Confessing Movement
Encyclopedia
The Confessing Movement is an Evangelical
movement
within several mainline Protestant
denominations
to return those churches to what the members of the movement see as theological
orthodoxy
.
It relates and cross pollinates with other conservative Christian
movements such as Evangelicals
, Pentecostals
, Holiness
groups, Anabaptists, and Fundamentalists
. Its members have a stated commitment to remain in their home denominations, unless forced out, to stay and work for reform from within, in contrast to what they see as other modern reform movements that splintered Protestantism
into thousands of denominations. They acknowledge that full reform of their churches may not be achieved. Of particular concern to those in the Confessing movement has been a perceived lack of concern for, or non-evangelical approaches to, evangelism, to the deity of Christ, to questions of sexuality
and homosexuality
in particular.
The Confessing Movement should not be confused with the Confessing Church
, a Christian resistance movement in Nazi Germany
, nor the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
, an unaffiliated group of pastors and theologians promoting a return to historic Reformation
principles within the Reformed and Lutheran churches.
to accommodate democratic pluralist society in America. They reject church leaders such as United Methodist
Bishop Joseph Sprague of Chicago and Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong
as apostate.
Although many issues are longstanding, the trigger that led to the formation of the Confessing Movement was the acceptance or the possible acceptance of practicing homosexuality
. Other issues influencing some groups were the ordination of women, and the decline in attendance of many of the mainline denominations through the 1950s to the 1980s in the US, while many conservative churches were growing. Some of the difference may represent individuals moving from the mainline to the more fundamentalist or evangelical churches, while the rest simply reflects a general decline in organized religious participation. Leaders of the Confessing Movement claim the shrinking of mainline church membership as evidence of a wrong path taken.
(a group founded by the prominent neoconservatives Michael Novak
and Richard John Neuhaus
) to silence the social agenda of the mainline Protestant denominations, rather than being a series of organically arising movements within various Protestant denominations as the Confessing Movements' leaders often claim it to be.
Many of the laity in the confessing congregations, however, may maintain that the aim of these Confessing Movements is simply to maintain the received Christian doctrine of the denomination as they understand it to have been traditionally taught and understood.
Family Charitable Trusts/Scaife Foundations
, and to a lesser extent by the Smith Richardson Foundation
.
In 2007, the IRD released a report http://www.ird-renew.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=fvKVLfMVIsG&b=470745&ct=3274035 that showed that in fiscal year 2005 the National Council of Churches
mainline umbrella organization
actually received more money (US$1.76 million) from secular foundations and other non-church organizations than from member communions. (US$1.75 million). IRD remarks, "We should be clear that there is no necessary sin in a Christian organization—the NCC, the IRD, or the Salvation Army—accepting contributions from or forming alliances with persons or groups who may not themselves be Christians. The problems come when the non-church funding and alliances loom so large that they cannot help but change the nature of a Christian organization. Then serious questions arise: Are the non-church funders and allies determining the programs and positions of the Christian organization? Or are organization leaders reshaping their programs to fit the priorities of the funders and allies?"
. In February, 2002 more than 800 laity, pastors, deacons, and elders gathered in Atlanta, Georgia
for the first National Celebration of Confessing Churches. Participating churches affirm that Christ
is the only way of salvation
, that the Bible
is infallible in its teachings,
and that sexual relations are exclusively for marriage
.
More than 1,300 of the denomination's 11,000 congregations have adopted such declarations and become part of a loosely knit Confessing Church Movement.
The books Union in Christ: A Declaration for the Church (1999) and A Passion for the Gospel: Confessing Jesus Christ for the 21st Century (2000), both by Mark Achtemeier and Andrew Purves
have served as rallying cries for Confessing Presbyterians.
quotes Methodism
's founder, John Wesley
, who said:
Leaders have included Thomas C. Oden
, Steve Harper, Maxie Dunnam
, Bill Hinson, John Ed Mathison, Karen Covey Moore, William J. Abraham
, and James Heidinger. Good News Magazine is the main publication of Methodist members of the movement. The movement has been very successful in maintaining doctrinal standards and traditional United Methodist positions on theology and practice at the General Conferences in Cleveland (2000), Pittsburgh
(2004), and Ft. Worth (2008). At the 2008 conference for instance delegates voted to retain language in the Social Creed defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. They also maintained the traditional teaching, that although homosexuals "are individuals of sacred worth", homosexual practice is "incompatible with Christian teaching."
states:
The largest of these organizations is the WordAlone
Network, organized in 2000 in opposition to the Concordat/Called to Common Mission agreement with the Episcopal Church USA. Under that agreement, the ELCA agreed to undertake the Episcopal practice of being governed by bishops in the historic episcopate. Many Lutherans saw this as contrary to Lutheran theology and organized in opposition to it.
