working as an intern in Fort Wayne that summer, and after you spoke at the Workshop, Tim Tripp and I had lunch with you).
It was also in 1989 that my new wife and I began attending a church in Trenton, Michigan. The minister there (Mark Frost) continued my spiritual development, and took it to the next level.
And in 1989, the Detroit Pistons won their first NBA title!
Having only been a 9-year old when “I Just Want to be A Christian” was first published, I did not read the book till years later in 1998. I had been raised within the secterian mind-set of the CoC but always knew their was something wrong with such a paradigm. Yet I had no way of even articulating the wrong I sensed so I had no way of expressing my questions and frustration with an exclusionary paradigm. I had two friends who were both in love with God and displaying that love in many and numerous ways. Yet because one was a member of the Roman Catholic Church and the other was a Pentecostal, I was unable to reconcile what was experientially evident with the exclusionary rationale I had been raised in. Rubel Shelly’s book was the first thing I read that understood my history and gave a voice to the frustration I had while offering a foundation for a new paradigm. Only time will tell what place his book will have in Restoration history but as influential as Walter Scott’s “The Gospel Restored” was for an early generation of Christians in the Restoration Movement, I believe “I Just Want to be A Christian” may be the most important book in the CoC/Restoration history of the twentieth century.
Grace and peace,
Rex
P.S., I do not care whether a person considers themself to be liberal or conservative, progressive or traditional. When Christians resort to making threats in order to influence the support and employment or preachers and teachers, they employ an UNGODLY and SINFUL form of power called manipulation that is rooted in the philosophy of “might is right” rather than the philosophy of Jesus’ cross (self-sacrificial service). Such power weilding has no place among Christians!
I was in college then, having grown up in the same small hometown as Rubel, I had read all his books and remember leading devotionals out of that book. I also remember the shock and first taste I had of fear and backlash that came from those so afraid of change.
Oliver Howard was one of my favorite speakers (besides you of course
) at the Pepperdine Lectures. We were talking about him this year at the Lectures.
I sometimes wonder what some of our people are so afraid of when it comes to diversity of thought within our fellowship. One thing for sure – those who try to quiet, snuff out, and blackmail into silence by newspaper articles, backroom alliances, and the practice of the “un-invitation” should take a lesson from history.
History tells us that when a people are tortured and oppressed with brutality to control them, quite the opposite happens. My hat is off to folks like you who in the name of our movement’s old motto, “Just Christians but not the only Christians,” came out of the closet.
What our fellowship needs today is a resurgence of reformed theology. The same theology held by Thomas Campbell, who called himself a Calvinist into the 1820s.
Let’s get some theological steel in our spine. This will really shake up the church; more than any book can. Let us preach the Bible: God’s Sovereign authority over all things – and point always to His Son: Christ and Him crucified for sinners. It is simply not enough and vastly unloving to simply teach to “live like Jesus.” Unbelievers and believers live like Jesus every day. What sets them apart?
It is time for us all to do a face plant at the foot of the Cross and not at the alter of moralistic dogmas.
Let me add: That once we realize how truly loved we are – a love God has for His Sheep that is beyond the love of John 3:16 – a love that expressed itself in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us – a love that recognizes that God chose us despite our rebellion and incapability of loving Him – we won’t be able to help our zeal in spreading the Good News and in putting our faith to work.
Rubel’s “I Just Want to Be A Christian” was a lifesaver for me. I will always be grateful to him for that.
I also have a copy of Robert Meyers’ “Voices of Concern” from 1966 and had the good fortune to meet him at a B&B in Colorado in 1996. That’s an amazing book, too, but there weren’t many ready to hear such a message in the late 60′s. If you saw things differently, you just had to leave.
That last remark about our hermeneutic is still echoing today. In 2009 it seems like we have come some distance from trying to decide if ours was the only hermeneutic. I think one thing that is being realized today is not only are there multiple acceptable hermeneutics but that the one we have typically followed can, if misused, actually lead us to things not intended or practiced by the early church. That is a big eye-opener as that is who we are saying we are patterned after. These are humbling things to thing about.
I agree with Matt. I am a 1984 DLC (pre-DLU) graduate, and was at Ashwood when much of what became “I Just Want To Be A Christian” was being preached week by week. Phenomenal, life-changing stuff. My parents gave me the book for Christmas (at my request) – if they had known what was in it, they likely would never have bought it. Regardless, the perspective from that book continues to bless and inform my life. And, like Matt, I will be forever grateful.
