____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ December 21, 1997 ____________________________________________________ Denominationalizing the Church by Roy E. Cogdill In a campaign newsletter dated January 1966, there is abundant evidence of the fact that there is emerging from among churches of Christ a denomination known as ``The Church of Christ.'' A local church, Easton Road church of Christ, 984 Easton Road, Warrington, Pennsylvania, has become ambitious to do big things in the ``Greater Philadelphia Area'' and hence are amalgamating churches and funds to have a ``Campaign for Christ'' in Philadelphia in 1967. They have big plans and will put on a big show if some one will furnish enough money. From their newsletter we learn a number of things concerning their proposed arrangements for such a Campaign: 1. They have a Missionary Society Organization. ``The Easton Road Brethren joined by the members of the Advisory Board and Executive Committee certainly do appreciate the wide reception accorded the Greater Philadelphia Campaign for Christ.'' ``Philadelphia's Historic Convention Hall had previously been announced as the location for the Greater Philadelphia Campaign for Christ in August of 1967.'' ``However after much prayer and deliberation, brethren composing the Advisory Board and Executive Committee decided to look for another facility in which the Campaign could be held.'' We would like chapter and verse giving the authority for such a setup in the church of the Lord to anything. We do not expect the brethren to make any effort to give it. They would probably say they do not need authority for such an organization. They would say as they do in other matters -- "Jesus Christ commanded, `Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature'; and he did not tell us `how' to do it or `The New Testament is a book of principles and not patterns and we are at liberty to determine for ourselves how to apply these principles.'" Of course, all of these liberal brethren bent on denominationalizing the Lord's Church today that offer such a spineless defense of their efforts are "Johnnies-come-lately" in such pleas. The Christian Church denomination made all of them over a hundred years ago when they decided to become a denomination by building a ``Missionary Society.'' 2. They employ other Denominational machinery to promote their schemes. ``The Fidelity Advertising Company in Abilene has been selected to handle the advertising and publicity for the Greater Philadelphia Campaign. ``Mr. Paul Delaney, accounts supervisor for Fidelity, has visited in the Philadelphia area and has prepared an estimated budget for our advertising the Campaign.'' You are not surprised that these professionals advise the spending of $50,000 for the advertising alone in this Campaign. Concerning this we find the note: ``This certainly seems like a tremendous sum of money. This because we generally have been satisfied to advertise (?) our meetings with a small notice in a local paper and handing out a few mimeographed announcements.'' Well it certainly does seem like a tremendous sum -- but when you consider the fact that these brethren intend for someone else to pay for it and have hired a professional advertising organization to do the job -- probably on a percentage commission, we are not surprised at the size of it. But again: ``We are indebted to Brother Alan Bryan and to his Company, Campaign, Inc. (listed as paid $1,750.00) for helping to raise the funds. (Parenthesis mine, R.E.C.) Such men as Alan Bryan and James Walter Nichols have actually become money changers in the Lord's Temple, if indeed they are in it. They are making a business of running and promoting such unscriptural arrangements. Most of us who have been preaching the Gospel for any length of time have held a good many meetings, and some pretty good ones too; and none of them aggregated in all that was spent as much money as these brethren paid these professional money-raisers. But we have been operating in a small way with each congregation making its own arrangements and paying its own bills. If all this high-powered promoting is scriptural and right, the preachers and churches of other generations have been a bunch of ``suckers.'' 3. They have a Personal Workers Organization. A series of smaller campaigns in 1966 by congregations in the area is urged in order to build up and support the ``Big Campaign.'' ``The success or failure of the Greater Philadelphia Campaign for Christ, like every other similar effort, will be determined in large measure by the success or failure of the personal work program that supports the campaign proper.'' So congregations in the area are urged to hold local personal work campaigns this year -- not to teach and reach people with the truth this year, mind you, but to build up a big prospect list to respond in the big meeting next year. Congregations everywhere are urged to send personal workers; and if they won't do that, then send money to support personal workers from some other congregation -- professional teams of personal workers trained at such places as Harding College, of which the Owen Olbricht team is one. This team of 160 students picked at Harding spent the summer going from Campaign to Campaign and there are others. With the money contributed by others, and hired advertisers, money raisers, personal workers, coordinators, and a Church of Christ Billy Graham to make the speeches and put on the pressure and shed the tears, there will be big days in the old City of Brotherly Love come next summer. -- April 7, 1966 ___________________________________________ Pressure by Dee Bowman Pressure is everywhere. A certain amount of it is necessary for the proper function of the universe as well as society. It's all around us, actually. There's a certain amount of pressure in every conversation, a certain amount in every business deal, a certain amount in entertainment, the arts, a certain amount of it on the playground; it's just everywhere. Your car won't run without a certain amount of pressure at proper places. There are large amounts of it in some places. Take mass media for an example. Television has large portions of pressure in everything it does. It not only reflects our morality in this age, it shapes it as well. Newspaper ads, radio commercials, magazine advertising -- they're all filled with pressure. You can't escape pressure; it's part of life. There are pressures to buy. Pressures to conform. Pressures to change. Pressures to participate. Pressures to perform. There are subtle pressures, obvious pressures, elongated pressures. And without the right blood pressure you can be in serious trouble in just a