Letters to the Editor

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     It occurred to me that you might like to look over my shoulder and read some of the questions contained in letters I receive. A lot of good folk are concerned about what is transpiring in our day. Some of them are worried. And their letters exhibit their feelings. Without identifying the writers here are a few random questions and my reply to them.

     1. How can you justify the fact that you seem to preach for the Christian Church as much as you do for the Church of Christ?

     You are mistaken. I do not preach for either one. I share my feeble knowledge of God's revelation wherever I am invited to do so and welcome the opportunity. But I am not a front man for any partisan group on earth. God does not recognize any of our parties as the church of which his Son is the head. There is only one body and all the saved on earth, without exception, are members of it.

     There is no such thing as "the Christian Church" or "the Church of Christ" in God's sight. Neither is there in my sight. I no longer regard our walls and fences as being valid. I ignore them and go among all the brethren. I have made a promise to the Father that I will go wherever a door is opened up unto me of the Spirit, and will lovingly teach all who will listen. I intend to keep that promise as long as I live. I am speaking for Jesus, but speaking to men.

     2. How can you help people see the light if you fellowship them in things that are wrong?

     You have a wrong slant on fellowship. I do not fellowship people or things, but I am in the fellowship with all who are in Christ. Fellowship is a state of sharing, into which we are introduced by responding to God's call. If a man is in Christ I am in Christ with him and we are in the fellowship. He will think and do things which I cannot condone or endorse. But we are not in the fellowship because we are perfect in life or understanding but because we are in Christ.

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All of us are ignorant about many things and the fellowship is the sharing of a common life by finite beings who are often mistaken.

     To be in the fellowship does not mean that we excuse, condone or endorse anything we believe to be wrong. It means we recognize the relationship we sustain in Jesus as of greater importance than our opinions, and that by working together as a unit we can help one another to greater knowledge and service. The Holy Spirit placed all of us in one body. Our task is to guard the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We face up to our differences, not as aliens or enemies, and not as tribal spokesmen in rivalry, but as brothers in one Lord. That way we can help one another see the light on many things.

     3. Isn't all this talk about unity in diversity a real come-off? Is that unity at all?

     Certainly it is unity and the only kind there will ever be among thinking men who are not puppets or pawns for sectarian editors. It is silly to talk about any other kind of unity as if it were possible, or even desirable. God did not make us like a row of gingerbread men stamped out by a divine cookie cutter. Our mental capacities are as divergent as our facial features. We can no more all think alike than we can all look alike.

     We will never agree upon everything, nor do we need to do so to be one. The primitive saints had many varied views but were one body in Christ. Our unity is not achieved by us but is supplied by God. It is the fact that we are all indwelt by the same Spirit which makes us one. The members of the spiritual body are like those of the physical body. Each has a different role or function. It is not performing identical services but working in unison which makes a unit of the one body into which we are gathered.

     The only unity there is in any group composed of human beings is that of diversity. Every family which works together has unity in diversity. The children do not always agree with their parents but they love one another more than they love their diverse opinions. We are the United States but each state of the union is diverse from all the others. Religious politicians ought to quit trying to "con" brethren into thinking they can have unity based on conformity. There is no such thing among fallible men! If there was it would stifle all further growth and development. Unity in diversity is God's plan for mankind!

     4. What can I do to encourage the unity of the believers of which you speak?

     The first thing you can do, and it is very important and extremely vital, is to begin to visit meetings of brethren outside the segment with which you are affiliated. All sharing begins with association. As long as all of us are locked up in our tight little compartments, we will only strengthen our own factional spirit. Break out of the sectarian barriers. Be loyal to Jesus and not to a party. If you cannot go to other meetings on Sunday morning, make a point of doing so on Sunday nights, or at other times.

