Who Are the Churches of Christ?

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Who Are the Churches of Christ?

« on: August 05, 2008, 04:29:21 PM »

Perhaps you’ve wondered just who those churches are who call themselves Churches of Christ. This very abbreviated, concise article will serve as an introduction to who we are and where we come from.

Churches of Christ are one of three fellowships of churches that can trace their ancestry back to the 19th century Stone-Campbell Reformation. The Stone-Campbell Reformation was a 19th century Christian reform and unity movement begun by former Presbyterian pastors Barton Warren Stone (1772-1844) and Thomas Campbell (1763-1864). Thomas’ son Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) later became the acknowledged leader of this group.

The Christian Church, or Disciples of Christ, was officially founded when Thomas and Alexander Campbell’s Disciples, or Reformers, and Stone’s Christians, united on New Years’ Day, 1832 in Lexington, Kentucky. Stone had begun a unity and reform movement as a result of events that flowed out of the famous Cane Ridge Revival of 1801, the revival which began the Second Great Awakening on the American Frontier.

Stone, as pastor of the Cane Ridge and Concord Presbyterian Churches near Lexington, Kentucky, was present at the momentous three-day Cane Ridge communion festival that quickly broke out in revival. Stone and his peer Richard McNemar had already begun preaching a "new" view of faith, which taught that faith comes through hearing the gospel proclaimed, and that any hearer of the gospel could then choose to respond to it, rather than the Calvinistic doctrine that faith came only to the elect through a mystical, subjective "conversion experience." McNemar preached this "new" view of faith at the revival. Indeed, alll of the preachers proclaimed a non-sectarian message of faith in Jesus without specific references to the Calvinistic doctrine of election or the necessity of a conversion experience. This non-sectarian preaching impressed Stone even more than the unusual spiritual exercises people manifested. As a result, Stone, McNemar and others of his Presbyterian brethren were brought up on charges by their presbytery for preaching doctrine not in accord with the Westminster Confession of Faith; so they formed their own presbytery, however not long after they dissolved their presbytery believing it to be a cause of division, and resolved to be simple nondenominational Christians. They adopted the name Christian, believing it to be both scriptural and non-sectarian.

Meanwhile in Ireland, Presbyterian pastor Thomas Campbell was attempting to promote Christian ecumenism and to unite the various different factions of the Seceder Presbyterian Church however he was told to drop out of the evangelical society he had helped to found, and was told that, while laudable, Seceder unity wasn't expedient at that particular time. Thomas moved to America for health reasons, going over in 1807 to set up house-keeping and secure a preaching position before his family joined him two years later. Soon after arriving and being assigned to a presbytery in southwestern Pennsylvania, Thomas was brought up on charges for serving communion to people from a different sect of Presbyterianism than his. He tried to reconcile with his presbytery without compromising his beliefs and principles, but eventually felt compelled by conscience to resign his position as a pastor. He and several like-minded individuals founded a non-denominational society soon after, in 1809, for the “promotion of simple evangelical Christianity,” under the umbrella of the Presbyterian Church, which society unfortunately itself soon began to take on sectarian qualities, forcing Thomas to withdraw and form an Independent Church. Meanwhile his family arrived in America and Thomas was pleased to learn that his son Alexander felt the same way he did about non-denominational Christianity. Thomas eventually turned over leadership of the new Disciples to Alexander.

The Campbells’ Disciples and Barton Stone’s Christians soon became aware of each other and discovered they shared many things in common-a desire to be Christ-centered, non-sectarian, and a belief in the all-sufficiency of scripture for the faith and worship of the Church. The two groups disagreed on many issues, issues such as whether immersion was essential, what name to wear (Disciples or Christian), the precise nature of the atonement, the precise role of the Holy Spirit, etc. however they believed such issues should not be an impediment to Christian union. Each group, and indeed each individual within each group, was entitled to read and study scripture for themselves and to form their own conclusions relative to such views, but all agreed not to impose their views of what they believed were non-essential items on others. They made a distinction in matters of faith (the gospel) and matters of opinion (doctrine). Anything not precisely set forth in scripture, anything without a “thus saith the Lord” behind it they regarded as a matter of opinion, and thus not to be made into a test of fellowship.

The Campbells’ churches had been members of the Redstone Baptist Association, and were thus often called “Reforming Baptists,” with Alexander Campbell intending to remain with the Baptists so long as they would allow him the freedom to study the scriptures and preach what he believed to be the truth, a freedom they claimed to hold dear. However due to personality conflicts and doctrinal disagreements, Campbell’s church was finally expelled from this Baptist association. This saddened the Campbells, who regarded the Baptists as their brethren despite certain disagreements, and indeed, even as late as 1866, Alexander still held out the hope for a union of the Disciples/Christians and the Baptists of Eastern Virginia.

