Churches of Christ

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  In 2022, the Churches of Christ were estimated to have between 1,700,000 and 2,000,000 members gathered in more than 40,000 congregations worldwide. They are a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations that grew out of nineteenth-century America. Many of those congregations describe themselves as nondenominational. Members are known for two practices that set them apart from most other Christians, one involving water and one involving music. This documentary asks how a movement that rejects creeds and denominational structure holds together at all. It asks where the idea of restoring the first-century church came from, and what it means to build worship from the New Testament alone. It asks why disagreements over singing, outreach and race split the fellowship again and again. And it asks what the Churches of Christ look like beyond the United States.

  14122863

• 2. Restoration Roots

  ›

  At Cane Ridge, Kentucky, Barton W. Stone led a reform effort whose followers called themselves simply Christians. In western Pennsylvania, Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander Campbell led a second effort, and their followers took the name Disciples of Christ. Both groups hoped to rebuild the whole church on the pattern of the New Testament. Both also believed that creeds kept Christians divided.

  The two streams differed in temperament. The Campbell side pursued a systematic and rational reconstruction of the early church, while Stone's side was marked by radical freedom and very little dogma. Even so, they shared a slogan: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love." The two movements merged in 1832.

  The Second Great Awakening shaped both streams. The Campbells resisted what they saw as spiritual manipulation at camp meetings. Yet the Southern phase of the Awakening helped form Stone's reform movement and influenced the evangelistic techniques of Stone and the Campbells alike.

  Some habits of the movement were older than the movement itself. The Puritans who settled what is now Massachusetts in the early 1600s printed The Bay Psalm Book as their first American book. Its 40-page introduction explained why they used no instruments, no choirs and no solos in worship. The reasoning behind it traces back to Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, who influenced John Calvin in Geneva. John Knox carried Zwingli's teaching to Scotland, where it shaped the Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church. Thomas Campbell and Alexander Campbell were both born into that Presbyterian Church.

  Outsiders gave the movement a nickname. Academics and other denominations called its people Campbellites, assuming they followed Alexander Campbell the way Lutherans follow Luther. Campbell had been associated with the Baptist denomination until 1820. In The Christian Baptist, in 1826 and 1828, he rejected the label as "a nickname of reproach invented and adopted by those whose views, feelings and desires are all sectarian." His own preferred motto was "calling of Bible things by Bible names." Members still find Campbellite offensive, because they claim allegiance to no one but Jesus Christ. For the same reason, congregations avoid names tied to a particular man or doctrine, such as Lutheran or Wesleyan.

  Members also reject the idea that their church began in the early 1800s. They see the movement as an effort to reproduce the church established at Pentecost in A.D. 33. Thomas Campbell stated the ideal in his Declaration and Address: "The church of Jesus Christ on earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one." Many congregations do not even capitalize the word church in "church of Christ," reading the phrase as a description of a church that belongs to Christ rather than a proper name.

  235143339

• 3. Bible as Blueprint

  ›

  Commands, examples and necessary inferences form the method that has long guided how these congregations read the New Testament. Historically, three approaches to interpretation have been used. The first looks at what the text commands, what its examples show and what must be inferred from both. The second sorts the Bible into Patriarchal, Mosaic and Christian dispensations. The third is grammatico-historical analysis. Today the general impression is that the first approach does nearly all the work.

  Behind it lies an assumption that the Bible is plain enough for any sincere believer to understand. It is treated as a blueprint or constitution for the church. The Old Testament is regarded as inspired and historically accurate, but its laws do not bind Christians unless the New Testament repeats them. In practice, reasoning has been deductive, moving from one premise to the next, and one student of the movement compared it to the way science moves from hypothesis to hypothesis. Inductive reasoning appears too. Every conversion account in the book of Acts, for example, has been collected to work out the steps toward salvation.

  A debate in the 1980s tested the method. Some argued that it fostered legalism and urged a reading built on the character of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Traditionalists urged rejecting this new hermeneutic. Use of the older formula has since declined as congregations turned toward discipleship, servanthood, family and praise.

