00:00:00.009 - 00:00:20.149

So we started yesterday and to get those of you up to par here for what we're going to say today, I'll say a word about what I'm trying to do in these two lectures. First off, I noticed how in scripture you get a perspective that large

00:00:20.159 - 00:00:43.529

gatherings aren't unique in the Jewish and Christian faith. And we looked at Moses and Joshua and Josiah and all of these, they gathered people together. Uh These were all authority figures and I made some point about how uh Christianity is the, this if you do the

00:00:43.540 - 00:01:04.010

five senses according to the old Lockean way of thinking, the sense that is most important from a Christian standpoint is hearing. So it's speaking, hearing, Locke himself thought you need solid things. So touch was most important for Aristotle. It's seeing, but for us, it's hearing the

00:01:04.019 - 00:01:24.519

speaking and the hearing and that's why we have these gatherings. So I spent a little time on that. Number two, I noticed the various kind of gatherings in the history of Christianity. Uh There are the great councils and I see a coon to formulate basic understandings

00:01:24.529 - 00:01:46.129

of God and Christ and Christ himself. And there's the Dort uh Holland Council where you define the t of five principles of Calvinism. So we know that Christians have gathered for various purposes. Uh Our forefathers had to struggle a lot with exactly why are we gathering

00:01:46.360 - 00:02:09.899

and why do we, what do we hope to accomplish? So I started yesterday talking about gatherings in the restoration movement and all the four principal parts. All of these people came out of backgrounds. Presbyterians had their Presbytery and maybe a larger Baptists have associations. The Methodists

00:02:09.910 - 00:02:30.899

had their uh gatherings. Uh So all our forefathers fought with, what are we going to do. Uh We think that congregations need to go directly to the word of God and make their own decisions. And since this is true, what are we going to do when

00:02:30.910 - 00:02:52.910

we have large gatherings? That was a principal kind of interest. So, uh I've already noticed how in the Stone movement the decision was to abandon the Springfield Presbytery, you know, the story and sink into union with the body of Christ at large. So there was not

00:02:52.919 - 00:03:14.309

much way for the various congregations to discuss things, but they found that didn't work very well, especially when the shakers came in 1805 and disturbed them. So they did start gathering, but all these people had qualms. And you may remember in 26 and 27 the Mahoning

00:03:14.320 - 00:03:41.199

Baptist Association where the church that uh Campbell belong to uh was a part of it that uh they decided to dissolve the Mahoning Baptist Association. So we have a long history of being uh ambivalent is that the word about gatherings and what they can accomplish. So

00:03:41.210 - 00:03:57.169

how is it then that we can be so successful with lectureships or Jerry Rose Ford particularly. And so we're going to try to look a little more at our own way of looking at this. I look at an item or two. So that's where we are

00:03:57.179 - 00:04:14.669

right now. Uh Then I want to talk some about sort of a history of lectureships and churches of Christ. I've got some details here, but not enough I think is going to bore you. That's not a big lot of it, but it is interesting to know

00:04:14.679 - 00:04:33.850

when these kind of gatherings started and what they were trying to achieve. And then I want to end up by reflecting again on what Jerry has done. And uh 30 years, I have a first section what Jerry Hath not brought. And uh he's been pretty faithful

00:04:33.859 - 00:04:51.269

to some of these early visions of why we might get together in a larger capacity than the local congregation. And then I say this is what Jerry Hath brought. And maybe last night, we get some sense. At least if he's done nothing else, he's made lectureship

00:04:51.279 - 00:05:11.320

international. None of our other lectureships have as yet I think become very international, but I think he's done some more and that's what I'm going to lay out so you'll get some view of where we come from and what our project remains for today. Now, I

00:05:11.329 - 00:05:25.950

know a lot about the John Smith movement because that happened in my neck of the world uh in New England. I live in Maine, but that's as close to Boston as you can get and still be in Maine. So I know about Maine, New Hampshire and

00:05:25.959 - 00:05:47.779

these guys were always writing autobiographies at the ripe old age of 22 and 28 and so forth. So you can learn a lot about them. Well, the first church up there was founded in Vermont by Abner Jones in, in 1801. And uh they're related to the

00:05:47.790 - 00:06:07.390

Free Will Baptist who started in uh 1784. Not too long before that in New Hampshire. So, what are they going to do when they start founding churches? They found some up on the Connecticut River. And uh Elias Smith was living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is

