Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

mentation"
you."
April 1 after the Budget has been paid
in full It must not be forgotten, of
course, that this means paying the mis
sionary's salary annually, for the Bud
get of the foreign Mission Board will
have to include the salary and field ex
penses of that missionary from then on,
and that in addition to its present bud
get.
"Anonymous"
recognizes the New
Testament system of church government
and planning when he says "The burden
of responsibility should rest heavily on
our church, especially in regard to those
who have not heard." But then he calls
budgeting, which is a practical plan to
carry out accepted responsibility, "regi
as though it were something
quite unacceptable. Presbyterianism
means unified faith and action in sub
mission one to another and to the body
in the Lord. If the church did not have a
programme of specific activities, she
would be guilty
of a mere theoretical
obedience to the Great Commission. If
the church understands her task to in
volve certain activities, she must ex
pedite them. Obedience, like love, must
be in deed and in truth, not in word
and in tongue only
(1 John 3:18). That
cannot help but mean a certain amount
of "regimentation".
Another possibility
is that the letter
speaks for one or some who believe that
the Covenanter Church should be spend
ing a greater percentage of her annual
Budget on missions. If so, possibly the
right line of action would be fof these
people to use their influence in Synod to
increase the amount set aside for For
eign Missions.
However, the letter states that the
salaries of several missionaries are be
ing
withheld from the channels of the
church because those who might give it
are not satisfied that the Budget rep
resents the task God has given the Cove
nanter Church. To be specific, it is not
as "evangelistic" as it should be. This
makes us ask what the Great Commis
sion is. "Make disciples .... baptize
teaching
them to observe all things
whatsoever I have
commanded
There is a prevalent idea today that
"evangelism"
is the activity of getting
sinners to confess Christ, and nothing
more. But the Great Commission is as
wide as The Christian Amendment
Movement and teaching young Chris
tians not to collect
"souvenir"
towels
from all the hotels and conference
grounds they visit. Let us not be de
ceived by the astounding budgets of
certain "missionary" churches for for
eign Missions. What are they doing
about the rest of the Great Commission
There is, however, a legitimate form
of the question raised, it seems to me:
"Is the Covenanter Church, in her Bud-
March 23, 1955
Church News
We beg leave to advise some 300 sub
scribers that their subscriptions have not
yet reached our office for the current
year. The fiscal year is closing this week.
Your cooperation will be much appreci
ated. Managing Editor.
WANTED Teachers!
With a fastgrowing
school population, California
is always in need of good teachers. If
you'd like to teach in California, give
San Diego your prayerful consideration.
We have a growing
congregation and
need earnest Christian workers in our
get, giving expression to what God has
commanded her to do, or is she adapt
ing
her task to her assumed financial
ability It has appeared that Budget
making was the task of whittling down
the estimates made by the various
Boards to a figure that we could reason
ably expect to raise. When God said to
the church at Antioch, "Separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work . . .
they did not ask if there was sufficient
surplus in the treasury to warrant the
venture. God never pdints out a task
without providing the means for carry
ing it out. And His tasks are always be
yond the expected human capacity. The
church whose task is not greater than
expect to accomplish can hardly
she may
be said to have received it from God. I
should like to make this suggestion to
the Co-ordinating Committee and the
Synod, that they approach the Budget
from the question, "What is necessary to
carry out the task God has commanded
the Covenanter Church to do" When
fasting and praying has made clear the
task God wants of us, then declare it
to the church with a statement of what
is necessary to carry it out, and trust
God to supply through the members of
the church all that is necessary for that
task. He has promised to make all grace
abound toward us, that we having all
sufficiency may
abound to every good
work (2 Cor. 9:8). It is conceiveable that
this proceedure would produce a budget
$20,000 greater than that set for the
present fiscal year. And it is possible
that the God who gives such an in
creased task to His Covenanted Zion
should reward such fidelity in Him by
pouring
out such a blessing upon us
that there would not be room to receive
it! "Without faith it is impossible to
please Him."
Sincerely yours,
E. C. Copeland.
group here. There are a number of fine
public school systems in our metropoli
tan area as well as colleges. For further
information, write the pastor, J. D. Ed
gar, 10140' Crestview Heights, La Mesa,
California, giving your qualifications.
SAN DH5GO, CALD7.
Thirteen new members were received
into the fellowship of our congregation
last Sabbath: Mr. and Mrs. Howard
Riggs, Charles Riggs, Evelyn Riggs,
James Riggs, Peggy Cowell, Mr. and
Mrs. Roy Bernhardt, Mr. and Mrs.
James Riggin, Mr. James May, Sr., and
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Smith. This is a
25 per cent increase in the member
ship of our congregation and the second
group to be received since we were or
ganized less than a year ago. Others
expect to join soon.
In addition to the thirteen received
into the full membership of the congre
gation, four others were baptized Lin
da Riggs, Leonard Riggs, Stanley Riggin,
and Ricky Bernhardt.
Letters have been received from vari
ous parts of the church saying there
hasn't been much news about San Diego
in the Witness for sometime. Mission
news can't very
well be reported in
news briefs, so we've just refrained
from sending news to the Witness. But
we have been in the news as those who
read CHRISTIAN LIFE magazine
know!
Quite a number who noticed the news
there that our Bible School won first
place in the International S. S. Atten
dance Contest have written to congratu
late us. Participation in this contest was
the high point in our fall activity. Our
attendance increased from an average of
95 the preceding year to an average of
226 during the six weeks of the contest,
with a high of 265 the last day of the
contest. A tremendous amount of work
went into the effort to bring this about
6,300 invitations by mail, 3,100 per
sonal invitations, and other advertising.
We hope to keep
our average atten
dance around 200 even though this ex
ceeds the capacity of our building and
forces us to use garages and a tent to
provide sufficient classrooms. We now
have 17 classes a nursery class for 2
and 3-year-olds, a 4-year-old class, 2 kin
dergarten classes, 2 first grades, 2 sec
ond grades, 2 thirds, 2 fourths, a com
bined fifth and sixth, a seventh grade, a
combined eighth and ninth, a Senior Hi,
and an adult class.
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