No. The names can sound related, especially when you hear us quote Paul's phrase "the churches of Christ" (Romans 16:16). But the United Church of Christ is a Protestant denomination formed by a merger in 1957, and we aren't part of it or of any other denomination. The phrase we use comes from a New Testament letter that is far older than that merger, and it was never a denominational name to begin with. People mix the two up all the time, so it's worth a few minutes to untangle.
Where the United Church of Christ Came From
The United Church of Christ, usually shortened to UCC, began on June 25, 1957, in Cleveland, Ohio, when two American denominations combined: the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Its family tree runs back through the Pilgrims and New England Congregationalism, and through German Reformed churches, into the Protestant Reformation.
There's an interesting branch in that tree. One of the streams that flowed into the UCC, the Christian Connection of the early 1800s, started with believers who wanted to leave denominational names behind and be called simply "Christians." We understand that impulse completely. It's ours too.
Today the UCC keeps national offices in Cleveland, holds a General Synod every two years, organizes its congregations into 36 regional conferences, and counts about 4,500 churches. Its motto is Jesus' prayer, "That they may all be one" (John 17:21). It describes itself as a church of "extravagant welcome" and says that God "is still speaking."
To be fair, the UCC gives its local congregations a great deal of freedom. Its constitution calls the autonomy of the local church "inherent," and the General Synod speaks to its churches, not for them. Still, it is a denomination: a founding date on the calendar, an office in Ohio, a governing body that gathers, and conferences that connect its congregations to one another.
None of that is a swipe. We're describing the UCC the way it describes itself.
Where That Phrase Actually Comes From
Here at Christians In Honesdale we don't carry a denominational name at all. We're simply Christians. Nobody merged us into existence, there's no synod that meets on our behalf, no conference we belong to, and no national office anybody could call for a ruling on something. We answer to Christ. That's it.
The phrase people associate with us comes out of a letter. Near the end of Romans, Paul wrote: "Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you" (Romans 16:16). There were no denominations anywhere in the picture yet. Read in its own setting, that line describes whom those congregations belonged to. It isn't a brand stamped on the front of a building.
A note on the Greek and Hebrew: Paul wrote hai ekklēsiai pasai tou Christou, "all the assemblies of Christ." Tou Christou is a genitive of possession: the churches belong to Him. Ekklēsia simply means "assembly," a gathering of people called together. The Greek Old Testament had already used it for the Hebrew qāhāl, Israel's assembly before God at Sinai, "the day of the assembly" (yôm haqqāhāl, Deuteronomy 9:10; 18:16). In the Old Testament the assembly was "the assembly of the LORD" (qəhal YHWH, Deuteronomy 23:1-3). In the New, it's the assembly of Christ. In both Testaments the name says whose people they are.
Jesus said He would build that assembly Himself: "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).
A note on the Greek: "I will build my church" is oikodomēsō mou tēn ekklēsian. Jesus puts "my" (mou) ahead of "church," which leans the emphasis onto the owner: my church. And it's singular. He promised to build one church, and He promised to be the one building it.
And He alone is its head: "And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22-23). A church that already has Christ as its head doesn't need another headquarters.
"That They May All Be One"
This is where we can meet our UCC neighbors on their own ground. The UCC took Jesus' prayer as its motto because it wanted to heal the divisions between churches, and it pursued that by merging them. We want the same thing Jesus prayed for. Division by human names grieved the apostles. "Is Christ divided?" Paul asked a church splitting into camps. "Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1:10-13).
But look at the verse just before the motto. Jesus prayed "for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one" (John 17:20-21). The unity He prayed for runs through the apostles' word. So we don't look for unity by combining organizations. We look for it by going back to the same text, where any believer from any background can stand on the same ground.
The Difference Underneath All the Others
Authority is where the two really part ways. The UCC says it "receives the historic creeds and confessions of our ancestors as testimonies, but not tests of the faith," and it expects each generation to make the faith its own. "God is still speaking" means the church's understanding is free to grow and change.
We read the Bible as finished on that point. Jude told his readers to "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).
A note on the Greek: "Once for all" is hapax, the same word Peter uses when he says "Christ also suffered once for sins" (1 Peter 3:18) and Hebrews uses for His one sacrifice (Hebrews 9:26-28). Christ's death doesn't need to be repeated or updated, and neither does the faith. "Delivered" (paradotheisē) is an aorist passive participle. It describes a completed handing-over, a faith that was given and finished, now to be kept rather than revised.
