The May 2005 issue of The Christian Chronicle reported on the merger of the Cornerstone Church of Christ and the Parkside Independent Christian Church in Beaumont, Texas in March 2005. The new merged church is “Christ Covenant Church.” Elders of the two former congregations merged as the eldership of the new church, and they have retained the preacher, Jerry Fenter, from Cornerstone. Each church had about 50-75 members, and the new congregation has about 100 on Sunday mornings.

Tom McLeod, former elder at Cornerstone and current elder at Christ Covenant said that the use of instrumental music at Parkside did not deter the merger. “Cornerstone had a long-standing view that ‘instrumental music was a non-issue.’ We understood the use of an instrument in worship simply as ‘a custom that we did not follow,’ not as a theological point of debate. … At Christ Covenant we blend both traditions—using singing with and without the instrument.”

Is the use or non-use of instrumental music simply a tradition? Should it be a non-isssue?

If the brethren in Beaumont would remember their church history, they would understand that when the unity of the Restoration Movement was disrupted, it was because those who wanted the instrument in the worship demanded it, and forced division when brethren would not accept it.

Where is the authority for instrumental music in worship? The music that God authorizes is singing. There is no example in the New Testament of Christians worshiping with the instrument, and no example of  the use of instrumental music in worship. How can something promoted in worship, which God has not authorized, be a non-issue? “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16).

Is It a Non Issue?
By A.G. Freed
www.oxfordchurchofchrist.com