 UNITY MEETINGS, A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
For some 20 years a small group of zealous brethren have been laboring diligently to bring about fellowship between the Lord's Church and those of the Independent Christian Churches. Such unity efforts are not new. At least three such efforts have been initiated in the past.
There was a campaign for unity in 1917-1923 when leaders of the Christian Churches made overtures to our brethren concerning reunion. John B. Cowden, editor of the Tennessee Christian was the principle promoter for the Christian Church. 1 Numerous tracts were mailed to our preachers, hoping to dissolve their objection to the use of instrumental music in worship. This culminated in the Hardeman-Boswell debate in Nashville in 1923 on that subject. Unable to sustain their doctrinal position, the unity movement was ended. 2
In 1934-38, Claude Witty, a preacher of the Church of Christ in Detroit, and James DeForest Murch, leading spokesman of the Christian Churches, launched a nation-wide unity movement. 3 After half dozen meetings, Bro. H. Leo Boles was invited to present a lesson on the subject on May 3, 1939. He made the following plea:
1. Brethren, lay aside the denominational paraphernalia, destroy all denominational machinery and apparatus, and condemn the denominational spirit among you, and come back to the New Testament, and take up the ‘plea' of the pioneers for unity on the new Testament, and there will be unity between the ‘Christian Church' and the churches of Christ on this point...
2. You know where you left the churches of Christ, hence, you know where to find then; come back and unity is the inevitable result.
3. The churches of Christ, so long as they are loyal to the New Testament, cannot compromise on this or any other point so clearly taught in the New Testament. 4
In the 1950-60s, another search for unity was launched by Earnest Beam and W. Carl Ketcherside. Their movement was not well-received among our brethren. Bro. Ketcherside and his soul-mate Leroy Garret, established a working relationship with the Christian Churches and pursued it to the end.
Our latest search for unity began with the "Restoration Summit" meeting at Ozark Bible College in Joplin, MO in 1984. The principle leaders from our brotherhood were Alan Cloyd, Ruel Lemmons and Rubel Shelly. Don DeWelt led the Independent Christian Church preachers. Lemmons and DeWelt are both deceased, and Cloyd in now longer active. Rubel Shelly, Calvin Warpula and Rick Atchley are chief promoters among our people and Victor Knowles is a principle leader of the Christian Churches. At the beginning, there were four attitudes seen among our people:
1. A warm enthusiastic reception by some who had little or no concern about the doctrinal problems involved.
2. A cautious willingness by some to investigate the matter, to see if there is any possibility of positive good to be realized.
3. Others were suspicious of compromise and refused to participate.
4. A number were militantly opposed to the whole idea and determined to block it.
When the Witty-Murch unity movement was before our people, Bro. H. Leo Boles confronted Bro. Claude F. Witty with six pertinent questions:
1. Are you not a self-appointed representative of the churches of Christ?
2. Have you told Murch and his brethren there can be no unity until he puts the organ aside and gives up the missionary societies?
3. For union you say that both sides must move. Now what will the churches of Christ have to give up?
4. What will they have to begin teaching that they are not now teaching?
5. What will they have to begin practicing that they are not now practicing? What will they have to quit teaching and practicing in order to effect this union?
6. The Christian Church has gone off. It has organized measures to ‘perpetuate the cause of division.' How can it come back without abandoning these things? How can we ‘go to them till they abandon the things which
caused the division?'
These questions are still well-suited for our brethren who are the leading promoters of the current unity meetings. We who are being urged to fellowship the Christian Churches would be blessed and enlightened if those brethren would publish forthright answers to these pertinent queries.
With men like Bro. Boles leading us, there was no compromise of truth and those who sought unity through compromise floundered and failed. May godly leaders respond with like-faith and convictions today. May our position always be unity on Christ's terms, not on those of uninspired men! God help us to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3).
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ENDNOTES
1. Herman Norton, Tennessee Christians (Nashville, Reed and Co., 1971, pp. 250-251).
2. William Woodson, Standing for Their Faith (Henderson, TN: J & W. Publications, 1979, pp.78-79).
3. James DeForest Murch, Adventuring for Christ, An autobiography (Louisville: Restoration Press, 1973, pp. 128-130).
4. H. Leo Boles, The Way of Unity Between "Christian Churches" and Churches of Christ (Memphis, TN Getwell Church of Christ, 1984) pp. 15-16.
5. Leo Lipscomb Boles and J. E. Choate, I'll Stand on the Rock: a Biography of H. Leo Boles (Nashville, TN: Gospel Advocate, 1965), p. 20.
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