Christian Church Disciples of Christ: Encyclopedia II - Christian Church Disciples of Christ - History

Christian Church Disciples of Christ - History

The roots of the Disciples of Christ lie in the Restoration Movement of the early 1800s, with a focus on Christian unity and lack of strict denominationalism. This focus came from a study of the New Testament by the movement's founders. Tolerance of other viewpoints that differed on non-essentials was key, as was inclusion based on the Lord's Table (Communion). It has been estimated that the indigenous movement that gave rise to the modern Disciples of Christ (and its associated offshoots) has been surpassed in size by only one other body of North American origin, that of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The unity of this group was shaken by the formation of a missionary society in the late 1840s, a development looked upon with disfavor by many, especially among the smaller, more rural, and Southern congregations, and by the adoption shortly after this by some congregations of instrumental music, predominantly (at first) pianos and organs. After the American Civil War the dispute became more strident, as many leftover regional animosities became a subtext. By the 1870s and 1880s there were essentially two groups within the Restoration Movement, although the break was not truly formalized until the Religious Census of 1906 in which the congregations that disagreed with instrumental music and the missionary society asked to be listed separately as the Church of Christ.

Another group, perhaps nearly as conservative as the Church of Christ (but at variance with the Church of Christ mainly on Biblical interpretations concerning the use of musical instruments during worship), was disturbed by the liberalism that it perceived to be predominant at a church conference in Memphis, Tennessee in 1926, forming the North American Christian Convention the next year. Slowly over the next forty-five years, the split between these "Independents" and the Disciples became more or less complete; this group is now known as Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.

At the time of the 1906 division, the Disciples were by far the larger of the two bodies; now it would seem possible that they might be the smallest of the three current major divisions of the Restoration Movement. To this point, despite serious concerns over the direction of the denomination being expressed by some of the more conservative members, further open division has not occurred.

1963 saw the next wave of Disciples history. It began with the publication of essays from pastors and scholars that were charged with the task of reexaming the beliefs and doctrines of the Disciples. The essays were published as a three-volume series under the name of The Panel of Scholars Reports.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki