01134

            While statistical totals suggest a declining church a closer look at the Churches of Christ would hardly reveal that their brand of religion is on the downgrade!  This fast-growing group is one of the most potent missionary and evangelistic forces in the country.  Their congregations are flourishing, and new churches are continually being established.

            A profile of their faith and practice contradicts practically every “solid conclusion” by the authorities o the main-line denominational establishments about the renewal the church must experience to survive.  The Churches of Christ are antiecumenical in their relationsh ships; conservative in their theology; autonomous and democratic in their congregational practice without any semblance of a denominational superstructure; they have a rigid biblical theology, with a strong emphasis on Bible preaching and Bible teaching; they make rigid moral and ethical demands on their members in such matters as social drinking; they are not “social action” orientated; they have a “messianic complex” after being the true people of God and the true church!  All of these factors combine to give them a high motivation, an unquenchable zeal, and inescapable compulsion to win the world to an acceptance of their convictions and beliefs. And they are growling rapidly!

Set The Church Afire!, Wayne Dehoney, (1971), page 30