The Religious Southeast
The Religious Southeast The Religious Southeast
I. L. SOHUG
Abilene Christian College, Abilene, Texas
There are some very interesting and corn' mendable similarities between the history of the church in the Southeast and the account of the New Testament Church, ihe New Testament Church started m the East, in Jerusalem, moved North and West (through Galatia, Macedonia, Italy and on to the West); the Restoration movement started in the. East, extended to the North and West. The early church had capable elders that could direct the work of the local congregations, thus allowing their best evangelists to go out to virgin territory and establish new churches; many of the churches of the Southeast are still following that excellent scriptural example,—may we all resolve to do so in the future.
There are still some sections not thoroughly evangelised, such as in Eastern Virginia (just as the New Testament Church apparently did not extend eastward), but the greatest opportunities of extending the church in the Southeast is “with the African at our door,” as Brother McCaleb puts it. We read 1n the New Testament that the Jewish Christians aided the Grecian widows and then that the breth' ren in Greece and in Macedonia aided the brethren in Jerusalem. Our brethren in the Southeast likewise are following the scriptural model when the white and colored brethren help each other. Brother McCaleb writes:
“It is truly gratifying to see the lively interest many of the white brethren are taking in the African in their midst and to see the interest the colored people, are taking in themselves. This is not only scriptural but according to common sense. If we send missionaries to Africa, which I most heartily approve, why not be equally jealous to preach to their brethren in our midst? Not only so but by the special advantages of the. Africans in America they should soon be sending from their own numbers men full of faith and the Holy Spirit to enlighten their fellows in Africa. The only way we can keep the blessing of light and salvation is by passing it on to those who have it not.” Two other great future fields for our colored brethren are the colored population of Cuba and Brasil, the majority population in each case.
Among the white brethren wdio have aided are Brothers B. C. Goodpasture, A. M. Burton and G. C. Brewer. Among the colored evangelists ate Brothers Alexander Campbell, Marshall Reeble, A. L. Cassius, Luke Miller and W. M. Whitaker. A more extended account of this very important work can be read in the May, 1937, issue of World Vision. Brother Keeble reports that he himself has baptised more than 20,000 into Christ. There are one hundred and fifty-seven colored churches in the United States of which he knows, and the work is growing to the glory of God and the blessing of mankind. Brother Keeble has furnished the following list of colored churches:
Tennessee 36
Alabama 29
Florida 26
Texas 20
Georgia 14
Oklahoma 9
Kentucky 6
California 4
Missouri 4
Chicago, Colorado, Indiana, 2 each; Arizona,
Kansas, New Mexico, one each. The oldest church, according to Brother Keeble’s report, was established in 1870 near Tuscumbia. The work still continued slowly through the ’90’s. Over one hundred churches have been established since 1920. The progress already made is great and commendable but the opportunities ahead are much greater yet, and so are our responsibilities. Think of the millions yet unconverted right at our door. Let us go on with the work!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What parallels can be drawn between the history of the church in the Southeast and the
history of the New Testament church in the times of the apostles?
2. What are the greatest opportunities for the extension of the church in the Southeast?
3. What is, approximately, the negro population of the Southeast?
4. Name some of the negro evangelists.
5 Can your church cooperate in such a work? If so, in what way?
6. The Gospel went out from Jerusalem but did not stay there; the church was once very
strong and active and pure at Rome, but is not so today. What may we do and must we
do in order that the Southeast, where the Restoration movement first started, may not
follow in the steps of Jerusalem and Rome?
7. What may your church and mine do, and what may we do individually, to keep the church
in the Southeast and in our own home from becoming inactive and unscriptural?