Restoration Movement

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This article is about the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement and churches that have a historical and/or theological connection to it (e.g., Churches of Christ, Christian Churches, and the Disciples of Christ denomination).
For more general information about other religious movements that attempted to restore the Christian church, see Restorationism.
For information related to dispensational Christian views regarding Jews in the end times, see restorationism (supersessionism).
For information relating to the restoration movement established by Joseph Smith, Jr., see Latter Day Saint movement.

The Restoration Movement (also known historically as the "Stone-Campbell Movement") is a Christian reform movement traced to the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States during the Second Great Awakening. Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell were leading figures of four independent movements with like principles who merged together into two religious movements of significant size. These churches have a total population of about 4,000,000 in the United States. Restorationism sought to renew the whole Christian church, on the pattern set forth in the New Testament, without regard to the creeds developed over time in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or Protestantism, which allegedly kept Christianity divided. Churches are now found throughout the globe, claiming to "concentrate on the essential aspects of the Christian faith, allowing for a diversity of understanding with non-essentials."

Among key practices are the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper on the first day of each week and a commitment to believer's baptism by immersion in water.

Contents

Three modern North American religious groups trace their heritage back to roots in the Stone-Campbell Restoration movement:

The other large groups of the movement are:

Although they disassociate themselves from the Stone-Campbell Movement and have the least in common with the other branches, the Christadelphians share a heritage from the movement.

The Christian — Churches of Christ — Disciples of Christ family of Churches are linked through the World Convention of Churches of Christ. They will meet for the XVIIth World Convention of Churches of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee in July-August 2008. Also see Jesse Moran Bader

Christ's Church Fellowship Inc was formed in 1988 as Charismatic Stone-Campbell organization Christ's Church Fellowship Inc.


Although Barton W. Stone, Thomas and Alexander Campbell, and Walter Scott were to become the best-known and most influential early leaders of the movement, others preceded them and laid the foundation for their work.

Scholars such as C. Leonard Allen at Abilene Christian University say that, besides the New Testament, the Restoration Movement was also influenced by the philosophy of John Locke and Scottish common sense philosophy.

According to the records of the Old Philadelphia congregation of the Church of Christ, this congregation came into existence in 1804. The records are in the possession of the church in Warren County, Tennessee. In 1807, a congregation gathered at Antioch in the Alabama Territory and moved, in 1847, two miles south to Rocky Springs, Jackson County, Alabama near where Bridgeport, Alabama is now. The records are in the possession of the Church of Christ at Rocky Springs. There were people who wanted to form a central control of congregations but this did not materialize.

The first congregation to take the name "Church of Christ" was established in June of 1834 at Knob Creek, in southern Graves County, Kentucky. This church is still in active existence.

Interestingly churches of Christ in Europe arose separately from the American RM and during the 1840s onwards various movements came into fellowship. The Restoration Movement in the United Kingdom started before the Campbell/Stone movement in the USA. In England churches of Christ flourished in the 1600s and before; eventually many became Baptist.[2]

  • Christianity should not be divided, Christ intended the creation of one church.
  • Creeds divide, but Christians should be able to find agreement by standing on the Bible itself (from which they believe all creeds are but human expansions or constrictions) instead of on the opinions of people about the Bible.
  • Ecclesiastical traditions divide, but Christians should be able to find common ground by following the practice (as best as it can be determined) of the early church.
  • Names of human origin divide, but Christians should be able to find common ground by using biblical names for the church (i.e., "Christian Church," "Church of God" or "Church of Christ" as opposed to "Methodist" or "Lutheran", etc.). It is in this vein that conservative members of the Churches of Christ object to the phrase "Stone-Campbell Movement."

Inextricably related to and intertwined with the Restoration Movement is the Christian Connection (sometimes spelled as Connexion). This religious movement began in several places and were secessions from three different denominations during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1792, James O’Kelley (O'Kelly), dissatisfied with the role of bishops in the Methodist Episcopal Church, separated from this body. O’Kelley’s movement, centering in Virginia and North Carolina, was originally called Republican Methodists.

