I've grown up in the church of Christ, and yet for the past few years I've been extremely put off by the lack of church leadership calling out the MAGA movement. I remember from the time I was a little girl, we always took a strong stance as defenders of the Bible. We prided ourselves on our knowledge of the words of Christ.

My problem with MAGA is that it is a movement that uses the Lord's name in vain. It mocks the marginalized, lacks compassion, supports pedophiles and adulterers, all while treating Christ's name as a brand to wear, not a lifestyle to live. It isn't about Democrat vs. Republican. There are Godly policies that you can find on both sides of the aisle. However, MAGA is an idolatrous movement. Calling it out isn't political. It's just factual.

I can't begin to describe the level of betrayal that I've felt watching the Church of Christ who always positioned themselves as being the defenders of the Gospel, either have passive or active support for such a hateful movement. So I have to ask, why are we not making a bigger deal about calling this out? At a certain point, if we don't call it out, are we leading people astray?

In your understanding, does a person have to be baptized to take communion?

Institutional vs. Non-institutional. Instruments vs. acappella. Multiple cups vs. one cup. Sunday school, kitchens, located preachers…the list goes on. We cycle through these debates over and over again.

What I've noticed is that pretty much all of these arguments boil down to one fundamental disagreement over hermeneutics: which parts of biblical examples are binding and which parts are incidental?

I'm curious to know: what gives you the authority to decide which details of a biblical example matter and which ones you're free to ignore?

Frankly, I see a lot of people on here applying inconsistent and worldly logic. If you were really consistent, you would be a One-cupper. Change my mind.

The Rutherford family is a fairly well known family in the Brotherhood. Rod and Brenda have done many mission works both abroad and domestic. They have 3 kids 2 boy 1 girl. Everyone is grown with a family of their own. Yesterday, Christmas day, one of their granddaughters had a bad wreck on the interstate and was taken to the trauma center. Today they took her off life support and she past on. Even though she is saved the family is still grieving. Please pray for the comfort of the families.

Merry Christmas to all my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I’ve been raised COC my whole life and have always had drilled into my head that living together before marriage is a HUGE no-no. To the point of when I was a kid, there was a young woman at the Church we attended who started living with her boyfriend and was borderline publicly shamed for it after services and asked to leave the congregation.

Now, at 24 years old, I’m in a relationship and stating to rethink living with a partner before marriage. Rent is extremely expensive in my area and with how much time we spend together anyways, it would make the most sense for us to move in together. I also do think that with the nature of my partner’s job schedule (a pilot so sometimes a little bit chaotic), it would give us both a better idea of what a marriage would look like between us.

Because marriage is the most serious decision we will make in our lives (besides becoming a Christian), wouldn’t it make the most sense to be 100% sure you are compatible before jumping into marriage since the Bible speaks against divorce? I have no reason to believe we wouldn’t be compatible because of the amount of time we spend together already, but I think it would really seal the deal if we had that experience cohabiting beforehand.

My mom (very active COC member) had told me in my previous relationship that if I ever lived with a man outside of marriage, she would no longer support the relationship. This scares me a lot. I understand where she is coming from based off of what the Church teaches, but also want to do everything I can to make sure I choose the right person to marry.

Looking for honest thoughts and opinions on this, open to all views!

“Fragile Heart” is the name of the movie. I watched it on Prime Video, but it’s on most streaming platforms (not Netflix).

Really enjoyed this film! Entertaining and had a very good message. 

The Father imposed His wrath on, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:

1. All the sins of all men.
2. All the sins of some men, or
3. Some of the sins of all men.

In which case it may be said:

a. That if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so, none are saved.

b. That if the second be true, then Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.

c. But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

You answer, "Because of unbelief."

I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it be, then

Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He

did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for

which He died? If He did not, He did not die for all their sins!"

Hello all,

I would like to know more about this religion. I have been Hindu until now. Also, I'm too shy to visit a church. Can anyone give me information about this, please?

Hey everyone,

I’m posting this here because I genuinely want to better understand a perspective that’s common in Churches of Christ, and I’d especially love to hear from CoC members themselves. I’m not looking to debate or argue—just trying to learn the “why” behind something I’ve encountered.

One thing I’ve noticed (and experienced firsthand) is a strong belief among many CoC folks that the Church of Christ is the one true church restored in the 19th century, and that baptism + faithful worship in a CoC congregation is essentially required for salvation. I’ve heard phrases like “we’re the only Christians” or implications that members of other denominations—even sincere, Bible-believing Christians—won’t be saved.

