Borden Church of Christ is a small church, in a small community that exists to Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples, according to the great commandment and great commission (Matthew 22:37-39,28:18-20).
After arriving at Borden Church of Christ it was my heart’s desire that we would be able to simply, effectively, biblically communicate what kind of church we are, and what we are to be about.
I started by gleaning from the fact that the Lord himself spoke of our greatest duty and purpose as Christian believers, I turned to what is commonly referred to as “The Great Commandment”, contained in the gospel of Matthew 22:37-39. Jesus’ simple reply to a potentially ensnaring question is foundational to who we are.
Jesus was confronted by a lawyer who was representing the religious crowd of the day. He was asked this question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Now here was the dilemma, there were as many as 613 commandments the religious crowd had dreamt up in order to keep the big 10 that were given by God to man, known as the Ten Commandments.
The problem was, if Jesus had answered with any one of the ten, then he would have by default left himself open to being ridiculed for being light or passing over the remaining nine.
So he does something so sensible, that only God himself can do such a brilliant thing. He takes the big ten and distills them down into one, which is technically two, but spiritually one in the same.
Matthew 22:35-40 (NASB95)
35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
The first 4 commandments deal with our relationship with God,
No other Gods, No idols, No taking God’s name vain, keeping the Sabbath.
While the last 6 deal with our relationship with others.
Honor father mother, do not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet.
If we love God and obey Him, then will also love our neighbors, by serving them, honoring them, and not doing wrong by them.
So Christ takes inventory of the first four commandments and says let me sum them up for you, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ (Duet 6:5) LOVE GOD!
Now in the same way understand that in order to keep the remaining six commandments then likewise you must, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Lev 19:18) LOVE PEOPLE!
Loving God and loving people. That’s the call of our lives and by keeping these the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples.
Then it was my desire also to capture in a simple way what we were to be about as a church, and I found our primary mission what is commonly referred to as The Great Commission.
Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB95)
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Going, baptizing, and teaching are all in support of making disciples. Therefore our mission simply stated is to be a church that MAKES DISCIPLES!
Borden Church of Christ – A Church that Loves God, Loves People, and Makes Disciples.
Brother Scott Reeder >
Beliefs & Practices
One may have wondered, what is distinct about churches of Christ? What is their historical background? How many congregations and members do they have? Are they a worldwide organization? What is their message? How are they governed? How do they worship? What do they believe about the Bible?
Membership in Churches of Christ
In a book entitled Where The Saints Meet, Mac Lynn states that the total number of churches of Christ in the United States and her territories is about 13,410 with a total membership of 1,277,004. In a more recent work entitled Churches of Christ Around The World, Dr. Lynn states there are 13,908 congregations with 747,568 members outside of the United States and her territories. This would make a total of 27,318 congregations with a total membership of 2,124,572. At the present time, according to Dr. Lynn, there are 660 American missionaries in 121 nations.
The Spirit of the Movement
As is often the case, men have a tendency to alter the message of God. It started in the Garden of Eden when God said not to eat of the forbidden fruit and man violated this divine injunction. During the Israelites’ history, they often changed the worship and mission that God had assigned. Evidence of departure in the New Testament can readily be seen in those who tried to bind ancient ceremonies and rituals upon the people of God. In our day, many churches have become burdened down with traditions of men, failing to fulfill Christ’s plan for them.
The solution is to return to the Bible. Amos’ question of long ago, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3) points to the necessity of having a standard to resolve differences. The spirit of churches of Christ is to return to the Bible. It is our desire to go back beyond denominationalism to the simplicity and purity of the first century. We believe that the Bible and the Bible only will make Christians as God intended. Unity can be achieved by following the Bible. It is the safe and reasonable approach to take (Galatians 1:6–9; Revelation 22:18–19).
God’s Organization
Churches of Christ do not have the trappings of many modern-day organizational bureaucracies. There are no official boards—neither district, regional, nor international. Each congregation is self-ruled and is independent of all other congregations. There are no conventions, annual meetings, official publications, or policy-setting groups. Each congregation is overseen by a group of elders who are selected from among the members and meet the qualifications outlined by Paul (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1). These elders are assisted by deacons, evangelists, teachers, and other Christian servants.
The Worship
Worship in churches of Christ is very simple. It tends toward participation as opposed to one being a spectator. Christians meet to sing a cappella, as is authorized by the nine verses in the New Testament that discuss the music the early Christians practiced. The Lord’s supper is observed upon the first day of every week, just as was done in the first century (Acts 2:47). Christians further worship by giving as they have been prospered, studying the Bible, and praying.
Terms of Membership
The terms of membership are also outlined in the New Testament. They include faith in God (Hebrews 11:6) and in His Son (John 8:24); repentance of one’s sins, as commanded of all men everywhere (Acts 17:30); confession of belief that Jesus is the Son of God (Matthew 10:32); finally one must be baptized to enter into God’s family. Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins” (Acts 2:38).
