This year the World’s Fair is in New York, it has been sixty years since St. Louis held the spotlight, but it would have been hard to convince some 11,000 conventioneers of the North American Christian Convention that the lights were shining anywhere but there. They were part of a virile, evangelical force in Christendom all too often overlooked. For four days this month the front of Kiel Auditorium featured a cross, a crown, and the inscription: “Preach the Word.” Retiring convention president Leon H. Appel, minister of Lincoln Christian Church of Lincoln, Illinois, welcomed his listeners with the reminder that they had come not to pass resolutions but to give heed to the Word of God, and the major addresses revolved about this theme.
Who were these Christians? To answer is to thread one’s way cautiously among terminological pitfalls, for they wish to be called “Christians only,” a desire noble in intent but fraught nonetheless with semantic confusion for the inquirer. He is to speak not of a “denomination” but of a “movement.” He is allowed to refer to “conservative Disciples” only with reluctance, for identification purposes. There are no convention “delegates,” for nothing is delegated by the autonomous churches, which cherish their local freedom to a degree that affords a showcase of pristine Congregationalism rare these days even among Congregationalists and Baptists. Though the lower level of the convention hall included many exhibits telling of missionary, evangelistic, educational, publishing, and benevolent work, none of the agencies or institutions represented have any official relationship with the convention, nor do any of the churches whose members attend. The convention influences the churches simply by dissemination of ideas.
On the whole, it is safer to resort to the convention press releases, which describe the NACC as a “mass gathering of Christians … representative of that family of Christians known congregationally as Christian Churches and/or Churches of Christ. This family … numbers some 5,000,000 throughout the world. Its congregational polity makes possible a variety of theological and institutional expression. This variety is visible in a left, center and right wing spectrum.… Generally speaking 1,000,000 of these Christians are in the left wing, 1,300,000 in the center, 2,200,000 in the right and 500,000 overseas. The program has participants from all three, although the NACC is primarily the extension of the interests of the center.”
One must then proceed to identify the various segments. Holding down the right wing are the Churches of Christ (this term is also used to a lesser degree by the other churches), which are chiefly characterized by their opposition to instrumental music in the churches. These tend paradoxically to be very separatist despite the fact that the entire movement was founded on the nineteenth-century American frontier by Thomas Campbell for the unifying of believers. Observers close to the scene see a stirring toward fellowship between right and center, perhaps an incipient trend.
On the left wing are the Christian Churches, which also identify themselves as Disciples of Christ. These constitute the bulk of the churches reporting to the International Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ). The NACC has not formally seceded from the ICCC, and indeed cannot because of independent polity. But many individual NACC churches are ceasing to have anything to do with the older convention, a trend which is accelerating, partly because of theological liberalism (reaction against which is confessedly the raison d’être of the NACC), and partly because of Disciple moves to merge with other denominations such as the United Church of Christ. To gain enough control over their churches to effect a merger, the Disciple leaders are in the process of “restructuring the brotherhood” away from congregational autonomy. It is also moving away from early Disciple doctrines still held by NACC churches. Early followers of Thomas and Alexander Campbell promoted restoration of the New Testament order as the constitution of the church. Now, many Disciples repudiate the concept of New Testament as constitution. The means of attaining unity is changing from hope of dissolution of denominational loyalties to participation in denominational merger talks. Repudiation of creeds is giving way on the part of a few to advocacy of affirmations of faith. (President James A. Garfield, for some years a Disciple preacher, once affirmed: “The Christ is our only creed.”) And baptism by immersion, once a major emphasis, is now often seen as an ecumenical stumbling block.
