Ardent Discipleship

A few excerpts from an interesting interview with Edward Fudge in New Wineskins


(Fred) I don't know if it's fair of me to say that our heritage has a checkered history. So Edward, you can either correct me or help those who listen in our conversation understand how our tribe has navigated the last two hundred years. I guess what I'm asking is—have we been guiltier of polarization or galvanizing a movement born of the 1800s.

(Edward) “Our tribe” and “our heritage” would be the Churches of Christ, the traditionally non-instrumental descendants of the Stone-Campbell renewal movement that sprang up on the early 19-century American frontier and today is most heavily concentrated in a geographic belt stretching from Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky westward through Texas and Oklahoma. Yes, our history is as checkered as our origins, which involved the merger of two distinctly different “restoration” efforts led by Barton W. Stone of Kentucky and Alexander Campbell of what is now West Virginia.

As individuals, Stone and Campbell presented a major study in contrasts. Campbell was a northerner and Stone a southerner. Campbell was a well-educated and prosperous land owner who associated with the political and social movers and shakers of the time. Stone represented the poor and humbler elements of society in every way. Campbell was a man of this world; Stone’s perspective was other-worldly. Campbell’s “restoration” of primitive Christianity focused on external forms and rituals of the organized church. Stone’s “restoration” emphasized inward attitudes and the heart. Campbell utilized the power of logic and language; Stone looked to the Holy Spirit for results. Although they formally joined in their efforts, Campbell’s influence overpowered Stone’s in many respects in what came to be known as Churches of Christ. ...

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(Fred) With all our history, now decades later, what feelings do you have about our heritage's direction?

(Edward) I praise God that many Churches of Christ have escaped the sectarian attitudes and legalistic understandings that once held general sway. It is so very important that these evil spirits be replaced by the Christ-centered gospel of grace and the new life which that gospel engenders, lest other demons swoop in to fill the vacuum. We must learn that the proper alternative to legalism is neither indifference nor permissiveness but ardent discipleship in the context of a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. ...