THE
By Cougan Collins
lgchurchofchrist@cableone.net
Here are some things you may not know about the
I do not share this information with you to boast, but simply to invite you to investigate for yourself what others are finding so compelling. The churches of Christ have a unique plea in the current religious world. We plead for (a) no creed but Christ (Acts 8:36–38), (b) no book but the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16–17; 2 Pet. 1:3; Jn. 16:13; Jude 3), (c) no church but Christ’s (Mt. 16:18; Eph. 1:22–23; Rom. 16:16, (d) no name but Christ’s (Acts 4:12; 11:26; 26:28; 1 Pet. 4:16), and (e) no worship (Acts 2:42; 20:7), organization (Phil. 1:1), or doctrine (Tit. 2:1), but that authorized by the word of God.
As the restorers expressed it, “Let us call Bible things by Bible names, and let us do Bible things in Bible ways. Let us speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent.” We plead for “Christ’s church in the twenty-first century as it was in the first century.” Many are finding this plea is reasonable, logical, sensible, and compelling.
A growing church is a gospel church (Mk. 16:15), a going
church (Acts 8:4), a giving church (1 Cor. 16:2), a good church (Gal. 6:10), a
gracious church (Col. 4:6), a greeting church (3 Jn. 1:14), a gifted church
(Mt. 25:14–30), a godly church (Tit. 2:11–12), a glad church (Acts 2:46-47), a
gathering church (Heb. 10:25), a glorious church (Eph. 5:27), and a great
church (Heb. 9:11). That’s what the