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WHAT
KIND OF CHURCH IS THIS?
by Leroy Lawson
One
thing is certain–there is no shortage of churches. You can take your pick
among the hundreds of different kinds, from the proud old denominations like
the Episcopalian and Presbyterian to the newer, more energetic Assembly of
God or Seventh Day Adventists, to say nothing of those amazingly numerous
and various cults that keep springing up.
In
the midst of such diversity, what is special about our church? What kind of
a church is it, anyway?
A
PARADOX AND A CHALLENGE
We
answer paradoxically. The distinctive about this Christian church is that it
has no distinctives. In fact we deliberately seek not to be different,
because our goal is unity, not division. Christianity has suffered long
enough from deep divisions separating denomination from denomination,
Christian from Christian. When Jesus prayed “that all of them may be one,
Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us”
(John
17:21
), he had us in mind.
In the spirit of his prayer we seek unity with all others in Christ.
Obviously
that desire is difficult to achieve. Human nature resists oneness. We seem
to believe with Robert Frost that “good fences make good neighbors,”
even though something within us “doesn’t love a wall, [but] wants it
down.” God desires unity, however, so it must be possible.
OUR
ROOTS
Christian
churches and churches of Christ trace their modern origins to the early
19th-century American frontier, a period of militancy among denominations.
America
’s pioneers brought
their deeply rooted religious convictions to the new land and perpetuated
their old animosities. Presbyterian squared off against Anglican who
defended himself against Baptist who had no toleration for Lutheran. A
reaction to this mutual animosity was inevitable.
When
it came, the reaction was spontaneous. A group of New England Christians
broke out of denominationalism, announcing their intention to follow the
Bible only. Another group in
Kentucky
, and still another in
Pennsylvania
, each independent of
the others, felt the spirit of unity moving them to stand with, not against,
fellow Christians. Under the leadership of minister Barton W. Stone, some
Presbyterian leaders in
Kentucky
published The
Last Will and Testament of the
Springfield
Presbytery, putting
to death their denominational connections. They said, “We will, that this
body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at
large; for there is but one body, and one Spirit . . .”
The
early leaders of what later came to be called the Restoration Movement
believed unity in Christ was—and is—possible. To achieve it required
letting go of human traditions and loyalties to dynamic personalities.
Christ alone could be exalted. The ideal of the church that emerges from the
pages of the New Testament must be the standard for today’s congregations.
STUDYING
THE IDEAL
While
gratefully acknowledging their debt to great reformers like Martin Luther,
John Calvin, John Knox, and others, these “Christians only” believed
their reforms remained unfinished. The only way to determine what the church
should be and how Christians should behave is to study New Testament
documents in which the churches of Christ are presented in splendor—and in
shortcomings. While there is no single church that we should imitate, the
ideal of the church as the body of Christ, the household of faith, the
temple of the Holy Spirit, and the people of God is clearly pictured.
In
a unity effort initially separated from the Stone movement, another
Presbyterian minister, Thomas Campbell, published his now famous Declaration
and Address in
1809. He had earlier migrated to
Pennsylvania
from his home in
Ireland
. While still there,
he had grown restless with the strictures of his denomination, the Old-Light
Anti-Burgher Seceder Presbyterian Church, a splinter of a split of a
division in the denomination.
When
he found the divisions caused by local grievances in
Scotland
separating
Presbyterians in
America
, he rebelled. He
would not exclude nonmembers of his denomination from Communion in his
church. He was expelled from his presbytery. It was really a question of who
fired whom, for by this time
Campbell
could not carry out
policies he deplored.
His
son Alexander, meanwhile, had reached similar conclusions in his studies in
Ireland
and
Scotland
and, when father and
son were reunited in
America
in 1809, each
embraced the other’s position. In time, the son surpassed the father as
the leader of their unity movement.
PRINCIPLES
FOR TODAY
In
his Declaration,
Thomas Campbell set forth principles that sound as modern as today to New
Testament Christians:
1.
That the
church
of
Christ
upon earth is
essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all
those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him
in all things according to the Scriptures. . . .
2.
That . . . there ought to be no schisms, no uncharitable divisions among
[local congregations].
3.
That . . . nothing ought to be inculcated upon Christians as articles of
faith; nor required of them as terms of communion; but what is expressly
taught and enjoined upon them, in the Word of God.
4.
That . . . the New Testament is as perfect a constitution for the worship,
discipline, and government of the New Testament church, and as perfect a
rule of the particular duties of its members, as the Old Testament was for
the worship, discipline, and government of the Old Testament church. . . .
5.
That . . . [no] human authority [has] power to impose new commands or
ordinances upon the church, which our Lord Jesus Christ has not enjoined.
There
are more propositions, but these are enough to show
Campbell
’s unusual good
judgment. From his day until now, millions of others have decided they also
wanted to be Christians only, without the complications of denomination.
LeRoy
Lawson is international consultant with Christian Missionary Fellowship and
a contributing editor for CHRISTIAN STANDARD,
Cincinnati
,
Ohio
. Adapted from The Family of God (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 1980).
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