Reasons Why Many People Have Chosen
First Christian Church

REASON ONE - A Biblical approach to life in which the Bible is taken seriously but not bound by rigid interpretations;

This simply means that Disciples are a people who take the Bible seriously without beating you over the head with it.

We are a people of the Book, as are many denominations. We love the Bible; we study the Bible; we memorize the Bible. The Bible is our guide for faith and practice. It is the Word of God to us.

But Disciples recognize that not everybody agrees on the interpretations of the Bible. If everybody agreed, there would be no denominations. Good and Godly people read the same book and come to different interpretations. We believe we can learn from everybody. After all, even a clock that doesn't run is right twice a day.

Sometimes church people get into arguments insisting that their interpretation is the right and only way. One teenage girl said to her very dogmatic pastor, "I wish I was as sure about anything as you are about everything." Disciples approach the Bible with a measure of humility. Rather than arguing about the Bible, we trust God to speak through the Bible.

A prison chaplain once gave an inmate a pocket New Testament. Some time later the prisoner said, "I took it because the pages were good for rolling cigarettes. I smoked Matthew, Mark and Luke, but when I got to John 3:16, I couldn't smoke it no more."

The best thing you can do with the Bible is to read it for yourself.

REASON TWO - A worship which involves people in meditation, praise and prayer without making them spectators at a performance;

Worship is not a spectator sport. We try to keep our services from becoming a performance that seems more like a concert than a worship service. We like for our folks to meditate and pray. Since we are of the tradition that offers a weekly celebration of Communion as a focal point of the worship service, there is always plenty of time for reflection, private prayer and communion with God.

Styles of worship vary greatly from church to church, and more now than ever before. Our church strives to offer the best of a traditional style of worship. We like to sing hymns from a hymnbook. We like to recite the Lord's Prayer and sing "The Doxology." We give our offerings and provide a special worship time for children.

Sometimes when I invite people to worship, they tell me, "Pastor, I can worship on the golf course." I guess I have to concede that point. In fact, I have heard God's name used quite regularly on the golf course, but not usually in the same context as at church.

People often say they can worship anywhere, but I have to wonder if they really do. Jesus worshipped everywhere. He worshipped among the lilies and the flowers of the fields. He pointed out how God spoke to him through all of nature. But Jesus was grounded in God by a weekly trip to public worship on the Sabbath. It was never either/or for him. It was both/and. How can we do any less?

REASON THREE - A preaching which is intellectually stimulating yet very practical and applicable to daily living;

I like the story about the elderly American Indian who attended church one Sunday morning. The preacher had not done his homework, so he tried to compensate for his lack of content with much pulpit pounding and loud shouting. After the service, when the old Indian was asked for his opinion of the preacher's message, he thought cautiously before replying, "High wind. Big thunder. But make no rain!"

Surely every minister is humbled, as I am, by the challenge of the task. We mine God's Word for the transcendent, then we attempt to wrap a profound idea in words and images that will make it live for today. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon says that the wise teacher searches to find just the right words. The tools of our trade are the words carefully chosen to make the truth plain, to make the truth interesting, and to make the truth moving. The sermon is not a sound bite, but a moment of stillness amid the chaos of life. It is a vertical in a horizontal world.

The word "sermon" comes from a Latin root meaning, "to thrust" or "to stab." Each week it is the pastor's challenge to take a stab at human hearts for Christ's sake. Our desire is to put our hearers in touch with God and to stir them up to do something great for Christ.

In our church, we don't have high wind and big thunder, but the rains come quite regularly.

REASON FOUR - A willingness not only to tolerate but to welcome and celebrate differences of opinion about faith;

Most folks can't stand differences of opinion about faith (even though evidence abounds that people DO differ about faith). But the tactic of oppressing divergent opinions simply hasn't worked, and has tended to rudeness at its best and cruel excess at its worst.

When we disagree, one of us is bound to be wrong, and I hope it is you and not me. But my ridiculing you, avoiding you, ostracizing you and dismissing your opinion probably won't go far in changing your mind or mine. And it won't be a very good witness to the world about the unity of the people of Christ.

One of the unusual aspects of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is our commitment to diversity. We understand the importance of soul liberty in matters of faith and practice. We believe in the priesthood of every believer, which means to us that ultimately all of us must determine for ourselves what we believe. Though we may disagree about the details, we believe we can all unite around the one basic statement - "Jesus Christ is Lord."

Disciples believe that the church should be very inclusive and diverse. We have historically welcomed differences and even celebrated them. We prefer to approach our faith with a touch of humility rather than with a dose of arrogance. We resist the temptation to tell people what they must think or do. That seems to be God's job, not ours.

In our church, we try to keep the faith simple and the rules to a minimum.

REASON FIVE - An ecumenical approach which values the contributions of all faith communities;

Throughout our history, Disciples have emphasized bringing all the various factions of Christianity back together. We believe the divided church is a scandal.

There are two approaches to ecumenism. One is leading folks to tolerate their differences and work together in spite of them. The other approach is to try to get everybody to agree. Most Disciples don't see much hope in forcing everyone to believe exactly the same way. So we have seen it as our job to urge and prod Christians to be tolerant of each other's differences.

