Sponsoring church

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The "sponsoring church" arrangement describes a resource-pooling strategy employed by some Churches of Christ. Under this arrangement, one or more churches send funds to another congregation for a work which the receiving (or sponsoring) church then oversees.^[1]

Churches of Christ are normally independent, autonomous congregations without formal ties between each other. However, this model largely prevents the resource-sharing seen in formal denominations. To that end, after World War II some of these churches created the sponsoring church arrangement to coordinate their efforts in evangelism. This began with the Broadway church in Lubbock, Texas and the Union Avenue Church in Memphis soliciting funds for evangelism in Germany and Japan, respectively.^[2]

The most well-known of these early efforts was the Herald of Truth, a radio (and later television) program begun in 1951 by the Fifth and Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas.^[3]

Doctrinal disagreement over the sponsoring church arrangement was one of a number of issues that led to the "mainstream" churches rejecting and isolating non-institutional churches in the 1960s.

In more recent years, perhaps the most well-known sponsoring church arrangement is "One Nation Under God", wherein the Sycamore Church of Christ in Cookeville, Tennessee in 1991 solicited $10 million in order to send out evangelistic mailings to every household in America. Later plans to contact every household in the world were never realized.^[4]

While the tactic is less common than in times past, it remains in use among many mainstream Churches of Christ today. It is particularly popular in "church planting," where an existing church sends missionaries to an area to establish a church and then oversees the nascent church for a period of time.

[edit] References

1. ^ The Church Jesus Built: Innovations in the Work of the Church. Executable Outlines. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
2. ^ "And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors". Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
3. ^ Harrell, David Edwin: The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement, "Noninstitutional Movement," page 568. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing: 2005. ISBN 0-8028-3898-7
4. ^ Churches of Christ Organize In a National Campaign To Evangelize America. Truth Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.