November/December 2006
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Unity Meetings on Instrumental Music - Very Troubling for churches of Christ
Mark Roberts
Over the last decade, a number of concerted efforts have been made to bring about “unity” between churches of Christ and Independent Christian Churches. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that ICC congregations teach and act remarkably like most churches of Christ, except that they employ instrumental music in worship. Several unity meetings and conferences on unity have been held. At a recent event preachers from “each side” exchanged Bibles. You read that correctly: men actually gave their personal Bible to a preacher on the other side of the issue. Despite all of this, the reality is that ICC churches and congregations of churches of Christ are still not united. Wonder why? I just completed reading about yet another unity discussion (this one at Freed-Hardeman University), and I believe I can identify three very real problems with having fellowship with churches that use instrumental music.
The Subtlety of Institutionalism
Jason Moore
It used to be that folks canned their own vegetables. Now factories do for the many what the many once did in their own kitchens. Once, many a mother sewed her daughter’s Sunday dress. In prosperous cultures clothing mills and shopping malls do for many a mother what many a mother once did in her sewing room.