Disciples of Christ

a Christian denomination, founded in the U.S. by Alexander Campbell in the early part of the 19th century, that rejects all creeds, holds the Bible as a sufficient rule of faith and practice, administers baptism by immersion, celebrates the Lord's Supper every Sunday, and has a congregational polity.

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Group of U.S. Protestant churches that originated in the frontier revivals of the early 19th century.

Movements founded by Thomas and Alexander Campbell (1763–1854, 1788–1866) and Barton W. Stone (1772–1844) merged in 1832 and took the name Disciples of Christ. The new denomination grew rapidly. Its goal was to unite all Protestants on the basis of New Testament practices. The attempt failed, and the movement itself split into two major segments: the more conservative Churches of Christ (which rejects any innovation without New Testament precedent, including musical instruments in worship) and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Other conservative congregations separated from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the 1920s; they established a separate annual gathering, the North American Christian Convention, in 1927. In 1985 the Disciples of Christ entered into an ecumenical partnership with the United Church of Christ. The common Disciples heritage is still manifest in the meetings of the World Convention of Churches of Christ, organized in 1930.

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▪ Protestantism

Introduction

      group of Protestant churches that originated in the religious revival movements of the American frontier in the early 19th century. There are three major bodies of the Disciples of Christ, all of which stem from a common source.

      The Churches of Christ (Church of Christ) emphasize rigorous adherence to the New Testament as the model for Christian faith, practice, and fellowship. They reject ecclesiastical institutions other than the congregation, practice a dynamic evangelism based on a literal view of the Bible, and remain aloof from interdenominational activities.

      The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) affirms a free and voluntary covenantal relationship binding members, congregations, regions, and general units in one ecclesiastical body committed to a mission of witness and service. Recognizing its status as a denomination, it acknowledges the right of “dissent in love” and engages fully in the ecumenical venture.

      The congregations loosely related in the Undenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Churches of Christ refused to enter such a “Christian Church.” They earlier had refused to follow the Churches of Christ in rejecting musical instruments in worship and missionary organizations as a matter of biblical principle; they later repudiated the openness of their fellow Disciples toward biblical criticism, theological liberalism, ecumenical involvement through “official” channels, and development of denominational institutions.

      In a larger sense Disciples of Christ includes sister churches in Australia and New Zealand, known locally as Churches of Christ, with origins largely independent of the United States. It also denotes churches in other lands resulting from the missionary efforts of all these bodies; most of these younger churches, as well as Churches of Christ in Great Britain, have entered united churches.

      Originally Disciples blended the independence and pragmatism of the American frontier with an uncomplicated biblical faith that demanded restoration of the “ancient order” in the church. They repudiated “human creeds” (creed) and traditions as requirements for Christian fellowship, understood baptism as the immersion of believers only, and recognized no churchly authority beyond the congregation. This simple formula's typical “sectarianism” was combined with a strong catholic impulse: a plea for the union of all Christians (ecumenism), the regular celebration of the Lord's Supper in weekly worship, and the use of inclusive biblical names.

History

Origins

      The movement emerged on the American frontier through various efforts to cut through the complexities of sectarian dogma and find a basis for Christian unity. Out of the Great Western Revival (1801) in Kentucky arose the short-lived Springfield Presbytery, which dissolved in 1804 so that its members might “go free” simply as Christians. Their leader, Barton W. Stone (Stone, Barton W), championed revivalism, a simple biblical and non-creedal faith, and Christian union. In the upper Ohio Valley Presbyterian Thomas Campbell organized the Christian Association of Washington (Pennsylvania) in 1809 to plead for the “unity, peace, and purity” of the church. Soon its members formed the Brush Run Church and ordained his son Alexander, under whose leadership they accepted immersion of believers as the only scriptural form of baptism and entered the Redstone Baptist Association. Alexander Campbell (Campbell, Alexander) rapidly gained influence as a reformer, winning fame as preacher, debater, editor (Christian Baptist), and champion of the new popular democracy. His colleague Walter Scott developed a reasonable, scriptural “plan of salvation.” Its “positive,” or objective, steps into the church (faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, gift of the Holy Spirit) attracted thousands who longed for religious security but had not experienced the emotional crisis and subjective assurance that characterized the prevailing revivalism.

      By 1830 the regular Baptists and the reformers parted company, the latter terming themselves Disciples. Two years later Stone and many of his followers joined with them, though continuing to use the name Christians.

