Lloyd Pelfrey & the Future of the Restoration Movement: Writer's Notebook

A few 'extras" that didn't make it into the edited-down version of my current Christian Standard article about Lloyd Pelfrey and the Restoration Movement:

I arrived at Central Christian College of the Bible on a fall day and parked in front of the central building on campus. Prominent of above the main entrance, a sign identifies it as Pelfrey Hall.

Stepping through the front door, the first person I saw, greeting people at the reception desk, is Irene Pelfrey. It’s her husband I was here to talk with and for whom the building is named, an honor he’s earned in his almost six decades at CCCB. He began there as a professor in 1957, the year the college was founded. He has since served as Central’s president (for 26 years), then chancellor, and now as Professor Emeritus.

Mrs. Pelfrey and I talked about mutual friends and family members while we waited for her husband to finish his Post-Exilic Literature class. Eventually he came down the stairs, still in conversation with a student. After a brief conversation with is wife, Pelfrey invited me to follow him to his office.
. . .

TR: What are you doing these days?

LP: The best thing I’m doing is having purpose and staying busy. And my purpose varies from day to day.

I got tired of pressure, that’s why I retired from here in 1998, I was through. No more pressure. No more decisions. I was finished, I was beat.

And now I’m trying to help whoever needs help, whether it’s the church or a person. I was an elder once; I enjoyed it.

I do some speaking and writing. I update my teaching notes on Restoration history all the time. I just keep adding things and adding things.

There are people who like me for various reasons, there’s probably some who don’t like me. I know there are. But I try to be conscientious, although I’ve made some conscientious mistakes.

I’ll go home and process e-mails. I get questions regularly. There’s a fellow over at Fort Wayne who one time asked Jack Spratt a question and Jack said, 'I don’t know, let’s go ask Lloyd Pelfrey.' And that fellow’s been asking Lloyd Pelfrey questions ever since.

I enjoy it thoroughly when people came from four sides at once with different questions.

TR: Which former students have impressed you most with what they've gone on to accomplish?

LP: (He was reluctant to name specific former students)

The person who s probably had the greatest impact is Salonique Adolphe, down in Haiti. Others have gone there too, but he’s revolutionizing the western part of Haiti. The Restoration movement has had a great impact on Haiti. Someone told me - I almost doubt it - that we have 600 missionaries or missionary groups in Haiti.

I had a fear for him when one of the hurricanes hit and it leveled everything he had done. All washed away with the mud. I hoped he wouldn’t quit, but he handled the discouragement and started again. Satan will try to stop anything that’s going well.

Earl Ferguson and his son David have accomplished a lot. David was a defiant little guy but I certainly admired him. When he was here was extremely capable, an organizer.

Pelfrey on Music

Pelfrey notes a decrease in attention to a biblical theology of church music, a willingness to gloss over details.

"In the Old Testament you bow down to worship, you stand up to praise.” He notes. “Today the song leader says “Let’s all stand up to worship.” It’s not biblical, but we all know what it means.”

Pelfrey on the Restoration Movement

"The goal of teaching is to try to prevent them from going back into what they came from. I spoke at a gathering where the topic was the Restoration. I looked out into the crowd and saw everyone there was up in years and I don’t know that they’re going to change or be changed. We’re preaching to the choir. Maybe it’s time to quit doing things like that and just go home and go to work."

Pelfrey told a story from Leroy Garret’s book on the Stone-Campbell movement:

It happened at one of these world convention meetings. A Disciples leader was there and he was telling these leaders from around the world the story of the Restoration Movement, what we believe. Go back to the Bible, be a Christian. He got through and they were all impressed. And one bearded patriarch asked this question, "And have you never divided?”

Pelfrey on Evangelism

The fellowship we have as believers is very important, but I consider it to be of peripheral importance. It’s not the main goal. Other things are there too, like justice. God has certainly always been against injustice, but the purpose of the gospel is not to feed the poor. There are social implications of the genuine gospel, but they are not the gospel.

Back in 1976, when we were having the 200th celebration of America, Standard Publishing put out many study books. People bought all the study books on the things they wanted to study. The least popular study book was the one on personal evangelism. Nobody wanted to go out and do something, they just wanted to sit and study.

You have to have manageable goals. If I tell the people, let’s win the world for Christ, that’s too big, I can’t do that. But I like the idea one of our alumni had one time, in a rural area, he told a person, 'I want you to go call on every person in your square mile where you live, that’s all. Can you handle that? Maybe they’ll reject you, but maybe they’ll invite you back in to teach.'

I was just talking to Bryce Houchen [a student at CCCB] about this. He wants to do something down there in Columbia. I said, OK, can you can you get the people to just call on one side of one street, that’s all. Not the world. Maybe all of them will reject you but one. That’s great. You may have call on ten streets to get an acceptance. Can you do something where you are?

