Another Sorry “Merger”
From the pages of The Christian Chronicle comes yet another disturbing story of a congregation of the church of Christ that has voted to go off into denominationalism. In the October 2023 edition on “The Second Front” (the second page of the paper is designed to look like another front page), the feature story carries this headline: “Dwindling Church Seeks New Future.” The “dwindling” church in question is the Mayfair Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.
The Chronicle informs us that the Mayfair church was “a flagship congregation among churches of Christ in the Oklahoma City area.” Your affable author has no idea what a “flagship congregation” is. That term is not found in the New Testament, but one should not be surprised to see the Chronicle use such a phrase. Your affable author has heard of “flagship” radio or television stations that broadcast sporting events and syndicate them to various stations in the surrounding area to reach a wider audience. Presumably, the paper wants us to know that Mayfair was a prominent congregation in the Oklahoma City area at one time.
However, now Mayfair is about to become the “fifth campus of the Crossings Community Church which has more than 9,000 members.” The primary source for this article is Jared Chambers, minister of Mayfair, who will remain as “associate location pastor.”
Stories such as these should turn our stomachs and get our blood boiling as we see these various congregations capitulate to denominationalism. As is its usual practice, The Christian Chronicle has spun this story in an attempt to make it sound not as bad as it is. Most community churches pride themselves on being “non-denominational”; however, Crossings claims affiliation with the non-Pentecostal branch of the Church of God. They serve communion every Sunday and have “baptism Sundays” quarterly. However, they claim they would not object to baptizing someone that did not want to wait until “baptism Sunday.” How thoughtful.
The Christian Chronicle gleefully reports that both “fellowships” (a favorite Chronicle word) have autonomous congregations, elders, and baptism by immersion. Whoopee. They still use the unauthorized musical instruments when they worship, and they are going to implement the instrument at Mayfair. However, they have generously granted permission if some of the Mayfair members want to stage an acapella worship service in the chapel. Furthermore, they have women preaching from the pulpit and women serving as elders and ministers. With all of this in mind, we have no qualms about calling them what they are. They are a plant which the Heavenly Father has not planted and, therefore, will be rooted up (Matt. 15:13).
Chambers noted that “in the 1980s Mayfair had 800-900 members,” but that “over the past year the monthly average has been right at 100.” Stop and think about that for a moment. One hundred members led by Judas elders and a Judas preacher are going to throw in the towel and abandon the Lord’s church. One hundred members! One hundred members is considered “dwindling.” Suppose for a moment that when God told Elijah, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18), that Elijah had responded, “Seven thousand? Is that all? What do you expect me to do with seven thousand in the face of the hundreds of thousands on the other side?” What should we think about a congregation that cannot make it work with 100 members?
How many of our faithful congregations would love to have 100 members (including our own)? Many congregations with far fewer members have done great things for the cause of Christ because they did not focus on how many they had or what they did not have, but they accentuated the positive and used the resources available to them. They had the attitude of Mary, who anointed Jesus with the precious spikenard and was criticized for it. Jesus defended her, saying, “She hath done what she could” (Mark 14:8).
The same cannot be said for the apostate brethren at Mayfair, who apparently have the idea that many of these turncoat congregations have adopted, which is, “If we can’t be what we used to be, we will just quit.” We saw this attitude demonstrated last year with some at the Skillman Church of Christ in Dallas who, when their membership dropped to about 80, contemplated merging with The Hills, formerly known as North Richland Hills Church of Christ, whose candlestick was removed (cf. Rev. 2:5) before the turn of the last century. However, Skillman could not achieve the two-thirds majority vote required to follow through with the proposal, angering many of those that had voted for it. Imagine being so eager to apostatize that you would become angry if something prevented you from doing so.
The attitudes and actions of these traitors are reminiscent of what we read in Proverbs about those whose “feet run to evil” (Prov. 1:16). Also consider that one of the seven abominations before the LORD is “feet that be swift in running to mischief” (Prov. 6:18). As we noted a little over a year ago in this forum (November 27, 2022), mischief is not referring to some minor infraction (both the NKJV and the ESV exchange the word mischief for evil), and running is indicative of the speed and enthusiasm in which this is done.
Chambers said that, at the beginning of this year (2023), it became apparent that they needed to discuss all options. These options included: 1) merging with another Church of Christ; 2) selling the building and finding something smaller. Obviously, either of those two options would have been infinitely better than what they ultimately did.
When the final vote was tallied, 92% were in favor of the merger, although they do not call it a merger. All things considered; it is not a merger; it is a full-blown capitulation. Sound doctrine and practices are shuttered in favor of the false doctrines, illegitimate structuring, and apostate practices. Let us dwell on that for a moment. Ninety-two percent. What kind of teaching have these brethren been subjected to over the past sixty plus years of their existence that 92% could so willingly and easily throw it all away to become members of a denomination? It is obvious that they certainly were not getting sound preaching from the pulpit from Jared Chambers.
We would be highly surprised if these brethren had ever heard any teaching—from the pulpit or in class—about the distinctive nature of the Lord's church or the necessity of Bible authority. Furthermore, their elders sound exactly like those of whom the Lord warned in the Sermon on the Mount when He stated, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matt. 7:15). Peter urged elders to feed “the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof…” (1 Peter 5:2). What we are witnessing here is nothing short of shepherds running away to leave the flock to be devoured by the wolves.
To their credit, some of the brethren at Mayfair have left, and Chambers believes a few more will likewise depart. Good for them! The faithful have always been outnumbered by the unfaithful. We can only hope they will land with faithful brethren who respect the authority of the Bible and who reject manmade churches with manmade creeds.