The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is one of the three major branches that grew out of the Restoration Movement of the nineteenth century. Like the Churches of Christ and the independent Christian Churches, the Disciples trace their history primarily to the movements associated with Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell. All three inherited the Restoration ideal of getting past denominational divisions and returning to the Christianity of the New Testament. Where they differ is in what happened after that.
Today, the Disciples of Christ are generally considered a mainline Protestant denomination. That description would probably have seemed strange to Stone and Campbell, who weren’t trying to create another denomination in the first place. In fact, one of the great ironies of the Restoration Movement is that a movement devoted to Christian unity eventually produced several distinct church bodies, each convinced in its own way that it was carrying forward the original vision.
From Christians and Disciples to a Movement
The roots of the Disciples go back to two movements that developed independently in the early 1800s. Barton W. Stone was a Presbyterian minister who became increasingly uncomfortable with denominational creeds and Calvinist theology. Following the Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky in 1801, Stone and several associates eventually separated from Presbyterianism. They wanted simply to be known as Christians.
Alexander Campbell came from a different direction. Campbell and his father, Thomas, were also troubled by the divisions separating Christians. Thomas Campbell famously argued that “the church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one.” The Campbells believed that Christians could move beyond denominational traditions by returning to the teaching and practices of the New Testament.
Campbell’s followers were commonly called Disciples of Christ, while Stone’s followers generally preferred the name Christians. In 1832 the two groups joined forces. It wasn’t a merger in the modern corporate sense, complete with headquarters, committees, and a new logo. It was more an agreement that Christians who were pursuing essentially the same goal shouldn’t remain divided.
Even the name reflected that attitude. Some congregations called themselves Christian Churches. Others used Church of Christ. “Disciples of Christ” became another common designation. The variety wasn’t originally considered a problem because the whole point was to avoid creating another rigid denominational structure. That ideal proved difficult to maintain.
The Restoration Ideal
The early movement emphasized the authority of Scripture, particularly the New Testament, and rejected the idea that Christians needed denominational creeds as tests of fellowship. One of the best-known Restoration slogans was, “No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible.”
That didn’t mean the early Restoration leaders believed Christians would never disagree. They obviously did. The idea was that Christians shouldn’t divide over doctrines and traditions that couldn’t be established from Scripture.
Baptism was especially important. Campbell taught baptism by immersion for believers and connected baptism closely with conversion and the forgiveness of sins. The Lord’s Supper also occupied a central place in worship, and Restoration churches generally celebrated Communion every Sunday.
Another important characteristic was congregational independence. The early churches weren’t governed by bishops or a large denominational bureaucracy. Local congregations exercised considerable authority over their own affairs. Those characteristics remain recognizable across the Restoration tradition, but the different branches eventually interpreted them in very different ways.
The Split
The separation didn’t happen all at once. During the nineteenth century, disagreements developed over several issues, especially the use of instrumental music in worship and the creation of missionary societies.
Churches of Christ generally opposed both. Their reasoning was straightforward: if the New Testament didn’t authorize a practice for the church, the church shouldn’t introduce it. Christian Churches were more willing to permit practices that weren’t specifically prohibited by Scripture.
That disagreement reflected something deeper than organs and missionary organizations. It involved two different ways of applying the Restoration principle.
Does restoring New Testament Christianity mean Christians should practice only what the New Testament specifically authorizes? Or does it mean Christians are free to adopt methods that Scripture doesn’t forbid as long as those methods don’t contradict biblical teaching? That question helped produce the division between Churches of Christ and the churches that eventually became associated with the Disciples.
Another division developed during the twentieth century. Some Christian Churches believed the Disciples were becoming increasingly denominational, centralized and theologically liberal. Those congregations remained independent and became what are generally called the Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ.
By the middle of the twentieth century, the old Restoration Movement had effectively developed into three major streams.
Becoming the Disciples of Christ
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) formally reorganized in 1968. That restructuring created something much closer to a recognizable denomination, although Disciples congregations still retain considerable local autonomy.
The denomination operates through local congregations, regional organizations and a general church structure. Ministers are ordained, seminaries train clergy, and denominational agencies coordinate missions, education and other ministries.
This is one of the clearest differences between the Disciples and the Churches of Christ. Walk into a traditional Church of Christ and calling it a denomination may get you corrected before you’ve found a seat. The Disciples of Christ have much less difficulty using denominational structures and participating in the broader world of mainline Protestant Christianity.
The Disciples have also been heavily involved in the ecumenical movement. Christian unity was one of the founding concerns of the Restoration Movement, and the Disciples have interpreted that heritage as a reason to cooperate closely with Christians from other traditions.
In that sense, they can reasonably argue that they’re preserving one of the original movement’s most important goals, even though the form it has taken is very different from what many other Restoration churches believe Stone and Campbell had in mind.
What Disciples Believe
There is more theological diversity within the Disciples of Christ than you’ll generally find in Churches of Christ or Independent Christian Churches. The denomination doesn’t impose a detailed creed that every member must affirm, which is itself an inheritance from the Restoration tradition.
Jesus Christ remains at the center of the denomination’s stated identity, and the Bible remains foundational to its faith. Baptism is normally administered by immersion following a profession of faith, although the Disciples recognize baptisms performed in other Christian traditions and don’t generally require Christians baptized by another method to be baptized again before joining a congregation.
Communion remains especially important. Disciples congregations ordinarily celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Sunday, preserving one of the most distinctive practices of the early Restoration Movement. The Communion table is generally open to Christians rather than restricted only to members of the congregation or denomination.
The denomination also ordains women, and many Disciples congregations take positions on social and theological issues associated with the more progressive side of contemporary mainline Protestantism. Individual congregations retain substantial freedom, however, so one Disciples congregation may not look exactly like another.
That diversity is partly intentional. The old Restoration suspicion of creeds hasn’t disappeared. The Disciples generally prefer a broad Christian confession centered on Christ rather than an extensive list of doctrines that everyone must interpret exactly the same way.
Of course, that creates an interesting tension. A movement can reject creeds in order to preserve Christian unity, but Christians still have to decide what beliefs are essential. Eventually somebody has to answer the question of how much disagreement a church can contain before unity becomes little more than a word.
The Restoration Movement has been wrestling with that question for two centuries.
The Disciples Today
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is considerably smaller than it once was. Like several other mainline Protestant denominations in the United States, it has experienced substantial membership decline over the past several decades. Nevertheless, Disciples congregations remain active across the country, along with denominational schools, seminaries, ministries and mission organizations.
For someone unfamiliar with Restoration history, the terminology can be confusing. A Church of Christ, a Christian Church and a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) may sound like three ways of describing essentially the same thing. Historically, they come from the same family. Institutionally and theologically, however, they’ve traveled different roads.
The Disciples represent the branch of the Restoration Movement that moved most clearly toward the mainline Protestant world. Churches of Christ moved in the direction of stricter restorationism, while Independent Christian Churches generally occupied territory somewhere between the two.
Yet all three still carry traces of the same nineteenth-century experiment: What would happen if Christians stripped away their denominational identities, opened the New Testament and tried to start again?
The fact that they eventually disagreed about how to do that doesn’t make the question any less interesting.