Are All Churches Of Christ Alike?

by Lowell Blasingame

They certainly should be and that for several reasons. First, the sower’s seed is identified as “the word of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:19). The Lord’s kingdom and His church are the same thing and since a seed produces after its kind as ordained by the Lord at the time of creation (Genesis 1:11-12), the seed which in the first century produced the Lord’s church will produce the same today. Second, the Lord’s word is a pattern or form of doctrine which in the first century, when followed, brought churches into existence. We are admonished, as was Moses in making the tabernacle, to make all things “according to the pattern” (Hebrews 8:5). We do this by not going beyond the doctrine of Christ (II John 9), by refusing to add or take from the Lord’s word (Revelation 22:18-19). Building according to this pattern as the apostles did in the first century produced churches that were alike in name, doctrine, organization and worship and adhering to that same pattern will do the same thing today. Third, apostolic consistency says that the same thing is to be taught “everywhere in every church” (I Corinthians 4:17). The apostles, being guided by the Holy Spirit in their teaching, did this and if we today follow apostolic teaching that was given by the Spirit, we too, will teach the same things. When we differ in our teaching and practice, it may be that neither is following the Spirit’s teaching, or that one is and the other isn’t, but one thing is certain – both cannot be following it and be teaching and practicing different things!

All churches of Christ ought to be alike in every way. We become unlike when deviations and departures are made from God’s word. Unfortunately this sometimes happens and while churches for a while remain alike in name, they begin to differ in organization, work and worship. These changes emerge slowly and little by little and take place over two or three generations so that they often aren’t easily detected. This change has and is taking place in churches here in our state as well as in other states across the nation.

All churches of Christ aren’t alike now in their organization. The New Testament reveals no functional unit for God’s people other than local churches and these were autonomous and independent of each other. Church historians say that they were not bound or tied together in “the coils of any ecclesiasticism.” That simply means that there were no synods, conventions or associations that linked local churches into units larger than a local church. In the New Testament a local church had a plurality of elders (Acts 14:23) who were also called bishops and pastors (Acts 20:17, 28) and who were limited in their work of overseeing to the local church of which they were a part (I Peter 5:1-2). Again, the testimony of church historians is that these elders were “congregational” and not “diocesan” in their work of oversight. When the first apostasy came it began in the organization of local churches in making a difference between the words “bishop” and “elder “ which in the New Testament are used interchangeably of the same men. Bishop began to be used of the elder who served as chairman of the business meetings in the local church because he was the “overseer” of it. In Biblical usage the word is used of elders in their relationship to a local church, not one’s position in a meeting for transaction of its business. In time this became a permanent position in a local church and its organization altered by having a bishop over elders with the two having different work roles. The power and influence of bishops came to be determined by the cities in which they resided with the leading cities having arch-bishops, who were over a diocese of churches and eventually the emergence of the first bishop over the universal church, Boniface III of Rome in 606, as the first pope over an apostate church.

In writing of this, Leslie G. Thomas said, “Had the professed followers of Christ been satisfied to maintain the type of church government authorized by the New Testament, the hierarchy of Rome never would have existed with all its attendant evils. But when people begin to depart from the New Testament pattern and to follow the opinions and desires of men, institutions and practices unknown to the New Testament will soon be in evidence on every hand” (Restoration Handbook, page 22, 1941). Truer words could not have been written, for such has been the case each time men have tinkered with the Lord’s way by attempting to make improvements on it.

The plea for a restoration of the church of the New Testament and the abandonment of denominational names and creeds swept across early America like a fire. Both individuals and a number of denominations responded positively to the “Back to the Bible” plea, refusing to continue to wear denominational names or be governed in their faith by human creeds. They had discovered that following the New Testament only, will make Christians only just as it had done in the first century. Then the movement began to loose its impetus and a number of influential men met at the Walnut and Eighth St. church of Christ, Cincinnati, Ohio during the latter part of October, 1849. This meeting gave birth to the American Christian Missionary Society as an organization through which churches might centralize their evangelistic work in foreign fields. In the first century, local churches without any other organization evangelized the world within the span of 31 years (Colossians 1:23). Not long afterward at Midway, Kentucky a Female Orphan School was formed and the Midway church became the first on record to introduce instruments of music in worship. Others may have done this earlier but there is no historical record of it, so to Midway belongs this dubious honor. By 1906 the breach had so widened between those promoting the Missionary Society and using instruments of music that for the first time the Bureau of Religious census recognized a difference between the two, those using instruments and the Society as Christian Churches and those opposing them as churches of Christ.

