W. R. HIBBURT is a graduate of the Federal College of the Bible. Not only has he held responsible ministries in the Dominion of New Zealand, Western Australia and Victoria but had considerable experience as State Organising Secretary in Western Australia, and as Youth Director in New Zealand and Victoria. For three and a half years, he served as interim Manager of the Austral Printing and Publishing Company. Service at these nerve centres of the Brotherhood gained for him insights on trends in the life of the Brotherhood.

      Being a survey of the life-time experiences and reactions of one identified with a people in Australia and New Zealand striving for Christian Unity through the Restoration of New Testament Christianity. By the Question and Answer Technique.

What Are the Facts Accounting for Your Association with Churches?

      I was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1888. When old enough to think for myself. I discovered that I had been projected into a religious situation in which I became an observer and a participant. Unbeknown at the time, I was favoured in my youth to be a member of a God-fearing society. Later I was to learn somewhat of the experiences that had produced stalwarts of faith in God and loyalty to His Word. My grand-parents migrated to New Zealand with a group, of Non-conformists from England. They arrived in Auckland in the year 1862 in a crowded sailing vessel. The slow movement of sailing vessels allowed extended opportunity for fellowship and interchange of thought on Christian truths. It was in this interchange of thought that my grand-parents learned of a Movement to unite all Christians by restoring New Testament Christianity. As Non-conformists unimpressed by the ecclesiastical framework of the Church, they were susceptible to the endorsement of principles enunciated by fellow shipmates who had already resolved "to take the Bible alone as the only sure guide to Heaven."

      In still more serious interchange of thought, they learnt of Thomas Campbell's epoch-making Declaration and Address of 1809: "Divisions among Christians is a horrid evil fraught with many evils." When they established their homes in the land of their adoption, they were ready to pattern their church life on the twelfth article of Campbell's Declaration and Address: "All that is needed for the purity and perfection of the church is that it receive those, and only those, who profess faith in Christ and obey him according to the Scriptures; that ministers teach only what is expressly revealed; and that all divine Ordinances be observed after the manner of the primitive church, exhibited in the New Testament." My years placed me in a unique position to observe the results of such a simplification of unity efforts. They made no pretence of being theologically-minded but in fact, they were very much so because the constant searching of the Scriptures gave strong roots to their beliefs.

Have You Discerned Features Carrying Over from Pioneering Days into the Present?

      Yes, many. Three are selected for mention.

      1. The supply of men and women of gracious spirit and spiritual stature has not lessened.

      2. The tide of Christian fellowship runs strong. The gift of fellowship seems to characterise us as a people. When the church came into action in the Book of Acts, it was certainly a society of friends. This friendship-fellowship concept was translated into practicalities by our pioneers. I found it a continuing element in my associations with congregations in all Australian States and the Dominion of New Zealand. It has been our strongest medium of evangelism and maintaining healthy congregational life.

      3. A Biblical approach to Christian Unity.

Are We An Ongoing Movement?

      The impressions of a lifetime trigger off exhilarations of steady growth. The one Golden Text leaflet for all ages, handed to me as an infant, is indicative of extensive ongoing when compared with the well tailored literature of today, meeting the needs of all ages. The setting up of the Lord's Table by isolated members has accounted for much ongoing. Personal initiative of individuals, later fashioned into congregational and conference action, appears to have been a modus operandi. There has been a mobile strategy at work in the life of the Brotherhood. In my boyhood there was no Overseas Missionary activity but today's mission fields in Southern Rhodesia, India, New Hebrides and New Guinea are expanding in such ways that will not permit us to be a stationary people. The ongoing story when fully told is a rebuke to those who conjure fears that we are a static movement. Into the story comes the establishment of three theological colleges, much functional social work, virile departments of Christian Education. To this must be added the thrusting forward of Home Missions and Evangelistic committees. The developmental ongoing of our work is strikingly registered in the work women do. It was once a minor factor, now a major one.

Have You Observed Other Heartening Trends?

      Many, but priority is given to the following:--

      1. Young men, by business training and qualifications, are bringing into the life of the Brotherhood greater organisational efficiency.

