The Churches of Christ

The a cappella Restoration congregations: independent churches with no creed and no headquarters, who immerse believers for the forgiveness of sins, keep the Supper every first day of the week, sing without instruments and are overseen by elders in each congregation.

Harold Hazelip, "Churches of Christ," Tennessee Encyclopedia (Tennessee Historical Society)

Thomas H. Olbricht, "Churches of Christ," Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (Eerdmans, 2004), pp. 213-220, republished by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society

Kent E. Fillinger, "Noninstrumental Churches of Christ Facing Uncertain Future," Christian Standard, 13 October 2021 (reporting 21st Century Christian directory figures)

"Florida College," College Navigator, National Center for Education Statistics (IPEDS ID 133809)

Florida College (EIN 59-0737882), Form 990 filings, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer

West Virginia School of Preaching, "About" and "Tuition and Costs" (Moundsville, West Virginia)

Pew Research Center, Religious Landscape Study (2023-24): Churches of Christ

Jeffrey W. Hamilton, "Introducing Ourselves: We Are a Church of Christ," La Vista Church of Christ (2006)

Corinth Church of Christ, Portland, Tennessee, FAQ

Harding University, Statement of Faith

Lipscomb University, What We Believe (the Centering Core and Heritage)

"Church Organization," Truth Magazine I:10, p. 23 (July 1957), non-institutional

Wm. E. Wallace, "Problems in the Church (VI): Institutionalism," Truth Magazine (vol. 7), non-institutional

Donald Townsley, "Dangers Confronting the Church," Guardian of Truth XXXV:7 (4 April 1991), reposted in Truth Magazine

Donald Townsley, "The Impact of Sponsoring-Church Arrangements on the Church," Guardian of Truth XXX:1 (2 January 1986), reposted in Truth Magazine

Logan Buchanan, "The Herald of Truth Broadcast," Gospel Guardian, vol. 5, no. 34 (7 January 1954)

John Mark Hicks, "Women, Assemblies, and Churches of Christ" (22 September 2020)

"Women's Roles in Churches of Christ Survey 2016," Wineskins (24 May 2016)

Kent E. Fillinger, "The Role of Women from the Resurrection to Today," Christian Standard

Robert C. Welch, "Why Fellowship Does Not Exist With Premillennialists," Truth Magazine

Edward Fudge, "Millennialism In The Restoration Movement," Gospel Guardian 21:12, pp. 5-9

The Churches of Christ began in the unity movement of Thomas and Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, who wanted Christians to stop dividing over creeds and to return to the Bible alone. By the end of the 1800s the movement had divided over mission societies and instrumental music, and the conservative congregations were counted separately in 1906. In the 1900s they spread through the South and Southwest, grew until about 1985 and then began to decline. Thomas Olbricht, a historian within the Churches of Christ, names its strengths as Scripture, church life and evangelism, and its frictions as a residual legalism and a continuing exclusivism. The churches that began as a plea for union have divided again and again.

A plea for Christian union

Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander in Pennsylvania, and Barton W. Stone in Kentucky, began separately to urge that divisions among Christians came from strict adherence to historic creeds and that union would follow a return to the Bible as the sole guide. The Stone and Campbell movements formally united at Lexington, Kentucky, on January 1, 1832. The movement grew from about 22,000 in 1832 to 192,000 in 1860.

Journals gather the conservatives

The Gospel Advocate (1855), edited by David Lipscomb, and the Firm Foundation (1884), edited by Austin McGary, drew together congregations troubled by what they called innovations. The Christian Standard, edited by Isaac Errett, spoke for the more progressive churches. The two issues that proved decisive were mission societies and instrumental music in worship.

The Sand Creek Address and Declaration

Daniel Sommer, who had taken over the American Christian Review in Indianapolis, called for a break with the progressives in his "Sand Creek Address and Declaration." He is remembered for pressing the separation and later for urging that all capable men in a congregation share in the preaching.

The census lists them apart

The federal religious census of 1906 counted Churches of Christ separately from the Disciples of Christ, with 159,658 members out of 1,142,359 in the whole Stone-Campbell movement. Most lived in Tennessee, northern Alabama and Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas. Olbricht calls the census a decisive, self-conscious acceptance of a separation that had been growing, not a single event.

The located preacher

Austin McGary and David Lipscomb had both written against preachers who worked full time for one congregation. Not until the early decades of the twentieth century did some churches appoint a minister to do most of the preaching, and many did not employ one until after World War II. Larger congregations after the 1950s added ministers for youth, education, family and counseling.

The premillennial dispute

Many early leaders had held a moderate premillennial view. As dispensational premillennialism spread among fundamentalists, leaders generally retreated from it, and in Olbricht's account preachers such as Foy E. Wallace Jr. "in effect" pushed premillennial advocates such as Robert Henry Boll into a separate fellowship. Premillennial congregations have since asked not to be distinguished from the others in the Mac Lynn directory.