Hebrews opens the same way: "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2).
A note on the Greek: "He has spoken" is elalēsen, an aorist: a definite act of speaking. In the Son, and through the apostles He sent, God said what He meant to say to this age.
We'd actually agree that God is still speaking, but through what He has already said. His word "is living and active" (Hebrews 4:12), and Scripture is enough to make a person "complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We don't add to it and we don't subtract from it. When a question comes up here, we go back to the text instead of forward to a vote.
How Each One Is Organized
The UCC connects its congregations through associations, regional conferences, and the General Synod. We have nothing above the local congregation.
In the New Testament, each congregation was meant to be shepherded by its own elders, also called overseers or pastors. Peter told them to "shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight" (1 Peter 5:2).
A note on the Greek: "The flock of God that is among you" is to en hymin poimnion tou theou. The oversight reaches as far as "among you" and stops there. No elder in the New Testament oversees a group of congregations, and no office sits above the elders.
That pattern is our goal, and we want to be honest about where we are. We're a small congregation of fewer than twenty members, and right now none of our men meet the qualifications Paul lays out for elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). So we don't have elders yet, and we won't appoint anyone just to fill the title. That isn't unusual in the New Testament. Paul and Barnabas planted churches and came back later to appoint elders (Acts 14:21-23), and Paul left Titus in Crete to "appoint elders in every town" where congregations were already meeting (Titus 1:5). Until then, we work together as a congregation under Christ and His word.
What You'd Notice on a Sunday Morning
The two look different in the room. In a UCC congregation you'll typically find infants baptized as well as adults, usually by sprinkling or pouring, instruments in the worship, and communion on whatever schedule that congregation has chosen.
Here you'll see believers immersed in water for the forgiveness of their sins, because that's what the New Testament describes (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-4). Every baptism in the New Testament follows someone hearing the gospel, believing, and repenting (Acts 2:38, 41; 8:12), so we baptize people old enough to do that. You'll hear singing with no instruments, following the pattern the New Testament gives for worship (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). And you'll see the Lord's Supper observed every first day of the week, the way the early church did it (Acts 20:7).
Two Harder Differences, Said Kindly
The UCC ordains women; its Congregational forebears ordained Antoinette Brown in 1853. And in 2005 its General Synod made it, by its own account, the first major Christian denomination in the United States to affirm same-sex marriage. We'll tell you straight where we land. We believe the Bible teaches that marriage is one man and one woman for life (Matthew 19:4-6), and that the work of elders and of preaching in the assembly belongs to men (1 Timothy 2:12; 3:1-2). We hold those because of what the passages say, and we hold them with real kindness toward every person who comes through our door. Disagreeing with a teaching has never meant looking down on a neighbor.
We think well of people in the UCC. Its history includes real care for the poor and an early stand against slavery, and we're glad to say so. We also disagree with it plainly on the things above, and we'd rather be clear than pretend the two are one thing.
How to Tell Which One You've Found
Start with the sign and the website. A UCC congregation nearly always says "United Church of Christ" and names the conference it belongs to. A congregation like ours stands on its own: no denomination behind it, Christ as its only head, singing without instruments, and the Lord's Supper every Sunday.
And since there's no headquarters anywhere in this, no congregation can speak for any other one. All we can tell you is what we've found in the text and what we practice here. If you're still unsure about a church you're looking at, ask them. Any honest congregation will tell you.
Keep Looking
If a search engine dropped you at the wrong church today, we're glad it dropped you somewhere honest. Open Romans 16 and Matthew 16, read John 17, then read the short letter of Jude, and see what the New Testament says about whose church it is. Then measure any congregation, ours very much included, by that.
Bring Us Your Questions
If you'd like to work through any of this with someone, we'd be glad to sit down with you, at your pace, with your questions running the conversation. Nothing gets sold and nobody keeps score. Ask us for a free Bible study, read a bit about who we are, or send us a note before you visit.
Our schedule:
We meet at 416 Main Street, Suite D, Honesdale, PA 18431. Parking is at the rear of the building, and the back door is the one to use.