I have noticed postings by various persons who use either a capital C for Church of Christ ... and others who use a lower case c for church of Christ.

Is there a difference, and are these intentional, or typos, or ???

Thanks for the info.

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001

Answers

It is intentional -- depending on your theology. Captital "C" for many reeks of denominationalism -- whereas the lower cased "c" is simply a reference to the Lord's church. It is probably more appropriate to refer to an individual congregation with a captital "C" -- since that is their licensed, legal itentity. However, you can see how sticky it can get when referring to "the church" in general.

Many members of the CofC really don't care either way. But there are others who would fall on their sword over the issue!! Hope that helps at all...

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001

Thanks Ben ... that helps. I wasn't sure if it was "official" (or as "official" as anything can get in a non-denominational world) or just personal choice.

You might help me with an offshoot of that question. In a chatroom discussion with someone from the non-instrumental church of Christ, he stated that they took the name "church of Christ" from the name of our Lord and Savior. Yet, as I understand it, His name was Jesus (English, of course) and His TITLE was the Christ ... Jesus The Christ. Any thoughts?

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001

Well, most of us (yes, I'm a member of the non-instrumental CofC) would say that it has to do with identifying the ownership of the church. In other words -- it's the church that belongs to Christ. I wouldn't get too tied up with the whole Jesus/Christ thing -- they refer to the same person.

HOWEVER -- that would explain why there is such a distain for church descripions that include other people's names (i.e. Wesleyan or Lutheran, etc..). Wanna get the dander up on a preacher from the CofC (especially a conservative one) -- call him a Campbellite!!

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001

Perhaps we should call it the Ecclesia of Y'shua Ha'Mashiach?

As Winnie the Pooh would say ... "Oh, bother!"

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001

Ben -- the reason I asked re: Jesus or Christ (or the Christ) was that the gentleman was adament that it had to be church of Christ, since "that was his name ... Christ. No matter what I said could persuade him that Christ as a title. But, I'm certainly not making anything out of it ... church of Christ is fine with me. I was jut curious, that's all. I remember my Greek professor in college sharing how some believed church of Christ was the best name, and others believed Christian Church was closer to the Greek.

Hey ... I'm a Christian only ... that's what matters to me. I certainly appreciate the teaching of Campbell, Stone, Smith, etc., but I'm not a Campbellite, Stoneite, etc. Just a Christian.

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001

Jesus said it is not on the outside that defiles a man, but what is on the inside. Similarly, I think it is not what is outside a church, the name on the marquee, that is important, but the doctrines that are inside. The Mormons call themselves the Church of Jesus Christ also, but that doesn't make them so.

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001

You are correct, John. When we started a new congregation here in Indiana, PA, we named it Indiana Christian Community ... and you'd be surprized (or maybe you wouldn't be) at the number of folks from "our" congregations who were up in arms that it wasn't called Indiana Christian Church ... or Indiana Church of Christ. We called it Indiana (that's the location) Christian (that's who we are) Community (we are more than a Sunday morning get together, but a community of Christians).

At first I wantedtocall it The Church In Indiana ... and to tell you the truth, I really like that name as well.

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001

Personally I'm partial to "First church of the Holy Temple of God in Christ Missionary Evangelical Free Discples Community of all the Saints." So noone gets their feelings hurt.

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002