60th Annual Pepperdine University Bible Lectures
Malibu, California
May 1, 2003
Victor Knowles, Teacher
Dancing at Arm’s Length
What Churches of Christ and Christian Churches
Are Doing Together in Spite of Some Differences
WILLIAM TYNDALE, in translating the Greek word for “gospel,”
noted that the gospel “makes a man’s heart glad, and makes him sing,
dance, and leap for joy.” We rather reserved Restorationists might bring
ourselves to agree with Tyndale on the glad heart part (though some of
us are wont to confuse sure gladness with sour godliness—which Wesley
called the devil’s religion). We all agree that singing is an expression
of our worship and praise—although we debate about the rightness or
wrongness of using a small instrument to obtain the pitch or a larger
instrument to maintain the pitch.
But then comes the matter of dancing and leaping for joy. Here we find
ourselves most uncomfortable. We know that David danced. But so did the
daughter of Herodias! Shades of Salome! Shall we unveil the dance of the
seven veils on the platform of the church? Heaven forbid. (Some insist
heaven does!) And “leaping for joy?” Maybe the lame man at the Gate
Beautiful, who was healed by Peter, went to the temple walking and
leaping and praising God, but we rather reserved Restorationists might
consider that display of emotion a bit much. Well, maybe we might walk
and even praise God a little, but as for “leaping for joy”—we
would rather remain lame. It’s not a beautiful gate we want to enter.
It’s a dutiful gate at best! It’s just not how we “do church.” Even
though our spiritual ancestors danced and leaped for joy at Cane Ridge,
the mother of us all, and did a few other things that we would rather
forget. Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?
So why steer you out on the ballroom floor with this title: “Dancing At
Arm’s Length?” Dancing! Is this not one of the seven cardinal sins? In
the 1600’s a Puritan, Philip Stubbs, bemoaned the practice of dancing
around the Maypole: “What clipping, what culling, what kissing and
bussing, what smooching and slabbering of one another, what filthy
groping and unclean handling is not practiced at these dancings.” Maybe
this is where we get the term “dirty dancing.” And yet it was a Church
of Christ minister (Jeff Walling!) who in 1996 came out with a book
titled (gasp!) Daring to Dance With God (Howard Publishing). O
the scandal! O the shock! Walling opened with a hilarious if not painful
illustration of a girl (a beautiful girl from French class) asking him
to dance at a 1950’s sock hop. Walling was a “good non-dancing Church of
Christ boy.” O the dilemma! As a fellow GNDCCB, who grew up not far
from where Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper went down, I was instantly in
tune with his tome with the tantalizing title. I did a review of it in
our Fall 1996 One Body. It was favorable. Not of dancing—of the
book—the concept of stepping into God’s embrace.
All that to say this. It is almost a miracle that some Churches of
Christ and Christian Churches are dancing together at all. We do have
our disagreements. We do have our differences. We do have the debates of
the past that still ring in our ears.
Before we discuss some of the positive things we are doing together, let
me acknowledge that we do have some differences. The name of the church
is one. While you will find some Christian Churches that use the name
Church of Christ you will never find a Church of Christ that uses the
name Christian Church. Some will insist, “Call the church after Christ’s
name.” O.K. His name is Jesus. Christ is His office. Perhaps we
are both off course here.
Another difference is the way we interpret Scripture. Conservative
Christian Churches/Churches of Christ have a tendency to be loose
constructionists of Scripture whereas Churches of Christ tend to be
strict constructionists of Scripture. The former can lead to
liberalism and the latter can lead to legalism. Neither approach has
to lead to these ditches on the side of the road. Both groups respect
the authority of Scripture and accept the inspiration of Scripture.
We also have our differences as to the so-called “silence” of the
Scriptures. We tend to view silence as permissive whereas you tend to
view it as prohibitive. There are inconsistencies on both sides of the
keyboard. Perhaps silence is merely passive. (I have written at length
on this matter in Sola Scriptura (One Body, Winter 2003).
There are other differences. Women are allowed a more public role in
church in instrumental churches (and a few churches do allow women to
preach). The most notable difference is probably the use of musical
instruments during the “corporate worship” of the church in Christian
Churches/Churches of Christ. There are even differences in architecture
and vocabulary. I see very few crosses in Churches of Christ. I don’t
know why that is. (After preaching a message on the cross at an a
cappella church in Texas, I was taken to dinner, but not to task, by
a 90-year-old lady, a lifelong member of the Church of Christ, who said
to me, “Our preachers are afraid to preach the cross.”) What you call
an “auditorium” we might call a “sanctuary.” What we call a “revival
meeting” you may call a “gospel meeting.” What you call a “lectureship”
we call a “convention.” Our speech betrays us. We both reject the rosary
but we sure need a glossary!
But there is so much more that unites us than divides us. We both accept
Scripture as the inspired Word of God. We both preach Christ and Him
crucified. We share a high view of baptism and the church. Our
disagreements are more a matter of methodology than theology. I like
what Thomas Langford recently wrote in One Body: “Most of the
divisions in the body have come as a result of elevating some issue
above the saving blood of Jesus. While we were united by his saving
grace, we have divided over debatable issues and heatedly held opinions.
The philosophy seems to have been that there can be no unity unless we
see all things alike and conform our opinions to the party line. But it
was none of these issues that saved us and brought us into a state of
unity with Christ. It was belief in one fact (that Jesus was the
Christ, the Son of God) and obedience to one command, demonstrative
of that faith (baptism into Christ); it was surrender to the will
of the Lord Jesus” (“Unity in Essentials” One Body, Spring
2003).
Now to what we are doing together (in no particular order).
WHAT CHURCHES OF CHRIST AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES ARE DOING TOGETHER IN
SPITE OF SOME DIFFERENCES.
- Unity meetings. We are talking to each other. We have been doing this for some time. In my article “Working for Unity in Spite of Our History” (Christian Standard, Sept. 8, 2002), I listed a number of efforts by concerned brethren on both sides of the keyboard to bring the divided heirs of the Restoration Movement together for prayer, study, and dialogue. Among them were:
- The Beam-Jessup “Unity Rallies” in California. It started with a Unity Rally in Visalia in 1933, attended by 1,000 people. Subsequent meetings took place in Los Angeles, Los Gatos, Malibu, and San Jose. These meetings continued through the 40’s and 50’s.
- The Murch-Witty “National Unity Meetings” starting in Cincinnati in 1937. Others followed in Indianapolis, Akron, Columbus (IN), and Detroit. More than 1,000 brethren attended these meetings.
- The “Unity Forums” of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s saw a series of meetings that were headed up by men like Carl Ketcherside, Leroy Garrett, Perry Gresham, Charles Gresham, and Thomas Langford. The Hartford (IL) Forum was held from 1957-1972 and a 10-year series of Unity Forums (beginning at Bethany College) lasted from 1966-1975.
- The Honor Roll of Unity. At last year’s Restoration
Forum in Lubbock, Texas, a kind of “Hall of Fame” for champions of
Christian unity was unveiled. Twelve men were chosen as the inaugural
members of the “Honor Roll of Unity.” They were: James DeForest Murch,
Claude F. Witty, William L. Jessup, Ernest Beam, Seth Wilson, Leroy
Garrett, Perry E. Gresham, W. Carl Ketcherside, Don DeWelt, Reuel
Lemmons, Charles R. Gresham, and Thomas A. Langford. More will be added
at each future Restoration Forum. (The entire text of the historic
Lubbock session is available by ordering Tape #10 of Restoration Forum
XX at (806) 792-0716). By honoring each other we are appreciating each
other more and more.
- One Body Magazine. This
quarterly magazine, established by the late Don DeWelt in the same year
as the first Restoration (Summit) Forum, 1984, serves as an open forum
for men and women of the Restoration Movement who are concerned about
answering the prayer of Jesus for Christian unity and world evangelism.
Hundred of writers from both sides of the keyboard have been published
in One Body. (We are not the only journal that emphasizes unity. Leaven,
produced right here at Pepperdine, serves as “a publication of ministry
for churches of the Restoration Heritage.” The Stone-Campbell
Journal, a College Press publication, provides a scholarly platform
for those who value the principles of the Stone-Campbell Restoration
Movement. World Christian is a published by World Convention
(Christian – Churches of Christ – Disciples of Christ) and seeks to
build fellowship with the three streams represented in 165 countries of
the world.)
- Publishing Houses. It used to be that
each publishing house in the Restoration Movement published only their
“own” authors. That is not true today. For years College Press
cooperated with Sweet Publishing to produce Sunday School material. The
new College Press NIV Commentary Series features commentaries evenly
divided between writers from both fellowships. College Press also
publishes a number of authors from a cappella churches (as do
Covenant Publishing and Standard Publishing). Howard Publishing has
produced books by noted Christian Church author Bob Russell.
- Conventions and Lectures Speakers. This
year’s North American Christian Convention will feature Max Lucado and
Rick Atchley on the program. Lucado will also speak at the National
Missionary Convention. The Pepperdine University Bible Lectures have
been a leader in this regard by inviting workshop leaders like Alger
Fitch, Charles R. Gresham, and myself to be on the program. The 2002
Tulsa International Soul Winning Workshop had Ziden Nutt, David Butts,
and myself present workshops. Butts has also been a featured speaker at
the Calhoun Church of Christ Prayer Enrichment Workshop and Retreat. (If
we had spent as much time praying on our knees as we did debating on
our feet we would be much closer to unity!) Marvin Phillips has spoken
at the Hillsboro Family Camp, Kiamichi Men’s Clinic, and several other
notable gatherings of Christian Churches. Jeff Walling is a popular
speaker at our Christian state conventions and Christian campuses.
