I have studied this group for 20+ years and there is currently a large gap developing between 2 distinct groups. One group follows the teachings of Memphis School of Preaching the other group holds no allegiance to any institution. The MSOP followers seem to believe in a theocratic oligarchy from which the congregants must adhere to all teachings that their “elders” subscribe to. 3 teachings are that elders choose other elders, binding the use of the king james version and that the Holy spirit dwells within the words of the bible ONLY. They are militant against other churches of Christ that don’t subscribe to these tenets. These churches are more tradition based than bible based. The other type congregations loosely called “autonomous” tend to be more open towards their community and are not nearly “orthodox”, just simply want to worship God as prescribed in the Bible.They believe that the church was “simple” when established and should remain “simple”.
If you have been studying the church of Christ for 20 years you must be working with an extraordinarily small sample size. There is no central organization so there is a tremendous amount of variation.