# What members of the Churches of Christ believe, and how they worship The Churches of Christ are autonomous congregations of the nineteenth-century Restoration Movement, which set out to leave creeds and denominations behind and restore the church described in the New Testament. Most sing without instruments and break bread every Lord's Day. Source: https://owensound.church/denominations/restorationist/ ## What members of the Churches of Christ believe The Restoration Movement began on the American frontier in the early 1800s, when Barton W. Stone in Kentucky and Thomas and Alexander Campbell in Pennsylvania independently concluded that the divisions between Protestant bodies were a scandal, and that the remedy was to abandon every human creed and take the New Testament alone as the pattern for faith, worship and church order. Their watchwords have been repeated ever since: speak where the Scriptures speak and be silent where the Scriptures are silent; no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible. Churches of Christ therefore decline to call themselves a denomination, and decline to subscribe to any confession, including the historic creeds, although they teach what those creeds say about God and Christ: one God in three persons, the deity and humanity of Jesus, his death for sin and his bodily resurrection. They hold that the Scriptures are wholly inspired and sufficient, and that where the New Testament gives no instruction the church should not legislate. On salvation they teach that a person hears the gospel, believes, repents, confesses Christ and is baptized by immersion for the forgiveness of sins, and that baptism is the point at which a believer is united with Christ rather than a sign of something already complete. Faithfulness is expected afterwards, and can be abandoned. ## Worship: what a service is like Worship is deliberately simple, on the principle that the church should do what the New Testament shows the first Christians doing and no more. The Lord's Supper is shared every Sunday, unhurried, with bread and the cup passed through the congregation and brief remarks at the table. There is prayer, reading, a sermon that works closely through a passage, and a contribution taken on the first day of the week. Singing is congregational and, in most Churches of Christ, without instruments: four-part harmony led by a member from the floor, on the ground that the New Testament mentions singing and not playing. Visitors often find this the most striking thing about a first visit. There is no liturgical calendar, no vestments, and usually no title more elaborate than brother or preacher. ## How Restorationist churches are organized Each congregation is independent. There is no synod, conference or headquarters, no denominational office and no central budget; a congregation owns its building, chooses its own preacher and answers to no body above itself. Oversight is local, by a plurality of elders who must meet the qualifications in 1 Timothy and Titus, assisted by deacons. Congregations cooperate freely in missions and relief work without creating a structure that could direct them. The movement did not remain one. Those who accepted instrumental music and missionary societies became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the independent Christian Churches; those who did not are the Churches of Christ. Canadian congregations are few and scattered, and mostly small. ## Compared with Reformed churches Reformed churches and the Churches of Christ both insist that Scripture stands above the church, and both read it closely and expect ordinary members to do the same. The disagreements begin immediately afterwards. Reformed churches confess the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and the Reformation confessions as faithful summaries of Scripture, subordinate to it but binding as a public account of what the church teaches; Churches of Christ reject every such document on principle, holding that a creed inevitably adds to Scripture and divides Christians. They differ on baptism at both ends. Reformed churches baptize the infant children of believers, as the sign and seal of a covenant God makes with families, and hold that baptism signifies a salvation received by faith alone. Churches of Christ baptize believers only, by immersion, and teach that it is in baptism that sins are forgiven, which Reformed churches read as making a work the instrument of salvation. On the Lord's Supper, Reformed churches celebrate less often but teach that Christ is truly received by faith; Churches of Christ celebrate every week and understand it primarily as a memorial. Reformed churches are also governed connectionally, by consistories, classes and synods, which a Church of Christ regards as a structure the New Testament does not authorize. ## Further reading - [Churches of Christ in Canada (Gospel Herald)](https://www.gospelherald.ca/) - [The Stone-Campbell Movement (Christian Chronicle)](https://christianchronicle.org/) - [Alexander Campbell, The Christian System (1839)](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/campbell/christian_system.html) --- Part of OwenSound.church.