Here in my home town there is a St. John’s United Church of Christ. I don’t know anyone that attends this church, and I’ve been wondering which Christian organization this church belongs to. Would it be considered Lutheran, Methodist, or does it have its own wholly seperate organization?
Thanks in advance for the help.
The United Church of Christ represents a 1958 merger between the Association of Congregational Churches (I’m not sure of the exact name, but it was a Baptist-style work-together group rather than a denomination, as “Congregational” might make obvious) and the Evangelical and Reformed Church, a small but strong denomination of the time.
They’re considered generally among the most liberal of Protestant churches.
Be careful not to confuse them with numerous other denominations and local churches which call themselves the “Church of Christ” – which is the formal name for the Disciples, is the name for their conservative spinoff which does not permit instrumental music, and is the term for several Holiness and Pentecostal groups as well.
Poly, I believe the “Church of Christ” split from the Disciples of Christ way back when; they’re no longer affiliated. I’m of course referring to the group of congregations who don’t permit instrumental music, etc. — who used to be unkindly called Campbellites.
These folks are not quite a “denomination,” or at least they deny that they are, as they believe themselves to be the one and only true Church and not merely a branch of it. There is no organizational structure beyond the congregation, although there is a set of literature generally accepted by members of Churches of Christ.
I wasn’t aware “Church of Christ” was ever applied to Holiness or Pentecostal groups, but of course the term itself is Scriptural and the “Campbellites” (sorry) don’t have a monopoly on it.
And of course the United Church(es) of Christ are entirely unrelated; they are liberals, as you said.
Correct. “…their conservative spinoff…” I intended to mean "a separate denomination that split off from them. Apologies that this was not clear!
(BTW, I apparently somehow doubleposted above – if a kindly Mod. would delete one of the two, I’d be appreciative.)
Poly, on re-reading, you were perfectly clear; sorry if I seemed to nitpick.
I also was not aware that the current Disciples’ formal name is still “Church of Christ” – interesting. I need to re-read about their split, their current differences… this is my ancestral heritage, although I’m afraid I’m a bit ashamed of it.
Aplogies for the hijack. Carry on.
A couple of misconceptions in that post I’d like to clear up.
The group that used to be unkindly called “Campbellites” is nowadays known as the Restoration Movement.
There are two “branches” (for lack of a better choice of words). One branch is the “Christian Churches” branch. If you drive by [Whatever Location] Christian Church, it will be, in all likelihood, a church that believes in Restoration Movement priciples and has instrumental music.
The other branch is the Church of Christ branch. If you’re in the midwestern U.S. and you drive by [Whatever Location] Church of Christ, it’s 50/50 on whether it’s instrumental or non-instrumental. If you’re in the southern U.S. and you drive by [Whatever Location] Church of Christ, there’s a 99% chance that it’s non-instrumental.
I believe that, at one time or another, the Disciples of Christ, and the United Church of Christ, were in some way associated with the Restoration Movement, although my memory on this is far from clear. I suggest e-mailing Terry Chaney, professor of Church History at Ozark Christian College (my alma mater and a Restoration Movement seminary), if you want clarification on this. His e-mail address is tchaney@occ.edu.
Restoration Movement churches do not answer to a governing heirarchy. Each church’s decisions are made by that church alone. However, that doesn’t mean that there is no association between the different churches. Far from it. Two publications, The Christian Standard and The Lookout are distributed every Sunday in almost every RM church in the English-speaking world. And churches tend to only hire staff and/or support missionaries who graduated from seminaries within our little network of colleges.
Having been a member of this “denomination” for two thirds of my life, I have to say that this is news to me. There are some within our church, of course, who believe this. But there are some within every church who believe that.
Some confusion may arise from the fact that we believe we are trying to worship as did the Christians of the First Century (that is to say, no governing heirarchy, no written creeds, and a handful of other points that I won’t get into now). To say that that makes us believe that we are the one true church is quite a leap, IMO.
For a more thorough discussion of Restoration Movement ideas, please google the words “Restoration Movement.” I believe there’s a fairly lengthy entry about us in some on-line Christian encyclopaedia.
All in all, very informative post. I’m also a member of this “denomination,” and I’d like to say that I’ve also never heard anyone call our way of worship the “true” or “only” way. There was a saying used in various instances, in fact, that somewhat addressed both the “one true church” sentiment and the “denomination” standpoint:
“We are not the only Christians, but we are Christians only.”
Good point; I am sorry if I gave offense. In fact I was taught that there was no salvation outside the Church of Christ, if that surprises you. But this was a long time ago; perhaps things have greatly mellowed since, and perhaps my experience was isolated.
The Disciples of Christ and the Church of Christ were one organization until some churches began organizing in more centralized way, pooling resources and leadership to create a structure that was more like a mainline denomination than the decentralized affliation of congregations it had been.
Some churches thought that the decentralized format was more Biblically correct, others thought that a denominational structure provided a lot of practical benefits without violating any part of God’s will.
So some of the churches created a denominational structure to become the Disciples of Christ, while others declined to be affiliated with that structure and became the Church of Christ.
The term ‘Christian Churches/Churches of Christ’ is still used, because the decentralized group uses both names for individual churches. Disciples use the name ‘Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)’, which causes some of them to joke that they are ‘the People of the Parentheses.’
The Church of Christ congregations divided again on the question of whether or not it was appropriate to use musical instruments for worship. But neither group changed their name as part of the division, so the only way to find out what branch of the church you’ve got is to ask, or to visit and see if there’s a piano or organ.
I’m not sure where the United Church of Christ fits in all that, but I know that they’re socially and theologically more liberal than the Disciples and much more liberal than the fundamentalist Churches of Christ/Christian Churches.
As for salvation, when I was a member of the Church of Christ, I wasn’t taught that other denominations were unsaved, but I was taught that baptism by full immersion is essential for salvation, and that’s a practice that isn’t much done in the mainline denominations.
But every Church of Christ I was ever part of declined to participate in organizations or activities with other churches in the city, on the grounds that they didn’t practice this fundamentally important doctrine.
…
Anyway, now I’m a United Methodist.
Hmm. No Christian Church that I’ve ever attended took that attitude. And if they did, I’d quit PDQ.
Anyway, very informative post, FisherQueen. Thanks.
Hrm. I read this as “declined to participate…with other DENOMINATIONS.”
I can’t specifically remember my church partnering with any other denomination of church to do anything, but I’m fairly sure we don’t have a POLICY of that. I believe it’s just that there are nearly 20 Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in my county alone, so we’ve got our hands full with them. We definitely do things with other churches and get involved in community programs though.