That They All May Be One

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     As the months passed, the little congregation of saints continued to grow in grace and knowledge. The meetings on Lord's Day were stimulating and inspirational. Each brother seemed to be constantly on the alert for material with which to edify the others, and when the presiding brother announced that the time had come for those who desired to speak to the edification of the body, there was no dearth of willing volunteers. Bach seemed to take to heart the apostolic admonition, to seek to excel in this department of service.

     The season of prayer was always filled with petitions voiced to the Father in behalf of the sick, the distressed and wayward. Often the eyes of the saints were filled with tears as their sympathetic hearts were touched with the fervent appeals. There was an ever increasing consciousness of the inward abiding of the Holy Spirit, and spiritual strength was im-

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parted because of this. The saints were walking with God and the influence of the divine companionship was daily more evident in the peace and tranquillity which were promoted.

     It became evident to the evangelist that he should prepare them for the time when they could stand alone, mature and capable. He sought to achieve this by increasing his efforts at development of those who could become capable bishops, as well as by counselling the congregation concerning the day when they must assume their increased responsibilities. He asked them to point out deficiencies which had not yet been corrected, and told them it was his duty to make such adjustments in their congregational life before bishops were appointed.

     A young married woman said that several of the sisters of her age had talked to each other, and had expressed a need for teaching relative to the duties devolving upon them as Christian wives and mothers. The evangelist told her that he sympathized with their needs and had already taken steps to correct the lack in that field. An older sister, a home economics teacher in a nearby town, and a member of a sister congregation, had consented to come and meet with the younger wives and mothers, once per month, and to give them the benefit of her training as well as of her Biblical knowledge. The evangelist suggested that these meetings be held in the homes, so that they could be kept on an informal basis.

     He again impressed upon the congregation that the work of an evangelist with any group of saints was intended to be temporary, and was ordained only to correct problems, establish orderly procedure, and train the members of the body until the appointment of bishops. The ultimate goal of the congregation is to function independently in every phase of spiritual activity. The evangelist who proclaims the gospel in an area begets those who accept the glad tidings, and sustains the relationship of a father to them. The apostle who took the message to Corinth, wrote: "I am not writing this to shame you, but I am offering you advice as my dearly-loved children. For even if you were to have ten thousand instructors -- for all that you could not have several fathers: it is I who in Christ Jesus became your father through the Good News."

     For that reason he wrote to the Thessalonians: "You know that we acted towards every one of you as a father does toward his own children, encouraging and cheering you, and imploring you to live lives worthy of fellowship with God, who is inviting you to share his own kingship and glory." For that same reason he calls Timothy "My own true son in the faith" and says of him, "Like a child working with his father, he served with me in the furtherance of the Good News." The evangelist said that the real task of every parent was to work himself out of a job. He must train and develop his children until they can carry on in life without the constant supervision of the parent. If he does all the work for the children and never allows them to share in the responsibility, if he pampers and spoils them by always spoon-feeding them, and never teaching them to eat by themselves, he will make them neurotic, unstable and helpless. Children must be reared with such a degree of emotional strength that they will look upon the time when they can cut loose from the parent, as a natural part of life itself. If they are so insecure that a foster parent has to be appointed to continue to rear them when the one who begot them is gone, they reveal their own immaturity.

     The evangelist pointed out that a foster father is one who performs the duties of

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a parent to the child of another. If the evangelist who begets a congregation is their father in Christ, then another evangelist who is later brought on the scene to do the same task is a foster father. He remarked that some congregations which had existed for fifty years were still under foster fathers, and the children were contributing to support the father in that role. He quoted the words of Paul, "I desire not your money, but yourselves; for children ought not to put by for their parents, but the parents for the children." The modern "located evangelist" system is one of foster fathers. A line of prospective fathers is paraded by an orphaned group, who listen at them demonstrate their wares, and then select a candidate upon the basis of a tryout sermon.

     The evangelist showed that this ridiculous procedure was not only without a shred of scriptural authority, but could never produce the system which God had authorized, a system which was designed for the real development of every one of His children. He urged those who could do so to qualify themselves for leadership, and he exhorted the brethren to observe the lives of such, to encourage and strengthen them for the day when they must shoulder the grave responsibility of bishops in the congregation.

     He proposed that he would give the brethren a thorough course of instruction in the qualifications and functions of bishops, and in the responsibility of the congregation toward them. He encouraged them to question every step of the discussions so that they would become wholly convinced of the truths to be taught. Children grow into mature thinkers by amassing informative data from which to reason; such data is accumulated by asking questions. God's children should grow by the same method.

     The evangelist told them that in the primitive congregations there were bishops to oversee, and deacons to administer unto the needy, and the saints functioning in conjunction with these, constituted a body lacking in none of its parts. He urged them to look forward to that date when they could cut themselves loose from the one who planted them, and exhibit a state of affairs where all of the worship of the Lord was carried on as a regular procedure and without spasmodic periods of revival. The congregation was asked to study as a prelude to the instruction, three chapters: Acts 20, 1 Timothy 3, and Titus 1. This they all agreed to do.