"I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm not sure exactly what habit or practice of his day Emerson referred to here, but I've often thought the best way to gather would be to do so in silence before the church began its meeting. Though I can't throw it up against the preaching or in any way diminish its importance.

Of course, I come from 19 years of experience in Brazil, where pre-meeting ritual is a noisy, huggy, hand-shaking, back-slapping greeting of every single person. I like that. I like it a lot. But I wonder if we don't often do it at the expense of our concentration on the person of Christ present at our meetings and of our reverence to the sovereign Creator.

The Lord has set no instructions on this. It is one of the incidentals that we are free to establish according to our time and culture. So it's good occasionally to stop and question whether our practice is promoting that which the Lord has specifically commanded.

Edited 2011 Oct 22, for security

Randal began preaching at age 16 and served churches in Blackwell, Texas, Shiloh, Tennessee, Ashland, Mississippi, and Paragould, Arkansas, before moving to Brazil in 1984.

Randal studied Portuguese in the U.S. for two years and after a year and a half of study in Brazil was awarded the Certificate of Proficiency from the Yazigi Language Institute in Belo Horizonte in 1986.

His writings have appeared in Gospel Advocate, Power for Today, 21st Century Christian, Magnolia Messenger and La Voz Eterna. He is a staff writer for Biblical Notes and The Voice of Truth International, with a circulation of 60,000 copies. E-zines such as Daily Wisdom and Heartlight have published his articles. His poetry has entered such magazines as Times of Singing; Möbius, The Poetry Magazine; Chattels of the Heart; The Discerning Poet; WestWard Quarterly, and Christian Bible Teacher.

Randal and his family worked with a mission team to begin a new congregation in the city of Belo Horizonte, the nation's third largest city with 3 million population. After 10 years of evangelism, leadership training, and publications ministry, the Mathenys moved to the city of São José dos Campos, where the church had a small beginning.

Randal works with the local church in personal evangelism, Bible classes, and discipleship and music training. He has written or edited several books and publishes books, courses and tracts. He edits and publishes Edificação Magazine since 1987. He travels across the country teaching and preaching in churches, lectureships, and gospel meetings.

A vigorous Internet ministry has provided the Brazilian church with edification and evangelistic tools. In English, Randal edits Forthright Magazine and BrotherhoodNews.com. Together with Barbara Oliver, they launched Forthright Press in 2004, through which he published his book, "Choose!"

In 2010 Roy Davison named him co-publisher of the Old Paths Archive, a group of Christian websites with over one million visits a year.

Randal has also worked with the National Bible School, the Mt. of Olives Christian Camp, the Christian Corner youth care program, and the Lar Cristão Christian Home.

The Mathenys' work is overseen by the Somers Avenue church in North Little Rock AR.

Vicki has homeschooled their children and coordinates the busy home activities. She has spoken at women's encounters, teaches women in the local congregation, and hosts many gatherings and barbeques for fellowship and evangelism. She teaches a weekly women's class in the local church.

The Mathenys have three children and one grand-daughter.
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GO TO RANDAL.US

About three weeks ago, Vicki and I traipsed off to the mountains, to the city of São Bento do Sapucaí, which lies about an hour and a half from here. Three wonderful days without the kids! Micah is off at college and Joel and Leila were at camp the same week, Joel as monitor and Leila as camper. So we had the week to ourselves.

Below, a few pictures of the most beautiful sites, my wife the principal one among them.

Vicki beside the Pedra da Baú, which, being translated, means, Rock of the [hope]chest, apparently because of its boxy shape. It's huge, we're a long way from it.

One of the many beautiful waterfalls in the area.

A picture of the boxy rock from down in the valley.

A shot of the main building of the inn where we stayed, just outside the little town.

Vicki with other guests of the inn, in front of the reception.

That's the impression I got in an email sig, where a guy gave three phone numbers:

(H)<- rarely answer
(W)<- leave message
(P)<- emergency only

Would you call this guy?

My Bible verse to express my aspirations, prayers, and hopes for 2004 is 2 Timothy 4.5: "But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry" (NIV).

Read James Burton's commentary on this verse.

Read about The Snuggery, my place of work, my partial bibliography, and even details of my bio.

LISTS

Christian Poets -- discussion, crits, poetry, and more.
Cloudburst Poetry -- a weekly, spirited poem of rhyme and meter in your inbox.
Forthright Magazine -- daily articles for spiritual edification.
UPLift -- get a lift with UPLift, fresh quotes, short verse, pithy perspectives, sometimes taken from Random Variables.
BZeal news and reports -- stay up to date with our work and the church's progress.

SITES

Christian Poets -- the real action is on the email list.
Forthright Magazine -- the online version, where you can pipe up.
Brazilian Zeal -- news of the work and church in Brazil.
Alcance -- our main Brazilian website.

HANGOUTS

Bible Study Forum -- Solid stuff.
church-of-Christ email group -- a really friendly and supportive bunch. I'm the most absent moderator. :)

CONTACT

Mailing address:
Caixa Postal 11
Sao Jose dos Campos, SP
12201-970 -- Brazil

Telephone: (11-55-12) 3942-7753

Messenger (seldom connected):
AOL/AIM: randalmatheny
Yahoo: randalmatheny
ICQ: 304284039
MSN: randal32916{{at}}hotmail.com

EMAIL ME: RIGHT HERE

• Official site of city of São José dos Campos with photo gallery
• My favorite state park, Crowley's Ridge
• E. Hemingway's connection to Piggott, Ark.
• Gainesville, Ark., church, where I was baptized (The Stonewall church building didn't have a baptistry.)
• Hometown newspaper, Paragould Daily Press
• Hospital where I was born, though it didn't look like that then. Non-IE users beware!)
• Photos along the Crowley's Ridge Parkway

For years 1-18: In Greene County, Ark.: Hooker, Stonewall, Lafe, Marmaduke, Paragould.

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS