The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Denomination·Founded 1832 CE·About 278,000 total members in 2022, in the United States and Canada, down from just under 2 million at the 1958 peak. The 2024 yearbook listed 2,887 affiliated congregations, of which 2,032 reported statistics or gave to outreach. The denomination publishes its own decline figures, which is not universal.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)ArchiveDisciples of Christ Historical Society

Branch
Overview Belief 3How to Live 1Practice 1Stories & Scripture 1Community 1 You × The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Discussion

Stories

the narratives it tells itself
Clara Babcock, ordained in 1888. She was preaching in Illinois and was ordained by her congregation, apparently the first woman ordained in the Stone-Campbell movement. Congregational polity meant no bishop had to agree, which is how a frontier movement ordained women sixty years before most American denominations. Read it in full — context →

The Scriptures

the texts that carry the stories — and everything else

The Bible

Thomas Campbell, Declaration and Address (1809)

The Design for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 1968

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

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