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From The Octographic Review (American Christian Review), JANUARY 3, 1892:

In the early part of our history as disciples it is a fact that discourses on “Oneness in Christ” were very common. But who preaches on that subject now? In view of the mischievous work of those who advocate humanisms in the worship and work of the church that subject is seldom discussed. It is among the themes of the past. That preacher would be a bold man, indeed, who would confront the religious world and say, “Allow me to show you what unity is, and how the Bible alone will produce unity.” Rather, such a man would be reckless. What then shall we do? Simply move onward. The Sand Creek Declaration is being adopted, and those who will not do right are purged out as old leaven. In course of a few years the Church of Christ will stand entirely separated from the Christian Church. Then there will be no more fellowship between them than there now is between the Church of Christ and any other branch of sectarianism. Hallelujah!

If Daniel Sommer only knew that he would look back at this moment, as do many other people in our movement, with lament and sadness.

The a capella Churches of Christ have been seperated from the Disciples of Christ and the Independent Christian Churches for 100 years now. Its time for us to heal with rift.

Our movement started out with the goal of restoring unity to Christianity through the rejection of creeds and the adoption of the Bible as the only guide to faith and practice. I think that was a worthy goal, and I believe it is still a worthy one. I think all sides have lost alot in the division.

When we split from the Disciples, we lost much of our heart for unity and for social justice. We we walked away, and finally when the Independents split away, the Disciples largely lost their call to return to primitive Christianity.

I think to be truly successful and complete, we need each other. Each group walked away and is now missing a vital part that the other has. We can learn from the Disciples and the Independents, and they can learn from us, as well.

So do something. Visit a congregation from another stream of the movement. Call the minister or elder on the other side and have coffee. Get to know those people who were supposedly “the enemy” and create some new allies.

I am going to do something. Sara and I have made a decision. Lord willing, I will quit my job next year, Fall 2007, and start full time going to school at Northwest Christian College - a school affilated with both the Disciples of Christ and the Independent Christian Churches, to work towards a degree in Theology. I will then persue admission to graduate school and study Church History and Theology.

Going to NCC, a school that has kept its ties to both the Disciples and the Independents, will put me smack dab in the middle of a bunch of people affiliated with the movement, but from different streams. Hopefully it will provide me with a good theological education, as well as provide me with strong credentials that I can use to work towards unity. My goal at this point is to earn a masters, teach, and work towards a doctorate, then teach some more and do some writing about unity and our movement. Its been a long discernment process, and I think that this is the direction he’s been leading me. I hope I’m right!

-Clarke

Hello all:

I received my copy of the Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement today.

I’ve not had a lot of time to look at it, as I still having a never ceasing flow of homework coming at me, but I had time to check out the entries on the Exodus Movement and the Ottumwa Brethern.

I looked for the Ottumwa article because I had heard of them before but knew nothing about them. I found a pleasant surprise - many of the leaders of this conservative movement of the Disciples/Independents lived and worked right here in Portland. Northwest College of the Bible was a school started by members of the movement, and they have a small publishing company here that I didn’t even know about. When I have time I’m going to do some more research on this group.

If you don’t have a copy of the Encylopedia, I highly recommend it. Quite a bit of the Stone-Campbell Symposium was about the Encyclopedia, since the speakers there were the three editors of it. It has tons of interesting information about our movement and the churches that make it up. I can’t wait to sit down and read it cover-to-cover.

-Clarke

Hello all:

I’m writing from the Firestone Fieldhouse, waiting for the evening Songfest and Keynote Lecture.

Today has been an interesting day. I went to the last session of Rick Atchley and Bob Russell’s lecture on being Together Again. It was again, a great session. That lecture has been completely packed all three days, and gives me great hope that we will be “Together Again.”

I want to take a moment to note a phenomenon that Greg has talked about on his blog, and that was addressed during the Stone-Campbell Symposium. While there has been much talk of unity between the Churches of Christ and Independent Christian Churches, there has been little to none that included the Disciples. Those lectures that did mention the Disciples of Christ were fairly negative in nature. There were no mentions of the ICOC, either. I understand why this is…and its even a knee jerk reaction for me to not talk positively about the Disciples. I am trying to change, however, and I believe that our brothers and sisters that are interesting in unity need to as well. Highlighting brothers such as Newell Williams, a Disciples Historian and President at Brite Divinity School, and ministries such as Disciples Heritage Fellowship are good starting points for these discussions.

