Ship of Fools: Church of Christ, Valley Congregation, Glendale, Arizona, USA

The Mystery Worshipper

Ship of Fools: Church of Christ, Valley Congregation, Glendale, Arizona, USA

An inspiring sermon proclaims that people who ignore God are as useless as rotten underwear

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here

Amanda B Reckondwyth

All right -- since no one has claimed to know -- "Flipping all the cards" refers to a TV program of the '50s and early '60s called What's My Line. A panel of celebrities had to guess the occupation of various guests -- occupations that were for the most part unusual in an interesting way. The panelists could only ask questions that could be answered Yes or No. The moderator had a stack of ten cards in front of him, each bearing a dollar amount. Each panelist could ask as many questions as he or she wanted to so long as the guest kept answering with Yes. If the guest answered No to any question, turn would pass to the next panelist and the moderator would flip a card. The panelist whose turn it was could guess the guest's occupation at any time, and if the guess was correct the guest would win whatever dollar amount was showing on the cards. If it became obvious that the panelists didn't have the slightest idea of what the guest's profession was, the moderator would "flip all the cards" and the guest would win the highest dollar amount showing on the cards.

Portola

"What's my line?" was one of my favorite TV programs of all time; it came every Sunday evening at 10:30 PM. It can be seen on YouTube and is still entertaining to watch. Celebrities like Peter Ustinov, Woody Allen or Jack Lemon served on the panel at a time when they were not yet big stars. So I know exactly what "flipping all the cards" means. It also occured often at the end of a program when time was running out.

Alan29

What is the subtext when a church calls itself "The Church of Christ?" Are the other churches not also churches of Christ?

Amanda B Reckondwyth

One wonders sometimes.

RecoveringCynic

"Churches of Christ" in the United States are the result of the Restoration Movement in the nineteenth century that sought to reform the church from within, and was very sola scriptura (except scriptura being primarily the New Testament). As such, they one of those denominations that isn't organizationally a denomination at all. Their other main distinctive is that many do not use instruments in worship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_Movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churches_of_Christ

Nick Tamen

Alan29 wrote: »

What is the subtext when a church calls itself "The Church of Christ?" Are the other churches not also churches of Christ?

The don’t call themselves “The Church of Christ.” The call themselves “Churches of Christ.”

As noted in the MW report and in the articles to which @RecoveringCynic linked, they’re a loose association of churches arising out of the Restoration Movement. A fundamental part of that movement was an emphasis on returning to (“restoring”) the Christianity of the NT/early church. Consistent with that, they eschewed any designation or name a church might have other than “Christian” or “church of Christ,” typically coupled with a location—e.g., “Smallville Church of Christ.”

It’s not so much a statement that other churches are not churches of Christ as a statement that no identity is needed or warranted beyond “church of Christ.”

This is probably the point at which I should share that my grandmother used to laugh at how a woman she knew, who was a member of a church of Christ, once referred to my grandmother’s Presbyterian church as a “nickname church.”