Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

I saw the strangest thing browsing a facebook page for a coc congregation out of boredom. They had an image of their preacher's business card. They had his title as "Evangelist" and called the church "An Undenominational Church". Those two things don't seem right for a coc. In the past when I was attending, it was referred to as a Non-denominational, and never saw or heard the word evangelist used (it was usually preacher or minister). Are the coc's trying to re-brand themselves to bring more people in? In addition, I know this particular congregation to have been an "anti" in the past. Had anyone else heard or seen of this?

I have heard CofC’s using the term evangelist. I don’t know about NICOC, though.

Yes, NICOC uses the term "evangelist" instead of pastor. Never use the word "pastor" with them!!

As far as the term "undenominational", have never heard them use that; sounds suspicious. They could be going lib'rul.

The c of C has liberal congregations. And not all c of C’s are non instrumental. Harding University keeps track of membership numbers & they publish their finding.

The last report I’m familiar with was deeply concerning for the Churches of Christ. According to the report the c of C is closing approximately one congregation per month and membership numbers are plummeting.

The problem is that their general membership is older adults. The children of these older members are or have left the c of C. I don’t remember the stats accurately but a healthy church needs approximately 35-40% of their membership to be children/teens to survive and replenish future generations.

The c of C has approximately 3% of their membership in the children/teen category. That is not a survivable number. And c of C universities enrollment is less than 50% that are members of the c of C.

The long term survival of the c of C is definitely in doubt. In larger metropolitan areas larger congregations are swallowing up the smaller ones.

Liberalism is often blamed for the decrease in membership. Some seem to believe that the solution is to return to sound doctrine and the church of the 1950’s when the c of C was strong and growing.

Cootie Brown wrote:The c of C has liberal congregations. And not all c of C’s are non instrumental.

Did I say something that made you think I (we) didn't know that, Cootie? My statement presumed that if the church was using the term "evangelist' it was likely to be an NICOC, although not necessarily. And if it was using the term "undenominational", well, that sounds like that congregation might be going toward being "seeker friendly", which the NICOC sees as "liberal". And NICOC can mean both non-institutional and non-instrumental, but normally it means non-institutional.

If a cofc goes instrumental, then at that point it ceases to be a traditional, 1950s era cofc.

Ivy wrote:

Cootie Brown wrote:The c of C has liberal congregations. And not all c of C’s are non instrumental.

Did I say something that made you think I (we) didn't know that, Cootie?

Nope. I'm just drinking my Sunday morning coffee and posting stuff that I give little or no thought to. In other words, I'm just being me. B.H. isn't the only one on this board with communication issues. I think I may have some senile version of Attention Deficient Syndrome. Carry on, pay me no mind.

Are you saying I am retarded cootie?

B.H. wrote:Are you saying I am retarded cootie?

No, I am definitely not saying that,..... but there are rumors.

Cootie Brown wrote:

B.H. wrote:Are you saying I am retarded cootie?

No, I am definitely not saying that,..... but there are rumors.

You tell ivyrose to stop spreading such rumors.

B.H. wrote:

Cootie Brown wrote:

B.H. wrote:Are you saying I am retarded cootie?

No, I am definitely not saying that,..... but there are rumors.

You tell ivyrose to stop spreading such rumors.

How’d ya know it was her? I didn’t say nut’n Ivy.