Church of Christ lifers may remember Churches of Christ in the United States, an annual directory of, you guessed it, all Church of Christ congregations in the United States. The last edition came out in 2018.

In 2024, The Christian Chronicle, Heritage 21 Foundation, Siburt Institute and 21st Century Christian formed a partnership, the Church Research Council, to resume publication of Churches of Christ in the United States. 

But making a directory of Church of Christ congregations is not as easy as it may seem. First, there is the challenge of tracking down 10,000 to 12,000 independent congregations across 50 states and territories.

Then there's the fact that some congregations will resist participating for a variety of reasons, including how creating a directory feels "denominational" to congregations that avoid anything that resembles that label. 

And then there's the harder question of all: What is a "Church of Christ" and who gets to decide?

In this episode, Dr. Suzie Macaluso, the lead researcher on the Churches of Christ in the United States project, talks about the challenges and implications of the directory on how Church of Christ folks imagine themselves and how they relate to one another.

Link to Cheryl Mann Bacon's Christian Chronicle story on the challenges of compiling a new Churches of Christ in the United States

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