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About R.I.S.

Research and Information Services, Inc. is a non-profit corporation which publishes books and other information primarily related to three interconnected and little-known nameless sects. These usually meet in homes. The largest of these calls itself "The Truth" and is presided over by a nominally homeless and itinerant ministry who are known as "Workers," "Apostles," "Servants," etc.* Their catch-phrase is "meetings in the home and the ministry without a home." Private Sunday morning "fellowship meetings" and mid-week "Bible study" meetings are held in the homes of elders in each area. This larger group also holds public "Gospel Meetings" and private "Special Meetings" in rented halls, as well as large, annual "Conventions" of members (usually in rural locales and often in facilities constructed for this purpose). The sect has a distinct, though often denied, hierarchy consisting of Overseers, senior workers and elders which developed under George Walker, William Gill, William Jamieson, Jack Carroll, William Hughes and other early leaders. In contrast, the two smaller groups have rejected a separate ministry and hierarchy, and they neither hire halls for public meetings nor build and maintain facilities for conventions.

Our goal is to document the the history and doctrines of these sects. Although our main efforts have been in traditional publishing, this site contains historical materials from our archives, including items contributed by others and displayed here with their permissions.

We believe that searching the Scriptures is the basis for testing and defending doctrine. We believe that raising questions and searching out answers regarding any belief undermines neither faith or truth itself. Acts 17:11 says of the Bereans, " these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." If they were praised for checking out what they heard from the lips of the Apostle Paul, there is nothing wrong with questioning today. R.I.S. is not a church, nor is it a branch of any denomination.

Truth can be questioned and examined without fear. Truth stands on its own merit, regardless of who states it — or who questions it. " For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." –2 Corinthians 13:8

* Other names for the group have included "workers and friends" (or "friends and workers"), "Cooneyites" (sometimes misspelled "Coneyites" or "Connyites"), "Tramps" or "Tramp Preachers," "the Way," "les anonymes," "non-denominational gospel meetings," "Secredismo", "die namenlossen," "home meetings," "gospel meetings," "the no-name fellowship," "the friends," "the Truth as it is in Jesus," "the Testimony," "Christian Conventions," "the secret sect," "Assemblies of Christians" (or "Christian Assemblies"), "Christian Missionaries," "the Jesus Way," "the New Testament church," "the church in the home," "Two by Twos" (or "2x2s"), "the nameless church," "Truth meetings," and other titles (both formal names used for official purposes only and descriptive nicknames used by members and outsiders).

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