Which Way the Brotherhood?
April 24, 2008
Commentary by J. Randal Matheny, editor
What has happened to Howard Publishing Company is a bellwether of the direction of a large segment of the brotherhood. Read more
A Debt We Owe
April 16, 2008
Guest editorial by Ed Smithson
Years ago I was attending a daytime speech at a college lectureship. A fresh PhD had taken the podium and told us that, today, all preachers must have a Master’s and preferably a PhD.
I wanted to jump up and challenge him. On the podium with him at the time were two preachers who had done great works in the kingdom: one had only a high school education and the other was brother who had, as I remember, a third-grade education.
James O. Baird was president of the college at the time, and he took the lectern and told how much our pioneering preachers had done to bring us where we are today. I was never more proud of brother Baird than I was then.
Only eternity will reveal the amount of gratitude we owe those who have preceded us. Without their courage, endurance and sacrifices, we would not enjoy the status we do today.
I remember my dad mentioning men well known in Missouri and Arkansas, like Joe Warlick, Joe Blue and others. Then there were the preachers, most of them who at one time, earned their living by farming or hard physical labor during the week and preached for churches on Sunday for almost nothing.
John Rodgers would leave his family and farm and hold meetings for months at a time, returning home with little more than when he left.
Can you see our modern-day preachers doing that today? I think I know some who would if they had to, they want to preach that much.
What about David Lipscomb, who along with Tolbert Fanning began the Gospel Advocate, which is still published in Nashville today, and the Nashville Bible School he started (now Lipscomb University). In the early years they turned out gospel preachers.
Or what about brother N.B. Hardeman, the Tennessee Orator, who along with A.G. Freed, started Freed-Hardeman College which still operates in Henderson, Tenn. Both men were strong believers in the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures and great preachers in their own right.
In my own lifetime I think of men like Roy H. Lanier, Sr., my first Bible teacher in college, and what he did that has meant to the brotherhood for years. He began the preacher school at Bear Valley in Denver which still turns out preachers today.
I also remember men like E.R. Harper, who was speaker on the “Herald of Truth” radio program in its early day; Gus Nichols and Franklin Camp who were great students of the Bible; and Marshal Keeble, who worked long and hard and suffered things we will never know, because he dared to preach the “unsearchable riches of Christ.”
These are certainly not the only ones and I am sure you can think of many others. These men blazed the trails for us and we have it much easier than they, because of the work they did.
Preachers today are being better treated, better housed and better paid, because of what these and others have done before us.
God bless them and their memories, for they, like Abel “being dead, yet speaketh” (Hebrews 11:4).
_______
Published Apr. 15 in Ed’s “Frankly Speaking Notes” through his website Old Paths Pulpit, and used with his permission.
BNc Offers Flash News
April 9, 2008
(BNc)- For those tidbits and quick items that don’t justify an entire news story or for which we lack full information, BNc is offering Flash News. Read more
The Little Church that Could
March 19, 2008
RECIFE, BRAZIL (BNc)- This past weekend was my second visit to the Prazeres congregation in the greater Recife area of northeastern Brazil. My first impression was confirmed on my second visit. Read more
BNc Celebrates Official Launch
February 27, 2008
by J. Randal Matheny, publisher
BrotherhoodNews.com officially launches its news service as of today. Associate Editor Joe May and Assistant Editor Matt Clifton join me in inviting you to celebrate with us this date we’ve been working toward for months. Read more
Editor Pleads for Public Faith
January 30, 2008
FEATURE: STRAIGHT SHOOTING
By Associate Editor Joe May
Growing up, I was often admonished to “practice what you preach.” If you tell others to do it, if you say you believe it, follow through with it yourself.
How many of us heard similar statements during our growing up years? Recently I read a column by a denominational minister who expressed great fear and shock that Read more
Preacher Ponders Growing Old
December 9, 2007
BNc FEATURE EDITORIAL
by Ed Smithson
It is difficult to “grow old gracefully.”
Having said that, I don’t know too many people who are doing such a bad job of it after all. With all our maladies and inadequacies, we still manage to be civilized, most of the time. And, of course, it just could be that we have seen a lot of people grow old and do it without becoming morose or morons. So perhaps we just imitate things we have seen, to some degree. Read more
The Christian Editor’s Creed
December 1, 2007
WGN FEATURE
These ten commandments for the editor of Christian publications attempt to express something of the ethic that we work by here at WGN. Others who work with Biblical and Christian magazines, periodicals, journals and bulletins may find them of some use as well.
Suggestions to improving this list are welcome. Obviously, calling them a “creed” and “ten commandments” is tongue in cheek. Read more
Use Spiritual Bifocals
November 11, 2007
Squaring the Angle
WGN COMMENTARY
by J. Randal Matheny
Events closer to home get our attention more. The hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees in Darfur impact us little, but let the cable channel service or Internet provider go offline for a while, and we’re irate. Read more
Learning from Willow Creek’s Mistake
November 1, 2007
Squaring the Angle
WGN COMMENTARY
by J. Randal Matheny
Stories, both on religious and secular sites, are highlighting a self-study by the Willow Creek Community Church, led by Bill Hybels, in which they discover that programs do not promote discipleship.
The research discovered that “[i]ncreasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”
This discovery ran counter to the whole philosophy of Willow Creek.
“We made a mistake,” said Hybels, “What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their [B]ible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”
The WCCC has become a model for churches of all stripes, including some congregations of the saints. What effect, if any, will such an admission have on our brethren who have adopted the Willow Creek model? Here are some lessons we believe should arise from Hybel’s Folly. Read more
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