A fight over grace

Kenney Carl Moser and Grover Cleveland Brewer pressed an emphasis on God's grace in the 1930s. Their views were widely accepted only after the 1980s. The older preaching had set out salvation as hearing, believing, repenting, confessing and being baptized.

The Herald of Truth

On February 10, 1952, the ABC network began to carry a broadcast that opened, "The churches of Christ salute you with the Herald of Truth." The Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas, oversaw it and asked other congregations to send funds to its elders. Objectors in the 1950s listed the Herald of Truth, with children's homes and homes for the aged, among the extra-congregational institutions they opposed.

The non-institutional churches separate

A large group objected to church-sponsored institutions and programs, saying they undermined the responsibilities of the local church. By 1960 about 2,055 congregations identified as non-institutional. Florida College, founded in 1946, became the school most closely tied to them. It is a full four-year college with degrees in many fields, accredited since 1954, and it lives on student fees and private gifts, not on church treasuries. The Gospel Advocate and the Truth Magazine families have gone separate ways since, and many congregations on each side do not recognize the other as sound.

Hermeneutics, women and worship

The 1980s brought a hard argument over how to read the Bible: by command, example and necessary inference, or through the character of God and Christ. Traditionalists called the second a "new hermeneutic" and urged "rejection of it and the change agents advocating it." In the 1990s women took larger roles in teaching youth and campus work, and some congregations began worship teams.

The International Church of Christ leaves

Churches influenced by the Crossroads congregation in Gainesville, Florida, and the Boston Church of Christ had been counted among the Churches of Christ. Since the early 1990s they have called themselves the International Church of Christ, with a more structured ecclesiology. Leaders in the mainstream churches dispute their polity and methods.

Decline reported

The Christian Standard reported the directory figures of 11,875 congregations and 1,423,295 adherents. It also reported that attendance peaked about 1985 and had been falling since about 1990, and that one projection expects roughly a third of the 1985 numbers by 2050.

Alexander Campbell

Pennsylvania leader with his father Thomas of the Campbell side of the Restoration movement. He joined with Stone's followers at Lexington in 1832 and shaped the movement's call for a return to the New Testament.

David Lipscomb

A Tennessee editor from a Baptist background, shaped by Tolbert Fanning, who gathered conservative congregations around the Gospel Advocate. He opposed the located preacher and the missionary society. Lipscomb University bears his name.

Daniel Sommer

Indianapolis editor of the American Christian Review and author of the Sand Creek Address and Declaration in 1889. He argued that all capable men of the congregation should share the teaching.

Foy E. Wallace Jr.

A leading preacher of the early and middle 1900s. Olbricht names him among those who "in effect" pushed premillennial advocates into a separate fellowship.

B. C. Goodpasture

Editor of the Gospel Advocate in the middle 1900s. He described the way the churches reach agreement and settle disputes as "a wild democracy."

Batsell Barrett Baxter

Featured speaker of the Herald of Truth after its first years, and a leading preacher of city-wide campaigns in the 1960s. His style was direct and conversational, more teaching than exhortation.

Olbricht's account of the structure is worth setting beside the history. The Churches of Christ have kept no organization larger than the congregation and no official journals. Consensus has come through the opinion of editors until the 1980s, and since then through lectureship speakers and the leaders of Christian universities. Those who lose a consensus battle, he says, develop new constituencies and channels of communication. That is how the institutional, one-cup, non-class and mutual-edification groups came to be. The Tennessee Encyclopedia adds that the colleges are each governed by a self-perpetuating board of trustees and that the periodicals are owned by individuals or families, not by the churches. The numbers in the facts above come from different years and measures and do not add together. The 2004 encyclopedia entry counted 13,000 congregations of about 100 members each. The 2021 directory counts 11,875. The lineage chart carries a separate count for the non-institutional line alone.

Scripture alone, with no creed. A congregation does what a command, an approved example or a necessary inference supports, and nothing else.

The Churches of Christ have no creed and no body that speaks for them. One congregation's own page says, "We have no creed or statement of faith." They teach that the Bible came from the mind of God and that nothing may be done in worship or church work without a warrant in it. Their usual test has three parts: a direct command, an example the apostles approved, or a conclusion that cannot be avoided. Harding University describes the Bible as the "authoritative word of God delivered by the prophets and apostles." Lipscomb University speaks more openly: each generation, it says, must search the Scriptures for itself, and it commits to the authority of the Scriptures too.

In practice, what holds the churches together is the opinion of editors, preachers and colleges. The conservative groups and the mainstream differ on how tight the method is. The non-institutional, one-cup, non-class and mutual-edification groups each apply the same method to a different question and reach a different rule.

We have no creed or statement of faith. God gave us His book, and that is what we use.

If God teaches us by a direct command of Jesus or his apostles, an example approved in the early church by the apostles, or by an inescapable conclusion drawn from the Bible, we do it; if not, we don’t.

divinely inspired, authoritative word of God delivered by the prophets and apostles

The same Harding statement binds employees to its faith statements as "guiding principles for decision-making." Lipscomb's Heritage statement says: "We embrace the full inspiration, truthfulness, and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture and submit to it as fully authoritative, governing our belief and behavior." Olbricht reports that Thomas Campbell's method of commands, examples and, later, necessary inferences has been the historic way of finding what is essential, that it was challenged in the 1980s as legalistic, and that Goodpasture called the churches' way of settling such disputes "a wild democracy."

A person is saved by grace through an obedient faith that repents, confesses Christ and is immersed for the forgiveness of sins. Baptism is not a mere symbol, and infants are not baptized.

The Churches of Christ teach that the sinner is saved by Christ's death and resurrection, received by an obedient faith. A congregation's list of what the believer does reads: hear the gospel, believe, repent, confess Christ, and be baptized for the remission of sins. Harding University puts it in one sentence: grace is received "by obedient faith that repents, confesses Christ, and is baptized into Him." Baptism is by immersion and only for believers, so infants are not baptized. The Tennessee Encyclopedia notes that the churches do not accept inherited original sin. For much of the twentieth century the preaching set out the five steps as a plan and said less about grace. Olbricht dates the change to the 1930s and says it was widely accepted only after the 1980s.

Be baptized for remission of sins (Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16)

We neither deserve nor earn that grace but receive it by obedient faith that repents, confesses Christ, and is baptized into Him for a new life filled with the Spirit’s fruitfulness.

We are baptized believers, raised to walk in “newness of life”

The Lord's Supper is taken every first day of the week, by the example of the early church. One group insists on a single cup; most use individual cups.

The Churches of Christ keep the Supper on the first day of every week, and they ground that on Acts 20:7. One congregation says: "As the early Christians came together on the first day of the week to break bread, so we remember Christ's sacrifice, His death, burial and resurrection, when we take the Lord's Supper." The Supper is a remembrance of Christ's death. The sources gathered here do not teach that the bread and fruit of the vine change or that the Supper is a sacrifice.

The main disagreement among the churches is over the cup. About 550 congregations, a number of them also opposed to classes, hold that the Supper must be served from one cup. The great majority use individual cups, and treat the number of containers as a matter of judgment.

As the early Christians came together on the first day of the week to break bread, so we remember Christ's sacrifice, His death, burial and resurrection, when we take the Lord's Supper

A sharing of the Lord’s Supper to remember Jesus’ death

They gather to worship God and to commune in the Lord’s Supper.

Each congregation governs itself under a plurality of elders, with deacons, and answers to no one outside it. Most also pay one preaching minister, who in practice does most of the teaching.

The Churches of Christ teach that Christ alone is head of the church and that nothing stands above the local congregation: no synod, bishop or convention. A congregation says, "there is no outside governing body or conference," and that each church is "autonomous and locally lead by Elders" with deacons to help. Truth Magazine adds that the elders' oversight "begins and ends with the local congregation." Elders are also called bishops and pastors. There is no formal ordination of preachers, and each congregation chooses who will minister to it.

The churches differ on the preacher. Before the early twentieth century many leaders opposed a located preacher. Since then many congregations have had a full-time preaching minister, and larger ones have added ministers for other work. A non-institutional writer warns that a preacher doing the elders' work is a "pastor system," which his own tradition condemns. The mutual-edification group, about 130 congregations, refuses to let one man do most of the preaching.

Jesus Christ is the head of the church (Ephesians 1:22-23); there is no outside governing body or conference.

The only organization the New Testament authorizes through which to do church work is the local congregation, under its elders, and with deacons as special helpers (Phil. 1:1).

In the New Testament the preacher is not the pastor: the pastors are the elders

The two main groups differ on what the treasury may do. Truth Magazine's Wallace writes: "The right of these institutions to exist is not denied," but the grants of the churches to the institutions are "challenged as being violations of the appointed function of the church." The institutional churches answer that colleges, children's homes and broadcasts are works that congregations may support from their treasuries, as the Herald of Truth was supported under the oversight of one eldership. The preaching schools founded from the 1960s on follow the same pattern. Olbricht writes that each is "under the control of a single congregation that in turn receives contributions from other congregations." The West Virginia School of Preaching, for one, began in 1994 when the elders of the Hillview Terrace Church of Christ in Moundsville "took on the work of having the school." It charges no tuition. The Tennessee Encyclopedia notes that each college is governed by a self-perpetuating board of trustees and each periodical is privately owned.

Singing without instruments, prayer, the Supper, a sermon and a gift, on the first day of the week, led by men.

The churches name five acts of worship: prayer, singing, preaching, the Lord's Supper and giving. Singing is without instruments. One congregation reasons, "Because instrumental music is not mentioned in the New Testament as a part of early Christians' worship, we do not assume that it is authorized, and thus sing a cappella." The a cappella rule was a cause of the break with the Disciples and remains the churches' best-known mark. Public worship is led by men. A congregation says, "Worship in the churches of Christ is led by Christian men."

The 1990s brought changes in style, such as the worship team, in which a leader and several others with microphones lead the singing. Olbricht says that most churches either do not care about these arrangements or insist that the New Testament does not authorize them. The groups that refuse classes say the assembly should not be divided into age groups at all.