The future is going to depend on somebody having the foresight to teach the people to not just sit and be entertained, but to go do something. Do something, whatever it is. It may be to fix meals for the poor, but do something.

Pelfrey on the Future 

My favorite class has become Israel After the Exile. I show them the connection between the 300 Spartans and the Bible. The Persian King is Esther’s husband. If you read the book of Esther there’s a four year gap. What was he doing? Fighting the Greeks. Oh really?

Alexander the Great. What a great contribution he made despite his immorality, but he had a tender side. I tell the students, You’re studying Greek because of Alexander. Oh really?

And they put all these things together from the Greeks and the Romans and the famous Punic Wars. All these things were getting everything ready for the Son of Man to come at the right time. And those soldiers and kings did not know they were being used by God. I’m impressed that God worked through all those things while people waited for centuries.

I have my own personal theory of ‘What’s the purpose of the United States in God’s plan.’ I don’t’ know, but I have a theory that our purpose was to be a missionary sending nation. And this nation grew across this country, they had what they called a manifest destiny, they thought God gave us this destiny to do this. Then we started sending missionaries to the world because they were no longer strict Calvinist. If you’re a Calvinist you don’t’ need to send a missionary. If God wants those people saved, he doesn’t need your help.

Now those countries are sending missionaries here. The only places Christianity is growing today is not America. Across Europe, it’s declining. God’s about through. The people in other parts of the world are the ones accepting the gospel, with some exceptions among the Arabs, But God is maybe saying, 'You just wait, I’ll take care of them.'

So I think America’s purpose might be over. I don’t know what the end will be. I’m glad I am where I am and I tell young people I’m sorry, you’re going to have to face something. I don’t know what it is.

God is in charge. My fears for the United States of America and for the church, the Restoration Movement are great. I’m not sure what the future holds. I just don’t know, I’m glad I’m 84.

When a nation has served his purpose historically, it’s over. Assyria, the Persians, Greece, the Egyptians, the list is long.

People like to quote II Chronicles 7:14, but we’re not God's people as a nation. Christianity is not about nations.

There’s always a tipping point and I’m not sure what it is. For Sodom and Gomorrah it was ten faithful people. Which led to an old Jewish tradition that there are always ten righteous people in the world to keep it from being destroyed.

Are you one?

Now in Print: Pause to Remember

The reunion eventually shifted into slow motion, contemplating the broken body of the man at the center of their fellowship, focusing our thoughts on the legacy of the man without whom we would not be a family. We paused to ponder the death that brought us all to this place.

Death itself, usually kept carefully on the fringes of daily life, shouldered its way to the forefront and demanded to be noticed.

Read the rest at http://www.lookoutmag.com/pause-to-remember/

Missional Politics: The Stumbling Block

My niece was just learning to walk. She would see the face and welcoming arms of someone she loved - her parents, grandma and grandpa, her many aunts and uncles - and she would try her best to stumble toward us.

Of course, we would make sure the path ahead of her was clear of stumbling blocks. Everything was picked up and moved out of her way, both to keep her from stumbling over them or becoming distracted by them.

I was glad to be one of the smiling faces she recognized and stumbled toward.

I also remember the time she was playing with me on the floor and she turned her face away from me for a moment. I chose that moment to remove my glasses to wipe them free of dust.

My niece turned back toward me, took one look at my face and screamed in terror. It took quite some time before she quit crying and even longer before she felt comfortable with me, the uncle whose face had suddenly changed.


The Bible tells us Jesus is both the cornerstone which upholds our faith and the stumbling block over which many people stumble before they ever reach faith.

6 For in Scripture it says:
     “See, I lay a stone in Zion,
       a chosen and precious cornerstone,
       and the one who trusts in him
       will never be put to shame.”
7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
     “The stone the builders rejected
       has become the cornerstone,”
8 and,
    “A stone that causes people to stumble
      and a rock that makes them fall.”
              (I Peter 2:6-8)

If my political obsessions lead me to argue to often and too vehemently with non-believers about political issues, I've become a stumbling block. I'm distracting them from the smiling and welcoming face of the Father who loves them. I also risk causing them to stumble when they look at me and, instead of seeing the love of Jesus in my actions and attitudes and words, they see someone scary, someone who only wants to convince them of some political opinion.

Misisonal politics means making every effort to always point seekers to Jesus and to his love, even if you're engaged in a political conversation.

Get out of their way and let them see the love and righteousness of Jesus more than they see you and your opinions.

Get out of their way and let them stumble their way toward Jesus.

Get out of the way and let Jesus be the stumbling block.

Missional Politics: The Pendulum's Swing

In 2008, when people around me were reacting with shock and fear to the election of Barack Obama, I cautioned them to be patient.

In my experience over half a century of observing politics, the one thing you can always count on is the predictable swing of the political pendulum.

