The Christian Churches and Churches of Christ

Denomination·Founded 1927 CE·No membership roll exists and none can, since there is no body to keep one. The Christian Standard directory listed about 5,200 congregations at its last compilation, down from nearly 6,800 six years earlier, and a new count was under way as of late 2024. Estimates of adherents commonly run above a million and are not from an audited source.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → The Christian Churches and Churches of Christ

Christian StandardArchiveDisciples of Christ Historical Society

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Precept of The Christian Churches and Churches of Christ

Direct support — the congregation sends the missionary itself.

Rather than fund a board that appoints, a congregation supports a named missionary family directly and receives their letters. It is the practice that most clearly expresses the refusal of agencies, and it makes the movement's overseas work hard to count.

Add to My Beliefs →
What it asksThat no congregation surrender its autonomy to any board, convention or agency
Who it bindsEach congregation, by its own decision and nothing else
Where it bitesEvery time a shared institution grows large enough to look like a headquarters
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Direct-support missions are the practical expression of the refusal to build agencies. A missionary family raises support from individual congregations and individuals, reports to them directly by letter and visit, and answers to a sending congregation rather than a board. The system produced substantial work in Zimbabwe, India, Ukraine, the Philippines and Brazil, and it makes the movement's overseas presence effectively uncountable — there is no central register of missionaries or of the churches they plant. It also puts a great deal of weight on personal relationships and very little on institutional accountability, which is a known vulnerability and one the movement's own publications have discussed.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
Neither half can manage alone. Jainism · community Go deeper →
Mission. Christianity · community Go deeper →
Command the right, forbid the wrong. Islam Go deeper →
Mencius's mother moves house. Confucianism · story Read it in full →
Take your turn. Shinto Go deeper →
The study circle. The Bahá'í Faith · rite Go deeper →

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Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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