Singing songs without instrumental accompaniment. Everyone sings. We have no choir, the church is the choir.

Because instrumental music is not mentioned in the New Testament as a part of early Christians' worship, we do not assume that it is authorized, and thus sing a cappella in a congregational setting (Ephesians 5:19).

Worship in the churches of Christ is led by Christian men (1 Corinthians 14:34-35, 1 Timothy 2:12).

The Spirit inspired Scripture and dwells in believers, producing the fruit of the Spirit. Miraculous gifts are not taught as continuing.

Harding University says the Spirit "dwells within believers, guiding them in discernment and equipping them for service and witness." Lipscomb University speaks of "God the Holy Spirit, the giver and renewer of life," who "inspired Scripture." A congregation describes the Spirit as sent "to guide the apostles into all truth." None of the statements gathered here teaches that tongues, prophecy or healing continue, and none speaks of them at all. The older tradition was narrower. Olbricht reports that early leaders restricted the work of the Spirit to the inspiration of Scripture, in a word-alone view of conversion and Christian life, and he sets this against the more emotional Spirit-initiated conversion preached in the revivals.

We believe the Holy Spirit dwells within believers, guiding them in discernment and equipping them for service and witness of the gospel of Christ.

The Spirit spoke through the prophets and apostles, and inspired Scripture to equip us for every good work.

Sent the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles into all truth (John 16:13)

Christ will return, raise the dead and judge. The saved enter eternal life and the disobedient eternal punishment. The churches separated from premillennial churches that insisted on preaching the doctrine.

Harding University says Christ "will return to judge the disobedient and rescue His own," and that believers hope for "resurrection from death." Lipscomb University's statement ends: "We believe in the resurrection of the dead, wait for God's new heaven and new earth, and pray, 'Come, Lord Jesus!'" The Tennessee Encyclopedia says the Christian hope is eternal life in heaven and that eternal punishment is real.

The one internal division is about the thousand years. Many early leaders held a moderate premillennial view. After 1910 the majority turned against it, and Olbricht writes that Foy E. Wallace Jr. and others "in effect" pushed its advocates, among them Robert Henry Boll, into a separate fellowship. Robert Welch, writing in the Guardian of Truth in 1982, gives his side's account. Members who held the view as "a private personal thing" kept their fellowship, and the line fell at churches that insisted the doctrine be preached. The first withdrawal, at the Highland church in Louisville in the mid-1910s, was of members who opposed the doctrine, and in 1952 the premillennial preachers refused "any kind of discussion of the doctrine." The premillennial churches, a small group, have since asked not to be distinguished from the others in the directory.

We believe Christ will return to judge the disobedient and rescue His own, welcoming them into the Father’s eternal home as His co-heirs.

We believe in the resurrection of the dead, wait for God’s new heaven and new earth, and pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

The pattern: command, example, necessary inference

No practice is allowed without a command, an approved example or an inference that cannot be avoided. Silence is not permission.

The churches' way of reading Scripture is itself one of their chief marks. They teach that what God has not authorized, His church does not do. A congregation states it twice over: "We seek to do all that God commands and nothing He has not authorized," and, as the test, a "direct command of Jesus or his apostles," an "example approved in the early church," or an "inescapable conclusion." This rule is applied to instruments, to church funds, to classes and to cups. It is why the Churches of Christ sing without instruments, and it is also why they have divided so often, since each group applies the same rule and reaches a different answer.

We seek to do all that God commands and nothing He has not authorized. We look to the Bible as our source of authority (Colossians 3:17).

When a preacher preaches on any subject he is to use the word of God as his authority for being “for” or “against” something.

And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

For it is evident that our Lord hath sprung out of Judah; as to which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priests.

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.

The method stands on the text. The writer to the Hebrews reasons from what the text does not say, that a priest could not come from Judah because "Moses spake nothing concerning priests" (Hebrews 7:14), and the Bereans tested every claim, "examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). A general command leaves the means to judgment, so a building, a class, a songbook or a tray of cups carries out the command and adds nothing, while a specific command excludes other kinds, as singing excludes playing. The limit on the treasury rests on the text in the same way, since every example shows what church money does, for preachers, needy saints and widows, and a home or a college under its own board is another worker, not a means. The fault is in the use of the method, when an inference about an incidental that rests on a premise the text never states, such as the number of cups or whether to hold classes, is bound as a test of fellowship, and Paul's word on the incidental is "Let each man be fully assured in his own mind" (Romans 14:5).

Olbricht records that the test began with commands and examples and that necessary inferences were added later. He reports that the method drew the charge of legalism in the 1980s, that traditionalists answered by urging the rejection of the critics as well as their reading, and he lists "a residual legalism" among the sources of friction in the body in the early twenty-first century. The charge does not touch the method, which the apostles themselves used. It touches the step from a conclusion about an incidental to a test of who is a brother. Colossians 3:17, the verse most often cited for the method, is weaker than it is made to look, because "whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed" covers meals and work as well as worship; Hebrews 7:14 is the stronger text.

