This is Who We Are!
Our History: The Stone-Campbell Movement
Depending on who you ask, our first Tradition of Christianity was either born at an 1801 camp revival at the Cane Ridge Church in Kentucky pastored by Barton Stone, or possibly on January 1, 1832, when the leaders of two rapidly growing American religious movements shook hands and brought the Christians of Barton Stone and the Disciples of Christ of Alexander Campbell together in mission and ministry. Either way this early 1800 movement was born out of a conviction that divisions between Christians (in the form of denominations and religious hierarchy) are barriers to experiencing the truth that:
The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ . . . [and we declare that] division among the Christians is a horrid wrongdoing, fraught with many evils.
Thomas Campbell, 1809
The Stone-Campbell Movement was based on common sense and an academic understanding of the Scriptures. Fundamental to that view was the commitment of people who saw the Church as a barrier-free community of believers. These disciples swept the early frontier and became a driving force in American Christianity, becoming the first ever uniquely American Christian tradition! They quickly became activists promoting missions and cooperative work among all denominations. They rose as advocates for women’s suffrage, the rapid abolishment of slavery, care for orphans and others in need, temperance, anti-war movements, and many other causes that flowed out of their understanding of the Love and Grace of God for all people. The rapid growth of congregations and followers became a religious phenomenon in late 19th and early 20th-century American culture that has not been duplicated.
The early founders came almost entirely from the Presbyterian tradition. Powerful leaders soon joined them from the Baptist and Methodist traditions. The entire history of the Independent Christian Church movement has seen a profound commitment to keeping doors and hearts open to all expressions of faith and mission. It represents a remarkable diversity of beliefs and views.
From here, the mission of this Movement would sadly splinter into three distinct branches: the Church of Christ, Independent Christian Churches and Church of Christ (Instrumental), and the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church). The Church of Christ represented the far-right of the movement, restricting Christian worship from all those things not directly mentioned in the New Testament. Because of this, the Church of Christ does not use mechanical instruments in worship, some of them going as far as not even allowing the building of fellowship halls, or individual cups for Communion. This contrasts with the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) formed an official denomination, evolving the ideas of both Stone and Campbell into a movement that would be highly regionalized. Many of the churches, including the precursor to Grace Christian, made up the "center" of the movement and became "Independents," who refused to align themselves with the left-leaning Disciples of Christ or the fundamentalist Churches of Christ.
Our History: The Congregationalist Christians
Further grounding ourselves in the roots of the Protestant Reformation and the Reformed Tradition of Christianity, Grace Christian also claims heritage in Congregationalism. Congregationalism in the United States traces its origins to the Puritans of New England, who wrote the Cambridge Platform of 1648 to describe the autonomy of the church and its association with others. Within the United States, the model of Congregational churches was carried by migrating settlers from New England into New York, then into the Old Northwest, and further into the American South. Congregationalism is a Protestant movement (just like the Stone-Campbell Movement) within the Reformed tradition that occupies a theological position between Presbyterianism on one end and the Baptists on the other. Through the years, Congregationalists have adopted various confessional statements, including the Savoy Declaration, the Cambridge Platform, and the Kansas City Statement of Faith. Unlike Presbyterians, Congregationalists practice congregational polity (from which they derive their name), which holds that the members of a local church have the right to decide their church's forms of worship and confessional statements, choose their officers and administer their own affairs without any outside interference. Congregationalist polity is rooted in a foundational tenet of Congregationalism: the priesthood of all believers. According to Congregationalist minister Charles Edward Jefferson, this means that "Every believer is a priest and ... every seeking child of God is given directly wisdom, guidance, [and] power".
The specific history of this church starts in February of 1971 when five families from Foscoe Christian Church set out with the mission and desire to establish a Christian Church Community in the Boone area. After a few years, the church was able to buy land and they settled on the name “First Christian Church of Boone”. Having gone through a period of discernment and reformation, the congregation of First Christian voted to change their name to “Grace Christian Church” in July of 2023. This was done to recenter the church on its mission and goal to preach the grace-filled Gospel of Jesus Christ to the community and the world.
We have also changed our stance from one of nondenominational to interdenominational where people may come and worship in whatever way they feel called by the Spirit of God. This was done because some in the Nondenominational Christian Church Community see themselves as "superior" to denominational churches, and we stand against this message knowing that God's children are many and come from all sorts of backgrounds and traditions: Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Orthodox, Congregationalist, Amish, Mennonite, Moravian, Wesleyan, Pentecostal or otherwise! Mainline or Evangelical, we are all one in our baptism and our Lord! (Ephesians 4:5)
Our Mission
The mission of Grace Christian Church, and its subsidiary ministries, is to glorify God by transforming our community through graceful acts of compassion and justice such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping the sick get medicine, and welcoming the unloved and the outcast.
At Grace Christian Church, we believe in taking our faith beyond the walls of our church and into the world. We are actively starting a food pantry as well as building a little free pantry. We volunteer at the senior center and give funds to people needing utility help during the winter. Come become a part of us as we seek to meet the needs of the community, both spiritual and physical, one person at a time!
After all, the Bible is clear: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." (James 2:14-17)
Our Vision
Going into the future, Grace Christian Church wants to be a beacon on Christian love in our community, uniting works with faith. We know that the world is not right, but we see a way of helping it become a little bit better, day by day, one good deed at a time.