The denominational name was dropped in 1794 favor of the name “Christian” and a commitment to use the Bible as the only “rule of faith and practice.” During the first several years of the 19th century, two Baptist ministers in New England espoused similar views to O’Kelley and began exclusively using the name “Christian.” Working independently at first, Elias Smith of Vermont and Abner Jones of New Hampshire joined together in their efforts.

In 1801, the Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky would plant the seed for a movement in Kentucky and the Ohio River valley to disassociate from denominationalism. Barton W. Stone and four others separated from the Springfield Presbytery in 1804 preferring to be known only as “Christians.” Interestingly enough, Rice Haggard who suggested that the Republican Methodists use only the name Christian was the impetus behind Stone's western group doing the same.

By 1808, O’Kelley’s followers and the Smith/Jones movement were united; Stone’s Christians in Kentucky would soon follow suit. This loose fellowship of churches was called by the names “Christian Connection/Connexion” or “Christian Church.”

When Stone and Alexander Campbell’s Reformers (also known as Disciples and Christian Baptists) united in 1832, only a minority of Christian Churches participated. The participating churches largely were from Kentucky, Indiana, and southern Ohio. Those who did not unite with Campbell continued to use the name Christian Church as did the Disciples — thus beginning the confusion over names among the various factions of the Restoration Movement which continues today.

The Christian Church merged with the Congregational Churches in 1931 to form the Congregational Christian Churches. The Evangelical and Reformed Church formed in 1934 as a merger of the Reformed Church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America. In 1957, the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church, after twenty years of discussion, forged the United Church of Christ.

In 1989, the UCC and the Disciples of Christ agreed to participate in full communion with each other, while remaining separate denominations.

Sources

Murch, James DeForest. Christians Only. Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 1962.

Jennings, Walter Wilson. Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 1919.

Morrill, Milo True. History of the Christian Denomination in America. Dayton: The Christian Publishing Association, 1912.

A Short Course in UCC History: The Christian Churches

UCC-Disciples Ecumenical Partnership

A Short Course in UCC History: The Congregational Christian Churches

A Short Course in UCC History: The Evangelical and Reformed Church

In 1906 the Churches of Christ and the Disciples of Christ split over many issues that ran back to the Campbell-Stone Union in 1824. Actually, it is more correct to say that a split which had been brewing for decades was formalized in 1906, when the U.S. Census Bureau listed the groups separately for the first time in its religious census. One of the issues that lead to the split was congregationalism. In 1836 Campell and Stone noticed a growing "furious zeal for orthodoxy." This manifested itself in two ways: pleas for unity by the group that would become the Disciples of Christ and pleas for congregational autonomy by the group that would become the Churches of Christ. In the majority of Northern churches, the call for unity prevailed; in the majority of the Southern churches, the calls for congregational purity prevailed. In the American South, churches of the Restoration tradition tend to identify themselves with the name Church of Christ and argue that it was their faction that remained true to the original principles of the Restoration Movement, not vice versa.

On October 23, 1849, a group of individuals met in Cincinnati, Ohio with the intention of creating a "general church organization for the furtherance of the work by the church collectively." This action caused immediate disagreements among the churches, because such organizations had previously been abolished. Barton W. Stone himself had in fact taken part in the abolition of the Springfield Presbytery, and authored at that time a very influential document, The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, which contained within it the idea that the existence of all such bodies was necessarily divisive and hence sinful.

About a decade later, L. L. Pinkerton, who was a member of the Midway, Kentucky church brought a melodeon into the church building. One of the elders of that assembly removed the melodeon that evening but it was soon replaced by another. Until that time all singing in the churches had been a cappella. Generally speaking, the bulk of the urban congregations, particularly in the Northern states, were not totally averse to this development, which was also gaining momentum in the other religious groups around them, while rural congregations, particularly in the Southern United States, tended to oppose this trend.

Approximately forty years later, the U.S. Census Bureau, in consultation with the leaders of the two groups, decided to list the members of these two movements separately. There were many factors involved in the split. Other issues revolving around baptism, plus the missionary society and instrumental music issues noted above, also contributed to the split. In most Churches of Christ, it is maintained that the prime issue was that of instrumental music in services of worship.

