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?
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.
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.
Our Roots
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.
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.
In his Declaration, Thomas Campbell set forth principles that sound as modern as today to New Testament Christians:
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. . . .
That . . . there ought to be no schisms, no uncharitable divisions among [local congregations].
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.
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. . . .
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.