We encourage you to visit the church of Christ in your community and again experience the joy and simplicity as we attempt to go back to the Bible. —Jerry Jenkins, Birmingham, Alabama
The Authority of the Bible Defined‘
2 Timothy 3:16–17
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Inspired – The Holy Spirit’s supernatural guidance of those who received special revelation from God as they wrote the books of the Bible.
We believe in the “verbal plenary inspiration” of the scriptures that is that the Bible’s teaching is true on everything of which it speaks. Verbal inspiration emphasizes the truth that the wording of the text, as well as the ideas conveyed, are supernaturally inspired. The very words they wrote were given by the Holy Spirit. “Plenary” inspiration is a term meaning “full” or “complete,” declaring that all the Bible is equally God-given from Genesis through Revelation.
The Bible is divinely inspired because God concurrently worked with human authors to produce the very written message He desired. This classical view teaches the Holy Spirit superintended more than 40 authors from widely divergent backgrounds (shepherds, kings, prophets, fishermen, etc.), spanning a period of approximately a millennium and a half, to produce with supernatural congruity not just the thoughts but the very words of God to mankind.
Inerrant – The idea that Scripture is completely free from error. The Bible is completely true, without error in everything that is affirmed.
By inerrancy, we mean that when all the facts are known, the Bible—in its original manuscripts and properly interpreted—will be shown to be true and never false in all that it affirms, whether related to doctrine, ethics, or the social, physical, or life sciences.
Infallible – The characteristic of being incapable of failing to accomplish a predetermined purpose.
Infallibility refers to the reliability of the Bible. To never lead us astray with regard to the matters of faith and practice. It is the quality of never misleading or deceiving. The Bible possesses this quality because it is inspired by God, who cannot lie. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about events of world history.
Sufficient – Scripture is presented as being of itself sufficient for faith and for life.
Scripture furnishes all that the Christian must know to be saved and to grow in grace, and tells us all we need to know to live a life which is well pleasing to God. No source of doctrine or revelation outside of Scripture is valid, for such a source would be adding to the written word of God, which is absolutely forbidden by Scripture. Revelation 22:18–19.
Statement of Faith
There is no other creed or doctrine other than the Bible as given to man through the inspiration of God.
The Bible teaches that sinners are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), which includes belief in Christ, repentance, confession, and baptism (John 3:16; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9-10; Titus 3:5-7).
The church of Christ is organized with elders, deacons, preachers, and members as in New Testament times (Philippians 1:1).
Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:30-31), the Bible is inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and Jesus will return to take His kingdom (church) home to God (1 Corinthians 15:24).
We emphasize sincere worship in accordance with God’s Word (Matthew 15:8-9; John 4:24), every-member evangelism (Acts 8:4), godly living (Titus 2:11-12), love for one other (John 13:33-34), and helping those in need (James 1:27).
Religious unity is possible in a day of division by simply following the New Testament pattern and putting aside human creeds and traditions (John 17:17-21).
- Churches of Christ rank first in the nation in weekly attendance among their membership.
- Churches of Christ rank first in the nation in distribution of congregations.
- Churches of Christ rank fourth in the nation in number of counties in which there is a congregation.
- Churches of Christ are the sixth fastest growing church in America.
- Churches of Christ constitute the twelfth largest religious group in America.
- Churches of Christ are regarded as having a “remarkable degree of unity” by other religious groups because “they have experienced far less fragmentation.”
- Only 4.2 percent of young people in the Churches of Christ who graduated from high school in the past ten years have divorced, which is half of the rate of their peers (8.1 percent). —Dr. Flavil Yeakley, The Christian Higher Education Foundation Report
We do not relate this information to boast, but simply to invite you to investigate for yourself what others are finding so compelling. The churches of Christ have a unique plea in the current religious world. We plead for (a) no creed but Christ (Acts 8:36–38), (b) no book but the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:3; John 16:13; Jude 3), (c) no church but Christ’s (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 1:22–23; Romans 16:16, (d) no name but Christ’s (Acts 4:12; 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16), and (e) no worship (Acts 2:42; 20:7), organization (Philippians 1:1), or doctrine (Titus 2:1), but that authorized by the word of God.
As the restorers expressed it, “Let us call Bible things by Bible names, and let us do Bible things in Bible ways. Let us speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent.” We plead for “Christ’s church in the twenty-first century as it was in the first century.” Many are finding this plea is reasonable, logical, sensible, and compelling.
A growing church is a gospel church (Mark 16:15), a going church (Acts 8:4), a giving church (1 Corinthians 16:2), a good church (Galatians 6:10), a gracious church (Colossians 4:6), a greeting church (3 John 1:14), a gifted church (Matthew 25:14–30), a godly church (Titus 2:11–12), a glad church (Acts 2:46-47), a gathering church (Hebrews 10:25), a glorious church (Ephesians 5:27), and a great church (Hebrews 9:11). That’s what the church of Christ is striving to be. — Wendell Winkler, The Church Everybody Is Talking About (adapted)
“Come and see.” – John 1:46