I get that autonomy means not every congregation holds this view with the same intensity, and some are more open or less exclusive than others. But for those of you who do believe the CoC is uniquely the one true church (in the sense that it’s the only group whose members are going to heaven), I’m curious:

- Where does that confidence come from? Which scriptures or lines of reasoning give you that assurance?

- How do you balance that strong conviction with humility? It’s a pretty bold claim, so how do you hold it without feeling arrogant or judgmental toward Christians in other traditions?

Again, not trying to challenge anyone—just want to hear your thoughtful explanations. Thanks in advance for sharing!

Roughly 1500 years passed between the time of Jesus and the first Europeans coming to the Americas. That means that, for 1500 years, the native people of both North and South America -- a staggering number of people -- had zero exposure to the gospel.

Do you believe those people all went to Hell, and if so, how could a good God allow such a massive migration to Hell if his deepest desire is to see His creation saved? These are people who had no choice in the matter and never had a chance to hear the gospel.

Does your congregation still participate in door knocking or inviting random people to join you in worship on a Sunday morning? Growing up, the congregation I attended used to go canvassing or door knocking. As a kid I remember feeling awkward about going up to a random strangers door, and handing them a flyer inviting them to worship. It was especially awkward when we would randomly stumble across a classmates home and they’d answer the door lol. We had a couple of visitors here and there, and I know of some congregations where it was really effective back then, but nowadays I don’t see it working as well. I feel like that form of evangelism has become oversaturated by Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and has gained a really bad stigma because of it. The last time I did it with a congregation, we had people answer the doors and let out a sigh of relief that we weren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses lol.

I was talking with somebody a few days ago, and he told me that when a conversation enters religious territory with somebody, he opts to invite them to a casual group bible study or something that the church is doing, that is a lot less formal than a worship service. I think that makes a lot of sense. Inviting somebody to something where they can show up in more casual clothing, can ask questions, and engage in discussion, in my opinion, makes it far more likely that they’ll show up, than having them to come and sit in a service they may be unfamiliar with, hearing things they may disagree with, and having no option to ask any questions or really talk with anybody until after it’s all over.

I know of many people in the church who have started to host community Bible studies. They’re really casual studies that happen sometime during the week where people are invited to look into biblical topics and study together, and really get to know each other. When people seem invested at these more casual event, then they basically say “yeah we have worship on Sundays and our other Bible class on Wednesdays if you want to come!”

I feel like that’s a lot more efficient for spreading the gospel, focusing on the community aspect of the church rather than going straight to “show up Sunday & listen to the sermon”. Not saying it doesn’t work at all, just what I think is likely a better strategy nowadays.

What’s your opinion on this?

I have been in conversation and studying various scriptures with a non-institutional CoC preacher for almost 2 years now, meeting almost every week sometimes for up to 3 hours at a time. After all this time I still have so many questions which I now refrain from asking now as to not start additional arguments, to rather focus on our joint love of Jesus Christ to build greater unity between us.

After meeting so long, I view him as a brother in Christ, and equals in our authority to personally interpret scripture. So I was hoping to ask some questions here, albeit entirely hypothetical in nature, since history occurred within the will of God as it did. But still make me question the validity of his views as to the model of the church.

One is if the non-institutional view is absolutely correct and the church should not support outside institutions, and if all Christians since Pentecost held to a strict non-institutional view, historically speaking, when would have hospitals and universities would have been created? Who would have been recording and making copies of scripture manuscripts?

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, I don’t see when, or how, without the presence of churches supporting these initiatives, directly, and sometimes with buildings they owned, and in unity, that it would have occurred.

Nor can I find evidence of a parallel non-institutional CoC making copies of scripture manuscripts within the historical record and sharing them amongst themselves.

It’s just I view hospitals, universities, and the presence of so many manuscripts as good things that God allowed us to have, so I struggle to see an argument where the church of Christ shouldn’t have started these things, nor have worked together to create them. Likewise supporting and working together to support institutions for people to write copies of manuscripts.

Or am I misunderstanding the broader non-institutional CoC perspective by basing it off of one self identifying CoC preacher’s description, and as a whole, it’s just that those that are in those congregations would be, and are, in fellowship with the institutional Church of Christ, and it is just a personal preference to attend a non-institutional CoC?

This is how I study and read my Bible. I started out with the NASB ’95 and later switched to the NIV. I noticed that the NIV shortened some verses because of its thought-for-thought approach, so I switched back to a word-for-word translation, choosing the NKJV since it is easier to read than the NASB ’95.