Opinions bound as tests of fellowship

The one-cup, non-class and mutual-edification divisions each made a question of judgment into a test, the majority quarantined the churches that would not fund institutions, and many congregations on each side do not recognize the others.

The Churches of Christ have divided along five lines in a century. After 1910 came the thousand years, and the premillennial churches became a separate fellowship. Then came Sunday school classes, and about 1,100 congregations hold no classes; the number of communion cups, and about 550 congregations hold that the Supper needs one cup; and the preacher, and about 130 congregations of mutual edification refuse to let one man do most of the preaching. The largest came in the 1950s, over the sponsoring church and the church's treasury for institutions, and the non-institutional churches, who objected, were counted at 2,055 congregations by 1960. Olbricht records that the groups depart from the consensus in practices more than in doctrine, that they are smaller, and that many do not recognize the validity of the others.

Both sides of the institutional division had arguments from the text. A writer for the Herald of Truth side pointed out that a congregation was asking sister congregations "for help and cooperation." A Truth Magazine writer wrote that church grants to institutions violate "congregational autonomy and local church function." In 1991 another non-institutional writer looked back on the division and called it "an organizational apostasy." In the end many congregations on each side no longer recognized the others.

In church grants to institutions, New Testament authority relative to congregational autonomy and local church function is violated.

Highland church has appealed to the churches through the mail, by telephone, and personal contact, for funds to do this magnificent work, as one sister congregation asking others for help and cooperation.

Churches of Christ went through an organizational apostasy thirty-five years ago over institutionalism and the sponsoring church.

But him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples. One man hath faith to eat all things: but he that is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth set at nought him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? to his own lord he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be made to stand; for the Lord hath power to make him stand.

Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul?

giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus: that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God.

Paul's rule for questions of judgment is plain: receive the one who differs, "yet not for decision of scruples" (Romans 14:1-4), and let neither side "set at nought" nor "judge" the other. A church is to avoid "divisions" and the party spirit of "I am of Paul" (1 Corinthians 1:10-13), and it is to be "giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3-6). On the institutional question the objectors stood on the text, since the New Testament shows what church money does and shows no eldership overseeing a work that many churches pay for, and declining to endorse a practice the text does not authorize is not the binding of an opinion. Putting them out for declining it was. So was binding the cup, the class or the located preacher as a test, on either side of those questions. Each faction answers that its rule is not an opinion but a matter of faith, but the brother who "eateth herbs" held his scruple as firmly, and Paul still forbade either side to judge the other. The churches that began as a plea for unity bound opinions as tests of fellowship, and that departs from Scripture at full strength.

Donald Townsley records that in November and December of 1954 B. C. Goodpasture, editor of the Gospel Advocate, "spearheaded a movement to “quarantine” those preachers who opposed sponsoring-churches and human institutions in the budgets of churches." The Churches of Christ stand closest to the line on the one thing they all say: that no creed, council or headquarters may bind. They fall short where the unwritten creed of a faction did the binding. The one-cup churches, the non-class churches and the others each hold that they are simply the church, and a refusal to recognize a brother over a cup, a class or a quarantine he would not join is the sin Paul named in Corinth.

One man as "the preacher"

A single salaried minister beside the elders, doing most of the preaching and in some places making the decisions the elders should make.

The churches' pioneers opposed the located preacher, and the churches have gradually adopted him. Olbricht records that McGary and Lipscomb wrote against the full-time minister, that some churches appointed one in the early twentieth century, and that many had none until after World War II. The mutual-edification churches refuse the arrangement altogether. A non-institutional writer states the danger plainly: the New Testament "nowhere authorizes the preacher to take the responsibility of overseeing the congregation where he preaches," and without enough elders the preacher is put "in the position of making decisions that should be made by the brethren." He says that in many places "no real effort has been put forth to develop men into elders," and calls it "the great weakness of conservative churches since division over institutionalism." The institutional churches have gone further, adding staff ministers for youth, family and counseling beside the preacher.

There is also the tendency for the preacher to do the work of elders.

This concept causes people to exalt and set the preacher apart from other members.

And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:

What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching.

But be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry.

The New Testament knows the evangelist, who is told to "do the work of an evangelist" (2 Timothy 4:5), and it says the elders who "rule well" are to have honor, especially those who "labor in the word and in teaching" (1 Timothy 5:17). The pay of a preacher is not the objection. The fault is a single man placed beside the eldership, or in place of it, who does most of the teaching and shapes the congregation's decisions. The assembly Paul describes is one where "each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching" (1 Corinthians 14:26), where gifts are spread across the body, and the churches' own non-institutional writers admit that their tradition's want of elders has led to "pastor oversight." Calling the man a "minister" and not "pastor" does not change what he does.

