Our Life Together Vol. 4 Nr. 18, May 11, 1976

This certainly looks like 1976; the "wooden" frame and the drawing of the city set on a hill. This drawing shows up a number of times in Our Life Together as well as in other words from Abba Craft.

The article, "The Evangelistic Lifestyle" by Ken Pagard, starts with a report from one of our men's retreats. It is still amazing to me that we had these retreats with 90 to 100 men; this was a significant proportion of our congregation. They were very rich times.

Ken starts with a description of the retreat. We sang together; worshiping the Lord. Then we divided into small groups to discuss an issue seeking to discern God's word to us. This was a pretty standard procedure for our men's retreats. It was also our procedure for Elders retreats except that the elders usually didn't divide into small groups. Doing evangelism was a very common area for discussion in the church. One of the main purposes for the community was that of evangelism, but we didn't like the idea of formal evangelistic programs. As stated in the article, "When our lives are full of Jesus, what springs forth naturally is evangelism." 

One of our editors and leaders of Abba Craft, Jerry Jamison, inserts an exhortation for all readers to be writers for OLT. If we are all experiencing our life together, then we should report our experiences to Our Life Together so that we can all share.

Ken continues his article to expound on the areas that we should be concerned with when we think of evangelism; our neighborhood and our place of employment. He says that this seems like the easiest form of evangelism since it isn't some kind of formal program. Yet, this kind of evangelism requires us to always reflect the life of Christ within us. In other words, we are always of stage; that city set upon a hill.

Clay Ford continues his "Call to Revolution" by giving a short history of the Great Awakening. This page is a good synopsis of that period in our country's history.

Clay continues by demonstrating how the Great Awakening helped to shape the Christian underpinnings of the people in the colonies as they entered into the revolt against Great Britain. He does also report that all of the leaders weren't Christians, but does state that the heart of the revolution was a people wanting to serve God. Then he goes on to state that in this Bicentennial Year (remember this is 1976) that we should renew our focus on God and pray for the Spirit to descend again upon us and bring renewal in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Clay and Cheri Ford announce a new column reporting on how God is working in the lives of our people. There is also an announcement of an upcoming Baptism. This was such a regular occurrence. What a great time. Oh how I would love to see this at Bay View Baptist in this day (This is the church I currently serve.)

As always, McFoone speaks for himself.

Looking at the "In the Family" section always brings back memories as I look at the names. We really were a family. Gary and Georgia did have a wonderful wedding. More importantly they are still together and still serving the Lord. Finally notice the dates of our Summer Program for children! By the 80s when I was pastor, a week or two was a major undertaking. In my present church, a week is impossible. We did the whole Summer. What a time!

Elders notes were my only regular writing assignments in this day. A big issue: the kids were coming in and eating all the food before the adults could get any.