OUR HERITAGE

Churches of Christ are part of the Christian heritage known as the Restoration Movement or, in some circles, the Stone-Campbell Movement.  This movement of churches began in the early 1800s in the eastern United States as leaders from various divided denominations sought unity.  The leaders of this pursuit believed that unity could be restored when Christians gathered around the Bible, recovered a vision for the church in the New Testament, and then restored its teaching and practices.  This effort united many people, but, because all are imperfect and have limited understanding, disagreement and division remained.

Most Churches of Christ hold core beliefs that are consistent with traditional Christian faith, but, like other Christian communities of faith, we have certain qualities that make us unique.  In our worship assemblies, for instance, we share communion every Sunday, and many congregations sing without instruments.  Each local congregation is autonomous, led by elders who are a part of that church family rather than by leaders from a headquarters.  Also, we practice baptism by immersion.  All of these distinctions have remained a part of our practice at Vanchurch with one exception: the practice of non-instrumental music.  We do have one non-instrumental worship assembly to honor our tradition, but the other worship gatherings include instruments as well as singing.  We want our identity to be based on more than what we do in the church building at our worship gatherings.

Therefore, at Vanchurch we want to be known for our love for God and for people, to strive for the unity for which Jesus prayed for ALL believers, and to follow all of his teaching and way of life.  We recognize, with our denominational founders, that we are Christians only, not the only Christians.  We seek to honor Jesus as our head, to make God the center of our worship, our teaching, our fellowship, and our service and mission.  We do this to be like Christ as individuals and as a church, so that we might become more and more a church of Christ.