      Alexander Campbell from 1830 on turned to constructive church craft. He founded The Millennial Harbinger, established Bethany College, then in Virginia (1840), and agitated unsuccessfully for a general church organization based on congregational representation. The first general convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1849 and launched the American Christian Missionary Society as a “society of individuals” and not an ecclesiastical body. Similar cooperative organizations emerged in various states to support evangelists and to establish new churches. The Christian Woman's Board of Missions (1874) and the Foreign Christian Missionary Society (1875) initiated successful programs overseas, and other boards were soon founded to promote building loans for new churches, care for aged ministers, homes for orphans and the aged, temperance, and other causes. The Centennial Convention at Pittsburgh in 1909 claimed an attendance of 30,000; they had come to celebrate a century of triumph for the New Reformation, or Restoration Movement.

Controversy and separation

      Meanwhile, schism had begun to sunder the ranks, yet without shaking the confidence of the Disciples in their plea for union. They had held together during the controversy over slavery and through the Civil War, when major American denominations had divided. In the succeeding era of bitterness, however, the Disciples also suffered schism. New developments in response to growing urbanization and sophistication brought two sharply divergent responses. The conservatives regarded such developments as unauthorized “innovations,” while the progressives (pejoratively termed digressives) looked on them as permissible “expedients.”

      Discord first arose over the “society principle” involving general missionary work. Alexander Campbell's biblical view of the church had kept pushing him toward a general church organization, but he could never find a convincing biblical text to support his proposals. Frontier independence and pragmatic popular biblicism prevailed. The “society principle” seemed to its advocates a legitimate solution: entertaining no ecclesiastical pretensions as a secular corporation, the missionary society provided a means by which individual Disciples could work in voluntary cooperation. But the opponents saw in it a repudiation of the Bible as the determining rule of practice.

      The introduction of musical instruments (music, Western) (reed organs) into Christian worship led to many local disputes. Other innovations added occasion for controversy—the infringement of the “one-man pastoral system” on the local ministry of elders, introduction of selected choirs, use of the title Reverend, and lesser issues.

      In 1889 several rural churches in Illinois issued the Sand Creek Declaration, withdrawing fellowship from those practicing “innovations and corruptions.” In 1904 a separate “preacher list” issued unofficially by some conservative leaders certified their preachers for discounts on railway tickets. The Federal Religious Census of 1906 acknowledged the separation between Churches of Christ and Disciples of Christ (who commonly used the name Christian Churches) even though many congregations did not decide which they were for some years.

      The crucial issue centred on the manner of understanding biblical authority. Both conservatives and progressives accepted the New Testament as the only rule for the church. The conservatives, heavily concentrated in the South, applied a strict construction to Scripture; this required a specific New Testament precept to authorize any practice. The progressives tended toward a broader construction, accepting as expedient such measures as they found harmonious with Scripture or not in conflict with it.

Disciples in the 20th century

      Disciples had experienced their most rapid growth in rural America. Their leaders responded to the passing of the frontier, the growth of cities, and the emergence of urban expectations. Whereas the Churches of Christ had opted for the practices established in the rural past, regarding them as biblical, the Disciples of Christ (progressives) were able to find some flexibility in the biblical rule. Nevertheless, rural and small-town Christian Churches predominated in numbers and membership even past mid-century, and the newer social and cultural influences did not affect all of them simultaneously.

      Urban churches demanded full-time leadership, and Disciples gradually developed a professional ministry. In the first half of the century they worked hard to establish collegiate education as standard for ministers. As late as 1930 only 11 percent had graduate education, and the rapid growth of theological seminaries did not come until after World War II. The expanding corps of educated leadership reworked the inherited formulas, introducing both ideas and practices that troubled the more traditional.

      The cooperative organizations underwent notable changes. In 1917 the old general convention, a week-long series of annual meetings of the various societies, gave way to the International Convention (U.S. and Canada), to which all cooperative agencies were expected to submit reports for review and advice.

      Meanwhile, a number of the agencies had combined in 1920 to form the United Christian Missionary Society. Ten years later most state and national agencies entered Unified Promotion, a cooperative program of fund raising, with voluntarily accepted restraints on independent campaigns, and with distribution on the basis of agreed allocations. Thus they gradually evolved, in effect, one general budget. From the start the United Society drew intense criticism for ecclesiasticism and theological liberalism. Opposition centred on reports of “Open Membership” in the China mission. (Open membership, increasingly practiced in the United States, meant reception of unimmersed Christians from other denominations.)