The churches that stand nearest the New Testament on this are the mutual-edification congregations, who are the smallest of the groups. They have a text, 1 Corinthians 14:26. They also bind their view, and many other churches refuse to recognize them for it. The strongest text for a located evangelist is Paul's charge to Timothy at Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3). It sets Timothy to teach and to appoint elders. It does not set him over them.

The name, and who is a Christian

The churches wear no name but Christ's, reject the label denomination for themselves, and have often refused fellowship to other believers who confess Christ.

The churches take "Church of Christ" from Romans 16:16 and treat it as a description, not as a title. One congregation writes, "We are not affiliated with any denomination, including those who may have 'Church of Christ' in their names." Another says that when the name is on a building it is "not announcing a denominational affiliation." Within the movement there have been two readings of this. The Tennessee Encyclopedia says some representatives claimed the churches include the only known Christians, while others insisted their commitment is to be "Christians only." Hazelip calls the churches "Separatistic" and says they "seldom participate in common causes with other religious groups." Olbricht names "a continuing exclusivism that is coming increasingly under fire" among the body's problems, and says that while some larger churches have become more cooperative, other leaders have opposed any move toward inclusivism. Lipscomb University records that the goal of the early movement "was not a new denomination but the union of believers everywhere under the authority of Christ."

We are not affiliated with any denomination, including those who may have “Church of Christ” in their names.

The goal was not a new denomination but the union of believers everywhere under the authority of Christ.

Salute one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ salute you.

and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the church, and taught much people, and that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me.

On the name, the text supports the churches: "All the churches of Christ salute you" (Romans 16:16), and the disciples "were called Christians first in Antioch" (Acts 11:26). But Romans 16:16 is a greeting in the plural, and the same apostle wrote "unto the church of God which is at Corinth" (1 Corinthians 1:2), so one phrase out of several, painted on every sign and read as the mark of the true church, is a badge whatever it is called. It is a badge again when a congregation says it is the church and refuses fellowship to others who confess the same Lord, which Olbricht calls "a continuing exclusivism." Paul's question to a divided Corinth, "Is Christ divided?" (1 Corinthians 1:10-13), has no exception for a party that calls itself no party.

Jesus prayed that his people "may all be one" so that "the world may believe" (John 17:20-21), and a church that began as a plea for unity and now divides over cups and classes has set that prayer aside. The Tennessee Encyclopedia puts it in a sentence: the goal of unity "has become subordinated to the goal of strict restoration." The churches are right that unity cannot be built on a human creed. They are wrong if they conclude that unity does not matter, or that the other believers who baptize, confess and love the Lord are outside it.

Congregational autonomy and accountability

Each congregation answers only to Christ, and there is no body to which a member can turn when elders fail.

The churches hold that every congregation is self-governing and that its elders' authority ends at the congregation's edge. Truth Magazine says it twice: "every congregation is independent of all others, subject only to the authority of Christ," and "the rule of elders begins and ends at home." The principle is held with special strictness by the non-institutional churches, and the Tennessee Encyclopedia says of the whole fellowship that the congregations are completely autonomous. The result, as Olbricht describes it, is that disagreement is settled by influence, not by process, and that those who lose build new constituencies.

In Christ's church every congregation is independent of all others, subject only to the authority of Christ.

The rule of elders begins and ends at home

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and questioning with them, the brethren appointed that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

Against an elder receive not an accusation, except at the mouth of two or three witnesses. Them that sin reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.

I wrote somewhat unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Therefore, if I come, I will bring to remembrance his works which he doeth, prating against us with wicked words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and them that would he forbiddeth and casteth them out of the church.

The text is with the churches on rule: the apostles appointed elders "in every church" (Acts 14:23), and no bishop ruled many churches. It does not make a church a law to itself. The church at Antioch sent its question to "the apostles and elders" at Jerusalem (Acts 15:2); elders were not exempt from reproof, for "Them that sin reprove in the sight of all" (1 Timothy 5:19-20); and John wrote that he would "bring to remembrance" the works of Diotrephes, who cast brethren out of the church (3 John 1:9-10). The Churches of Christ have taken a true principle, that no eldership may rule beyond its own flock, and used it to shut out every kind of counsel, appeal or oversight. A member whose elders have failed has no step but to leave, and no other congregation has a duty to answer.

The same fear of anything beyond the congregation is why joint work, even when it is only counsel, has sometimes been treated as a step toward a hierarchy. Truth Magazine traces the Roman hierarchy to elders of large churches taking authority over others. The history is real. The cure for an eldership that ruled beyond its flock is not an eldership that answers to no one.

Women in the assembly and the church

Public leadership in the assembly and the eldership are held to men. The churches are now divided over how far women may pray, read, teach and lead.

The traditional position, held by most churches, is that men lead the assembly and serve as elders and that women serve in other ways. A congregation writes, "Worship in the churches of Christ is led by Christian men." Olbricht reports that in the 1990s women took larger roles in teaching youth and in campus ministry and that more congregations permitted prayer and teaching in adult classes by both sexes, though not many yet involved women in public worship leadership. A survey in Wineskins found that congregations that had made changes most often had women pass the communion, read Scripture and pray publicly, and least often had women as elders. John Mark Hicks, a scholar in the churches, argues for "the full participation of women in the assemblies gathered for prayer, praise, and mutual edification." The surveys are of self-selected congregations and do not show the whole fellowship.

