Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| disciple | A committed follower; in biblical usage, any believer in Jesus Christ (not restricted only to mature or fully-committed or dedicated followers). |
| disciple | (verb). To give peoples the opportunity to become followers of Christ; to train individual believers extensively over a long period, with a view to them also becoming disciplers in multiplication evangelism (qv). |
| disciple | A follower, learner, or adherent of a religious leader; especially of followers with personal, devoted relationship with Jesus Christ. |
| disciple-opportunities | Chances or opportunities for individuals or groups to accept Christ as Savior and Lord. |
| discipler | A Christian worker aiming to disciple a few believers with a view to making them also disciplers. |
| Disciples | (Churches of Christ) (Restoration Movement). Protestant tradition also known as Restorationist, Restoration Baptist, Campbellite, or simply ‘Christian’. |
| disciples | Followers, adherents attached to Jesus or another prominent leader. |
| discipleship scale | A computed scale from 0-10 measuring the evangelistic influence of Christian discipleship in a population segment by estimating the number of disciples. |
| discipline | One of the major areas of learning in the academic world. |
| discipline, church | A body of laws and practical rules relating to conduct and church government. Church members breaking or flouting such laws may be placed temporarily under discipline (usually exclusion from communion or the Lord’s Table), or even, eventually be excommunicated (qv). |
| discipling | The first of the 3 stages in church planting and growth (discipling, baptizing, perfecting, based on the Great Commission in Matthew 28.19), involving the initial or preliminary bringing of a whole people to renounce idolatry or unbelief as a group, and to a group acknowledgement of Christ as Lord; measured as the total number of all professing Christians. |
| disestablishment | The act of a state in sundering the legal relationships between it and its established church or churches. |
| dispensary | A place where medicines are dispensed to ambulance patients; see medical centers |
| dispensationalism | Adherence to or advocacy of a futurist premillennialist system of interpreting history in terms of a series of God’s dispensations, or 7 periods of history during which a particular divine revelation has predominated in the affairs of mankind; usually, futurist premillennialist and pretribulational. |
| displaced person | A person who has been moved by a public authority from his place of origin. |
| disputed episcopal churches | Autocephalous Catholic and other episcopal churches with disputed claim to apostolic succession of bishops. |
| dissent | Religious dissension or nonconformity. |
| dissenter | One who differs from an established church in the matter of doctrines, rites or government; a nonconformist. |
| dissertation | An extended systematic written treatment of a subject submitted for a doctoral degree, typically based on independent research and giving evidence of a candidate’s mastery of both his own subject and of scholarly method. |
| distribution | In Bible society usage, term for measuring annual circulation or sale of scripture copies. |
| distribution goal | Any announced deadline some years into the future for reaching a firm numerical goal or objective. |
| district | An ecclesiastical division in larger denominations. |
| district superintendent | In Methodism, a minister with oversight of churches and workers in a district. |
| divine | A priest, clergyman, theologian, one skilled in divinity. |
| divine healing | Healing attributed to the direct agency of God, usually in response to faith. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.