      2. An overdue improvement in architecture is providing more worshipful buildings and more of functional utility.

      3. A rising tide in worship values. There is a flexibility about us in worship, so flexible that some congregations have yielded to those who introduce boisterous hymns without theological content. When our present hymn book replaced the old one, I was itinerating amongst the churches in New Zealand and was amazed at how this one thing alone released worship values to many congregations. Wise leaders will use this flexibility to introduce techniques which give depth to worship and rise naturally from worshippers. There is a totality about worship. The congregation in which I hold present membership has been trained to assemble at 10.50 a.m. and the President and helpers are in their places at that time. Until 11 a.m. meditation and music prepare the congregation for the worship service. The liturgical movement which is in evidence today throughout Christendom is not sponsored by formalists or legalists but rather by those who feel that Jesus must be worshipped in spirit and truth. The emphasis is shifting from the sermon to the order of worship. Our morning service has always respected this emphasis. Any liturgical leanings will be feared by our people if they give the impression of formalism and ritualism.

      4. A re-discovery of the values in the mutual ministry and an earnest desire to make it effective by training.

      5. A realisation that youth constitutes the growing edge of the Brotherhood. There is a ministering to youth in all areas of life in patterns of youth work--Club, camps, encounters and studies which make religion relevant to emerging manhood and womanhood.

      6. Grave deficiencies have appeared in our evangelising methods and concepts. Tent missions and "revivalist" type of meetings have so coloured our thinking that many conclude we are not preaching "the gospel" unless presented in this way. My hope for wiser procedures is with a concerned core endeavouring to set in motion more excellent and more intensive educational ways.

      7. Apparently there is something in our church life and congregational

practices which equips and thrusts men and women into the wider ministries--secretaries of Bible and Missionary Societies, Social Reform organisations and various Chaplaincies. In recent months two young women have gone overseas to serve on Ecumenical frontiers in Geneva and Calcutta.

Are There Deficiencies Which Concern You?

      Yes, the years have taught that we have no monopoly of saints and sound judgment. The concepts of many are too small. The Restoration Movement of New Testament Christianity involves principles. Rules and regulations are made for little people. As a boy, I was dumbfounded to see an elder of the church collect the members of his family and walk out of the gospel service because the piano was used to accompany a soloist. That was his method of solving the question of instrumental music. Instrumental music, individual cups, begging from the world, gave little people a scope to assert their loyalty to the Scriptures without any regard to the principles involved. In my teens I was disturbed when my Sunday School teacher, for whom I had a high regard, left to give his loyalties to a congregation whose centre of gravity was around the belief of conditional immortality.

      The years have taught me that the Word of God is not bound and is able to care for itself. Off-centre groups become eddies. Time has revealed that many defenders of the faith have been defending a private view of truth, and saviours of the Brotherhood busy in saving a cherished way of looking at truth.

      When we break fellowship with one another, we break fellowship with God. Observation has made me suspect that temperament and not loyalty to truth accounts for many clashes of fellowship. Time has proved that many dissensions are basically psychological rather than theological.

      The democratic spirit which prevails in the Brotherhood allows for free play of personality. The ongoing of the Movement owes much to the creative investment of personality but I have observed some coveting personality-power by gathering like-minded people about themselves and asserting a point of view without due regard to the considered mind and policy of the Brotherhood determined by conference based on democratic procedure. A present day attitude of imparting "suspect" into the minds of others when a brother holds different opinions had no counterpart in earlier years. New dimensions of truth occasion new idioms of speech, and make one liable to be suspected by those who find security in traditional phraseology.

      We are a very generous brotherhood in many respects, not the least being a readiness on the part of some congregations to accept earnest men into the ministry. This generosity has been used by some to unwittingly deflect congregations from the plea of Churches of Christ.

What Are Your Impressions of Preachers "Ancient" and "Modern"?

      Our preachers of a generation ago were a "tough lot." They could "take it" because they had to "take it." If they returned today, they would consider themselves luxury preachers serving a Brotherhood enlightened in its treatment of preachers by augmented salaries, Preacher Fund allowances, push bikes translated into motor cars, house hunting remedied by available manses. The preachers of this generation are well known to me because of contacts through Executive and organising responsibilities. Whatever doubts some may have concerning them, they have no reason to doubt their acceptance of Jesus as Saviour, Lord and Master. In intimate devotional associations, they have left me with the impression that run as fast as they can, they are unable to catch

up with Jesus. In common with the rest of humanity, they have the "too human" affliction. Some stop growing, some wear well, some wear out, some try to carry the Brotherhood, while others expect the Brotherhood to carry them. Some are cramped in style because of cramping congregations, while others are extended beyond their native ability because of a wise congregation investing their spiritual resources in and through them. One of the strange things about some preachers is the extent to which they deny themselves of brother preachers' fellowship by isolation habits.

