The Hope of the Believer . . .

WHY THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST CAN
BE PART OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES  

In this short piece I want to show why we in the Churches of Christ do not have to continue as a deprived people in reference to fellowship with other Christians. There is so much to be learned from contact with other churches, and there is unspeakable joy in being part of the whole Body of Christ, not only in our immediate neighborhood but all around the world. It is a matter of intensifying our awareness of the universality (catholicity) of the church, and of realizing that the church is all the family of God in heaven and on earth. Only insofar as we increase our awareness of the church catholic will we strengthen our witness to that church. Other Christians are not going to take us seriously so long as we have nothing to do with them. Are you inclined to listen to someone who only shouts from a distance?

We must come "within understanding distance" of those we expect to influence. Starting with the "other" church that is nearest us, we can go on to have meaningful association with churches around the world in the form of the World Council of Churches. I am going to show how we can do that with good conscience and without violating any truth we hold. To do this I must show that we have been influenced by wrong thinking, which is that since we believe we are the true church we cannot associate with other churches without making it appear that we believe that they are also true churches, while in fact we believe they are false churches. To have fellowship with those who are "in error" is to share in that error and to lead them to conclude that they are all right where they are. We cannot treat them as equals because they are not equals. We are the true Church of Christ and they are not

When our people draw such conclusions I know where they are coming from, for I was taught the same thing. One of our ministers said on the radio only last week, "You hear it said, 'Join the church of your choice,' but I say join the church of God's choice." If we are the church of God's choice, then on what basis do we associate with other churches?

Let's grant for the moment that we are right about being the only true church. We can still be a part of the World Council of Churches, which is just where we need to be so that churches around the world can have some contact with the one true church. And in its Toronto Declaration of 1950 the World Council issued an invitation to just such denominations, those with the conviction that they are the true church and that the churches of the Council are not. It is an amazing statement: 

Membership in the World Council does not imply the acceptance of a specific doctrine concerning the nature of Christian unity.. Membership does not imply that each Church must regard the other Churches as Churches in the true and full sense of the word. 

The Council is saying that what is important is that we get together and learn from each other and do things for Christ together. You don't have to believe like anybody else does about the nature of unity, and you can even believe that we are not as true a church as you are. We can still be with each other for the Lord's sake! That is the essence of magnanimity. There are numerous denominations around the world that believe that they are the true church, such as the Orthodox Church, who stayed out of the World Council for that reason. When the Council made its Declaration that they would accept such churches anyway, many of them became members.

I am reminded of the girl who did not want to date a certain man because she feared he would pressure her to get married, and she didn't want to marry him. When he told her that he understood her position and that he would not think of dating her in terms of getting married, she went on to date him with a great deal of pleasure. When we can associate with other churches on our own terms and without fear of compromising any conviction, are we not all the more obligated to do so? We are after all under a mandate from Jesus Christ and his apostles to be concerned for the unity of all Christians.

The issue we must face is whether we really believe in unity. Do we really want to reach out to others in a loving and gracious way? Or do we want to be a people apart, playing party games with each other while ignoring and having no part in the great issues facing the people of God around the world. One of our ministers told me of the response of his elders once he began to fraternize with those in other churches. "If you don't watch," they said to him, "you'll get to liking them."

It is a matter of whether the Churches of Christ will eventually become an authentic part of the church universal, in spirit and in deed, or whether they will struggle to survive as an insignificant sect, parroting a party line that no one takes seriously, not even themselves.

The World Council is a fellowship of over 300 denominations from all over the world. Its fundamental identity is "a fellowship of churches which confess the lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the Scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfill together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (CCC Constitution).

The member churches do such things together as to send 10,000 copies of the Bible to French-speaking people in the Third World, arrange for the publication of 50,000 Russian Bibles in the Soviet Union, respond to those nations suffering starvation through drought, and support development projects in over 100 countries, to name some things done recently.

I can't talk religion to a man with bodily hunger in his eyes. -George Bernard Shaw