     Be friendly and cordial when you go. Don't rush for the door as soon as the benediction is finished. Become acquainted with those who attend there. If you want to help God's ultimate program be an ambassador of peace. I go to all kinds of places, including little "storefront churches" and I simply make myself available for God to use as He wills. I am thoroughly convinced that He will open up great doors and effectual if I am willing. I think you should resolve to visit at least twelve other groups in the coming year, and more than that if you can.

     5. I am a Junior in high school and I wanted to start a rap session one night per week, but the elders will not allow us to have it at the church. What should I do?

     Have it somewhere else! A meetinghouse is probably one of the worst places to have it anyway, because those who

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come feel uptight and not really free to participate. There's nothing wrong about naving it there. Where we attend, the kids are well into their second year of such a weekly gathering. But if it is off limits to you, have it in a home. Someone will let you have it in the living-room of their house or apartment. If you conduct it in reverence and godly fear, and outgrow the facilities, God will open up a place for you. He always does!

     I'd like to suggest, if the authorities permit, that you start a prayer and rap session at school once per week. Hold it in the morning before school starts. It will almost certainly grow in interest. I was at one school lately where four kids met for prayer for more than a month before it began to grow. The morning I was there more than a hundred were present at seven o'clock in the morning. In another place, the kids who are for Jesus bring a sack lunch and eat and pray together every day at noon. I was with them two days to answer questions. All kinds of kids dropped into the laboratory where they meet.

     In another school the Bible Club was listed as a definite social activity project, which made it possible for them to meet once per month in the library. The day I spoke to them there were 225 present out of a total enrollment of less than a thousand. These young people had changed the moral climate of the whole school. I am anxious to hear from young people in high school who are on fire for Jesus and doing something to bring a witness where they attend. If you have something going write and let me know. I'll use your letter to encourage others who would like to get going but have been stymied so far.

     6. I live in an apartment complex and I am alone every day until my husband returns from his office in the evening. Is there anything I might do to help with the work of Christ?

     Indeed there is! God has raised you up for such a time as this. He has planted you in that apartment as his minister of reconciliation. First, start praying that God will take you and use you for his purpose. Make yourself like putty in his hands, non-resistant and ready to be fashioned by his will. Then start thanking him for placing you there as his divine agent, for that is what you must really become.

     Invite some of the neighbor women over to a mid-morning coffee "klatch," and tell them you'd like to start a weekly Bible study, and you need their help. Explain that you would like to begin the next week with the epistle of James because it is so practical. Ask those who will promise to come to read the first chapter in advance. Urge them to invite their friends to come with them. Do not be disappointed if only three or four come the first time. Thank God for those who are there and do not moan about those who are not. It will grow!

     I know a sister in the Lord who moved into a new neighborhood and started a study in her home. It is now attended by women of all religious backgrounds, and the discussions are lively and informative. I went one day, by invitation, to answer some knotty problems which had arisen. We ended up staying about three hours conversing about the word of God. I know another sister who secured a room in the local YWCA building for a Bible study one morning each week. She advertised it in the neighborhood newspaper, and it is now attended by more than forty women. I spoke to them once when in the area and found them alive and vibrant, anxious to talk about the Book. God has a work for all of us but we must be willing to do it.

     There has never been an era more conducive to small group study than the present. The lonely crowd is looking and longing for a chance to relate. The individual Christian has an opportunity to serve now like never before in history. Of course, he must love men's souls, and be willing to start with them where they are and as they are! Life styles are not imposed. They are imitated. If we want to change people we must give them an example to follow.

     When Benjamin Franklin decided to do something about the dark cobble-

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stone streets in Philadelphia, over which people stumbled after dark, he did not start writing articles of protest in the paper, nor convene the citizens to appoint a committee to make recommendations. Instead he placed a long bracket above his front door, and hung a lantern from it. Each day he polished the globe and each evening lighted the wick. People walking the streets after night trod safely in the circle of light in front of the Franklin house. Soon others began to put up lanterns and before long the streets were well lighted.

