Darren Russell: Monikers of our Faith

Darren Russell, is from Tulare, California and is related to Marion Reese, Charles Calvin Smith, and the Morris family. On January 25, 2012, Russell contributed his first guest blog on Early Church History. Today Russell addresses the question of church names. Please come back on Wednesday, February 8 for a continuation of this topic.

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A good name is better than precious ointment.

Ecclesiastes 7:1

When our faith hit these shores the predominant denomination was Congregationalist, but Rhode Island was home to the Baptists, and Pennsylvania to the Quakers. For lack of a better term they called us “Quaker Baptists” of which we were neither. Among ourselves we used the term “The Brethren.”

In the early 1700s there was a group that moved to New Jersey and created their own farming community. No name has ever been learned in which they called themselves, they disdained all creeds except the Bible, they abhorred denominationalism and so never hung a sign on their meeting house, and they hammered upon paid clergy, lawyers and doctors. They also were very upright citizens but opposed to war, especially those with political objectives. As a people they suffered greatly through the Revolution, losing much of their estates, because many suspected them of being treasonous closet Loyalists. 


This set off a migration and many fled to British Canada, Long Island, Western New York and to an area called Redstone which was on the border of Kentucky near Fayette, PA. Some returned to Connecticut from where they had originally moved.

The American Revolution had served a godly purpose of scattering the Faith all over the land reminiscent of God's dealing with the Apostles who refused to leave Jerusalem. They still considered themselves solely “Christian” and refused to organize as a religion.

By the early 1800s we find these different groups referring to themselves as “True Followers of Christ” and “Free Brethren.” It was never conceived of as a name as much as they were describing themselves in ways that communicated to the different sects they wanted no part of them. Bro. Elias Brewer was one such New Englander living in Western New York until 1826 and then moving on to Michigan. In Superior, Michigan he held meetings in his home for the “Free Brethren” and a few years later two members of his congregation, his son, John, and Judge Parkhurst erected a “Free Church” next door to him. He died there in 1870 and is buried in the Free Church Cemetery, which belonged to the church.

New York was also where Brewer baptized Jacob McDonald, where an infernal prophet created and organized a near replica of the Church, and the Brethren first received the name “The Kissers.”

The rising of the Mormons in the same place initiated confusion for the church, they were very similar in doctrine at that time and the followers of Joseph Smith referred to themselves also as “The True Followers of Christ” and “The Church of the First Born”. Smith later had a revelation that changed their name to something similar to what they are known by now, and added temple and priesthood doctrines which stretched the doctrinal differences. Many of the Faith were among the first converts of Mormonism which created much friction in future generations.

McDonald moved to Wisconsin in 1842. There were Brethren in Missouri as well, and one of them in 1850, Johnson Wright deeded his land to “Christ....and to the General Assembly and Church of the First Born”. After the Civil War the Wisconsin group led by McDonald joined those in Missouri. McDonald would move one last time to Smith County, Kansas where he died in 1891.

In the 1870s calling themselves “The True Followers of Christ,” McDonald, Marion Reece, John Annis and others preached the gospel. They were in the newspapers of the day slandered to be Mormons, but usually called “McDonaldites” from their leader, or “Faith Preachers” from their doctrine. These brethren were among the first that took up stakes in Oklahoma Territory in 1889.

In 1906, before Oklahoma was granted statehood, a letter was written from Stillwater, OK to Governor Frantz on whether or not “The Followers of Christ or Church of the First Born” were a State-recognized body and capable of performing their own marriages legally. Stillwater is where Bro. Lawrence Webb was from, and where he returned after Oregon.

In Indiana about the same time, the Church there became known as the “Viners”. This was because of the preaching to the people that they should repent and be baptized into “The True Vine.”

When WWI came about many of the people of the Faith refused to enter the war effort for conscientious reasons. A few were imprisoned and many investigated for draft evasion. The Church was even investigated for harboring German spies! The Draft Board was having issue with the Followers because they lacked an organization, formal creed, permanent building, or even so much as a uniform designation. This led to the Church being denied conscientious objector status for its members.

Two congregations in particular seeking to alleviate the situation filed petitions with the authorities to be recognized as legitimate assemblies for religious exemptions. “The General Assembly and Church of the First Born” of Indianapolis, Indiana and “The Church of the First Born also known as The Followers of Christ” in Homestead, Oklahoma. The story passed down was that both groups sought the designation “True Followers of Christ” but it was rejected by the authorities as either already taken or too vague for the purpose of identification.

When WWII hit most groups opted to fall under the umbrella of Indiana's group, homestead no longer being an active body, for purposes of the impending draft. Most at that time used the expression “Followers of Christ” to denote who they were as a group.

Since then many congregations, seeking tax exempt status, have been incorporating under different variations of these names. Personally it seems a mistake to me, if not sacrilege, to register a church's identity for tax advantage, or to incorporate and treat the “Church of the living God” as if it is merchandise.