THE 'I' SOCIETY

BY STEVE NIEMEIER

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.  Do not speak evil of one another brethren.  He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law.  But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.  Who are you to judge another?” (James 4:10-12)

In researching some web pages of congregations professing to be a church of Christ one will find some very interesting information.  The World Wid Web has opened new teaching opportunities for the Lord's church and many local congregations (including ours) are taking advantage of this inexpensive but hopefully affective opportunity.  Several congregations have pages that are informative with Biblw class material, correspondence courses and special articles available.  Our particular page is taking shape very nicely and will be a useful tool that will only become more profitable in the future.  Certianly all of us should be aware of this door that has been opened to us to spread the gospel to every creature.

However, in the searching of differnent pages available it became very clear that unrest abounds in many congregations.  One congregation in particular had a section that listed its history and being familiar with this congregatin I looked up this page and reading it seemed very interesting to me.  The page listed when the local congregation started in that area and how it had progressed to where it is now.  There were great pains taken to express how the congregation grew and was able to afford to construct a building at its present loaction.  What became very interesting though was in the listing of those who had preached for that congregation a few who had assisted this congregation in its growth through the years was omitted.  However, some of the present evangelist's relation and close friends were listed even thought they were only there for a few months.

Upon researching some of the newsletters that were available for reading another issue became very interesting.  This particular congregation had a gospel meeting last year and the local evangelist addressed some issues of that gospel meeting in this newsletter, which was written after the gospel meeting was over.  He stated that some of the members had failed to attend and certianly that is something that needs to be addressed.  Also, there was a fairly direct attack to area congregations that were not represented at this meeting.  It seem as if this evangelist thought that a “boycott” of this meeting occurred.  In reviewing the reasons why he thought this, one could only come up with that he thought they were standing for the truth and others in the area were trying to stop them from moving forward.  This is sad!

Why is it that preachers get so caught up with themselves and their close friends and family that they cannot see the harm that can be done by playing the 'I' society game?  We are to humble ourselves before the Lord.  Preachers beware!  Elders beware!  Deacons beware!  One of Satan's tools just maybe letting us becoming full of ourselves in such a way that hinders others in obeying the gospel that Christ died for!