The Name on the Sign

by Jerry Crolius
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 22 No. 3, September 1996

Must It Read, "Church of Christ"?

What "name" should appear on the signs in front of our meeting places? While I appreciate the good teaching done by several in the electronic medium, I believe that brethren need to hear scriptural and practical teaching on the spirit of denominationalism in this medium as well.

Many of us in the Lord’s church have a denominational spirit without even realizing it (and certainly without advocating it). We may speak against sectarianism, but often we think and speak like sectarians.

Elmer Clark, in speaking of the "Churches of Christ" in his book The Small Sects in America (p. 214), said, "It is the largest Protestant group showing pronounced sectarian characteristics, though loudest in protestation that it is not a sect or ’denominational’ church, but the ’true church of Christ,’ conforming in every detail to the apostolic and scriptural pattern."

Barton W. Stone once said in the early 1800s, "A party name is a strong bond of union in all the sects, by which a person wearing it is judged, friend or foe, approved or disapproved, loved or despised, received or rejected, by those who wear a different name. All these party bonds must be broken or forgotten, or Christian union will never be known on earth and party union will stand as a mountain in the way of the world’s salvation." I say, "Amen."

I’m not in a mad rush to change the name on the sign in front of the church building because I want to be sensitive to issues of unity in the local church, but I do believe preachers of the gospel (and especially elders) need to do a better job of teaching brethren not to get all riled up if someone suggests that the name on the sign be changed from Church of Christ to another scriptural designation. If this kind of teaching is not accomplished, then sectarian-minded brethren will dominate the thinking and practice of local churches. God forbid.