Plain Talk - Cedar Park Church of Christ

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About "Plain Talk" by Jim R. Everett
October, 1998

About "Plain Talk"

You cannot talk about "Plain Talk" without talking about brother Robert F. Turner. Brother Turner began preaching in Burnet, Tx., in 1962 with a group of Christians who left the older congregation in town because of the institutional issues. I came to know him, because Burnet is where I was born and reared and my family was a part of the newly formed congregation -- actually, I was born in Oatmeal in my grandparents house but most folks don't know where Oatmeal is. Brother Turner started publishing "Plain Talk" as a part of the teaching work of the Oaks West congregation in 1964.
"Plain Talk" is an extension of the very character and personality of brother Turner. He has a unique style of writing. It is structured in preciseness and succinctness containing a lot of rich thoughts, topped at times with a little dry humor. You might skim through an article occasionally only to realize that there was a lot more to what was said than you first suspected and then you would have to go back and do a lot more "chewin" on the meat it contained. The articles in "Plain Talk" were always written to fit a definite space. He never wasted or minced words and if it could not be said exactly right, then work would have to be done to delete or rephrase -- getting rid of superfluous material, he would call it -- and there always seemed to be a way to say what you wanted to say with fewer words.
A careful observer will notice that he spent a lot of time and thought on selecting "titles" for each article -- rarely more than 21 letters -- "That's all the space you are allowed," he would say... Sometimes you have to read the article to understand the

title but the title always pricked your interest and moved you to start reading what followed.

It goes without saying that brother Turner has had an impact on a "host" of folks but never as one who would draw disciples to himself or to cause them to think as he thought because of who he was. He taught people to pursue an understanding of truth -- to be independent investigators and learn to think for themselves.

Brother Joe Fitch and brother Dan Shipley each worked with the Oaks West congregation during the time that "Plain Talk" was being published and contributed the same kind of excellent material in its established format. I am also grateful to brother Turner for allowing me to contribute a few articles to the paper. Brother Turner has given us permission to scan the five, bound books (20 volumes) of "Plain Talk" to make them available to those who might be interested in the material. That work has finally been accomplished. Though a couple of us began the tedious task of scanning, proofing, formatting and loading PT on the web site, others have worked more diligently to accomplish what proved to be an awesome task. Brother Jon Darrow sent us an electronic file of several issues that he had paid to have typed. But it is to brother and sister Carl Ray that we are so indebted for their dedication to finalizing the work. It is possible that we might, sometime in the future, make the entire 20 volumes available on a CD.

PLAIN TALK VOLUMES