What Makes churches of Christ Different?

Church of Christ

“Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you” (Romans 16:16).

When talking about spiritual matters with other religious people, we often find many things that we will agree about – God is the creator, Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead, there is hope that the faithful will have eternal life in heaven, etc.

However, there are also some significant differences between churches of Christ and other churches. Some who belong to other churches are curious about this, and we want to be ready to give an explanation for what we believe (cf. 1 Peter 3:15).

Before we begin, I want to be clear that there is no “official” position for churches of Christ. We do not have a written creed, nor do we have a denominational headquarters deciding on doctrine. I cannot speak for any other congregation that calls itself a church of Christ. However, there are some teachings and practices that are generally common among churches of Christ but differ from those of most other churches. In this article, we will look at some of these unique characteristics and briefly examine the New Testament to see why we believe and practice them.Continue Reading

Answering Basic Questions (Part 6): What Is the Church?

Answering Basic Questions

When people hear the word “church,” they will likely have many different ideas about what a church should look like, how it should be organized, and what it should be doing. However, we need to understand the description of the church that is given in the New Testament. This is how we can find the Lord’s church today.

So what is the church? Let us notice four points.Continue Reading

“Pastors” Taking Women Out of State for Abortions (07.07.22)

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Plain Bible Teaching Podcast

This week we’re going to be talking about some “pastors” who are responding to abortion now being illegal in their state by driving women across state lines in order to obtain an abortion. Why would a “pastor” do this? And why do abortion advocates see that as the only “choice”? We will consider these questions in this episode.Continue Reading

Identifying the Lord’s Church (Part 1): How Many Churches Did Jesus Build?

Identifying the Lord's Church

As we look at the religious landscape around us, we see a myriad of churches that exist. How did all of these churches come to be? That is certainly a study in itself. For our purposes here, we want to answer this question: How many churches did Jesus build?Continue Reading

Plain Bible Teaching Podcast (Season 5)

Plain Bible Teaching Podcast

This week we wrapped up Season 5 of the Plain Bible Teaching Podcast. The theme of this season was the church. You can listen to the audio from all of the episodes on this page. You can also click on the link for each episode to see the show notes and download the audio files if you’d like.
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Why Were They Called “churches of Christ”? (Season 5, Episode 8)

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Why Were They Called "churches of Christ"? (Season 5, Episode 8)

“Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you” (Romans 16:16).

Paul referred to the congregations with which he was associated as “churches of Christ.” Many brethren, in an effort to follow the New Testament pattern, have also used this to identify local churches. However, some brethren have quit using this designation, choosing instead to identify themselves as “The Church in ___” or merely placing a sign in front of their building that says, “Christians Meet Here.” Of course, many more in the denominational world use other names to identify their churches (Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc.). Our desire must be to please Christ and serve Him faithfully. So let us consider this question: Why were those local churches in the first century called “churches of Christ,” and what bearing does this have on us today?

Article: Why Were They Called “churches of Christ”?

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Why Were They Called “churches of Christ”?

Church of Christ

“Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you” (Romans 16:16).

Paul referred to the congregations with which he was associated as “churches of Christ.” Many brethren, in an effort to follow the New Testament pattern, have also used this to identify local churches. However, some brethren have quit using this designation, choosing instead to identify themselves as “The Church in ___” or merely placing a sign in front of their building that says, “Christians Meet Here.” Of course, many more in the denominational world use other names to identify their churches (Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc.).

Our desire must be to please Christ and serve Him faithfully. So let us consider this question: Why were those local churches in the first century called “churches of Christ” and what bearing does this have on us today?
Continue Reading