Topic(s): Humor

The teenager lost a contact lens while playing basketball in his driveway. After a fruitless search, he told his mother the lens was no where to be found.

Undaunted, she went outside and in a few minutes returned with the lens in her hand.

“How did you manage to find it, Mom?” the teenager asked.

“We weren’t looking for the same thing,” she replied. “You were looking for a small piece of plastic. I was looking for $150.”

More Beyond

Topic(s): Eternity

In Valladolid (Val-la-de-lid), Spain, where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, stands a monument commemorating the great discoverer. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the memorial is a statue of a lion at the base of it, where the Spanish National Motto is engraved.

The lion is reaching out with its paw and is destroying one of the Latin words that had been part of Spain’s motto for centuries. Before Columbus made his voyages, the Spaniards thought they had reached the outer limits of earth. Thus their motto was, “No More Beyond.” The word being torn away by the lion is no, making it read, “More Beyond.” Columbus had proven that there was indeed more beyond.

And the same is true for those who have discovered Jesus. There is “more beyond.” Everyone who is born into this world will also have to leave it, and for most people, their deepest instincts and convictions tell them there is something beyond the grave.

No Difference?

Topic(s): Nature of Man

• “There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They’re all mammals.” —Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s President (http://changingworldviews.com/quotations.htm#Animal%20Rights).
• “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” —Genesis 1:27
• “Let us so live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry.” —Mark Twain

Leroy Brownlow (1914-2002): Part 3

Preacher, Author, Writer, Publisher, Businessman

By Noble Patterson

Topic(s): Christian Life, Evangelism

Links to this entire series:

• Leroy Brownlow: Part 1
• Leroy Brownlow: Part 2
• Leroy Brownlow: Part 3
• Leroy Brownlow: Part 4
• Leroy Brownlow: Part 5

Editor’s Note: Few men have influenced the church more in our lifetime than Leroy Brownlow. I came across his biography this week, and thought there were spiritual lessons to learn from one who “being dead yet speaketh” (Hebrews 11:4).

During the Freed-Hardeman University Lectures in February 1991, Leroy electrified the audience of 3,000 with a great message on “Preservation of the Faith.” He began the lecture with the statement, “The church is facing the greatest danger I’ve seen in my lifetime.” His concern was what was happening within the church—not the dangers from without.

Furthermore, he had a clear insight into all of the troubling problems of the brotherhood, and could analyze with great accuracy those problems that troubled brethren and divided churches. Leroy was very disturbed by what was—and it still is—taking place in the church. He had a thorough knowledge of the Bible, and a deep appreciation and reverence for the truth of God.

This presentation would be incomplete if we omitted relating the phenomenal ministry of Leroy Brownlow and the amazing record that he established in local church work at the Polytechnic church in Fort Worth, during the 22 years he preached there. Here was developed a conservative yet dynamic and aggressive church. The accomplishments stagger the imagination and represent a challenge to our concept of local church work.

The Polytechnic church had not always grown! In fact, prior to Brownlow’s going there in 1943, it had increased by only eleven members in ten years. The mighty works performed by the Polytechnic church were not due to their location. The building was on a dead-end street in a neighborhood that was not very attractive or affluent.

The aggressiveness of the Polytechnic church was not due to a large staff. They had only one preacher, one secretary, and one custodian. In addition to doing the pulpit work, Leroy Brownlow was the chairman of the Sunday morning Bible classes, and most of the time he conducted the youth training programs, edited the church paper, directed the personal work, and personally did much house-to-house, one-on-one teaching.

What led to this phenomenal growth? At the request of the elders, Brownlow preached in 40 percent of all the meetings, which averaged one every year. None lasted less than eight days; most of them went 15. As a result, the meetings in which he preached averaged 39 additions to the congregation per meeting, most of them baptisms.

Under the direction of Leroy Brownlow, the Polytechnic church developed a highly successful youth program. Many of the young men became preachers, including Andrew Connally, Doyle Gilliam, Bob Gilliam, Edwin Bills, Webb Fry, Haun Kite, Randy McIntosh, Richard Clark, and Paul Brownlow. At one time, five men who grew up at Polytechnic under the preaching of Leroy Brownlow were serving as missionaries in Africa. It is evident their youth program was very effective.

Concerning the Bible school, it was very effective in converting people, developing Christians, and molding a great church. Leroy believed that the courses should make the students strong and active members of the church, as well as lovers of truth, and it should prepare them to meet the issues of life.

Accordingly, he never let the students get through high school without having the six-months’ study of Why I Am a Member of the Church of Christ and the six-months’ study of Some Do’s and Don’t’s for the Christian. No wonder so many became preachers and effective workers. Brownlow taught the auditorium class for several years, which had an attendance that ran from 300 to 400. He believed many non-members would attend a big class in an auditorium, who would not attend a small class in a little room, because many feared being embarrassed or getting involved in an uncomfortable discussion. This class was the means of reaching many of the lost.