We are catholic; i.e., a worldwide church, but not Roman Catholic. We protest against all religious error and abuses by religious leaders, but we are not a Protestant denomination. We are just Christians trying to serve God like those of the first century did.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, but we are not charismatic. We received the gift of the Holy Spirit when we were baptized (Acts 2:38), but that does not enable us to speak in foreign languages, raise the dead, or work other miracles such as the apostles did.
Our roots were in Judaism. Jesus was Jewish, as were the apostles and the first wave of converts to Christ. But the church founded by Christ is multinational, multiethnic. The Lord’s charge was to go preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). In Christ, being a Jew or a Gentile does not matter—only faith working through love (Gal. 5:6).
We have bishops (1 Tim. 3:1-2), but we are not Episcopalian. We have elders (Acts 20:17), but are not Presbyterian. We are congregational, but are not Congregationalist. We do all things decently and orderly (1 Cor. 14:40). We are methodical, but we are not Methodists. We baptize by immersion, but we are not Baptists (Rom. 6:3-4).
Who are we? We are Christians without denominational affiliation. When a group of us worship and serve together in a particular location, we are a congregation of Christ’s church—the one He established in Jerusalem (Matt. 16:18). Since we belong to Christ, we are known as the Church of Christ (Rom. 16:16). We honor the Bible as God’s inspired and inerrant word and make it our only creed and guide.
In our faith and worship, we are happy to be as old-fashioned as the Bible. We believe that God’s word speaks to all men of all nations and ages. It speaks with equal authority and power to the Stone Age aborigine or the tech-savvy scientist.
We are a family of God’s people whose hands and hearts are extended to every other child of God who wishes to worship and serve God with us. Yes, we are peculiar; but that is nothing at which to scoff or be ashamed. For God says of his people: “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Pet. 2:9 KJV).
–John Waddey