Second Restoration

I find it overly humorous and equally frustrating that both the rooted traditionalists and the progressive brethren in the churches are fearful and seem to have a disposition towards the Restoration Movement and the very mention of such movement.  I find in humor this common thread that does bind them together though they pull the church apart with their bickering.

Maybe it is the simplicity surrounding the movement, or maybe it is the consent and complacency to be at heart a denomination, I am unsure.  After all if their goal was to be simply Christian than what would they have to fear from each other, or to work with one another?  Or maybe, the movement calls out their baseless traditions and at the same time preaches simplicity and a common base that ruffles progressives who wish to extend their musical passions.

No matter the reason, unity suffers.  No matter the reason, the church suffers.  No matter the reason, Christ suffers.  So whether you need to lay your traditions at Jesus feet, or whether you need to lay your personal preferences at Jesus feet, until they are laid down neither is fully focused on the vision of Christ.  Let’s turn our focus to Christ, not our worship styles, our traditions, our in-fighting, even if we differ there is no excuse for not being able to be civilized and truly work towards Christ’s goal to be one in Christ.

Are we really one if we acknowledge we co-exist, but really never break bread together.  Whether you have a praise team, or you whole heartedly are against praise teams, whether you have a Christmas Play or you don’t have a Christmas Play….does this really mean you can’t talk to one another, that you can’t eat a meal together, does it even me you can’t worship together.  We disagree with those that live their lives in sin everyday, yet we are able to civilize ourselves to talk to them, why then can’t we find the time or means to talk to our fellow brothers?

Thomas Campbell and the Principles He Promulgated

H. L. Willett, Chicago, Ill.

However, when one turns to ask what was the essence of his message, the answer must be given in clear and emphatic form. Mr. Campbell did not concern himself with a variety of interests. “Principles” is not a word that defines his statements. He held to one principle and to one alone–the union of God’s people. To that one theme he devoted his life; he lived for nothing else. No really first-rank interpreter of God has ever had more than one commanding truth to proclaim. It was so of all the prophets. It was so of Christ. Men of the second rank can concern themselves with various ideas; the great prophets know but one. Thomas Campbell shared the fundamental convictions of his age and ours on the essentials of the faith. But the one principle which absorbed him and claimed his life, was the truth that the church is ideally one, and ought to realize that unity in actual and visible experience. To him this was the most outstanding and impressive fact in all the range of the church’s life. Others might devote themselves to different tasks. But as for himself, and all who were minded to stand with him, this was the supreme need and duty. He was keenly sensitive of this crying necessity of the time. It haunted his soul like a prophetic burden. The waste places of Jerusalem, where the debris of sectarian strife lay scattered and obstructive, filled him with as profound a sorrow as Nehemiah felt in his night circuit of the city. With that same restorer, he might have cried, “Why should I not mourn when the city of my fathers lieth desolate, and its gates are burned with fire?” His hope and passion was the restoration of its undivided glory. The beauty of that vision allured him. The music of the reunited church already filled his soul. Though as yet a choir invisible, its anthem floated to him as if a door in heaven were left ajar and cherubim were singing. To the realization of this hope he devoted all his energies through the lengthening years of his life.

Have we lost the priniple of unity, the burden that Thomas Campbell himself felt?  We must find a way to recreate this passion, this internal burden in Christ’s church today.  There was a reason for Thomas Campbell to restore, and we are creating more reasons for a new restoration as we stray further from the principles of being simply Christian.  It is time to refocus, restore and seek Christian unity by allowing ourselves to be burdened by this plea.

Battered by draining thought
Minutes of physicality wasting away
The ever pressing loss
The ever pressing reality

I collapse, an empty shell
An outer coating of a man
Internally vacant
Internally empty

Hope escapes me
Anger rides me
Defeated I lie
Defeated I die

Lift me from my grave
Position me with your hands
Pull me from the water
Pull me from the darkness

Make your victory in me
Battle the evil within
Shelter me from the pain
Shelter me from the decomposition

I rest here broken
Embattled and fatigued
Losing my will
Losing my being

Reverse my course
Steady my hand
Revitalize my mind
Revive me