Denominations
Churches of Christ
Christianity
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Origin 1801 to 1906
The Churches of Christ are the noninstrumental, congregationally governed branch of the American Restoration Movement, sharing its nineteenth-century root in Barton Stone's and the Campbells' frontier reform movements but formally counted as a separate body only in the 1906 United States religious census, when the movement's more conservative Southern wing, led by figures such as David Lipscomb, asked to be listed apart from the Disciples of Christ. Its congregations reject the name of any human founder or denominational label, hold Scripture as their sole rule of faith, and worship without instrumental music, which they consider an unscriptural addition to New Testament practice. With no central headquarters or convention, each congregation is entirely self-governing, and the fellowship is concentrated most heavily in Tennessee and Texas.
Facts
Belief
Defining Doctrinal PositionSourced to the subject's own accountRestorationist: holds the apostolic church to have been lost and restored 1Tradition: Christianity Position on SexualitySame-sex orientation or practice is held to bar full membership or participation 2 Churches of Christ is a non-denominational, congregationally autonomous fellowship with no central teaching authority; reporting drawing on named leaders across the movement finds members generally hold sex is reserved for marriage between a man and a woman and describe homosexuality as sin, while urging pastoral engagement over condemnation. Congregational support programs distinguish same-sex attraction from acting on it, aimed at helping a member refrain from the latter, and no reading found states an open-membership carve-out for a person in an active same-sex relationship. Sexuality Position DetailChurches of Christ has no central governing body; congregations are independently autonomous, so no single national statement exists. Reporting by a publication serving the movement, drawing on named leaders across several congregations, finds a broadly shared teaching that God reserves sexual intimacy for marriage between a man and a woman and that homosexual practice is sin, held alongside an emphasis on showing compassion rather than condemnation toward a person who experiences same-sex attraction. Several congregations described in the reporting maintain counseling and support structures aimed specifically at helping a member refrain from acting on the attraction, treating the attraction itself and the practice as morally distinct. No account read states that an openly gay or lesbian member in an active same-sex relationship retains ordinary membership on the same terms as other members. 2 Finances
Financial Disclosure RegimeNo central body exists to disclose anything. Each congregation is legally and financially autonomous, with many separately claiming 501(c)(3) or church tax exemption on their own. 3 History
Separation or DivergenceSourced to the subject's own accountThe Disciples of Christ, over the use of instrumental music in worship and centralized missionary societies, formalized in the 1906 United States religious census 1 Date of SeparationSourced to the subject's own account Organisation
GovernanceCongregational: each congregation self-governing 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountEach congregation entirely self-governing, led by its own elders and deacons, with no national convention or headquarters OrdinationSourced to the subject's own accountIn most congregations, leadership roles are reserved for men, though the question has drawn internal debate in recent decades Status
Status TodaySourced to the subject's own accountLiving tradition, practised today 1 Trajectory
Membership Over TimeSourced to the subject's own accountAn estimated 1,300,000 people held membership in the Churches of Christ in the United States around 1990, a scholarly estimate rather than a count taken from a single census or from any central membership roll, since the movement is congregationally governed and keeps no denomination-wide register. 1 Membership Over TimeSourced to the subject's own accountBy 2022, Churches of Christ counted 1,087,559 members in 11,776 congregations across the United States, a decline from the 1990 estimate, drawn from an independent survey of American religious congregations rather than from any count the movement keeps of itself. 1 Membership Figure As OfSourced to the subject's own account Membership Figure As OfSourced to the subject's own account Basis of the Membership FigureSourced to the subject's own account Basis of the Membership FigureSourced to the subject's own accountScholarly or Demographic Estimate 1 Origins
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account Place of OriginSourced to the subject's own accountKentucky (Restoration Movement origin); Tennessee and Texas (later concentration) 1 FounderSourced to the subject's own accountNo single founder; shares the Restoration Movement's founding figures Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell with the Disciples of Christ, with David Lipscomb (1831-1917) the central figure in its formal separation 1 Practice
Liturgical LanguageSourced to the subject's own account Reach
Adherents TodaySourced to the subject's own accountWorldwide estimate. The cited source puts worldwide membership between 1.7 and 2 million and counts about 1.1 million members in the United States in 2020. Giving
Standing Giving ExpectationSourced to the subject's own accountChurches of Christ hold no central governing body able to set a shared giving rule: congregational autonomy is the tradition's own defining principle, and each congregation is a network participant at its own discretion in fellowship and shared causes with other congregations rather than under any outside financial authority. No tithe or fixed percentage binds a member across the movement as a whole. 1 How the Expectation Is EnforcedSourced to the subject's own account Open Questions
Institutional Wealth or FinancesChurches of Christ have no central denominational body of any kind above the local congregation, so no consolidated wealth or budget figure exists to report. 3 This is a structural absence, not a research gap: the fiercely congregational Churches of Christ have no official denominational structures, and there is no organisation above the local church to hold or disclose a consolidated figure. Learn More
One Movement Divides: Instruments and Societies
The Churches of Christ began life inside the same nineteenth-century Restoration Movement that produced the Disciples of Christ, sharing its appeal to the New Testament alone as the rule of faith and its rejection of denominational creeds and names. As that movement spread from Kentucky and Pennsylvania across the American frontier and then the South, congregations began to diverge over two practical questions rather than any single doctrinal creed: whether local churches should support centralized missionary societies to coordinate evangelism, and whether instrumental music, chiefly the organ, belonged in New Testament worship.