      In 1927 traditional forces established the North American Christian Convention. Many churches gave their support to “independent” missionaries in large numbers, as well as to “independent” Bible colleges, youth camps, district meetings, Bible school curricula, various publications, and a directory of ministers—all of them explicitly denying official status—more or less parallel to the “cooperative” agencies. The power struggle focused on the placement of ministers and resulted, on the cooperative side, in enhancing the leadership of the state secretaries and creating the pressure for delegate conventions in the states.

      The cooperative conventions (state and international) also became instruments of ecumenical participation, electing representatives to the old Federal Council of Churches (and to the succeeding National Council (National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.) and the World Council of Churches) as well as to the state councils. Thus, for the sake of their original catholic commitment, the “cooperatives” accepted status as a denomination, a compromise that the independents rejected.

      A growing sense of moral obligation toward the common cause led in 1950 to the formation of the Council of Agencies, which included all organizations reporting to the International Convention. Legally independent, they sought by consultation to avoid overlapping and to develop a common mind. From the council came a proposal for a Commission on Restructure, appointed by the convention in 1960. In 1967 the convention approved the commission's Provisional Design for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), ratified in the ensuing year by all 40 area conventions and 15 national agencies.

      Beginning in 1968 the International Convention was replaced by the General Assembly, the state conventions by regional assemblies, and the old cooperative agencies by “general units” of the church. State secretaries became regional ministers, and the chief executive officer was named general minister and president. In 1977 the General Assembly removed the word Provisional from the title of the Design. Congregations retained full legal independence, but the system provided for corporate unity through decisions by representatives from congregations and regions.

      Fear of infringement on congregational freedom and theological opposition to the doctrine of the church underlying restructure led to active opposition. Many independent congregations formally requested withdrawal of their names from the Yearbook of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ), and a campaign led some cooperative churches to follow suit. From 1967 to 1969 the number of congregations listed dropped from 8,046 to 5,278.

      Meanwhile, a self-appointed Chaplaincy Endorsement Commission for the Undenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Churches of Christ asked recognition by the U.S. government to represent those congregations that had elected “to continue as free, independent, and completely autonomous local churches” apart from the restructured Christian Church.

      The World Convention of Churches of Christ since 1930 has sponsored mass meetings for fellowship and inspiration at five-year intervals. It attracts both cooperative and independent Disciples from America and from many nations but few from American Churches of Christ.

Churches of Christ in the 20th century

      In 1906 the membership and leadership of the Churches of Christ were located mainly in the South, with heaviest concentrations in Tennessee and Texas. The reported membership of 159,658 apparently did not include all who accepted the general position of the Churches of Christ. In the ensuing half-century they grew into the largest of the three Disciples groups. The migration from the rural South to urban centres brought impressive membership gains in the North and the West—aided by a vigorous evangelism making intensive use of radio. Missionaries established churches in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, winning converts especially from Roman Catholicism. Many churches now forward their missionary funds to an agent for disbursal, while making certain that the actual appointment of missionaries remains the prerogative of congregational elders.

      The churches' doctrine permits individual initiative in certain types of religious (not ecclesiastical) enterprises. A vigorous journalism has flourished for more than a century, the most influential papers being the Gospel Advocate (Nashville, Tenn.) and Firm Foundation (Austin, Texas). Benevolent homes provide care for children and the aged. A number of churches conduct Christian day schools, while private colleges offer Christian higher education and receive support from churches. A graduate school of religion at Harding College in Memphis, Tenn., offers a three-year Master of Theology degree.

      Variations of conviction about specific practices (whether a single, “common” cup or many cups are to be used in communion) and doctrines (especially millennial ones about the perfect age of Christ's reign on earth) have produced sharp controversies and withdrawal of fellowship.

      In the 1960s some leaders in the Churches of Christ set up informal forums or conferences on unity with members of the Christian Churches, both cooperative and independent. Although having no official status, these meetings provided opportunity for a limited but continuing ecumenical dialogue. Their doctrinal stance, in repudiation of ecclesiastical organization, prevents members of both the Churches of Christ and the Undenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Churches of Christ from official participation in general ecumenical gatherings.

