Restoration Appreciation: The Rich Legacy and Hopeful Future of the Stone-Campbell Movement

By John C. Nugent

The Restoration Movement is one of the largest Christian traditions indigenous to the United States--boasting nearly four million adherents. Over the last century, however, it has suffered internal division, isolationism, declining institutions, and widespread ignorance of its own roots. The dynamism and solidarity that once typified our churches appears to be fading, which has many asking if the Restoration Movement has lost all momentum.
Yet Jesus prayed for Christian unity and tied such unity to the world's belief (John 17). Only a united church will convince unbelievers that God sent Jesus as his ultimate expression of love for them. This prayer propelled the early Movement into action and may do so again today.
This highly accessible book invites restorationists to rise above the partisanship of our day, rally around our core commitments, and lead out in our strengths. It informs readers about the modest origins, unique resources, and current challenges facing our churches. It fosters stimulating conversations about mission, race, creeds, Scripture, education, unity, humility, and relevance. If it's time for you, your congregation, or your students to encounter or recover their restoration roots, then this book is for you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: May 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666795653

Book preview

1

Introduction

The Roman Catholic church was built on a rock: the apostle Peter and the line of successors who have occupied the papal chair. The Protestant Reformation was launched by an epiphany: a fresh sense of the gospel message, salvation by grace through faith. Pentecostals were propelled into action by an experience: God’s Spirit breaking forth in powerful ways. A rock, an epiphany, and an experience ground and sustain some of the great traditions that have represented the Christian faith over the millennia, for better and worse. What might have set us, the Restoration Movement or Stone-Campbell Tradition, into motion? Arguably, it’s a prayer—prayed by Jesus and recorded for us in John 17:20–23.

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

What a remarkable prayer! Jesus prayed for Christian unity, and he tied that unity to the world’s belief. For God so loved the world he sent Jesus, and for the world to know that love, he sent the church. But not just any church will do. Only a united church will convince unbelievers that God sent Jesus as his ultimate expression of love for them.

This prayer burned within the bones of Alexander Campbell, one of the earliest and most influential visionaries of the Restoration Movement. He described his vision in The Foundation of Christian Union¹ by citing Jesus’ prayer edited by in John 17 and outlining two convictions that would help answer that prayer: (1) that the union of Christians is essential to the conversion of the world, and (2) that the word or testimony of the apostles is itself all-sufficient, and alone sufficient, to the union of all Christians.² The impetus behind the Stone-Campbell Movement was to unite all Christians around the apostles’ testimony so the world may be converted. Unity was the goal. Restoring the apostolic witness was the means. That goal and means are also the impetus behind this book.

Such a Time as This

Jesus’ prayer has yet to be fulfilled, and the twenty-first century world needs it more than ever. The world is divided by racial inequities, political partisanship, economic disparity, and culture wars. Such has always been the case, but now we are experiencing fresh divisions in areas many of us thought long settled. More and more parents distrust public education. Beliefs about gender, sexuality, and marriage have become so amorphous that young people feel lost as they struggle with how to think about their own identity and practices. People doubt the legitimacy of presidential elections. We can’t even unite around how to combat a universal common enemy as nonpartisan as a virus. People don’t trust their parents, teachers, doctors, news reporters, or neighbors. Fear runs rampant, and isolation has become a way of life—a matter of survival in the minds of many. We isolate ourselves in our homes and in our social media silos where we find comfort and reassurance that some people in this world still think and believe just like us.

The church, too, has been swept up in the culture wars—picking sides and keeping score with teams the world has assembled. Instead of donning the armor of God, we wear labels like conservative or progressive, left or right, pro or anti, blue or red, allies or traditionalists. And this divide cuts right through the middle of historic church traditions. Mainline Protestant denominations splinter yet again over the ordination of women or LGBTQ+ clergy. Even dyed-in-the-wool Roman Catholics have begun questioning whether the current papacy is legitimate.

