Opinion of the churches of Christ

[Del Tachi]

For those of you who don't know, the churches of Christ are autonomous, Protestant congregations throughout the world (but most common in North America) united through common beliefs and practices.  They are congregational in structure, and every congregational is led by and independently elected all-male eldership.  They seek to base practice and doctrine on the Bible alone, and see themselves as the modern-day equivalent to the First Century churches established by Christ.

The churches of Christ are a product of the Stone-Campell and Restoration movements and first became prevalent on the American frontier during the early 19th Century. These churches comprise about 5,062,074 members in over 40,000 individual congregations worldwide. There are approximately 13,000 congregations in the United States. Overall U.S. membership was approximately 1.8 million in 2001 and 1.9 million in 2008. Estimates of the proportion of the US adult population associated with the Churches of Christ vary from 0.8% to 1.5%.  In terms of adherents, it is twelfth largest Christian group in the United States and the fourth largest in terms of number of congregations.  Members of the churches of Christ are likely to refer to themselves simply as "Christians" or "members of the Church".   

Core tenets of church of Christ doctrine, as based on the Bible, include Baptismal regeneration, the importance of God's grace in salvation, the Bible as the unfiltered word of God, and the independence of the local congregation.  The churches of Christ are also notable for their lack of instrumental music in worship and their taking of the Lord's Supper, or communion, every Sunday. 

Please note, that the church of Christ is not the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church), the International Council of Churches of Christ, or the United Churches of Christ (UCC). 

For more information see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churches_of_Christ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_Movement    

[Del Tachi]

Horrible Churches for their view that it's wrong to use musical instruments in church and full immersion baptism is essential for salvation (I say this as someone who was baptized by full immersion two months ago of my own choice despite being baptized as a baby.)

I do like the Disciples though, I think I might be closer to them theologically more than any other denomination, except for my weird charismatic tendencies.

The New Testament never contains a reference to musical instruments being used in the early church and the use of musical instruments in religious services was uncommon in the United States until the early 20th Century.