00:06:07.399 - 00:06:23.640

12 miles from where I live. And I know where the old location of his building is. It's no longer there, but it's down in the old square in Portsmouth. So the question is, what are these people going to do with these churches they found? Are they

00:06:23.649 - 00:06:44.290

going to meet together like the Baptists and have their associations and what they did? Now, I'm going to say I'm going to read this and say a few words about it. Uh, these churches had what they call Christian associations, but they were free will Baptists. And

00:06:44.299 - 00:07:06.369

this says about, uh, Jones. No, I, I guess this is about Smith. Actually, he attended several of the Christian conferences but did not join it till some time after he decides, maybe he needs to belong to these gathered churches. Uh, one of the principal things they

00:07:06.380 - 00:07:27.959

did was ordained preachers that was decided. uh, have you ever been a bit disturbed over? Anybody can put out a shingle and churches of Christ and claim to be a preacher. Well, they didn't believe that was the best way to go. So, uh, they ordained preachers

00:07:28.429 - 00:07:51.049

in these conferences among other things. So, but this group decides to draw up some articles, sort of a creed. I guess you can say, uh, these articles, the church at Portsmouth soon laid aside. This was, uh, Elias Smith's church. They put these aside and at Hopkin

00:07:51.059 - 00:08:15.619

in New Hampshire, Hopkinton in 1805, the conference agreed they were useless. So they struggled a lot with, uh, we are a brotherhood. Uh, but how do we do anything about that? Uh What are we going to do? So, they decided they're not going to have some

00:08:15.630 - 00:08:38.330

kind of bylaws, we might call it for creed. So they decided with Jesus, they put it aside and that the New Testament was the only and all sufficient rule for Christians. So, in whatever way they gathered, they weren't going to hold people to a five page

00:08:38.340 - 00:09:22.989

statement of some kind. They say we're going to gather based on what we can read about in the New Testament that impacts the churches. Hmm. I'm not sure what happened here. I don't think I hit the wrong key but my computer's frozen up. Hm. Well,

00:09:23.000 - 00:09:50.530

pardon me a minute? Uh, no, I guess it's freed up now. Not exactly sure what that was all about, but it's still not. Hm. Well, let me do something here. I think the best I know to do is to, well, let's see what it's going to

00:09:50.539 - 00:10:39.900

do now. Um, I especially wanted to talk about this frame. Let's see. I get my glasses. No, it's where I want it if it'll go somewhere. Ok. We got it, I guess. Sorry about the, um, so there were these decisions

00:10:39.909 - 00:11:02.760

in Kentucky, uh, in New England, the O Kelly people abandoned their Republican Methodist group for the name Christian. And, uh, they opposed, of course Francis Asbury and the conference of the Methodist. Uh, so, uh, you have that in the air then? And I like this statement

00:11:02.770 - 00:11:25.979

and I think it sort of introduces us to the thinking of these people about such gatherings. Uh, Barton W Stone started a news, uh, religious paper in 1826 called the Christian Messenger. He was in Kentucky. You may know. And in the first issue of that, uh,

00:11:25.989 - 00:11:53.429

somebody sent him a statement about why we Christian churches get together. And it made it very clear that we aren't gathering to make decisions for the churches, but we are basically gathering to edify and encourage each other and have some means of uh networks and brotherhood.

00:11:54.090 - 00:12:14.609

So I'm going to read this and I, and then I may make a few comments. So uh if I've left out part of this, it may then be inquired what propriety there is there in your conference or annual meeting. They did gather annually many of these

00:12:14.619 - 00:12:41.809

stone churches they've now known about the New Englanders and the ones in Virginia. He says, I answer simply to worship together. That way we do lectureships, strengthen the bonds of union um to receive and obtain information from the different churches. Uh They usually let each church

00:12:41.820 - 00:13:03.820

report. Jerry hasn't worked that into a lectureship yet. Take up a lot of time either from their letters or messengers and to attend to their suggestions. And as far as in our power, comply with their requests, attend to ordination and about all these groups uh had

00:13:03.830 - 00:13:28.820

that as a purpose if thought proper when required by the brethren to arrange our appointment. So as to supply the destitute churches with preaching and imitate the primitive church by making such requests only as may be proper to set things in order the brethren who meet

00:13:28.849 - 00:13:54.969

the elders as messengers. We do not recognize as representatives, they're not going to have a Presbyterian annual. What do they call it? John Mark, the General Assembly. It's not going to be a general assembly because nobody shows up to represent their church even though they are