While the WordAlone Network has worked to reform church governance, sometimes with little visible reward for their effort, they succeeded at the 2005 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA in slowing the efforts of those who sought to revise the understanding of homosexuality within the ELCA. This was accomplished in cooperation with others who did not oppose the historic episcopate through the Solid Rock Lutherans organization. WordAlone has also been an incubator for launching related groups working to reform the church. They include a new publisher of a Lutheran hymnal (Reclaim Lutheran Worship), LC3, and Lutheran Core.
The most successful WordAlone outgrowth is Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ
, a post-denominational association of 724 congregations in ten countries, with 656 of them in the United States.
The Evangelical Lutheran Confessing Fellowship (ELCF) is one of the more recent of these "reform" movements, inspired by the other Protestant "confessing movements" described in this article.
The ELCF was organized in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in February, 2002 by about 60 pastor
s and laypersons who belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
, the largest and perhaps most liberal Lutheran body in North America. The goal of the movement is to remain faithful to the orthodox or traditional teachings of the church, especially with regard to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the unique Lordship of Jesus Christ, the authority of scripture, and human sexual intimacy. Its efforts have been to persuade the ELCA to reform itreturn to orthodox positions with regard to its theology and teachings, rather than separation from the ELCA. According to their initial press release, a primary goal is to head off apparent movement toward formal recognition and ordination of homosexual clergy. http://www.elcf.net/news_061802.html In 2005, the proposals to allow ordination of homosexual clergy and blessing of homosexual relationships were defeated at the ELCA's national convention.
the first confessing movement founded was the Biblical Witness Fellowship
, formed in 1977 after a General Synod sexuality study that, to the founders, seemed to take a decidedly permissive attitude toward non-marital sex and homosexuality. The BWF advocates a dual goal of local church renewal and national level reformation. Under the leadership of executive director David Runnion-Bareford, a Candia, New Hampshire
, pastor, this movement has presented reformation initiatives before each of the last five Synods of the UCC, including a successful reaffirmation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the denomination's historic symbol, the "Cross Triumphant," in 2005. "Focus Renewal Ministries" was founded as a charismatic expression within the United Church of Christ, although its membership is small. More recently, some UCC conservatives began a "Faithful and Welcoming" movement, led by the Rev. Bob Thompson, pastor of Hickory, North Carolina
's Corinth Reformed UCC. Like the founding of the BWF, that initiative followed the controversial General Synod of 2005 (in which the denomination in effect endorsed the efforts of same-sex couples to marry) and seeks to keep churches from leaving the denomination. Generally speaking, the F&W movement is perceived as less strident than the BWF, which has close relationships with established para-denominational evangelical organizations such as Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
in Massachusetts.
However, the UCC's renewal advocates have been far less successful than their counterparts in other mainline bodies: according to Faithful and Welcoming, over 250 congregations have withdrawn from the denomination since 2005, and despite the work mentioned above, the national leadership, and probably a majority of the remaining congregations, are resolute in their support of liberal theological and social stands. It is thus likely that laypeople and clergy espousing the aims of BWF, FRM, and F&W will remain small minorities in the denomination for the foreseeable future. Given this scenario, many more of the remaining advocates may well defect to more conservative groups also, leaving the UCC as perhaps the U.S.' most politically and theologically liberal Christian group.
formed The Reforming Alliance in order to discuss the issues and work out a strategy. This process was helped by another group called Evangelical Members within the Uniting Church in Australia
(EMU) which had been formed in the early 1990s as a conservative response to what is seen as the church's growing liberalism.
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
movement
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
within several mainline Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
denominations
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity. In the Orthodox tradition, Churches are divided often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and traditions. Technically, divisions between one group and...
to return those churches to what the members of the movement see as theological
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
orthodoxy
Orthodoxy
The word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
.
