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Evangelical Church of North America | |
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Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Evangelical, Holiness |
Polity | Congregational-Connectional |
Associations | Christian Holiness Partnership, National Association of Evangelicals |
Region | U.S. districts, worldwide missions conferences |
Origin | 1968 |
Separated from | Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) |
Merger of | Holiness Methodist Church (1969), Wesleyan Covenant Church (1975) |
Congregations | 128 (2010) |
Members | 12,475 (2000) |
Official website | https://www.theevangelicalchurch.org/ |
The Evangelical Church of North America (ECNA) is a Wesleyan-Holiness, Protestant Christian denomination headquartered in Clackamas, Oregon. As of 2000, the Church had 12,475 members in 133 local churches. [1] The Church sponsors missionaries in seven countries.
Its official emblem is composed of a red flame, symbolizing the fire of the Holy Spirit which descended at Pentecost, atop an open Bible. It has published an official magazine, The Evangelical Challenge, and a newsletter, The Heartbeat.
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Background |
Doctrinal distinctives |
People |
Predecessor groups |
Related movements |
The Evangelical Church of North America was officially born June 4, 1968, in Portland, Oregon. But the origin of The Evangelical Church can be traced back to two earlier movements: the Wesleyan awakening in England under John Wesley, the founder of The Methodist Church, and the United Brethren in Christ movement in Pennsylvania, spearheaded by preachers such as William Otterbein and Martin Boehm.
The early Methodists in England and later North America declared that men can be saved from sin, through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and that this experience must be followed by a life of dedication and holiness, or "sanctification."
Meanwhile, the work of the United Brethren in Christ grew rapidly after its first Conference was held in York County, Pennsylvania, in 1789. These brethren believed that God is a God of order, and that where there is no order and no church discipline, the spirit of love and charity will be lost. This stream of Protestantism found much in common with the early American Methodists—a relationship that would eventually lead up to the formation of the Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) in 1946.
At its annual session in 1967, the Pacific Northwest Conference of the EUB Church voted by a two-thirds majority to secede from its parent body and continue to operate as a separate denomination. The action was taken in anticipation of the EUB's upcoming merger with the Methodist Church (USA). Dissenters differed with an increasingly Modernist trend in American Methodism over Biblical authority, "the social gospel," and the doctrine of Entire Sanctification.
The EUB Book of Discipline (the controlling document of church governance) made no provision for the secession of local congregations or regional conferences, and the denomination did not recognize the validity of the Pacific Northwest Conference's action (or similar votes taken at congregational meetings). The merger between the EUB and The Methodist Church was effected in April 1968, forming the United Methodist Church. This action took title to all assets and properties formerly belonging to the Pacific Northwest Conference, including its local churches and organizations.
On June 4, 1968, in Portland, Oregon, forty-six congregations and about eighty ministers met in a session to organize a separate denomination known as the Evangelical Church of North America (ECNA). Before the end of June 1968, laity and ministers from North Dakota and Montana, representing more than twenty additional congregations, had joined.
In 1969, the Evangelical Church entered into a financial settlement agreement with the Methodists whereby the new denomination gained title to some of the facilities of the former EUB Church, including most of the secessionist congregations' property.
That same year, the Holiness Methodist Church united with the Evangelical Church, bringing along a mission field in Bolivia. In 1975, the Wesleyan Covenant Church, became part of the Evangelical Church, along with its missionary work in Mexico and Brownsville, Texas, and its work among the Navajo Indians in New Mexico. At some point the Evangelical Church in Canada was formed as a conference of the ECNA, but by 1993 it separated and merged into the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada (EMCC). [2]
A mention was made at the 2006 General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church (EMC) of talks of a possible merger with the ECNA. By 2014, the denominations were sharing a common ministry training school. Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
The Evangelical Church is strongly Wesleyan-Arminian, emphasizing free will over determinism and salvation through a two separate and instantaneous acts of Grace, justification and sanctification, attained through Faith resulting in repentance. This, together with Biblical inerrancy and belief in a direct command of God to universally evangelize, are common to the various bodies which comprise the Holiness movement. The Church has an official Statement of Faith, which is based on that of the Methodism inherited from the EUB, but which has been revised to make these emphases of doctrine more specific and Evangelical.
The polity of the Evangelical Church can be described as congregational-connectional. Like other denominations in the Methodist tradition, the principal governing body of the Evangelical Church is a general conference, with delegates from each of six regional conferences. The regional conferences meet annually with delegates from each of the local congregations within their respective territories. The Church does not have bishops, but is led by Conference Superintendents and a General Superintendent, who are elected to fixed terms, and who all have pastoral and administrative responsibilities.
The Evangelical Church is a member of the Christian Holiness Association and the National Association of Evangelicals. The Evangelical Church is a missionary oriented church averaging at least one adult missionary per local church. The three major organizations supported, beyond the Evangelical Church Missions department, are OMS International, World Gospel Mission and Wycliffe Bible Translators. In addition, Evangelical Church members serve through a score of other interdenominational missions organizations.
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christian tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother Charles Wesley were also significant early leaders in the movement. They were named Methodists for "the methodical way in which they carried out their Christian faith". Methodism originated as a revival movement within Anglicanism originating out of the Church of England in the 18th century and became a separate denomination after Wesley's death. The movement spread throughout the British Empire, the United States and beyond because of vigorous missionary work, and today has about 80 million adherents worldwide.
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, the MEC reunited with two breakaway Methodist denominations to form the Methodist Church. In 1968, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church.
