Fellowship of Churches of Christ

            The Palm Springs Church of Christ is an independent and non-denominational congregation.  We recognize only the authority of Christ and those that he has entrusted that authority.  This includes all Scripture, and especially the authority of the apostles as those who established the early church and recorded the New Testament.   

            Though we are an autonomous congregation, we do recognize that we have a wider fellowship known as the churches of Christ.  This fellowship descends from a movement called the Restoration Movement, which started in the early 19^th century.  It was a movement led by great leaders such as Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone.

            The Restoration Movement had the idea to restore Christianity to what was found in the New Testament.  They believed that Christ deeply desired the unity of believers, so they believed that the solution was to abandon man-made creeds and return to the Bible as the only valid authority.

            These changes led to a renewed dedication to believer’s baptism by immersion for the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and weekly communion.  It also led to dissolving denominational and congregational hierarchy, returning to only the simple model of elder leadership in the New Testament.  The early restoration Christians practiced a cappella music in worship, because they believed that was the worship of the early church.  Following the early church was the biblical ideal, because it was the one sanctioned by the apostles.

            The early Restoration leaders did not think of themselves as the only Christians, but Christians only.  No one can know the scope of the universal membership of God’s church, but the commitment to be the New Testament church had tremendous appeal.  The churches of Christ became one of the fastest growing religious movements in North America.

            Today, there are thousands of these independent yet deeply connected congregations worldwide.  The Palm Springs Church of Christ holds to the original Restoration ideal.  Our practices and views are taken from Scripture and applied to the 21^st century as best we know how.  We are continuing to grow in the understanding of God’s word.  We have not arrived, and we do not have all the answers.  We simply point people to the One who does!