The Global Church Era · 1906-present · N. America, then global
Disciples of Christ & the Independent Christian Churches
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About This Movement
The other side of the 1906 division took the opposite road. The Disciples of Christ kept their instruments and their national organizations, joined the Federal Council of Churches at its founding in 1908 and the World Council of Churches at its founding in 1948, and in 1968 adopted a plan called the Restructure — 'The Design' — that turned a movement of congregations into a denomination. But that step cost them a second division, which had been forming for decades: the independent Christian Churches had been meeting separately at the North American Christian Convention since 1927, and by 1971 they were listed separately in the yearbooks. So one nineteenth-century plea for Christian unity ended up producing three distinct streams.
In Its Own Record
Formed From
- The Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement — The Disciples wing of the same 1906 division, on the same verified federal-census listing. No continuesAs write, for the same reason as its sibling edge. Edge written at the Era 10 Freeze (Mark, 2026-08-14).
Sources
- The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Restructure of 1968: 'The Design' (primary) — The wing's own dated constitutional self-description; details from standard reference.
- The Disciples' ecumenical record: founding membership of the Federal Council of Churches (1908) and of the World Council of Churches (1948) (primary) — The unity plea institutionalized; connects this tradition to the wider ecumenical movement.
- The independent Christian Churches' record: the North American Christian Convention from 1927; separate yearbook listing by 1971 (primary) — The second division, treated here rather than as a separate tradition.
- Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers et al. (eds.), The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (Eerdmans, 2004) (reference) — Covers both wings' twentieth-century successions.