- Sharing of Bible College and Christian
University faculty. There has been quite a bit of sharing at the
academic level. Adjunct professors from both fellowships have appeared
on several campuses. Guest speakers in chapel, joint faculty retreats,
college and university presidents and professors appearing on the
Restoration Forum—all of these are positive signs of healthy interaction
that is going on.
- Partnership on the mission field. Ziden Nutt, founder and director of Good News Productions, International, is a firm believer in partnering together. Several years ago when hundreds of thousands of refuges were fleeing the bloodletting in Rwanda, groups like Africa Christian Mission, Christ Relief Fund, Portable Recording Ministries, Good News for Africa, Schrage Christian Mission, Farmers Branch Church of Christ, Kenyan Church of Christ Mission, and Good News Productions, International, teamed up to meet the urgent needs both physically and spiritually. Nutt said, “Hundreds of thousands of refugees were not only fed and clothed, but with solar-powered audiovisual packs, they viewed Bible lessons in their own language and culture…that were quickly developed. Other relief workers and organizations were amazed as they witnessed how quickly things had been organized in such a culturally sensitive manner…Much of this was made possible because in previous years groups from independent Christians churches, a cappella churches of Christ, Daystar University in Nairobi, and missionaries from all over Africa got together to plan a production center in Nairobi, Kenya. In fact, at the center’s dedication on Sept. 9, 1995, Sam Stone of the Christian churches and Rubel Shelly of the a cappella churches were the speakers…Effective partnerships increase the potential for making maximum impact on the peoples of a world needing Christ. They are the best way to fulfill the pleading of Christ, as recorded in John 17, that all of His followers ‘would be one, so that the world may be won.’” (Christian Standard, Feb. 2,2003).
- Unity efforts in the local church. I’ll limit
myself to three examples that I have been personally involved in.
Several years ago three churches in Springdale, Arkansas, invited me to
speak at a special one-day unity meeting. The three churches represented
the three streams of the Restoration Movement. The outcome was the
development of a “CUP” ministry—Christian United Pantry. Today, because
of their fine example of working together to feed the hungry and clothe
the naked, evangelical churches have joined them in this noble effort. I
am proud to say that “we” led the way for a change. Last Fall Marvin
Phillips and myself accepted an invitation from NOEA (Northeast Oklahoma
Evangelizing Association) to speak together at a first-ever elders and
wives (from both sides of the keyboard) weekend retreat in Tulsa. It was
held “off-campus” at a Tulsa hotel. We are going to do a repeat retreat
on “Conflict Resolution” this November. In February of this year
I spoke at a special minister’s luncheon at Southern Acres Christian
Church in Lexington, Kentucky. The minister, Wally Rendel, invited area
ministers and staff members from all three streams. We had 75 come for
lunch, fellowship, prayer, and discussion. A very irenic spirit
prevailed. Some of these churches were already doing things together
because of their leadership that is committed to doing something
positive about answering the prayer of Jesus.
- The World Convention of Churches of Christ. This
ministry (more familiar to Disciples than perhaps to us) was
established in 1930 to provide a means of global fellowship and
cooperation amongst churches with their origins in the 19th
century Restoration Movement. It meets every four years (next meeting is
in Brighton, England, July 28-Aug. 1, 2004), and features worship,
preaching, equipping workshops, a leader’s forum, and fellowship. The
executive committee is made up of members from all three streams of the
movement.
- Individual interaction. Unity starts with “U!” Although Evelyn and I came from opposite sides of the keyboard, love found a way to resolve our differences. Love will always find a way! Love never fails. Thirty-six years of marriage, six children, seven grandchildren (with twins on the way!) prove that unity is possible, pleasant, and productive! Venues such as this one provide wonderful opportunities to meet other Christians we had not known. Find them, meet them, greet them, accept them, love them. They are a brother or sister for whom Christ died. They are a son or daughter of the Father and, if that be true (and it is), then they are your brother or sister in Christ and deserve to be treated with all due respect and love. I did not choose my brothers and sisters and I have no choice in the spiritual matter today. When we stand before God He just may ask us how we treated His children! I want to be able to say, “Like a brother! Like a sister!” Unity starts with “U!”
May I have this dance?
VICTOR KNOWLES is founder and director of POEM (Peace on Earth Ministries), Joplin, MO. He also serves as editor of ONE BODY, is a facilitator for the Restoration Forum, and is on the executive committee of World Convention of Churches of Christ. Contact him at POEM, P.O. Box 275, Joplin, MO 64802 or vicknowles@aol.com or www.poeministries.org.