Whenever the electorate swings toward the Democratic Party or the liberal side, the pundits warn of the death of conservatism. And then, after a handful of election cycles, the general public becomes disenchanted with the liberal agenda and swings back toward the conservatives. At which point the pundits predict the death of liberalism. And the pendulum then makes its inevitable swing to the extreme and starts its way back to the other side.

Over and over and over it happens. So, I counseled, just wait. People will tire of the liberal agenda and the pendulum will swing back the other way.

Little did I know the ensuing eight years would bring about a somewhat different twist on the predictable pendulum dynamic. Instead of simply swinging back toward conservatism, the general public has instead swing farther out to the extremes in both directions, driven by the internet's tendency to amplify extreme opinions and splinter traditional alliances.

As a result, we see the electorate splintered, chasing after extreme socialism, extreme conservatism, and - the swing that's generating the most buzz - chasing after the elusive "different", also known as the "against". Many don't really seem to care much what Donald Trump's actual political opinions are, they're just glad to cheer him on in being against politics as usual.

So how can a Christian who wants to exercise discernment keep from being carried along with the latest swings in political thought?

By being missional, not only in your "religion", but in your politics.

While people around you are hopping onto the bandwagon of the blunt outsider, reacting against perceived political correctness, the mission minded believer will continue to counter correctness with righteousness, while also countering bluntness with kindness and love.


You want to be a contrarian, standing against the status quo? Follow the example of Jesus, who refused to take sides with the Pharisees or the Sadducees or the Zealots or the Romans or the masses who hopped on the pendulum, clamoring after his "different" teaching, pushing him to set himself up as a political leader "against" all those other unsatisfactory choices.

When asked by the highest political leader in the land whether he considered himself a king, Jesus set Pilate straight.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:37)

While people around you are telling you what they're against politically, the missional believer will distinguish him or herself as different by testifying to the truth of God's righteousness and grace.


You want extreme? Follow the example of Paul, who didn't follow the pendulum swings of his culture but instead lived on the edge, consistently stretching the envelope for the sake of God's mission.

We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.  Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;  in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;  in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;  in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;  through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;  known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;  sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. (II Corinthians 6:3-10)

While people around you are pushing the edge of the envelope in favor of an extreme, whether politically conservative or liberal, the missional believer will continue to stretch him or herself to sacrificially seek and save the lost.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (I Corinthians 15:58)

Now in Print: Eat, Pray, Love?

Popular culture doesn’t see or accept the possibility that some inner callings are inherently wrong. They don’t acknowledge the existence or authority of God, so their only authority becomes themselves, with societal good and empirical data sometimes earning attention on a secondary level.

The biblical concept of calling, however, is anchored in the authority of the Caller. Submitting to his calling can sometimes mean we find ourselves doing things contrary to our own inner desires and perceived best interests.

God sometimes calls people to things they find unpleasant and personally dangerous. Paul, in 2 Corinthians, repeatedly describes the physical pain, weariness, and psychological struggles he experienced as a result of doggedly pursuing the calling God set before him.

Occasionally God calls people to do things that seem at odds with common sense. Jonah certainly thought it was pointless to go to Nineveh and risk his life preaching to a people who would, at best, ignore him and, at worst, kill him.

Read the rest at http://christianstandard.com/2016/02/eat-pray-love/

Missional Politics: That's what He DIDN'T say

A few things neither God nor Jesus said:


How, then, can they vote for the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring political campaign points!”

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make partisans of all nations, registering them in the name of the right party and the right platform and the right opinions and teaching them to stick to the party line. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:
     Who should I send? Who will go for Us?
Isaiah said:
     Here I am. But I'm too busy arguing with my co-worker about gun control.

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority with whom you agree: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are empowered by their politically correct followers to punish those who do wrong (according to them) and to commend those who do right (as they see it). For it is God’s will that by speaking the truth bluntly and with hilarious memes you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

Then He said to His disciples, "The candidates are plentiful, but the campaign workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the election to send out workers into His target audience."

Live such politically active lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of holding to wrong opinions, they may see your right-ness and glorify your grasp of truth on the social media. For it is God’s will that by being right you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for political correctness; live as God’s spin masters.

Now in Print: 140 Character

It’s not about getting noticed for what you tweet with your 140 characters. It’s about the godly character you express in the tweet.

David was a thought leader a millennium before the time of Christ. His 140th Psalm still speaks powerfully about how the people of God should conduct themselves online in the 21st century.

Rescue me, Lord, from evildoers; protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips. Keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent, who devise ways to trip my feet. The arrogant have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path (Psalm 140:1-5). 

Eugene Petersen’s The Message makes those same verses sound like David was talking specifically about the social media environment:

They practice the sharp rhetoric of hate and hurt, speak venomous words that maim and kill. . . . Stuffed with self-importance, they plot ways to trip me up, determined to bring me down.

Read the rest at http://christianstandard.com/2016/02/140-character-how-to-be-a-social-media-missionary/