More urban, generally Northern congregations adopted both, judging them useful means not forbidden by Scripture. Congregations concentrated in the South, poorer and more rural on the whole, came to see both as unauthorized innovations that exceeded what the New Testament commanded, a principle of strict scriptural warrant central to their reading of the Restoration ideal. David Lipscomb (1831-1917), the influential editor of the Nashville-based Gospel Advocate, became the clearest voice for this noninstrumental, anti-society position, arguing that only what Scripture explicitly commanded or exemplified should be practiced in worship and church organization.
The 1906 Census, and a Congregational Fellowship Without a Center
The division between the two wings of the Restoration Movement had been building for decades before it was formally recorded. When the United States Census Bureau prepared its 1906 religious census, an agent responsible for classifying Baptist and related bodies, S. N. D. North, contacted David Lipscomb to ask how the noninstrumental Southern congregations should be listed. Lipscomb responded that they were a distinct fellowship from the Disciples of Christ and asked that the census record them separately as Churches of Christ, and the Bureau did so, giving the split its first official recognition and its lasting name.
Consistent with the strict Restoration principle that church structures above the local congregation lack New Testament authorization, the Churches of Christ have never organized a national convention, headquarters, or denominational hierarchy; each congregation is entirely self-governing, led by its own elders and deacons, and fellowship between congregations is voluntary and informal rather than institutional. Worship remains unaccompanied by instruments, relying on a cappella singing, and in most congregations leadership roles remain reserved for men, though the question has drawn ongoing internal debate in recent decades. The fellowship today numbers roughly 1.4 million members in the United States alone, heavily concentrated in Tennessee and Texas, with total worldwide adherents estimated at around 2 million.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Churches of Christ directly: "a model by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America."
This source names Churches of Christ directly: "Foster, republished on Encyclopedia.com, tracing the Churches of Christ from the post-Civil War Stone-Campbell movement, with membership growing from 160,000 in 1906 to over 1.24 million by 1980 and..."
This source names Churches of Christ directly: "community-edited article on the Churches of Christ, the a cappella, congregationally governed movement within the American Restoration Movement."
This source names Churches of Christ directly: "in The Christian Chronicle, a publication serving the Churches of Christ movement, dated 3 September 2013, reporting that members generally hold sex is reserved by God for marriage between a man and..."
This source names Churches of Christ directly: "became the Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ, and the camp meeting tradition that spread through the South."
This source names Churches of Christ directly: "founding of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America in Philadelphia as the tradition's first sustained cooperative institution."
This source names Churches of Christ directly: "1906 religious census as the distinct Churches of Christ."
This source names Churches of Christ directly: "adopted by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America as a model for other Protestant bodies."
Belongs to Tradition
Branch Of
Contained In
A Protestant body of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.
Critiqued
Baptism is by immersion, for the remission of sins, of a person old enough to believe and confess, so an infant is not a candidate.
Held Differently
Sung unaccompanied in four parts. The rule against instruments is held on the ground that the New Testament names singing and not playing, and it is the mark that separated these churches from the Disciples.
Churches of Christ use bishop, elder and overseer as three names for one congregational office, held by a plurality of men in each congregation, on the reading that the New Testament uses the words interchangeably.
The Churches of Christ have elders, deacons and preachers appointed by the congregation and refuse the distinction between clergy and laity that the word ordinarily carries.
Gospel Music, Sacred Sound Sung without instruments, which changes what the gospel song is: the four-part congregational sound stands where the band would be.
Rejected Here
The Churches of Christ hold that the New Testament knows only the local congregation with its own elders, and treat any structure above it as an addition to scripture.
Holds Element
Each congregation is governed by a plurality of elders, and there is no authority above the congregation.
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
Churches of Christ congregations sing without instrumental accompaniment, holding that where the New Testament commands singing and is silent about instruments the church has no warrant to add them.
Baptism is by immersion and is held to be for the remission of sins rather than a testimony to a forgiveness already received, which sets this body apart from most of the immersionist tradition.
A leading founding era figure's own treatise arguing Christians should decline voting, office holding and military service, historically bound up with the separatist theology that led Lipscomb's wing of the Restoration Movement to the formal 1906 split recognized as the distinct Churches of Christ.
The Churches of Christ hold the same plea, refusing any human founder's name or denominational label and taking scripture as the sole rule of faith and order.
Related To
One movement until the separation recorded in the 1906 United States religious census. Neither body accepts the account the other gives of who left.
Sources
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