I grew up in
a family full of preachers in the West Texas churches of Christ. I attended a
college affiliated with the churches of Christ in middle Tennessee. I now serve
as the preaching minister at a church of Christ in Rochester Hills, Michigan, a
suburb on the outskirts of metro-Detroit.
Throughout
my education and my time in ministry, I watched as many friends who began in
the churches of Christ took leave from our tradition all for various reasons
that were neither shocking nor ludicrous. A close friend joined the United
Methodist Church for a more robust church polity. Another decided to join the
staff at a community church that recognized miraculous spiritual gifts. One
left to join the Church of God so that she could serve in roles other than the
children’s minister, while another embraced the liturgy and tradition of the
Lutheran Church. One close friend and his wife aligned with the Episcopalian
Church because it reached out to homosexuals. Others left to join churches with
instrumental worship. Many of the ministers who stepped away left church
altogether. Of course, I do still have some friends who, like me, were raised
in churches of Christ and stayed in churches of Christ. Even still, many of
them wrestle with how well they “fit” within our tradition on a regular
basis.
So, why am I
still in the Churches of Christ?
The primary
reason I am still in the churches of Christ is because I want to be. I am
thankful for this heritage I have. I certainly do not always agree with it, and
I often work to change it, but I am thankful for it and want to remain in it. I
am stubborn—even in my affection. Wherever I go within our tribe, I can still see
Jesus in this tradition, and I don’t want to leave that.
In addition
to this, I remain in churches of Christ because it is my family. Family
is an interesting thing. Families can be dysfunctional, unhealthy, and hard to
love. Truth is: family can be mean as hell sometimes. But for all that I can
criticize as negative, hypocritical, illogical and mean, I cannot deny that in
my own experiences the churches of Christ have suffered with me and comforted
me, mourned with me and cared for me, put up with me and loved me. The churches
of Christ have been family to me. When my parents divorced and my family fell
apart and I swore off religion… when my wife was very sick and I was cursing
God… when one of my close friends died and I grieved openly and angrily… In all
of these times of pain and hurt, it was a church of Christ that took me in
(sometimes while I was kicking and screaming) and loved me back to God. The
church of Christ is my family. And to be honest, I am family to them as well.
In spite of my meanness, hypocrisy, and irrationality, I bless them and love
them back to God as well. When loved ones die, life is difficult, weddings are
celebrated and babies are born, I am able to bring the presence and love of God
into their lives. These are my people, they speak my language (most of the
time), and they try to live with me and appreciate my rhythms.
After these
more personal reasons, I can attest that I also remain in churches of Christ
because I think the best part of what we believe is true and relevant. Alongside
of this would be the correlate that I am convinced that the worst parts of what we have
believed can be corrected and changed. In my estimation, the best part
of what we believe provides a faithful and organic witness to our God.
·
God is
the God of mission, and I am proud that we embrace the reality that the church has a mission. It is sometimes quoted: “It
is not the church of God that has a mission in the world, but the
God of mission
who has
a church in
the world.”[1] While there are differing understandings of what that mission exactly
is, I value that most of the churches of Christ I know have a conviction
that we have an urgent call to share the gospel of Christ. At core, our desire
for all people to know the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ is admirable
and true. God is present and active in the world and we bear witness to that
reality. The church exists for the purpose of the mission of God, which is the
kingdom.
·
God is
the God of life, and I love that
our tradition believes in a whole-life commitment to Christ—the practice of piety. We think that real
faith looks like something in real life. Discipleship is not fundamentally
about words—it is about practice. We do the faith. We believe that every
Christian is a minister, and all of us are leading the people of God in
participatory worship at all times. Our whole life bears witness to our faith
in the gospel that makes a difference not just in our life in the hereafter,
but in our lives now. Because God is the God of life, we know that if our
churches are not communities committed to giving life to the world around us,
we are useless. Grace and love cannot be
things we hypothetically or abstractly believe. They are practical realities
evidenced by our actions as a community.
·
God is
the God of revelation, and I am
thankful that our fellowship has an active submission
to the witness of scripture as a living word. The scriptures are the holy
tradition of witness to the activity of God in his Son Jesus empowered and
revealed by the presence of the Spirit. Any church that attempts to separate
itself from the word of God forsakes the most powerful core of our witness. At
the same time, any church that attempts to transform scripture into something
it is not hamstrings the witness of the church. In our history, I think that at
times we have abused scripture trying to make it something that it is not
intended to be—we have made it an idol, a rule book, a good luck charm, an
individualist ethic, and most often we have read it only for what we find about
Sunday mornings when the vast majority of it is about every single day. In
spite of these missteps, our submission to the witness of scripture is a
strength that helps us grow.
·
God is
the God of redemption, and to
this end I believe that we have rightly identified the practices of baptism and communion as central to the
life and witness of the individual Christian and the community of faith. I know
that at times our view of these two practices becomes too sacramental, or too
legalistic, or too simplistic, or to minimalistic, etc. But at its core, the
witness of Scripture affirms these as the right practices of the church and of
disciples everywhere. Baptism and Communion are powerfully rich
full-participation dramas that express the counter-narrative of the gospel.
They tell the story of the death of the old order and the rising of the new—a
radical restructuring of the community of God rooted in equality and mutual love—and
I would rather tell these stories than any other story the world has to offer.
·
God is
the God of community, and I
appreciate the value of our heritage’s commitment
to the local church. I believe that the local church is the last, best hope
for the community around it, and I love that churches of Christ care about
making local churches. Discipleship without community is not only unbiblical,
it is practically impossible. By this, I do not mean that church attendance =
faithful discipleship. I mean that the God who is eternal community—Father, Son
and Spirit—has created us in his image to be in community. Community is not
something God likes; community is something God is. To image God as best as we
can, our churches must be places that nurture real, loving, God-honoring
relationships with one another. This community is the primary context of
accountability, mutual growth, sanctification and persevering commitment—i.e.
discipleship.
·
God is
the God of freedom, and one of
the things I cherish most about our heritage is our practice of congregational autonomy. Sure, I see
what people are saying when they critique our claim to be non-denominational—we
do have many of the trappings of denominationalism. However, each of our
churches is free to hire who they want, spend their money how they want, and
teach what they want. Our local churches are not limited to cookie-cutter
uniformity—in their faithful witness to the gospel of Christ, they can and
should change and vary given their varied contexts of ministry. Oh, the
watchdogs and bullies will come and try to press other churches into
conformity, but we must realize what a blessing it is to know that we do not
have to answer to any outside group. We can choose to embrace the unity that
was our movement’s original impulse. I thank God that each congregation has the
autonomy (freedom) to decide the means and methods of living out the
life-giving story of redemption for themselves. Being completely forthright, if
any one factor explains how I have not been kicked out of our fellowship yet,
this is it.
I
acknowledge that not all of our history, doctrine, or practice has been healthy
or righteous; however, I cannot turn a blind eye to the good that is present in
so much of what we have. Amidst the different regional dialects, congregational
sizes, and political persuasions that comprise the churches of Christ in this
country, I have found the God of life actively transforming lives through the
presence of Jesus and the power of the Spirit throughout our churches. We stand
not because any one of us ministers comes or goes, but because God is faithful
and gracious. I believe more than ever that it is a great time to be the church
of Christ.
I embrace
the best of what we have. I work to change the worst of what we have. And above
all, I trust in grace… because, some of us need it to survive.
Adam
