Disciples of Christ

The Disciples of Christ trace their origin to two separate reform movements on the American frontier that, discovering how much they shared, chose to unite. In August 1801, Barton W. Stone (1772-1844), a young Presbyterian minister in Kentucky, hosted what became the Cane Ridge Revival, a camp meeting so large and emotionally intense that it drew tens of thousands and became a defining event of the Second Great Awakening. Stone concluded that denominational creeds divided Christians who ought simply to follow Scripture, and in 1804 he and fellow ministers dissolved their presbytery, taking for their fellowship only the name Christians.

At almost the same time, Thomas Campbell (1763-1854), an Irish Presbyterian minister who had emigrated to Pennsylvania, arrived independently at similar conclusions, articulated in his 1809 Declaration and Address, which called for Christian unity on the sole basis of the New Testament. His son Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) carried the movement forward, leading it first into fellowship with the Baptists and then, after disputes over creeds and authority, into a fully separate reforming movement calling itself simply Disciples. When Stone and Alexander Campbell met and corresponded in the 1820s, both movements recognized a shared vision, and on January 1, 1832, congregations of the two traditions formally united at Lexington, Kentucky.

The united movement, generally called the Restoration Movement or Stone-Campbell Movement, grew rapidly across the American frontier through the nineteenth century, from roughly 25,000 adherents at its 1832 union to nearly 200,000 by 1861, on the strength of its appeal to Scripture over creed and its promise of Christian unity without denominational division. That very looseness of structure, however, eventually produced its own split: by the turn of the twentieth century, more conservative congregations, concentrated in the South and led by figures such as David Lipscomb, had come to oppose instrumental music in worship and centralized missionary societies as unscriptural innovations, while others embraced both. The 1906 United States religious census formally listed the conservative wing separately as the Churches of Christ, the first major division of the movement.

The remaining body eventually organized itself denominationally as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), commonly called simply the Disciples of Christ, ordaining women to ministry since the nineteenth century and taking an active role in the ecumenical movement. It has experienced a steep membership decline in recent decades, falling from close to two million at its 1958 peak to roughly 278,000 by 2022, a decline scholars attribute to factors including an aging membership and the loss of a clear denominational identity distinct from its founding restorationist ideals. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.