The journey, for protesting Presbyterians Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell, started with a movement toward simplicity. No creeds to argue about, no rigmarole to join the body of Christ or take communion, just the Word of God ruling all. Along the way, of course, their groups began to value different aspects of that simplicity, divergent interpretations of what creedlessness really means.
The Churches of Christ have clung tightly to the literal truth of the Bible and to following the model of the first century Church, along the way rejecting anything that smacks of tradition (Jesus never said anything about a liturgical calendar) or veers into territory the Bible seems silent on (ditto instrumental music). These are sincere beliefs, and I don’t mock them…much. I just can’t comprehend God that way anymore.
The Disciples of Christ, on the other hand, have turned loose of having all the answers, so we’re not interested in telling anyone else — from individuals to congregations to other churches — exactly how to do this God thing. That presents its own kind of problems, and it probably has something to do with the fact that our denomination hasn’t grown, just let lots of Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Catholics, and everyone else flow in and out with the tide. The upshot: we have a range of opinions about the Bible, and we’re cool with evaluating the usefulness of things like church organs and Lent based on precedent and our understanding of God.
(Then there’s the whole problem of women. The Churches of Christ don’t let them stand up in front of the church much less lead it — even though, in my experience, they most certainly do. In a Disciples of Christ congregation, women can be anything, including elders and ordained ministers. I happen to be a serving deacon and head of the worship committee.)
But I take a certain amount of comfort in knowing there are points of continuity between the tradition I grew up in and the tradition I’ve adopted as an adult. Among other things, both groups take communion every Sunday. It’s an old ritual, and it means so many things. I always got the impression growing up that communion was a ritual of insiders vs. outsiders, of joining an exclusive club that they were, actually, very happy to welcome you into; now, it’s about declaring, every Lord’s day, that we don’t make the membership rules.
Stone’s Christians were focused on freedom, stripping away the earthly creeds and traditions that separate us. Campbell’s Disciples sprang from the experience of a minister who was censured for giving communion to the wrong kind of Presbyterian. Both groups want the Church to be one. They disagree, I think, on what oneness looks like — how messy it might or might not be. In my experience, life is messy, both now and in the first century.
If we really want to emulate the first century church, to go back to basics, we have to be comfortable with basic and not-so-basic human nonsense. I could go through a laundry list of the problems of the early church, including quarrels about money, food, and sex (Acts, 1 Corinthians, and Galatians are good places to start), but even the Head of the Church in Rome (Peter) and Mr. Road-To-Damascus (Paul) couldn’t see eye to eye on the foundations of the religion. That religion is still here, though, maybe because it’s built to survive differences — if we’ll just let it.
Stone-Campbell Girl 