High Density Churches of Christ
In the 1st century, there were two major branches of Judaism. There was the Judaism of Jerusalem and the Judaism of the Diaspora. The Judaism of the centralized area of Jerusalem was highly contentious with numerous factions and doctrinal debates taking place. But the Judaism of the Diaspora was more unified. The Diaspora was the Jews that were scattered throughout the ancient world. This provides a interesting parallel within the churches of Christ. One wonders if there is more doctrinal debate and contentious in the areas where there is a large density of churches of Christ. As far as I know, the Dallas-Forth Worth area is the highest density of churches with Nashville and Florence, Al coming second and third. When there is a large density of the church, does this produce more in-fighting among Christians? Instead of focusing on unity, maybe in these areas it is easier to divide because of the large selection of churches that are available. Of course, some of these religious debates can come over to the mission field and into areas of the USA but often the debates are started in the high density areas and spread to the less dense territories of the churches of Christ. There could be various explanations why this is happening from selection to competetion among churches for members. The Jews fought in Jerusalem and maybe the church is following the same pattern of fighting in the most dense areas of the church.
Related posts:
- Loyalty to the Churches of Christ
- Future of Churches of Christ
- Code Words in The Churches of Christ
- Experiences at Mile High
- Thankful for Church of Christ Preachers
About The Author
What do you think?
It makes sense to me. I worship at a church of Christ in New Jersey. There are some others in the area, and we mostly support each other. I have heard about a lot or infighting in the south. I guess where there is more penetration, there are more things to disagree about rather than unite around.
At a minimum, the circumstantial evidence supports this.
Sorry for the double post. I’m not sure how it happened. Can you delete one?
Matthew,
I have a friend who preaches in Iowa and there are very few congregations around. He said something to me once that has stuck in my mind, and your post made me think of it.
He said, “Yes, we have church squabbles, but people can’t just move their membership. Having no other congregations nearby makes us work out our problems.”
I love having a zillion congregations in and around Nashville. It gives me a lot of friends in ministry nearby and it provides a great network of ideas.
Both situations have their positives and negatives, and both can be used to God’s glory. Great thoughts, as always.
An interesting thought. I was speaking with a former preacher from Wisconsin yesterday who was reflecting on how “innovations” from the South (in the form of worship practices and outcomes of doctrinal debates) would filter to his folks from 3-5 years after their introduction in the South. He was lamenting the times when this would happen because there would be a fractionating point around which members could split. This seems to bear somewhat on what you are reflecting on…
It is nice having a lot of congregations around. I always enjoyed doing summer series for a bunch of congregations every year. It is sad that people just jump church when there is a problem instead of working it out. As for the double posts, sometimes the site does this, but it does not stay. Matthew, it is sad when mission congregations have to deal with southern fights, you even see this in the mission field in other countries.
It would seem the greater the concentration of people the greater possibility for some sort of disagreement. I have observed that some doctrinal difference is not the real reason for the fuss. That makes a good disguise but usually the problem stems from someone wanting to be “the big fish in a little pond”.
I’ll take this a few steps further. When I lived in the south (Arkansas, Tennessee), there was definitely a feeling that someone else was always watching and waiting to criticize, label, and judge if a person/church strayed too far from the expectations of the party line. Up in Minnesota it is so nice to not have that feeling of suspicious eyes staring at you and instead have the support of other CoC’s whether your church is consider more progressive or more traditional than the others.
In Ithaca, NY, where there was so much blatent paganism and anomosity towards Christianity from the iovry towers, we enjoyed mutual support from other churches outside of the CoC. Our church supported the local pregnancy center and Young Life. In turn, we ran a coffee house ministry to the local high-school students that would not have been able to financially operate without the support of several other local churches. Now that does not mean that we all saw eye to eye on every issue BUT we all believed that Jesus Christ is Lord and the world (as well as Ithaca) was hopeless without Jesus – and together, we were still a minority.
Grace and peace,
Rex
I have a pray that I pray often and tell about it every time I do a summer series or preach for one of the local congregations. That pray is that (one day) there will be the church of Christ in Florence, AL. I realize that we will not all be in one building (I wish we were) but have 2/3 less meeting houses. Many say it is preaches that will say “who is going to be the preacher?” I don’t agree with that. My worry is that leadership is the problem. Who is going to be the elders and will they shepherd in unity and will they shepherd the flock. Will men that are qualified be chosen to lead the church of Christ in Florence, AL.
[...] Pak Tea House placed an observative post today on High Density Churches of ChristHere’s a quick excerpt…far as I know, the Dallas-Forth Worth area is the highest density of churches with Nashville and Florence, Al coming second and third. When… [...]
All the fighting, feuding, conservatism, progression, etc–YUP, I’d say we’re pretty dense!
Eddy I agree. I am and have been one to fight to often. [Believe it or not what I write about is what is on my mind.] I want to be closer to my leaders. I look in the mirror and I see the enemy. I want to be the church of Jesus Christ. I want all of us to be the church of Jesus Christ. That said, I/we must live scripture. I/we must find unity. That being said, I/we must find truth. Matthew 18:38 Pilate asked Jesus a great question. I don’t know Pilate’s heart. Was he really searching for truth?
Do you mean the Diaspora was more unified in that there weren’t differences or as many differences in practice as with the Jerusalem Jews? Or that they simply didn’t argue over the differences?
either way, i see how the Jerusalem Jews could be analogous to the DFW CoC, but would the Diaspora Jews really be analogous to the situation of “Diaspora” CoC?
I am not sure on how far to press this analogy. But I do think this is a good parallel.