Introduction
1. IT BEGAN IN SCOTLAND
   
2. THOMAS CAMPBELL WRITES HIS DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
   
3. THE SPIRIT OF THE "DECLARATION AND ADDRESS"
   
4. PRINCIPLES OF THE DOCUMENT
   
5. HISTORIC NOTES ON OUR FIRST CHURCH
   
6. "LET CHRISTIAN UNITY BE OUR POLAR STAR"
   
7. THE NOBLEST ACT IN BARTON STONE'S LIFE
   
8. LEARNING FROM A BACKWOODS PREACHER
   
9. CHRISTIANS IN BABYLON
   
10. WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
    
11. THE ESSENCE OF THE CAMPBELL PLEA
    
12. THE DEATH OF A DREAM
    
13. THE SAND CREEK ADDRESS
    
14. A MUDDLED MOVEMENT
    
15. THE AUTHORITY TOTEM
    
16. THE PARTY SPIRIT
    
17. THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
    
18. OUR COSTLIEST SIN: EXCLUSIVISM
    
19. RESTORATION OR REFORMATION
    
20. A BOY LEARNS THE MEANING OF BROTHERHOOD
    
21. THE BUTTING BRETHREN
    
22. ANALYSIS OF LEGALISM
    
23. THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
    
24. THOUGHTS ON FELLOWSHIP
    
25. ON THE ROCKS
    
26. WITHDRAWING FROM THE DISORDERLY
    
27. CAUSING DIVISIONS
    
28. TWO GREAT ERRORS
    
29. UNION IN TRUTH
    
30. ONE BODY IN CHRIST
    
31. UNITY AND IDENTITY
    
32. UNITY IN DIVERSITY
    
33. IS DOCTRINE IMPORTANT?
    
34. THE WEIGHTIER MATTERS
    
35. MUST WE GIVE UP OUR OPINIONS?
    
36. WHAT DIFFERENCES DO DIFFERENCES MAKE?
    
37. THE "ONE BAPTISM" AND FELLOWSHIP
    
38. ARE WE TO FELLOWSHIP THE UNIMMERSED?
    
39. OUR FATHERS ON "WHO IS A CHRISTIAN?"
    
40. "OUR BROTHERS IN THE DENOMINATIONS"
    
41. WHAT IS "OUR FELLOWSHIP"?
    
42. ARE WE TO FELLOWSHIP THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH?
    
43. I WOULD ABDICATE
    
44. A BASIC FALLACY TO OVERCOME
    
45. CAN WE BE UNITED AND NOT KNOW IT?
    
46. SEPARATED BUT NOT DIVIDED
    
47. THE ONE CHURCH INDIVISIBLE
    
48. UNITY WILL COME, BUT
    
49. IF NOT BROTHERHOOD, THEN CO-EXISTENCE
    
50. THIS IS OUR GLORY!
    
51. THE UNIFYING POWER OF THE CROSS
    

INTRODUCTION

Cecil Hook

When Leroy Garrett challenged me to edit a book from his writings and those of Carl Ketcherside, my first impulse was to shrink from it. To create a book on the subject of our heritage of unity and fellowship sounded like an idea whose time has come, but that would be a job beyond my capability. Only after Leroy's further persuasion and days of my contemplating the project have I agreed to undertake this.

My anxiety has been that I would not be able to edit material to represent properly their efforts to direct us back to our roots. I have not yet overcome that apprehension.

My intimidation is born of the deep respect and admiration that I feel toward Carl Ketcherside and Leroy Garrett and their influential ministries. I am only one of the many who owes much to each of them for giving me clearer insights. They have been God's prophets crying out to a divided church in the last half of this century. They have understood the Biblical basis for unity and the purposes of the Stone-Campbell Movement to restore it.

Their mission has put them in front of and above the crowd to receive the slings and arrows of fellow-disciples who have misunderstood or prejudged their messages. Although they accepted and ministered to all segments of the Restoration heritage, because they refused to be confined by the sectarian walls that divide us, they were not fully accepted by any of the separated groups. But the Spirit is working exciting change among us at this time giving fruit to the seed they have sown.

This is not a book of history primarily; yet some narratives of the past are necessary to reveal the legacy of unity and fellowship which we may claim. And those are exciting chapters.

Most of this material first appeared in Garrett's Restoration Review or Ketcherside's Mission Messenger. Thirty-three years separate the oldest and the newest chapters.

Having to select so little from the abundance of their relevant material has been a perplexing task. Other writers would do well to compile their articles on other vital subjects. Because these essays are from different writers produced in different decades, the continuity does not flow as it would if one person wrote a book on this theme. There will be some overlapping, some redundancy, and perhaps some gaps. The repetition, however, can serve well to emphasize matters which they considered vital.