Soon after their official union, Barton Stone willingly conceded leadership of the movement to Campbell. The new group referred to itself as the Christian Church, sometimes as the Disciples, but most often in its own writings as “the Current Reformation,” or more often simply as “the Reformation.” Today it is often referred to less precisely as “the Restoration Movement,” based upon Campbell’s early efforts at restoring the “ancient order” of the work and worship of the Church. But because Stone and the Campbells considered themselves reformers continuing the work done by the great reformers Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Wesley and others, they most often referred to their movement as “the current Reformation.”

But sadly, by the late 19th century the Stone-Campbell Reformation, the group dedicated to Christian unity and reform, began to take on a sectarian character, as different groups staked out positions on specific issues (instrumental music, cooperative meetings, the missionary society, salaried, located preachers, the new biblical criticism, etc.). These problems were only exacerbated by sectional and social conditions brought about by the Civil War. Southern congregations of the movement as a rule felt slighted by Northern congregations of the movement. By the late 1880s, despite the pleas of grace-centered, non-sectarian preachers like Elders Isaac Errett (1820-1888) in the North and TB Larimore (1843-1929) in the South, individual congregations and groups of churches were withdrawing fellowship from other churches and from the larger movement, with the result that, by 1906, the split which for all practical purposes had occurred two decades earlier, was recognized as official. Thus, Churches of Christ in the South and Christian Churches/Disciples in the North went their separate ways, though to his credit, TB Larimore remained in communion with both groups until his death. Though he himself personally held to many of the conservative views of the Churches of Christ, Larimore nevertheless still refused to choose sides over what he insisted were largely “untaught issues of scripture.” He loved his brethren too much to withdraw from them and categorically refused to preach on those “issues.” When asked once how Christians should stand upon certain issues, Elder Larimore responded by saying that Christians should sit on the issues and stand upon Jesus Christ. Had our movement had more leaders like Larimore and Errett it might not have divided.

Unfortunately, both Churches of Christ and Christian Churches have experienced further divisions since 1906 over these and similar issues. Today, there are approximately a dozen different Church of Christ off-shoots, differing somewhat on certain doctrinal issues, though most remain committed to the historic principles of congregational autonomy, each congregation being overseen by a body of elders, and the all-sufficiency of scripture for the faith and worship of the church. Conservative Churches of Christ latched on to Campbell's ideals of restoring the ancient church, tending to ignore his larger goal of Christian unity. For Campbell restoration was always a means towards unity, though by the 1840s he did not emphasize restoration as much as he had previously. For conservative churches of Christ however, restoring the "Lord's Church," became an end in itself-they typically view Campbell as only or primarily a restorationist, a view which Church of Christ historian Richard Hughes calls "the myth of the singular Campbell."

More encouraging is the fact that efforts are currently being made by members within both the Christian and Church of Christ branches of the Stone-Campbell movement to heal some of the wounds between Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. Whether a full-blown reunification will ever take place remains to be seen, however.

I think it is safe to say that GCM is dedicated to Stone’s, the Campbells’, Errett’s and Larimore’s dream of a non-sectarian, united Church-a church united upon the essentials, chief of which is the proclamation of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, a unity in which each member is free to hold his/her own opinions upon lesser non-essentials without passing judgment on others for doing the same. Like these great men of faith, we strive to be Christ-centered, and Bible-believing, taking our cues from Jesus Christ. Thus we stand with other like-minded Churches of Christ and Christians from many other traditions in our shared proclamation of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

For further reading:

Leonard Allen and Richard Hughes: Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of Churches of Christ.

Leroy Garrett: The Stone-Campbell Movement Revised Edition.

Gary Holloway and Dug Foster: Renewing God’s People: A Concise History of Churches of Christ.

Richard Hughes: Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America.

From the Christian Church perspective, an excellent book is Henry Webb’s In Search of Christian Unity: A History of the Restoration Movement.

Edited 9/4/09.


« Last Edit: September 05, 2009, 02:06:45 PM by Lee Freeman »	Logged

"Brethren, for the sake of our souls, let us never get too big to restudy our position." - Bro. KC Moser (1893-1976)

"I propose to finish my course without ever, even for one monent, engaging in partisan strife with anybody about anything." - Elder T. B. Larimore (1843-1929)

"Let the unity of Christians be our polar star." - Elder Barton Warren Stone (1772-1844)

"It is wrong to make anything a condition of fellowship which is not essential to salvation. We draw the line here. That which will damn a soul and separate us in the next world should divide us in this; nothing else should. " - FD Srygley (1856-1900)

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