The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) traces its roots to the
Stone-Campbell Movement on the American frontier. The Movement is so named because it started as two distinct but similar movements, each without knowledge of the other, during the
Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century. The first of these two groups, led by
Barton W. Stone, began at
Cane Ridge,
Bourbon County, Kentucky. The group called themselves simply
Christians. The second began in western Pennsylvania and Virginia (now West Virginia), led by
Thomas Campbell and his son,
Alexander Campbell. Because the founders wanted to abandon all denominational labels, they used the biblical names for the followers of Jesus that they found in the Bible.
Stone In 1801, the
Cane Ridge Revival in
Kentucky planted the seed for a movement in Kentucky and the
Ohio River Valley to disassociate from
denominationalism. In 1803 Stone and others withdrew from the Kentucky Presbytery and formed the
Springfield Presbytery. The defining event of the Stone wing of the movement was the publication of the
Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1804. "The Last Will" is a brief document in which Stone and five others announced their withdrawal from
Presbyterianism and their intention to be solely part of the body of Christ. The writers appealed for the unity of all who follow Jesus, suggested the value of congregational self-governance, and lifted the Bible as the source for understanding the will of God. They denounced the use of the
Westminster Confession of Faith as divisive. Soon, they adopted the name "Christian" to identify their group. Thus, the remnants of the Springfield Presbytery became the Christian Church. It is estimated that the Christian Church numbered about 12,000 by 1830.
Campbells Independently of Stone,
Thomas Campbell published the
Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington, (Pennsylvania) in 1809. In
The Declaration and Address, he set forth some of his convictions about the church of
Jesus Christ, emphasizing Christian unity and the restoration of the New Testament church. He organized the
Christian Association of Washington, not as a church but as an association of persons seeking to grow in faith. On May 4, 1811, however, the Christian Association constituted itself as a congregationally governed church. With the building it then constructed at Brush Run, it became known as
Brush Run Church. When their study of the New Testament led the reformers to begin to practice baptism by immersion, the nearby Redstone Baptist Association invited Brush Run Church to join with them for the purpose of fellowship. The reformers agreed provided that they would be "allowed to preach and to teach whatever they learned from the Scriptures." Thus began a sojourn for the reformers among the Baptists within the Redstone Baptist Association (1815–1824). While the reformers and the Baptists shared the same beliefs in baptism by immersion and congregational polity, it was soon clear that the reformers were not traditional Baptists. Within the Redstone Association, the differences became intolerable to some of the Baptist leaders, when
Alexander Campbell began publishing a journal,
The Christian Baptist, promoting reform. Campbell anticipated the conflict and moved his membership to a congregation of the
Mahoning Baptist Association in 1824. In 1827, the Mahoning Association appointed reformer
Walter Scott as an Evangelist. Through Scott's efforts, the Mahoning Association grew rapidly. In 1828, Thomas Campbell visited several of the congregations formed by Scott and heard him preach. The elder Campbell realized that Scott was bringing an important new dimension to the movement with his approach to evangelism. Several Baptist associations began disassociating from congregations that refused to subscribe to the
Philadelphia Confession. The Mahoning Association came under attack. In 1830, the Mahoning Baptist Association disbanded. Alexander ceased publication of
The Christian Baptist. In January 1831, he began publication of the
Millennial Harbinger.
1832 Merger The two groups united at High Street Meeting House, Lexington, Kentucky, with a handshake between Barton W. Stone and
"Raccoon" John Smith, on Saturday, December 31, 1831. Smith had been chosen by those present to speak on behalf of the followers of the Campbells. While contemporaneous accounts are clear that the handshake took place on Saturday, some historians have changed the date of the merger to Sunday, January 1, 1832. The 1832 date has become generally accepted. The actual difference is about 20 hours. Two representatives of those assembled were appointed to carry the news of the union to all the churches: John Rogers for the Christians and "Raccoon" John Smith for the reformers. Despite some challenges, the merger succeeded. With the merger, there was the challenge of what to call the new movement. Clearly, finding a Biblical, non-sectarian name was important. Stone wanted to continue to use the name "Christians." Alexander Campbell insisted upon "Disciples of Christ". Walter Scott and
Thomas Campbell sided with Stone, but the younger Campbell had strong reasons and would not yield. As a result, both names were used.
