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 <\/strong>teaching on the spirit of denominationalism in this medium as well.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Elmer Clark, in speaking of the “Churches of Christ” in his book The Small Sects in America<\/em> (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.”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n 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<\/strong>\u00a0to 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.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jerry Crolius via\u00a0Sentry 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…<\/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_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[448,998],"class_list":["post-98020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church","tag-names"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29355,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/denominationalizing-the-work-of-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":98020,"position":0},"title":"Denominationalizing the Work of the Lord","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jerry F. Bassett Sentry Magazine, March 2003 To denominate is \"to give a name to: designate,\" according to Miriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. This same source defines a religious denomination as \"a religious organization uniting local congregations in a single legal and administrative body -- denominational\" being the adjectival form\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":37631,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-speak-at-a-denominational-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":98020,"position":1},"title":"Should I speak at a denominational church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi brother Jeff, I was discussing the Bible with a man who happens to be a member of a denomination. He also occupies a high position in their church. After reasoning with him from the Scripture, he asked me to come and preach in their church. I told him\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":89836,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/by-what-authority-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":98020,"position":2},"title":"By What Authority? (Matthews)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Samuel Matthews \"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;\u00a0 looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our\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":94095,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-denominational-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":98020,"position":3},"title":"What Is Denominational Thinking?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Floyd Chappalear via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 3, September 1994 Too few preachers seem to understand what constitutes denominational thinking and, as a result, decry denominationalism while espousing its precepts. Thus, we need to know a little bit about what constitutes denominational thinking. Denominational thinking blurs the distinction between\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":5354,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/churches-of-christ-are-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":98020,"position":4},"title":"Churches of Christ Are Different","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker \u201c... The churches of Christ greet you\u201d (Romans 16:16). Non-denominational, New Testament churches of Christ are different from other religious organizations.\u00a0 Even the very terms by which they identify themselves are different.\u00a0 It is clear that congregations of Christ\u2019s followers in the first century were known\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":96865,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-that-isnt\/","url_meta":{"origin":98020,"position":5},"title":"The Church That Isn’t","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Dewhirst via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 4, December 1995 Language is our best friend and worst enemy. On the one hand, it's flexible and accommodative, allowing the conveyance of a concept without being overly technical. Yet it's this very ease of loose language that finally blurs the same\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98020","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=98020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}