In her Rochester Retrospect* essay, Dr. Naomi Walters, dean of RCU’s School of Ministry and Theology, explores how the Churches of Christ’s self-understanding transformed from being “Christians only” to “the only Christians” in a span of just over 30 years.
In the 1800s, Christian leaders and thinkers, such as Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell, desired unity among Christians and they attributed dissension to the existence of different denominations. The path to unity, they thought, was to become nondenominational — to focus and unite on the New Testament alone.
Yet, inherent in this strategy, was that the focus turned to pruning instead of positive construction. “This theology by negation became, ultimately, a combative theology,” Walters writes.
Sectarianism spreads to education
This sectarian attitude found itself prevalent in many of the educational institutions related to the Churches of Christ.
When Rochester Christian University was founded as North Central Christian College in 1959, it had a sectarian posture with members of the board required to be from the Churches of Christ.
However, Walters found the “student body appears to have been ecumenical from the start,” with the “first-course catalog emphasizing only a Christian education and environment.”
As years passed, Walters said the institution found itself in an ongoing “tug of war” between explicitly targeting only the Churches of Christ, and – as stated in the 1985 course catalog – “welcoming and serving qualified students regardless of their religious faith.”
By 1993, under the leadership of President Ken Johnson, the university publicly transitioned to a more open stance. “Throughout his presidency, Johnson advocated for a more ecumenical posture on campus, based on freedom in Christ as a return to an important aspect of the Stone-Campbell Movement heritage. His perspective was central in shaping many of the university’s current policies,” Walters writes.
Becoming religiously inclusive
Dr. Brian Stogner, current president of Rochester Christian University, echoed Johnson’s perspectives in an address to employees in 2022, where he said one key adaptation at the university is to become a more “religiously inclusive institution.”
“We still owe, and always will owe, a great debt of gratitude to those founding visionaries. However, as the institution developed to face a changing world, it became an organization less exclusively led by, taught by, and attended by individuals from the Church of Christ and, across the spectrum from trustees to students, became more religiously diverse within the context of the broader Christian community. This evolution has allowed RU to grow and prosper in ways that it otherwise never could have,” Stogner said.
A beautiful thing
In her essay, Walters said RCU’s ecumenical stance is “a beautiful thing, making possible my own education and employment here, at a time when many of our affiliated schools would not have trained or hired a female for ministry.”
She then encourages the university community to “not to be non-denominational but inter-denominational.” She urges her reader to not go back to “Christians only” or to “the only Christians,” but proposes that we become “Christians together.”
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*Rochester Christian University explored its current identity and mission as rooted in its origins as part of a grant funded by the Council of Independent Colleges. This effort took place in 2022 and was called Rochester Retrospect. A steering committee commissioned the writing of eight essays.
Click on the links below to read Dr. Naomi Walter’s full essay and the other Rochester Retrospect essays:
- American Origins of Churches of Christ by Dr. Keith Huey
- An Ecumenical Christian University: From “Christians Only” to “The Only Christians” and Beyond by Dr. Naomi Walters
- No Creed but the Bible: The Story of Scripture in Churches of Christ by Dr. Mark Love
- Alexander Campbell, Liberal Arts, and Integrative Learning by Dr. Keith Huey
- The “Apocalyptic Tradition” in Churches of Christ: A Countercultural Remembrance and Challenge by Dr. David Greer
- Missions to Missional: Rochester University’s Story in Churches of Christ from Otis Gatewood to Brian Stogner by Dr. Beth Bowers
- Learning Virtues for a Church of Christ University by Dr. Mark Love
- Rochester University: A Distinctive University – In Its Heritage and Its Future by Dr. Brian Stogner
