In the United States, there are approximately 1,087,559 members and 11,776 congregations. In 2022, the total membership of Churches of Christ is estimated to be between 1,700,000 and 2,000,000, with over 40,000 individual congregations worldwide. : 388 : 23–37 : 65–67 They believe that the New Testament demonstrates how a person may become a Christian (and thus a part of the universal Church of Christ) and how a church should be collectively organized and carry out its scriptural purposes. They view the Old Testament as divinely inspired : 103 and historically accurate, but they do not consider its laws to be binding under the New Covenant in Christ (unless they are repeated in the New Testament) (Hebrews 8: 7–13). In keeping with their history, the Churches of Christ claim the New Testament as their sole rule of faith and practice in deciding matters of doctrine and ecclesiastical structure.
The strength of the appeal lies in the restoration of Christ's original church.Ĭhurches of Christ generally share the following theological beliefs and practices:
Rather, the whole movement is designed to reproduce in contemporary times the church originally established on Pentecost, A.D. Members of the church of Christ do not conceive of themselves as a new church started near the beginning of the 19th century. : 213 They believe that they are recreating the New Testament church as established by Christ. They simply identify themselves as "Christians", without using any other forms of religious or denominational identification. : 82, 104, 105 Members of the Churches of Christ believe that Jesus founded only one church, that the current divisions among Christians do not express God's will, and that the only basis for restoring Christian unity is the Bible. : 108 Participants in this movement sought to base their doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, rather than recognizing the traditional councils and denominational hierarchies that had come to define Christianity since the first century A.D. Modern Churches of Christ have their historical roots in the Restoration Movement, which was a converging of Christians across denominational lines in search of a return to an original, "pre-denominational" Christianity. There are now Churches of Christ in Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, Central America, and Europe. The Restoration Movement was not a purely North American phenomenon. They sought "the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the original church of the New Testament." : 54 The Churches of Christ arose to prominence in the United States from the Restoration Movement of 19th-century evangelism by groups who declared independence from denominations and traditional creeds. Many Churches identify themselves as being nondenominational. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are that of the necessity of baptism for salvation and the prohibition of instruments in worship. The Churches of Christ are represented across the world. Their practices are based on Bible texts and draw on the early Christian church as described in the New Testament. The Churches of Christ, most commonly known as the Church of Christ or church of Christ, is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations based on the sola scriptura doctrine.
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