By working with a worldwide publishing company, Howard Publishing can have even more opportunities to be a positive Christian influence on the world. Members of Churches of Christ can move into our little corner and have little (or no) influence on the world around us, or we can seek ways to have a broader influence for good in the world.

The Howard family loves the Lord and His church. John Howard is a shepherd of the WFR congregation. It seems to be an effort to judge motives to question the Howards’ decision to place their company in a position to make spiritually nourishing publications to more people.

My wife and I personally admire and appreciate the Howard family and their influence and have been blessed by their freindship.

Stan & Lisa Cook, Gadsden, Alabama

In Him,
Barry Wiseman

Thanks.
Still_Searching

As for Howard Publishing, we used to have a song book from them called “Songs of Faith and Praise”. I was startled to find one day, while searching the net, that Howard Publishing was also producing a companion book to this song book for instrumental accompaniment. That told me then that they were looking for a much broader customer base than the Lord’s church. I was very saddened at that.

My guess is that the path that led to the sale of Howard Pub had more to do with money than anything else. Either the offers were too good to turn down, or the folk in charge sought out a chance to cash in. I suppose the folk who made the decision might have rationalized that this would guarantee our materials would continue to be published and perhaps even garner a wider audience among evangelicals. It may be that Howard was in financial straits and saw this as way to keep the doors open. Who knows?

Generally speaking – I’m painting with a broad brush here – the vision of the 1st generation, those who labored to get a thing going and the service they sought to render, does not survive the 1st generation and succeeding generations neither have the same vision nor the same commitments, and if times are hard, are far less willing to suffer for the vision. So its probably not a surprise that the inheriting generation did not follow through on the 1st generation’s vision.

Looking at overall trends…

If you follow a family in the Bible, you rarely see faithfulness in the 3rd generation, often not even in the 2nd. [I'm continuing to paint w/ a broad brush here]

In the 1st generation you have conviction. “This is true and I will die for this truth.”

In the 2nd generation you have belief. “Well, I believe its true, tho I wouldn’t die for it”

In the 3rd generation you have opinions. “Well, it just an opinion, nothing to get excited about.”

In the 3rd generation there will either be apostasy or revival.

If you look at the RM you’ll see the same thing, by the time we get to the 3rd generation in the post-civil war era, we see the classic liberal (aka Modernism) vs fundamentalist divide. That generation saw three- quarters of the movement surrender to the culture and become the DoC [The Ind. Christian Church technically broke off from them, not us and sought a mid-point]. But the result of that was a smaller, militant church, that knew what they believed and why they believed it, and tested in the fires of controversy, they had become a people of conviction. These folk took their faith with them when depression – war – dust bowl -etc moved them out of the hills and hollars and they become one of the fastest growing churches in the country. From around 1500 to 13,000 congregations. In the ’60′s tho, as a second generation took over, the growth began to decline as a less militant and more passive generation came along that wanted to liked and to fit in. “Cool” is defined by the culture and more than anything else they [we] wanted to be cool. The vision, convictions, and willingness to suffer for them, was declining, and now, we find ourselves coming into a 3rd generation situation where everything is a matter of opinion.

If the past is any indicator, we’re going to either see a revival or apostasy. Where before it was the cultural modernism (classic liberalism) vs fundamentalism that polarized us. Now its probably going to be the cultural post-modernism [or whatever replaces it - I don't think po-mo can stand up under its own weight - it too inherently hypocritical] vs Fundamentalism.

I’m not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but it looks to me that our kids are going to see much, if not the majority, of the cofC surrender to culture and the pressure to blend into the status quo. But the result will be a smaller church again tested in the fires, and while many / most will go off into apostasy chasing the god of the age, a few will be left behind – more militant and still worshiping the God of the ages.

Yours in the Great Hope,
Scott P. Wiley

Thanks again for your kind comments.