by Edward O. Bragwell, Sr.<\/p>\n
I am not a member of a denomination called “Church of Christ” or “Churches of Christ” or a denomination with any other name. The local church where I regularly attend is not a congregation of the “Church of Christ” denomination.<\/p>\n
Yet, I have been a member of the church of Christ (AKA “church of God” or “church of the firstborn”) for over 60 years. I became a member when I became one of the number of the saved. The Bible tells us, in Acts 2:47, that “the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved<\/em>“(NKJ) or “the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved<\/em>” (NAS). This “church” is that number of those who have been saved by the Lord. They are the same as those that have been “added to the Lord” (Acts 5:14; 11:24) and those who have been “baptized into Christ<\/em>” (Galatians 3:17) or “baptized into one body<\/em>” (I Corinthians 12:13). We sometimes call this the “universal church.” It has no “organization” as we commonly use that term. It is simply individuals working under the headship of Christ. The only functioning unit is the individual Christian. It is not “organized” at any level – global, national, state, or area. Nor is it an organized enmity with organized subdivisions. Again, it is simply the saved – those whose names are written in the Book of Life (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 21:27). There is no earthly census to number how many make up this body, only God knows the number. Thus, only God accepts people into that number and only God can remove one from that number (Revelation 3:5).<\/p>\n Also, over the years I have been a member of various organized units made up of those, from the community where I lived at the time, who were among that great number of the saved (as far as we can humanly tell) and who have agreed to worship and work together as a unit according to the authority of Christ. The unit that I am now a member of is the “church of Christ at Kimberly” or “Kimberly church of Christ.”<\/p>\n Organized units like these are designated plurally by such terms as “churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16), or singularly as “the church of God at Corinth” (I Corinthians 1:2; II Corinthians 2:1) and other such terms that magnify God and his Son. They are not a subdivision of some larger unit. They are never referred to as a “congregation of the Church of Christ.” (That would be like say, “a church of the Church of Christ”). When fully organized, they appointed a plurality of qualified men as elders from men among them (Acts 14:23; I Peter 5:1-4). They were not organically tied to each other in any way. They were governmentally or organizationally autonomous units. While not tied together organically, they had a common interest and common authority. (I Corinthians 4:17; 7:17). Because of this common interest and authority, they sometimes cooperated with each other, while maintaining their organizational independence. They sometimes sent relief to other like local churches to help them provide for the needy among them (Acts 11:27-30; I Corinthians 16:1-4; II Corinthians chapters 8 and 9). Various ones of them sent wages to a preacher as he worked in other areas (II Corinthians 11:8; Philippians 4:15-18). Each of these local churches has the right and responsibility to receive (Acts 9:26; Romans 14:1) and expel (I Corinthians 5:1-13) its members according to the teaching of the Lord through the apostles. Being administered by humans, mistakes are sometimes made in this process. Sometimes these churches receive and harbor those they should not (I Corinthians 5). Sometimes they expel those they should not (III John 9-10). When this happens it should be corrected (I Corinthians 5:1-6).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Edward O. Bragwell, Sr. I am not a member of a denomination called “Church of Christ” or “Churches of Christ” or a denomination with any other name. The local church where I regularly attend is not a congregation of the “Church of Christ” denomination. Yet, I have been a member of the church of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1277,544],"class_list":["post-42087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-denominationalism","tag-membership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61067,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-i-am-a-member-of-the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":42087,"position":0},"title":"Why I am a Member of the Church of Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irvin Himmel via\u00a0The Voice of West End, Vol. 5, No. 23, Feb. 16, 1964. People have offered a variety of reasons for their religious connections. I am here to present my reasons for being a member of the church of Christ; but, first, some negative thoughts: Not because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55569,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-yours-mine-or-the-lords\/","url_meta":{"origin":42087,"position":1},"title":"The Church: Yours, Mine, or the Lord’s?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via\u00a0Gospel Minutes, Feb. 6, 1976 Questions: Isn't it true that the present-day church of Christ was begun in the early 1800s by Alexander and Thomas Campbell? Was there any organization of your church from the first to\u00a0the 18th centuries? On what basis can your ministers claim that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54903,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-a-baptized-person-a-member-of-the-local-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":42087,"position":2},"title":"Isn’t a baptized person a member of the local congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a bit confused. My understanding has always been that if an individual were visiting us, and they obeyed the gospel while here, I would direct them to a sound church in their area. They would not be a member of the local church here, although they obeyed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19293,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-makes-the-church-of-christ-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":42087,"position":3},"title":"What Makes the Church of Christ Different?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Billy Moore Question: \"You say the Church of Christ is not a Protestant denomina\u00adtion, but I know you protest the Catholic religion for I have read a lot of your writings, so what makes you different from the other churches. You look like one of many churches to me.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17510,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/denominationalism-is-unnecessary\/","url_meta":{"origin":42087,"position":4},"title":"Denominationalism Is Unnecessary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Larry Ray Hafley Religious denominationalism in general and Catholicism and Protestantism, in particular, are unnecessary institutions. First,\u00a0if they were essential, they would be found in the Bible. Christ would have spoken of them and told us how to sustain and support them. That he did none of those things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84945,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-of-christ-is-not-a-denomination-but-it-became-one-again-and-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":42087,"position":5},"title":"The Church of Christ Is Not a Denomination, But It Became One Again and Again!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Floyd Chappelear via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 1, March 31, 1989 There are certain axiomatic truths (that is, statements so certainly correct that none will deny them) concerning the church of our Lord. One is that the \"Church of Christ is not a denomination.\" Even the most jaded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}