Hendrickites

The Hendrickites were a group of people who formed a church under the leadership of Granville Hendrick in 1863. The church was formed of five small groups of former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the Mormon Church.

Upon the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1844, the apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ gathered in Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph had conferred all the keys of governing the kingdom of God on earth to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles but no succession had ever occurred before, and a crisis of leadership ensued with a number of men vying for leadership of the Church. Sidney Rigdon claimed that no one could take the prophet's place, but that he should be guardian of the Church. When he tried to take power, he was excommunicated and formed a group eventually called the Bickertonites. William Strang also sought leadership and broke off with a group, called the Strangites. Strang was murdered by members of the group sometime later.

Hendrick was ordained prophet and president of the five small groups he consolidated, but later withdrew from these titles. At first, Hendrick's church called itself The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Later, however, this was shortened to Church of Christ. This was still unsatisfactory, because originally, the phrase "of Latter-day Saints" had not been part of the name of the original church.

The Hendrickites own a 2-acre piece of property in Independence, Missouri, called The Temple Lot. "The Hedrickites returned to Independence in 1867 to purchase lots for this temple in the name of the "Church of Christ" and have been headquartered there ever since (Wikipedia). The church is now named Church of Christ (Temple Lot). The church split in 1929 over some letters Otto Fetting claimed to be from John the Baptist. Fetting's own group split afterwards into three groups. Another sect breaking with the Temple Lot church was the Church of Christ (Hancock), founded in 1946 by Pauline Hancock. Her church dissolved in 1984. The Church of Christ (Temple Lot) uses the Bible and the Book of Mormon as scripture.

There are about 2,500 members.