About Churches of Christ: An ancient faith for today
 

Churches of Christ are part of a global movement seeking to restore the faith, practices, and ethos of the first Christians. Churches in this movement tend to avoid ecclesiastical hierarchies and prefer to be part of a fellowship of self-governing congregations ideally led by local elders. We eschew denominationalism. We yearn for a pre-denominational church and want to be Christians only – without claiming to be the only Christians.

Our Directory lists around 80 such congregations gathered around Australia – and we pray for more. There are tens of thousands of similar congregations globally. Whilst there are links among congregations, Christians, ministries, schools, and universities established collaboratively, there isn’t an overall governing denominational hierarchy. Instead, each Christian and each congregation is responsible for growing in maturity through the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

 

While we can’t speak for everyone, one characteristic is that these churches tend to do Bible things in Bible ways and call them by Bible names. That’s why many of the congregations in this movement are called “Churches of Christ” – a description used by first century disciples to highlight that their churches belong to Jesus Christ (Romans 16:16). 

 

In our Sunday assemblies, we gather to worship God and spur one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25). This is something followers of Jesus have been doing since the church was established on Pentecost after he died and was resurrected (Acts 2:41-47). Some congregations are small and meet in homes. Others have hundreds of members and meet in larger buildings. One common feature is the simplicity of our gatherings. We pray, partake the Lord’s Supper, sing acappella, take up a freewill money offering, and study the Scriptures. And we often share communal meals.

 

In our evangelism we point everyone to Jesus, believing that by grace through faith we enjoy God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus’ death and resurrection (Ephesians 2:8). We baptise repentant believers into Christ for forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). We uphold the biblical view of marriage between male and female as honourable and life-giving. We encourage a complementarian view of gender roles. We seek to live ethically and be faithful stewards of creation. Then, like all God’s people through millennia, we cheer each other on to do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Creator (Micah 6:8).

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