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

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Community of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

They finally admitted they were a denomination, in 1968.

The Design restructured a brotherhood of autonomous congregations into a church with regions, a General Assembly and a General Minister. It was the honest thing to do and it completed the split: the congregations that would not be restructured had already begun listing themselves separately as independent Christian Churches.

Add to My Beliefs →
How you joinThe good confession, then immersion — and baptisms from other churches are accepted
Who leadsCongregationally called ministers; regional ministers; a General Minister and President elected by the General Assembly
The unitThe congregation, the region, and the general church — described as three expressions rather than three levels
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The Provisional Design for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), adopted at Kansas City in 1968, replaced a voluntary brotherhood with a church of three expressions: congregational, regional and general. Congregations were asked to declare whether they were in or out, and about 3,000 chose out, forming the visible boundary of what are now the independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. What remained was a denomination with a General Minister and President, a Design, and a decline that has been continuous ever since: from just under 2 million members in 1958 to about 278,000 in 2022. The denomination publishes those numbers itself through its yearbook. It has also been unusually candid about its Peoples Temple history and about race, having merged its historically Black National Christian Missionary Convention into the general structure in 1969.

The same ground, other faiths

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The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)'s Community roomback up one layer Propose a change to this passageone button — it routes to the review pool

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

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