matter of a few seconds. Some pressures are good. The gospel message has as one of its purposes to put pressure on people. It convicts with the word. For instance, ``faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God'' (Rom. 10:17). Faith is produced when someone comes under the pressure of evidence. John said, ``many other signs truly did Jesus in the midst of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe...'' (John 20:30-31). The evidence is strong enough to bring people to conviction. That's a fine pressure. There is good pressure in good influence. That's what pressure is all about. It's the continual action of a weight or force. Good, properly exerted as an influence, is a fine use of pressure. When morality works best is when its weight is brought to bear on the hearts of people so that they feel compelled to be good. Truth, properly used, will be pressed. ``Preach the word. Be instant (urgency is a kind of pressure) in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine'' (II Tim. 4:2). This preaching is motivational; it has as its design to storm the will in the strongest sort of way. It is to be done so that there is no doubt about it. This kind of urgency brings pressure to bear on the sinner. Personal pressure is important, too. Paul said, ''...forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forth to the things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus'' (Phil. 3:14). Paul said, ``I press.'' That's the place from which our English word pressure is derived. It's hard work, this business of going to Heaven. It takes putting a goodly amount of pressure on oneself. Without it you can't go. Nobody's going to coast to Heaven. We live in a pressure cooker society. We are being pressed on every side with temptations to absent ourselves from righteousness and join the crowd in their putrid lifestyle. Temptation is the pressure to do wrong. It is ``common to man'' (I Cor. 10:12), but the fact that it is common doesn't mean we should participate. We must not let the evil influences of the world dictate to us; we must be strong. ``Resist the devil (his pressures, his temptations) and he will flee from you'' (James 4:7). Some pressures are good; let's make sure we know what they are and allow them to have their good effect. But some pressures are bad; let's make sure we don't delude ourselves into thinking that we can give in ``just a little.'' To do so is to subject yourself to a pressure that may become so intense you can't turn back from its hold. -- Via Online Southside Reminder, October 18, 1995 ___________________________________________ The Pursuit of Happiness by Jere E. Frost "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'' are said to be inalienable rights of man. But ``the pursuit of happiness'' is not an unqualified, unmitigated right. If one's perception of happiness involves sin, he has no right to its pursuit. The pursuit of happiness, even as a proper concept of freedom, must be understood to be within the bounds of what is honorable. We have romanticized ``love'' and ``right to happiness'' in a measure and manner that it has wrought havoc to the family and precipitated adulteries and family breakups on a wholesale scale. Let me supply you with an actual case. Childhood sweethearts married. Their tender affection for one another was obvious. The circumstances of life favored them, and though not rich, they enjoyed financial stability and security. They were rewarded with two beautiful children, a boy and a girl, remarkably like them both. ``And they lived happily forever after'' was the outlook and prospect. It might have been except that the vow, ``till death do us part,'' and ``the pursuit of honor'' and the well-being of the family lost out to the selfishness of ``the pursuit of happiness.'' A tired mother is not always as attractive as in the bygone days of courtship, nor is she likely to match the glamour of a swinging single. ``The pursuit of happiness'' can warp values and engender such callused selfishness when it is enthroned as ``a right.'' ``The feeling is gone,'' he said, for he was enamored of another. What selfishness. Love for children, a recognition of their innocence, needs and dependence, couple with a love for right and a resolve to maintain integrity, should see one through sexual infatuations and supply the power to say, ``No! Subject closed!'' But neither his word of honor nor sacred vows could contradict and deny his ``pursuit of happiness.'' He turned his heart and back away, forsook his wife and abandoned his children. Selfishness supplanted honor and integrity: ``After all,'' he rationalized, ``you only live once, and life is too short to be miserable with someone you no longer love.'' That is revolting tripe! Such a ``pursuit of happiness'' will be rewarded with ultimate and utter misery and condemnation. ``The pursuit of what is right,'' and ``the pursuit of God-given responsibility'' are the proper perspectives. You want happiness? Then gird up your loins (tighten your belt), face life and responsibility, and love and do what is right. -- Via The Bulletin of the North Courtenay church of Christ, December 14, 1997 ___________________________________________ NEWS & NOTES I enjoyed preaching last week for the Woodland Hills church of Christ in Franklin, Tennessee, about 15 miles south of Nashville; and I was also glad to stay with Bill Carter and his family, while there. They were very friendly and hospitable toward me. From what I've heard, Rick Fleeman did an excellent job preaching in my stead last Sunday. We are thankful for his volunteer service in preaching and teaching God's word. Rick has often filled-in for me over the years. He also preaches one or two Sundays a month up in Pomeroy, Ohio, on a regular basis. And though Rick is temporarily back at Ashland Oil, let us continue praying that he will land a more permanent secular job without having to move out of the area. (He was one who had lost his previous job there, due to Ashland Oil merging with another company.) Ron Music and Susie Lykins' husband Darrell also work for Ashland Oil. Let us be praying for them, too. We'd hate to see any of these fine people have to move away due to work. Also for our prayer-list: Greg Frazier will be having surgery for a benign tumor of the brain. The operation is scheduled for February, but I would imagine Greg might become a little stressful at times waiting for this and can use our prayers. Write today for one of our free Bible correspondence courses. We would be happy to enroll you for this. ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 713 13th Street, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________