00:13:54.979 - 00:14:15.340

picked out to do that, let that principle be established. And the foundation is that once laid for the final annihilation of Christian liberty. That's their fear. John said a word to me about that. They didn't want to be coerced in any way. So this uh lays

00:14:15.349 - 00:14:37.280

aside that fear, I would therefore oppose any convocation. The object of which is to take from the churches, any of their sovereign rights and prerogatives or to legislate in any manner, whatever for them or that will maintain or upon that doctrine that any man or order

00:14:37.289 - 00:15:04.530

of men are alone answerable to the particular church where they may have membership. So notice how they want to very clearly delineate and maintain congregational independence. But I am nevertheless constrained to believe that our conferences as they are turned with our present views of Christian liberty

00:15:04.539 - 00:15:27.979

are highly beneficial. So we claim that this gathering though we don't call it a conference at Pepperdine is uh highly beneficial. Uh Even with our views of Christian liberty, it enables the brethren to ascertain the situation of each other. And there's a lot of that goes

00:15:27.989 - 00:15:52.179

on here even though it's not official and each church to learn the prosperity of God's cause to meet and worship together. And to obtain a variety of information important to be known. Surely then none will oppose meetings, the object of which is alone, information and edification,

00:15:52.539 - 00:16:17.359

not legislation. So I guess that's our traditional position, which remains the same as to why we see lectureships as appropriate. Uh Now they did have a lot of gatherings for evangelism. But notice here, he didn't emphasize evangelism that was seen to be in churches of Christ

00:16:17.369 - 00:16:38.559

gospel meetings. So this lectureship is not a gospel meeting, is it? We don't offer an invitation and I don't hear of people being baptized unless it might be some uh fact of some of the preaching, but that's not built in as a part of it. So

00:16:38.570 - 00:17:01.380

I think very interesting. This was spelled out in 1826 in such a way that that still is pretty much a vision of what lectureship should be in our midst. Uh So that gives us some point of view. Now, there was a man who uh lived most

00:17:01.390 - 00:17:20.599

of his life about 10 miles south of me. And when he lived there, it was Kittery Maine. Uh If any of you know anything about Kittery Maine, that's where the stores are, where you buy all the major brands, you know. And uh north of it is

00:17:20.609 - 00:17:41.569

Elliot and he lived there and he wrote, uh well, there's a, it's, it's a biography of Mark Fernel, which is very interesting. Uh And he was pretty much from the start of the movement. So he writes that in the Christian connection that is principally the John

00:17:41.579 - 00:18:04.599

Smith people in New England, they're independent, authorized to govern themselves and transact their own affairs. They have a large number of associations called conferences. Each conference meets annually sometimes oftener and it's composed of ministers and messengers from the churches within its bounds at such conferences. Candidates

00:18:04.609 - 00:18:23.699

for the ministry examined, received and commended. Once a year in a conference, the character and standing of each minister is examined. Very interesting that purity in the ministry may be carefully maintained. Such other subjects are discussed and measures adopted is to have direct bearing on the

00:18:23.709 - 00:18:44.349

welfare of the body at large. This is some uh about 30 years after they started founding churches and they developed all kinds of problems with uh Prevo Baptist and later William Miller, who uh there were a large number of these churches in Maine and quite a

00:18:44.359 - 00:19:10.209

few of them went with the 1844 Miller group. So they partly had these gatherings to try to work through some of those. Now, uh the early people in the Campbell group uh came from a Baptist background. They joined the Redstone Baptist Association as you may recall.

00:19:10.989 - 00:19:35.150

And the famous one that is in our history is the 1816 1 when Alexander Campbell was invited to preach at uh Redstone Baptist Association, meaning that southwest of Pittsburgh. And there were, he gave his famous sermon on the law and Campbell was not sure that it

00:19:35.160 - 00:20:03.699

was right to abandon the conferences. And by 1850 he was proposing some gatherings like the mission society or whatever. So we we have continued to struggle with how we exercise uh some kind of commonality among the churches and make some decisions without any official arrangement. And

00:20:03.709 - 00:20:26.349

as our brother over here said yesterday, we have done it to editors and colleagues, presidents and whatever. But uh now we do it through blogs and you can read John Marks or our new directors and uh there you can learn visions. Uh but maybe lectureships are

