The Non-Handshaking Church

Charles Stelding

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     I've always been interested in what other religious groups teach and last week while reading the Sunday papers, I noticed a most interesting ad. The ad announced the services of the "Non-Handshaking Church."
     I promptly telephoned the minister, Dr. Warren Engkopf, and made an appointment to speak with him that afternoon. Here is our conversation:
     "Good afternoon, Dr. Engkopf. I just want to speak with you about your church. I noticed your ad in the newspaper this morning and found it quite interesting."
     Engkopf, a nice confident-looking young man, probably in his early 30 s, appeared eager to answer all my questions, but immediately corrected me for calling his church "his" church. "It isn't my church," he said. "Our church has existed for 2,000 years, being founded on the day of Pentecost, A.D. 33.
     "Tell me, Dr. Engkopf, why is your church called the 'Non-Handshaking Church'?"
     "That's a very unfortunate name, but we find it convenient because it helps differentiate our group from others like us--especially convenient for our out-of-town visitors who come to our city looking for the true church to worship with."
     "What makes your group different from others?"
     "Well, the Non-Handshaking Church is not a sect. We believe in going back to the Bible, to speak where the Bible speaks, and be silent where the Bible is silent."
     "Very good, but do you have something against shaking hands?"
     "Not personally. I really like to shake hands. But it's a matter of apostolic command and example. Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded, nor are there examples of anyone shaking hands!"
     "I'm not quite sure I understand."
     "It's a matter of generics and specifics," Dr. Engkopf said. "You see, if the Bible had just said 'Greet one another', there would be no problem. That is only a general command and it would not mat-

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ter if we shook hands, greeted with a kiss or whatever other ways there are of greeting. But instead the Bible commands a specific way of greeting which excludes all other ways."
     "And what way of greeting is that?"
     Dr. Engkopf knew I was going to ask that and leaned forward behind his desk to emphasize his point.
     "The Apostle Paul in several of his letters makes it very clear how we are to greet one another! for example, 'Greet one another with a holy kiss,' Romans 16, verse 16."
     "Oh yes, I remember that. But Dr. Engkopf, wasn't that just a practice of the church in the first century? Wasn't that a custom of the time?"
     "It definitely was! That's why we don't believe in handshaking. We want to be the New Testament church. Any other way of greeting is adding to New Testament practice. Second John nine says, 'Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.'"
     "I'm also familiar with that Scripture."
     "We want to follow the New Testament pattern. Any other way is violating the plain commands of Scripture. When God told Noah to build the ark out of gopher wood, that excluded all other kinds of wood. Nadab and Abihu offered a kind of fire which God didn't command. The holy kiss is the only way God commands us to greet one another. That means handshaking is wrong!"
     That seemed to be an odd way to argue, I thought to myself. I saw I wasn't going to get very far in our conversation, so l changed the subject.
     "Dr. Engkopf, what does your church feel about ecumenism?"
     "We think that if the Ecumenical Movement is to make any progress, it will have to listen to us."
     "And what would you say?"
     "Unity can only be accomplished by going back to the plain teachings of the Bible and following them exactly. The Non-Handshaking Church started out really as a unity movement. The only way the church today can go forward is by going backward to the first century!"
     "That's a good idea. . . . You would demand then that all the denominations quit shaking hands, right?"
     "Exactly! It's just a simple matter of following the plain commands of Scripture. Some people call our position on handshaking rather narrow, but remember Jesus said, 'Narrow is the way that leads to life.'"
     Dr. Engkopf had a ready answer for everything I asked. I must admit he did have a point, but somehow it just didn't make sense. He apparently saw I wasn't convinced.
     "We do allow handselling in the privacy of homes, at weddings and sometimes at funerals. But handshaking at church is not allowed. . . . You see, church history bears out our practice. The church fathers continued the apostolic example of kissing, as Justin Martyr in his Apologia, I, chapter 65, illustrates. All the evidence points to the fact the handshaking replaced kissing around 800 A.D. We just believe in restoring the first century church for modern man. You believe that too, don't you?"
     "I promptly said yes. Yet I couldn't help feeling that something was wrong somewhere. Dr. Engkopf was so confident in what he was raying and the Non-Handshaking churches are the fastest growing churches in the world, according to the latest statistics. Their membership now exceeds two-and-a-half thousand.
     I'll never forget my conversation with Dr. Engkopf. From time to time I glance at the church ads to see if his church is still in town. They have a new motto now: "Greet one another with a holy kiss. The Non-Handshaking Church greets you!"