Such departures from the faith of their fathers are anathema to NACC churches, and convention addresses manifested outcroppings of the controversy. President Appel (his elected successor: Russell L. Martin, pastor of First Christian Church, Miami, Oklahoma) warned against those “who want to reach ‘way out’ to satisfy their ecumenical aspirations. They are now talking about re-structuring this great movement into a full-fledged denomination. To achieve the goal, the authoritative role of the Word of God in the doctrine and life of the church is being repudiated. Indeed, the prophecy, ‘For the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine,’ seems to be fulfilled in our time.” “The Restoration Movement,” said Appel, “is the oldest ecumenical movement in America. It was the intention of the fathers of this movement to take up the Christian faith at the point where the apostles left off, and to build on the foundations that had been laid.… Great hosts weary with denominational strife and the confusion of theological systems, were impressed with the wisdom of turning to patterns of apostolic faith and practice as a basis of Christian unity.”
Along similar lines, Alger M. Fitch, pastor of Los Angeles’ Alvarado Church of Christ, declared: “We never need nor dare to restructure the divinely given—the tradition of Christ.… Our greatest need as a brotherhood is … to get on with the restoration of New Testament Christianity.” ’
Some Disciple leaders, partly out of curiosity, have begun to appear in the audiences of NACC gatherings. For while the Disciples are lagging well behind the average Protestant growth rate these days, NACC church statistics are booming: Of thirty churches in St. Louis, twenty-two have been established within the past decade. The same is true of twenty of Chicago’s fifty churches. Last year in the United States NACC churches planted a new one every three days. Of 342 churches in the Philippines, 200 have been founded in the last ten years. NACC churches principally support 440 missionaries in comparison with 225 for the Disciples’ convention.
NACC churches are served by thirty-seven vocational colleges, a number of which are accredited by the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges.
In the closing address in St. Louis, President Earl C. Hargrove of Lincoln (Illinois) Christian College summed up: “I am proud of the movement that was born in adversity, cradled in derision, plagued by indecision but now showing signs of maturing and, under the Lord’s banner, moving forward to become an effective witness to a lost world.”
Pittsburgh—The air-conditioned ballroom of the Pittsburgh Hilton Hotel provided the atmosphere for soul-searching and serious business of the second biennial convention of the Lutheran Church in America.
The 684 delegates quickly got down to work for their first convention since the denomination was formed two years ago in Detroit from a merger of the Augustana, American Evangelical, Finnish Evangelical, and United Lutheran churches. A proposal by one delegate to permit smoking during the business sessions went down to defeat after another delegate opposed the motion by saying:
“I am one of the heaviest smokers here. But I find it good discipline to stop smoking during these sessions.”
The unpolluted atmosphere seemed to be in conformity with much of the debate and reports the delegates pondered for eight days. Delegates seemed to be striving to keep the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a still relevant place in a fast-changing world. This was evident all through the convention. It was certainly apparent in the opening address of Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, president, who made his first report as head of the 3,227,000-member denomination. He called upon the Lutheran Church in America to meet the continuing challenge of the large metropolitan center.
“Protestant influence,” he warned, “and the evangelical spirit have been in a steep decline in the American megalopolis for fifty years and more. That trend needs to be halted. We in the Lutheran Church in America are conscience-bound to assist in doing so and, for the first time in our lives, to assume our full share in the evangelization of our whole society.”
Dr. Fry said that “hundreds and hundreds of Lutheran congregations have been rocked by sociological earthquakes, with the once stable communities of German and Scandinavian origin in which they had been built crumbling and collapsing around them. In not a few city neighborhoods,” he said, “the old residents have vanished altogether. Only the church building and, often heroically, the ministry of the Gospel remain. Here, as clearly as can be, the summons is renew or die.”
Without debate and by an overwhelming vote, the convention endorsed an Executive Council statement on prayer and Bible reading in public schools. The statement said: “We do not believe that much has been lost in … the recent decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court. The more we attempt as Christians or Americans to insist on common denominator religious exercises or instruction in the public schools, the greater risk we run of diluting our faith and contributing to a vague religiosity which identifies religion with patriotism and becomes a national folk religion.”
The Board of Social Ministry, speaking of proposed amendments to the U. S. Constitution, said: “The proposed amendments in their substance would give constitutional sanction to distinctively sectarian practices with all the risks involved of impinging upon freedom of conscience and belief and creating religious divisiveness in the community.”
