The '''Churches of Christ'''<ref>Many of this movement prefer to use the spelling "churches of Christ", differentiating between "the Church" (all Christians) and "the church" (a local congregation).</ref> are a group of autonomous churches in the United States made up of believers in Jesus Christ who have been baptised by immersion"for the remission of sins" as a component of the salvation process.
They consider themselves to be non-denominational and prefer not to be categorized as a Protestant group (though many of their early followers came from Protestant denominations), saying that they do not seek to reform the Catholic Church but only to restore Christianity to authentic New Testament beliefs and practices.