The Full Restoration
The restoration of man back into the image of God

The Full Restoration is the outcome of working among Churches of Christ for over 40 years. I converted to Christ while serving on a flight deck of an aircraft carrier and was baptized off the coast of Smyrna in Turkey in 1975. 

There was a small group of Christians meeting on the ship who all wanted to learn. We were studying and often had baptisms to perform whenever we pulled into a port. I noticed during this early time the most undependable member was the son of an elder. He should have been the leader of this small group. Everyone else had been a Christian for two years or less. Instead of being a leader, he was seen the least.  

When we returned to the States, I was excited about the prospect of attending a "real" church. We were small a group of young, inexperienced men too embarrassed to sing out loud and our lessons were exercises in sharing ignorance. 

I quickly realized there were serious problems in the church in Virginia. The Bible study had so much arguing I usually had no idea what they were talking about. Classes sometimes covered less than a verse because of all the bickering. I wanted to quit but didn't know where else to go (2Tim. 2:14). I thought that church must be an anomaly and everything would be better in other places. I was getting out of the Navy soon and was moving on to greener pastures, so I hoped. 

Preaching was the only thing I wanted to do when I got out of the Navy. After moving to FL to go to school, I was asked to be a witness along with a local preacher and another man in a dispute between two brothers over some property. As a witness trying to determine truth, I looked into the business dealings of the brothers. I found that the one who had been a "faithful deacon" was consistently described in animal terms by his business partners. They always used terms like weasel, skunk and snake to describe him. I was rebuked by the preacher for looking into everything. I was told a witness is not supposed to investigate, but was to just listen to what was presented by the brothers and make a decision based on that. I was just trying to figure out the truth. The real problem was I was discovering the wrong truth about the wrong person and that couldn't be tolerated. I ended up walking away from that congregation. 

Too soon, and with minimal instruction, I started preaching "full-time". I had no idea how ignorant, naïve and unprepared I really was. The first congregation I worked with had elders who made sure they assigned certain men to lead singing during hunting season. Otherwise they would be in the woods Sunday morning. At least they were responsible enough to show up on the mornings they were assigned song leading most of the time. Everything else with the group was just as careless and slack, with great resistance to any change. I also learned the congregation was famous locally for having fist-fights in the building in previous years.  

I worked with another congregation in FL that claimed they wanted someone to do personal work. We had 19 baptisms the first 11 months. Some of the members got upset because, "it was our money and our sweat that built this building and all these new people are going to come in and take over the place!" That was just one of the problems. To this day, the meanest, ugliest and most hateful behavior I have ever witnessed in my life took place during their men's business meetings. So much for sound, faithful churches, at least that's what some people call them. 

One of the members in FL warned me of the plot that succeeded in running me and all the new converts off. I moved on to KY. That's where my eyes starting opening to the jealousies, selfish ambitions, gossip, slander and worldliness among some preachers. Similar lessons have been learned in other states as well. 

I worked with another church In KY for a short time that was called "the church of the darting eyes" by one of the members. It was both funny and sad because it was so true. That church consisted of two groups sitting on opposite sides of the building, divided by the center aisle. I heard both sides make many charges against other members, including Satanism. I was never able to confirm the Satanism charges, but with the members involved, I also could not deny them.

By this all will know that you are My disciples, 
if you have love for one another.

John 13:35

In my years of preaching, I have been privileged to meet some of the best people along with some of the worst. The best have been wonderful fellowship and the worst have been very educational. They have helped me better understand the true purpose of the church better than I ever have before.

Satan uses false religion to blind people from "seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4). The gospel isn't just good news, it is the greatest news. Christ is the true Son in the image of God and we can share in His glory! What would it be like to be a part of a congregation where everyone had a strong hope of the glory of God, was loving each other like Christ loves us and striving to purify themselves as He is pure? The more we have congregations filled with Christians living like Christ, the easier it will be for people to see the good news of the glory of Christ. 

In reality, churches are too often like old Israel. Instead of living before Jehovah with thankfulness and joy, Israel was filled with sin. The young children never saw the glory of God lived before them (Micah 2:9). Children grow up today and too often walk away from churches. Often, they are not walking away from God. They are walking away from churches who never learned to live the glory of God (Joh. 1:14). 

I walked away from the Baptist church when I was 13.  I went into the world and raised myself. I did such a good job that by the time I was 17 I had to join the Navy to escape felony charges during the Vietnam war. I slowly realized we can't reject God just because other people do. Without knowing where to start, I started searching. After studying with people from different religions, I chose to be baptized into Christ (Rom. 6:3, Gal. 3:26-27). 

It didn't take long to notice churches that appeared to be faithful doctrinally, but still did not resemble Christianity. Instead of love, joy, peace, mercy, zeal and thankfulness, too often there was anger, bitterness, jealousy, dishonesty and fear. 

As an example, I moved to work with a church in TX because of promises of opportunities to teach. After I arrived, the one who convinced me to move admitted what he said about the church was not honest. They had been filled with internal fighting for years before I got there. I worked there for six years never knowing if I would survive another six months. A member asked me what I thought the solution was to their ongoing problems. I said the solution is in Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9 and Daniel 9 because all three chapters contain prayers of repentance. He got very angry and yelled "There's not going to be any repentance here!" When no one cared about his attitude I finally gave up at that place. I even told the church I was finished with preaching. 

My wife wanted me to quit much earlier for our family's' sake. Preaching was extremely difficult for our children. I was too blind to see how difficult it had been until after damage was done. Men I didn't know called me to encourage me and to tell me that quitting preaching was the best thing they had done for their families. Very sad. 

I am sympathetic with Jeremiah. I have wanted to quit, but can't (Jer. 20:9). The promise of the gospel is too great. The news is too good to remain silent. The good news is that God still loves all of us and wants to save us all and bring every one of us into His family. We are called by the gospel "for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2Th. 2:14) This enables us to live a life rejoicing "in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. 5:2). Do you know of any better news than receiving the glory of God? Any goal in life that is less than receiving the glory God is the wrong goal.  

Observing bad behavior in churches has helped me better understand that the solution is not found in restoring the church to its original form found in the New Testament. That is always a goal, but it is not the goal.  We must be focusing on restoring the image of God in each one of us. If we do that, then, and only then, the church can become what it ought to be. 

Each one of us is called to be filled with the fullness of God, living as a child of God and radiating the image of God in our lives in everything we do.  Yes - you are to be the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19). Just as when people saw Jesus, they could see the Father (Joh. 14:9), when people see us, they should see Jesus living in us.

Sound churches of Christ are filled with people who are learning to live like Christ. The Christian church is made of people who are Christians - imitators of Christ learning to become like Christ. All true disciples of Christ have one purpose, to become like their Master.

We now have God's eternal plan revealed, "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). If Christ is in you, you have a real hope of glory. If Christ is not in you, there is no hope for you at all. It doesn't matter what other doctrinal positions you may hold. We must be disciples becoming like our Master because we want to be like Him when we see Him as He is (1 John 3:2-3).