Dear Charles,

Thanks for forwarding the speech from F. LaGard Smith. The first time I heard about him was about 23 years ago before he became well-known for his books. He sent out a letter to several members of churches of Christ with a lot of these same questions, and I got to read it courtesy of a sister in Christ who received a copy.

He makes many valid points in his speech, though some of his comments remind me of brethren who speak critically of the "clergy" and religious institutions, yet in practice support both. I was glad to hear that he has been meeting with this new group in an attempt to get closer to what the New Testament teaches.

His main concern about the church is indeed valid, though I don't think he quite hits the mark with his solution (and maybe he didn't have time to). I find that we must be careful when reacting to problems we see in the church, or else we just create more problems ourselves.

I believe our real problem is described in Ezekiel 33 where God told the prophet how the people talked about him behind his back(they despised prophesying; didn't respect it as they should have), then invited people to come to hear the Word, and sat and listened, but would not do what was said ... their heart went after covetousness. Ezekiel was "entertaining", but there was no obedience to the truth he presented because the hearts of his hearers were somewhere else.

This is still the problem today, and our lust for "gain" involves desire for money, food (stomachs strike at twelve o'clock), pleasure (The Titans in Tennessee he referred to), prestige, popularity, and all the many and varied cares of this world. The love of God cannot abide in the same heart with these worldly desires which war against the soul. How can our assemblies ever be pleasing to God and truly edifying to each other under such conditions?

Christians aren't changed by rearranging the pews, but by rearranging the heart. I have seen brethren sit facing each other and still have their faces in the songbook. And if someone does have their face in their book, is it our place to judge their heart? Maybe they are suffering through a trial we cannot comprehend ... but we misconstrue their appearance to mean that they are cold and indifferent.

Even Bible teaching can be turned into something cold, boring, and harmful if handled the wrong way. When this happens, we shouldn't stop teaching the Bible(some churches do); rather, we repent and handle the word of God rightly. Ezekiel's form was not at fault, it was the heart of the people that was at fault.

So I believe our work is to change hearts. Preaching the Word in love is the lawful way to do that, backed up by kind deeds and speech. If we look to a change in forms as the answer, we will be just as guilty as the cold, formal, ritualistic brethren who are now being criticized. While the forms in the New Testament are important, it is far better to find out what caused the coldness to set in rather than come up with "new" forms which will become the next generation's cold rituals.

I really liked his analogy about "where will the noses go" ... We tend to complicate the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus when in reality our message is so simple that even a poor Samaritan woman can go out and bring her neighbors in without having to worry about "where will the noses go?"

May God help us all to be right with God and set the right example for the rest of our brethren for whom Christ died.

Brotherly love,

Tom