Of course, I’m wondering now what the important books/events will be for our little slice of Christianity over the next twenty-five years.
Great post.
JG
1989. I was in graduate school with a dream to do ministry. In a one month period I read, “I Just Want…..” I was in a gospels class and I was to read a gospel each week. I heard Mike Cope and Bill Hybels (odd couple) preach for the first time. I attended a seminar where I met Larry James and heard him speak. I was so overwhelmed with the message of Jesus!! I can point back to that month as a time of major transformation. I am still overwhelmed with the message of Jesus. 1989…. Good year!
It sounds to me like everyone posting in this thread needs to immediately order this book and memorize it: http://www.echristianstore.com/aanddbookstore/Default.aspx?tabid=7619&Item=091572071X
Ok, I’m kidding.
I’m with Rex – I was a nine year old kid in 1989, but even so all this stuff you’re talking about affected me. I was actually at Jubilee with my parents and others from the Little Rock Church the year you were there, and grew up in an environment (at LRC) where the status quo was constantly being questioned.
As an adult, I’ve learned to really appreciate the work of Allen and Hughes, and was honored to shake Leonard Allen’s hand at Pepperdine a few days ago.
I’m also with Lantz – I too believe our best years are ahead of us. I believe God will use us mightily in this world, and millions upon millions will find rest in Jesus because of God’s work through us.
I’m just along for the ride!
20 years ago I was two years into a questioning process that has only picked up steam over the past two decades. I was moving from being a party line C of C guy to being a guy seeking to follow Jesus. It was (and at times remains) a painful but necessary distinction to make.
One of the most challenging things to do is to deconstruct the Church of Christ without destroying it. Ironically, it is the very restoration spirit that would necessitate such a deconstruction. I believe the past 20 years have been a movement in that direction.
Can we keep on moving?
(IMHO) The Deformation Movement of ’89 resulted in the shift of focus from winning souls to winning minds.
Troy,
How is that any different from the 50s and 60s of trying to win people from denominations to the Church of Christ? Wasn’t that about getting people to change their doctrine and in the end, win their mind? It would not have been hard to find lots and lots of churches prior to 89 that were more about winning minds than souls. When membership standards are more about what someone believes than how they are actually living that is one good indicator. I am not saying it is either or. I think it is more a both and. Jesus came to save whole people and that includes soul and mind, right?
Matthew 22:37 – “Jesus said, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”
I was still in Mexico City in 1989 and had not even heard of Rubel, Landon, Mike, Jeff, et al and was just beginning to get over the shock of reading one of Max’s first books. Imagine my strict cofc horror when I returned in 1992 to hear Billy Graham declared one of the greatest of gospel preachers – a declaration made from a CofC pulpit. Yipes!
It was Max that brought me into full relationship with Jesus . Oh, yeah,I knew all about Him….who He is, but really didn’t know Him, but after 2 years Max turned out to be a best of friends – he showed me the incredible love of Jesus, man and God and we became friends too. PTL!! \o/ However, there is now a great saddness in my heart when I see Max absent at CofC lectureships – yet we reach out and share pulpits with every flavor of Evangelicals, PTL!, but how I ache to see one of those who began to free us, now standing outside our fellowship,back in loving fellowship as well . I continue to pray for full healing for all of God’s family!
Matt,
The difference is that prior to the late 80′s, soul winning was still a part of our lexicon. These days, instead of reaching the lost with the Gospel, we tend to simply (arbitrarily) enlarge our circle and call it done.
I agree that both mind and soul are important. However, a converted soul far outweighs a converted mind. I think that there is a false sense of success among Bible churches and mega-churches whose growth is primarily due to winning the saved instead of the lost. If that was what was happening in the 50′s and 60′s, then why are those who despise that era so eager to replicate it?
Many of the “souls” that were “won” back in the day are no longer disciples. Why? IMHO because their hearts were never captured. When Christ captures your heart, the mind and soul have no choice but to follow. Our folks spent many a year teaching and preaching about the response to the Gospel, instead of preaching the Gospel.
DU
As one of-and on behalf of-the 24 that the elder in Arkansas was concerned over, we thank you, Mike. You blessed, shaped, and led all of us.
