Other Books at Freedom's Ring

Chapter 20

EPILOGUE

Visualize with me an unusual, but not an unscriptural scene. It is Sunday morning and we walk down the hall of the educational wing of the church. We peek through the window on the first door. An elder is teaching a group of middle aged men on the subject of bishops, elders, and shepherding.

Next door, the minister and his wife are team-teaching a mixed class on family relations.

Across the hall, an older lady, who spent 40 years in the mission field in Africa, is teaching a mixed college class about mission work.

Next door, new converts are being instructed on Christian growth and maturity by a godly older brother.

In another classroom, a sister who recently graduated from a Christian university with a major in Biblical Languages is teaching a dozen men and women New Testament Greek.

Down the hall, a Christian woman, who is a trained psychologist, is teaching a group of recovering alcoholics and their mates.

In the auditorium, a Christian woman who is head of the music department at the local Christian university has a large group of men and women studying worship and is training them to read music and blend voices to more effectively teach and admonish in song.

In the family room, the new youth minister is teaching teenagers to resist Satan and live for Christ in this sin-pressured world. She recently graduated from a Christian university. The teenagers have already learned to love and respect her.

Down another hall, men and women are teaching classes of children from cradle roll age to teens.

After classes are over and the congregation gathers in the auditorium, a brother calls the meeting to order and welcomes members and visitors. He encourages everybody to shake hands and be friendly. The church members spend five minutes shaking hands, hugging, greeting one another with holy kisses (it's Biblical and commanded), and extending hospitality.

Then the lady who taught the music class encourages the church to join her in two songs of praise.

She is followed by a brother who reads a scripture and tells how it has special meaning in his life.

After the reading, a sister asks the church to join her in the offering of prayer and thanksgiving.

Another song is sung and is followed by a testimony of one of the recovering alcoholic women on how she was powerless until she relied on God to see her through the day, one day at a time. She thanks her teacher for the spiritual insights she has given in her class. She then thanks the church for its efforts in reaching out to and reclaiming people like her. She then offers a prayer of thanksgiving for God's help and for this supporting body of Christians.

The preacher, a man, preaches his sermon, and two teenagers come forward to become Christians. Their father takes their confession and their mother baptizes them.

Three men and three ladies wait on the communion table and serve the church. One of the ladies offers thanks for the bread and a man offers thanks for the wine.

A sister who recently returned from Honduras reports on her work there. She reports that she has established a new church in the jungles and has converted sixty-four people in the past year.

During the announcements, the elder announces that Sister Jones, from our favorite Christian university, and a professor of Biblical Archeology, would be preaching for us next Sunday morning on the subject "Archaeological Evidence That The Bible Is True."

The bulletin reports the activities of deacons and deaconesses who are involved in dozens of ministries within the membership and in outreach.

To some, such a vision is shocking. They have been so conditioned by training and experience that such a change creates not just discomfort, but fear and uncertainty. They find it difficult to bring themselves to give up the status quo or relinquish their concepts of authority and leadership, no matter how logical and Biblical the arguments for change may be.

But, there are others who have not closed their minds and who have not stopped learning and who will accept the logic and scripturalness of such a church. They will recognize this truth and the need to change. They will make changes with care and courage. A true priesthood of believers will emerge.

The church will give up its traditions for truth just as it gave up "one cup at communion," instituted "individual Bible classes," and overcame the "segregation of the races."

Truth will win out. The bars on our prison cells will be stripped away. We will be freer of the constraints of fear, culture, ignorance, and tradition. The talents of all Christians, male and female, will be used to God's glory and to the growth of His Kingdom.

So be it! And again, Amen!