ClarkeComments.com

Hello all:

I just recently returned from a ten day trip to Missouri. What a trip. I celebrated my Grandmother’s 90th birthday, met an aunt and uncle and a bunch of cousins (from all parts of the family) for the first time, and met all three of my siblings for the first time (I’m adopted).

I also worshipped with a very conservative Church of Christ with my Grandmother, while one of my cousins told me all about how the church down the road where my Aunt and Uncle attend just isn’t “quite right” because they have a praise team. What fun.

Through it all, God showed me every day, several times a day, how I have it good and how my life could be much worse. Praise God for his grace!

On another note, it has been bothering me for quite some time how I am not blogging very often anymore. I am working on developing a series or two to attempt to fix that problem.

There are two main reasons I am not blogging as much: I have things to write about, but I don’t write them down fast enough and then I forgget them, and some of the subjects I want to write about aren’t related to the Restoration Movement.

There are many topics that I want to explore with writing that really don’t have anything to do with our movement. Many of them are spurred on by my orientation as a restorationist, but otherwise, there is little to no connect. In many ways, I’m not sure that I want to blog about those topics here because I have dedicated this blog to examining Churches of Christ and the Restoration Movement at large, but also because I am not sure that all of my audience, both real and potential, would appreciate these other topics nearly as much as they do this one.

So… I am contemplating erecting a second blog….or maybe even keeping this blog up in archive form, but no longer posting to it and instead turning to a second blog to persue my other writing interests. I’d love to hear your opinion on what I should do.

-Clarke

Hello all:

I was happy to recieve my weekly email from The Christian Standard this morning. This week’s edition is on Two Views of the Millenium.

Alex Wilson, the minister at the Portland Avenue Church of Christ in Louisville, Kentucky, wrote about his belief in Historic Pre-millenialism.

Robert Lowrey, dean and professor at Lincoln Christian Seminary, wrote about Amillenailism.

The articles were refreshing for several reasons. Wilson is not only Pre-millenial, he’s a member of an acapella Church of Christ. He states his beliefs strongly, but doesn’t attack Amillenialism, or for that matter, musical instruments. He in fact goes out of his way to condemn sectarianism based on any peripherial belief, and points out some arguments that others have made against pre-millenialism that are flawed (such as the statement that pre-mill’s believe that the Church was created as a afterthought).

Lowrey is an Amillenialist, and a member of the Indepedent Christian Churches. He too states his beliefs strongly, but doesn’t attack the other side. He makes his case, and that is that.

Churches of Christ need to learn how to do this; how to examine all-sides of the argument, realize that no one has a monopoly on the truth, and be willing to allow others to have differences in opinion without casting their salvation into doubt. This week, the Christian Standard provides us with a great example on how to do that. I pray that we learn from them.

-Clarke

Hello all:

Recently, I’ve been thinking about our use of words in Churches of Christ, and I’m bugged a little by it.

We’ve developed our own language over the years that serves the purpose of seperating us from “the denominations.” (one of our catch-phrases).

A good example of this is that we use the term “auditorium” to refer to large room in which we worship, while most other churches refer to that room as the “sanctuary”. Its like an unwritten rule that we cannot call the auditorum a sanctuary. If you are in one of our church buildings and call the auditorium “the sanctuary,” everyone around you will know right away that you aren’t one of us. Of course, the irony is that neither word is found in scripture.

Another example, is our not using the term “Pastor.” This is now a favorite of mine. I was taught that we can’t call the minister a pastor because this term is reserved for elders. Because we strive to “call bible things by bible names,” an old adage of Alexander Campbell, we reject any church that calls their minister a pastor unless that minister is also an elder.

The problem here is that word usage changes over time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for “calling bible things by bible names,” however, we must recognize that all language changes over time. Our use and study of Greek is a prime example of this: We defend that baptism means immersion because the greek baptizo’s original meaning was immersion. However, over time, we can show that the meaning of the word changed to include pouring and sprinkling.

However, when we look at the question of instrumental music, we talk about the word psallo. Psallo originally meant to sing with instrumental accompanyment, or to pluck a stringed instrument. We argue that the meaning of the word changed, and by the time the New Testament was written, Psallo meant to sing only, without accompayment.

So, can we accept that the meaning of the English word “Pastor” has changed over the last 500 years? Personally, I can, especially after reflecting on the fact that the word Pastor is a Latin Word, not a translated or transliterated Greek word.

While the rest of the Christian world calls someone a “Pastor,” we call that same person a preacher, an evangelist, or a minister. Many Churches of Christ, especially the more conservative congregations, seem bent on using the title “evangelist.” While the term is biblical, it rarely if ever describes what the person does. I’ve met very few paid evagelists in Churches of Christ…. they all seem to keep their evangelistic efforts confined to the building. Preacher is probably the most descriptive word for many of these people… but I digress. My conclusion here is that the words minister and pastor are equivilant.

However, now I have one more problem. I’ve identified what I believe, however, I’ve been indoctrinated in our beliefs for so long that I have a hard time changing. I still occasionally cringe when I see an Independent Christian Church title their minister as “Pastor.” I still feel odd hearing the “auditorium” called a “sanctuary.” Old habits die hard, I suppose.

-Clarke

Hello everyone:

I finished up “Distant Voices” and I really enjoyed it….so, I picked up another of C. Leonard Allen’s (along with Richard Hughes, this time) books, “Discovering our Roots: The Ancestry of Churches of Christ.”

If you’ve not read this book, pick it up. It provides some really great backgound on Restorationist thought in Christianity that occured before our movement began and which had great influences on our movement.

The best irony I’ve found so far is that alot of our restorationist roots came from the Puritans…who were later known as Congregationalists….who later merged with some other churches and formed the United Church of Christ. Its quite amazing how belief changes over time.

-Clarke