     I wish a lot of the brethren who promised, before they retired on social security, that they were going to work for the Lord, would get with it. Some of them have done nothing except walk around with a fishing rod or a golf club in their hands, complaining about inflation and the deflation of the dollar. Forget it, and start a Bible study in your home for the rest of the retired people who are just as bored as you are. Sharing your knowledge with others is better than arguing with your wife about which shirt to put on when you eat out!

     7. Are the efforts being made to encourage recognition of fellowship making any real progress that you can see?

     Indeed they are! Great gains are being made all over this land. Proof of this is found in the frantic efforts of the defenders of partisan orthodoxy to turn the minds of the saints back to parochial legalism. The most stringent factions admit they are losing brilliant young preachers and even some older brethren, who are no longer satisfied with the sectarian stance they have been taught.

     Hundreds of brethren are re-thinking their position in the light of advancing knowledge and more profound scriptural insights. Factional leaders are in for a difficult time as men throw off the mental shackles and reject the brainwashing tactics which enslaved so many and made increasing strife and division a foregone conclusion. In many cases it is possible for brethren from divergent groups to meet in love and tolerance and listen to each other in spite of their variant views.

     Debates between brethren have lost their appeal and few are being held today. No one seems more out of place than the swaggering arrogant challenger who parades around trying to drum up a public wrangle. Calm study and research are replacing public discussion with its emotionally charged atmosphere and its striving for partisan victory. It is true that some college lectureships, seeking to project an image of defenders of the bastion, present one-sided attacks upon those who plead for fellowship in Christ. This alone is an indication that effective gains are being made. These men are not "flogging a dead horse."

     You may look for even greater manifestations of love across party lines in the future. Younger brothers and sisters will no longer buy the kind of exclusive better-than-thou spirit which has hand-cuffed us in the past. They will reject creedal Church of Christism exactly as they turn away from other creeds and isms and for the same reason. The sectarian attitude has had its day!

     8. To what factor in your own approach do you attribute the growth of interest in fellowship and unity?

     I do not deserve any particular credit. I just happened along at the right time. A lot of other brethren I could name have done a lot more than I have because of their superior qualifications. But when God got through to me and I became convinced of the consummate folly of our own sectarianism I became deadly in earnest about sharing the message of peace with all of the saints.

     I have not avoided or evaded confrontation with those who seek to defend our human traditions. Repeatedly I have offered to go at my own expense to Florida College, Abilene Christian College, David Lipscomb College, or Pepperdine University, and be questioned publicly by a panel of three faculty members chosen by the administration, or by the student body as a whole. It is significant that not one of these institutions of

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"higher learning" has accepted this offer in spite of the fact that my name has been repeatedly mentioned in classes and I have been attacked while not present. Of course, the students are well aware of all this and their innate sense of fairness and justice causes them to rebel against the frightened institutional attitude.

     I recall the words of William Jennings Bryan upon one occasion, "I have a fight on my hands and I am on the defensive. I have been on the defensive all my life, but when I am defending a thing I do not wait for the enemy to come and attack; when I find there is to be an attack, I go over and do the fighting on the enemy's territory." Of course, it is really not that bad with me. I do not regard the brethren who attack me by name in their journals as enemies. They are simply defenders of the partisan status quo. When I had a sectarian concept of God's community I acted just like they do now.

     The greatest factor leading to saner thinking is the "fulness of time." People are weary and tired of fighting one another over secondary issues. The narrow bitter attitude inherited from a frontier culture has no place in the lives of those who are maturing in Christ. Sectarian littleness has had its day. Men who do their best to drum up a following over artificial issues, and who seek to appear as the last defenders of embattled truth are in for a hard time. Brethren are fed up with being made financial angels to bail out someone's new crusade against an imaginary threat. Unity in Christ will displace division over "crisis issues" invented to justify existence of journals spawned by schism. Better days are in the offing! Praise the Lord!