The Holiness movement is a Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent influenced other traditions such as Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. The movement is historically distinguished by its emphasis on the doctrine of a second work of grace, which is called entire sanctification or Christian perfection. The word Holiness refers specifically to the belief in entire sanctification as a definite, second work of grace, in which original sin is cleansed, the heart is made perfect in love, and the believer is empowered to serve God. Churches aligned with the holiness movement additionally teach that the Christian life should be free of sin. For the Holiness movement, "the term 'perfection' signifies completeness of Christian character; its freedom from all sin, and possession of all the graces of the Spirit, complete in kind." A number of Christian denominations, parachurch organizations, and movements emphasize those Holiness beliefs as central doctrine.
The Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) was a North American Protestant denomination from 1946 to 1968 with Arminian theology, roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities, and close ties to Methodism. It was formed by the merger of a majority of the congregations of the Evangelical Church founded by Jacob Albright and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. The United Brethren and the Evangelical Association had considered merging off and on since the early 19th century because of their common emphasis on holiness and evangelism and their common German heritage.
The Missionary Church is an evangelical Christian denomination of Anabaptist origins with Wesleyan and Pietist influences.
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is an evangelical Christian denomination with churches in 17 countries. It is Protestant, with an episcopal structure and Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities of 18th-century Pennsylvania, as well as close ties to Methodism. It was organized in 1800 by Martin Boehm and Philip William Otterbein and is the first American denomination that was not transplanted from Europe. It emerged from United Brethren churches that were at first unorganized, and not all of which joined this church when it was formally organized in 1800, following a 1789 conference at the Otterbein Church.
The Wesleyan Church, also known as the Wesleyan Methodist Church and Wesleyan Holiness Church depending on the region, is a Methodist Christian denomination in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Indonesia, and Australia. The church is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and has roots in the teachings of John Wesley. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian doctrine and is a member of the World Methodist Council.
Within many denominations of Christianity, Christian perfection is the theological concept of the process or the event of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is union with God characterized by pure love of God and other people as well as personal holiness or sanctification. Other terms used for this or similar concepts include entire sanctification, holiness, perfect love, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, baptism by fire, the second blessing, and the second work of grace.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church was a Methodist denomination in the United States organized on May 13, 1841.
Pilgrim Holiness Church (PHC) or International Apostolic Holiness Church (IAHC) is a Christian denomination associated with the holiness movement that split from the Methodist Episcopal Church through the efforts of Martin Wells Knapp in 1897. It was first organized in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the International Holiness Union and Prayer League (IHU/IAHC). Knapp, founder of the IAHC, ordained and his Worldwide Missions Board sent Charles and Lettie Cowman who had attended God's Bible School to Japan in December 1900. By the International Apostolic Holiness Churches Foreign Missionary Board and the co-board of the Revivalist the Cowmans had been appointed the General Superintendents and the Kilbournes the vice-General Superintendent for Korea, Japan and China December 29, 1905. The organization later became the Pilgrim Holiness Church in 1922, the majority of which merged with the Wesleyan Methodists in 1968 to form the Wesleyan Church.
The conservative holiness movement is a loosely defined group of theologically conservative Christian denominations with the majority being Methodists whose teachings are rooted in the theology of John Wesley, and a minority being Quakers (Friends) that emphasize the doctrine of George Fox, as well as River Brethren who emerged out of the Radical Pietist revival, and Holiness Restorationists in the tradition of Daniel Sidney Warner. Schisms began to occur in the 19th century and this movement became distinct from parent Holiness bodies in the mid-20th century amid disagreements over modesty in dress, entertainment, and other "old holiness standards". Aligned denominations share a belief in Christian perfection, though they differ on various doctrines, such as the celebration of the sacraments and observance of ordinances, which is related to the denominational tradition of the specific conservative holiness body—Methodist, Quaker, Anabaptist or Restorationist. Many denominations identifying with the conservative holiness movement, though not all, are represented in the Interchurch Holiness Convention; while some denominations have full communion with one another, other bodies choose to be isolationist.
W. Maynard Sparks was an American Bishop of the Evangelical United Brethren Church (E.U.B.) and of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1958.
The Evangelical Methodist Church (EMC) is a Christian denomination in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The denomination reported 399 churches in the United States, Mexico, Burma/Myanmar, Canada, Philippines and several European and African nations in 2018, and a total of 34,656 members worldwide.
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles Wesley. More broadly it refers to the theological system inferred from the various sermons, theological treatises, letters, journals, diaries, hymns, and other spiritual writings of the Wesleys and their contemporary coadjutors such as John William Fletcher, Methodism's systematic theologian.
The Association of Independent Methodists (AIM) is a fellowship of independent Methodist congregations that are aligned with the holiness movement. The Association is based in the United States, being founded in 1965 by churches who left the mainline Methodist Church because of disagreements on church government and doctrinal matters. As of 2024, the denomination has 100 churches in 11 U.S. states, concentrated mostly in the Southern United States.
The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (AWMC) is a Methodist denomination within the conservative holiness movement. It is primarily based in the United States, with missions in Peru, Ghana, and Haiti. The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection is currently led by Rev. David Blowers (President) and Rev. Joseph Smith.
The history of Methodism in the United States dates back to the mid-18th century with the ministries of early Methodist preachers such as Laurence Coughlan and Robert Strawbridge. Following the American Revolution most of the Anglican clergy who had been in America came back to England. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, sent Thomas Coke to America where he and Francis Asbury founded the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was to later establish itself as the largest denomination in America during the 19th century.
The National Association of Wesleyan Evangelicals is a Methodist network of churches and ministers aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. It is based in the Southern United States.
The Evangelical Methodist Church of America Christian denomination based in the United States. Ardently Fundamental, the denomination has its roots in a movement of churches that broke away from Mainline Methodism in the 1940s and 50s.