Our Life Together Vol. 4 Nr. 11 March 16, 1976

This cover is nice vintage AbbaGraphics. The motive of the vine and the grapes was used many times throughout the life of Our Life Together and AbbaGraphics.

The Charismatic Leaders meetings were very important. It is out of these meetings that the great conference at Kansas City in 1977 took place. As is discussed in this article they also dealt with "problems" within the movement. The specific problem that was addressed at this meeting was the "Shepherding Movement." From this article, it would seem that they really didn't go too far in dealing with the issue. The Shepherding movement was addressed earlier this week on Facebook in relation to a later issue of OLT. Cheri Ford made the following comment:

The Shepherding Movement destroyed a great move of God because the Holy Spirit is a liberator and not a prison warden. It drastically quenched Him, and I think we saw the results. The Roman Centurion is a false model of our submission. We do not submit to church leaders as did the Centurion to the Roman Empire. We are ALL to submit to Christ (who is not an absentee Lord who delegates his Lordship to human lords) as Christ did to the Father and as the Centurion did to Rome. The false promise was that we would find freedom as we submitted to elders. It led to extreme bondage, and it became a curse for the elders, too, since they were taking a place in people's lives that they never should have taken. The notion of "humbling ourselves" dished to us under this system, was erroneous.

Of course she was not only commenting on the movement itself, we weren't involved at First Baptist, but she was commenting on how we fell into the same trap as the movement by our insistence on submission to the eldership. I will discuss that issue when we come to Ken's article that led to Cheri's comment. She did give us a link to information on the Shepherding Movement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherding_Movement  

This is just the beginning of an article by Clay which will be completed on the next page.

It is interesting to me that McFoone weighs in on the authority and submission issue and recognizes its validity. It is a scriptural truth. We are to obey our leaders. The problem is that this is something that is easily abused and was to some extent at FBCCV.

Clay's article is really an exposition out of Acts 8. He uses it to exhort us to go farther in our evangelism. I might quibble a bit -- sometimes all we can do is sow seeds. His point is well taken however; we do need to bring people to a point of decision -- if possible.

Linda Coale was a young woman in the church. I confess that I have no idea where she is at this time. What she presents here is a report on the work of William Tyndale. It is completed in a couple of pages.

Once again we have the motif of the vine.

This is largely the conclusion of Linda's report on Tyndale. It is also the start of an article by Larry Clark.

Larry presents a rationale for work; it is not a curse, it can be a means of worship -- of serving -- God. I would have liked it if he would have gone back farther in Genesis; in both chapters one and two, man was created for work -- he was to tend the garden.

I think the article on women is somewhat dated. Trinity Lutheran was the home church of Larry Christenson, one of the other leaders of the Charismatic Movement.