00:20:26.359 - 00:20:46.449

still a powerful place in which this happens. Um It's interesting. Uh I've look, if you look, if you look at the web these days and I use Crown Google and put in lectureship. Uh I don't know if you know this or not with churches of Christ,

00:20:46.459 - 00:21:03.900

people are about the only people who use this in a religious sense and I'm going to say a word about that later. But uh if you put lectureship and it's always churches of Christ gatherings and the women have sort of cornered the market on if you

00:21:03.910 - 00:21:26.229

Google this on lectureships, there's all kinds of about the 1st 20 picks or women lectureships. But I found that the more right wing people and churches of Christ, uh they now have regional lectureships that many of them are annual. Uh They're not big, they're not sponsored

00:21:26.239 - 00:21:50.800

by colleges in this sense. So, uh lectureships have taken on a new kind of life form, particularly in the right wing of our movement, which I suppose, does that mean disintegration? I don't know, maybe. But uh the old colleagues lectureships, I guess, maintain some larger unity

00:21:50.810 - 00:22:16.979

of our people as much as that's possible. All right. Uh So, number four, what about when we started this business in churches of Christ? Uh I think it's clear that uh there were lectureships, uh, similar to what we do now that prior to 1906, when uh

00:22:16.989 - 00:22:37.599

churches of Christ become official by the federal census. And I'm going to just refer to one, I'm not sure there were many of these, but John Wilson, I are Missourians and we're proud that it happened in Missouri and there are the famous, uh Missouri lectureships, uh

00:22:37.609 - 00:22:58.520

called Missouri Christian lectureships. They weren't in my part of the world. I grew up in southern Missouri. Uh the area of Missouri settle first, Daniel Boone moved to west of Jefferson City because it got too crowded in Kentucky. His nearest neighbor was nine miles away and

00:22:58.530 - 00:23:16.810

someone's going to build a house within six miles of his residence. So he takes off from Missouri and they named Boonville Missouri after him. And that little area up in Northern Missouri is called uh Little Dixie because about all the people who migrated, there were out

00:23:16.819 - 00:23:36.589

of Kentucky. And of course, there are a lot of restorations there before the civil war in Northern Missouri. The principal religious group were restoration is because they'd come out of, uh, Tennessee and Kentucky. There's a lot for the John's relatives and mine and James Thompson all

00:23:36.599 - 00:23:56.560

followed the route into Missouri. So it was pretty strong. Jw mcgarvey preached there. Uh, Moses Laird or Lard preached there and they had these great Christian lectures and they printed them and some of these are still in print. You can buy a volume of uh combined

00:23:56.569 - 00:24:18.430

three of those. I googled it and it's still in print. So this went on. Uh They continued it after its demise and that would be in the Christian church, but it's no longer done. So the idea of gathering, addressing topics of common interest, these people were

00:24:18.439 - 00:24:36.770

a bit more interested in biblical criticism and some of these things and some of these are pretty powerful, scholarly, almost kind of lectures. So there were precedents for this and they, I looked through a bunch of the titles quickly, I've got a volume, I think that

00:24:36.780 - 00:25:01.949

of the three years, but they direct us to biblical doctrinal, practical historical and ethical questions. And you could see some continuity between that and what even Jerry R Ford does here. Uh The preachers who uh presented these were some of the key people, mostly Missourians. Uh

00:25:01.959 - 00:25:29.800

So this was a development that I think now give some background for how lectureships start developing in churches of Christ. It's principally with the founding of our colleges that the lectureship emerges and is loomed large on the horizon and churches of Christ uh this period. Well,

00:25:29.810 - 00:25:50.050

we had some colleges. Uh John Mark teaches at one founded in 1891. But interestingly, they didn't get in on the lectureship bit for about 30 years after they were founded. But uh some of the other colleges did this early. So uh I'd say something about the

00:25:50.060 - 00:26:11.069

founding of our colleagues, Lipscomb 91 AC U 06, Fried Hardeman 09. Fried Harman had some long basis back in other schools. But for our purposes, I guess we don't worry about that. Harding has some backgrounds. One in Missouri, interestingly, we had to be proud of harding

00:26:11.079 - 00:26:34.280

because Jan Armstrong was president of a college in Odessa, Missouri uh near the Missouri River. Uh So there and then Pepperdine in 9037 and Pepperdine didn't wait very long till it started Electors. I think I have it here. I believe it's 43. So it's colleges that

00:26:34.290 - 00:27:00.500

principally uh feel some kind of need to gather uh members and preachers in the churches for these. So people could talk to each other here and uh speak the chief lectureships that among us have revolved about the colleges. That's true. Even in Shelley's Canada, of course,