As Lynn, Fajita, and so many others have confirmed, we walked away from Searcy understanding that Jesus was central. That freeing message continues to stretch us and bear fruit today. Thank you, again
I agree with some of the latter comments. I’m 29 and should be completely sold on the whole emergent/postmodern fluff (which some say is really just renewed neoliberalism). But I’m not sold. My issue with it is that it seems today, “living like Jesus” is all that is required. Believing in Him, who He is and His exclusive claims? Not so much. Core doctrine? Nah. Just live like Jesus. It is a very pluralistic message. Moralistic deism. Theologically and spiritually weak.
If one is truly born again, they will act accordingly in belief AND in action. We don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Certainly church culture (in a lot of places) needs to change – no doubt. But let us continue to preach the Gospel and the central application of substitutionary atonement – let the Spirit gather the flock – and let regeneration happen. The saints will persevere and this will be evident in their actions.
Why do we like either or pendulum swings? Jesus called whole people to himself or at least called broken people to bring all their pieces to God to let God put them back together whole. As far as I can tell those parts include the heart, the soul, the mind, the body, and even those excluded by cultural prejudice. Why does it have to be either heart or mind or soul? If we call people the same way Jesus did, it seems like we call all of that person to follow Jesus and not just part of them. We do people a disservice if we call their minds to believe the right thing but not worry if they love God in their heart. We also do people a disservice if we teach them that all they need is happy go lucky warm fuzzies inside but not worry about doctrine or the truth. I just don’t get the either/or’s.
Sorry if I am taking this off track from the original topic. It was a great post without taking it all these directions.
If the emergent conversation is not the restoration plea reincarnated in a postmodern matrix, I don’t know what is. If the “emergent” rhetoric runs crossways with people, that is fine, it’s imperfect language.
What emergent means is new and tender growth, vulnerable, but determined. Within Churches of Christ, new and tender growth continues to happen.
I guess I’m just getting weary of the constant heart-wrenching contemplation over our own personal journey. If the Holy Spirit is within you, you don’t have to live in a continuous quest for enlightenment and mountain top experiences. Just do what Jesus did to the best of your ability.
Mike…
You hit the nail on the head in terms of the year 1989….I know it does not get as much attention as 1906 and some other dates. However, as a non-minister laymen dude who was a Jr. in undergrad at the time…all those books rocked my world. It was before I knew what deconstruction was….it was my intro to ahistorical tendencies in multiple tribes….it was before many even question how modernity and corporate America had shaping influences on ecclesia. In other words- I was never the same after those books…I still remember the specific beach trips I read those
1989 was the year that the congregation I was a part of separated from the “mainline” church of christ and became the “international church of christ”….those freeing books were banned…now these writers and people like Cecil Hook helped lead me to freedom…oh, the choices we make and the mercy God extends…
Books written and messages delivered provided an exciting time for young preachers who began feeling the winds of change. Optimism abounded. Other prominent voices, besides those mentioned, began speaking about a new direction. “Just Give Me Jesus!” was becoming the mantra. Many Church of Christ folks began opening their minds like never before to the possibilities that grace had broader ramifications. A year or two later, Rick Atchley gave a great message from the book of Mark that also called us to broaden our perspectives of fellowship. Many church leaders caught on to the spirit of the times and exciting things began happenning. Sadly, there were also elders who began drawing lines in the sand. As a result, many voices were silenced, others changed fellowships, churches split, and some just dropped out. Many preachers went through the graceless grinder of power and control.
At least there has been an oasis here and there like Pepperdine for those who have remained in ministry in and among the Church of Christ.
Troy,
I would hesitate to call it “reaching the lost with the gospel” when such evangelism menat winning people, many of whom were already Christians, from their doctrinal position to our doctrinal position. Such efforts might be a form of evangelism but certainly not gospel evangelism. Whatever the case, we are not an evangelistic movement nowdays because the beliefs and values that fueled our “doctrinal evangelism” no longer exist and that is a good thing. Secterianism – the view that held the Churches of Christ were the sum total of the body of Christ – is an egregious sin because it reduces the body of Christ and the gospel to a very small fragment of group within the history of God’s people.
What we need now is to learn how to do Gospel evangelism – a movement that is undergirded by a gospel worldview that sees the world and its people as broken and in need of God’s kingdom breaking into their life. And I believe God is raising up leaders in our movement who have this passion and that will translate into our movement getting budy with the Lord’s business – Kingdom business. But ultimately it is not about our movement but about God’s movement, always has been and always will be. We just need to recognize the working of God in this world and join in that work.
