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WHO ARE THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST?
(A BRIEF HISTORY)
Thomas H.
Olbricht
(Former Chair of Religion Division, Pepperdine University)
The Churches of Christ in
America result from an indigenous American movement seeking to restore
the gospel and church of the New Testament. For this reason the term
"Restoration Movement" has been employed as a self-designation,
though this particular phraseology is not widely employed to identify
these churches by outsiders. Three sizable constituencies now exist
from the late eighteenth century beginnings: (1) The Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ), (2) The Independent Christian Churches
(Christians Churches/Churches of Christ, and (3) The Churches of Christ.
The Churches of Christ are the conservative wing of the
first major split in the movement and were identified as autonomous by
the Federal Census Bureau in 1906. The Independent Christian Churches
first moved toward a separate, more conservative conclave within the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1927, and withdrew officially
in the late 1960s.
Churches of Christ have approximately 3,500,000 members
throughout the world. Approximately 1,300,000 are in the United
States. The majority in the United States are located in the region
running from Pittsburgh to El Paso with the north border extending from
Pittsburgh through Indianapolis, St. Louis, Wichita and Albuquerque, and
the southern through Atlanta, Montgomery, Baton Rouge, Houston, and San
Antonio. The members in predominately African-American churches number
above 170,000, and the members in Spanish speaking churches 10,000. The
members of Churches of Christ in India number above 1,000,000 and those
in Africa slightly less than 1,000,000.
Roots
The roots of the Restoration Movement extend backward to
the period after the Revolutionary War in which several Americans with
religious interests grew restless over autocratic structures, European
control and theology, and denominational boundaries. These pressures
revamped the mainline churches, but also resulted in independent
constituencies springing up in various regions. Four such independent
groups in (1) Virginia, (2) New England, (3) Kentucky and (4)
Pennsylvania—West Virginia—Ohio, played a role in the crystallization of
the restoration movement in the 1830's. The contributions of the
constituencies in Virginia and New England were contributory rather than
direct.
In Virginia in the 1780's, a group of Methodist
ministers led by James O'Kelly (1757-1826) sought freedom from
supervision so that Methodist circuit riders could determine their own
itinerary. For a time it seemed they would succeed, but the outcome was
that preaching assignments were placed in the hands of the Bishop.
Those who favored self-determination broke away, founding the Republican
Methodist Church. In 1794 they changed the name of the body to the
Christian Church. Before the turn of the century preachers from this
movement were traveling into the Carolinas and making their way through
the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and Tennessee. They also went west to
the Ohio River and into Ohio and Indiana.
In New England, especially in the newly developing
regions of New Hampshire and Vermont, persons of Baptist heritage,
chiefly Abner Jones (1772-1841) and Elias Smith (1769-1846), formed new
churches. They went by the name Christian, or Christian Connexion/
Connection. They championed defeat of tax support for establishment
ministers (Congregational), and rejected aspects of Calvinistic or
Puritan theology in regard to election and predestination. The Bible
was heralded, especially the New Testament, as the only source of
authority and faith. These New England leaders contended that
Christians should cut adrift from historical encrustations so as to
create the New Testament church in its first century purity. Members
commenced migrating into upper New York after 1810, where they became
especially strong, then Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
Barton Stone and the Campbells
The two most important tributaries for the larger
movement resulted from the work of Barton W. Stone (1772-1844) and the
two Campbells, Thomas (1763-1854) and Alexander (1788-1866) father and
son.
At the turn of the century the second great awakening
titillated the Kentucky and Ohio frontiers. Camp meetings sprang up
throughout the region, the largest being the 1801 Cane Ridge, Kentucky,
northeast of Lexington, extravaganza. Denominational barriers crumbled
and the call to struggle followed by conversion, diluted traditional
election theology. As the weeks extended into months, some of the
preachers, especially among the Presbyterians, favored the ecumenical
savor. They thereupon formed an independent presbytery in which
Barton W. Stone was a participant. Not too long after, carrying
these interests to their logical conclusions, they dissolved the
Springfield Presbytery in order to "sink into union with the body of
Christ at large." These leaders found many frontiersmen ready to
embrace their sentiments and rapid growth ensued.
