Editorial: Can we agree to disagree?

Conservative mainstream. Moderate mainstream. Non-institutional. Non-Sunday school. Progressive. Instrumental. One cup. Mutual edification. Little c. Big C. Doctrinally sound.

This is part of a series exploring the identity of Churches of Christ. Read more here.

Churches of Christ seem to have a lot of different labels these days. We disagree on a lot of things.

But the one thing we all seem to agree on is that we don’t like labels.

We’d much rather call ourselves “the church” or “the Lord’s church.” After all, we’re not a denomination or even a group of denominations. Congregations are autonomous, and we take our name from the second part of Romans 16:16: “All the churches of Christ send greetings” (The first part of that verse says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss,” but we tend not to quote it as much.)

We hold common beliefs, but we differ on matters from women’s roles to number of communion cups to hand clapping in worship.

In this, there is nothing new under the sun.

Participants in the Lipscomb Faith and Leadership Forum pray at the two-day event’s conclusion.

But does it seem to you that, lately, we’re keeping more and more to smaller and smaller circles of Christians who think just like we do?

This mirrors what’s happening in our society, where social media makes it easy to filter out all voices but the ones we want to hear.

Appropriately enough, my own Facebook algorithm recently pointed me to a satire account called “The Echo Chamber School of Preaching.”

Fellow believers can disagree. We see it in the heated discussion between Paul and Barnabas about whether or not to take John Mark on their second missionary journey. “They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company” (Acts 15:39).

A packed auditorium of Connect Conference participants listens as Matt Miller preaches on “Living Humble: A Shared Posture.”

Personally, I’ve always sided with Barnabas in this matter. Sure, John Mark left early during the first missionary journey, but he was young. And if anyone should know the value of second chances, shouldn’t it be the man formerly known as Saul, scourge of the early church?

And yet, I can’t deny that Paul and Silas demonstrated the Lord powerfully on their journey, as chronicled in Acts 16-18. Presumably, Barnabas and John Mark did, too. And we know that, by the end of Paul’s earthly life, John Mark had earned back the apostle’s trust and respect (2 Timothy 4:11).

“Can we disagree on such matters and find a way to move forward together? Or should we be content to labor separate and apart from each other?”

A disagreement over whether or not to bring someone on a trip isn’t the same as a disagreement over instruments in worship, I realize.

But can we disagree on such matters and find a way to move forward together? Or should we be content to labor separate and apart from each other?

Related: ‘Sound’ churches, ‘progressive’ churches and the distance in between

One common thread we’ve noticed as we’ve reported for our “Who Are We?” series is a desire to proclaim the Kingdom to all who will listen. To paraphrase brothers and sisters with whom we’ve talked on the right, left and center of our fellowship, “I wish we could get past all this and concentrate on seeking and saving the lost.”

Perhaps that’s one more thing on which all Churches of Christ (and churches of Christ) can agree. And maybe that’s a start.

The holy kiss? That may take a bit more time.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact [email protected].

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