00:27:00.510 - 00:27:23.880

we have the Tulsa workshop, which is something different. But when the preacher school started, they having had their own, they call them so, saving workshops. But about all our schools have felt the need to uh somehow be in the mix of bringing church leaders together for

00:27:23.890 - 00:27:50.989

some kind of common interest. So uh I think we have to say in a way, lectureship starts with us trying to attract attention to our colleges. Now, somewhere here there's faith, faith identify yourself. She's written a thesis, right? Just uh but Judy, OK, Judy, maybe I

00:27:51.000 - 00:28:08.050

was given a card. I thought it was by you, but maybe it was somebody. Ok, she's David Baird just directed a thesis this woman wrote. And uh she, she, she sort of agrees that it's the colleges that you have to look at. So, uh, you know,

00:28:08.060 - 00:28:29.489

I don't have her in my bibliography here, I'm gonna give it a minute. So, uh there's, there's various information if you're dedicated to knowing some more about this. But uh these colleges started quite clearly to attract the regional church leaders and preachers to what they were

00:28:29.500 - 00:28:52.839

doing as a college. They also, I wanted to contribute some to a network of preachers. They focused on topics of common concern. Um They uh developed to this some kind of allegiance to the college of yesterday that we talked about certain preachers go to certain colleges

00:28:52.849 - 00:29:15.130

because they identify with what basically happens there. So this has, in fact happened, whatever we think about it, the college is wanting to obtain some goodwill from the major brotherhood preachers and leaders. Uh They were never in the decision making though some could claim that there

00:29:15.140 - 00:29:32.920

is one lectureship that set the agenda for many preachers for months to come because they more or less said this is the way you should see this or do this. Well, that's happened some, but that's probably not the principal reason. All right, I said something about

00:29:32.930 - 00:29:51.900

this. Now, the international church, it used to be called the uh Crossroads Church in Gainesville. And then it was the Boston Church. Uh I still have ties with some of those people and then it became the international Church of Christ. They started way back, there was

00:29:51.910 - 00:30:15.400

Gainesville, this the uh evangelistic seminar, they called it. So whatever we uh have as some kind of a part of our movement, it tends to end up with some way of bringing people together and communicating. So you had these seminars, right? Uh So I said I

00:30:15.410 - 00:30:35.709

would mention this in um somewhere in the eighties, I was asked by the editors of the Dictionary of Christianity in America. And I have them listed here to write an entry on lectureships. And I wasn't expected to write this for. So I could look at Methodist

00:30:35.719 - 00:30:57.880

Episcopalians and Baptist. Uh I was asked specifically to write it because, well, I was asked to write the entry on churches of Christ, but they perceived, and I think rightly that lectureships are a churches of Christ invention by that kind of title. So that's principally the

00:30:57.890 - 00:31:19.459

way I wrote this entry and then you can get some uh I did uh give some side comparisons to others. Now there is a bibliography, for example, in the encyclopedia of the Stone Campbell movement and our chief editor Doug Foster, as you know, Craig Churchill, who's

00:31:19.469 - 00:31:46.790

a librarian at AC U wrote an essay on lectureships in our movement. And now here is as best as we know. The first lectureship in the modern version was that Evelyn Christian in 1918. Now it's how you define lectureship prior to 1918. Uh They started having

00:31:46.800 - 00:32:12.540

some lectures, one man and they invited preachers into here and hoped their faculty and students would be involved. So there was something preceding that. But the then president JP se assigned A R the young A R. Holton, the task of putting together a gathering where multi

00:32:12.729 - 00:32:33.030

people spoke. So if that's the definition of a lectureship, multi people speaking that no doubt is the first one or at least this is the assumption. Uh I knew a R Halton and uh I knew his son, John Halton and I had his grandson, Charles Halton

00:32:33.489 - 00:32:54.579

and another son and grandchildren and so forth. Robert Halton was connected with the Herald of Truth and he was a great man. He preached at Washington DC. He's the one that started the way we verify candidates for military chaplaincy because we're strange again, in that regard,

00:32:54.589 - 00:33:13.609

we don't have a headquarters to say who's an official chaplain and a R. Holton got that going. And his son John, who was a aide to Sam Rayburn of Texas for many years. So we we have to finagle some way to carry out responsibilities if a

00:33:13.619 - 00:33:32.790

state requires you to be ordained to marry someone as I'm ordained. Because the elders at the college church in Cersei signed a paper that said this guy is an ordained preacher in churches of Christ. I went down five at the White County courthouse. So I'm official.