National Conventions In 1849, the first National Convention was held at Cincinnati, Ohio. Alexander Campbell had concerns that holding conventions would lead the movement into divisive denominationalism. He did not attend the gathering. Among its actions, the convention elected Alexander Campbell its President and created the
American Christian Missionary Society (ACMS). The formation of a missionary society set the stage for further "co-operative" efforts. By the end of the century, the
Foreign Christian Missionary Society and the Christian Women's Board of Missions were also engaged in missionary activities. Forming the ACMS did not reflect a consensus of the entire movement. Sponsorship of missionary activities became a divisive issue. In the succeeding decades, for some congregations and their leaders, co-operative work through missionary societies and the adoption of instrumental music in church worship was straying too far from their conception of the early church. After the
American Civil War, the schism grew. While there was no disagreement over the need for
evangelism, many believed that missionary societies were not authorized by scripture and would compromise the autonomy of local congregations. This became one important factor leading to the separation of the
Churches of Christ from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In a respectful way, both men routinely published the contributions of others whose positions were radically different from their own. Following Campbell's death in 1866, journals continued to keep the discussion and conversation alive. Between 1870 and 1900, two journals emerged as the most prominent. The
Christian Standard was edited and published by
Isaac Errett of Cincinnati. The
Christian Evangelist was edited and published by J. H. Garrison from St. Louis. The two men enjoyed a friendly rivalry, and kept the dialog going within the movement. A third journal became part of the conversation with the publication in 1884 of
The Christian Oracle, later to become
The Christian Century, with an interdenominational appeal. In 1914, Garrison's Christian Publishing company was purchased by
R. A. Long, who then established a non-profit corporation, "The Christian Board of Publication" as the Brotherhood publishing house.
First Division In 1906, the U.S. Religious Census listed Churches of Christ for the first time as a group which was separate and distinct from the Disciples of Christ. However, the division had been growing for years, with published reports as early as 1883. The most obvious distinction between the two groups was the Churches of Christ rejecting the use of musical instruments in worship. The controversy over musical instruments began in 1860, when some congregations introduced organs, traditionally associated with wealthier, denominational churches. More basic were the underlying approaches to Biblical interpretation. The Churches of Christ
permitted only those practices found in accounts of New Testament worship. They could find no
New Testament documentation of the use of instrumental music in worship. The Disciples, by contrast,
considered permissible any practices that the New Testament did not expressly forbid. While music and the approach to missionary work were the most visible issues, there were also some deeper ones. The process that led to the separation had begun prior to the
American Civil War.
The Brotherhood In the early 20th century, a central point of conflict for the remaining Christian Churches was cooperative missionary efforts, both nationally and internationally. Several missionary societies had already been established, and the congregations that contributed to these societies and attended the national convention became known as "cooperative" and began referring to the larger grouping of these congregations as "the Brotherhood." In 1917 the National Convention became the International Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) with the incorporation of Canadian Disciples. In 1920, three separate missionary societies merged into the United Christian Missionary Society in 1920, which undertook missions work both in the "homeland" and abroad. Over the next fifty years, the UCMS was the largest agency of the Brotherhood. The National Benevolent Association was also established during the early 20th century as a social services ministry providing assistance to orphans, the elderly and the disabled. The congregations that did not participate were known as "independents." Until the cooperative churches underwent the process of restructure in the 1960s, the cooperatives and independents coexisted together under the same identity, but were following different paths by the 1940s, with the independents forming the
North American Christian Convention in 1947. While issues of ecclesiology were at the forefront of the growing division, theological issues also divided the two groups, with the cooperative churches largely adopting the new methods of
Biblical analysis developed in the late 19th century.
Restructure Following
World War II, it became obvious that the organizations that had been developed in previous decades no longer effectively met the needs of the postwar era. After a number of discussions throughout the 1950s, the 1960 International Convention of Christian Churches adopted a process to "restructure" the entire organization. The Commission on Restructure, chaired by Granville T. Walker, held its first meeting on October 30 & November 1, 1962. In 1968, the International Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) adopted the commission's proposed
Provisional Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Soon
The Provisional Design became
The Design. The Brotherhood's adoption of
The Design made the earlier split between the cooperative and independent churches official. Under
The Design, all churches in the 1968 yearbook of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) were automatically recognized as part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In the years that followed, many of the Independent Christian Church Congregations requested formal withdrawal from the yearbook. Many of those congregations were already part of the
North American Christian Convention; this group would become known as the
Christian churches and churches of Christ and became the third primary group of the Stone-Campbell Movement. ==Beliefs and practices==