Expert: Hoyt Roberson - 7/2/2008

Question
In reading about your doctrine there are so many points that elicit an "ah ha", the truth seems to jump out at one from the print.  I am concerned however that there is no main governing body.  The Bible is the truth, but is so open to interpretation.  How can you be confident they your church elders in a church in California have the right interpretation which may by different to the elders of a church in Iowa.  I must admit to you that this is my reason for being Catholic.  Our church rests on three legs: The Bible, Tradition (which was relied upon in the centuries before there was our Bible), and the Magisterium which is composed of learned theologians who with great prayer and thought, interpret the Bible.  
I look forward to your reply.
Blanca


Answer
Blanca,

Thank you for your question.

One of the common tenets among Churches of Christ is the primacy of Scripture when it comes to our personal and community lives. While we appreciate the Roman Catholic doctrine that combines both Scripture and church tradition, our general view is that the writings are what the church thought important to record and therefore take precedence over local or even regional traditional teachings. Therefore, our view of church teaching separate from Scripture is that it is advisory only.

With that background, what we read in Scripture of church governance is more important to us than what may have developed in the Patriarchates in the first few centuries. Since we don’t interpret Scripture to indicate a hierarchy above the local church (“elders in every city” who “feed and protect the flock”), we eschew supra-congregational organizations as well as the development of an Ordinary in a particular place. We require multiple elders in each congregation as long as the congregation has appropriate men to provide that ministry.

What we have found is that on the essentials of the faith (remarkably similar to Roman Catholicism and Orthodox communities), we agree. You have undoubtedly found that we generally believe that faith in Jesus as God/Man is necessary; and that baptism is an essential grace for salvation as well as entrance into the church. We may disagree with Roman Catholics (and with each other) on some specifics of those items (we baptize adults and minor children who can make a conscious decision to be baptized rather than sprinkling infants for example), but we agree to a remarkable degree. Churches of Christ around the world would state those two requirements as necessary to be in a saving relationship with God.

Outside of those items, very wide latitude is allowed in local practice. This is acceptable since we acknowledge that other things are local considerations and do not universally impact one’s relationship with God.

The foregoing does not directly address your question which is essentially “how do you know you’re right if you don’t have a universal governing body?” The simple answer is that we wouldn’t know we were right if we had one. We do believe, much as the Roman Catholic church does, that our deliberations are overseen and guided by the Holy Spirit. Our deliberations happen to occur at the local level primarily rather than at various levels around the world.

We are not, however, without our own learned theologians. Many of our academics hold Ph.D. degrees in the same disciplines as Roman Catholic Ordinaries, and hold them from first line seminaries (Emory, Yale, etc.). In my local congregation, our past pulpit preacher held a Doctor of Ministry, and two of our nine elders hold masters degrees in ministry. In addition, we routinely invite or travel to speak with, theologians in other parts of the country. While the academic theologians do not run the church, local elders do have access to their learning, their understanding, and their writings. Many congregations use this information in making decisions. Both the theologians and the local elders apply this learning with great prayer and thought as well. We have found that communal deliberation, accompanied by prayerful reflection and assessment of congregational needs, results in faithful Biblical application and growing Christian maturity among our members. Essentially, we have found that the examples we have in Scripture do work rather well in community. We do not require a central governance structure to make and mature Christians, or to defend the essentials of the (common) faith.

We are not perfect. Not every congregation (as a community) is mature and not all limit the necessary faith elements to the two I mentioned above. Some congregations insist that a capella music is a faith issue. Many, if not most, do not. From my perch, the fact that some may make more out of a capella music is not something we need a regional or world council to address. I suspect that even on this All Experts board, you will get different responses from the Church of Christ “experts.” Our congregations suffer from the same maladies as do other denominations’. Some understand grace a bit more and others don’t. Some place more emphasis on the “letter of the law,” and other allow a bit more latitude in some areas.

It is important to recognize that even within the Roman Catholic and Orthodox constellations that there are disagreements over various “doctrinal” issues. The fact that there are more than a couple churches with which Rome is in “communion” begs the question, “why are they different?” Further, there are various other groups with which Rome is not in communion and yet those groups themselves claim to reach to the same historical times and ecclesiastic lines as Rome. We needn’t discuss at this point the differences between Rome and Byzantium except to ask, which is the “true” church, and how do we know?”

I don’t mention these to argue, but simply to point out that centralized governance does not necessarily issue in common practice or interpretation. Roman Catholicism claims to be The Church, but there are plenty of folks that disagree to various aspects of that claim. Since all of these groups can claim historical precedence to some degree, and they all claim to ponder Scripture prayerfully and with learned people, which is correct? If Churches of Christ can achieve a similar consensus without a global governance model, and given our conclusion that a global model is not mandated or exampled in Scripture, why would we need one?

OK, I should probably stop or you won’t read the entire response. Let me conclude with observing that there are various aspects of community life and Christian development that could dove tail into your question and which, in order to provide a comprehensive answer, would take considerable time and screen space. With that understanding, I’ll end this response and ask if you have any questions or observations on what I have provided so far?

Thanks for asking – providing answers makes me sift through my own concepts as well as try to illustrate a wider understanding held by “Churches of Christ.”

Hoyt