"Boxes In The Vestibule, Or Where Is The Stopping Place?
Once upon a time there was a large local church of more than 600 members. Sonm of the members of this church wanted the elders to send donations from the church treasury to an orphan asylum. They became so persistent in their efforts to get the elders to comply with their demand that they threatened to "move their membership," if their request was not granted.
The elders knew they had no scriptural authority to donate from the church treasury to any human institution, but they were afraid that the church would split, if a compromise was not reached that would placate this disturbing element in the congregation.
Therefore, the elders came up with a compromise. They proposed that a box be placed in the vestibule of the building, and all who wanted to contribute to the "Orphan Home" could drop their funds in that box and that money would be sent to the institution.
Of course, some of the members were wise enough to know that this arrangement under the oversight of the elders was just as unscriptural as sending it from the church treasury, and they tried to convince the elders that there is no difference in principle in sending the contributions from the box in the vestibule and sending it from the collection basket in the auditorium, and if the box in the vestibule compromise was separate and apart from church activity, what business did the elders have in proposing and overseeing a work which was not the work of the church? Had the Lord given them something to manage and oversee which was in addition to the church and its work? But the box was set in the vestibule in spite of the wishes of the objectors to this compromise.
On the first Sunday in the following month the box was opened and the elders told the contributors to select one of their own number to send the money to the orphan home.
But the trouble was not over yet. Some of those box-in-the-vestibule contributors believed it was wrong to support an institution under a "board" and not under the control of the elders of some local church: others thought it was wrong to support an institution under an eldership and not under a "board" separate and apart from an eldership. They could not agree to which kind of an "Orphan Home" the box-money should be sent.
Therefore, they took their problem back to the compromising elders, and the elders suggested that they put up two boxes instead of one, then send the money to the kind of home designated on the box.
A goodly number of the members of this large local church wanted the elders to send donations to the "Herald of Truth Missionary Society." They argued, if a box could be placed in the vestibule for the orphan asylums, consistency demanded that the elders must put one up for the "Herald of Truth Missionary Society." The elders yielded. Now they had three boxes in the vestibule. Demands soon came for boxes in the vestibule for recreational, educational and every kind of benevolent order till there was no more room for more boxes in the vestibule. So the elders reasoned that they must continue their "box-in-the -vestibule" compromise even though it required their building another vestibule as large as a fellowship hall, and on and on they must go for there is no stopping place.
Fortunately this parable has not yet become a reality, and the best way we can keep it from becoming such is by not starting it with the first "box-in-the-vestibule."
To my knowledge a few preachers recently have been converted to the idea that the box in the vestibule is the answer to the problem, and their advocacy of their theory is already beginning to cause discord where they go, and this "box-in-the-vestibule" compromise cannot now be brushed aside with the statement: "Ah, forget it." It has gone too far for that. They must be taught now that "the unity of the Spirit" (Eph. 4:3) is not based upon compromise. The word of the Lord is the only basis for the only unity that the Spirit endorses.
1919 Bluff Avenue, Fort Smith, Ark. 72901