Spiritual Development During Adolesence

Young Boys Learning About Church at Clyde

I consider it a blessing to have grown up in Clyde, Texas.  From the depression years and for many years past my time, they maintained a youth ministry that was second to none.   They didn’t have a youth minister.  They didn’t know what a youth minister was, and probably wouldn’t have believed in it if someone had suggested hiring one.   But they had two things going for them – zealous parents and a tradition of success.

Back in the Depression someone came up with the idea of training young boys to make short talks about the Bible.   They frequently let those young mean speak from the pulpit on Wednesday night.   Some of them decided they wanted to be preachers.   At least 13 or 14 young men eventually became preachers over a span of about twenty or thirty years.   I inherited that tradition, which was well established by the time I started to high school.

Marion Hays, father of Bob, whom I’ve previously mentioned, was a deacon in the church and he decided to start a young men’s training class.   He started out working on our concept of the church.  For about a year he took us through a thin hardbound blue book titled, The New Testament Church.  The author was Roy E. Cogdill, Jr.  I kept my copy until I gave most of my library to Abilene Christian University.   Cogdill later became a leader in a protest group that broke away from mainstream Churches of Christ over congregational cooperative efforts in evangelism and benevolence.   The primary targets were Childrens’ Homes, especially  those operated by a board of directors, and the “Herald of Truth” – an  International Radio and television program which was sponsored by the Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas with the support of churches around the nation.   They objected to this “sponsoring church” arrangement.   Eventually they would break off and form a completely different fellowship, often referred to as the “non-institutional movement.”  

Cogdill’s book was written before all that.  It set forth his understanding of the nature of the church.   Strangely enough, it was revised and reissued after the controversy gained full steam.   In the copy I have Cogdill supported the arrangement he later condemned.   But at that time I knew nothing of church politics.   My view of the church was entirely positive.  I wanted to learn everything I could about it.