Servants without Hire: Emerging Concepts of Christian Ministry in the Campbell-Stone Movement

Based on the Reed Lectures from 1967, Smith traces the anti-clerical message that accompanied the frontier religious preaching of Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone. Their hopes were that congregations could appoint their own leaders without the undue influence of outsiders. These evangelists were to be first and foremost servants, with no distinction between lay members and ministers. Smith, then traces the development of a professional ministry system within Disciples of Christ into the 1960s as churches called for greater levels of training among their preachers.

With generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and as part of the National Endowment of the Humanities Open Book program, the Abilene Christian University's ACU Press and Brown Library partnered with the Disciples of Christ Historical Society (DCHS) to digitize 25 important backlist titles relevant to Stone-Campbell tradition, theology, and church history. This open access version is hosted by Atla Open Press in furtherance of the purposes of the grant.