Religion: Literal & Simple

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"Every week,'' wrote Evangelist Jim Nichols of Abilene, Texas, "the Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics. Christian Reformists. Seventh-Day Adventists, Christian Church and scores of independent preachers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in preaching false doctrines from coast to coast over the air." Strapping young (24) Evangelist Nichols of the fervent and fast-growing Churches of Christ (10,000 congregations, 1,000,000 members) called on his denomination to put its own message on the air.

Since last month, Evangelist Nichols has had what he wanted: a 145-station hookup of the American Broadcasting Co. Nichols himself, speaking with a strong Texas drawl, leads the preaching in a new Sunday radio series, called Herald of Truth.

The network program, which will cost the Churches of Christ congregations $285,000 this year, is the first big project they have ever undertaken jointly. The denomination is resolutely unorganized, and frowns on any sort of central church administration. Its members broke away from the Disciples of Christ after the Civil War, in protest against the use of a set creed, organ music in church, and organized missionary societies.

Lack of central direction has not kept the Churches of Christ from growing impressively; membership, heaviest in the South and Southwest, has doubled in 25 years. Their basic doctrine is a literalistic belief in the New Testament. Central tenets are baptism by immersion and communion every Sunday. Says an Abilene colleague of Nichols: "Our growth is phenomenal because our plea is simple."

Preacher Nichols grew up as fast as his church did. He wrote his first sermon when he was twelve ; it was read by a clergyman friend over a Salt Lake City radio station. At 15, he began preaching himself, and kept it up through his four years at Abilene Christian College (one of ten colleges maintained by the Churches of Christ). In 1947, he talked 15 Iowa congregations into sponsoring a radio program, then expanded it to include eight stations in five states.

Using his Iowa broadcasts as an example, Nichols convinced other congregations that a joint national radio program would bring in converts without whittling away any congregation's local autonomy. Explains Nichols: "The primary interest of the Churches of Christ is converting people." Aim by 1962: 1,000 new congregations.