In another convention meeting, delegates received a report from the Board of Parish Education recommending support of the public schools in preference to parish education. “We believe that, normally, effective preparation of a Christian for life and witness in a pluralistic society can best be attained when Christian education is provided by the home and parish, and education in general is provided by the public school.”
Nowhere during the convention was the struggle between liberal and evangelical concepts more pronounced than in debate over the master plan of location of seminaries submitted by the Board of Theological Education. The convention voted “that this Church express its preference for relating future developments in seminary life to a university environment.”
Dr. Conrad J. Bergendoff, retiring executive secretary of the board, said the action is to help avoid the development of “ecclesiastical business colleges.”
One delegate reminded the convention that Lutheranism started on a university campus. Another charged that the church was not to be confused with the intellectual atmosphere confined within the green fence of a country club. “Theological ills,” he told the convention, “come when we put theological seminaries in a university environment.”
Dr. Carl W. Segerhammar, Los Angeles, president of the Pacific Southwest Synod, charged that the church “lacks great preachers because we lack great thinking. I like to think of schools of theology as connected with other schools of thought.”
Three studies were recommended: (1) an assessment by the board of the training for LCA ministry in university and non-denominational schools of theology; (2) a study by the Conference of Synodical Presidents of the placement of graduates of seminaries; and (3) a study of opportunities now given to women “for study and contribution in the field of theology.”
In a stand aimed at an unadulterated Gospel in the Church, the convention adopted a statement on commercialism that invites church institutions “to move toward the development of other means of publicity and interpretation so commercial activities can be abandoned as rapidly as possible.” It said:
“Commercialism, the selling of goods and services in the name of the Church, with the purpose of securing funds for the operation and mission of the Church …, vitiates the clear relationship between the giving of the Christian and the mission of the Church.
“It fails to bear testimony to the mission of the Church and creates a false image of the Church. Commercialism further weakens the life of the Church and a true sense of stewardship.…”
The convention adopted a resolution on race relations that sanctions civil disobedience without actually using that specific phrase. Church officials and members are free to join in demonstrations to protest unjust laws and under certain circumstances to disobey laws which violate their obligations as Christians. Four days of intermittent debate preceded passage of the statement, which was supplemented by a resolution commending President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Congress for enacting the civil rights bill.
A statement on marriage was adopted with little debate. Concerning the remarriage of divorced persons, the document declares that “the divorced person seeking remarriage must recognize his responsibility for the breakup of the former marriage. He must give evidence of repentance.…”
On planned parenthood, the statement says that “irresponsible conception of children up to the limit of biological capacity and selfish limitation of the number of children are equally detrimental.”
The Lutherans rejected a proposal to encourage members to take part in private confession. Rising costs (3 per cent a year) prompted an increase in the biennial budget to $58,863,500.
Mankato, Minnesota—Following prolonged and spirited debate, delegates to the annual convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church voted to allow synod-owned Bethany Lutheran College to apply for federal funds to erect new buildings. The college’s board of regents, however, was empowered to reject such aid if it determines that governmental aid stipulations run counter to the synod’s policy.
Rockford, Illinois—The Baptist General Conference went on record as opposing the so-called Becker amendment in a resolution approved after considerable discussion by delegates at its eighty-fifth annual meeting. The resolution said the First Amendment was “adequate.”
The delegates representing the 80,000-member denomination also voiced their opposition to narcotics, alcohol, and tobacco; called on radio and television to curb obscenity; and urged church members to exercise their right to vote and to participate in governmental activities by seeking public office or employment in government.
Montreat, North Carolina—The General Conference of the Advent Christian Church (constituency: 30,000 members), at its annual session, ended a separation of more than 100 years by effecting a merger with the three churches of Life and Advent Union.
Wichita, Kansas—The National Association of Congregational Churches formally organized a previously authorized Committee on World Christian Relations at its annual meeting. A $174,133 budget was approved.
The NACC consists of about 225 Congregational churches that declined to participate in a merger of the Congregational Christian General Council and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