Most Christians seem to put their own interpretation of Christianity above Christianity. For Disciples, having strong convictions is not seen as grounds for isolation or withdrawal. So we have opted to lead the struggle for unity, inclusiveness and diversity.

This commitment leads Disciples to respect the customs of other Christians. When people come to our church from another tradition, we welcome them without suspicion or condition. While we baptize by immersion, we do not require rebaptism of folks who come from churches that practice different methods. We believe there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Disciples of Christ are proud that we have always been at the forefront of the ecumenical movement. And our church is proud to be strong supporters of the Pike County Ministerial Association. We rejoice that there is such a positive spirit of harmony between the churches of the various denominations in Pike County. We see all the churches as being on the same team, working together for the Kingdom of God.

REASON SIX - A strong sense of Christian community in which consensus is in the person of Jesus Christ, and not in enforced conformity of doctrine or creed;

When you join a Disciples of Christ church, you will not be asked to affirm any doctrinal statement or creed. The only question asked of those who present themselves for baptism is, "Do you affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord?"

John Oxenham wrote a wonderful poem that expresses our convictions perfectly:

Not What, but Whom I do believe

That in my darkest hour of need,

Hath comfort, that no mortal creed

To mortal man may give,

Not What I do believe

But Whom! Not What, but Whom!

We won't test your orthodoxy or even your orthopraxy. We don't view ourselves as know-it-alls, but as students who are in the process of learning the correct answers. We don't view ourselves as a sanctuary for saints, but as a hospital for sinners. And the only thing that matters is whether you are trying to follow Jesus as Lord. We figure that anyone who calls Jesus "Lord" is bound to be kin to us.

REASON SEVEN - An inclusive sense of ministry which is the obligation and privilege of every Christian;

Disciples like the word "inclusive" better than the word "exclusive." We are inclusive because we believe in the priesthood of every believer. For us, the priesthood is not a privileged cast reserved for those ordained to church leadership, but rather, the responsibility of all believers. That means every Christian is a minister, perhaps not as a full-time paid position, but as a full-time ministry of service.

All people can mediate Christ's presence to others. Every person can become a channel through whom God becomes real for others. Anybody can pray for and serve others. Everybody should offer sacrifices to God. We are all priests to each other.

We are inclusive because we put a strong emphasis on the ministry of laypersons. In our church, lay leaders may conduct the whole celebration of communion without benefit of clergy, or a layperson may perform a baptism. We believe folks are folks, and all believers are called to serve. Some may be paid to preach and teach, but we all stand on level ground at the foot of the cross. We see no reason for distinctions and hierarchies of status. Our denomination puts up no artificial barriers to service.

We are inclusive because we believe in servant leadership rather than authoritarian posturing. Some people claim authority for themselves and their opinions, but real authority has to be earned through service and love.

REASON EIGHT - A weekly celebration of Communion which is the focal point of our worship services;

Some churches have the pulpit in the center. Others have a Bible. Disciples put the Lord's Table front and center because Communion is the central unifying factor of our life together. Our worship services may sometimes omit the sermon, but never the Communion.

Some folks wonder why we take Communion so often. Perhaps the best answer to that question is, “We need it every week.” We happen to be a bunch of sinners in need of grace. Badly in need of grace. And we need another dose of it every week.

Someone has said, "The world drinks to forget. Christians drink to remember." The real solution to our problems is not found in drowning them in a bottle, but in remembering the Christ who cares enough to help us solve our problems. When we worship, we want to be reminded of Jesus. We like to remember through the crust and the cup.

Disciples don't like to put a fence around the Lord's Table. Other churches may emphasize the sacredness of Communion, but we place the emphasis on availability. We believe it is the Lord's Table, not ours. Christ does the inviting, not a minister, not a denomination. Keeping people from accepting that invitation doesn't make sense to us. Rather than excluding folks from Communion we prefer to give it to all who need it.

REASON NINE - An approach to Christian living which celebrates freedom, spirituality and integrity rather than a strict, legalistic, and prescriptive approach.

In his day, Jesus often had trouble with the religious people who took a strict, legalistic and prescriptive approach to faith. They wanted to make religion a rule-book with countless "do's" and "don'ts." Instead, Jesus called his followers to a simple faith with freedom, spirituality and integrity, and Disciples have tried to follow his example.

D. T. Niles once said, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." Disciples like the humility in that quote. We are not dogmatic authoritarians, but merely beggars telling others where to find bread.

We often remember the words of Jesus, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." We see our task as giving care, support and encouragement to those who are struggling. We see the church as a hospital for sinners who are striving to "go and sin no more." We see ourselves as fellow strugglers, fellow beggars pointing to the source of bread.

In our Sunday School classes, you are much more likely to hear someone confess, "Here is how I understand this passage for myself." rather than "Here is how you must see this passage." We prefer a confessional approach rather than a brow-beating approach.

We celebrate freedom, spirituality and integrity.

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