The Ohio Independent Baptist, March 1961

March, 1961 town when they knew that we had started a mission in a home . We challenged them and they graciously withdrew, since vve promised that if ,ve failed , we would gladly tum the field over and any prospects we forn1d. They kept their end of that bar– gain and we k ept ours . Some times ,ve may gro\.vl too much among our– selves and not go to them to talk things over. Of course, we must face the prob– lems of comp etition honest!y, and not in a sectarian spirit. Are we always justified in h elping splits from Ameri– can Baptist churches? If the church is openly and incurably modernistic, we insist that it is our duty to h elp a come-out group that wants our Gospel; but even then it is not wise to build ,vithin the old church.es' shadow. So often the come-outers want to build close enough so they can put the old church out of busi– ness. They will say, "All the spiritual people came with us , and the old church is bound to die anyway. " It usually works the other way. The old church is r evived by the chal– lenge and begins to prosper, and it is the new church that has a hard time. Then in these days of r e-location, Regular Baptists may compete with each other. In all our larger cities there is such a presure on to buy large lots and move out in the suburbs, that sometimes Baptists build too close to each other. Cer– tainly they should study matters care– fully before they do such a thing. Sometimes two churches that must move may do b ette r to unite and build a strong church in a new and ritzy community. In such com– munities many store-front church es are definitely not the answer . Ritzy people wi ll not attend r amsh ackle churches. Usually, in this day when automobiles have erased all remnants of the parish idea, there is a new sub – division farther ou t that would welcome one of these compe ting ch urc·hes. If sometimes we compete with each oth r in tl1e same group, w must 11ot become bitter if another Baptist group l)ui]ds close lo us. om tim s tl1 y a1 e f orcecl close to us l)y that sam r1ec ssi ty for a la1 g Jot . Tl1 thing fo1 us to do is to cultivat ·h urc}1 loyalty i 11 Oltr ow11 g1 oup , r1cl go f1 on1 door to door to a11g liz th lo~t . Mai11tai11 a good Sur1day school , c.01nl)i"11 digr1ity ,vith '/ al a11d joy i11 your wors}1ip s r,lic .. s, ti ai11 you1 p o– p} i11 pray r ,t11d i11 \i\ 1 itrl ssi11g, ,111d }'OU will l1a littl to f ar. 0111- l) titior1 n1a,1 b l1ard to 11dur , but a11ytl1i11g is l> ·tt r tl1rt11 st,tgr1alio11 . ROAMINGS OF THE EDITOR Since the first of the year we have b een very busy, which is the way we want it. \Ve h ave enjoyed six Sundays with the First Baptist Church at Brunswick-or it will be next Sunday. Pastor Lewis Hunter has already moved to Brunswick and will begin his work March 5th. Then we will begin as interim pastor of the church he is leaving, the Fellow– ship Baptist Church eas t of Medina on Highway 94. We hope they will find the ma11 of God's choice soon, but we are anticipati11g a few Sun– days with them in March and April be tween candidates . If some church es want us for a Sunday those months they should write in two weeks in advance and we will see if 'A'e can gear their requests in with Sundays they have candidates at F ellowship. The Brunswick church h as a bright future, we are sure. The group is a yet small , but h armoniou s, and they have a fine first unit of their plant that only needs fillin g. Attendance runs from 85 to 100, but there is room for 200. Pastor Hunter is a stro11g believer in and practicer of visitation, so a year or two from now we expect the building will b e full. Ja11. 8-13 we had an enjoyable time with P astor Arthur Houk and the Maranatha Baptist Church of Springfield . It was a spiritual life conferen ce on prayer. ot only did we study the subject , but each 1 ight we took time for its prac tice. H ere is another church with a fine building and a real opportunity in a large residential area. Two year ago the Southern Baptists bt1ilt within half a block; bt1t with the full time mini try Maranatha h as now, we do not believ the competition will hurt mt1ch. The folks that loved hill-billy music and soutl1en1 sty] evangelism did not com an}'\vay, and thos tha t war1t r al Bibi preach – ing will coin to enjoy Brother I-Iot1k' xpository style. That week Pastor G1e1111 Gree11- wood invited Pastor Houk and myself to enjoy a 11oon luncheon with on of the 1nen' s classes at tl1e Blessed Hope Baptist Church. That was largely a ti1ne of good fellowship . Then we we11t to ee Pastor Gree11- wood's beat1tiful l1ome that the church is h elpi11g him to buy in lieu of a p arso1 age. Then we went to his church , to speak on tape for his next Su11day even i11g broadcast. (How wonderful these days , wh en a man can speak a t two places at the same time !) Without notes or Bible, we had to borrow a Bible and do so1ne quick thinking; but it's a poor Bible conference ma11 who can11ot speak double f as t a11d keep going for t e11 minutes on I a. 5.5: 1-7, which wa the passage we chose. Feb. 5 -1 2 we h ad eight blessed days with Pastor D. W. Peltier a11d the Open D oor Bapti t Church neclr Spencerville. They treated tis bot111- tifully, so we tried to pr ach our b e t in return. Yet how disappointing to find tha t all of us put together could not get one sinner out \vho acknovvl– edged himself as t1ch ! \Ve visited in 26 country ho1nes and had an op– p orh1nity to speak t o a fe\v who owned that they were u11saved ru1d to others ju t as plai11ly ,vho \ve feared might b e t111saved cht1rch members; but come t o cl1urch they ,vould not-11ot ,vhile a re ival \,,a on. Pastor Peltier ,va plea ed tl1at \ve l1ad the largest crowd i11 the l1i tory of thi five or six year old chw·ch , for it sho\ved that co1nmt111ity prejt1- dice was breaki11g cl0\\111. B ide big delegatio11 from Faith j11 , 7 a11 \\ 7 rt a11d from Hon1e\vood Bapti t i11 Limn, we had ome that b ca111 r gt1lar att nda11t fron1 t,,,o 11earb) 1 Bapti t church and from Methodi t , Ie11 - no11ite a11cl l1ri tia11 11io11 cl1t1r h ·. o i11 Mal. 3: 16, 17 t} 1 le \\ 1 ]1ad a l1eart-, armi11g an1011g l1ri tin11 p o– pl rather tl1a11 a r ival. ( Continued on page 20) LOS ANGELES BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY J ohn R. Dunkin, Th.D. , Preside1it THREE YEAR BACHELOR OF DIVINITY DEGREE IN THEOLOGY THREE YEAR BACHELOR OF DIVINITY DEGREE IN MISSIONS THREE YEAR BACHELOR OF DIVINITY DEGREE IN JEWISH MISSIONS FOUR YEAR BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE IN BIBLE OR HUMANITIES A growing graduatE- school of Baptist persuasion in sunny California Address ull correspo11de1ice to 560 Sou.t1L St . LotLts St ,-eet, Los A 1tgele 33, <... alifornia