A Background Review Of The Tempe United Church Of Christ

By Elizabeth Edwards


The Protestant Christian Denomination serves as the foundation upon which the Temple United Church was formed. Tempe United Church of Christ has grown tremendously, having established more than five thousand branches and bringing in several millions of people. The body puts into great concern issues such as civil rights and interfaith efforts.

The Church of Christ has its origin from a merge up of two Churches which are big in nature. The believers of this two churches are now coming to together to worship. Many Christians who are looking for church to attend to should consider such churches. Most of the believers in the new temple are new followers and thus people who are looking for the right location to worship can now join them.

The body has not put regulations on a particular way of worship across its churches as they are allowed different formats of worshiping depending on a wide range of things. However, there are certain common beliefs shared among all of them such as the belief in evangelism. Furthermore, they all share a common belief of having a liberal mind when understanding how the Bible directly relates to our present life despite it being written a long time ago.

Freedom of worship and thinking is also advocated for through the other forms of literature present in the body. The head of the denomination is acknowledged to be Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior. The Holy Communion and Baptism are recognized as the two forms of sacraments and the Holy Spirit is also placed at high respect.

One belief that the body holds quite close is the need to be in unity and offer a unifying factor across the world. For this reason, it has involved itself in an organization that aims at uniting other nine protestant denominations across America. It has also been part of a global council that aims at creating common theological views across the different churches.

Recently, the institution worked in conjunction with the United temple of Canada to find ways of working together in works of missions, ministry and worship. Through this agreement the bodies were able to share the sacraments and the congregants could be preached to by ministers from both sides. More so, the institution has worked together with religions such as the Muslim family.

The local temple or what is mostly referred to as that congregation is the basic unit of whole denomination. All the local churches are allowed their own forms of governance as they are allowed to come up with their individual governing structures. As a result, the ways of governance vary across the churches, in that some have one central council and others have different boards.

The denominations obedience to its set covenants has given the congregants a great set of freedom in worship. However, it has faced some criticism regarding the theological variance and political views. It has also been criticized regarding social issues such as favoring the acknowledgment of same sex marriage among other accusations such as allowing politicians to campaign in the congregation.




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