Ex Church of Christ support group

C. Leonard Allen is director of
Leafwood Publishers and has written many books, some of which deal directly with the past, present and future of Churches of Christ.  

Dan Allender is a psychologist who has written several books on recovery from abuse and depression, including Bold Love, a book about how to use the advice in the book of Proverbs to confront the most difficult people in our lives.
 

For a discussion of Divorce see this page. 

Erich Auerbach wrote Mimesis : The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946) in which he posits that the gospels were a complete and total departure from any artistic or historical genre known to humanity. They stood alone until the time of Shakespeare, when the gospels became the model for the modern novel.
 

George Barna, the statistician that follows Christian trends, has authored a book, Revolution, about how the format of the local congregation is dying in America, and being replaced with vibrant and faithful forms of "wherever two or three of you are gathered in My Name".  

David Celani has written a secular book on Leaving Home: The art of separating from your difficult family.
 

Christianity Today is the magazine Billy Graham started as the vanguard to unite the evangelical movement.
 

The Church As A Social Institution: The Sociology of American Religion, by David 0. Moberg (1962). Moberg's theory is that all religious movements go through a life cycle, from sect to established denomination to dying movement. It could be that the Churches of Christ, as analyzed through the lens of this book, have peaked and are declining, and a new group will have to spring from the ashes. This is also a heavy book that requires quite a bit of education to wade through.
 

The Church of Christ Dilemma website challenges the traditional Church of Christ position on the security of salvation, and takes a historical look at the doctrine of salvation by faith. Whose righteousness saves us--our own or Christ's?
 

Cutting Edge Magazine is put out by the Vineyard Christian Fellowship for new church plants. Different worship and sermon formats are discussed to determine which ones convey Christian community and good news to postmoderns today. Vineyard Christian Fellowship (started by John Wimber, who managed the Righteous Brothers) is one of the youngest Christian associations and one of the fastest growing Christian groups in the USA. The Vineyard churches have taken the place the Churches of Christ occupied in the 1800s.
 

Vernard Eller (Church of the Brethren) is the author of a book and website about Christian Anarchy, the idea that the power to change our world does not lie in power moves to change political, social, financial, educational and religious institutions, but to follow Jesus' example by ignoring these institutions.
 

Renewing God's People, A Concise History of Churches of Christ by Douglas Foster and Gary Holloway, published by ACU Press.  

Edward Fudge ("Edward", never "Ed") writes a daily GracEmail. He has some interesting views on hell (eternal destruction, not eternal suffering), which he outlines in his extremely well researched book, soon to be made into a feature film. Edward Fudge, an attorney, and elder for the Bering Drive Church of Christ, Houston, Texas, grew up in the non-institutional churches of Christ.
 

Freedom's Ring is a website set up by an ex-non-institutional (anti) preacher. It has books by Carl Ketcherside and articles by many.
 

Freedom Quest Ministries has a very confrontational website designed to challenge the basic beliefs of the hard-line Churches of Christ.
 

Leroy Garrett, The Stone-Campbell Movement: The Story of the American Restoration Movement
 

Richard T. Hughes, Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America. A sociological, historical and religious history of the identity of Churches of Christ in America, including brief histories of the major splinter groups within the a capella movement, and a history of the African-American Churches of Christ, as well as a history of race relations in the Churches of Christ.
 

Charles Holt is editor of The Examiner, a magazine that started in the non-institutional churches of Christ (no kitchen in church building) and became a flagship of the house-church  exodus from that group.
 

Another website from the House-church movement springing out of the Churches of Christ, called Our Lord's Ekklesia.

Lost and Found in Translation is a Facebook blog by an ex-ICOC member discussing scriptures that seem to contradict the grace message.

If you want to learn more about your own personal gifts and skills that God has given you in his image, one resource is the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator. A free version of this is called the Jung Typology Test.
 

Max Lucado, pulpit minister for the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas,  has written several bestsellers. He has written an interesting treatise on baptism.
 

Mars Hill Review is an upscale highbrow magazine with interviews, stories and essays about Christian faith. (For people with lots of education.)
 

Stephen Neill, former Episcopal bishop of Montreal, wrote several books including Jesus through Many Eyes, and The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861-1986. He takes a conservative approach, between evangelical and liberal.
 

Thomas H. Olbricht of Pepperdine University has written a scholarly article on the history of the Restoration Movement hermeneutic from Command, Example and Necessary Inference, with roots in Zwingli's reformation theology, to the present day direction of Church of Christ theology.

Bruchko by Bruce Olson is the autobiography of a 19 year old who went to evangelize aboriginals. Laying aside all church structure he presented only the good news.
 

Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership Take tests to see what the flaws in your leadership style are: Codependent, paranoid, narcissistic, authoritarian.

Restoration Movement website with many transcripts of original historical documents tracing the history and theology of the Restoration Movement.
 

The Rick A. Ross Institute has checklists of symptoms of abusive groups.
 

Rubel Shelly preaches for a Church of Christ in Tennessee. He has written several books urging a more Christ-centered approach to doctrine. There is also an unmoderated discussion forum on his site. He also helps edit a magazine called New Wineskins.
 

Leonard Sweet, former dean of Duke Divinity School, has written Soul Tsunami and several other books about how faith in God impacts our lives in postmodern society, and how postmodern society impacts our faith in God. He believes that young people today have great difficulty relating to their elders and their institutions because today's experience of life is so different, taking place primarily electronically (like this website).
 

The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority Within the Church (1991) by David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen.
 

Totally Acappella is an online radio station that plays only a capella worship music.
 

For another website written from an evangelical viewpoint discussing similar issues, www.ConcernedMembersDebunked.com