A Handbook for Today's Disciples, 5th Edition

Dedication

For Suzi

Beloved soul mate of 53 years

Companion in Faith

Partner in Life

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Copyright

© Copyright 2017 by D. Duane Cummins

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Biblical quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Dedication

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1: The Disciples: A Historical Sketch

2: Disciples and Christian Thought

3: Disciples and the Sacraments

4: Disciples at Worship

5: Disciples and Mission

6: Disciples and Moral-Ethical Issues

7: Disciples and Church Structure

About the Author

Acknowledgments

This little volume holds indebtedness far beyond what its modest size may suggest.This 2017 issuing of A Handbook for Today’s Disciples marks its fifth edition. The first was printed in 1980; the second in 1990; the third in 2000; the fourth in 2010; and, now, the fifth in 2017. The first four editions received a combined 22 printings, with a total circulation to date of 155,000 copies. My first and largest debt is to the membership of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) who have acquired and read this little volume across the past four decades. My gratitude to you is enormous.

To W.A. Welsh and Sherman R. Hanson, who originally conceived the idea for this volume and helped shape its character; subsequently to James Suggs and David Polk; then to Cyrus N. White; and now to Brad Lyons and the staff of Chalice Press for their gracious professional assistance in the publication of succeeding editions—I am deeply indebted.

To Walter Giffin, Frank Helme, Lawrence S. Steinmetz, and Howard E. Bowers, I express abiding appreciation for their caring and thorough statistical research in the Office of Research, now the Office of the Year Book and Directory. And to Lawrence Steinmetz in particular, who charted the General Assembly resolutions on moral-ethical issues for each edition of the Handbook.

To the many manuscript reviewers who examined the various editions for historical accuracy prior to publication—Ronald E. Osborn, Lester G. McAllister, William Fox, Howard E. Short, T. J. Liggett, Kenneth L. Teegarden, A. Dale Fiers, Clark Williamson, Paul A. Crow Jr., Robert A. Thomas, Sharon Watkins, and D. Newell Williams—my debt is great for their valuable criticisms and insights.

To the authors whose scores of thoughtful works were consulted during the research for this volume—Marcus Borg, Paul Tillich, Harvey Cox, Rudolf Bultmann, Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth, Winfred Ernest Garrison, and an enormous host of others—I express profound gratitude for their insights, and their intellectual and spiritual guidance that shaped the content of this little book.

D. Duane Cummins

Johns Hopkins University

March 1, 2017

CBP gratefully thanks leaders of the Disciples’ ethnic ministries for reviewing updates to this Fifth Edition:

• Timothy James, Associate General Minister and Administrative Secretary to the National Convocation

• Chung Seong Kim, Executive Pastor, North American Pacific/Asian Disciples

• Lori Tapia, Interim National Pastor for Hispanic Ministries

Introduction

A Handbook for Today’s Disciples has been prepared to help present-day church members understand the heritage, mission, thought, worship, and structure of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It is designed for many uses: as (1) an overview for new members, (2) an updated briefing for veteran members, (3) a synopsis for the casual reader, and (4) a summary guide for study courses on the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The chapters of this volume stand separately. The reader may arrange them in any order and consider them in any sequence desired. Readers unfamiliar with Disciples history would likely be best served by beginning with Chapter One, The Disciples: A Historical Sketch, because it presents the context within which all subsequent chapters are more easily understood. Those who know the heritage may begin reading wherever they choose.

In the pages that follow, you will discover a storyline of two centuries devoted to the principles of liberty and toleration, a fierce devotion to the integrity of individual choice, and a profound commitment to Christian unity—ultimately evolving into the underlying character of A Church in Covenant. It is a grand legacy. It is the Disciples legacy, one to be engaged and cherished.

1: The Disciples: A Historical Sketch

This is a story with many names—An American Religious Movement, The Second Reformation, A Restoration Movement, An Experiment in Liberty, In Search of the Ancient Order, In Search of Christian Unity, A Struggle for Reformation—each adding a measure of definition to the richly varied personality of the subject. It is the story of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Lines of thought and spirit that give shape to the story extend from distant places in distant times, and from nearby in the recent past. They extend from first-century Antioch and Corinth; from eighteenth-century Glasgow and the Scottish Enlightenment; from nineteenth-century Bethany and Cane Ridge; and from the new American nation—often called the workshop of liberty—recognized for its egalitarian voice, its pragmatic thought, its enormous belief in the worth and capacity of the individual, and its unwavering adherence to the national ideology of rule by the consent of the governed. These many lines of genesis fashioned the basic instincts and intuitions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

1800—1830: Conception

By 1800, the tumult of the American Revolution was receding in time. Yet the philosophical fires of that Revolution still burned over the meaning of freedom, authority, organization, and leadership. The imprint upon the structures of American Christianity would be indelible. One historian called those years of the early republic the time of greatest religious chaos and originality in American history. Another described the same period as the most important single generation in the modern history of the whole Christian world. Still another claimed, "American Protestantism has been pushed and pulled into its