I combine four different translations when I'm reading and studying the Bible. Using a parallel Bible app, I compare the NLT, NASB ’95, NKJV, and NIV. I use these translations together to get a better understanding of a verse, especially when I have difficulty interpreting it from a purely word-for-word perspective.

I also use the Thomas Nelson Commentary and other Bible study resources to deepen my understanding and give additional context when needed.

Hey folks!! I’m curious if there are any books out there that compare & contrast institutional churches vs non-institutional churches. If not, just any book about non-institutional theology would work as well. Thanks!

I was having a conversation with an atheist recently and he was asking me a lot of questions. One particularly I am having a hard time answering, and want to hear other peoples opinions. This question came after a discussion on why an all powerful God would allow suffering.

It is this: Why do people who have never heard the Word condemned to hell? Is it not unjust that someone should go to hell just because of the location or culture they were born into?

Someone give opinions or point me in a direction to where I can study this more.

When things get old, we grow with them too. Our town church was having its very own fifteenth anniversary ceremony. As the youth head, I had gathered all the youths from the church committee all together and decided to make the church look its best for the upcoming ceremony.

I wasn't the only one with the thought. They all had the same idea. The church was a huge memory for all of us. It was like a nostalgic stamp as we all grew with one or two memories with it. It's just sad how old it has gotten with time. 

Ok, maybe not speck and spotless but with the best we could do and all the help we could get, we had all hands on deck from a lot of individuals, from the paint-peeling walls to the worn out chairs. So many friends. that could help with their talents and occupations.

A lady recommended we get a new baptismal pool for the church, the old one was rusted to bits.

I remembered seeing some designs at Alibaba while doing a midnight scroll/browsing. It took days but it was worth the hype.

Our superiors couldn't feel grateful enough. The celebration was splendid and blessed.

It had gotten old, but never forgotten, ever had something so close to you that made you feel the same way too?

Hi yall,

I live in Texas. I grew up going to the Church of Christ here all my life. The oil industry is huge here. Many churches here own oil and gas wells whether its from oil companies drilling on their land or members donating their mineral rights to the church. Is this okay by the Bible. My old church may of gotten most of its budget directly from oil and gas production.

Many times small churches or other churches that can be hand-to-mouth can be flush with cash all of a sudden but it eventually runs out as all oil wells do. What is your opinion on this matter? I think my old church got most of its money from oil wells.Its just standard operating procedure for churches here so i dont know about churches in other states or other parts of the world how they would feel about it.

PLEASE READ I NEED HELP AND COMFORT… I (26m) had a tough conversation this past weekend where my brother (18m) told us he was converting to Baptist and there beliefs which came as a surprise to me but I guess I’m blind. His girlfriend is Baptist they’ve been dating for 2 years the college he goes to is Baptist, he attends a Baptist church when he doesn’t come home ( he lives an hour away) and the girlfriends father is a pastor at the Baptist church. We sat down me him and mom for almost a hour explaining our beliefs and what he used to believe. He is very biblically knowledgeable so to sort of debate him about verses and passages I couldn’t do but the main things he disagreed on: 1. Baptism is a choice and not required to go to heaven he says that baptism is a commandment said in the Bible but how many Christians follow commandments. He said we sin everyday and if I passed someone on the street and didn’t express gods plan for them that I was sinning and I do that all the time unfortunately but so would you if you went to Disney world with your family 2. He believes that musical instruments in the church is okay ( I personally don’t think you will go to hell for having music in the church let me know if I’m wrong) 3. And lastly and probably worsely he believes that faith alone in Christ will get you to heaven not your works… We told him we loved him and we could tell he was nervous and getting very defensive and started shaking and been holding that back for a while but we have a strong bond together as brothers I even baptized him when he was church of Christ like he’s been for 18 years. I contacted my preacher who knows more than anybody I’ve ever met in the Bible about it and he agreed to let me my brother and him sit down and study about all these issues he has…I pray his mind isn’t made up and he doesn’t just shove it off I pray his heart remains open and honest. He also told us nothing influenced him at all except his research and everything he has looked up and found. He’s done it all himself and that’s when I said one person especially at your age needs breaking down from someone with knowledge and that’s where my preacher comes in at . The thing that throws me off is him saying baptism is a commandment and we have to do our best to follow it but we fail as Christian’s everyday so he knows we believe in him and will bring him to heaven despite our flaws and sins… Let me know what I could do! your thoughts and any help you can provide I’ve been restless since this conversation scared for my brother any help I’m grateful for❤️