When we look all these divisions in the face, it is tempting to despair, to retreat into helplessness. But another response is possible. When the founders of the Stone-Campbell Movement peered into the deeply divided church of their time and place, they saw another way forward. Instead of despair or helpless retreat, they muted the sounds of divisive Christian partisanship and ramped up the volume of Christ’s high priestly prayer from John 17. In a world of debilitating division, they asked, What would it mean for there to be one church family made alive by one Spirit that shares one calling to one hope in one Lord by one faith through one baptism, all of which is offered to all by one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all?³ Would not a united church be good news for a divided world?

It is time to crank up that volume again, and heirs of the Restoration Movement are ideally poised to lead out in doing this very thing. Unity is our heritage, after all—our inheritance to pass along in such a time as this. What an opportunity God has given us! This is no time for retreat, but for boldness! Now is a time to unite and to conquer, not by weapons of the world but by the blood of the lamb.

Restoration Appreciation

Some of us in the Restoration Movement have all but given up on Christ’s prayer. Perhaps we are weary of being shut down and belittled when we speak boldly about the Movement’s legacy and call for fresh momentum. Perhaps we are just resigned, settling into the comfort of our own cozy congregations and content with "at least we’re doing things right" until Jesus returns. When we turn in on ourselves like this, we become like the Essenes of old, who tried to stay above the fray of compromised Judaism by laying low among the masses or camping out in the wilderness. The Essenes hoped that when the Messiah came, he would find them pure and spotless and would then begin the restoration of all things with them. Jesus had other plans. The remnant he gathered was a diverse array of Jews willing to set aside prior affiliations and to seek first God’s kingdom boldly and publicly.

Our Restoration forebears sought to embody this same thing, and that is what this volume seeks to commemorate. Many of our churches have forgotten about this rich heritage and seldom pass it along to the next generation. To help counteract such amnesia, Great Lakes Christian College (Lansing, MI) began an annual lectureship in 2016 called Restoration Appreciation Week. Each October the college invites two speakers to deliver an informative and appreciative message about the Restoration heritage that would be accessible to college students and the average church member. Our speakers are college and seminary professors as well as highly educated and experienced preachers. The wider community attended in-person or watched online through the livestream. The conversation each speaker initiated continued during rich question and answer sessions held on campus. Afterwards, each presentation was lightly edited for inclusion in a pamphlet that the college distributed widely.⁴

Though we anticipated high quality presentations, given the caliber of our speakers, we were blessed with presentations that far exceeded our expectations. The annual event has resulted in a diverse, yet coherent collection of essays that informs readers of the Stone-Campbell heritage and inspires them to embrace and promote the tradition’s highest ideals. In short, we realized that we had a compelling book on our hands that begged for widespread distribution. Our hope and prayer is that many churches and colleges will take up this collection and continue the conversation that these essays have already begun. To facilitate such use, each chapter concludes with five probing questions that students can use to reflect on the material and reading groups can use to facilitate dialogue.

This book provides highly accessible introductions to the Movement’s origins, founders, guiding slogans, core commitments, and key figures who kept its vision alive and navigated difficult transitions. It explains why unity is our polar star, why it is important that we are not the only Christians, but Christians only, and why we prefer to call Bible things by Bible names. Readers will encounter Restoration giants, like Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, and lesser known but extremely important figures like Fred Gray, Marshall Keeble, and P. H. Welshimer. They will grow to appreciate the centrality of Scripture to our heritage, the strengths and weaknesses of congregationalism, the gift of our a cappella brothers and sisters, the vitality of our African American churches, and our necessary commitment to higher education and the various voluntary structures that unite us.

Yet the contributors to this volume are well aware of the great, even grave challenges facing the Stone-Campbell heritage today. The long-term survival of any tradition requires facing new challenges—even ones that threaten the tradition at its core. Those traditions that survive find resources within their own heritage that enable them to overcome these challenges without losing their specific identity.⁵ So while the overall tone of this book is appreciative, these essays pull no punches. Its authors expose sore spots in our heritage, name problematic trends, and suggest significant corrections. Though these suggestions take place in conversation with other Christian traditions, they remain true to the guiding vision and core commitments of the Restoration heritage. If taken to heart, they just might position our churches to be catalysts within the global church—empowering all Christians to begin answering Jesus’ prayer that his followers unite so the world may come to know God’s love.

