Thank you for your interest in the church of Christ! Below, I have linked to several articles that will give you some information about the church. The first link is a free 6-lesson Bible study video series.
Also, the following is quoted from a tract titled, "What to Expect When You Visit the Church of Christ", written by Calvin Barber (a church of Christ preacher).
What to Expect When You Visit the Church of Christ
Perhaps you have heard of the church of Christ through advertisement or by special invitation from its members. Maybe there is a building in your community where the church of Christ meets, and you have considered attending one of their worship services. But you have put it off simply because of the dread of going to a strange place, not knowing what to expect. May we briefly introduce ourselves and let you know what to expect when you visit us.
FRIENDLINESS
You can expect a warm, friendly welcome.
Friendliness is a natural response of a Christian. We believe that one of the basic foundation principles of Christianity is love and friendship toward our fellowman.
(Mt. 22:36-40) True Christianity recognizes no sex, social or racial differences.
(Gal. 3:28) Neither does it permit respect of persons on the basis of poverty or wealth. (Jas. 2:1-9) Jesus is our superb example in friendliness, in that he was compassionate toward all humanity, regardless of their status in life. We believe you will find that same spirit among Christians today. Therefore, when you visit us, you will be considered an honored guest. You will be greeted with kindness and courtesy. Why not give us the opportunity to become your friend?
(Cf Prov. 18:24)
ORDER
You can expect our service to be with reverence and order.
We strive to engage in all worship and service with decency and order.
(I Cor. 14:30) The order of our worship is usually planned by our elders. Each item of worship is usually announced and often briefly explained by the men who lead us in our worship. This enables each of us to know what is going on and helps us to better prepare our minds for worship. We try to avoid all extremism in worship. Neither ritualism nor emotionalism is characteristic of our worship. You can expect our worship to be spiritual, reverent and orderly.
SIMPLICITY
You can expect our worship to be simple.
It's simple because it is based entirely on the worship authorized in the New Testament. Jesus taught that our worship was to be spiritual and according to truth.
(Jn. 4:24) Our worship to God includes the Lord's supper, giving, singing, prayer and teaching the gospel. Each of these blooms with the beauty of simplicity. We do not try to improve on God's divine plan and beauty with pageantry or innovations of men. We believe you will be impressed with the simplicity of our worship.
SINGING
You can expect congregational singing.
Singing is a vital part of our worship. All members of our congregation will blend their voices together in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. The purpose of our songs is to praise God, to teach and admonish one another through our singing.
(Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) Since the command to sing is specific and addressed to the individual, we do not add a mechanical instrument of music in our worship in songs. For the same reason we do not have choirs to sing for us or any type of mood music to entertain us. Many who have visited us have been highly impressed with the beauty and spirituality involved in congregational singing. Why not come and see for yourself?
GIVING
You can expect us to give a free-will offering.
As the Bible teaches, we give liberally as God has prospered us, on the first day of the week.
(I Cor. 16:1-2) Our liberality is an evidence of our devotion to God.
(II Cor. 8:1-8) There are many factors that determine the amount of our offerings, but above all they must be free-will offerings.
(II Cor. 9:6-7) When the offering is taken, it is entirely the choice of our guest whether they will give an offering or not. We will not embarrass you by personally asking for an offering. Neither do we want you to feel embarrassed if you choose not to or cannot afford to give.
PRAYER
You can expect our public prayers to be led by men.
(I Tim. 2:8-13)
Prayer is a vital source of strength in a Christian's life. We pray often in private and with one another. When we come together in an assembly, prayer is a very important part of our worship. Prayers are offered frequently when we assemble together for worship. In keeping with an orderly fashion of worship, it is usually announced that we will be led in prayer by a certain brother. Everyone does not pray his own prayer out loud. We are led in prayer by a brother who speaks his prayer publicly, and the rest of us follow him silently as we pray together. This allows us to worship reverently and orderly. It also avoids noise and confusion. You will not be embarrassed by our calling on you to lead a public prayer.
THE LORD'S SUPPER
You can expect us to partake of the Lord's Supper on the first day of every week. [Sunday]
Jesus instituted this supper as a simple memorial of his death on the cross.
(Mt. 26:26-29; I Cor. 11:23-26) As we partake of the unleavened bread and fruit of the vine, our minds are to be centered on the events of the cross. In this act we have communion or fellowship with Christ.
(I Cor. 10:16) It was the practice of the early church to eat the Lord's supper every first day of the week.
(Acts 20:7) We do not practice closed communion. As the communion is passed to each individual in the assembly, we each examine ourselves that we may partake of it in a worthy manner.
(I Cor. 11:27-29)
TEACHING
You can expect Christ-centered, Bible teaching in our classrooms and pulpits.
We believe the Bible to be an inspired, authoritative book. (II Tim. 3:16-17) We believe that if a man speaks it should be from the Word of God.
