The sharpest difference is the miraculous gifts. Pentecostal preaching looks for tongues, prophecy, and miraculous healing today, and it urges a Christian to seek them. We read those gifts as having a job that ended when God’s revelation was complete, so we do not seek them. That difference shapes much of what a visitor notices: how worship sounds, what is expected of you, and how the Bible is used.
Other differences follow: instrumental music, how a congregation is led, and what the Holy Spirit does in a Christian today. We respect Pentecostal people for their earnestness about God, and we would rather lay the differences out plainly than talk around them.
Do the Miraculous Gifts Continue Today?
This is the heart of it. In the first century, miraculous gifts confirmed that a preacher’s message came from God, back when nobody could check it against a finished New Testament.
Paul wrote that they had a limit built in: “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” ().
What Does “When the Perfect Comes” Mean?
We understand “the perfect” to be God’s completed revelation, the faith Jude called something “once for all delivered to the saints” (). Signs that confirm a message have nothing left to confirm once the message is fully given.
Notice, too, how Acts says the gifts were passed along: through the hands of the apostles (), and through Paul himself (). The apostles are gone, and the channel Acts describes went with them.
Do Churches of Christ Speak in Tongues?
We do not, and it helps to know what the word meant for Luke. Tongues in Acts were understandable human languages, not unintelligible speech. Luke names what stunned the crowd: “each one was hearing them speak in his own language” ().
We are not brushing aside anything the Bible describes. A confirming sign given through the apostles is not ours to seek.
What Do We Believe the Holy Spirit Does Now?
He is not idle, and the caricature that says otherwise is wrong. A Christian is given the Holy Spirit as a gift at his baptism into Christ (). Assurance comes from Him: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (). Over a lifetime He shapes character the world cannot imitate: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (). Prayer is still heard, and providence still works for His people.
Activity is not what is in dispute. What differs is the manner: miracles you can see, or His finished Word and a providence you cannot see.
What Is Worship Like in Each?
Pentecostal worship is often expressive: instruments and a band, hands raised, spontaneous speaking or prayer, sometimes prophecy or a call for healing. One Pentecostal building will not look much like the next.
Among churches of Christ, worship runs quieter and plainer. We sing a cappella, voices only with no instruments, following the New Testament’s description of singing: “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (). Then the simple things: prayer, the Lord’s Supper observed on the first day of every week (), a collection, preaching from the Scriptures. It is not improvised, because Paul instructed the Corinthians that “all things should be done decently and in order” ().
Who Leads a Congregation?
Many Pentecostal congregations sit inside a denominational structure with regional or national leadership, and some stand alone.
Nothing like that exists among churches of Christ. A congregation is its own unit, watched over by its own elders, men chosen because they match the New Testament’s qualifications (; ). Peter left such men one instruction: “shepherd the flock of God that is among you” (). Above the local church there is no headquarters, no convention, no officer, since Christ Himself is the church’s only head ().
Churches of Christ are autonomous, so with no office above it, the Church of Christ at South Bumby answers only for itself. Take the above as broadly true of non-institutional churches of Christ, though a name over a door promises nothing about what is inside. About us you can be sure: this is who we are.
So How Should You Decide?
Set aside two poor tests: whichever service stirred you more, and whichever side we described more kindly. The good test needs only an open Bible: what were the first Christians actually doing, and why? Sit down with 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 start to finish, then Acts 2 and Acts 8, and let the text tell you what the gifts were for and how long they were to last.
Keep Studying
Take your time, and measure every church by the same yardstick, this one included. Read passages in context rather than one verse at a time. If questions remain, take them to someone willing to show you chapter and verse.
Come and See for Yourself
If you have been searching for something the world keeps promising and never quite delivers, we understand that ache, and we would be glad to look at these passages with you. At the Church of Christ at South Bumby you will find people who will walk with you toward lasting fulfillment in Christ and a place where you truly belong. Plan your visit and come just as you are.
Plan your visit — you’ll be welcomed, not put on the spot.
To see what the Bible says about becoming a Christian, start here.
When we meet:
- Sunday: Bible Class 9:30 am, Worship 10:30 am
- Wednesday: Bible Class 7:00 pm
