Put Aside Doctrinal Differences, Churches of Christ Gathering Told

An Arkansas minister told 2,500 participants in a Churches of Christ Jubilee celebration in Nashville, Tenn., that they should put aside doctrinal differences and behave like “porcupines in November,” warming up to each other even if it hurts.

During a keynote address at the July 5-8 gathering of this loose fellowship of churches--they refuse the term “denomination”--the Rev. Mike Cope of Searcy, Ark., said, “Sometimes we don’t see eye to eye. We just have to accept each other. No matter what--if your marriage is crumbling or if something happens and your child leaves the church--I’m still devoted to you. We bear our mutual woes.”

The Nashville Jubilee attracted more than about 7,000 persons from 30 states.

The Churches of Christ are fiercely independent congregations that often work together to support missions and schools. But they often disagree on matters such as divorce and remarriage, worship styles and whether local church money should be spent on orphanages and gymnasiums.

“We’re educated and uneducated, urban and rural, north and south, and have different political bents, but we’re still the family of God,” Cope said.

The Churches of Christ are autonomous congregations, and there are no central offices or officers.

The church shares historic roots with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Christian Churches/Churches of Christ but broke fellowship with those groups after instrumental music was introduced in worship services and churchwide activities were centralized through establishment of a missionary society.

The 1988 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches estimates membership at 1.6 million, with 13,364 congregations.