About the "church of Christ", part one

The church of Christ teaches that it is non-denominational, but that is actually not true. It  is a distinct, separate, and recognizable brand of Christianity. It has a unique combination of characteristics that are not found in other christian groups in quite the same way. Its history is found in the restoration movement, the teachings of Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone. It has a common history with the Christian Church and the Disciples of Christ. You could probably attend a church of  Christ for years and not know or hear about this history. I did not learn about it till I had been a member for over ten years. I've been attending churches of Christ regularly for about 42 years. I've visited, or been a member of, over 20 congregations in the US and Europe.

You can find a picture of a "Basic Bible References" card online. It is a condensed version of the scriptures deemed the most important to support the doctrines and practices of the churches of Christ. These cards can often be found in racks at the entry ways of church buildings. I am not going to cover the scriptural justifications used for the practices that I talk about in these posts. It would take too long.

The one non-negotiable taught in all churches of Christ is voluntary, immersion baptism, for the remission of sins, after the age of accountability. Without it, you are not saved, period.  Individual members may hold differing private opinions on this topic, but they do not speak of them publicly. In fact, keeping dissenting opinions to oneself, in order to avoid division, is a feature of this group. Don't rock the boat. See link for religion survey of churches of christ. 

The second, most unique feature is that this denomination is a "brotherhood." It is truly a glorified social club and community organization. There is also a popular brotherhood newspaper and online news site, The Christian Chronicle. Even though each congregation is supposed to be autonomous and self policing, they are globally connected through social bonds, relationships, and church of christ literature. If you are a longstanding member and travel, visiting another congregation in another  state or country, you are bound to find a member of the church whom you either know, know about, or who is connected to someone you know in some way. Most churches are friendly and welcoming on the surface. The members do extensive networking and generally help each other out in many areas of life. If you have been in the church for decades and have family, friends,  and acquaintances in multiple congregations, like I do, leaving could be problematic. It could mean severing important, life long ties and access to resources. News of my defection could potentially spread from Florida to Pennsylvania and from West Virginia to Texas. 

The churches of Christ are actually a small blip among all those who call themselves Christians as far as numbers go, but they think big. Most consider themselves the true continuation of the original church started in Jerusalem, oblivious of the fact that other groups teach the same thing and believe it just as fervently. They have trouble understanding why others cannot see the truth about Christianity the way they can, and most of them do not know much about other religious doctrines besides what they hear discussed and denigrated in bible classes. There are dozens of church of christ missionaries throughout the world, sponsored by individual congregations, even in countries that are historically christian. This has caused offense in some cases. There are also several church of christ preaching schools, private christian schools, colleges and universities. These vary in flavor from very strictly fundamentalist to flaming liberal (Pepperdine). 

Many members of churches of christ like to do a bit of name dropping, associating themselves with any well known personage who had/has the slightest connection to the church of Christ or the broader restoration movement, even if they are no longer members in good standing. These include Presidents Harding and Reagan; singers Loretta Lynn, Pat Boone, Glen Campbell, Wierd Al Yankovic, and Randy Travis; basketball player David Robinson; author Max Lucado; and olympic figure skater Scott Hamilton.

More to come