Singing Oaks Church of Christ is called to love God and to love others as Jesus loved. We believe that this decision to love matures in each of us as the power of the Holy Spirit works through us to make us disciples of Christ.

What We Offer You For the Journey

People

We offer you ourselves. Singing Oaks is a crowd of caring people who serve the spiritual and physical needs of the Denton area. We have multiple Sunday morning worship services. When you come in the door you will be welcomed and given a name tag. We want you to know our names and we would like to call you by your name. Pick up a newsletter. It has the arrangement of the service with songs, prayers and scripture readings. Feel free to sit wherever you like in our Worship Center and make yourself at home

We want to get to know people on this journey of life.

Worship

We offer you a people-friendly environment for worship, prayer, small group community and encouragement. We meet weekly for corporate worship at multiple times. We have Sunday morning learning experiences for all ages called Bible classes. On Sunday evenings we meet in Home groups around Denton County. On Wednesday we gather to do various ministry work, learning Bible classes for all ages and encourage one another.

Our Sunday morning worship experience is led by our worship minister and our worship teams. These people help lead us to offer our best praise of God. Our music is presented a cappella or without accompaniment. This is a unique feature of our tradition, but not one we intend to be divisive about.

We want to worship God in all of life.

Relationship

We offer you a seat at the table. The central part of our worship on Sundays is sharing the Lord’s Supper together. We eat and drink to celebrate and remember the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This will be passed to you in trays with unleavened crackers and small cups with grape juice.

We want to experience relationship with God and our neighbor.

Teaching

We offer engaging teaching from the Bible, the revelation of God’s work in history. Anyone may join us in a search to understand God’s message to us in the twenty-first century.

The sermon message will speak of God’s activity today. Our preaching Minister makes the Word of God come alive in relevant teaching for our lives today. The same is true of our Bible classes. You can expect to learn the stories of faith and be challenged engaging our contemporary world.

We want to learn and live the Christian faith.

Prayer

We offer to pray to God for you. On Monday of each week we pray for every guest by name. You will be passed a black attendance book to record your name, contact info and prayer request. Let us know how we could pray. We also offer a time when you can be prayed for by one of our leaders during the worship service.

We want to be a people of prayer.

Mission

We offer you opportunities to serve others. We exist to bring people to Jesus. There are dozens of ministries in our church and in partnership with other churches to serve the needs of our community. Explore the ways God helps us grow in love for Him and for others as we join the mission of God.

We want to be people on God’s mission to and for the world.

Faith

We offer you our faith. We are not perfect, but we are authentic in our belief that God is at work in our city, through our church and in your life. Here is a brief summary of our faith and unique practices.

• Our faith is firmly planted in God. God created us, provides for the salvation of humanity through Jesus and acts in the world through Christians filled with God’s Spirit.
• We try to practice Christianity revealed in the New Testament. We are Christians only, but not the only Christians. We read the Bible as God’s word, the reliable map for our life. The Bible is not simply an information guide but transforms of our lives.
• We practice believer’s immersion (baptism) for the remission of sins. God alone brought salvation to people through Jesus. In baptism we are connected with the saving death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (Titus 3:4-7).
• We eat the Lord’s Supper each week to remember the life Jesus offers (Acts 20:7) The bread signifies Jesus’ body and the wine signifies Jesus’ Blood. We eat together to proclaim we share in His eternal Life.
• We worship God through pure living, reading scripture, preaching, prayer, the Lord’s Supper and the ancient practice of acapella singing (without accompaniment).
• We practice the “Priesthood of All Believers” (1 Peter 2:4-9). Every member is a minister and has gifts (1 Corinthians 12) to share with the congregation.
• Churches of Christ led by local Elders and not by a national church hierarchy.

Bottom Line: We want you to discover God as the creator, redeemer and sustainer of your life.

Becoming a Member

If you are interested in becoming a member at Singing Oaks, make plans to attend a “Join the Journey” event, which occurs once a month on Sunday during the Bible class hour at 9:45 am in Room 123B. This special event orients new members to our rich history, core values, and vision for the future. You will meet others that are brand new to Singing Oaks like you and even some “veteran” members who will help you along. You can register for the next “Join the Journey” event here.

Fellowship with the Body

Singing Oaks has an active small groups program. Each Sunday evening many diverse groups meet in homes all over Denton and surrounding areas. We invite and encourage everyone to be a part of one of these groups. If you want more information about joining a group contact the church office (940.387.4355).

In Pursuit of Christian Unity

Our Heritage

The Singing Oaks Church of Christ is a community of believers identified with a tradition generally known as the Stone-Campbell Movement or the Restoration Movement. While it has European roots, it began as a viable movement in America in the early 19th century. Its mission was “to unite the Christians in all the sects” by means of a restoration of primitive Christianity.

