The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a Mainline Protestant denomination in North America. It is often referred to as The Christian Church, The Disciples of Christ, or more simply as The Disciples. It has made significant contributions to worldwide Christianity through the evangelistic work of its missionary societies and through its participation in the ecumenical dialogue of the 20th century.

The Christian Church was a charter participant in the formation of both the World Council of Churches and the Federal Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches), and it continues to be engaged in ecumenical conversations. The Disciples' local churches are congregationally governed. Currently there are 691,160 members in 3,754 congregations in North America.

The early history of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is shared by two other groups, The Churches of Christ and the independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. They all emerged from the same roots. The Stone-Campbell movement began as two separate threads, each without knowledge of the other, during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century.

The first, led by Barton W. Stone began at Cane Ridge, Bourbon County, Kentucky. The group called themselves simply Christians.

The second, began in western Pennsylvania and Virginia (now West Virginia), led by Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell. Because the founders wanted to abandon all denominational labels, they used the biblical names for the followers of Jesus that they found in the Bible.

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