A Hopeful Sign
For many months there has been an increasing apprehension throughout the land over the apparent trend toward the development of a few big churches with unprecedented control of "missionary" work. Scores of smaller congregations, channeling their funds through one or more of about a half dozen big churches, were leaving the control and oversight of the work in foreign fields entirely up to these large congregations.
It would certainly be unfair to charge all these big churches with any deliberate desire or ambition in the direction of becoming super missionary agencies; they cannot be charged with any design in that direction. But it is clear that they are being gradually maneuvered into that position, design or no design. Elders of smaller churches found it an easy and convenient thing to shift their responsibility along with their funds. If the elders of the big churches were willing to take over the oversight, then let them do it!
The inescapable result was that more and more funds and control began to concentrate in the hands of these big congregations. And the half dozen or more churches themselves did little to improve the situation by their continued appeals through the papers and by other means for increased support for their projects.
Now, however, we believe there is the prospect of a definite improvement in this situation. The hopeful sign is in the fact that quite a number of churches, some big, some little, are now striking out on their own, selecting their own man or men, sending them to fields of their own choosing, and, for better or for worse, determining that they themselves will exercise the oversight of these men and their work.
We believe this is wise for the congregation. And we know it is a healthful development so far as the church generally is concerned. For with two or three hundred (or a thousand) churches sending gospel preachers into every part of the globe, it will be far less likely that half a dozen big congregations dominate the scene with undue power and influence. Smaller churches, unable to provide the entire support for a man by their own resources, can combine with one or two or three smaller congregations, rather than all of them sending their money to some big church for its administration.
This ought to prevent undue concentration of power in the hands of some "centralized" eldership. It ought to help reverse the very dangerous trend toward a few "super missionary agency" churches which has seemed to be developing.
—F Y. T.
—O—
The Rights Of Children
Did your parents send you to Sunday School when you were a child? They probably did. Most children in these United States are brought up on the idea that Sunday morning is the time to dress up and go to Sunday School That is where most of us were taught the "Golden Rule", the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and various stories from the Old Testament about characters such as David, Moses, and many others. With the help of picture cards, the stories of Jesus' birth in a manger, his life as a carpenter's son, and his death on the cross were dinned into our young ears.
For too many of us, that is the extent of our knowledge of the Bible, and the absolute limit of our ideas concerning the Christian life. As we near maturity, we begin to have less interest in Sunday School, and with the advent of our "going off to college", most of us just let Sunday School become one of the memories of childhood.
But, then we marry, and have children of our own. And what is the first thing we do with them when they are able to walk? Send them to Sunday School! We want them to be taught the same stories that we were taught, about David and Goliath, and Jesus, and Peter and John. Now, what is it that makes us think it important that our children be taught these things?
The answer is simple, if we will but admit it. Deep down within each of us, there is the knowledge that God does exist, that Jesus is the Christ, and that without Christ this life simply has no meaning and no purpose. We want our children taught these basic truths. Our thinking may be dim and inarticulate, perhaps more instinctive than reasoned out. But, somehow, we know that this is right... and we want our children to have the "right start" in life. Though we may have long since ceased going ourselves, we know that that is the right thing to do. Worldly and indifferent though we be, our love for our children goes beneath all the cynicism and doubt and worldly sophistication we may have. With the responsibility of our tender young lives in our hands, we are unwilling to see them reared in ignorance of God and his love.
But if it is right for the children to have this knowledge, why is it not right for their parents to act and live as though this knowledge were important? Our children learn infinitely more from what we are than they do from what we say and tell them. Every child has the right to a Christian heritage. It is right that he have a Christian home... and he has a right to that home.
Any parent denying his child that right, and trying to make up for it by sending him to Sunday School, is attempting the impossible. No Bible school on earth can be an acceptable substitute for a Christian home.
Parents, take, don't send, your children to church,
—E. S.