Barton W. Stone, a Presbyterian minister at Cane Ridge
and Concord, Kentucky, extended the invitation for the great camp
meeting at Cane Ridge. Stone was born in Maryland, and then lived in
North Carolina before migrating to Kentucky. By 1810 he had emerged as
the chief spokesman for those who had embraced the dissolving of the
Springfield Presbytery. The five ministers of the Presbytery published
“The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery” in 1804.
In 1807 Thomas Campbell, born in North Ireland
of Scottish descent, arrived in Pennsylvania, settling in Washington
County. Long a Presbyterian minister, he exerted considerable energy in
the land of his nativity in a struggle to unify dissident Presbyterian
groups. His efforts at similar rapprochement in Pennsylvania resulted
in litigation to oust him from the Presbytery. Seeing the handwriting
on the wall, he resigned and with others of like-mind, formed the
Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania. The foundational
documents of this group which Campbell authored was “The Declaration and
Address” 1809.
n 1809, his gifted son Alexander Campbell
arrived with the rest of Thomas' family after a stint at the University
of Glasgow. Out of the Campbells’ efforts, churches were formed in the
region around Pittsburgh. After 1816, the Campbells joined with Baptist
ministers of the Redstone and a decade later the Mahoning Associations,
winning several Ohio and Kentucky Baptist churches to their outlooks.
The Campbells envisioned a mass exodus of believers from sectarian
Protestantism so as to become one body—one New Testament church.
Early in the 1830's the churches from the Stone and
Campbell groups began to merge in Kentucky. The amalgamation expanded
to churches in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana,
Illinois, and Missouri. Several churches from the New England
Jones-Smith, and Virginia O'Kelly movement in these midwest regions also
became a part of the Stone-Campbell merger. After the Civil War the
Christian Connection churches that did not merge established
headquarters in Dayton, Ohio. In 1931 they merged with the
Congregational Church, then with the Evangelical and Reformed Church, to
form in 1957 the United Church of Christ.
By 1850 Alexander Campbell, because of his journal
editing, book publishing, debating, lecturing, and founding of Bethany
College, in West Virginia, became the best known leader of the
movement. His outlooks left a permanent stamp on all his descendants
regardless of location on the theological spectrum. His views
definitely influenced the Churches of Christ even though the
perspectives of David Lipscomb (1831-1917) of Nashville, Tennessee, in
the latter part of the nineteenth century, modified certain views.
Thomas and Alexander Campbell were highly influenced by the Scottish
Enlightenment that emphasized reason as opposed to enthusiasm. They
also highlighted exterior constructs in regard to the church, as opposed
to inner feeling. They modified their reform views, that is, the
heritage of John Calvin (1509-1564), accordingly, though remaining far
more Reform than they themselves recognized.
Divisions and Expansion
The churches of the 1832 merger, usually going by the
name Christian Churches, multiplied rapidly, becoming the fastest
growing indigenous American church, by 1900 reaching a million members.
After the Civil War differences going back to the beginning created
ruptures in the movement. The first had to do with state and national
mission societies. Widespread support especially existed for the state
missionary societies.
Regional differences and embitterments over the Civil
war and reconstruction led to estrangements. The liberal leaders in the
movement gained the upper hand in the mission societies with the result
that the conservatives in former Confederate states withdrew and became
increasingly critical of the societies. In the early 1870's Tolbert
Fanning (1810-1874) and David Lipscomb (1831-1917) of Nashville,
Tennessee, leaders of the opposition, published The Gospel Advocate,
Fanning beginning in 1855. The journal ceased publication for a time
during the war, but Lipscomb reissued it in 1866. At a somewhat later
date Austin McGary (1846-1928) promoted the opposition in Texas,
founding The Firm Foundation in 1884. A dispute over
instrumental music likewise defined the resulting separation. By 1895
several of the conservative churches rallied around these two journals.
