Who We Are

About Northway

Northway Christian Church is an independent congregation that is in covenantal unity with the 3700 other congregations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant denomination that had its beginnings in the United States during the Second Great awakening in the early 1800s. The historic "plea" of our movement is for the unity of the church of Jesus Christ on the basis of our common Christian affirmation of the authority of the New Testament in all matters of faith and practice in order that together we might get on with Christ's mandate to share and show the good news of God's love, acceptance and forgiveness. Our denominational history can be more fully explore by linking to the Disciples of Christ Historical Society.

We are Presbyterian in origin, Baptist in structure and Methodist in theological outlook. We are the "Christian" in Texas Christian University, one of the 18 colleges and universities connected to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) through our Division of Higher Education. Three members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have been elected President of the United States - James Abram Garfield (who was also a preacher in our movement), Lyndon Baines Johnson and Ronald Wilson Reagan. This fact speaks well to both the activist bend of our Christianity - we want to be "doers of the Word, and not hearers only" (James 1:23) - as well as to the characteristic diversity of conviction and conscience represented among the faithful members of our church. Every member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has the freedom and responsibility of a personal faith informed by the light of Scripture and under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The official "Identity Statement" of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) says:

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a community of believers who through baptism into Jesus Christ are bound by covenant to God and to one another. Disciples draw their inspiration from Scripture and the Holy Spirit, celebrating around the Lord's Table the life, death and resurrection, and continuing presence of Christ. We proclaim the good news of salvation. We claim as our particular witness the quest for Christian unity as a sign of God's unity for the human community. While stressing freedom and diversity under God, we believe unity and mission are inseparable; we witness and serve among the whole human family in the interest of peace, justice, mercy and kindness. (Composed by the late General Minister and President Emeritus Kenneth Teegarden, and affirmed by the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.)

And the Preamble to our Design as a Church comes as close to an affirmation of our core convictions as anything you're likely to find:

As members of the Christian Church, we confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and proclaim him Lord and Savior of the world. In Christ's name and by his grace we accept our mission of witness and service to all people. We rejoice in God, maker of heaven and earth, and in the covenant of love which binds us to God and one another. Through baptism into Christ we enter into newness of life and are made one with the whole people of God. In the communion of the Holy Spirit we are joined together in discipleship and in obedience to Christ. At the table of the Lord we celebrate with thanksgiving the saving acts and presence of Christ. Within the universal church we receive the gift of ministry and the light of scripture.

In the bonds of Christian faith we yield ourselves to God that we may serve the One whose kingdom has no end.

Blessing, glory and honor be to God forever. Amen.

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