00:33:32.800 - 00:33:49.189

I'm going to do a wedding in Maine in June. And I'll refer to that document as the basis of the fact that I can do this. So we do add hot kinds of things. And uh and so A R Holden is important, but he was the

00:33:49.199 - 00:34:09.169

one who started this. He was teaching the AC U then, but he later preached in Norman, Oklahoma and Washington DC. Now Fried Hardiman started in 37. So there's some who think that the moon resides there and that's the lectureship you need to go to. But they're

00:34:09.179 - 00:34:29.060

sort of late on the scene as far as getting going harding began almost at the beginning. Lisa. Well, I have 47 here. I think that's what Craig Churchill says. You think that's true, John Mark. But so uh well, uh James A and uh and uh David

00:34:29.070 - 00:34:49.419

Liscom did invite people on campus to preach, but they only one person. So we can say they were a bit late getting in on the act. Lubbock. That's when F Modi FW went over there and founded the school. He was my first dean of students. I

00:34:49.429 - 00:35:05.219

used to go coon hunting with him. So I have some great relation to him. He had three coon dogs and we went up there on Batesville, Arkansas went coon hunting. So when he went down to Lubbock and founded the school, he, uh, started lectureship right off

00:35:05.229 - 00:35:23.770

Oklahoma. Christian is there. That's about the date of the founding, I think, uh, and uh, Pepperdine 43 as I said. So our people waited bats, so Barrett or bats. So Baxter, you know, was the first president and then Hugh Ty, I guess this is in Hug,

00:35:24.449 - 00:35:45.169

that was the year they started the graduate program here and he, Robert Fox was around here somewhere within that first graduate program. He's 91 now. So there's a quick rundown of these colleges lectureships and they were quite important. The soul saving workshop at Tulsa began in

00:35:45.179 - 00:36:10.570

1976 and this spawned some other people who copied this. Some. So most preacher schools, even, uh, of the fifties and sixties started up their own lectureships. Now, uh, the people invited to speak at these were key brotherhood figures. I don't know that they worried about whether

00:36:10.580 - 00:36:26.719

they were the best speakers or not. Think about Jerry in that regard. Does he go for the biggies? They, he doesn't put John John Mark, you know, has quite a impression on many people, but he doesn't put him up there for the main lectures. Maybe we

00:36:26.729 - 00:36:47.270

ought to get after Jerry for that John Mark. But, but anyway, Jerry doesn't put up the key figures and I'm gonna have a picture to show you here in early days. I think that makes this point. Uh So Jesse P Sewell was one a very important

00:36:47.280 - 00:37:10.489

man, a longtime president of AC URL White side. Uh Cr Nichol cr came out here to teach, to give it some justification to the Brotherhood Hall Calhoun. Uh I share with Hall Kowloon uh degree from uh Harvard, which mine is a bit different from his. But

00:37:10.500 - 00:37:30.209

he uh in uh 1911, he obtained a phd in intestinal studies under G Moore at Harvard. And he taught for a while at Lexington. That's Christian church when the changes came, he was out. So he went down to Fried Hardiman, but that didn't work very well.

00:37:30.379 - 00:37:50.580

So he moved off to Nashville and he taught, for example, uh or uh he taught Frank Pack. I asked pack one time, how was it? And he said, well, that wasn't chiefly what Hall Calhoun was about. He had a radio program and the time was that

00:37:50.590 - 00:38:07.350

it was at noon time, you could go anywhere in Davidson County and uh you could just walk from place to place and hear the radio program because everybody listened to Hall Calhoun. There's a book about him. He's an interesting figure, but I mentioned him because of

00:38:07.360 - 00:38:24.689

this picture. I'm about to show you w Claude Hall was a long time. A well known Fried Harman teacher. Do you have him, Lee or? Yeah. OK. You could tell us about him. All right. Here's the picture and I like this picture. This is the 1927

00:38:24.699 - 00:38:47.159

AC U lectureship. And off over here is Jesse P. Uh He was no longer President Bats. So Baxter came there in 24 but he was uh still a key figure. A W Clyde Hall. Does that look like him, Lee? So that's W Claude Hall and Kurt

