Pilgrimage of Joy [NOOK Book]

Overview

No informed student of the Stone-Campbell restoration movement can ignore the influence of W. Carl Ketcherside toward redefining the nature of spiritual fellowship upon a more biblical basis. In this, his autobiography, Ketcherside tells the story of his own transformation from an advocate of unity in conformity to one of unity in diversity. He was an ecumenist, but he was convinced that unity would never become a kind of organizational get-together. In the final analysis it is personal. This book reflects the changes in his thinking through the years, from accepting others upon the basis of their conformity to his thinking to accepting others upon the same basis upon which God had accepted him--with all of his ignorance and imperfection. "Brotherhood," he would say, "is based upon a common Fatherhood. Fellowship results from a mutual sonship. We are brothers, not because we have the same ideas, but because we have the same Father. No one truly follows Jesus who refuses to call all those his brethren who have the same Father as himself." In 1947, and again in 1951, he was invited to spend several months teaching in the British Isles. He later spoke at conferences in Brazil, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and while he held no academic degree Ketcherside spent much of his time on college and university campuses across the country, confronting the philosophical forces that ally themselves against the sovereignty of God. In his latter years, his attention was focused on serving the needs of those who had been marginalized in the inner city of his own St. Louis. As a firm believer in the inspiration and normative value of Scripture, he was convinced that the ultimate solution to all human problems is to be found in the love of God poured out into the heart of the believer in Jesus Christ. Carl Ketcherside was erudite, articulate, extraordinarily well-read, and a gifted and prolific writer, but he cared nothing for the jargon of the professional scholar, preferring to write as a "plain man" so that the common folk could read and understand what he had to share. His autobiography covers the period of his life from birth, in 1908, through year he ceased publishing his monthly journal, Mission Messenger, in 1975. As Leroy Garrett writes of his close friend in his introduction to the book, "His life was a pilgrimage of joy largely because he made it so by his winsome sense of humor, his contagious enthusiasm, and his undying optimism." "As he passed this way he was joyfully involved in making his own contribution to what he called 'this interesting world.'" You will not remain untouched by the story of one whose consuming purpose in life was to serve his own generation according to the will of God