Our Goal<img src="images/lesson_person.jpg" width="128" height="179" align="right" />

Our Goal

The spring, high in the mountain valley, sends forth its waters, crystal clear. As they cascade down the mountain, filth and pollution gradually find their way into the stream. By the time its reaches the plain in the lower valley, it is thoroughly polluted and unsafe to drink, untreated. So it is with Christianity. When the Lord established his church in Jerusalem it was exactly what he wanted it to be. But over the centuries, men have laid unholy hands upon Christ’s precious church. Virtually very aspect of Christianity has suffered unauthorized change.

Time and again God has raised up holy men to call people back to the Bible, the original source of pure Christianity. Churches of Christ had their beginning in America in the early 19th century when James O’Kelly, Abner Jones, Elias Smith, Barton Stone, and Thomas and Alexander Campbell broke out of their respective denominations and resolved to restore the original faith and practice of the New Testament.

As the heirs of those noble men, we are committed to continuing that goal:

1. We honor Christ as the only founder and head of the church (Matt. 16:16-18).
2. We call ourselves only by Bible names. Collectively, we are churches of Christ (Rom. 16:16); individually, we are Christians, nothing more or less (I Pet. 4:16).
3. We teach people to be saved just as did Christ and his apostles, i.e., by faith, repentance, confession and immersion (Mk. 16:16; Acts 2:38).
4. We worship in the simple fashion of the first Christians, with weekly communion (Acts 20:7); prayers, vocal music (Eph. 5:19) sacrificial giving ( I Cor. 16:1-2) and faithful teaching of the gospel (II Tim. 4:2).
5.We organize our churches with elders and deacons as prescribed by the apostles (I Tim. 3:1-13).
6. We pledge ourselves to do the work of Christ by doing those things he authorized us to do: evangelize the world, edify the church and care for the needy.
7. We strive to be holy in life by following Jesus in thought, word and deed (I Pet. 2:21).

Let us never forget our goal to be Christians, in the same manner as were the apostles and that courageous band of believers who risked their all to be the first disciples of Jesus.

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