Teachings

      Alexander Campbell summarized his theology in The Christian System (1835), the most influential book in shaping Disciples thought. In it he outlined a commonsense biblical doctrine against the complex theories of the schools and the sects. He emphasized reliance on the Bible and insisted on going to the sources. Relying on John Locke, “The Christian philosopher,” Campbell perceived the grounds for Christian faith in historical events and objective evidence (recorded in Scripture) rather than in mysticism or subjective religious “experience.” He therefore repudiated the Calvinist (Calvinism) (and revivalist) concept of miraculous conversion and the similar concept of miraculous call to the ministry. Debates on these issues, as well as on the damnation of unbaptized infants, which Disciples denied, led them to think of themselves as anti-Calvinist.

      The general framework of their thought nevertheless followed Reformed (Calvinist) lines, modified by the influence of British Independents (the originally Scottish Glasites—or Sandemanians—in practice a strictly New Testament sect, and the Congregationalists). Disciples shared the orthodox Protestant emphasis on the authority of Scripture. Their classic biblical position differs from that of other Protestants in being a product of the early 19th rather than of the 16th or 17th century.

      Early Disciples understood their uniqueness to lie in the rigour, precision, and simplicity with which they set forth the biblical basis for the unity of all Christians. Campbell distinguished sharply between Old and New Covenants (Testaments), limiting to the latter any authority for “the original faith and order” of the church. Only explicit apostolic teaching or precedent belonged in the realm of faith, of the essential; all else, however logical or helpful, fell in the area of opinion and consequently of Christian liberty. Thus they rejected creeds as tests of fellowship; they believed such tests usurped the sole authority of the New Testament and set forth demands not found there. The popular Disciples' bias against theology as a divisive preoccupation with human opinions—as well as Alexander Campbell's early protest against ecclesiastical institutions as unwarranted by Scripture and threatening to freedom—also was inferred from the New Testament.

Worship and organization

      After fruitless attempts to derive a stated order of worship from the New Testament, Disciples settled into an informal but relatively stable pattern composed of hymns, extemporaneous prayers, Scripture, sermon, and breaking of bread. Except for its omission of the Decalogue, the public confession of sin, and the creed, it resembled classic Reformed (or Presbyterian) worship, especially in its austerity of spirit. In the second half of the 19th century it took over more of the mood of popular revivalism, which still prevails among Churches of Christ and the independent Christian Churches.

      Because many churches in the 19th century had the services of a preacher only occasionally but regularly observed the Lord's Supper (communion) after the Bible School (Sunday School) hour, the breaking of bread came to precede the sermon, which was simply added on when a preacher was present. At the table two local elders (elder) presided, one offering a prayer of thanksgiving for the bread and the other for the cup. The minister now commonly presides, but the elders ordinarily offer the prayers.

      Christian Worship: A Service Book (1953), a semiofficial manual for voluntary use, exerted wide influence in restoring and stabilizing the typical pattern, with an emphasis on use of scriptural sentences throughout. The influence of the Liturgical Movement brought greater use of responsive readings, litanies, and affirmations of faith, as well as closer accommodation to the historical pattern of the liturgy—all demonstrated in the 1987 “resource for Christian worship,” Thankful Praise.

      Campbell regarded immersion and “the breaking of bread” (i.e., Baptism and communion) as ordinances of Christ. While the insistence on believer's baptism alone separated Disciples from the “paedobaptists” (those advocating baptism of children), weekly communion (Eucharist) served as a universal element in their worship and tempered their rationalist bent. Despite their memorialist doctrine (that communion is a commemoration of Christ's Last Supper involving no miracle of transubstantiation), they understood the service as present communion with their Lord.

      Campbell saw the biblically authorized ministry as that of elders and deacons, ordained by the congregations, and of evangelists, who served the church at large. Since the 1950s congregations have commonly elected women to diaconate and eldership, and Disciples have long ordained women as ministers. By the 1980s fully one-third of their seminarians were women.

      The Design recognizes “the order of the ministry,” consisting of ordained ministers and licensed ministers. Since restructure, the General Assembly has established policies and criteria for the order of ministry, which are interpreted and applied by regional commissions.

Internal differences

      The divisions in the movement expressed varying attitudes toward Scripture (exegesis) as the norm of faith and practice: Churches of Christ construing it strictly, Disciples more loosely. Many who introduced organs in worship held the same view of biblical authority as those who refused to do so; their interpretation simply led to a different conclusion about the use of musical instruments in apostolic times. They provided the constituency for the “independent” Christian Churches, whereas Disciples tended to find more and more flexibility in the principle of expediency.

