By Glenn Thomas Carson, President
Disciples of Christ Historical Society

Brigham Young famously led his flock to the hilltop overlooking what is now Salt Lake City and said “This is the place.” He firmly believed that God had directed him to this exact spot, at this exact time, to secure the future of his movement. The founder, Joseph Smith, was gone. Falling as a martyr in Illinois, Smith had left a vision and a legacy, but the real leadership belonged to Young.

Interestingly, the movement that resulted in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the movement which resulted in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Churches of Christ, and Christian Churches/Churches of Christ were born on the American landscape at about the same time. The early 1800s spawned what historians call the ‘Second Great Awakening.’ It was during this period that a plethora of religious sects emerged, and they all claimed to know the one, true way to God. Of those, Mormons and the descendants of Christians and Disciples have had the most lasting effect on American culture and society. In the final analysis, they both lost their initial founders and were called upon to find their own way(s).

“This is the place” might well be the phrase that forms parentheses around both movements. While it was Young who uttered the phrase in the dry air of Utah over 150 years ago, it still rings true as a call to purpose and action in every generation. As members of what we call Stone-Campbell churches, we find ourselves in a place and time where, whatever it was the founders intended, the meaning and passion that was theirs are not exactly ours. In fact, many of the people now attending our congregations have scant memory of names like Campbell and Stone and Scott. If some have heard the names in passing, they have little, if any, idea of what their dreams and ideologies were concerning the Church and her mission on earth. “Watch over their souls,” Alexander Campbell admonished elders, but what he meant by that, and why he said it, would be difficult questions for many congregants today.

So, where from here? It’s no use trying to regain Cane Ridge or Brush Run or Bethany, without some sense of why they mattered in the first place. Barton W. Stone could easily have said “this is the place” when he urged for a revival to be held at his Kentucky church in the first decade of the nineteenth century. But, now, two hundred years later, how do we locate the ‘place’ in our own lives, and gain any real spiritual traction for what God is calling us to do? Alexander Campbell could have shouted “this is the place” when he broke ground for his college in Bethany (now, West Virginia). Surely the enlightenment ideals of conscience and responsibility and accurate thinking would shine forth from this bright light of higher learning. The place where Campbell lived and taught stands today as a wonderful example of what foresight can produce. And, yet, most of us have never wandered down the winding road to Bethany and find little comfort in philosophies that fired hearts and minds two centuries ago.

The place where we now find ourselves is one full of uncertainty about today and the future. The unity of faithful persons that we once strove for seems just beyond our grasp. For some, the call to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ all around the world fails to ignite the passion that it did for our grandparents. And the feel of ‘one Church for our one world’ has slipped below the radar of spirit that we now tune to.

Where from here? It is too easy to say ‘to the west,’ as Young and his tribe did. For even if we did start out in a direction we had never been, who’s to say that it is the right one anyway? Well, you are to say. And I am to say. And all of us together are to answer the question with one voice. Where from here? I’m still discovering the answer. And I know that I cannot get there alone, or if I could, I wouldn’t want to, because what would it matter to be there if you weren’t there with me?

Let’s borrow that comforting certainty from Brigham Young. Right now, where we are standing, the direction we are facing, the challenges we are juggling, and the questions we are pondering – Right Now – This is the place. And it is from this place that we must stride into the future, hand-in-hand, for like it or not, this is the place we are, and we had best start seeing God’s vision from here.