Here's what churches of Christ are all about

“The churches of Christ greet you”

Those are the words of Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, and we in the Roanoke Church of Christ echo that same sentiment to you today. But perhaps you’re wondering: Who or what are the churches of Christ? We hope the following will help answer that question:

Before the world ever began, God had a plan for you. That plan is revealed in the Bible and includes his church. The Bible tells us the church is part of the “eternal purpose” of God for every one of us that was made possible through Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:10-11). But there is a great deal of misunderstanding about the importance and identity of that church.

It was Jesus who said to his disciples, “I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18). The Lord kept that promise; he built his church and it exists today. The word of God tells us the church is called “the body of Christ” (Eph. 1:22-23) and that there is “one body…one Lord, one faith” (Eph. 4:4-6). There are no denominations in the Bible, yet when we look around today we see so many different churches, different faiths, different teachings. All of this religious contradiction can be confusing.

But if set aside the denominations, doctrines and traditions of men and simply go back to the Bible, we can belong to the church that Jesus built—the Lord’s church that is a part of God’s eternal plan to redeem us and bring us to heaven through his Son. If we follow the New Testament of Christ and do today what they did then, we can be today what they were then—simply Christians (Acts 11:26). Nothing more, nothing less—just Christians. Not members of any denomination, but members of Jesus’ church we read about in the Bible.

We in the churches of Christ are striving to be faithful to the authority of God’s word and abide by the pattern he has given us for his church (Acts 2:42; 2 Tim. 1:13). We kindly invite you to join us in going back to the Bible to be Christians only, a part of the Lord’s family, the church which he died to save with his blood (Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:23-25). Please let us know if you would like to study the Bible to learn more about the Lord’s church and his plan for our salvation.