      Beginning in the early 19th century as a revolution occurred in the scholarly understanding of the biblical documents and the nature of their authority, the Churches of Christ generally held steadfastly to older views of Scripture, as the independents also tended to do, while Disciples accepted the approach of critical scholarship. At the beginning of the 20th century, the most influential Disciples scholar was J.W. McGarvey, a champion of the traditional doctrines and view of the Bible and an opponent of the musical instrument in worship. Early in the century Herbert L. Willett, E.S. Ames, and C.C. Morrison led in a liberal reformulation of the plea, emphasizing a pragmatic and reasonable approach to faith, the repudiation of creeds, an openness to the scientific world view, and a commitment to Christian unity. Neoorthodoxy held less appeal for most Disciples, but William Robinson gained attention for his emphasis on biblical doctrine.

Recent trends

      With the rapid growth of seminaries and religion faculties and extensive ecumenical involvement, Disciples enjoyed a theological renaissance in the 1950s. During the heyday of biblical theology some of them worked out a contemporary formulation of the tradition within the ecumenical context. A Panel of Scholars, appointed by two of the national agencies, published three volumes of papers in 1963 reflecting the new mood.

      The institutional developments leading to restructuring were accompanied by a reformulation of the doctrine of the church. The founders had spoken of the Church of Christ as a local congregation; they recognized no other organization as a church. The new generation of Disciples could no longer deny the churchly character of the institutions that had been developed. The Design speaks of three manifestations of the Christian Church—congregational, regional, general (United States and Canada). The name that they adopted—the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—they found to have been dictated by their history. They saw that church manifesting itself organizationally “within the universal body of Christ” and committed to “responsible ecumenical relationships.” In 1962 Disciples entered the Consultation on Church Union and in 1985 an ecumenical partnership with the United Church of Christ. They gave a cordial reception to the World Council of Churches document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (1982), even while recognizing problems posed by their eldership for the emerging consensus.

      In the immediate decades after restructure no major theological controversy arose. Resurgent Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism on the larger scene had little impact.

Social issues

      On social questions Disciples have held positions characteristic of the American denominations of English background. With regard to the issue of slavery Campbell prevented schism by admitting that Scripture and civil law permitted slavery, though, as a matter of personal opinion, he favoured emancipation. During the Civil War (American Civil War) a number of leading Disciples, especially in the Border States, espoused pacifism on biblical grounds.

      Disciples representatives to the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches have supported those organizations' general stand on social issues. In the second half of the 20th century, though a moderate conservatism obtained at the grassroots, ministers, seminaries, general units, and General Assembly placed social issues high on their agenda, with vocal sympathy for liberation theology. In 1969 the General Assembly called for a 20 percent presence of ethnic minorities on church policy-making bodies, even though the combined number of Native American, black, Hispanic, and Asian-American Disciples fell well below that figure.

The Rev. Ronald E. Osborn

Additional Reading

Leroy Garrett, The Stone-Campbell Movement: An Anecdotal History of Three Churches (1981), which gives major attention to the 19th century; James DeForest Murch, Christians Only: A History of the Restoration Movement (1962), reflecting an independent viewpoint; and William E. Tucker and Lester G. McAllister, Journey in Faith: A History of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (1975), centring on the cooperative stream. Biographical studies include William Garrett West, Barton Warren Stone: Early American Advocate of Christian Unity (1954); and Lester G. McAllister, Thomas Campbell: Man of the Book (1954). Beliefs, worship, and organization are treated in Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, in Reference to the Union of Christians and a Restoration of Primitive Christianity as Plead in the Current Reformation, 2nd ed. (1839, reprinted 1980), the classic summary of Campbell's theology; Royal Humbert (ed.), A Compend of Alexander Campbell's Theology (1961), with critical and historical commentary; Keith Watkins, The Breaking of Bread: An Approach to Worship for the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) (1966), a comprehensive, historical, and theological analysis; David Edwin Harrell, Jr., A Social History of the Disciples of Christ, 2 vol. (1966–73); and Kenneth Lawrence (ed.), Classic Themes of Disciples Theology: Rethinking the Traditional Affirmations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (1986). See also Mid-Stream: An Ecumenical Journal (quarterly).The Rev. Ronald E. Osborn

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