The Christian churches and churches of Christ are a part of the Restoration Movement and share historical roots with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the a cappella Churches of Christ. The term does not include all Christian churches.
These churches are best defined as those in the Restoration Movement who have chosen on the one hand not to be identified with the denomination known as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). On the other hand, the obvious difference from the Churches of Christ is the use of instrumental music in worship. The instrumental Christian Churches and the a cappella Churches of Christ are otherwise very similar.
Churches in this tradition have no formal denominational ties, and thus there are no official statistical data, but the 2006 Directory of the Ministry documents some 5,500 congregations. Many estimate the number to be over 6,000.
Read more about Christian Churches And Churches Of Christ: Congregational Nomenclature, Separation From The Disciples of Christ, Identity, Baptism, Educational Institutions, Slogans
Famous quotes containing the words christian, churches and/or christ:
“I never went near the Wellesley College chapel in my four years there, but I am still amazed at the amount of Christian charity that school stuck us all with, a kind of glazed politeness in the face of boredom and stupidity. Tolerance, in the worst sense of the word.... How marvelous it would have been to go to a women’s college that encouraged impoliteness, that rewarded aggression, that encouraged argument.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)
“Can you conceive what it is to native-born American women citizens, accustomed to the advantages of our schools, our churches and the mingling of our social life, to ask over and over again for so simple a thing as that “we, the people,” should mean women as well as men; that our Constitution should mean exactly what it says?”
—Mary F. Eastman, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 ch. 5, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“If sometimes our poor people have had to die of starvation, it is not that God didn’t care for them, but because you and I didn’t give, were not an instrument of love in the hands of God, to give them that bread, to give them that clothing; because we did not recognize him, when once more Christ came in distressing disguise, in the hungry man, in the lonely man, in the homeless child, and seeking for shelter.”
—Mother Teresa (b. 1910)