Changes

Paden delivered his first sermon in Hawley in Jones County, also in West Texas.<ref name=cpobit/> In 1949, he joined a missionary team to [[Italy]], which he declared "sorely in need of material and spiritual help." There, he ran into much opposition from the police and the [[liberal]] Italian government in his effort to establish in [[Rome]] the  Church of Christ, which at the time had some 700,000 members in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858599,00.html|title=Religion: Beachead|date=January 23, 1950|publisher=''[[Time magazine'']]|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> At one point, the government ordered Paden and his brother, Gerald S. Paden (August 17, 1924 &ndash; July 20, 2015), to stop the distribution of food to the needy and to close their orphanage. After a lengthy legal fight, and with some help from then [[U.S. Senator]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], the Italian courts upheld religious toleration, and Paden was allowed to continue his mission in the shadow of [[Vatican City]]. His mission work was cited in several issues of ''Time'' magazine in which it was disclosed that previously established [[Protestant]] churches in Italy, which have complied with the registration laws, have not faced this time of any trouble with the authorities.<br>

Paden delivered his first sermon in Hawley in Jones County, also in West Texas.<ref name=cpobit/> In 1949, he joined a missionary team to [[Italy]], which he declared "sorely in need of material and spiritual help." There, he ran into much opposition from the police and the [[liberal]] Italian government in his effort to establish in [[Rome]] the  Church of Christ, which at the time had some 700,000 members in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858599,00.html|title=Religion: Beachead|date=January 23, 1950|publisher=''[[Time magazine'']]|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref> At one point, the government ordered Paden and his brother, Gerald S. Paden (August 17, 1924 &ndash; July 20, 2015), to stop the distribution of food to the needy and to close their orphanage. After a lengthy legal fight, and with some help from then [[U.S. Senator]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], the Italian courts upheld religious toleration, and Paden was allowed to continue his mission in the shadow of [[Vatican City]]. His mission work was cited in several issues of ''Time'' magazine in which it was disclosed that previously established [[Protestant]] churches in Italy, which have complied with the registration laws, have not faced this time of any trouble with the authorities.<br>

Said the Reverend Emanuele Shaffi, a [[Methodist]] and the chairman of Italy's Federal Council of Evangelical Churches (membership: 60,000): "We enjoy complete freedom of worship ... We feel that our friends of the Churches of Christ are not entirely in the right." Paden travelled to Italy in the midst of the [[Cold War]] without first applying for the visa needed to be a missionary under Italian law. Also, in Italy at the time non-Catholic churches were considered businesses and had to submit appropriate paperwork, which Paden avoided unlike Protestant missionaries. After Italian officials travelled to the United States and presented documents pertaining to Paden's claims of persecution, the [[United States State Department]] released a letter stating that "No Americans are being denied the right to worship in Italy."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,935763,00.html|publisher=''Time'' magazine|title=Religion: Missionaries in Rome|date=September 29, 1952|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref></blockquote>

Said the Reverend Emanuele Shaffi, a [[Methodist]] and the chairman of Italy's Federal Council of Evangelical Churches (membership: 60,000): "We enjoy complete freedom of worship ... We feel that our friends of the Churches of Christ are not entirely in the right." Paden travelled to Italy in the midst of the [[Cold War]] without first applying for the visa needed to be a missionary under Italian law. Also, in Italy at the time non-Catholic churches were considered businesses and had to submit appropriate paperwork, which Paden avoided unlike Protestant missionaries. After Italian officials travelled to the United States and presented documents pertaining to Paden's claims of persecution, the [[United States State Department]] released a letter stating that "No Americans are being denied the right to worship in Italy."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,935763,00.html|publisher=''Time'' magazine|title=Religion: Missionaries in Rome|date=September 29, 1952|accessdate=September 28, 2022}}</ref>

In 1957, Paden went on a missionary journey to [[Denmark]].<ref name=cpobit/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bible.acu.edu/crs/lec/a5657.htm|title="They Shall All Be Taught of God": Center for Restoration Studies|publisher=bible.acu.edu|date=1956|accessdate=July 21, 2015; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref> Though he spent five years with the [[Denmark|Danes]], no sustaining Church of Christ work could be established there.

In 1957, Paden went on a missionary journey to [[Denmark]].<ref name=cpobit/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bible.acu.edu/crs/lec/a5657.htm|title="They Shall All Be Taught of God": Center for Restoration Studies|publisher=bible.acu.edu|date=1956|accessdate=July 21, 2015; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref> Though he spent five years with the [[Denmark|Danes]], no sustaining Church of Christ work could be established there.