After the split the Churches of Christ generally became more congregational, while the Disciples of Christ became more denominational. The Churches of Christ remained more literal in biblical interpretation, while the Disciples of Christ became closer to "mainline" Protestant groups.

By 1926 a split began to form within the Disciples over the future direction of the church. Conservatives within the group began to have problems with the perceived liberalism of the leadership, upon the same grounds described earlier in the accepting of instrumental music in worship. In 1927 they held the first North American Christian Convention, and the Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ began to emerge as a distinct group from the Disciples, although the break was not totally formalized until the late 1960s. By this time the decennial religious census was a thing of the past and it is impossible to use it as a delineation as it was in 1906.

The Disciples of Christ today are still not totally devoid of the conservative-liberal tension. A related movement known as the Disciple Heritage Fellowship<http://www.disciple-heritage.org> (originally "Disciples Renewal"), has been particularly critical of perceived liberalism in the denomination and purports to call the church back to its Restorationist roots. It is closely related to the Confessing Movement found in several other mainline denominations.

After the distinction between the Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ movements, other issues would later distinguish various Churches of Christ from one another.

Since the members of the Churches of Christ agreed that there was no scriptural basis for a hierarchal government or a synod for congregations, the churches were all independent and autonomous. All disagreements in doctrine were handled locally, although open discussion was encouraged on a national or international basis. Many issues were discussed by the publishers of religious periodicals, who used their periodicals to present their own views and to debate the views of others. Between 1920 and 1960, various doctrinal issues were promoted that divided fellowship between some congregations in various locales. Some critics charged, and many within Churches of Christ voiced concerns, that the Churches of Christ had in some ways become a series of denominations within the body. This situation still exists to some extent today in some circles while many in Churches of Christ also extend fellowship to others regardless of a person's or a congregation's stand on various issues.

The most notable subgroups outside the mainstream Churches of Christ are:

  • The "One Cup" churches, made up of those who consider the use of only one cup during the Lord's Supper to be acceptable. Most commonly in Churches of Christ, multiple cups are used.
  • The non-Sunday school churches, made up of those who believe that Sunday School is wrong, since it is mentioned nowhere in the Bible and unheard of prior to the 18th century (this view is also held by many primitive Baptist churches).
There is a considerable overlap between the first two groups listed. Almost all of the "one-cup" belief churches reject Sunday School, while around half of the non-class churches take the "one-cup" position. Almost all of congregations of one of these persuasions also reject institutions, though they have little association with churches classified in the third group (see below). These groups largely divided from the mainstream churches in the early twentieth century. Non-class churches in the United States number around 1100 (8% of Churches of Christ, or around 2% of membership), while about half these are also one-cup groups.
Some of the churches in those groups (and others to a much lesser extent) have been at odds over whether to hire a full-time "minister" for a congregation. They asked whether this was in fact an acceptance and endorsement of the extra-Biblical concept of clergy. Many of them believe that preaching is properly done by male members of the church, perhaps occasionally reinforced by a travelling evangelist engaged only for a specific event or series of events. There has also been discussion in some churches about whether anyone now living truly meets what are seen as the New Testament requirements for the office of elder.
  • The "Non-institutional" churches (sometimes pejoratively referred to as "anti" churches within institutional Churches of Christ) objected to various forms of centralization, including church-sponsored institutions such as orphanages and fund-pooling plans called "sponsoring churches." Adherents of this view contend that the Bible does not authorize such practices and thus prohibits the use of a congregation's money for collective ministry ventures. There are about 2,000 of these congregations (around 15% of churches and 9% of membership of the Churches of Christ).
  • Premillennialist churches - While Premillennialism is mainstream doctrine in many Protestant denominations, it has never been so in Churches of Christ, but has had enough adherents that they were a visible subgroup. Division over this issue occurred in the 1920s, and churches espousing this position number around 80.[citation needed]

At one time, pacifism was an issue of serious concern. Prominent Church of Christ leaders before World War II such as David Lipscomb, J.W. McGarvey, Moses E. Lard, Robert Milligan, and Tolbert Fanning held pacifist positions. Post-World War II, the pacifist faction has largely died out as a recognizable subgroup.