  Many leaders insist the Churches of Christ have no theology at all. Formal creeds and statements of faith are refused because they are thought to add to Scripture or subtract from it. Members prefer the word doctrine, since theology is what humans say about the Bible, while doctrine is simply what the Bible says.

  The same logic governs the singing. Members note that there is no historical evidence of instruments in the worship assemblies of the early church, and no New Testament text that authorizes them. So worship has typically been a cappella. Supporters cite Matthew 26:30: "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." They also point to Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3:16. Hymnals supply the words, a pitch pipe may give the opening note, and any capable song-leader can beat the time.

  The tradition stimulated many hymns in the early 20th century. Albert Brumley wrote "I'll Fly Away" and Tillit S. Teddlie wrote "Worthy Art Thou." The hymnal Great Songs of the Church, first published in 1921, is still widely used. Alexander Campbell himself opposed instruments in worship, and the dispute would eventually divide the movement. Since the early 2000s, a growing number of congregations have introduced them, and some now call themselves a "Church of Christ (Instrumental)."

  The Holy Spirit offers another example of shifting views. In the late 19th century, the prevailing view, associated with Campbell, held that the Spirit acts today only through inspired scripture, persuading people with words and ideas. Stone believed the Spirit had a more direct role in a Christian's life. Since the early 20th century, many have drifted away from the word-only theory, though the Churches of Christ remain cessationist about the gifts of the Spirit.

  The Trinity shows how much disagreement the early movement could tolerate. Stone was staunchly nontrinitarian. Campbell rejected the term Trinity but not the idea of the tri-unity of God. Their merger went ahead regardless.

  6062716456

• 4. Water and Grace

  ›

  The Koine Greek verb baptizō anchors the baptismal practice of the Churches of Christ. They understand it to mean dip, immerse, submerge or plunge, so baptism is performed only by bodily immersion. In their view, immersion matches the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. They argue that it was the first-century mode, and that pouring and sprinkling arrived later and replaced immersion in the State Churches of Europe. Infants are not baptized, because only those capable of belief and repentance are candidates.

  Baptism is one step in a longer sequence. Members generally teach that a person must be taught and hear, believe, repent, and confess that Jesus is the son of God. The person must then be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and live faithfully as a Christian. Conversion is presented as obedience to the proclaimed facts of the gospel, not as an emotional conversion begun by the Spirit. On this point the Churches of Christ stand strongly against Lutheran and Calvinist teaching.

  The reasoning begins with sin. Humans of accountable age are lost because they have sinned, and Jesus offered himself as an atoning sacrifice. Children too young to tell right from wrong are held to be innocent. Citing James 4:17, members say no set age applies, and congregations differ on when accountability begins.

  Among the branches of the Restoration Movement, the Churches of Christ have held the most conservative position on baptism. The sharpest argument was over validity. David Lipscomb held that a baptism was valid if the believer acted out of a desire to obey God, even without grasping its role in salvation. Austin McGary insisted that the convert must also understand that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. McGary's view prevailed in the early 20th century, but Lipscomb's approach never fully disappeared.

  Some Baptists charge that making baptism necessary amounts to baptismal regeneration. Members reject the charge, because faith and repentance are also required and the cleansing comes through the blood of Christ by God's grace. They call baptism a passive act of faith rather than a work that earns anything. As one passage puts it, "Baptism is not a human work; it is the place where God does the work that only God can do." Another author writes, "Faith is the reason why a person is a child of God; baptism is the time at which one is incorporated into Christ and so becomes a child of God." Members do not call baptism a sacrament, yet their view of it can fairly be described as sacramental.

  A recent trend stresses baptism as the event that places the believer into Christ, where God begins an ongoing work of transformation. Beginning in the 1960s, many preachers also gave grace more weight, rather than focusing only on carrying out every New Testament command and example. Grace became a theme that would increasingly define the tradition.

  6567661263

• 5. Autonomy and Authority

  ›

  Churches of Christ purposefully maintain no central headquarters, no councils and no structure above the local church. Each independent congregation chooses for itself how to take part in service and fellowship with others. What links them is a shared commitment to biblical restoration. Congregations that refuse to pool resources for outside causes such as mission work, orphanages or Bible colleges are sometimes called non-institutional.

