I Like Churches of Christ

this post is a copy of the body of a blog. the blogger that i copied it from is a grad student at acu. his name is greg kendallball. i copied it because it is kinda the way i feel about the way churches of Christ are headed, have been, and are today. i second what the title of this blog says. i welcome your comments and thoughts.

I like our congregational autonomy. There is wisdom in not having a central governing authority to make decisions for each and every congregation. While the lack of a magisterium (official teaching office) can be a drawback, the freedom and agility our current structures give to each body of believers, in their context, is a good thing. What “works” for a church in Manhattan probably doesn’t “work” for the church in Brownwood, Texas. And vice versa. What it means to “be” the church differs from Miami to Seattle. Each of our congregations has a story that has shaped it, and it is a good thing to trust the work of the Holy Spirit in each of those places to continue that story. Unity, hopefully. Uniformity, no way.

I like our a capella singing. Most often we hear arguments AGAINST musical accompaniment, but rarely do we hear an argument FOR a capella music. Or, if we do, it’s basically the “This is the way the early church did it, so we therefore have an example from Scripture. Also, Scripture tells us to worship this way, so we have the command. We also don’t read of pianos in the early church, so we can necessarily infer that we should only sing.” What about the arguments for the beauty of the human voice, lent to the beauty of the music and words written by great theologians and poets? What about the simplicity of it all? In an age where the world tells us bigger, faster and louder is better, how great is it to step into a church and have a period of rest, of simplicity, of quietude? To me, a capella singing is a sort of refuge from the world. I’ve been to high churches and the bells and organs can be beautiful, but it’s not simple by any means.

I like our emphasis on baptism. While our emphasis may sometimes be wrongly placed on the mechanics of it all (when, why, how, how old, by whom, etc.), I am so glad our heritage is one that stresses the importance of baptism. It is something that can be redeemed and built upon. We can do a better job of teaching the significance of it. But, at least we have it, and we don’t have to try to convince people of the importance of it. Some people may be embarassed by our preoccupation with this “event,” but I like it. How can making this sacrament, in which one dies to one’s self and puts on Christ, becomes a new creation, is cleansed and made white as snow, a central part of our faith be a bad thing? We just need to work on it a little.

I like our “Twice on Sundays, and Wendesday nights” mentality. Sometimes we may have thought of this in legalistic terms, as some sort of reference to not forsaking the assembly, but it shows that there is an underlying commitment to community. Couple this with our many potlucks and dinners and family nights and other community-focused events and you see that as a movement, we take community very seriously. While I don’t attend a church three times a week now, I still love my church. It feels good to be among people who are committed to the way of Christ, to building up and lovingly correcting and supporting and challenging each other. No matter how “right” another church may get things, I would not want to be a part of a church that did not emphasize community, or didn’t care if you came three times a week or three times a year.

I like our potlucks. I bet I have eaten more spaghetti casserole or fried chicken than a person has any right to.

I like our future. We cannot escape our past, nor hide from it, not disown it. We have come to where we are today because of things that have happened. Personalities have shaped our thinking on pretty much everything, and we stand on their shoulders. But, we are not limited by our past, either. We are not locked into certain legalistic tendencies. Just because we have been exclusivist doesn’t mean we are doomed to forever think this way. Our future is bright. We have a lot to offer the Christian world. I have met some very bright, very promising people who make me hopeful for where we’ll be in 20 or 30 years. I think we’ll be in a good place.

For all its warts and pimples and scars, I like Churches of Christ.