00:38:47.350 - 00:39:05.719

Bill, I don't know much about him. Campbell Carl Edder. Carl Edder was famous because he later came to California, I believe, didn't he? But he was in Detroit and was trying to bring gatherings together with disciples and churches of Christ people that weren't too successful. And

00:39:05.729 - 00:39:27.669

then next to him is uh is uh cr Nicco. Now cr is the taller guy. He was pretty tall and he's standing right there, whitehead. He taught down at Thorpe Springs and Abilene and out here uh and uh he and uh white side had these six

00:39:27.679 - 00:39:45.719

volumes of sound doctrine that many people use. John T Smith and I know, well, his grandson John T Smith and the third, I don't know that much about him. Don Hockaday is the taller man there. He was, uh, on the woods chairman of the Board of,

00:39:45.729 - 00:40:09.459

uh Cordell Oklahoma College and very important, uh George Benson's wife with Sally Hockaday. That was her, her father, I believe this man. No, I'm sorry. Her brother is the one pictured there. And, uh, next to him is RC Bell who taught down at Torch Springs in

00:40:09.469 - 00:40:30.929

Abilene in many places. And then RR Brooks and now that little short guy, well, notice that white side is quite short too. And uh uh this is the $64,000 question. Who is that little guy standing over there on the edge? Anybody know who that is? He

00:40:30.939 - 00:40:50.110

was the featured speaker of the lectureship. That's about the only, do you know who that is John II? I don't know that I've seen other p that's all Calhoun and he was the featured uh person in this 27 lectureship at AC U. So I think this

00:40:50.120 - 00:41:08.399

makes the point pretty clear that if Jerry has departed from the faith, one of the ways he's departed is that he hasn't picked out key figures like they happened to in this particular picture. All right. Well, I'm, I'm about to get through here and I want

00:41:08.409 - 00:41:26.409

to spend a little time for you to talk and ask a question most of, you know, that Bowski published his dissertation on the HCU lectures and online. You have all kinds of help if you want. Did you notice these come out of Abilene? It gives you

00:41:26.419 - 00:41:45.969

all the speakers and all the topics. Uh, if you ever spoke there, you can look yourself up. Uh, there's another one, this one has all the topics. So you have a lot of help if you want in bibliography. So I guess David, you could write a

00:41:45.979 - 00:42:06.959

book on this when you get through the one about Pepperdine. All right. Well, that brings us, then I'll close with saying some things about uh what I think we can say about the lectureships at Pepperdine. Uh I've already given you this information. Let me keep going

00:42:06.969 - 00:42:39.340

here. Um All right. What Jerry hath not wrought as he remained faithful to the vision. Essentially, I say I have, uh it's not a, a forum for biblical kind of authority figures where one man Joshua addresses or uh James in Jerusalem acts 15 addresses, the people

00:42:39.350 - 00:43:00.919

gathered from the churches. It's not a doctrinal conference. We're not deciding whether you can support the Herald of truth or not. That was big back in my time. I don't think uh the lectureship people discussed that, but they never took a vote and said yes or

00:43:00.929 - 00:43:24.129

no with us. We say yes. And those people go in one corner and the people say no, go in another. And that's the noninstitutionalized line as you know. All right, it's not a decision-making conference and all our forefathers way back said, no, it's not a gathering

00:43:24.139 - 00:43:50.739

for evangelism interestingly, for the most part, uh and uh not as such uh uh a Pepperdine enhancement. Uh And uh so, and historically, there are some things moving along here and uh this elector has never been an effort to reinforce the traditional consensus, but we could

00:43:50.750 - 00:44:17.520

name electors or two that are, in fact, they're basically for that purpose. Uh We of course, do not have any official hierarchical approved gathering because we don't have such. So what has Jerry brought together? It's been a great resource for networking and I think forward-looking churches

00:44:17.530 - 00:44:39.870

and leaders might be the best way to put it. Uh This lectureship has done that more than any other though some others have done that Abilene, maybe somewhat at hiding. It's a source of perspective for reliving the early Christian experience. We still, even at Pepperdine, I

00:44:39.879 - 00:45:01.399

think claim to be restoring the faith and life of the early church. And we try to reinforce that through commitment to the Bible and the way in which we may try to live in slum areas and work with people and so forth. A resource for rededication

00:45:01.409 - 00:45:22.629

and commitment. Many people report that they've really been encouraged and refreshed and they're now ready to head back home. Uh They're leaving Friday night and Saturday. Uh How did I get all that? All right. Now, uh One of the things, it's not that there's never been