I have used more of Leroy's material than Carl's, not out of favoritism, but because it fitted the contextual need better. Also, I have used graphics from Leroy because they are available. Carl used none in his publication.

This is a compilation without commentary, critique, or evaluation. You do not need my help in these areas. If in your reading you perceive an inconsistency, please look at the date when the ideas were expressed which may reveal a maturing of concepts over the years. Also consider that some terms like fellowship and heretic may be used variously to reflect either the true definition or the commonly perceived meaning.

I first thought I would integrate sections from various essays in order to create a smoother flow of ideas, but that would have injected too much of the editor into their writings. It would have compromised their styles, their flow of thought, and the purity of their literary pieces. So this material is all theirs, punctuation and all. Carl and I seem to have attended different schools of grammar! I was tempted to add punctuation all along but refrained from it because his punctuation fitted his flow of speech. Anyway, when he ceased to write, he must have had a bin full of unused commas left over.

I must pause here for some personal expression. I feel that it is an undeserved honor to have my name on the cover of this volume with these two heroic, yet humble peacemakers. During the months of my work on this project, Leroy has encouraged me when I faltered and offered wise suggestions when I asked for advise. He has trusted me with this personal copies of his and Carl's materials.

You will want to join me in thanking Kay Strobeck of Strobeck Designs in Portland, Oregon for her artistic cover design. She created it without charge as an expression of her admiration for Carl and Leroy and in appreciation of their liberating ministries. I benefit greatly from her generous spirit. I planned to put the men's portraits on the cover but Leroy is so free from conceit and vanity that he argued against it.

My affection and thanks go to Mira Prince, our daughter of Tigard, Oregon, for her much loving labor in preparing the cameraready copy. And Lea, my loving companion of fortysix years, has been and continues to be an equal partner in this and all of our ministry together. I am blessed beyond measure by her devotion.

No doubt, some of you have known these two men much longer and more intimately than I have. But for those who are not acquainted with them, a brief introduction of each man will be in order.

Most scholars of the Bible and church history have been religious professionals. Here is a man, however, who has made his living teaching philosophy while becoming a scholar in these other fields also. He loves the legacy of the StoneCampbell Movement with its pure intentions. As a student of philosophy he understands the influence of the great thinkers on the leaders of the movement. In gaining his higher education he has been exposed to every subtle expression of doubt, skepticism, and atheism but he has held to his simple faith and acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God.

Leroy Garrett was born in Mineral Wells, Texas on December 11, 1918 (eighteen days after my birth) and grew up in Dallas in the noninstrument Church of Christ. He is tall and lanky as a Texan should be, and though he speaks with deliberation, he does not have a Texas drawl. At 72 his strong body is kept in shape by his arising early each morning for a twomile jog. Then he reads, studies and writes.

He and Ouida are most hospitable in their modest twostory house where their double garage is converted into an office with crowded shelves and stacks of books and other reading materials. Leroy often mentions Ouida with praise in his writings. They have reared three adopted children: Phoebe, Philip, and David Benjamin. Ouida has done much of the work in publishing Restoration Review and keeping office. She has also cared for her aged mother the last ten years.

Leroy attended FreedHardeman College, Abilene Christian University, Southern Methodist University, Princeton Seminary, and Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. Throughout his career, he has been Dr. Garrett on campus but is simply Leroy to his Christian brothers and sisters.

Beside his teaching at Texas Woman's University in Denton, he has taught at Alabama Christian College, MacMurray College, Bethany College, and Bishop College, and he still teaches parttime at Dallas Christian College. In the field of philosophy he conducted research in teaching gifted students in three high schools on a grant by Lilly Endowment.

Because of his modest nature, we might not have appreciated that he can play with the big boys in the field of philosophy, such as when he participated in an annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association at Yale University. He can converse in their technical language and then write so simply that we lesser minds can comprehend.

Once Leroy was one of a group of American professors to have audience with Chiang Kai Shek in Taiwan. He has dined with university presidents, deans, scholars, and poets in nations around the world. He has visited with Paul Tillich, William Barclay, Nels Ferre, Henry Cadbury, and Harry and Bonara Overstreet. He thoroughly enjoys visits in the homes of disciples, and it is a delight to visit with him.

Although he will joke and talk trivia with you, because of his intense spiritual nature, he soon has you back on some subject of deeper meaning. As you ride along with him he may read to you some challenging material, such as Barclay's book of prayers. He is gracious when mention is made of any who reject and oppose him because of his teachings. That indicates much maturity, for in earlier years he entered into the rough-and-tumble debating of factional issues.

