THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS—By S. A. Ribble

THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS---By S. A. Ribble PANEL DISCUSSION: “Tendencies in the Church Today”
THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS
S. A. Ribble Our time will permit the discussion of only the more important lines of progress. Of course these will of necessity be studied briefly, and from the narrow limits of my own experience.

Among the more important lines of progress is that of being more insistant upon the teaching and prac¬ticing of the things of the last part of the Commis¬sion. Earlier we had few congregations, and these were many times unable to have meeting places other than borrowed rooms, often in school houses, and even in private homes. Most of the gains of the sum¬mer meetings were lost by next meeting. There were no competent leaders, and our congregations were few, weak, and not influential. Most of our preach¬ing was of necessity upon faith, repentance and bap¬tism. Our progress is shown also in the better prepared preachers of today. Our attention to more and better Bible school teaching, and the use of more printed material has resulted in this advance. Formerly many of our preachers were poorly prepared to meet the de¬baters and preachers of the denominations. They had better schools, more of them, and outclassed our men in many ways. Our better schools and more training have enabled our people to plant churches in the towns and cities, whereas before few preachers had the courage to face the task of city work. Hence most of the churches were small and country groups. The drift towards the cities has been in our favor. We do not lose the country members who come to town.
In another way we have grown in showing much more attention to the teaching and training of our children, our young men and women, in Bible studies. This advance has been accomplished largely by the use of common sense arrangements for teaching. By the use of well organized classes we have obtained much better opportunities for teaching. We have also used the best prepared women and men available, for such classes. The guides, helps, quarterlies have en¬abled us to build up gradually a much better informed membership. In the past fifty years many churches took no interest at all in doing class teaching. Many thought it an evidence of disloyalty to Christ to favor any teaching except that of one man to the entire gathering. As a resul of such we lost most of our young people to the denominations around us, who wisely provided for such teaching of the young as we now use ourselves. Fathers and mothers were usu¬ally too poorly prepared to teach the children at home. The preachers could not, or would not, plan for better teaching. Much of our present day good work has grown from the class work of our churches.

Another way of progress is that we have taken a deep interest in encouraging and developing of men and women who love to teach, and can successfully teach groups of children and young people. Our teacher training classes show a very important growth along such lines. Many of us in the older days who saw the need of better teachers, and better teaching, could do little or nothing about it, for we could be with the churches only a day or two each month. Our work was scattered, and so poorly paid we could not give more time even when we saw the need for such.

We have grown to see the need for better meeting places for the whole congregation, and for the groups. Our educational building and our better auditoriums are the result of a growth in liberality and wisdom along such lines. Our better buildings have resulted in giving our people a justifiable pride in our work. Our children are more willing to go to classes, and are in a much better frame of mind for being taught.

Another line of progress is seen in our greater lib-erality in supporting all kinds of mission work, both at home and abroad. Fifty years ago most mission work was done at expense of the evangelist person¬ally. These men were forced to farm, to teach, to sell groceries, etc., in order to support their fami¬lies and preach. Often those who directed the church affairs thought of the local church as a sort of “Sav¬ings Bank.” Every effort was made to economize in the Lord’s work. Little was spent on the home work, and nothing on other work. Money for foreign work was unthinkable. Our efforts on the frontiers of our own country and in the foreign fields show how far we have progressed along such lines of thought and endeavor. 
Another notable line of advancement is that of se-lecting and using better prepared men for bishops and deacons. We are now seeing the need for select¬ing men who have shown the habit of being successful in what they undertake.

Brethren are demanding and using better prepared men for evangelists. For¬merly many of our selected bishops were so poorly prepared they could neither teach nor direct, manage or plan such work. They were failures in the Lord’s work. Our present day leaders, bishops, deacons, and evangelists are mostly of a fine type of successful men. In another way our progress has been shown, in the methods of teaching and preaching. I think we have learned that it is not disloyal and sinful to use some diplomacy in dealing with those whom we are trying to teach and persuade. Blunt, uncouth man¬nerisms are no evidence of a greater love for the truth, and are now being frowned upon by most churches. We have so far progressed along this line that we are now seeing that our evangelists should be useful, influential members of the local community where they work. We have progressed far enough now to see that good citizenship in the country is not an evidence of disloyalty to the church.

Another very valuable line of progress is that of seeing the need of building and using Orphanages, Old People’s Homes, Colleges, etc., to help “bear one an-other’s burdens.” Our liberality and interest in such bears evidence that we have outgrown the foolish fears of doing wrong in using such facilities. In the former decades we let the Masons, the Catholics, and the County Poor Farms and Homes care for our needy, old, and unfortunate. Our work is wise and expedient progress. In a numerical way we have made great progress. In countless towns and cities within my own personal knowledge, fifty years ago there was only one, or no congregation, where now they number from five to fifteen. Some outstanding examples of such may be seen in the cities of Brownwood, Snyder, Abilene, Lubbock, El Paso, Midland, Odessa, Colorado, Big Springs, in the west and almost every city in the cen¬tral and east part of our state. Other states of the southwest have likewise grown in congregations, build¬ings and in memberships.

God has so richly blessed us that we should never again be discouraged over the outlook for the future. I thank God I have lived to see and enjoy this great progress around my old fields of labor.