This essay offers a succinct case for the full participation of women in the assemblies gathered for prayer, praise, and mutual edification.

Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.

let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home: for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church.

I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church that is at Cenchreae: that ye receive her in the Lord, worthily of the saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need of you: for she herself also hath been a helper of many, and of mine own self.

and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more accurately.

On what the text says, the traditional position stands. Paul writes, "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man" (1 Timothy 2:11-12), and "let the women keep silence in the churches" (1 Corinthians 14:34-35); the elder is a husband of one wife (1 Timothy 3:2). The argument that these verses do not reach the assembly does not meet their wording. The churches fall short in the other direction. Phoebe was "a servant of the church" and "a helper of many" (Romans 16:1-2), and Priscilla, with Aquila, "expounded unto him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26). No congregation applies "keep silence" as written, for in every one of them the women sing, so each draws its own line by inference, and where it binds rules the text does not give, on who may read, pass a tray or speak in a class, it adds to what Paul wrote. Where it opens the eldership and the pulpit, it departs from what he wrote.

Hicks's strongest texts are Paul's "ye all can prophesy one by one" (1 Corinthians 14:31) and the woman "praying or prophesying" of 1 Corinthians 11:5, which any reading of chapter 14 has to account for. The ground of the traditional position is not that women are lesser. It is the order Paul gives in the assembly, and the same chapter that gives him the rule gives the women the home as the place to ask questions. The debate is likely to continue, and the churches have no body to settle it.

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it, and the wall below shows how far each one stands from it. The Churches of Christ set out to be nothing more than the church of the New Testament, so they are tested by the standard they claim. Where they stand nearer the pattern than other churches, they are credited plainly. Where they bind what the apostles did not bind, that is said at full strength too.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

Few churches hold the text so firmly. They have no creed, no council and no pope, they ask of each practice the Bereans' question, "whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11), and their way of reasoning from the text is the apostles' own. They fall short in what some of them bind. Congregations on one side have bound the cup and the class, incidentals the text never settles, as tests of fellowship, though a brother weak in faith is to be received "yet not for decision of scruples" (Romans 14:1-4). And in the 1950s the majority quarantined the churches that would not fund institutions, binding a practice the text does not authorize, though Paul's limit is that the church "learn not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6). The placement is moved one course out from the lineage mean for those reasons, since the mean reads only the rule of faith, the silence of Scripture and added doctrine, which the lineage scores at nothing for this body.

Olbricht lists a residual legalism among the sources of friction in the body, and says the method of command, example and necessary inference was challenged in the 1980s as tending toward it, and that traditionalists urged the rejection of the challengers along with their reading. The method is not the fault, for the writer to the Hebrews reasons the same way (Hebrews 7:14). Nor is an expedient that carries out a general command, such as a class, a building or a tray. The fault is in what is bound with the method: a conclusion about an incidental, or a practice the text does not authorize, made the measure of a brother.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory.

The Churches of Christ stand on the line here. They teach what Peter taught on Pentecost: "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), and they take "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16) as written. Baptism is a burial, only for those who believe, and the churches reject infant baptism and original sin. Grace is not forgotten, for "by grace have ye been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8-9), and the churches' own scholars say the stress on the five steps once crowded it out. That was a fault of emphasis and not of doctrine, and Olbricht dates its correction only to the 1980s.

The credit rests on the text, not on the tradition: Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16 say what these churches say. A Baptist reader will answer that baptism for remission makes salvation a work, but Peter joined the two in one sentence, and the churches' fault lay elsewhere. Olbricht traces to early thought shapers "a bare-bones presentation of the plan of salvation" that said little of the work of grace, and says the change came only after the 1980s.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread.

The Supper every first day of the week is the apostles' practice: "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7). The churches keep it without a priest, a sacrifice or a change in the bread, and on this they stand on the line. A part of the family, about 550 congregations, binds a single cup. The Lord commanded the bread and "the cup" as the fruit of the vine, and Paul asks, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). He nowhere counts containers. To make the number of cups a test of fellowship is to bind where the text is silent, and Paul says not to do that (Romans 14:1-4).

The majority used individual cups, which came into use in the early twentieth century, and treat the container as a matter of judgment. They are right on the text. Some of them have in turn treated the one-cup churches as unsound, and that is also a fault.

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

The churches hold the New Testament pattern of a plurality of elders over each congregation, with deacons, and no bishop or headquarters above: "they had appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23). That is the line, and few churches have kept it. They fall short in two ways. In many congregations one salaried preacher stands beside the eldership, does most of the teaching and sometimes makes the decisions that belong to the elders. In the institutional majority, church treasuries also fund boards that stand outside any congregation's oversight, though the elders are charged, "Tend the flock of God which is among you" (1 Peter 5:1-3). The assembly described in Corinth is one where "each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching" (1 Corinthians 14:26).