  At the local level, a plurality of elders usually oversees each congregation, sometimes assisted by deacons. Elders are responsible for spiritual welfare, while deacons handle non-spiritual needs under the elders' supervision. Many deacons are assigned to specific ministries, and good service in that role is often seen as preparation for the eldership. Both offices are filled by the congregation using the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, and those passages are read to require men. Many congregations also expect an elder to have children who believe. Where no willing man qualifies, the congregation's men in general may oversee the church.

  The early Restoration Movement relied on itinerant preachers. During the 20th century, a long-term, formally trained congregational minister became the norm. Ministers serve under the elders, and the presence of a professional minister has sometimes created significant de facto ministerial authority and conflict with the elders. Even so, the eldership has remained the ultimate locus of authority in the congregation.

  Members hold to the priesthood of all believers. No special titles mark preachers as clergy, and the churches stress that every member has a gift and a role. Many ministers hold undergraduate or graduate degrees in religion, while others trained at a non-college school of preaching.

  With no hierarchy to enforce uniformity, variations are real. The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement describes three-quarters of the congregations and 87% of the membership as mainstream. The remaining congregations fall into four groups that differ in practice rather than theology. The largest is the non-institutional group, of about 2,055 congregations. It opposes church support for institutions such as orphanages and Bible colleges. It also opposes using church facilities for fellowship dinners or recreation, and therefore opposes building fellowship halls and gymnasiums.

  Three smaller and more conservative groups share those objections. About 1,100 congregations oppose separate Sunday School classes. About 550 congregations, called one-cup congregations, oppose multiple communion cups. They argue over whether the wine should be fermented and whether a cup that runs dry or spills may be refilled. The smallest group, about 130 congregations, stresses mutual edification and objects to one person doing most of the preaching.

  4748525350

• 6. Divisions and Reunions

  ›

  In 1906, the U.S. Religious Census listed the Christian Churches and the Churches of Christ as separate groups for the first time. The listing recognized a split that had been growing for years under conservatives such as Daniel Sommer, and reports of it had appeared as early as 1883. The most visible difference was instruments. Organs began appearing in some churches in 1860, and the Churches of Christ rejected them.

  Deeper than instruments lay two readings of silence. For the Churches of Christ, any practice absent from New Testament worship was not permissible. The Christian Churches held that anything not expressly forbidden could be considered. Missionary societies added fuel. The first, the American Christian Missionary Society, formed in October 1849. Many believed such societies lacked scriptural authority and would compromise the autonomy of local congregations. Cultural strains from the American Civil War contributed as well.

  In 1968, the International Convention of Christian Churches adopted a new provisional design and became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Those congregations favoring a denominational structure, more ecumenical ties and more modern liberal theology went along. Those who stayed out continued as undenominational Christian churches and churches of Christ. They have a loose convention and read scriptural silence more permissively, yet they remain closer to the Churches of Christ in theology than to the Disciples.

  After World War II, Churches of Christ began sending ministers and relief to war-torn Europe and Asia. Everyone agreed that separate para-church missionary societies were out. The fight was over how the work should be done and who should fund and control it. Orphan homes, nursing homes, new congregations, Bible colleges and large radio and television programs all became part of the argument. Congregations that pooled funds were called sponsoring churches, and those that refused were called non-institutional. The institutional controversy produced the largest division among the Churches of Christ in the 20th century.

  Another break grew out of a campus ministry. In 1967, Chuck Lucas, minister of the 14th Street Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida, started a project called Campus Advance, centered on the University of Florida. It offered soul talks in student residences and paired new Christians with older guides as prayer partners. Critics accused Lucas of fostering cultism. One of his converts, Kip McKean, moved to the Boston area in 1979 and began working with would-be disciples at the Lexington Church of Christ, which was renamed the Boston Church of Christ. As leadership centered there in the 1980s, the movement became known as the Boston movement.

  A formal break came in 1993 with the organization of the International Churches of Christ. Its practice of reimmersing some who joined, even those already baptized for the remission of sins in a Church of Christ, led some to reexamine the question of rebaptism. McKean resigned as World Mission Evangelist in November 2002. Some leaders of the new body began tentative efforts at reconciliation at the Abilene Christian University Lectureship in February 2004.

