The Churches of Christ (non-instrumental)

Churches of Christ are a theologically conservative, Protestant Christian body with roots in the American Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement that began in the early 1800s. The movement’s goal was to bring about Christian unity by restoring simple New Testament faith and practice. Two other American religious bodies emerged from the Stone-Campbell movement--the "independent" Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Churches of Christ were recognized as a separate body in the 1906 Religious Census.

The church has no central headquarters and no official organization beyond the elders of each local congregation. These local churches cooperate voluntarily to support missions and social services. Worship is conducted without the use of instrumental music - only a capella singing. The Lord's Supper is celebrated each Sunday. Churches of Christ currently have approximately

1.3 million members with over 13,000 congregations in the United States.

The participation of Churches of Christ in the FACT project included a survey of 1,679 churches randomly chosen from a listing of Churches of Christ congregations in the United States. 289 usable questionnaires were returned for a 17% response rate.

If you are interested in obtaining specific information about the results of the Churches of Christ survey, please get in touch with their official contact person Thomas Winter at wintert@acu.edu. 

Several additional persons were involved in collecting the Churches of Christ information. Thomas Winter serves as key researcher, Douglas A. Foster serves as key teacher–the person charged with encouraging congregations to use this information, and Scott Lamascus is the media contact person for this information.

You can read the Churches of Christ preliminary FACT report in an excellent online form at The Christian Chronicle, the news service of Oklahoma Christian University.  In addition, read the press release they have distributed to the public.