Featured Is the Church of Christ a cult?

Good advice. These days, I've taken to asking "who do you say Jesus is?" The answer typically helps me understand what they believe, and leads to more opportunities to witness.

 

If I may - instead of asking which tract to use, how about simply writing to them what YOU believe?

I'm not against tracts; I'm against an over-reliance on them.

For example, you wrote first; they took the time to write back. But then you sent them a tract. At this point, I would write you off. Here they were, thinking you and they were going to reason out the scriptures together; but you couldn't be bothered to actually reason with them, and sent them a "canned letter" (a tract) instead. You might as well be offering subscriptions to a magazine, or Dish network, or the latest offer from the local auto dealership.

Just something to think about. My personal opinion, not worth the 25 cents it took to send the electrons.

 

The United Church of Christ mainly descends from the Puritan churches of colonial New England. Most of those who didn't turn Unitarian ended up joining with a German Reformed group in creating the United Church of Christ in the mid 1900s.

Mark Dever got his start as a United Church of Christ minister at this congregation in Massachusetts: http://topsfieldchurch.org/



Churches of Christ are one segment of the Restorationist Movement, a schism from Baptists in the 1800s:

http://www.leroygarrett.org/restorationreview/article.htm?rr18_04/rr18_04b.htm&18&4&1976

"Our original founders, the four pillars of our Movement, were all Presbyterians: Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone and Walter Scott. But the masses that came into our ranks during the first generation, 1809-1830, were not Presbyterians but Baptists."

"Hundreds of these Baptist churches came into the Movement, as if by osmosis. They gradually imbibed 'Campbellism', as it was called, until they were no longer considered orthodox Baptist churches, and so they were dubbed 'Reformed Baptists'."

"These 'Reformed Baptists' finally lost all identification as Baptists and became known as 'Disciples of Christ', the name preferred by Alexander Campbell, but also as 'Church of Christ' and 'Christian Church'."

 

Nope. The area where I live is rural and small enough that we don't have to worry about those kinds of churches. We all meet for coffee, discuss our differences, then head out for work or to check on the cows.

And it's "by," not "bye." "Bye" is a shortening of "good-bye." You wouldn't say "good-bye the way," so you shouldn't use "bye the way." I let it slide the first time or two, but I see you starting to use it more, so thought I'd point it out.

 

I would contend the opposite. Many small churches may be theologically sound, but either have no one with the ability of drive to generate a perfect website. A website devoid of a statement of faith should in no way be indicated that they are a false church. Only a bad statement of faith should be.

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Well, I'm glad you're not the judge, then. I just checked our church website, and we don't have a statement of faith on there. And we're in a town of about 16,000 just outside of Little Rock.

We do have a plan of salvation on there, and a statement that we unapologetically preach the Bible. But in my few minutes of browsing on my tablet I didn't see a statement of faith.

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It may mean they don't understand the internet or websites -- as Sapper pointed out -- and they're treating it like a Yellow Pages advertisement instead of a communication tool. That's been my experience, *especially* among smaller churches, whether they be in cities or rural locations. Some new church start-ups may not even have it officially printed, voted on/approved by the church membership yet, etc.; there's all kinds of reasons why a church website may not have their doctrinal statement published. Using websites and social media as ministry tools is a subject that's only recently started being addressed in seminaries.

In some cases, the pastor of the church has heard that having a website is a good idea; but the only person in his church that knows anything about websites is a 16-year old. A church I went to a couple of years ago didn't even have the 16-year old; and it took me a while to get them to start using a Facebook page for their church.

If you come across a website that doesn't display their "statement of beliefs" or doctrinal statement, then you should do exactly what you've been doing with the "questionable" ones: contact that church, and ask them for their statement. If/when they provide one, you should gently suggest to them that they should make that an important part of their website.

If they won't share it when requested, THEN you have a seriously weird situation on your hands, and you should avoid that church.

 

I live between two of these churches and they are the hardcore CoC. Unless you are in the CoC and have been baptized in the manner of Acts 2:38, you're as lost as a ball in tall weeds, and that ball is painted green.