He has participated in seminars and unity forums in various countries. At his own expense and with great delight he has conducted many minimeetings in homes. His interest in unity has involved him with leaders of all segments of the Restoration Movement. Although he harbors no sectarian spirit, he is a member of the Singing Oaks Church of Christ (noninstrumental) in Denton, Texas without apology. He believes that reformation must come from within. Because of his loving nature, learning, and association, he is able to deal with people of varying views with fairness and with sincere feeling for the persons involved. This generous spirit is evident in his THE STONECAMPBELL MOVEMENT where he represents fairly each separated group without cosmetics or censure. Leroy has visited in the services of every religious body in Denton in an outreach to all other believers promoting understanding and unity.

Leroy has an easy, friendly, conversational method of writing. He makes history live in the mind of his readers by his anecdotal style which relates historical incidents to the persons involved.

At times I thought that Leroy was a bit devilish in throwing out ideas which he knew his readers might not accept. But I came to realize that he only wants us to probe and explore new ideas. If he just says what we agree with, he might as well close shop. So he always stays a few jumps ahead of many of us to lead the way to discovery. He disturbs our superficialities.

These lines chosen from various essays seem to express Leroy Garrett's "editorial policy." "Publishing a journal is to send something of one's self into the lives of multitudes of people. An utterly delightful experience!" An editor must have "not just the courage of his conviction, but the courage to examine his convictions." It is not "what will they think of me if I publish this, but is it true, and is it important?" "An editor dares to think, to grow, and to change even though false motives will be attributed to him." "If you are edified in reading it, we will be glad. If you are disturbed we take heart. If nothing happens, we will take stock."

With the anticipated sending out of Volume 34, Number 10; December, 1992, Leroy Garrett plans to cease publication of Restoration Review after 40 years, counting his earlier Bible Talk. A number of those volumes have been bound in book form. His THE STONECAMPBELL MOVEMENT, An Anecdotal History of Three Churches is being revised for reprinting after its wide acceptance.

May God give him many more happy years of effective leadership toward unity. He should give us an autobiography!

"I was born early in the morning of May 10, 1908, in a little tworoom miner's cabin in a povertystricken village called Cantwell, nestled in the eastern foothills of the Missouri Ozarks." Thus Carl Ketcherside begins his most interesting and informative life story.

When he discontinued his monthly journal, Mission Messenger, in December, 1975 after 37 years of publication, his good friend, Leroy Garrett, insisted that he write his autobiography. This Carl did in 60 installments which Leroy published serially in Restoration Review. Carl calls his life story "A Pilgrimage of Joy" and it was published in book form in 1991 by College Press under that title.

When he was a small boy, he was recognized as being "different" because of his fascination with printed words. In learning to read in early childhood he would ask any literate visitor in the home to read the item descriptions in the mail order catalog. At the age of five he was going to the company store for his mother because she could not read English. He would ask the clerk to read labels to him. The keeper of the store would save unclaimed mail to serve as reading material for the child.

Carl's first store-bought clothes were a pair of knickerbockers to wear to his first day in the little tworoom school. Even the first years of his high school education were in a tworoom school.

At the age of ten when the family moved to Marshalltown, a new world opened to him. The town had a free Carnegie Library. He would read a book a day and sometimes more! In his lifelong insatiable appetite for knowledge, he devoured books in uncounted numbers.

The Sunday after his baptism at the age of twelve he read the scripture lesson in the assembly. A week later a visiting preacher announced without consulting Carl that he would speak at the evening service one month later. After preaching to an overflow crowd, others made appointments for him in their congregations. He was soon preaching each Sunday and by his thirteenth birthday he was scheduled for summer meetings in three states. It was in one of these meetings that the church folk surprised him with a new threepiece suit including the first long pants he had ever owned. He still had two more years in high school which were to be completed in a larger school in Topeka. He graduated from a business school in Topeka but never received a college education. Nor did he need one!

While in a meeting in Flat River, Missouri at the age of nineteen, he met Nellie Watts who became his companion for sixty years. Their two children are Jerry and Sue (Burton).

Carl Ketcherside was endowed with rare gifts from his Creator. He was keenly intelligent, strong in body, commanding in presence, the master of every situation, reverent by nature, outgoing in personality, optimistic, witty, happy, and broad in selfeducation through reading and experience. He spoke without notes with flawless diction, beautiful imagery, and pithy statements. He would call upon both secular and religious history, world literature, Greek and Roman mythology, the thoughts of philosophers, and modern scientific achievements as background material for many of his points.

Thirtyfour books came from his pen including bound volumes of Mission Messenger. Thousands of his books were distributed free.

In his earlier years Carl became "a factionalist of the factionalists," a "wing commander" of one of our narrowest divisions, to use his own selfdescriptions. He forcefully debated issues with brethren who disagreed doctrinally. Later, he confessed to having taken pride in this role of championing an exclusive sect.

