Why Do We "Do Church the Way We Do Church?

Comment

Comment by Lynn S. Nored on January 9, 2009 at 11:47pm

Great Leatrice,

I will be putting all of my presentations and summaries of each class on the site after each Sunday. Since this series is being presented in all classes, we hope to get a lot of participation on the Discussion Group

Comment by leatrice wilkinson on January 9, 2009 at 9:15pm

This study fascinates me, Lynn. So glad you are doing the class. There may be times I cannot be in class, and it would be so helpful to have something in print. Thanks for thinking of me. I must confess I had to read the earlier comments before I made a commitment, and they sold me on the idea!

Comment by Teresa Riley on January 6, 2009 at 12:17pm

Will you be putting the lesson up here also each week?

Comment by Lynn S. Nored on January 3, 2009 at 8:10pm

I dont know yet. I agree that producing materials is something that needs to be done.

Comment by Stanley N. Helton on December 31, 2008 at 12:44pm

Lynn,

I met your son at the last Quest at OC. That was our first and thus far only chance to meet.

Stan

Comment by Lynn S. Nored on December 29, 2008 at 12:35am

Stanley,
That is an interesting history. My wife, Martha Jayne Kennedy Nored, and family are very familar with Western Christian College. Her father (deceased), James W. Kennedy, set up the Western Christian College Foundation in the US to enable donors to give to WCC. Dryden Sinclair was also instrumental in setting this up. Her father's picture was up in the Weyburn facility before the college moved to it's present location. Have you heard of her father?

Yes, I am very familar with influence of Campbell on "form". As for the "order of worship" and it's origin that is just one example of the origen of "form" that we wish to explore in this series along with many others. Your academic background in Historical Theology will be of great assistance. I will wish to explore these subjects in a somewhat systematic manner. I also wish to be able to locate as many primary sources for origins as possible.

As you probably know, James Nored, the originator of this site is my son. He is finishing his DMin at Fuller in Postmodern Evangelism. Other than this site, have you crossed paths with him before?

Also, may I have your email address as I may wish to ask some questions not open to the site at first?

Glad to have the dialogue.

Comment by Stanley N. Helton on December 28, 2008 at 8:26pm

Ok, Lynn, Background:

I grew up in Wayne, OK. I came to the Churches of Christ as a VBS kids and have been on the journey of following Jesus ever since.

My post secondary education began with the Preston Road School of Preaching. From there I went to OC where I finished my BA in Bible. After this, I attended Abilene Christians where I did an MS in Historical Theology (did quite a bit of American Christianity and Restoration Movement history here). I was also Carroll Osburn's GA for a couple of years and did all the course work for a MA in Greek when I switched to the MDiv Degree which I finally wrapped up in about 1999. I'm finishing the writing of my project/thesis for my DMin and will have that completed this next year. In my DMin, I have studied postmod culture, missional theology, and spiritual formation. My project is in the area of teaching spiritual formation.

For the last five and half years, I have been teaching in Canada at Western Christian College. I have been the academic dean for the last three years.

Comment by Stanley N. Helton on December 28, 2008 at 8:18pm

The concentration on "form," as I suspect you know, is the direct result of the influence of Alexander Campbell. To some degree, his "Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things" series which he published in his Christian Baptist journal, set the direction of the movement. For him, the churches of his day still generally preached the gospel, the story of Jesus, but they had lost the apostolic order through the accretions of human tradition. The path forward was to shed these human innovations and additions, and go strictly by the Bible. However, what was missed here was that the practices handed down to Campbell by his Presbyterian tradition were deeply embedded in his assumptions of how church was to be done.

For example, Churches of Christ use to speak of the five acts of worship: preaching, praying, singing, giving, and the communion. However, there is no biblical text that spells these out in this way (Acts 2.42 comes close). In fact, in 1 Cor. 14, Paul offers an alternate list of five things that were done in first century worship. However, we have never taken the 1 Cor. 14 list as applicable, partly because we were also cessationists.

So where did the five acts of worship originate?

The Westminster Confession of Faith, which both Campbell and Barton W. Stone, would have known by memory, provides exactly our five items in its discussion of worship.

So that is how it started for the heirs of the American Restoration Movement.

Comment by Lynn S. Nored on December 28, 2008 at 7:59pm

Oh yes, Stanley:
I see you are an OC graduate. But, can you expand on your background?

Comment by Lynn S. Nored on December 28, 2008 at 7:57pm

Hello Stanley,

Welcome to this Discussion Group. I am sure your comments will contribute much. I will be adding a lot of content to this discussion shortly as I am preparing a class on this subject. I believe I personally would agree with the general tone of your comments thus far. Last month I completed a college course on Postmodern Evangelism at the South Pacific Bible College in Tauranga, New Zealand.

I agree with your critique of the way Restoration has been somewhat perverted in that it was to fix or correct the course of corrupted history instead of bringing us in line with the mission of God.

Shortly, I will post the various subject areas I hope we can explore as we look the history of where our forms ( particularly in the church of Christ but Western Christianity as well) vs the the function that is intended --as well as a particular form is warrented.

Part of this examination is prompted by the lack of understanding of our own history and heritage of the forms we deem "sacred" as well as wishing to examine the "heart' issues and mission of God for us.

In your first post you referenced the ethical restorationism (e.g., the holiness movement); experiential restorationism (Mormons, pentecostals) and ecclesiological restorationism--which I would agree with. Somehow in this mix, we in the churches of Christ have concentrated more on the forms and missed the relationship aspect ( whether with God, with others, or with our selves i.e. the heart).

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