The major expansion in the Churches of Christ took
place in the 1920's and 1930's. Growth plateaued in all regions of the
United States in the early 1970's, but grew exponentially in Africa and
India. The states with the largest number of members are: Texas,
Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, California and Arkansas. Of these states,
Tennessee has the largest number of members per capita. Major
universities are Harding University, Abilene Christian University,
Pepperdine University, Lipscomb University, Freed-Hardeman University ,
Oklahoma Christian University, Faulkner University, Lubbock Christian
University, Ohio Valley University, Rochester College, York College and
Florida College.
Churches of Christ Today
The Churches of Christ have no organizational structure
larger than local congregations and no official journals or ways of
declaring consensus positions. The churches and preachers are highly
entrepreneurial. Consensus views often emerge through the influence of
Christian universities and religious journals.
Some significant attributes of the Churches of Christ
are:
•
an affirmation of the centrality of Scripture;
•
commitment to church life, the responsibility of all
members for the church, church
planting and
evangelism;
•
a genuine struggle with Biblical precedents;
•
personal commitment to the Lord, a devotional life;
•
focus upon Biblical ethics and morality;
•
concern for the needy;
•
a strong brotherhood networking, and acquaintance with
other members nationally and
internationally.
Certain groupings within Churches of Christ have drawn
lines over para-church institutions, Bible classes, one preacher
churches, and a few other distinctions, but these together comprise less
than 10 percent of the total.
In 1993 a group of churches identifying themselves as
the International Church of Christ separated from the mainstream
Churches of Christ though after 2003 new rapprochements occurred.
Bibliography
The major information source for the movement is: The
Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement, eds. Douglas A. Foster,
Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, D. Newell Williams (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans, 2004).
The work by William E. Tucker and Lester G. McAllister,
Journey in Faith (St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1975) is the standard
history for the Disciples of Christ. For the Christian
Churches/Churches of Christ (NACC) the references are James DeForest
Murch, Christians Only (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Co.,
1962) and James B. North, Union in Truth: An Interpretive History of
the Restoration Movement (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 1994).
A number of books are available concerning the Churches
of Christ, including Earl West, Search for the Ancient Order
(Vol. I, Nashville: The Gospel Advocate Co., 1949, Vol. II,
Indianapolis: Religious Book Service, 1950, Vol. III, Indianapolis:
Religious Book Service, 1979, Vol. IV, 1988); Leroy Garrett, The
Stone-Campbell Movement: An Anecdotal History of Three Churches
(Joplin, Mo.: College Press Publishing Co., 1981, rev. 1994). David
Edwin Harrell, Quest For A Christian America: The Disciples Of Christ
And American Society To 1866 (Nashville: Disciples of Christ
Historical Society, 1966) and The Social Sources of Division in the
Disciples of Christ 1865 to 1900 (Atlanta: Publishing Systems,
1973); Robert E. Hooper, A Distinct People: A History of Churches of
Christ in the Twentieth Century (Nashville: The Gospel Advocate
Company, 1993); Richard T. Hughes, Reviving the Ancient Faith: The
Story of Churches of Christ in America (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans, 1996), and Thomas H. Olbricht, Hearing God’s Voice: My Life
with Scripture in Churches of Christ (Abilene: Abilene Christian
University Press, 1996).
For a judicious, but perhaps conservative estimate of
the demographics of the membership of the Churches of Christ in the
United States, see Carl H. Royser, compiler, Churches of Christ in
the United States Inclusive of Her Commonwealth and Territories 2006
Edition (Nashville: 21st
Century Christian, 2006).
See also the accurate and fair assessment of the
movement written by a Roman Catholic: Richard M. Tristano, The
Origins of the Restoration Movement: An Intellectual History
(Atlanta: Glenmary Research Center, 1988).
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