Home | About Us | Directions | Bulletins | Sermons & Audio | Cross Of Christ Studies | Classes | Student and Parent Resource Page | Dangers Facing the "Non-Traditional"
Click Here for the Latest Edition of the Auburn Beacon
The Beacon is sent weekly
Hear Tim Stevens in a Series of Lectures and Congregational Singing
Click Here for Audio and PowerPoint Files
Planning to Visit Us?
What
to Expect
Current Class
Information
Thoughts To Ponder
Prejudices
are the chains forged by ignorance
to keep men apart.
You will need
the following viewers
to view many of the
files on this site.
Click here to
download
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Click here to
download
Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer
University church of Christ
Assembly Times
Sunday
Bible Classes (9:30)
AM Worship (10:20)
PM Worship (6:00 pm)
Wednesday
Bible
Classes
(7:00 PM)
Location
449 North Gay Street
Auburn, AL 36830
Click Here for Specific
Directions
Evangelist
Larry Rouse
1147 Terrace Acres Drive
Auburn, AL 36830
Cell:
(334) 734-2133
Home:
(334) 209-9165
Contact Us
University
church
of Christ
449 North Gay Street
Auburn, AL 36830
Or
directly e-mail us at:
LarryRouse@aubeacon.com
A Study of
the
Local Church
Wed. Night Adult Bible Class
by
Larry Rouse
Download the outlines:
Lesson1 - Attitudes Towards Open Study and Resolving
Differences
Lesson 2 - The Need to Find Bible Authority
Lesson 3 - The Local Church and the Individual Christian
Lesson
4 - The Work of a Local Church
Lesson 5 -
The Organization of a Local Church
Lesson 6 -
The Fellowship of a Christian
Click Here for Audio and Other Files
A Presbyterian Preacher and a Divine PrincipleSplendid Discontent
by James W. Adams
If there is one peccadillo that characterizes this generation it is the mania for change. Change for the sake of change is thought to be a mark of liberation from "tradition" and of intellectual sophistication. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, though not necessarily advocating change for the sake of change, paid tribute to the desire for change when she wrote, "The splendid discontent of God with chaos made the world; and from the discontent of man, the world's best progress springs." However, she failed to note that not all of man's discontent is "splendid."
A more practical and perceptive statement statesman, inventor and author said, "All human inventions have their inconveniencies. We feel those of the present, but see nor fear those of the future, and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment and frequently for the worse" (Benjamin Franklin). It can be and often is "from bad to worse." Someone has likened this to a "farmer burning down his barn to get rid of the rats."
While change is the law of growth, it is not always benign. Not all growth is healthy nor progressive. One can blow up a balloon to several times its normal size, but balloons often burst under pressure to which they are thus subjected. The result is destructive, not constructive.
Our generation has seen more changes than another in human history, but the "discontent" that has produced them has not always been "splendid," hence many of the changes have been malignant rather than benign. This is not only true in the secular realm, but professed churches of Christ have likewise undergone radical changes that have not always been benign and constructive but malignant and destructive.
Advocates of changes, the discontented, in congregations have the obligation to give an adequate reason why changes should be made. Of first consideration would be whether or not the current situation meets the demands of Scripture. If not, change is not only advisable but essential. Second in importance is whether the proposed changes would bring the situation into harmony with Scripture.
The question of Scripture having been settled, the proposed changes should meet the demands of expediency. Are they viable? Are they more effective in accomplishing the objectives of a congregation's work and worship? Are they spiritually motivated, or merely an effort to accommodate the pressures of modern subjectivism, emotionalism, and anarchism in religion? Do they constitute an abdication to the devotees to novelty, or will they actually promote edification and soul-saving influence upon the believer and the unbeliever.
No Christian should cling to the old simply because it is old. Neither should the new be desired because it is new. Many things are old because they have been tried, proven, and not found wanting. Things are not right because they are old, but often are old because they are right. On the other hand, things are not wrong because they are new and different.
The old and the new should both meet the demands of Scripture and expediency, and the decision to change or not to change made on this basis. If "discontent" issue in benevolent change, it is indeed "splendid" If it merely bows to the spirit of novelty, it is neither benign nor progressive, only "worldly." The philosophy of the poet, Wilcox tempered by that of statesman, Franklin, would seem to be safe course in religious matters as well as secular.
The point of this article is well illustrated by three classes of persons noted in the Scriptures. The scribes and Pharisees were opponents of change by reason of their devotion to their purely human traditions. Jesus rebuked their attitude by saying, "No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith: The old is better" (Luke 5:39). On the other hand, the philosophers of Athens "spent their time in nothing else, but to tell, or hear some new thing" (Acts 17:21). The right attitude is exemplified by Cornelius, the Gentile Centurion, who said, "Now therefore are we all present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God" (Acts 10:34).
Other Articles by James W. Adams
Rascals are Always Sociable
Would you like
others to read this article?
