An announcement came addressed to the young people of the Southport church. The College Ave. church in Terre Haute, Ind sent it. The "Church of Christ Fellowship, Indiana State University", signed it. The announcement was of a Youth Meeting to be held two days at the College Ave. church on the theme, "The Restoration Movement."

I don't know very much about this "Church of Christ Fellowship," but I know that it is not scriptural. It is evidently an organization. Whether it is within the College Ave. congregation or outside of it or both, it is wrong. There is no organization of the church except the local congregation. If another organization is formed within the congregation, it is without authority. The ladies' aid societies of the Christian Church have long been attacked on this basis. They are organizations with their own officers, treasury and plans. There is no authority for them in the New Testament. If the "Church of Christ Fellowship" is such, it is unscriptural.

If it is an organization separate from the church, it is likewise unscriptural. In the first place, its name is wrong. How can it be the "Church of Christ Fellowship" unless the church of Christ owns it? Who has the right to tack the name of the Lord's church to anything that is not His church? Some years ago I was talking with the wife of a preacher, and I criticized a newspaper report that stated something about a "Church of Christ Committee" to set up a college in the Ohio Valley. She didn't know why I criticized that expression, and I explained that if it was not the church or any part of the church, we have no right to call it by the name of the church. Why not a "Church of Christ Service Station," if its owners are Christians?

Evidently this "Church of Christ Fellowship" is an organization of young people going to Indiana State University. They are members of various congregations, thus the organization is not part of any one church. But it is a church-related organization, using church facilities for its meetings, using church funds to send out its announcements (at least the announcement has the return address of the College Ave. church) r and using a name that gives the impression that it is a part of the church of Christ.

It is denominational to the core, having no more authority than the missionary society, the Christian Endeavor Society, or the Ladies' Aid Society. It is a fruit of the denominational thinking which affects so many of our brethren.

We cannot have "fellowship" with this unscriptural "Church of Christ Fellowship."

Truth Magazine IX: 11, p. 1a
August 1965