John Mark Hicks

This essay was first published in Why We Stayed: Honesty and Hope in the Churches of Christ (Los Angeles: Keledei Publications, 2018), pp. 103-120. In the essay, I discuss the emerging differences within Churches in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on (1) rebaptism, (2) female voice in the assembly, and (3) the Holy […]

The following videos are five lecture/sermon presentations and one Q&A from the Ray Evans Seminar held at the Alameda Church of Christ in Norman, Oklahoma, on April 12-14, 2024. The presentations are based on the book Searching for the Pattern, published in 2019.

Wes McAdams leads the ministry at Radically Christian. He interviewed John Mark Hicks about hermeneutics, reading the Bible, and the prospects of unity within the Restoration Movement. You can find the interview here.

Today is its 102nd anniversary. In 1919, Congress passed the nineteenth amendment. Tennessee ratified the amendment on August 18, 1920 by two votes. That vote made it constitutional law. Harry Burn was a 24-year old representative up for re-election that Fall. He wore a red rose into the chamber which symbolized his “No” vote. His […]

James Madison Mathes (1808-1892), who edited the Works of Barton W. Stone, authored an article in the 1882 Gospel Advocate (pp. 490-91) entitled “Woman’s Work.” Mathes was a fellow-journeyman with the conservative leader Benjamin Franklin of Indiana. Franklin shared his perspectives on this topic. He staked out what he thought was a middle ground between […]

Below are three videos that address the question for a pattern in the New Testament, which is typical of Churches of Christ or restoration traditions in general. If one wants more detail, several blogs and my recent book are resources. The book is Searching for the Pattern: My Journey in Interpreting the Bible. Several blogs […]

Abigail M. (Rickoff) Mathes, “Woman’s Work in the Church of Christ” (1878). Some congregations of the churches of Christ practiced and a number of conservative leaders advocated for the visible and audible participation of women as leaders in worshipping assemblies. Abigail was one of them. Abigail was a school teacher and wrote for various periodicals. […]

Below I summarize the point of Searching for the Pattern: My Journey in Interpreting the Bible. Growing up in Churches of Christ, I embraced and practiced a hermeneutic that sought an implicit blueprint for the work and worship of the church in Acts and the Epistles. Through a filter of generic/specific distinctions, coordinate associations, the […]

These are brief: one tidbit each from the Hebrew Bible, the writings of the New Testament, and from the history of Churches of Christ. Hebrew Bible Psalm 68 celebrates the movement of Israel from Egypt (v. 7) to Sinai (v. 8) and then victory in Canaan (vv. 9-14) whereupon God ascends to the throne on […]