Our Wild
Democracy

The Story, Promise, and Future
of the Churches of Christ

10,000–30,000 gathered.

“cordially united… of one mind and one soul… all engaged in singing the same songs of praise — all united in prayer — all preached the same things.”

Evidences of the work of the Spirit.

A communion service.

“Together, in sweetest, holiest, symbolic communion, they sat down at the one table of the one Lord… many good people thought assuredly, the millennium had begun to dawn upon the world.”

What is open communion?

The Lord’s Supper offered to every believer present — with no church test at the door.

“…no man or set of men has the right to judge who shall and shall not have the privilege of communion… The self-examination taught in this verse condemns the doctrine of close communion. Each is to examine himself; not somebody else.”

Thomas Campbell’s Heresy Trial

A troop of cavalry surrounded the church.

“Pray, sir!”

“Thou, O God, art our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”

The captain listened to the end, bowed, and rode away with his troop.

Ireland was tearing itself apart.

“…he presented so candidly and earnestly his views in condemnation of them that a large portion of the audience became excited and exasperated.”

He had to be escorted through the crowd.

He helped found a missionary society open to every denomination.

He proposed reuniting Burghers and Anti-Burghers in Ireland.

“This part of the country was then thinly settled, and it was seldom that ministerial services were enjoyed by the various fragments of religious parties, which, having floated off from the Old World upon the tide of emigration, had been thrown together in the circling eddies of these new settlements.”

Faithful Presbyterians who had not received communion in years.

…that all his pious hearers, “who felt so disposed and duly prepared, should, without respect to party differences, enjoy the benefits of the communion season then providentially afforded them.”

“…the Lord’s Supper, that great ordinance of unity and love.”

It was well received.

But not by everyone.

“For what error or immorality ought I to be rejected, except it be that I refuse to acknowledge as obligatory upon myself, or to impose upon others, anything as of Divine obligation for which I cannot produce a ‘Thus saith the Lord?’”

“It is, therefore, because I have no confidence, either in my own infallibility or in that of others, that I absolutely refuse, as inadmissible and schismatic, the introduction of human opinions and human inventions into the faith and worship of the Church.”

“It is with sincere reluctance… that I find myself in duty bound to refuse submission to their decision as unjust and partial… And I hereby do decline all ministerial connection with, or subjection to, the Associate Synod of North America.”

“Sometimes the deep shade of a maple grove sheltered the assembly from the summer sun. Generally, however, the houses of his old Irish neighbors… were the places where he had his appointments for preaching, and where he discoursed weekly to all who chose to assemble.”

“The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ…”

Every week, Alexander went to hear ministers outside his church.

“…an effect which was, doubtless, facilitated by the fact that his revered father, to whose religious sentiments he was accustomed to pay the utmost deference, was now separated from him by the wide Atlantic.”

He was examined, and given the token.

“…conscientious misgivings as to the propriety of sanctioning any longer, by participation, a religious system which he disapproved.”

He rode out to meet them.

“Alexander could not but feel indignant at this recital… He was greatly surprised, however, when informed by his father that the latter had actually dissolved his connection with the Seceders.”

“The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ…”

What is beautiful here?
What do we carry forward?