There were two frontier movements – each with a passion for the unity of all believers – one led by Barton W. Stone and the other by Alexander Campbell.. These two movements merged in 1832, forming a religious community that eventually identified itself as Disciples of Christ, Churches of Christ, and Christian Churches. Numbering about 25,000 in a few hundred churches in 1832, there are now some seven million members in approximately 25,000 congregations. Churches of Christ – with over 3,000,000 members worldwide in 13,000 congregations — are part of this tradition.

While Churches of Christ are generally Protestant in doctrine – such as believing in the divinity of Christ, the priesthood of all believers, and the inspiration of the Bible – they are unique in that they are part of a movement “born and bred with a passion for Christian unity,” as our earliest historian expressed it. This means that we not only reject sectarianism, but that we seek unity and fellowship with all those who accept Jesus as Lord and obey him according to their understanding.

Our founding pioneers believed they had discovered Biblical principles that would make Christian unity both desirable and practicable, enabling all believers to be one in Christ in spite of differences. These principles centered in making the basic truths of the Christian faith – the core gospel — the basis of unity and fellowship. They expressed this principle in a simple axiom: “In essentials, unity; in opinions and methods, liberty; in all things, love.” Still another axiom – “We are Christians only, but not the only Christians — was their way of saying that by laying aside all sectarian names and looking to Christ alone we can realize our Lord’s prayer that His church be one.

As heirs of such a rich heritage, Singing Oaks Church of Christ, along with all other Churches of Christ, can view our mission and destiny as threefold:

• To become a devoted and responsible community of faith – Christ-centered and Spirit-filled – that accepts its share of the responsibility that rests upon the church at large to reach out in love and compassion to suffering humanity with the gospel of Christ.
• To exemplify in our own congregation that unity for which Christ prayed, to be united by such love and mutual respect that may one day unite all Christians.
• To look to a future – beyond our present vision but not beyond our faith and hope — when we will lose our identity as Churches of Christ, and along with all other believers, become simply the one body of Christ upon earth.

Our History

Singing Oaks traces her roots to the gracious activity of God revealed in the nation of Israel, in Jesus Christ, and in the early Christian Church. We exist because of God’s love. Although our roots run deep, we are also associated with a modern day expression of the ancient faith, the American Restoration Movement, also know as the Stone-Campbell Movement. This movement began around two hundred years ago and functioned as a reformatory movement within American Christianity. It spawned three main Christian groups, including the Disciples of Christ, the Independent Christian Churches, and the Churches of Christ. Singing Oaks is affiliated with Churches of Christ which, since their beginning on American soil, have spread to most countries of the world.

The Churches of Christ became active in Denton prior to the Civil War, yet the first organized congregation wasn’t established until May 27, 1868. Terrell Jasper, the first minister, provided the leadership that helped the church develop in those early years. The Church of Christ met in several locations prior to occupying the piece of ground at Pearl and Bolivar in 1905 where the Pearl Street Church of Christ still meets.

The church enjoyed great growth in those early years and during 1948 Pearl Street helped form a new congregation in the city located at 501 North Wood, now Singing Oaks.

By the early 1950’s the Wood Street congregation was enjoying growth and development. Lyle Price was the church’s first full-time minister. L.W. Hayhurts followed him. Lyle Price, Paul Phillips, Carl Peltier, Marcum Eddie, John Ferguson, and Rowe Meador are among the ministers that served the Wood Street Church of Christ. The first elders to serve the congregation were Charlie Mercer, Elmer Phillips and Hiram Anderson.

By 1968 it was apparent that the Wood Street location was inadequate for the continued development of the church, so a new site was secured at the corner of Cardinal Lane and East McKinney. Singing Oaks became a reality with the construction of a new building which is presently the Singing Oaks sanctuary. Rowe Meador was the minister and George Inman, Clayton Byrom, J.R. Sitton and Louis Gay were the early elders at the new location. Later, Ralph Godfrey assumed the work of preaching minister of this growing congregation.

In 1974, as additional space was needed, construction began on the part of the building which is presently known as our Community Room. By 1980 there was an urgent need for more classrooms and the educational wings were added. The sanctuary was also remodeled to its present state at that time. Growth continued and additional educational space became necessary. A 27,000 square foot addition was completed in 1988 which provided more classrooms, a Reception Room, an activity center, a commercial kitchen and a new office complex. During this exciting time of growth, the congregation’s preaching minister was Don Browning.

It was during this time of expansion that the congregation began ministering to college students on both university campuses. A Campus Center facility was purchased on Hickory Street in 1984. That ministry continues to serve many students each year.

The excellent facilities presently owned by the congregation allow it to be flexible in developing ministries that serve the needs of individuals in Denton. A good example of such a ministry is the Children’s Corner Preschool that is housed in our building. Additional ministries will continually be added when appropriate.

We believe that our history, which began in the mind of God before all things, will not be completed until our Lord Jesus Christ returns in glory and all things are consummated. Until that glorious day, our desire is to bring glory to God, remain faithful to Jesus Christ, and live in the power and communion of the Holy Spirit.