Members of Churches of Christ are a people of restoration spirit -- wanting to restore in our time the original New Testament church. In every phase of our worship, teaching, and conduct we stress that our instruction must come from the Bible. Any rules, creeds or principles invented by man have no place in the Church of Christ. Worldwide there are some 20,000 congregations of Churches of Christ with a total of 2.5 to 3 million individual members. There are Churches of Christ in every state and in 109 other countries. Churches of Christ have none of the trappings of modern-day organizational bureaucracy. There are no governing boards -- neither district, regional, national, or international. Each congregation is autonomous (self-ruled). Each congregation is governed locally by a plurality of elders. These men must meet the specific qualifications of the office given in I Timothy 3.