      Our preachers have proved themselves down the years as nonconformists--in clerical attire, parsonic inflations and mannerisms, endeavouring in all ways to manifest a naturalness they considered consistent with the example of the Master. They have been nonconformists in social habits (smoking, the social glass) not expedient for a minister of the gospel. I have always considered that in these regards they were forerunners in making religion relevant to normal life.

What Trends Do You Wish to Accelerate to Shape the Future?

      Three things are worthy of studied attention:--

      1. We must never tire of asserting and practising that Christian Unity is our business. We are dependent on young men and women to appreciate the application of our unity plea in the contemporary situation. Older men see it in the setting and circumstances which have changed. Many dividing fences have been lowered. Unity is the work of young men. Older men follow their fears, younger men their hopes. The time has come for all to be venturesome. Surely our New Zealand brethren have been so in sitting around conference tables, coming to grips with differences and agreements, and endeavouring to discern a basis of unity with their Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational brethren. The boldest move made within the life of the Australian Brotherhood within recent years was the publication by E. L. Williams of his treatise on "The Biblical Approach to Unity." Is it too much of a wild dream to elevate the Provocative Pamphlet into a Federal monthly Unity Journal, majoring in articles at the deeper unity levels and publishing standards, commending it to readers outside our Brotherhood?

      2. As a starting point for a mop-, intensive unity campaign, I would like to trigger off a DAY OF REPENTANCE (or better still, a week) throughout the entire Brotherhood. Without it any acceleration will short circuit. Surely we are overdue in seeking God's forgiveness in regard to:--

      (a) The spirit of division which is evident in the people who came condemning division amongst God's people.

      (b) The sin of measuring ourselves by ourselves.

      (c) The slowness of heart to reach out and grasp the hand seeking fellowship when "everyone" is talking about disunity and desiring unity.

      (d) The negative enthusiasms which have used up our energies.

      (e) The failure to formulate and create constructive ways to advance the cause of unity.

      (f) The limited appreciation of the work of fellow Christians working for unity at local, national and world levels.

      (g) The over concentration on our unity image of people thinking and doing as we do.

      3. Unity advances through Worship. There have been static periods in advancing toward unity goals because of doctrinal barriers. Respect for others' doctrinal views is charitable, to act otherwise converts one into a dogmatist. Doctrinal unity is an ideal to be pursued and grown into. This being

so, Churches of Christ should search for ways to hasten that goal. There are two mediums available, and two ways for which we have a measure of efficiency--FELLOWSHIP and WORSHIP. There is a faculty of fellowship which is fairly consistent and evenly distributed throughout the Brotherhood. We are not over drugged with traditional prestige or superiority. In any given situation we are anxious that the Spirit of Christ should prevail. This being so, it is easy for us to fraternise with members of other communions. This should make it possible for us to engage in worship with other Christians. Christians who worship together are on the way to a fulness of unity in Christ. If worship is to be used as a serious technique toward unity, it requires studied attention. There are five possible approaches: the emotional, the ethical, the spiritual, the doctrinal and the devotional.

      The doctrinal cannot be ignored in any approach to unity: intellectual barriers cannot be brushed aside. Essential doctrines and differences will be much more easily recognised by people who have worshipped together. After all, the practical meaning and value which unity has for the local congregation is in unity of worship and fellowship. Worship keeps Christ in the centre.

      The worship approach to unity is not something new, it is already in motion. In many centres, Ministers' Fraternals plan united services at Christmas, New Year and Easter. One of the reasons for changing some State Conferences to other than the Easter season was to permit members to participate and witness in combined Easter services. During the negotiating period of Churches of Christ in New Zealand on the proposed basis of union with the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational communions, there was planning between local congregations in social fellowship and combined worship overseas. The consensus of opinion is that this alone has brought the day of ultimate union nearer.

      Unity enthusiasts should never despise minimum results. The maximum awaits clearer vision and response.