Our name
The name “Churches of Christ” was not introduced as a denominational title, instead being a simple description of who these groups were, along with other terms, like ‘Christian Church’, ‘Disciples of Christ’ or ‘Community Church’. There were many, many groups like this around the world, such as a group of believers led by James O’Kelly in Surry County, Virginia in 1794. This group rejected the religious traditions they grew up with, forming a new group of believers and writing down what they considered as the ‘cardinal principles’ of the Christian faith:
- The Lord Jesus is the only head of the church
- We will call ourselves simply “Christians“
- The Bible is our only creed and guide
- The only test of church fellowship and membership is Christian character
- We respect the right of every individual to make their own private judgements
- We pray that Christians will be united so that the world may believe in God.
Our history
Our historic roots call each community of believers to start with a ‘blank piece of paper’, returning to the Word and Spirit and rediscovering simple Christianity in their context, proclaiming: “We just want to follow the Bible – and not be afraid of where God leads us!” In Australia, our churches reflect the influence of this freedom, comprising of churches who claim heritage from British and American, European and Aboriginal, Middle Eastern and Asian cultural communities, to name a few. However, it was the Scottish settlers arriving in Adelaide in the 1830s who planted the seeds of the churches of Christ movement on the Australian frontier by proclaiming: “We just want to be simply Christians!”
