Key Documents gathers important historical texts that shaped the Stone-Campbell/Restoration Movement and influenced churches across generations. Explore articles that introduce, explain, and provide context for foundational writings, statements, sermons, and publications—highlighting the convictions, debates, and developments that formed the movement’s identity. These resources help readers understand the historical setting, key themes, and lasting significance of major documents, and how they continue to inform unity, doctrine, and church practice today.
February 27, 2025
The January/February edition of the Christian Standard has been dedicated to the development of Christian leadership. The concern for leadership within our churches is nothing new. Over 100 years ago, on July 12, 1919, M. M. Boteler addressed the subject of developing Christian leaders in the pages of the Christian Standard.
"When is a church not a church?" an Iowa preacher wrote in 1967. "A church is no longer a church when it becomes a club. . . . A church is no longer a church when it becomes a bank." . . .
April 25, 2024
"In one sense Christians are clones," Virgil Felton wrote in 1984. "We are cloned in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). We are cloned by a new birth (John 3:5). We are cloned as new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). . . ."
April 11, 2024
The Restoration Movement is "not liberal, not really evangelical, not fundamentalist—as a group we are generally conservative, but not consistently so," LeRoy Lawson wrote in 2006. "In fact, critics could accuse us of not being consistently anything" . . .
April 4, 2024
"Is there a church that has no story to tell about prayers at the Lord’s table?" William S. Boice asked in 1984. "We of the New Testament order often find ourselves criticized by our denominational brethren of a more liturgical custom who find our somewhat casual approach to Communion to be nearly offensive. It bears thinking about." . . .
January 18, 2024
Christians gathered at The Lexington Cemetery in 1909 to hear J.W. McGarvey offer his recollections of eight "pioneer preachers" who are buried there, including John T. Johnson, Raccoon John Smith, Robert Milligan, and more. (Part 2)
January 11, 2024
Christians gathered at The Lexington Cemetery in 1909 to hear J.W. McGarvey offer his recollections of eight "pioneer preachers" who are buried there, including John T. Johnson, Raccoon John Smith, Robert Milligan, and more. (Part 1)
January 4, 2024
"Someone ought to say a good word for the small church," Joseph H. Dampier wrote in 1981. "The reported observation of Abraham Lincoln that the Lord must love the common people because He made so many of them could be applied to small churches because there are so many of them." . . .
December 24, 2023
In this excerpt from a 1906 essay, Anna D. Bradley responded to a correspondent who contended that Christmas Day was "handed down from heathendom." . . .
December 21, 2023
"We need to share Simeon’s experience," Editor Sam Stone wrote in 1978. "We need to see the Lord this Christmas. Simply hearing of the infant in a manger is not enough, however. We must look with the eye of faith to Calvary, knowing that there He died for us." . . .
November 16, 2023
"Why not be thankful this year?" minister Orval M. Morgan wrote at the height of the Great Depression. "What are a few years of depression when compared to God’s eternity? . . . God is still God; Christ is still the Saviour of the world; the Holy Spirit our Comforter; prayer our privilege and the Bible our open Book. . . ."
November 2, 2023
The assignment in fall 1983 was simple and direct: “Write a short paragraph telling of some verse or verses of the Bible that have special meaning to you.” Today we share responses from Ard Hoven of Grayson, Ky.; Barton McElroy of Duncanville, Tex.; Robert A. Scott of Waterloo, Iowa; and Jerzy Sacewicz of Warsaw, Poland.
October 26, 2023
The assignment in fall 1983 was simple and direct: “Write a short paragraph telling of some verse or verses of the Bible that have special meaning to you.” Today we share responses from Edgar Nichols of Myrtle Creek, Ore.; Bill Jessup of San Jose, Calif.; Orval M. Morgan of Phoenix, Ariz.; and Murhl S. Rogers of Indianapolis, Ind.
October 19, 2023
"The closing hour of the Evangelistic Rally at Lincoln, Ill., Feb. 23 and 24, marked a culmination that will be of wide interest," Christian Standard reported in March 1944. "The announcement by Earl C. Hargrove, minister at Lincoln, that a new preacher-training school would be opened there in September sent a thrill over the great crowd. . . ."
October 12, 2023
"Ohio presents a mission field of marvelous ripeness and of vast extent. The gifts of our entire brotherhood might be poured into it for years, and yet not gather all of the harvest that is ripe for our hands," the corresponding secretary for the Ohio Christian Missionary Society wrote in 1903. . . .
October 5, 2023
"When I think of the moral decline on display in California today, the only word that comes to mind is 'avalanche,'" Dudley Rutherford wrote in 2014. He presciently warned, "I hope you get the idea, because it's coming to a town like yours" . . .
September 28, 2023
"Bernel Getter, a young Wisconsin missionary who is home on furlough after five years in India’s Central Provinces because of a severe case of malaria," told Midwestern church audiences in 1953 that, "denominationalism is Christianity’s greatest enemy in India” . . .
September 14, 2023
In his well-known sermon "Playing Hurt," Wayne Smith asked, "Will you stay in the game . . . even if you've been hurt? God had only one son without sin, but no son without sorrow. . . ."
August 24, 2023
"[M]ost ministers in practicing their calling pick up such bad habits in pulpit technique that after ten to fifteen years, most of them stand in need of professional help." . . .
August 3, 2023
In 2012, Daniel Overdorf and two friends examined 250 Christian Church and Church of Christ websites to determine how they presented their view of baptism to the public. Overdorf offers good suggestions for churches.
April 7, 2026
John B. Penrose Jr
April 7, 2026
David Faust
March 27, 2026
Rick Cherok