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Oklahoma newspaper ad did irreparable damage



I was appalled to read the news item about the media coverage of the Quail Springs church’s decision to add an instrumental service. Whether one agrees with the decision or not, irreparable damage was done the church and the cause of Christ by those who published a full-page ad in The Oklahoman.
Who gives those ministers the right to exercise authority over another congregation? Where is their biblical
justification to be over elders?
What has happened to congregational autonomy? It seems to me there has been a rash of this sort of thing recently with individuals or congregations telling others what they can and cannot do.
We may not have a written creed or confession to which all members must subscribe, but evidently there are those who think we have an unwritten one.
No wonder people are being turned off to the church and we are driving away younger members.
I may not agree with all the things going on — and I can state my opposition — but a general public forum is not the way to do it. Let each congregation and its elders make these decisions. It’s to our master we must answer, including those who judge.

Wendell Ford | Castle Rock, Colo.
New Orleans church shows its self-sacrificing nature

Your
February articles prompted a visit to the Carrollton Avenue church during a recent trip to New Orleans. Considering she held 6 feet of water for several days, the old girl looked pretty good —even with the secondhand pews. The picture changed as we went into the rest of the building where concrete slab and pine framing was the decor.
It seems instead of repairs, the initial time and money went not to bricks and mortar, but to bread and water, since the church served as a clearinghouse for relief supplies and workers long after the storm. By the time she got ready to turn her resources inward, the hue and cry of support from across the nation had become a whisper.
So, with the building in disrepair, with members scattered, some never to return; with the relief faucet slowing turning off, what did they do? They went out and bought a building to sponsor a new church. Go figure.
Your article was a much-needed reminder of how much need (and pain) still exists in the wake of the storm of the century. How encouraging to be a part of a brotherhood in which a church turns adversity into opportunity. They, and others like them, deserve our thanks, our prayers and our support.
David I. Burkett | Monroe, La.

  • Feedback
    It appears members of the church Jesus established on Pentecost believe in congregational autonomy as long as the other congregation does the same things in the same way. That is not a biblical concept. Paul told the members of the church in Rome to …receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Some followers of Christ, which is what the word Christian means, do not know how to apply what they read in the Bible.
    John Jenkins
    Great Smoky Mountains Church of Christ
    Gatlinburg, TN
    USA
    January, 12 2011

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