Christian Church and Churches of Christ History - Part 4: Three Groups

Divisions - Three Groups

In the 200+ years since the beginning of the Restoration or Stone-Campbell Movement, there have been two divisions of the body.  It is always dangerous to overgeneralize divisions, but in many ways the first division was conservative and the second was liberal.  Here is a brief description of the two groups and some of their identifying characteristics:

The First Division

The first division took place after the American Civil War.  Emotions flared around 1896 and the break became final in 1906.  People today recognize the first group to form its own body as the Church of Christ.  Some people call this group the "Non-instrumental Church of Christ" but this is not really accurate since the official name is "Church of Christ" and the issues involved in its departure were not all related to the instrument ("instrument" refers to the piano at the time, but has since come to mean all musical instruments). 

Ironically, the philosophical foundation for the Church of Christ came from the slogan "Where the Bible speaks we speak, where the Bible is silent, we are silent."  The Church of Christ interpreted this principle to mean we should not introduce human innovations into the church that cannot be found in the New Testament Church modeled in the book of Acts.  Our church body, on the other hand, interprets this principle to mean we should not bind people with rules that are not in the Bible, but can use innovations if they do not violate broader Biblical principles. 

The instrument became a "trigger" for this division, but there were other issues, such as organizational structures that indicated a movement back toward the overbearing denominational models of the past.

Some have also pointed out that most of the churches that departed were in the south where believers were struggling during reconstruction following the war.  Northern churches were introducing innovations which were financially out of the reach of churches in the south.  This does not mean all divisions were along the north-south line, but it is possible things were complicated by the perception that churches in the north were being guided by prosperity, and not the gospel. 

As the years passed, relationships between the non-instrumental and instrumental brethren continued to polarize.  Those on the extreme conservative end of the Church of Christ believed it was necessary to be a part of their body to be saved, and many of those on the instrumental side of things showed no desire to extend the hand of fellowship.  But in the past 25 years, thanks be to God, congregations and leaders in both groups have moved back toward one another.  Both groups now share a much greater mutual understanding and respect, and many participate in ministries together.  Several points of contention have been recognized as matters of opinion, and are no longer considered tests of fellowship.  This is still not the case with everyone, but in general there is a tremendous celebration of our commonality. 

We still have separate Bible colleges, church camps and conventions/lectureships, but many of our leaders participate in both.  And it should be said while we may worship differently, we sing from the same Biblical page as our Church of Christ friends.  We are both Biblically conservative, meaning we both believe in the Bible as the Word of God and our rule for faith and practice.  This makes our bond very different than that with the other group we will introduce later. 

The Northside church used to be called the Northside Church of Christ.  This was due to the fact our name was adopted before the 1906 division and there was never a great desire to change it.  However, a few years ago we changed our name to Christian Church because it better represented who we were.  3/4ths of the churches like Northside are called Christian Church and only 1/4 use the name Church of Christ.

The Second Division

The second division in our movement came from the liberal side of things and is now recognized as the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ.  Incidentally, the Church of Christ does not consider its body a denomination since it does not have a central authority (which is also the case with our group), but the Disciples of Christ group is clearly a denomination with a central authority and a well structured hierarchy. 

The division with the Disciples of Christ centered on the authority of God's word, the centralized authority of church organizations, and a departure from the historical Biblical positions of the movement.  This came at the same time our American culture in general was applying rationalism and the scientific method to faith, and this was also the time of the rise of Darwinism. 

You can see how these forces might have come together in the form of an attack on the authority of God's Word.  Those who tried to degrade the Word applied the scientific method to it and refused to believe anything that could not be proven through rational means.  One way of putting it is, if it couldn't be recreated in the laboratory, then it must not have happened.  A Biblical conservative, in contrast, would say, "That's because God did it."  A liberal would say, "That's because it isn't true." 

While liberalism swirled in our movement, among some preachers and college professors, a prominent mission organization was accused of practicing "open membership" on the mission field.  A part of the "open membership" charge involved bringing people into the church family without baptism. 

It is hard to pinpoint exactly when this division occurred since there were a number of events that led up to it, from liberal teachers getting the upper hand in Bible colleges, to departures from the gospel message on the mission field, to the butting of heads over structural authorities beyond the local church.  But generally, 1925 is when we went our separate ways.  Many of the Bible colleges that train our congregation's teachers and preachers were begun around this time to rebuild our leadership following the division. 

There were also many battles fought at this time over capital and properties owned by the church.  Most Constitution and By-Laws documents in our churches came into being during this time to clearly state our congregations did not want to be a part of the liberal movement.  If churches or colleges were not able to show solidarity in this way, they often lost their properties to the Disciples.  As you might imagine, emotions ran high, and the next generation or two in both groups had very little to do with each other.

In recent years, the Disciples and our group of the movement have attempted to celebrate our common heritage and keep the ties out that bind, however, since we literally don't sing from the same Biblical page it is much harder for us to fellowship and serve together than with our Church of Christ brethren.  The Disciples do, however, own the original Cane Ridge meeting house in Paris, Kentucky and all three groups share in its upkeep, though the Disciples provide the greater share of funds.   

Now

Thus, there are now three groups that trace their heritage to the Restoration or Stone-Campbell Movement, the Church of Christ, the Christian Church: Disciples of Christ, and us who are known as the Christian Church and Churches of Christ (check out the website cctoday.org).

The Disciples are identified with a symbol that looks like a communion chalice with a cross in it.  The Church of Christ is often identified by buildings that say "Meets Here" under their name.  Our churches are usually called Christian Churches, but often have locations or other modifying terms attached to their names such as Discovery Christian Church.  Some are called Christ's Church. 

You can Google our church names to find our respective colleges, but examples are Abilene University (Church of Christ), Texas Christian University (Disciples) and Cincinnati Christian University (Ours).

Churches like Northside gather every year at an event known as the North American Christian Convention.  We also have a growing National Missionary Convention.  Both are non-delegate conventions that meet merely for connecting our churches for fellowship, inspiration and outreach.  

Some people have suggested we are like a broken family, each representing a piece of the whole, with the Disciples representing our desire to have unity with all believers, the Church of Christ representing our desire to have truth, and our group attempting to keep the two in balance.  But as has been mentioned in this lesson, the Church of Christ now, much more than in the past is also finding balance, with the exception of the extreme conservative end of their body.

In our region of the country, your will find churches like Northside with the name Christian or Church of Christ.  In places like Ohio, where many churches predate the 1906 division, a large number use the name Church of Christ.  Newer churches everywhere are more likely to use the name Christian with some sort of modifier attached.