Hello All:
As promised earlier, here is the college map I made earlier. I’m posting it both as an interesting piece of information and to test how images post here.
-Clarke
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The map has temporarily been removed while we work on a technical issue with it.
You can view it here.
Hello All:
In my readings these past few weeks the same thought keeps popping into my head, and every time I go to a different website, it is reinforced.
Not only is there a movement sweeping through the church for change, but there is a growing business behind it as well. Some people are making money off of the liberalizing of our churches.
It has been said often that our universities are to blame for what is occurring in the church. I think this is only partly true. Its not necessarily the institutions themselves that are corrupting our churches and our youth, it is “the scholars” that are doing so.
The ’scholars’ who write books about “The Purpose Driven Church.”
The ’scholars’ who publish magazines on “church growth.”
The ’scholars’ who give lectures on “post-modern approaches to evangelism.”
The ’scholars’ who create “church planting” businesses.
and…’the scholars’ who teach our youth about “our faith-tradition.”
The ’scholars’ who receive big money to teach our churches and members how to “attract people in the culture of today.”
Congregations are feeding the monster of change with their own funds. They are paying hundreds, maybe thousands, to learn the “secrets” of bringing people in the door from our ’scholars’.
I was at my church a few weeks ago and saw a newsletter in the foyer about “church growth.” I started wondering how one becomes an expert in church growth. What studies one does to determine what makes a church grow and what doesn’t. And then - it hit me.
We don’t need to read a newsletter or a magazine or a book being hawked by one of our ’scholars’ to learn how to grow the church.
We need to read the book that God gave us. The gospel tells us what we need to know about the people of today. The gospel tells us what we need to do to bring people to Christ. Christ provides us with the information that we need to do his work.
We don’t need a ’scholar’ to tell us that.
-Clarke
Hello All:
You may have noticed that I changed the name of the “Unity and Restoration” link category and expanded it to “Other Branches of the Restoration Movement”.
In this section you will find links to the other two major divisions in the movement, the Disciples of Christ and the Independent Christian Churches.
You will also find links to such sites such as the North American Christian Convention of the Independent Christian Churches, the World Convention of Churches of Christ - an organization that is attempting to unite all three divisions, the “Stone-Campbell Dialogue” which is a work of the Disciples of Christ to bring members from all three divisions together, and “The Restoration Movement” - a page put together by the Memorial University of Newfoundland on the history of the Restoration Movement.
I struggled with putting this information on the website. However, I feel that people who visit this site who are not familiar with our history should have a handy way to learn it. The history of this movement is very important to understanding where we are currently and the options that lay in front of us.
If you are a member of the church and are not familiar with the history of the churches of Christ, start by reading a primer on the “Restoration Movement” page on MUN’s website. There are also various other webpages on the internet dedicated to the history of the Restoration, and many many books have been written on the subject over the years.
In addition, ACU has a Center on Restoration Studies . While ACU is not at the top of my list for alot of things, it does have a good collection of Restoration Movement related papers.
I had an interesting weekend, at least when I wasn’t totally sick. After church there was what I can best describe as a social gathering at one of the member’s homes. I took my family and my wife and I have an interesting discussion with the one of the new ministers and his wife. (We have two, both new.)
It appears that the change agents may be at the door to where I am.
This conversation that we have here often may get much more interesting as the weeks go by.
-Clarke
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Also, I shall post the standard disclaimer - just because I post a link here on this site does not mean that I endorse the website that the link points to or the content on the website, or that than anyone else at clarkecomments.com endorses it. The links that are provided are websites that I visit, either often or from time to time, to gather information and to determine the current pulse in various parts of the movement. I provide them to you so that you can have more information about the church and those things related to it.
Hello All:
What I’m currently reading: Make Believe Worship
I got a slight kick out of this satirical piece poking fun at the new community church movement that is sweeping through the churches of Christ.
It is, ironically, written by a member of the instrumental churches who are having as much of a problem with this issue as we are.
For those of you who don’t quite get the punchline, read up on the community church movement here.
-Clarke