  27527476100

• 7. Race and the Pulpit

  ›

  Barton W. Stone was a strong opponent of slavery, arguing that no biblical justification existed for the form practiced in the United States and calling for immediate emancipation. Alexander Campbell took a more Jeffersonian line, treating slavery as a political problem rather than a religious or moral one. He had watched Methodists and Baptists divide over the issue. He argued that scripture regulated slavery rather than prohibited it, and that abolition should not become a reason for Christians to break fellowship. Belief in white racial superiority was almost universal on every side, and congregations commonly seated black members separately.

  After the Civil War, black Christians who had worshiped in mixed-race Restoration Movement congregations formed their own. Among the Churches of Christ, Marshall Keeble became a prominent African-American evangelist. By January 1919, he estimated, he had traveled 23,052 miles, preached 1,161 sermons and baptized 457 converts.

  The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s found the Churches of Christ struggling. Foy E. Wallace Jr. and George S. Benson of Harding University railed against integration, calling racial segregation the Divine Order. N.B. Hardeman, president of Freed-Hardeman, was adamant that the races should not mingle and refused to shake hands with black Christians. Schools and colleges tied to the movement sat at the center of the debate. Abilene Christian College admitted its first black graduate students in 1961 and its first black undergraduates in 1962, and other campuses followed.

  Efforts to address racism continued in later decades. In June 1968, prominent leaders held a national meeting, and thirty-two participants signed proposals aimed at discrimination in congregations, church-affiliated activities and the lives of individual Christians. An important symbolic step came in 1999. The president of Abilene Christian University confessed the sin of racism in the school's past segregationist policies and asked black Christians for forgiveness. He did so at a lectureship at Southwestern Christian College, a historically black school affiliated with the Churches of Christ.

  1263989914

• 8. Counting the Members

  ›

  In the United States, the Churches of Christ count approximately 1,087,559 members and 11,776 congregations. Overall membership was about 1.3 million in 1990 and again in 2008. Estimates of the share of American adults associated with the group range from 0.8% to 1.5%. About 1,240 congregations with 172,000 members are predominantly African-American, and 240 congregations with 10,000 members are Spanish-speaking. The average congregation has roughly 100 members, though larger ones report over 1,000.

  In 2000, the Churches of Christ were the 12th largest religious group in the country by members but the 4th largest by congregations. Between 1980 and 2007, membership declined by about 12%, and retention of young adults after high school graduation appears to be around 60%. Seventy percent of American members live in thirteen states. The group has a presence in 2,429 counties, fifth behind the United Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Assemblies of God. Adherents average about 677 per county. The divorce rate is 6.9%, well below national averages.

  A Pew Research Center survey in 2016 found that 50% of adherents identify as Republican or lean Republican, 39% as Democratic or lean Democratic, and 11% have no preference. On ideology, 51% called themselves conservative, 29% moderate and 12% liberal, with 8% unsure. The Christian Chronicle says the vast majority hold conservative views on modern social issues. Most adherents view homosexuality as a sin, citing Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:26-27. Most do not count same-sex attraction itself as sin but condemn acting on same-sex desires.

  Most members live outside the United States, though no reliable institutional figures exist. In Africa, anecdotal estimates run to 1,000,000 or more members in roughly 14,000 congregations. The largest concentrations are in Nigeria, Malawi, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, South Africa, South Sudan and Kenya. India is thought to have 2,000 or more Restoration Movement congregations with about 1,000,000 members, and the Philippines has more than 100 congregations.

  Britain tells its own story. John Davies of Mollington became first preacher of the Church of Christ at Cox Lane at the age of 16 in 1809, before he knew of like-minded people elsewhere. He later served as the first President of the British Churches of Christ from 1842 until his death in 1865, and hosted and corresponded with Alexander Campbell. Campbell visited Britain for several months in 1847, largely as Davies' guest. By then the movement had 80 congregations and 2,300 members. The Association of Churches of Christ in Britain disbanded in 1980, and about 40 of its congregations united with the United Reformed Church in 1981.

  In Brazil, there are more than 600 congregations and 100,000 members of the Restoration Movement. Most of them were established by Lloyd David Sanders.

  392949328