Who are these people called

1302 W. 11th St., Cedar Falls, IA 50613
(319) 266-5959
e-mail: firstchristian@cfu.net
Rev. Liz Woodward, Pastor

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Who are these people called "Disciples of Christ"?

Pulpit and Communion Table at Cane Ridge

The roots of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) lie in the Cane Ridge Revival of August 1801, during the Second Great Awakening. Barton W. Stone, the Presbyterian minister at Cane Ridge near Paris, KY, brought together preachers from many other traditions such as Baptists and Methodists, and saw that all of them were preaching the same gospel.
From this observation came the resolve to do away with denominational divisions and seek to be "Christians only".

Meanwhile, Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander Campbell, also Presbyterian ministers, learned that Christians on the frontier were being denied access to the Table because they were the "wrong kind" of Christians. Divisions in the church which came out of fights in the "old country" were keeping believers apart here in the "new country". They wanted to do away with non-Biblical labels, and adopted the name of "Disciples". Walter Scott soon joined them and spread their message of Christian unity throughout the frontier.

Barton W. Stone and his "Christian Church" followers were joined by Thomas and Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott's "Disciples of Christ" of Pennsylvania and Ohio in January 1832. These early Disciple leaders believed in some very simple ideas.

"Christian unity is our Polar Star."
- Barton W. Stone

AND

"The Church of Jesus Christ on Earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally ONE."
- Thomas Campbell, 1809

For the next fifty years, our numbers doubled every decade as we followed the frontier. We established thousands of congregations, dozens of colleges and seminaries, published countless magazines, and began to send out missionaries overseas. We were among the first to ordain women to the ministry back in the 1880's.

What we have discovered over the last 200 years in our journey in faith is that those things which divide Christians, like denominational names and human doctrines, are not really all that important. Rather, we seek to be consistent with the message of the Gospel as we have experienced it. And that message is that

God loves you!
And there's nothing you can do about it!

	Our journey in faith together has led us to seek the unity of the First Century church, or what Alexander Campbell called "the Ancient Order of Things". Thus, we have tried to get back to the basics of what it means to be Christians. We don't claim that we have all the right answers, but we believe that we are asking the right questions.
First Christian Church in Cedar Falls has a rich history dating back over 75 years. You may read our Constitution & By-Laws that were recently adopted.