Another unscriptural cooperative arrangement that was popularized following World War II was the sponsoring church arrangement. It wasn’t really new but the resurrection of the old Texas Plan that was used in Texas about 75 years earlier for churches opposed to the Texas State Missionary Society. In this arrangement one local church was selected as the “receiving and disbursing” church to which others sent funds and the elders of this church directed and oversaw the work being done. Following WWII, the Broadway church in Lubbock, Texas sent Otis Gatewood and some others to tour Germany and bring back a report about the possibility of evangelism there. When they returned they reported the devastated condition of the cities from the war and that many lacked food and clothing for the approaching winter. The church there undertook the collection of large amounts of clothing from other churches which they prepared and shipped for distribution among needy people in Germany. This plan for church cooperation became known as a “sponsoring church” cooperative arrangement and while it, like the “receiving and disbursing” plan that was formed at Austin, Texas in 1867, evaded the mistake made by those forming a Missionary Society (i.e. having another organization for evangelism), these cooperative arrangements violated the limitations set by the Holy Spirit on the oversight of elders. Elders are to “tend the flock of God which is among you” (I Peter 5:2) or “the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers” (Acts 20:28). Both the Texas Plan and the Sponsoring Church arrangement violate this restriction by having the elders of one church overseeing a work of many churches. When 5th & Highland in Abilene was getting the national radio program called “Herald of Truth” off the ground, its elders sent out letters to other churches of Christ asking, “Will you be one of 2,435 churches of Christ that will contribute $12.50 per week for this radio program?” I still have my letter somewhere signed by bro. Haddox, one of the elders. If 2,435 churches can do evangelistic work through the eldership of one church, why can not that same church oversee all the evangelistic work of all the churches in our country or the whole world? This plan opens the door back to Rome.

Local churches can and do cooperate in evangelism when each church acts under the oversight of its elders and sounds out the gospel according to the ability that it has. But local churches do not cooperate scripturally by forming organizations, like the American Christian Missionary Society or the World Bible School, and working through them. Nor can they cooperate scripturally by centralizing their funds in one local church, whose elders oversee a work of a plurality of churches. The Holy Spirit makes men elders of but one church (Acts 20:28) and limits their oversight to “the flock which is among you” (I Peter 5:1-2).

In the beginning of the Herald of Truth, the program was introduced as that of churches of Christ. However, later the introduction was changed and it was introduced as a program of the Fifth & Highland church in Abilene, Texas. The defense changed to its being Highland’s work with sister congregations that sent contributions helping her do her work. Two questions were raised, (1) What scriptural right does a congregation have to assume a work beyond its financial ability and call upon sister churches to help it? and (2) How do we determine which churches are to be sponsoring churches and which are to be helping churches?

Small departures from the faith, taken over a period of time, carry us just as far from the truth as does a gigantic stride taken at once. Herald of Truth slowly evolved into another organization for evangelism as illustrated in an ad carried by it in The Christian Chronicle, January 2002, promoting “Herald of Truth Charitable Gift Annuities” in which they say, “You will also save on taxes, as well as supporting worldwide evangelism of a 50-year old trusted organization.” So what began as an unscriptural cooperative arrangement of churches for evangelism evolved into a “50-year old trusted organization” for world-wide evangelism. The Lord’s organization, local churches, successfully carried the gospel into all of the known world within thirty years of its existence (Colossians 1:23). Other organizations formed by men such as ACMS, Herald of Truth, World Bible School, etc. haven’t improved on this.

In 1941, Leslie G. Thomas wrote a small book, Restoration Handbook, that discusses “The Church, The Falling Away, And The Restoration.” In showing how the first apostasy came in the church, brother Thomas says, “But when people begin to depart from the New Testament pattern and to follow the opinions and desires of men, institutions and practices unknown to the New Testament will soon be in evidence on every hand” (page 22). This departure began with the misuse of the words “elder “ and “bishop”, which lead to a change in the organization of the church that finally evolved into Catholicism. Given time, little acorns become big oaks and little departures make corruptions and perversions in the Lord’s church.

(From: Taking A STAND With Christ, Volume 44, Number 2, February 2008)