Anyway…back to the Lectureship. I missed Rubel Shelly’s last session, I had a last minute homework deadline that I had to make. But, I’m sure it was good.

The most exciting lecture I attended today was “3 Churches 3 Miles Apart….with the Same DNA (How we Discovered our Common Roots). Two pulpit ministers and a worship minister were present to talk about these churches. One from Churches of Christ, one from Independent Christian Churches, and one from Disciples of Christ. The most interesting this was that the Church of Christ minister was a former Catholic, the Independent Christian Church worship leader was originally from Churches of Christ….and the Disciples of Christ pulpit minister was originally from Independent Christian Churches, went to Pepperdine, joined the Churches of Christ, and is now (reluctantly) a Disciples minister (long story). These three congregations, all near Pepperdine, recently had a joint worship service and are getting to know each other better. It was a very interesting and exciting lecture.

I also went and listened to Dr. Paul Pollard, professor of Greek at Harding, speaking about the culture surrounding the Johannine letters. That guy knows how to make a history/scripture lesson interesting, and he is definatly a scholar.

The songfest is about to start, then a keynote address by Don Mclaughlin, and then I’ll attend one more lecture. I fly out of LAX at 6:00am. It has been a fun experience, I’ve learned, I’ve grown I think, and I’m glad I came. I would encourage all of you to attend next year, or attend the various unity events such as the North American Christian Convention that is going to be happening soon.

-Clarke

Hello all:

Today I again went and heard Rick Atchley and Bob Russell talk about being “Together Again.”
Their message was very worthwhile and I’m glad I was able to attend.

I also attended the second session of Rubel Shelly’s lecture on “Being the Church in a Postmodern World.” Rubel Shelly’s words really convicted my heart. He told the story of a Baptist minister who was out of town and stopped at a small diner in the middle of the night, and his meal was interrupted by a group of prostitues coming in for their nightly “break.” One of the Prostitutes announced her birthday was the next day, and was ridiculed by another. She then said that she hadn’t had a birthday party ever, in her entire life.

The next night, that preacher came back with streamers and a card and decorations, and he had convinced the cook to bake a cake….they threw a birthday party for this prostitute, who was in shock and couldn’t believe that she had her very own birthday cake.

It struck me that I’m not the type of persron who would do what this minister did….he went out of his way to be kind to someone that everyone looks down upon. This realization that I’m not that kind of person broke my heart. God calls us to be that kind of person. I’ve got a long long way to go before I get there.

I took a long break and did some homework, and then went to Victor Knowles second lecture on “Going Seperate Ways – What Really Happened in 1906?” Knowles read a list of 101 things that Churches of Christ and Christian Churches are doing together, both at home and on the Mission Field, to cooperate and win others for Christ. There were alot of good things on that list. As was mentioned in the comments from Wednesday, Knowles’ lecture is available on his Peace on Earth Ministries website.

After Knowles, I snuck into a half way done lecture on the Restoration of Discipleship in Churches of Christ by Brian Mashburn of Amarillo, Texas. Brian has been a youth minister in Churches of Christ for a long time, and a couple of years ago was hired as the Pulpit Minister of a large congregation….he wasn’t looking for the job, and didn’t want it, he didn’t want to leave youth ministry…so he told them the truth on what he believed…and they wanted to hire him for that. Brian talked about many that he knows that want to leave the Churches of Christ, and he talked about why he hasn’t and what he is doing to be a disciple while being a member of the Church of Christ. He reminded me of both Greg and Travis’ points of view alot.

At 9pm, I hit the third lecture on the Spiritual Legacy of David Lipscomb and James A. Harding by John Mark Hicks and Bobby Valentine. This was an awesome lecture. I can’t wait to read their book.
Hicks and Valentine talked about Lipscomb and Harding’s kingdom outlook, about pacifism and war, and about premillenialism. One of the attendees debated this support of Pacifism, and it was obvious that Hicks and Valentine feel much the way Lipscomb and Harding felt on the subject. I’ve never been a pacifist….and the man who gave his two cents on disagreeing with pacificism gave a good argument….but it was very hollow….after three days of Lipscomb and Harding….I have to say that they are persuasive. I highly recommend that you buy and read the new book on these two guys.

I met Dr. Paul Pollard several times yesterday, we kept running into each other. He encouraged me to check out Harding for graduate school, and Hicks encouraged me to check out Lipscomb. This has been a cool experience.

-Clarke