But this all changed dramatically in Belfast, Ireland in a cold chapel on March 27, 1951. After a sleepless night of agonizing, the Lord knocked on the door of his heart and he invited Jesus into his life. Gone forever was his sectarian spirit. Many times later he would confess with shame the misguided, divisive nature of his former course. From then on he would love and accept all of God's people and proclaim the unity for which Jesus prayed and which the Spirit creates. From that night forward he would be the lover to accept rather than the lawyer to judge. He would say, "Wherever God has a child, I have a brother or sister." When asked about accepting "brothers in error," he would reply, "That is the only kind of brothers I have!"

Carl was tireless in his travels, speaking, writing, and correspondence. Many of us were surprised that each time we wrote a note to him, he wrote in response, either in perfect penmanship or on his typewriter that needed cleaning. He wrote many such notes daily to encourage and to commend.

This man who could display no college diploma was called upon to speak on more than 250 college and university campuses-including Harvard! He was speaking at Harvard the afternoon before the sitins and walkouts of the 1960's took place, and he sat in on the meeting between the rebellious students and the faculty. He could and did communicate effectively with the hippie generation, even staying in three communes, and he was instrumental in converting rock bands to Jesus.

Leroy Garrett speaks of his intimate friend, writing, "He is another that could not produce a college diploma if his life depended upon it, and he too grew up in poverty. And yet he knows more than a whole roster of Ph.D's. I have "walked with kings" in these professional meetings and at several universities, and I have sat with scholars renowned the world over, but I have not yet met the man that is superior to Carl Ketcherside in intellectual grace."

During the last six years of his earthly service, he crowned his farreaching ministry by putting into practice the most basic concept of Jesus. He and Nell worked out of a storefront called Cornerstone in the inner city of St. Louis helping the poor, the homeless, the alcoholic, the drug-addicted, and all others who need love. Invitations to speak as he had done through the years were turned down so that he could work in this humblest expression of the love of Jesus. While in this ministry, he was called home on May 14, 1989. His beloved Nell was waiting to welcome him, having preceded him the year before.

These two men were close friends for nearly 40 years and served together in various forums and seminars. They were friends to all but owned by none. Each had a deep appreciation of our heritage of unity and fellowship. They both matured beyond their beginnings to become the outstanding envoys of peace in the last half of this century. They pointed us back to unity in spite of diversity-a concept which was taught and practiced by our forbears and the apostles.

In order that their message might have free course, both of these men have left their writings without copyright restrictions.

Leroy wrote this note to me which deals with a watershed in their careers:

"I am often asked at what point Carl and I turned our ministry in a different direction and what was the circumstance. In 1957 Carl and I had a debate on instrumental music with Don DeWelt and Seth Wilson, professors at Ozark Christian College, in Nowata, Oklahoma. In preparation for this debate I wrote Carl and suggested that this should be a different kind of debate in that we should not make the issue a debated test of fellowship. I further told Carl that I thought we should accept Don and Seth as our brothers in Christ, the same as we accepted each other as brothers, making no difference. We would show our love toward them as much as toward each other. We would discuss the issue for the mutual benefit of all, but would draw no lines.

Without responding to my letter and without telling me in advance, Carl opened the debate by reading my letter to the vast audience from Churches of Christ and Christian Churches that had assembled in the city's Fair Grounds. He endorsed what I had said and emphasized that this was a different kind of a debate in that we were drawing no lines of fellowship over the issue being discussed, but that it was a brotherly effort to learn more truth on a controversial issue. It set a tone for the debate that was vastly different from previous debates.

From that point on our efforts moved in a different direction. While there was never any collusion on what we would say in our papers (I never knew what was in his paper until it came in the mail, and he didn't know in advance what I would say in mine), we pursued the same goals and wrote on similar subjects."

When a person denounces a former party and seeks to bring about reform, former admirers find it hard to forgive him. Inquisitions are instituted against him. The orthodox of any institution always seeks to destroy the wisest and noblest of its princes who would dare to challenge and reform. Many times these men have been misrepresented and denounced by name from pulpits and journals by men who had never heard or read their messages. But both Carl and Leroy were insulated from such attacks by their unfeigned love for all for whom Christ died. They continued tirelessly to remind us of our legacy of unity and fellowship.

In 1988 at a seminar at the Bering Drive Church of Christ in Houston, Carl and Leroy were presented "Marty" awards. These were artfully designed metallic plaques given in a tongueincheek recognition of those who almost become martyrs but do not quite make it! The awards were appropriate.

Praise the Lord, many are now rising up to call them blessed.

(October 1991)