Another schism was the Crossroads Movement which started in the 1960s and 1970s (also called the "Boston Movement" or "Discipling Movement"). The Crossroads Movement was an evangelistic effort (originated by Chuck Lucas) that started in Gainseville, Florida as a campus outreach to the University of Florida. It later spread into some other Churches of Christ. The Crossroads Church of Christ used informal Bible Studies, called "Soul Talks" to evangelize entire campuses. They also believed in the use of "Prayer Partners" which paired believers together to work on spiritual issues. The Soul Talk Leaders held weekly meetings to discuss the spiritual development of the brothers and sisters in their small groups. The Crossroads Movement started at the 14th Street Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida, which became known as "Crossroads Church of Christ", an incubator for the future International Churches of Christ. In the early 1980's, the focus of the movement moved to Boston, Massachusetts where Kip McKean and the Boston Church of Christ became prominently associated with the trend. It was there that the International Churches of Christ became a distinct denomination, officially dissociated from Churches of Christ and the Restoration Movement. This new designation in actuality made a distinction that was already in existence between those involved with the Crossroads/Boston Movement and Churches of Christ. Much of the outside literature during this period refers to it as the "Boston Movement" or occasionally the "Discipling Movement," after the practice of assigning each new church member a mentor who was to "disciple" the newer member through prayer and advice about a wide range of day-to-day decisions. This movement appears to be directly related to the Shepherding Movement that was gaining influence in the wider Evangelical world at the time.

These two traditions within the Restoration Movement are practically identical in doctrine, church structure, and worship, with the exception of instruments being used in Christian Churches. Therefore, there is a significant amount of interaction that occurs between several of these members and congregations in various places. Also, special efforts were made on the national scene in 2006 to create more intentional fellowship between Christians from both branches. This was in conjunction with the one hundredth anniversary of the "official" designation of these being two religious groups by the U.S. Census in 1906.[citation needed]

Restoration Movement churches are found around the world and the World Convention of Churches of Christ provides a link for them.

Their genealogies are representative of developments in North America. Their theological orientation ranges from fundamentalist to liberal to ecumenical. In some places they have joined with churches of other traditions to form united churches at local, regional or national level.

These trends can be seen with the Churches of Christ in Australia.

A different view of the history of this movement (from a "non-institutional" viewpoint) may be discovered by studying the publications of Truth Magazine Publications and Florida College publications. External links for these two publishing sources are:

  • North, James B. (1994). Union in Truth: An Interpretive History of the Restoration Movement. Cincinnati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company. ISBN 0-7847-0197-0.
  • Flavil R. Yeakley, ed., The Discipling Dilemma: A Study of the Discipling Movement Among Churches of Christ (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Co., 1988).
  • C. Leonard Allen and Richard T. Hughes, Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of Churches of Christ (Abilene, TX: ACU Press, 1988)
  • Martin Edward Wooten, "The Boston Movement as a 'Revitalization Movement'" (D.Min. thesis, Harding Graduate School of Religion, 1990)
  • Jerry Jones, What Does the Boston Movement Teach? vols. 1-3 (Bridgeton, MO: Jerry Jones, 12880 Bittick, 1991-93)
  • United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, Religious Bodies, 1906 (United States Printing Office, 1910), 236
  • West, Earl Irvin (2002). The Search for the Ancient Order Vol. 1. Gospel Light Publishing Company. ISBN 0-89225-154-9
  • Douglas A. Foster (Editor), Paul M. Blowers (Editor), Anthony L. Dunnavant (Editor), D. Newell Williams (Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. ISBN 0-8028-3898-7
  • Douglas A. Foster, Jack Reese, Jeff W. Childers, The Crux of the Matter: Crisis, Tradition, and the Future of Churches of Christ. ACU Press. ISBN 0-89112-035-1
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_Movement"
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