Chapter 1 Conversation Starters

1.How familiar are you with the Restoration Movement? How did you come to know about it?

2.When you think of the Restoration Movement, what comes to mind? What beliefs? What people? What institutions?

3.Where do you see division most between different churches today?

4.How should Christians respond to what Jesus prayed in John 17:20–23?

5.How might the Restoration Movement continue promoting unity between various churches today?

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. Campbell, Foundation of Christian Union.

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. Campbell, Foundation,

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. Eph

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. These and other resources are available at www.glcc.edu/advancement/restoration-appreciation-week/.

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. For in-depth analysis of the contours of healthy traditions, see MacIntyre, Three Rival Moral Versions, 170

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and Whose Justice,

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Restoring Our Guiding Principles

Appreciating Our Slogans

Lloyd A. Knowles

⁶

Few of those who will read this could expound at length on the history and purpose of the Restoration Movement. Some may be able to recite a small bit of information about it. But I’m confident that most people, even those from churches with roots in the Stone-Campbell tradition, know virtually nothing about the Movement. In this presentation, I will list, explain, and illustrate the four (or five) guiding principles or slogans historically advocated by the Restoration Movement’s founders and four main progenitors.

American and Biblical Origins

Shortly after the American Revolution, Americans were looking for things to bring them together in political unity and religious syncretism (the blending of differing belief systems). In the late eighteenth century, the various Christian denominations that were planted in the colonies—often called sects in those days—were exclusive in their doctrines and contentious with each other. Many argued that they were the true church, uniquely ordained by God. I’ve seen this in my lifetime, too. In the 1950s and 1960s, different groups were saying, We’re right and you’re wrong, with some of them boldly crowing, Therefore you’re going to hell and we’ll be the only ones in heaven.

This generation doesn’t like that belief and attitude, and I applaud that. These days we have the feeling of evangelical unity because we all believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ—that he came as the incarnate Son of God to earth, lived and died for our sins, resurrected and ascended to heaven, and is coming back for us some day. Those are the essential facts of the gospel.

That’s what the Restoration Movement is about. It began because many people were asking, "Can’t we all agree on something? Something central? Something around which we can have a basic unity? So in 1800 a concordat was agreed upon by the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists to call a truce in their bickering over various interpretations of doctrinal issues and to join together in evangelizing the frontier (over the Appalachian Mountains, especially in Kentucky and Tennessee). Preachers from different denominations simply focused on presenting the message of the gospel itself. They stood on wagons and even tree stumps shouting the good news to all who gathered around to listen. Thus began what has been termed The Second Great Awakening or The Great Revival" in America.⁷

Let me ask you a personal question: If you knew you were terminally ill and in the final moments of your life, what would you want to say before you die? You would probably express your greatest concerns, the ones that are and have been most prominent in your mind. My dad died in July of 2015, and my mom followed in December of the same year. But when dad died, he was lucid to the end. And what he uttered to my brother in his dying words was nothing trivial; it was in the forefront of his mind. He passionately expressed, I’m glad God gave us you boys. We’ve been so grateful for you both. That’s consistent with what he had assured us of regularly: We pray for you every night.

John 17 records the last prayer that Jesus ever said on earth. Now, understand the significance of this: he didn’t say something akin to, Don’t forget to get milk and bread on the way home. His final prayer was an earnest request: "I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one (John 17:9–11). A few verses later, Jesus further elaborates, I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (vv. 20–21).

Now the question I’m addressing is, What’s so great about the Restoration Movement? The Restoration Movement emerged from numerous different churches. Many of the great leaders were Presbyterians. Some were Baptists. Others—including one major leader—were Methodist. Becoming frustrated with their pursuit of the true church authorized by God and disenchanted with the plethora of denominations claiming exclusively to be that church, they sought