Forest Lake Christian Church (FLCC) is one of many churches through out the US that belong to what is commonly referred to as “The Restoration Movement.” This movement began in the early 1800’s under the guidance of Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell, both men, member’s of mainline denominational churches. Stone and Campbell however became dissatisfied with all the disunity between the denominations and called for Christians everywhere to unite under one church, Christ’s Church. Thus began the “Restoration Movement.”

The Bible describes the church as the body of Christ on earth. God has only one Book, the Bible, and in that Book He encourages us to be one family. The church you read about in Scripture was just that. No denominations. No “infighting.” The best way to act as one family, we believe, is to strive to be as much like the church described in the New Testament as possible. Therefore we try to model ourselves on the biblical church.

This is seen in how we worship. In addition to songs, prayers, and preaching, we serve the Lord’s Supper each Sunday, just as the early church did. The Communion consists of bread and juice representing Jesus’ body and blood, given so our sins could be forgiven. Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

This church is independent, electing its own leaders. But Christ is our ultimate leader and the Bible is our only guide. We do not belong to a denomination or consider ourselves a denomination. We want to be just Christians-without any label. If people could simply be Christians back in the New Testament days, why can’t we now? While we don’t claim to be the only Christians, we want to be Christians only.

With all this said it must be said that this family of churches is not without it’s family feud. A group within the movement, the Churches of Christ, does not use any musical instruments in their worship service. Another group, the Disciples of Christ, is more liberal in their beliefs. But in the spirit of unity efforts are under way to reconcile our differences.