The Voice of the Restoration
The Restoration Foundation began as a ministry of James Vinzant in the 1970s as a means to publish material that related to congregations of the churches of Christ. The State of Texas as well as the Internal Revenue Service recognizes the work of the Restoration Foundation as being a non-profit, tax exempt entity. It was ruled a public charity on August 6, 1979 under Section 509(a)(1) which primarily includes churches, schools, hospitals, and other organizations that receive their public support primarily from gifts, grants and contributions from a broad group of people. The EID number is: 74-1994084. Since its inception forty-five years ago, Vinzant has never accepted a salary; all contributions are applied to this work. The first project was a best selling book, “The Special Contribution,” which chronicled congregations that had large, one-time contributions.
A lifelong student of church history, Vinzant has traveled to many of the places associated with what some call “The American Restoration Movement,” or “The Stone-Campbell” movement. He prefers to call it the “Church that Jesus established on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.”
Impressed by generations in his family who were gospel preachers, Vinzant took a special interest in traveling to and researching the practical points of some of the great men and women in our history over the past 200 years.
In his lessons and presentations, Vinzant details the story of Barton Stone, Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and many others who, in their quest for unity, began from different points of the religious spectrum but whose goal was to try to return to the unity that Jesus longed for and which he demanded His disciples follow.
Rather than giving a cold academic lecture of boring names, places and events, Vinzant shares pertinent events and makes characters come to life. This is something many will remember for the rest of their life. It is comforting in this day and age in the “changing” church to know that these issues have already been fought over and the Bible prevailed.
If your congregation would like to schedule James to come and teach a combined adult class and then preach on a Sunday morning, please contact him. Generations ago, many knew much more about this important topic than do today. Let’s see that this story continues to be passed down from our generation to those who follow. There is no better mission for congregations to support than to tell the story of men and women of faith who blazed the trail of undenominational Christianity.