When you hear someone suggest studying church history, do you instantly want to take a nap? Does the concept sound ancient and boring? Do you imagine it’s something a college kid might have to study but not a full-grown adult? I had to study church history in college, and honestly, I wasn’t excited about the class. It sounded so boring! I didn’t want to look back. I wanted to dive into my future.
But I was wrong. I learned a lot in that church history class all those years ago (about two decades now, but who’s counting?), and I loved it! It became one of my favorite classes as I learned about all the incredible people who have come before me. Their lives are important, and it’s exciting to learn about the amazing things God has done.
I’m not going to lie; there is a dark side to church history. Humans aren’t perfect, and mistakes have been made. Evil has been done in the name of God, and as hard as those stories are to learn about, we need to know about them so we can do better. Shining the light of Christ into the darkness is one way to move forward with healing instead of shame.
Why Is Church History More Important than We Think?
Denying history, ignoring history, or trying to change history does not change what happened. We don’t stop reading the Old Testament because it includes accounts of godly people doing horrible things. Those stories are difficult to read, but we still read them because they teach us something. We can learn from the mistakes and outright sins of others. We can find hope in the stories of repentance and redemption and know that if we ask, God will forgive us too. He can use anyone!
David is known as a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), yet he failed miserably multiple times. He made bad decisions which often led to more bad decisions. But David didn’t wallow in sin. When confronted with his sin, he repented and returned to God. God used David to do incredible things and wants to do incredible things through us too. If we only knew about David’s victories and great faith, it would be easy to feel hopeless and useless. Because we know of both David’s failures and his faith, we can be filled with hope and confidence that God will use us, too, despite our past mistakes.
Seeing the good and bad in the people and events comprising church history can only make us better. The stories of good inspire us to allow God to use us too, and the stories of evil expose the darkness. As John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (NLT).
Why Is it Important that Christians Known Their Denomination’s Church History?
Many churches are part of a larger denomination. A denomination is many things, but most simply, it’s an organizational structure. Every local church that belongs to a denomination must agree with that denomination’s statement of faith and abide by the guidelines the denomination sets forth. Think of it this way: if you were starting a business and decided to join an existing franchise, you would do your homework first. You would research different companies and find one that did what you wanted to do, made what you wanted to make, and ideally, had the same ethics and beliefs that you do. If your research found out that a company consistently ripped off their customers or got in trouble for mishandling money, you probably wouldn’t want to start a franchise under that company.
In the same way, a Christian needs to know their denomination’s church history. When moving to a new location for work or school, I have researched churches and the denominations they belong to find a church that would be a good fit for me. I read their statements of faith to see what they believe. On their website, I find the story of the history of the church or denomination and how they have been and are currently involved in the community and the world.
But there’s another reason we should know our denomination’s church history. It’s inspiring! I had to attend another class in college that was all about the history and beliefs of the denomination I’m a part of. I learned how and why the denomination was founded, who founded it, and how God worked through them to do some incredible things. I learned about missionaries sent to all corners of the world through this denomination and how God had used them to spread His name and fame to people who had never even heard the name of Jesus before.
When we know the history of our denomination, we know how our denomination fits into the greater church history and the roles it has played. Learning about those who came before us can help us learn from their mistakes and inspire us to live for Jesus and share Him with those around us. A denomination is a big family, and as we learn about our family, our roots grow deeper, and we realize we can serve God better together.
Why Should Non-Denominational Christians Understand Church History?
There’s the church, and then there’s the church. There is the specific church you belong to and the body of Christian followers (sometimes spelled the church) throughout history. If you are part of a non-denominational church, it’s still important to understand church history because you’re a part of it. The church is the family of God, and the family of God has a history!
A movie came out recently that has a lot of people talking. There’s a good chance you’ve seen it. It’s called Jesus Revolution. Maybe you lived through the real Jesus revolution (sometimes called the Jesus Movement) that spread across the country in the 1970s. The Jesus revolution was part of recent church history, and its impact can be felt by almost everyone alive today, whether we realize it or not.
There have been a lot of discussions as people talk about how the movement or the movie impacted them. Many people think there is a new Jesus revolution happening. Revivals have been popping up all over the world, the most notable probably being the one at Asbury University. This is even more recent church history.
There is no doubt that God is on the move and that He is shaking things up. But He has been doing that for as long as the world has existed. As we create our church history today, it’s important to remember the church history of the past. What can we learn from it? Who can we share it with? How has it shaped who we are today and where we’re going tomorrow?
How Can We Start Learning Church History?
Learning church history doesn’t have to be boring. One of the best ways to learn more recent church history is to talk with the senior members of our churches. Listen to their stories. Ask them to share what they have seen in their lives and how the history they lived through has impacted the world as we see it today.
If you’re wondering what happened today (or any other date) in the church’s history, you can find out via On This Day in Church History. Watching movies or documentaries about historical church events or people from church history is another great way to learn. The internet is a goldmine of information. Start with your local church and denomination, and see what you can learn. And, of course, there are books. So many books!
5 Great Books for Teaching Church History to Kids
- Saint Patrick the Forgiver: The History and Legends of Ireland’s Bishop by Ned Bustard
- George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans by Janet & Geoff Benge
- Corrie ten Boom: Keeper of the Angels’ Den by Janet & Geoff Benge
- Brother Andrew: God’s Secret Agent by Janet & Geoff Benge
- God’s Timeline: The Big Book of Church History by Linda Finlayson
5 Great Books for Teaching Church History to Adults
- Church History in Plain Language, Fifth Edition by Bruce & Marshall Shelley
- Church History in Plain Language, First Edition, by Bruce L. Shelley*
- Christian History in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic by Jennifer Woodruff Tait
- The Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History by Stephen Backhouse
- America’s Religious History: Faith, Politics, and the Shaping of a Nation by Thomas S. Kidd
*I read Church History in Plain Language in college and loved it. That book is lost in storage, so I ordered the updated fifth edition several months back. It differs from the first edition, so I included them both. I like how the first edition reads better than the fifth, but they are both excellent resources.
If a book is too much for you to read right now, but you’re still interested in learning more about church history, one of the Christianity.com history articles is a great place to start. As you dive into the people and history of the church, remember that the power to do anything great comes from God and God alone!
“You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” (2 Corinthians 4:5-7, NLT)
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Zephyr18
