CoC congregational splits

[Shane R]

My childhood congregation had an on and off split. The dissenting group had one or two members who were in irregular marital situations and some folks who liked having a fellowship hall. Of course, that was all very liberal. Also, they came to use a different hymnal. The leaders came back for two or three years in the early 90s and then went their own way again. The other congregation met at three different locations in its lifetime and at the last was only four blocks from my father's church. Some of their folk tried to reconcile again three or four years ago because they didn't have enough people to keep the lights on. My father wouldn't let them come back without some form of severe penance (although he would never call it that). Now his little group can barely keep the lights on. That's the way it goes.

[B.H.]

Does a tornado hitting the building and splitting it in half count as a church split.

[Ivy]

Does a tornado hitting the building and splitting it in half count as a church split.

I remember my mom saying she'd rather be in the church building than at home if a bad storm hit. So off we'd go.

[Ivy]

My childhood congregation had an on and off split. The dissenting group had one or two members who were in irregular marital situations and some folks who liked having a fellowship hall. Of course, that was all very liberal. Also, they came to use a different hymnal. The leaders came back for two or three years in the early 90s and then went their own way again. The other congregation met at three different locations in its lifetime and at the last was only four blocks from my father's church. Some of their folk tried to reconcile again three or four years ago because they didn't have enough people to keep the lights on. My father wouldn't let them come back without some form of severe penance (although he would never call it that). Now his little group can barely keep the lights on. That's the way it goes.

So sad; they divide themselves into oblivion.

[FinallyFree]

From all I have read on here, the NI people are a lot more dysfunctional.

[gordie91]

From all I have read on here, the NI people are a lot more dysfunctional.

Dysfunctional is an appropriate term. In my area there are serial splitters. One guy and his family have been to and or started NI CoC's all over the area. It is like he and his family are never happy or satisfied. This guy is friendly and doesn't tick off too many with angry words, just mobile.

Another guy lost his job preaching so he moved on to another "work" in a different part of town. It was said that one reason for leaving is that the church that fired him had liberal tendencies. They weren't full on liberal but they just might head that way. When that comment went viral the secondary excuse of "no sound church" in the North east quadrant of the county was his final answer. Perfection comes in small numbers, after 5 or so years the new church has about 10 members.

[Cootie Brown]

Splits over doctrine are common throughout the religious community. It isn’t limited to fundamentalist. The Methodists, as noted in other posts, are facing this problem now too. I think the very nature of religion makes this sort of thing inevitable.

That is a major reason why banks are reluctant to lend money to churches. A large stable congregation can become a small struggling congregation in a very short period of time due to internal conflict.

[Ivy]

From all I have read on here, the NI people are a lot more dysfunctional.

Agreed!!

[ena]

My childhood congregation had an on and off split. The dissenting group had one or two members who were in irregular marital situations and some folks who liked having a fellowship hall. Of course, that was all very liberal. Also, they came to use a different hymnal. The leaders came back for two or three years in the early 90s and then went their own way again. The other congregation met at three different locations in its lifetime and at the last was only four blocks from my father's church. Some of their folk tried to reconcile again three or four years ago because they didn't have enough people to keep the lights on. My father wouldn't let them come back without some form of severe penance (although he would never call it that). Now his little group can barely keep the lights on. That's the way it goes.

When you use microscope vision on the Bible you miss context. When you back away and look at the context but don't see details. God is multidimensional. The spiritual can be seen as another dimension. Jesus saw things at many levels. If you cannot think in a spiritual manner you can only make mud pies not cakes. I have found Christians elsewhere. Not in the CoC except for a few. They can't get along by excluding everybody. The whole comes when you realize that humans are sinners without exception and that we must all strive to be better. The point of unity and humility is in realizing that. On a world wide basis even one cuppers are multiple. Yes, Jesus used one cup in an upper room on Wednesday night. So we use multiple cups on Sunday in a single story building. The first century church did not have a King James Bible. The first time that the books in our new Testament were listed was in a letter in 367CE. It was codified until a later council around 395 CE. This is the 4th century. We do have some 4th century Bibles that are different from the King James that comes from later documents. The fact is that earlier manuscripts have fewer additions. Which is the inerrant one. The best readings come out of textual criticism. The King James is a good translation but it was new in 1611 CE. We can do much better today. In some Bibles the long ending of Mark is a footnote. Mark apparently stopped at verse 8. Verses 9-20 may be a forgery. I did not hear this in my CoC because a forgery could not be inerrant. And because ignorance was king.

[ena]

From all I have read on here, the NI people are a lot more dysfunctional.

Agreed!!

I have always seen NI as the CoC on steroids. I was not in the CoC when the discipling movement hit. It did hit other churches as well. I was aware of it that way.