HISTORIC
NOTES ON OUR FIRST CHURCH
The old Brush Run church, just across into Pennsylvania from Bethany, Va.
(now West Virginia), was not really our very first Church of Christ, even
though it is often referred to as such. Barton Stone's Cane Ridge congregation
down in Kentucky, and others of its kind, were a few years earlier. Then there
were some Glasite or Sandemanian congregations in New England that came over
from the Old World that took the name "Church of Christ," and these
were earlier still. But insofar as the Campbell movement is concerned, Brush
Run was the very first congregation, and it is in order for us to trace our
thousands of congregations today back to that one. For this reason a few
historical notes about that first congregation might prove to be both
interesting and provocative.
1. Those who started it did not really intend to start a church. Thomas
Campbell, the guiding light of the fledgling movement, only intended that the
Christian Association of Washington (Pa.) be a society that would work for
peace and unity among all the churches, with its adherents remaining members of
their own denominations. But it did not work out that way, and so the Brush Run
church was organized on May 4, 1811.
2. It wore no name at all except the Brush Run church. It existed until
about 1828, at which time it moved into Bethany. When a brick structure was
erected, which still stands, the name engraved in stone above the door read
"Church of Christ." In 1823 a second church was started, with 32
members from Brush Run being dismissed "to start a church of Christ"
in nearby Wellsburg. These included Alexander Campbell and his wife Margaret,
as well as youthful Selina Bakewell, who in just five more years was to be the
second Mrs. Campbell. Campbell had immersed Selina and her mother in 1820.
3. From the very first Sunday it observed the Lord's Supper each first
day. This was due to the influence of the Haldane churches in Scotland.
Campbell believed that a church was not a true church if it did not break bread
each first day.
4. At Brush Run's first service three members refused to break bread
because they were unbaptized (the others had all been sprinkled), and so they
asked Thomas Campbell to baptize them, which was by immersion. This is the
famous "root baptism," as it came to be called, since Campbell did
not himself get into the water, but knelt on a root while immersing. Their
critics later were to poke fun at this. At this time Brush Run accepted
"sprinkled" people as baptized, and the Campbells would not then
rebaptize such ones. But it was understood that anyone not baptized at all
would be baptized by immersion. The Campbells themselves were not immersed at
this, time.
5. From May 4, 1811, until June 12, 1812 there were only these three
members of Brush Run that were immersed. On the June date both of the Campbells
and their wives, along with three others at Brush Run, were immersed by a
Baptist minister. At the next meeting of the church 13 more requested
immersion, and others still later. Those not immersed soon dropped out. So, for
the first 13 months our very first congregation was made up almost altogether
of unimmersed members.
6. When the church was first formed Thomas Campbell required each member
to respond to a creedal statement relative to the efficacy of Christ's death,
which some did not pass and were refused membership. But the practice was
dropped immediately after this.
7. The church ordained at least one man to the ministry, and that was
Alexander Campbell, on New Year's Day, 1812.
8. The congregation had but one elder, and that was Thomas Campbell, and
there were four deacons. Plurality of elders came later.
9. The congregation did not or would not pay for its building! The
builder that prepared it for them, a structure 18 by 36, had to file suit in
order to get his money, which was two cents shy of 100.00, three years later.
Once deserted, it was sold for a blacksmith shop; still later it served as a
post office and then as a stable. Seventy‑five years after it was built
some Disciples with a sense of history recovered its remains, and they are now
stored in Bethany, with the idea that one day the old structure might be
restored. The site of the church is now fenced off and preserved as a picnic
area, and it is often visited by pilgrims to "Campbell country."
10. Brush Run was a member of the Redstone Baptist Association, but their
acceptance into the organization was unusual since they resolved to accept no
creed except the Bible. They gradually came to be tagged as
"Reformers" and were viewed with suspicion. When Thomas Campbell, now
moved to Pittsburgh (He was always moving!), tried to enter a second church
into the association, he was refused. They figured one was enough! When the
Wellsburgh church started, which was in part a device to deliver Alexander from
the wrath of his Redstone brethren, it joined still' another Baptist
association, known as Mahoning, which proved to be friendly to his cause.
But Brush Run remained in the Redstone Baptist Association all its life
and was always considered a Baptist church, even if somewhat different, and
Alexander Campbell for all those years was considered a Baptist minister. And
it is noteworthy that both the Campbells went out of their way to work with and
be a part of some denominational structure.
So, was the first Church of Christ also a Baptist church? In these days
of our radical exclusivism these questions growing out of our early history can
be embarrassing. There are a few places here and there, in Texas at least, that
could not "fellowship" Brush Run, and of course they could not even
allow either of the Campbells to speak for them or to lead a prayer.
—the Editor
Nothing ever built arose to touch the skies unless some man dreamed that
it should, some man believed that it could, and some man willed that it
must. —C. F. Kettering
The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. —Thomas A. Edison>