00:45:22.639 - 00:45:44.120

a lectureship before among us that focused on scripture. But Jerry has set the tone so that even AC U has taken this up in the last maybe 15 years. If you look at it, their lectureship always focused on scripture. But here are Jerry's topics for 30

00:45:44.129 - 00:46:02.100

years. I guess I'm not going to go through these. He pointed out to me that he's done. I think he said eight. Does that count up Old Testament ones? And the rest are New Testament. So there's a bit of misbalance, but that reflects our way of

00:46:02.189 - 00:46:25.719

what's important in scripture, right? So that's something Jerry brought to bear. And I think our other lectureships are following suit. So I've already talked about we no longer have key players of main speakers. So if you don't uh recognize that here are the ones speaking this

00:46:25.729 - 00:46:44.610

year. And uh I don't know, but I've heard all these people before, but uh there's a man over in Tennessee that is sort of the most uh important figure, maybe at the Fried Harman lectures who looked at the program this year. And he said, I don't

00:46:44.620 - 00:47:05.560

know anybody speaking there. And that was a great downsides to him. So this shows pretty clearly how Jerry has shifted, at least who the, well, Jerry gets himself and maybe he's an exception here. Uh And what about teachers? Well, he's put John Martin, our principal theologians

00:47:05.570 - 00:47:24.969

off teaching a class and many people come and that's something new that never happened much at Abilene Christian in my 20 years there and I keep going back some uh but he always, he lets anybody almost speak there. Uh So I said to this guy, look,

00:47:27.209 - 00:47:49.399

I said, look, uh if you want to ask whether Jerry knows all these people personally, Jerry doesn't know all these 300. I don't know how many people personally, but he has checked everybody out. I can guarantee you with somebody. So, so he let out 360 people.

00:47:49.409 - 00:48:11.729

Does Jerry know all them personally know, but he may know 300 of them. Uh There's uh 288 teaching slots. Uh They're from 45 states. Jerry missed by five, but it's not easy to find all these. He says at least might cope something to do. There's a

00:48:11.739 - 00:48:33.010

teachers or there's only one non us, John uh Philip Donner from Marseille in France is going to be speaking this morning. He's the only non us citizen. That's one of the main speakers. But all these classes are 45 different nations and 65 different teachers. There's 100

00:48:33.020 - 00:48:52.669

and 44 women and, well, I didn't have the number of men anyway. That's more than two thirds of the total. And uh if you want to see how this leadership differs from others, if you go across the Mississippi or you won't find any women, supposedly who

00:48:52.679 - 00:49:10.820

can talk to men, they can talk to each other. But not to men. So that's a major kind of. And Jerry's proud of this, I, I think rightfully so Judy. So, uh that's something. What about topics? Well, we could talk but I'll just say they're quite

00:49:10.830 - 00:49:52.860

multiple and I did some categories, theological. There's a church activities of various kinds, historical, the vows know, ethical and moral, cultural, reflection, missions and missionaries about family and age groups of various kinds of dress, emotional problems Him the day. Well, I suppose you could find some

00:49:52.870 - 00:50:12.379

other categories that, that might cover most of them. This shows how rich these are all right. 11 singing groups exhibits for many people. AC U used to be big on exhibits and they rented a 300 ft tent to do all the exhibits. So you didn't go

00:50:12.389 - 00:50:30.000

to classes, you talk with some of the people you grew up with out in the tent that was famous and that was February and they always had uh oil burning stoves out there or kerosene burning. I think I can still smell that under the big tent

00:50:30.040 - 00:50:54.300

at AC U. And he has all these breakfast lunches, many groups. So uh many things touch childcare. He provides Children singing recognition. So this is big in this lectureship. Uh What I said principally when I went to AC in 67 they said they had 10,000 people

00:50:54.310 - 00:51:14.879

attending lectureship. That may have been true. That's probably a preacher's estimate or a director's estimate. But I could tell you that about 6000 of these were from Abilene churches. There's a lot of Abilene churches and those days they'd come to lectureship. Even people from the Abilene

00:51:14.889 - 00:51:34.389

churches don't come to their lectureships these days. But I think what's unique about this lectureship is how many of these 4000 people, probably most of them come from out of southern California. Uh We welcome all Californians, but uh there are people from all over who come.

00:51:35.020 - 00:51:44.080

Uh They're the memorable experiences, all to the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom. So that's the remarks I want to make.