Thursday, November 15, 2012

The True Followers



I have received some church history and will be posting snapshots from this very dense material. Please forgive the somewhat confusing diction. Other than minor details, this is the wording used in the original documentation:

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In 1918, when most of the churches changed their names from True Followers of Christ to the name of The General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, the church that is located between Cleo Springs and Ringwood, Oklahoma decided that to change the name of the church would make them heretics. This resulted in them rejecting all of the other churches.

This church has had many splits since that time. One of the groups that split off years ago have a church that was started by Brother Marion Reece at Ringwood and some of his descendants are still attending that church. Three of Marion Reece’s grandsons were elders of that congregation. The had meetings there on the forth Sunday of the month and every Thursday night. Charlie Smith was the brother that moved to Idaho and started that group there. The brethren that lived west of Enid that go by the True Followers use the scripture for a woman to keep silence in church, and forbid women to speak in prophecy in the church.

The following church history was received by Brother Jack Robinson in the early 1980s:

Followers of Christ Church

Minsters through the years from the early days’ history:
Mr. Burton – baptized Mr. Brewer
Mr. Brewer – baptized Mr. McDonald
Mr. McDonald – baptized Mr. Marion Reece
Mr. Marion Reece – Baptized Mr. Tommie Morris
Mr. Marion Reece – Baptized John Morris
Mr. Tommie Morris – baptized W.A. Morris
Mr. Tommie Morris – baptized Marion Morris

Church was built on John Morris’ land in 1946 where he had homesteaded 60x23 feet – later more square feet was added on. John Morris pleased, after long discussion that one day he drove by W.A. Morris and Jon and Duane had hauled the first loads of sand and makings for foundation.

When John Morris was asked what we’d call church after it was built, he replied, “it’s Church in Wildwood for Followers of Christ.

Marion Reece married Lydia Morris.
W.A. Morris and Marion Morris were John Morris’s sons.

Prior to 1940 – George Long and George Oakley were ministers. The elders were Elliott and Reed.

Charlie Smith married Sally Morris and moved away from the church to the northwest. He ordained White and Baldwin.

The split up the Ringwood, Oklahoma church came in 1940 on the third Sunday meeting. George Long and George Oakley didn’t agree about fornication and certain teachings. Therefore, John Morris told them that he would continue to have church on the fourth Sunday meeting at a school near where he lived until 1946 when the building was built on his land.

John Morris and his son Marion Morris ordained Ed Long, John’s nephew. Elders W.A. Morris, his son, Cecil Morris Senior.

After John Morris passed away, Marion Morris and W.A. Morris, and Cecil Morris senior carried on as church elders. After the elder Jack Watkins passed away, they ordained elders Jim Wallace, Ted Nakvinda, and Gary Wallace.

Men who spoke in tongues in the past included: George Oakley, Charlie Smith, Will Nichols, Jim Hayes, Monroe Testamen, and Alva Brown.

This was verified by W.A. Morris and submitted by his niece, Joyce Morris.
 

19 comments:

  1. Wow this is super interesting. I've always wondered about the history of the church but its always been a mystery

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  2. Thanks for posting. knowledge is wonderful.

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  3. I am amazed at the people that do not know about the history of the early church. I think I have posted it before, but for those of you that did not catch it, you can go here and on the left hand side, is all the history you will ever want to read. Enjoy; http://www.globalsunshine.com/COTFBhistory.htm

    Bro. Bill Porter

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  4. Yah,,,,, that was a great advertisement for anything but religion bill , good stuff though, I'll stick to this blog for my info!

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  5. It is interesting that FOC tradition says that they go all the way back to the twelve apostles. Reality and evidence says it began in the 1800s.

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    1. 1800s? Just because the article at hand left off at that time frame does not preclude that is in fact the beginning of our faith. There is much more to the story.


      Darren

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    2. Darren, there is no evidence that this church did not begin in the 1800's. Evidence says it did begin in the 1800's. Maybe some offshoot of something before?

      The claim the FOC and COTFB have made is that they are the one correct church and they go back to the original apostles and because of that, their teachings are correct. That is what they claim. This is a gigantic leap of faith not based in reality. This belief is something they and (you?) hold onto so that they can claim they go to the correct church.

      The FOC in Oregon City has taken this to the greatest degree and it has morphed into something bad in my opinion, and that is the belief that attendance at the correct church saves as long as you do not sin too badly.

      Jesus saves says the bible. Churches can go wrong.

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    3. Are you sure there is "no evidence" to the church exisiting prior to the 1800s? I know differently!

      My faith rests upon christ and his many words and promises. Among them is matthew 16:18.

      Assemblies can indeed go wrong and if they do not repent in the space allotted to them their candlestick is removed. The church has, does, and always will exist.

      Darren

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    4. I never said there was "no evidence" that "this" church existed before the 1800's. More precisely, speaking about the FOC in Oregon City, the evidence points to its roots being in the 1800's. You may have some lineage back to the 1700's or 1600's, but before that the evidence is lacking.

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    5. Questions for Suiz… & Darren… This is not a vendetta

      Your saying your church (Foc/Cofb) teaches the way of Christ 100%. People here… find that hard to believe. What one writes and what one does... big difference. I cannot affirm this true or false. Without a thorough, investigation of the matter, I will not know...

      I am not… interested in the linage of the (foc&cofb) church, but rather do they teach the way of god? Does the church (foc/cofb)… do what has so often been written?

      “Shunning when you do not follow the rules perfectly.”

      “They don’t teach Christ; they teach themselves. The only evangelists they have are young woman that go out to find men to bring them in, if the men do not conform then the marriage cannot happen…”

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    6. Hi Anonymous and thank you for your questions. I left this church many years ago and keep this blog as a way of exploring my roots and the history of these groups. I do not endorse the religion/group.

      I come from the Oregon City FOC. You are incorrect in suggesting that there are any evangelists at all in that group. New members are not allowed. If a young woman marries outside the group (as I did), they are shunned.

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    7. I was not suggesting that at all. Written in Quotation marks were quotes from others.

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    8. I understand your quotes was from others. People who share a much different experience than I have. When we were speaking of the church I was mentally referring to the only church I know. I have never set foot in the OC FOC and my only statements concerning them has been about our common history and the reasons that have separated them from the rest of the church.

      To answer your question directly, YES I do belong to a evangelistic church which I am convinced is "the pillar and ground of the truth."

      Darren

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. The FOC/COTFB cannot prove that their baptism linage was handed down from the twelve apostles to each man through out the generations to them. It is proven that baptism was handed down from John the Baptist and reached many people till now. Many religions… of Christianity do the ceremony of baptism… If some one desires to be with Jesus, he will direct them on whom to go too to attain baptism, or he will do the field commission of baptism like he did with the theft that was being crucified with him. Field commission meaning: it was not possible to get them to the place needed to do all the formal ceremonies.
    It is silly of people to ask questions that they already know the answers to, or make a clam that they know is questionable.

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  8. I am curious to what the "Followers" know about Jim Hayes and Monroe Testamen, or whether any have even heard of them? Seems they were accepted as having been spirit led men by the FOC in the early days but I never hear of them mentioned by them.

    Darren

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  9. Lack of pretension?

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  10. Cecil Morris Sr was a black man, not the son of Wm A Morris who was practically the same age.

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  11. Cecil Morris Sr. was a black man not son of W.A. Morris who was practically same age.

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