Original Version of Bible?

[Moogy]

. I am PRETTY sure most CoC preachers learned better in college. They just never taught about it.

You had preachers who had gone to college?? That’s right, you grew up mainline.

In my NICOC congregations, we didn’t need edumacated preachers. Some of ours never finished high school.

[Shane R]

. I am PRETTY sure most CoC preachers learned better in college. They just never taught about it.

You had preachers who had gone to college?? That’s right, you grew up mainline.

In my NICOC congregations, we didn’t need edumacated preachers. Some of ours never finished high school.

Ah, yes. Sixth or eighth grade education, fourth grade reading level. King James bible. What could go wrong?

[agricola]

Yes all our preachers graduated from college - granted, colleges like Freed Hardeman, Harding and Lipscomb, but still - college educated, seminary educated - even the songleaders were often graduates of CoC colleges.

It was so reassuring to know our spiritual leaders were educated and trained etc.....or so we were always told. Our CoC was strong on college for boys and girls both - good solid CoC colleges, of course. Pepperdine was highly suspect. Harding and Lipscomb were good. Freed Hardeman was viewed as a bit more stringent than necessary.

My mother in particular was highly impressed by college educated preachers. They might as well have been prophets relaying messages from God on High when it came to church matters.

It's been so long - who were those guys she was so fond of? I remember two of them at least:

Batsell Barrett Baxter and the Herald Of Truth! He had a PHD!!! Baxter was the preacher at Hillsboro for years and years - the biggest CoC in Nashville.

And Ira North, at Madison. Mother thought he hung the sun and the moon and the stars too, probably.

Yes, very mainstream, really.

[agricola]

My sister got married at Hillsboro because it had a bigger auditorium and they had something like a thousand invited guests (when I got married, I think I had 40). She had three preachers each with their specific assigned parts. Twelve bridesmaids and groomsmen. A gown with a train rivaling Princess Diana. Hey, it was 1980.

The preachers were - hmm - her new husband's dad who preached off and on, the preacher from our home congregation, and somebody - I don't THINK she got Batsell Barrett Baxter. I THINK it was somebody from Lipscomb? Her fiance had gone to Lipscomb. My sister went to Harding.

She and fiance paid for the wedding. My dad paid for the reception -
it was a CoC reception. So you know what that was like.

Sherbet punch, pastel mints and mixed nuts.

They did have a giant cake.

Oh funny-ish story. After I got married, I started receiving Twentieth Century Christian and the Gospel Advocate - IN NEVADA because my mother subscribed to them FOR ME in - presumably - a despairing effort to lure me back into the fold of the True Church.

Alas.
i got those things for YEARS, even after she died. Did you know, it is rather hard to cancel a subscription you didn't pay for yourself?

[Ivy]

[/quote]
Ah, yes. Sixth or eighth grade education, fourth grade reading level. King James bible. What could go wrong?
[/quote]

What could possibly go wrong? They start counseling church members with serious mental illness, marital and family issues, etc, instead of referring to professionals?

[zeek]

Yes all our preachers graduated from college - granted, colleges like Freed Hardeman, Harding and Lipscomb, but still - college educated, seminary educated - even the songleaders were often graduates of CoC colleges.

It was so reassuring to know our spiritual leaders were educated and trained etc.....or so we were always told. Our CoC was strong on college for boys and girls both - good solid CoC colleges, of course. Pepperdine was highly suspect. Harding and Lipscomb were good. Freed Hardeman was viewed as a bit more stringent than necessary.

My mother in particular was highly impressed by college educated preachers. They might as well have been prophets relaying messages from God on High when it came to church matters.

It's been so long - who were those guys she was so fond of? I remember two of them at least:

Batsell Barrett Baxter and the Herald Of Truth! He had a PHD!!! Baxter was the preacher at Hillsboro for years and years - the biggest CoC in Nashville.

And Ira North, at Madison. Mother thought he hung the sun and the moon and the stars too, probably.

Agri, did you know Bro. Paul T_cker? He was at the Hall for decades. He studied at Pepperdine. Of course, that was in the 1940s and at that time Pepperdine was considered solid.

Yes, very mainstream, really.

[agricola]

Paul Tucker was our preacher for decades - a very sweet man, rather low key but he actually got a lot done. His sons were just as nice.

He tried, in the late 60s, to lead his CoC into the civil rights era, but nice as he was, he wasn't terrifically forceful. A peacemaker, not a warrior. OTOH, I never heard much 'fire and brimstone'! At least he did SOMETHING, which was more than most would have done.

Was he a Pepperdine grad? I don't think I ever knew that.

Our congregation had split off from a non-institutional CoC in the early 1950s (I think I was about three at the time) and my family were 'founding members' but Daddy never rose to the heights of elderdom. He was a deacon forever. Paul Tucker arrived when I was maybe 10? 12? I'm not certain. He replaced Aaron Thomason, whom I remember only vaguely. Paul was still there until I left (left town, also left off going to church, most of the time, but I didn't actually TELL anybody. I ghosted them.)

I think Paul retired and the next preacher was Tom Holland briefly, then Dan Winkler - yes THAT Winkler's dad. The congregation grew fast through the 60s and 70s and 80s, added a second Sunday morning service,substantially added on to the building complex - - and continued to grow through the 90s, and into the early 2000s, too, but has definitely declined in numbers more recently, if I read the signs right (the number of elders and deacons has dropped quite a lot in the last ten or fifteen years). But it is still a large CoC, mainstream, and has a lot of programs. It might survive. It's well situated (location is good).

Bill Watkins in the (senior) preacher there now. They have a ministry STAFF - seniors, youth, hispanic...

The number of Elders is down to ten this year, and I'm proud to say I don't know a single one of them.

[agricola]

I checked - Paul started preaching at C. H. in 1962 and continued until he died in 2000. (37 years +) at age 86. He had stepped kind of 'down' the last few years - the church was large and could support a second preacher (Tom Holland, then Dan Winkler - I guess that's when they started having a ministerial STAFF! CH was one of the only CoC churches I know of that started a retirement/housing program for preachers.

I would like to just say: Paul Tucker was a genuinely good man, a kind man, and a man of great faith.

Thanks for bringing him to mind!

[zeek]

Agri wrote:

I would like to just say: Paul Tucker was a genuinely good man, a kind man, and a man of great faith.

I would give this statement the heartiest and most sincere AMEN! that I am humanly capable of producing. Bro. Paul was a sweetheart and truly devout.

[Ivy]

Agri wrote:

I would like to just say: Paul Tucker was a genuinely good man, a kind man, and a man of great faith.

I would give this statement the heartiest and most sincere AMEN! that I am humanly capable of producing. Bro. Paul was a sweetheart and truly devout.

Wow!! That's quite a commendation, coming from the two
of you. A nice reminder that there were many good, decent, and genuinely sincere people in the cofc throughout the decades of its existence.