History
The Church of Christ originated from the Congregationalists of New England. The church is a symbol of one of the most valuable outcomes of the ecumenical movement (Hill et al.165; Reid 134).
In 1957, four leading Christian movements, in America, amalgamated to form the Church of Christ. These included the Christian church, the Evangelical Synod, the Reformed church and the Congregational church in the United States (Atwood et al. 29). The Christian church and the Congregational church had earlier united in 1931 to form Congregational Christian Churches.
The Reformed church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of America had also integrated in 1934. Twenty-four years later, these mergers with four different denominations, came together to form the Church of Christ. Essentially, the Church of Christ was a coalition of four denominations with allied but distinct identities. Local worshippers continued to hold the faith and theological perspectives they had prior to the union.
All the four denominations that united to form the Church of Christ evolved from the Disciples of Christ during the early 20th century. In the peak of the conflict between theological liberals and fundamentalists in American Protestantism, traditionalists within the Disciples blamed their management of weakening the traditional power of the Bible (Kleber 186). When the management failed to address these concerns, the traditionalists decided to form their own denominational bodies (Queen 261).
In the early 20th century, the Church of Christ grew swiftly. The Church spread its message across wide regions. Preachers volunteered their time and did not receive any financial remuneration. They all used the Lipscomb’s Gospel Advocate periodical to spread their message, despite coming from different denominations.
The church of Christ established several colleges that served as centers of influence. Some of these colleges include “David Lipscomb college in Nashville; Harding College in Searcy; Abilene Christian university in Texas; and Pepperdine University in Los Angeles” (Queen 261).
Doctrine
After merging into the Church of Christ, representatives from each of the four denominations adopted a decree, seen as a testimony and not a test of faith. The decree asserts a strong belief in God. “…God the creator who in Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord, has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to himself” (Atwood et al. 29). Besides, the decree recognizes the church as a covenant that is full of different people, who have a task of serving fellow men. “…people of all ages, tongues, and races…to the service of men (Atwood et al. 29).”
The Church of Christ shares many views with the American evangelism. Both religions oppose most types of social and theological liberalism. Both religions also believe that the Bible is Holy as it resulted from divine inspiration. However, some institutions belonging to the Church of Christ claim that the Bible is inerrant, while others assert that the Bible offers a perfect way to salvation as it has no mistakes.
The church of Christ believes in baptism by immersion. This distinguishes the church, as baptism is a prerequisite for church membership (Queen 261).
Government
Local churches join together to form an association. The association offers aid to needy churches, welcomes new churches into the United Church of Christ and appoints new ministers. Ordained ministers and designated lay delegates of the region act as leaders of the association.
A number of associations in the same physical region join to form conferences. The only exemption to this rule is the Calvin Synod, which comprises churches from the Hungarian Reformed custom. A conference acts on references and demands from associations, local churches, General Synod as well as other groups (Hill et al. 69). Its core task is to synchronize the activities of its home associations and churches, to give advice and consultative service as well as to create conference agencies and meeting hubs.
The highest delegate body is the General Synod (Jones 45). The General Synod convenes twice per year. It has a conference council and a few members from the Covenanted Ministries Church.
The General Synod appoints an Executive Council. The Council acts for the Synod in its meetings. It decides on remunerations for executives of the church as an element of a national budget, supervises the church’s publications, and selects committees. It as well presents any suggestion it may consider valuable for the running of the church to the General Synod. Both the Church office and the publishing firm affiliated to the church.are in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Church of Christ characterizes a union of Presbyterianism and congregationalism. It sets up congregationalism as the tenet for the local worshippers and Presbyterianism as the center of association for the affiliate churches connectional life.
In establishment, the Church of Christ is a loose arrangement of churches that refuse denominational categorization. Local and regional systems of congregations that lack denominational-governmental networks principally characterize the church (Melton and Martin 733).
The most recognized national organization of the Church is the non-delegate North American Christian Convention, which convenes annually both for training sessions in different church ministries, worship events, and promotion of a wide array of missionary schemes. The church has a Bible college as well as three graduate seminaries.
Characteristically, there are at least three perceptible groupings amid the Church of Christ. The first group comprises a minority of churches and organizations that still embrace the older restorations project and resist the American denominational culture (Hill 186). The second group comprises a minority of moderate churches and organizations that seek to adapt the restoration rule to new settings. This group also seeks to make Christian harmony together with evangelistic mission a priority.
The group has been particularly supportive of the new dialogue amid the three divisions of the Stone-Campbell custom (Garrett 7; Harshbarge 20). The last group comprises an increasing body of churches and organizations who, while still attached historically to the previous restoration plot, nevertheless seek to cement alliance with other conservatives of evangelical denominations in a joint fight against Protestant pluralism and liberalism (Hill et al.187)
Statistics
The Church of Christ is the biggest among the three denominational groups that currently form the American Restoration Movement. Research indicates that in the early 1990s, the church had 5,200 local congregations, 677, 000 permanent members and over 1, 200, 000 followers (Hill et al.86; Miller 133). More studies report that in 2006, these numbers rose to 14, 500 local congregations and about 2 million adherents (Queen 260).
Particularly, the church has geographic force in the West Coast, Southwest, Southeast and Midwest. Ethnically, the majority of the church followers are Caucasian. Mixed racial followers and African Americans, on the other hand, form the minority group. Missionary activities have brought significant growth among the Filipinos, Hispanics, and Portuguese on the East Coast, together with Asians on the West Coast (Hill et al. 186).
Bibliography
Atwood, Craig, Samuel Hill, and Frank Mead. Handbook of Denominations in the United States, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2010. Print.
Garrett, Leroy. The Stone-Campbell Movement: The Story of the American Restoration Movement, Joplin: College Press Pub, 2002. Print.
Harshbarge, Randy. A History of the Institutional Controversy among Texas, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.
Hill, Samuel , Charles Lippy, and Charles Wilson. Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, Macon: Mercer University Press, 2005. Print.
Jones, Lindsay. Encyclopedia of Religion, New York: Macmillan, 2005. Print.
Kleber, John. The Kentucky Encyclopedia, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992. Print.
Melton, Jude and Martin Baumann. Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print.
Miller, Timothy. America’s Alternative Religions, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Print.
Queen, Edward L, Stephen R. Prothero, and Gardiner H. Shattuck. Encyclopedia of American Religious History, New York, N.Y: Facts on File, 2009. Print.
Reid, Daniel G, Robert D. Linder, Bruce L. Shelley, and Harry S. Stout. Dictionary of Christianity in America, Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, 1990. Print.