BEYOND DENOMINATIONALISM

Churches, churches, everywhere.  An infinite variety of religious organizations clamor for our attention. The multitude of names, doctrines, worship and practices of the different churches are utterly confusing.  Multitudes of honest souls realize their need for God. They long for a closer walk with Him. For years they have sincerely sought for the right way to serve the Lord they love. Tragically, many have become so discouraged they have given up in disgust, lost in the maze.

Is it not possible to be a Christian without joining any denomination? Need we accept all the accumulated trappings and traditions that are fixed like barnacles to the various religious bodies?  O, if we could just sip the pure, fresh waters of original, unadulterated Christianity as it came from Jesus and his holy apostles!  Is there not somewhere, someone content to be simply a Christian? to worship as did that first congregation in Jerusalem? To believe the simple gospel announced by the apostles?

Take courage my friends, there is in your community a body of people who are committed to just what we have described; i.e., the restoration of the original Christianity of the New Testament. They use the name “church of Christ “ as did the apostle Paul (Rom.16:16).  Their creed and doctrine is Jesus and his New Testament, nothing else.  Could there be a better one?  Their worship is simple and unadorned like that we read of in the book of Acts of the Apostles and the New Testament epistles. Nothing of human origin is accepted. Their congregations are structured and organized like those churches planted by the apostles (Phil. 1:1). Each is independent and self-governing under Christ (Acts 20:28; I Pet. 5:1-3).

As a skilled workman can restore a valuable work of art to its original beauty, so a faithful band of God-fearing, Bible-believing, Christ-following disciples can reproduce that original Church of Christ established in Jerusalem on the fiftieth day following our Lord’s death (Acts 2:1-47).

You can be a non-denominational Christian. You need not be Catholic or Protestant.  This plea for the restoration of Jesus’ church is offered for your consideration with the sincere prayer that you will receive it and take up your cross and come follow Jesus with us (Matt. 16:24).