What is the Christian Church?

This always reminds me of the Abbott and Costello routine “Who’s On First?”

Where do you go to church?

                “Mount Carmel Christian Church.”

What kind of church is that?

                “Christian Church.”

Yeah. I know that but what denomination?

                “Christian.”

Okay. I got that part but is it like Lutheran or Methodist or something?

                “Nope. It’s a Christian Church.”

Here’s the deal: there was a huge church revival in the United States in the earlier 1800’s that was spawned as an outgrowth of all the various creeds that had grown out of the major denominations. There was a growing sense that all of the organizational structures of Protestantism and Catholicism at that time were an impediment to what Jesus intended for His church to be. It is called the Restoration Movement ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_Movement). The belief was that “creeds” divide and that the church should be unified. The churches that grew out of that movement wanted to be known simply as Christian churches.