(I Pet. 4:11) Our Bible class teachers usually teach directly from the Bible. The sermons you will hear from our pulpits can be supported by the Bible. In most sermons scripture references are given to enable the listener to check the Bible for himself to see if we are speaking the truth. We encourage you to check what we say by searching the scripture.
(Acts 17:11; Jn. 5:39)
At the close of each sermon you can expect an invitation to become a Christian.
You will be given an opportunity to express your faith in Jesus Christ by repenting of your sins, confessing Christ before men and being buried with the Lord in baptism.
(Cf. Jn. 8:24; Lk. 13:3; Mt. 10:32; Mk. 16:16; Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:26-27) We will not embarrass you by approaching you personally. We will make our appeal to you to become a Christian from the pulpit. Then an invitation song will be sung for your encouragement. If you choose to obey the Lord, you may come to the front and let your choice be known. May we point out that the church does not have to be assembled for you to obey the gospel. You can obey at any hour of the day or night by simply letting your request be known.
(Cf. Acts 16:30-33)
Since you now know much of what to expect when you visit the churches of Christ, why not accept our special invitation to visit us. We would consider it an honor to have you as our guest.
2007-08-23 02:57:58
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answer #1
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answered by JoeBama 7
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Yes, I had heard about these. I picked up a card with them on at the Temple bookshop. And sorry, you guys, but unfortunately I don't think they're that good a witnessing tool. Many of the references are good, but some of them are a bit tenuous, some are open to interpretation, etc. I know it's no fun when a member disagrees with you, and I should be supporting the home team, but I remember being all excited seeing this card, then getting home, looking up the verses and thinking that it wasn't that strong an argument. There is far better scriptural evidence that this is the true church, and evidence elsewhere too. I love "Are Mormons Christians" by Stephen Robinson - I wish every anti-Mormon on here would read it. I do think 1 Corinthians 15:29 is evidence that the church is true, though. It demonstrates that baptism for the dead was practiced only 40 years after Christ's resurrection - but there is only one church on the Earth today still practising it.
2016-05-20 02:09:12
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answer #2
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answered by ola 3
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Churches of Christ are, in essence, not a denomination; they are independant of each other so what you find at one may not be what you find at another. In general, though, we understand that Jesus established His church on the day of Pentecost and that is the one, true church. The church of Christ surfaced in the US with the intent to go back to the Bible and just be Christians. Characteristics found at most congregations include non-instrumental worship; Elders (also called Pastors) are the congregational leaders; pulpit ministers are usually not Elders; communion is shared at every Sunday service. We have a history of being a little legalistic as your other answerer said but we are growing in grace. Elders, more and more, are stepping up to lead the congregation into a greater spiritual oneness with Jesus. Wikipedia on-line has a pretty good description on the church and it's history but you can't get a completely accurate account unless you visit and ask questions. The minister, elders or deacons will be happy to help you anyway they can, wherever you go. Please visit sometime.
2007-08-22 11:08:21
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answer #3
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answered by starfishltd 5
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I was raised in a 'church of Christ'; and before leaving it; a deacon also. That is part of why I put a list together of the 7 (big picture) deviations from God's word. Unfortuneately, the 'church of Christ I went to had all 7 deviations. Part of why I did notleace it earlier (I knew something was not right), other deniminations had some (but fewer) of those deviations. (Such as the Catholic church 3.5 deviations. The 0.5 deviation is a very common and large deviation presently).
2007-08-22 11:32:37
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answer #4
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answered by jefferyspringer57@sbcglobal.net 7
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BMH,
There are a number of websites that you could check and see what you need to know about Churches of Christ. I belong to a Non-Denominational Church of Christ that is rather small in our home town. The nice thing is we follow ONLY the BIBLE and not any of man's creeds as many churches are really doing today as they become Denominational Churches. If I may answer anything about them, just let me know.
Thanks,
Eds
EDIT:
Phax gave you the wrong website. It is for the Baptist Church ideology.
.
2007-08-22 10:59:43
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answer #5
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answered by Eds 7
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If they're the branch that doesn't allow musical instruments, it's far too legalistic to be helpful to you spiritually.
And you MIGHT try using spell check next time. "dose" should be DOES, "i" should be I, "there" should be THEIR, "reliogon" should be RELIGION.
2007-08-22 10:48:54
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answer #6
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answered by Devoted1 7
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They believe baptism is essential for salvation. Other than that, I think they're OK.
2007-08-22 11:09:57
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answer #7
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answered by Cee T 6
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no why dont you call and ask for the minister or google them?
2007-08-22 10:48:58
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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here is link, I hope it will give some answers.
god bless you!
2007-08-22 11:10:15
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answer #9
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answered by steven25t 7
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http://www.church-of-christ.org/
http://church-of-christ.org/who.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_christ
2007-08-22 10:50:10
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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Can you try that again in english?
2007-08-22 10:48:18
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answer #11
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answered by Anonymous
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