Letter to Christians

By L. E. Carl Ketcherside

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     Dear Brethren: As it is raining here this morning, and not a good day for personal work, I will take a few minutes to write you a short letter. Winter in this area has not been too severe. There were only a few days that I could not work to advantage on the outside. But winter is about over again, and the spring rains will soon be coming down, and the grass coming up; shivers will give way to perspiration and sweaters to sport shirts, and so goes the very interesting, changing seasons. This is a pretty tough area for my kind of work. It is hard to find people that will consider a scriptural interview. I first try one plan and then another. Just now, I am buying (?) used books. At the end of ten days I have not bought a single book. However, I have had more interesting talks during those ten days than I have had during the past sixty days.

     The knowledge I am gaining from this experience is interesting, enlightening and saddening. I have discovered that eight homes out of ten that have Bibles just regard them as "gifts" too precious to use. Seven homes out of ten do not have any kind of religious books whatsoever. Last week I called on a home where the entire family attends services each Lord's day morning. I discovered they owned 37 books of fiction, had read them all, but had "mislaid" their Bible several months before. Fortunately, we recovered that Bible from the bottom of that box of fiction. But you say, "The church of Christ folks are never so unconcerned about matters of such grave importance." Don't be too sure about that! I have been in the homes of several of my brethren who have only "well preserved Bibles," magazines and fiction.

     Perhaps I am growing old and childish, but I have come to the conclusion that congregations have taken upon themselves too much responsibility in trying to provide, through class teaching, just about all of the religious teaching and training the majority of children get. That is a very grave responsibility Christian parents should assume, and they should be taught the absolute necessity of assuming it. I am not decrying class teaching, but you know as well as I, that the only religious teaching and training the vast majority of all children are getting today is obtained through the Lord's day morning classes. Personal observations have led me to conclude that fully 90% of all homes do not have a study program for their children.

     It is my conviction that every member of the congregation can, and should do something to advance the cause of our Lord if they are shown what to do and how to do it. With the cooperation of Bros. Faenger and Watts, our congregation has decided to put this theory to a thorough test in the Farmington area. Our plan is to prepare a mimeographed message for distribution each week, if possible. Each member will be responsible for distributing, either in person or by mail, the number of copies they choose. These messages will be mailed to the same address for a stated number of months. During the first six months we plan to confine our efforts to one-half of the city, and then change to the other half for the next six months.

     In the areas where the messages will be mailed, I plan to first visit each home in the area, explain our plan, ask for permission to send them our message free of charge, and obtain their promise to read it. I have been wanting to try this method of evangelizing out for a long time. It now appears that my dreams are about to come true. A report on results will have to wait. In the meantime, will you breathe a prayer for the success of it--providing you do not think the idea too ridiculous? Perhaps this plan could be made to work in your community. I believe it will produce more favorable re-

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sults than the present practice of moaning and complaining about "the way things are going." I dare you to try it out.