President Harry Truman had a plaque on his desk which read, “The buck stops here.” Truman was reacting to the reputation of typical politicians who would, “pass the buck” when it came to making actual decisions, standing on principle, or clearly stating an honest opinion. Truman understood how heavy those decisions could be. He was… Read More »
A Generation Who Does Not Know The LORD
“the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua…all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”-Judges 2:7-10 I don’t know who… Read More »
Mid-Year Report 2022
This is our first full reporting period of the post-COVID era1. Last year we noted an elder at a large congregation in middle Tennessee reported their attendance was down 15-percent. It is estimated only one-in-ten churches gained in numbers during 2020-2021. North Second Street actually saw a slight increase in 2021 as we got back… Read More »
Healthy Churches Bear Fruit
“So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.”-Matthew 7:17-18 How do you judge the health of a plant? If it is vibrant and healthy, it yields fruit which strengthens those who partake of what… Read More »
Nothing New Under The Sun
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”-Ecclesiastes 1:9 My friend, Brooks Cochran, gave me a book consisting of a series of David Lipscomb’s answers to reader’s questions from the years 1866 to 1910. Lipscomb was the editor… Read More »
Put In Order 2022
How do you measure the success of an eldership process? Certainly, the best outcome is the ordination of a plurality of men who come to the office with the congregation at peace and little to no objection to be overcome. But what does it mean if men are selected but never installed? Sound familiar? I… Read More »
Year In Review 2021
Believe it or not, this Sunday marks the beginning of our third year dealing with COVID-19. It is a relentless enemy full of deadly poison. Every time it seems the fog of this disease is about to be burned off by the sun of normalcy, it again becomes so dense you cannot see the horizon. … Read More »
Is It Worth The Warm And Fuzzies?
It is all so grand. The Christmas play, the Nativity scene, the midnight mass, Linus, and all the talk about the “Christ child.” It allows us to tut-tut a little public morality about how commercialism has made all those worldly, sinners forget “Jesus is the reason for the season.” In fact, why don’t we have… Read More »
About The Number Two
Plurality; Merriam-Webster defines the word as, “the state of being plural.” That’s not much help. Dictionary.com is a little more to the point with, “a number greater than one.” So, one is not a plurality of anything but two or more is. We must have two for there to be a plurality. The number two… Read More »
A New Congregation
[Editor’s Note: Editha Kern passed away this week. Her husband Olin Kern (1934-2009) married my parents (Norman and Jane Sage), eulogized my mother, and was the preacher for the Central Church of Christ in Charlotte, Tennessee at its birth. Brother Kern wrote the following article for Searching The Scriptures in October, 1963. It details the… Read More »