Grace and peace,
Rex
In 89 sat down with Preacher Mike for some premarital counseling. Don’t remember much that he said, except he smiled alot. Oh, and said there would be times when a husband would just as soon mow the lawn as, well, you know. We didn’t believe him. Anyhoo, sure did appreciate the preaching for FOUR years AND Peak of the Week. No surprise that when we moved to Nashville, Ashwood seemed like the right fit. Went to the first Jubilee, loved it, wondered what the controversy was about? Now, having family and friends at both ends of the CoC spectrum, I suspect that at the heart of the matter is fear. And in the case of my mother, fear that her grandchildren will not know what is in the Book, and as a result, will not really KNOW the Creator and their Savior. And I can’t blame her for this concern. Read the Bible, straight up. The Spirit will guide you.
Thanks for your you views K.Rex.
I am not advocating a return to the 50′s, but it’s certainly not my place(or yours) to apologize for it or condemn it either. It seems like the only acceptable form of stereotyping and profiling is that which is directed toward members of the churches of Christ of the 1950′s. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for Ira and Effie, and there is no apology necessary. They were Godly people and faithful and tireless workers in His kingdom.
The problem I see, with what I call the Deformation Movement, is that the effort is more about destroying the church as we know it, instead of inspiring a body of believers that is truly Christ-centered. Maybe that’s why after twenty years your movement has made very little forward progress. Contrary to your prediction, I believe that a backlash is brewing. People have heard for years about community, social justice, personal journeys, “being stretched”, and other gobbledigook, without any real signs of progress.
Mike:
Looking back to 1989 and then to Rubel’s I Just Want to Be a Christian is indeed interesting. Remarkable that some I have talked with of late no longer believe the conclusion Rubel suggested: “One can read the Gospels and come to believe in Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God who died for his sins; he can read the book of Acts and learn how the earliest Christians were saved through their submission to Jesus in repentance and baptism….” (p. 59)
Quite a difference from the growing conclusion among a growing number of churches of Christs regarding immersion into Christ as cultural, optional, etc.
Now for close to 40 years I have heard us say , now that we have found grace. Ok , so now that we have found grace what now ? It seesms like there has been this constant criticism of the church. And what real evangelisitic growth have we seen ? All around the world there are those who are responding to the plea to let the scriptures guide us. T To beleive in and rejoice in the distinctive doctrines we have long cherished. And to not be ashamed . I baptized a young man today and taught him the gospel. The cross and Jesus raised. He has been attending our assemblies and has watched and listened to the old Jerusleum gospel , some teaching about the distinctive marks of the church, starting with our love for Jesus and each other and being like Him as well as hearing us sing , take the Supper each week , etc. Has not turned him off. Another young adult after a series of lessons wanted to be baptized. Said she had been sprinkled but now wanted to be immersed. Another young adult lady after hearing the gospel was baptized. She had attended a major denomination but loves the non denominational plea. The plea still works. There is no reason to back down. Instead of caving into the post modern excuses , just keep on preaching and teaching with a definative and distinctive message. There are many who are awaiting for that kind of message instead of one with no certainty. A message with scripture as the authority. Preach and teach the historical , the doctrinal , the moral and the practical teaching of the scriptures. Teach it all. Never dumb it down. People will understand if we speak the truth in love.
Ray,
I appreciate what you wrote; I have similar experiences. The Emerging Church movement is urging ‘simple spirituality’ in the face of numerous Protestant and Catholic high-church rituals. Ironically, many churches of Christ have been teaching and worshipping for decades in simple ways that capture the heart. But now, remarkably, some churches of Christ are ‘giving away’ the very things that people are longing for — but often do know how to find.
I wonder how Mike sees some of this.
I guess I have to wonder if Churches of Christ when they put out a new who are our members list and strike out those that don’t fall in lock step with what the conservative church believes are nixing out thousands that believe anything different on any issue?
Wow, wow, and wow! I wish that I had been exposed to this stuff when I was growing up in the church. I hope these kind of discussions continue to be sparked by thoughtful books, articles, lectures and congregations on the move. Thanks brother Mike for pointing those of us from younger generations to these insightful works that seem to have been articulating, way back then, ha, what many people my age have been feeling in recent years.