Restoration Movement Identity: Why This Survey Matters for Our Fellowship
Restoration Movement identity is at the heart of this survey invitation to CHRISTIAN STANDARD readers. The article explains why the questions matter and points to both encouraging and concerning signs across the fellowship.
- The survey seeks honest input about identity, connection, and what readers want to know and hear.
- The fellowship shows real growth and influence, alongside concerns about losing historical and theological moorings.
- A central question is whether the movement should retain a unique identity in the coming decades.
By Mark A. Taylor
How much do you care about staying connected with members of Christian churches and churches of Christ? What sense of identity do you have and want with them? What do you want to know about them and from them? How do you want to get this input, and how often?
Why Weโre Asking
These are questions we ask in the important survey published this week in the print edition of our magazine. Weโre praying that thousands of CHRISTIAN STANDARD readers will complete it. We eagerly seek to hear how you feel about being a part of this fellowship we know as the Restoration Movement.
Why are we asking? Because we want to serve you more effectively, and you know what you want and need better than we do.
Why are we asking? Because a casual glance at whatโs happening in our fellowship reveals a hard-to-decipher mix of encouraging and concerning signs.
Signs of Strengthโand Concern
On the one hand, weโre thrilled with the energy and growth of Christian churches.
- Megachurches are growing, and so are smaller churches.
- Missions work thrives overseas while North American congregations exhibit new concern for helping the unfortunate in their own communities.
- Most of us have quit fighting with Christ-followers in other groups, and many of us are listening to them and working with them and influencing them. Today individuals among us lead multimedia, missions, multisite, and church-planting initiatives well-known outside our fellowship. Our preachers and professors are publishing more widely than ever before.
We are living out the motto of our forefathers, โWe are Christians only, not the only Christians.โ But some fear weโve lost sight of the unique plea that created our movement. Many members of most growing Christian churches have little or no idea about that history. They couldnโt explain how their churchโs doctrine or mission is different from that of any other Bible-believing congregation in town. They have little sense of the far-flung network of Christian churches around the world.
Meanwhile, ministries created by Christian churches and committed to the Restoration Plea are evaluated by these churches solely on the basis of their features and benefits. Too many ask, โDoes it work?โ long before they consider historical or theological moorings.
A Question for Our Future
Maybe this overstates or misreads the situation. Thatโs why weโve written this survey. Some of the questions are specifically about CHRISTIAN STANDARD, but we have a bigger agenda than just this magazine in mind:
Will our movement retain a unique identity in the coming decadesโand do you think it should?
Author: Mark A. Taylor
Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).
