What is the Church of Christ?

Only Christ has the authority to say what the church is and what Christians should teach. We believe the church today should be the same as that in the New Testament in organization, name, worship, law of conversion, and in principles of Christians living. Members of the church of Christ realize their own personal weaknesses and shortcomings, but they believe that the whole structure of Christianity rests upon the divinity of Christ and His resurrection (I Corinthians 15:14).

Members of the church of Christ hold that the New Testament writers were inspired of God and believe, therefore, that the New Testament is true and contains the final and complete revelation from God to man (John 16:13; II Timothy 3:16-17; Jude 3). Members of the church of Christ believe that the Old Testament was also inspired; however, that as a part of God’s eternal plan, it was only a preparation or “tutor to bring us to Christ” (Galatians 3:24).

The New Testament teaches that the Old Law was “blotted out, taken out of the way, and nailed to the cross” (Corinthians 2:14). When the Old Law was abolished, the new and better covenant went into effect (Hebrews 8:6-7, 9:15-18). Following the New Testament as the rule of faith and practice and the Old Testament as example (Hebrews 8:5; Romans 15:4), members of the church of Christ purpose to speak where the Bible speaks and to be silent where it is silent.

Worship In the Church of Christ
In John 4:24, we read, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." From this reading we learn three things: our worship must be
  1. directed to the right object—God
  2. it must be prompted by the right spirit; and
  3. it must be according to truth.

To worship God according to truth is to worship Him according to His Word (John 17:17). We believe this means we must not exclude any item found in His word. We also believe it means we must not include any item not found in His Word. We walk by faith in matters of religion (II Corinthians 5:7). Faith comes by hearing God's Word (Romans 10:17). Thus, anything not authorized by the Bible cannot be done by faith—and whatever is not of faith if sin (Romans 14:23).

We believe that the Bible gives us instruction regarding five items of worship and these we attempt to follow:

  1. Teaching or preaching (Acts 2:42; 20:7)
  2. Praying (Acts 2:42, I Corinthians 14:15; I Thessalonians 5:17)
  3. Giving of our means. In Matthew 6:33, we are exhorted to put the Kingdom first and God will provide for our daily needs. We believe that we—who live under a better law with better promises, with our great prosperity—would consider it unthinkable to give less than 10 percent of our income to the Lord. We teach the members of the church are to give liberally and cheerfully (II Corinthians 16:2).
  4. Singing. One of the things which people most frequently notice about the church of Christ is that we sing without the use of mechanical instruments of music. read more
  5. The Lord's Supper. This is a memorial inaugurated by Jesus Christ on the night of his betrayal (Matthew 26:26-28). It is observed by Christians in memory of the Lord's death (I Corinthians 10:24-25), and in communion of his blood and body (I Corinthians 10:16). Members of the church of Christ observe the Lord's Supper on the first day of every week. Such pattern is set by the New Testament example: "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them" (Acts 20:7). Notice, they met on the first day of the week to observe the Lord's Supper. We believe just as often as they met on the first day of the week, just that often they observed the Supper. It is quite true that it doesn't say “the first day of every week.” Neither were the Jews commanded to keep every Sabbath. Just “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). The understood that “the Sabbath” meant every Sabbath. By the same token, we take “the first day of the week” to mean every first day of the week. Historians testify that the Lord's Supper was observed every Lord's Day. In his History of The Christian Religion and The Church, Neander wrote: “As we have already remarked, the celebration of the Lord's Supper was still held to constitute an essential part of divine worship on every Sunday, as appears from Justin Martyr (A.D. 150), and the whole church partook of the communion” (Vol. I, p. 332). Eusebius, who has been called the father of ecclesiastical history, said: “From the beginning the Christians assembled on the first day of the week, called by them the Lord's Day, to read the Scriptures, to preach, and to celebrate the Lord's Supper.”