The non-institutional writer Townsley warns his own churches of the same drift toward the preacher. The 1957 Truth Magazine statement that elders' oversight "begins and ends with the local congregation" is on the text. The institutional side answers with the churches that sent support to Paul (Philippians 4:15-16), and that part of the dispute is a real one. The text does not set a board between a church and its work, and it does not forbid a church to send to a man.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

The Churches of Christ sing, as Paul told the churches to sing: "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19). The New Testament commands singing for the church and records no instrument in its worship, and the churches hold their position on the text and not on taste. The worship is plain, with prayer, the Supper, a lesson and a gift, and it is set on the first day of the week. They stand on the line.

The credit rests on reading a specific command as excluding other kinds, the same rule the authority course tests: "singing" names the kind of music, so playing is a different act. The instrumental churches answer that an instrument is an aid to the commanded singing, like a songbook or a pitch pipe. The reply is that a songbook adds nothing to the singing, while an instrument adds a second kind of music the text does not name. The credit is real and the fault is small. The weakness lies in one man's lesson as the whole teaching of the assembly, which belongs to the discussion of leadership, and in the habit of the groups that bind classes or cups as tests. The 1990s worship team is neither commanded nor forbidden, and the churches that call it a sin go beyond the text.

But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own;

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.

The churches hold that the miraculous gifts came through the apostles' hands and ceased with them, as the text shows: the Holy Spirit was given "through the laying on of the apostles’ hands" (Acts 8:17-18), and "whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away" (1 Corinthians 13:8). That is the line. The older tradition fell short in the other direction, restricting the Spirit to the inspiration of the Bible and denying that he himself dwells in the believer. Paul says "if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9), and "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Harding University states the indwelling plainly today.

Olbricht traces the word-alone view to Arthur Crihfield, John R. Howard and Matthias Winans, whom Stone, Campbell and Scott criticized from the first.

inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne; he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear. For David ascended not into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.

who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love;

But him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples.

The churches teach what the apostles taught: the Lord will return, the dead will be raised and judged, and "he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:31). On the thousand years they stand on the text where the line was drawn. R. H. Boll denied that Christ is now on David's throne, but Peter says David foresaw one set upon his throne and "spake of the resurrection of the Christ" (Acts 2:30-31), and God has already "translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love" (Colossians 1:13). By Welch's account, members who held the view privately kept their fellowship, and the line fell at churches that insisted on preaching it; a church need not endorse teaching that denies a settled text. Where the line is drawn more broadly, against a brother who confesses Christ's present reign and differs only on the order of events, it binds an opinion the text does not settle, and "him that is weak in faith receive ye" (Romans 14:1) still governs.

Olbricht and Welch tell the separation from different sides. Edward Fudge, writing in the Gospel Guardian, records that Boll and H. Leo Boles ended their 1927 written debate "still the best of friends and regarding each other as brethren in Christ," that in it Boll denied that Christ is now on David's throne, and that "By the 1940's, the issue had become a general point of fellowship with many on either side." The majority has since retreated from the premillennial teaching of the early leaders. The plain texts lean against a thousand years between the resurrections, since the dead are raised "at the last trump" and death is then "swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:52-54), but that leaning does not settle the order, and it is not the ground of this placement.

The Churches of Christ hold much that Scripture also teaches, and it should be said plainly. They put the Bible above every creed, council and tradition. They baptize penitent believers by immersion for the forgiveness of sins, and no infants. They keep the Supper every first day of the week without a priest or a sacrifice. They have a plurality of elders in each congregation, no bishop and no headquarters. They sing without instruments. They hold that Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. Their own historian names their strengths as the centrality of Scripture, the commitment of every member to the life of the church, and the planting of churches at home and abroad.

Measured by the New Testament, the Churches of Christ stand nearer the pattern than almost any other tradition, and on several courses on the line. They stand short in five places: opinions about incidentals, and a practice the text does not authorize, bound as tests of fellowship, the single preacher beside the elders, a claim to be the church that withholds fellowship from other believers, a congregational independence that leaves no answer when elders fail, and a long decline in numbers. These are not the faults of a church that never opened the Book. They are the faults of a church that opened it, kept to it where others let it go, and then treated its own conclusions as if they were the Book.

The churches began with a prayer for unity and have divided over classes and cups, and the majority quarantined brethren who would not fund institutions. They ask what is authorized and have too seldom asked what Paul asked of the strong in Romans 14. Their own researchers count a loss of more than 2,000 people and nine congregations a month since 2015. This chart does not say that the divisions caused the decline. It says that a church divided over such things cannot answer the prayer that "they may all be one" (John 17:20-21). To finish what they began is to keep the plain things the apostles gave, in baptism, the Supper, the elders and the song, and to bind nothing else. The right to hold an opinion about a cup or a class does not carry the right to put a brother out for it, and no church may put out a brother for declining what the text does not authorize.

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