1809 - Thomas and Alexander Campbell
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) grew out of two different movements, both seeking Christian unity – but they couldn’t get together on one name. (Does anybody else find that ironic?)
Anyway, both sprang up around the same time; one in western Pennsylvania and the other in Kentucky, each without knowledge of the other. Both movements were backlashes against the creeds of rigid denominationalism of the early 1800s where churches required tests of membership.
The Campbells, father Thomas and son Alexander, began their movement in 1809 with the publication of Thomas Campbell's “Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington,” arguably the most comprehensive statement of principles on which the Disciples of Christ were built. A year earlier, Thomas Campbell had been censured by the presbytery for inviting Presbyterians from another synod to partake of the Lord’s Supper, arguing that there was no divine mandate requiring a confession of faith, covenants, or fasting prior to communion.
Campbell made an extensive plea for how the body of Christ should be constituted, describing his intent to organize the Christian Association of Washington (Washington County, Pennsylvania) as an association of people seeking to grow as a faith community. In 1811, the Association established itself as the Brush Run Church.
Thomas and Alexander Campbell's studies of the New Testament led them to practice baptism by immersion. The Disciples were associated with the Baptists. But over the next decade, led by the Campbells, they found that their common belief in baptism by immersion was not enough to compensate for many other points of disagreements. There was strong opposition to Alexander Campbell's efforts to promote reform in his journal The Christian Baptist.
Thomas and Alexander Campbell, thought that denominations were getting in the way of the Lord's Supper – so much so that Christians wouldn’t come to the table together. Barton Stone objected to the use of creeds as tests of "fellowship" within the church. These were different flanks of the same movement that would come together in 1832.
Stone's movement chose the name “Christians.” But Campbell was steadfast about the name “Disciples” reasoning that Disciples was less presumptuous than "Christians."
Together, the watchword of these Christian peacemakers was: "In essentials, Unity; In non-essentials, Liberty; and in all things, Charity."
Anyway, both sprang up around the same time; one in western Pennsylvania and the other in Kentucky, each without knowledge of the other. Both movements were backlashes against the creeds of rigid denominationalism of the early 1800s where churches required tests of membership.
The Campbells, father Thomas and son Alexander, began their movement in 1809 with the publication of Thomas Campbell's “Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington,” arguably the most comprehensive statement of principles on which the Disciples of Christ were built. A year earlier, Thomas Campbell had been censured by the presbytery for inviting Presbyterians from another synod to partake of the Lord’s Supper, arguing that there was no divine mandate requiring a confession of faith, covenants, or fasting prior to communion.
Campbell made an extensive plea for how the body of Christ should be constituted, describing his intent to organize the Christian Association of Washington (Washington County, Pennsylvania) as an association of people seeking to grow as a faith community. In 1811, the Association established itself as the Brush Run Church.
Thomas and Alexander Campbell's studies of the New Testament led them to practice baptism by immersion. The Disciples were associated with the Baptists. But over the next decade, led by the Campbells, they found that their common belief in baptism by immersion was not enough to compensate for many other points of disagreements. There was strong opposition to Alexander Campbell's efforts to promote reform in his journal The Christian Baptist.
Thomas and Alexander Campbell, thought that denominations were getting in the way of the Lord's Supper – so much so that Christians wouldn’t come to the table together. Barton Stone objected to the use of creeds as tests of "fellowship" within the church. These were different flanks of the same movement that would come together in 1832.
Stone's movement chose the name “Christians.” But Campbell was steadfast about the name “Disciples” reasoning that Disciples was less presumptuous than "Christians."
Together, the watchword of these Christian peacemakers was: "In essentials, Unity; In non-essentials, Liberty; and in all things, Charity."
- BYU Religious Studies Center https://rsc.byu.edu/alexander-campbell-joseph-smith/alexander-campbells-foundational-beliefs#:~:text=On%2030%20August%201816%2C%20at%20the%20age%20of,his%20liberal%20bent%20and%20heterodoxy%2C%20were%20vehemently%20opposed.