It relates and cross pollinates with other conservative Christian
Conservative Christianity
Conservative Christianity is a term applied to a number of groups or movements seen as giving priority to traditional Christian beliefs and practices...
movements such as Evangelicals
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
, Pentecostals
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
, Holiness
Holiness movement
The holiness movement refers to a set of beliefs and practices emerging from the Methodist Christian church in the mid 19th century. The movement is distinguished by its emphasis on John Wesley's doctrine of "Christian perfection" - the belief that it is possible to live free of voluntary sin - and...
groups, Anabaptists, and Fundamentalists
Fundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
. Its members have a stated commitment to remain in their home denominations, unless forced out, to stay and work for reform from within, in contrast to what they see as other modern reform movements that splintered Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
into thousands of denominations. They acknowledge that full reform of their churches may not be achieved. Of particular concern to those in the Confessing movement has been a perceived lack of concern for, or non-evangelical approaches to, evangelism, to the deity of Christ, to questions of sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
and homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
in particular.
The Confessing Movement should not be confused with the Confessing Church
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...
, a Christian resistance movement in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, nor the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is a Christian ministry which produces print and internet resources, broadcasts radio programs The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is a Christian ministry which produces print and internet resources, broadcasts radio programs The Alliance of Confessing...
, an unaffiliated group of pastors and theologians promoting a return to historic Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
principles within the Reformed and Lutheran churches.
Confessing Movement in the churches
A large group of laity and a somewhat smaller group of clergy within the mainline churches have protested that their denominations have been "hijacked" by those who, in their view, have 'forsaken Christianity' and embraced what they consider moral relativismMoral relativism
Moral relativism may be any of several descriptive, meta-ethical, or normative positions. Each of them is concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different people and cultures:...
to accommodate democratic pluralist society in America. They reject church leaders such as United Methodist
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
Bishop Joseph Sprague of Chicago and Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong
John Shelby Spong
John Shelby "Jack" Spong is a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. He was formerly the Bishop of Newark . He is a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author...
as apostate.
Although many issues are longstanding, the trigger that led to the formation of the Confessing Movement was the acceptance or the possible acceptance of practicing homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. Other issues influencing some groups were the ordination of women, and the decline in attendance of many of the mainline denominations through the 1950s to the 1980s in the US, while many conservative churches were growing. Some of the difference may represent individuals moving from the mainline to the more fundamentalist or evangelical churches, while the rest simply reflects a general decline in organized religious participation. Leaders of the Confessing Movement claim the shrinking of mainline church membership as evidence of a wrong path taken.
Dispute over grassroots origins
Many moderates and liberals in mainline denominations accuse the Confessing Movements of being part of an attempt by well-funded outsiders such as Institute on Religion and DemocracyInstitute on Religion and Democracy
The Institute on Religion and Democracy is a Christian think tank that promotes Christian conservatism in public life. The organization comments on current events in the Christian community...
(a group founded by the prominent neoconservatives Michael Novak
Michael Novak
Michael Novak is an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than twenty-five books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known for his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism...
and Richard John Neuhaus
Richard John Neuhaus
Richard John Neuhaus was a prominent Christian cleric and writer. Born in Canada, Neuhaus moved to the United States where he became a naturalized United States citizen...
) to silence the social agenda of the mainline Protestant denominations, rather than being a series of organically arising movements within various Protestant denominations as the Confessing Movements' leaders often claim it to be.
Many of the laity in the confessing congregations, however, may maintain that the aim of these Confessing Movements is simply to maintain the received Christian doctrine of the denomination as they understand it to have been traditionally taught and understood.
Debate about outside money
The confessing movements state that they receive no funding from the IRD. The groups that accuse the Confessing Movements groups of conspiring with the IRD claim that they derive a significant percentage of their budgets from the IRD, and in turn, the IRD itself is funded largely the by ScaifeRichard Mellon Scaife
Richard Mellon Scaife is an American newspaper publisher and billionaire. Scaife owns and publishes the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. With $1.2 billion, Scaife, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, is No...
Family Charitable Trusts/Scaife Foundations
Scaife Foundations
The Scaife Foundations refer collectively to four foundations: the Allegheny Foundation, the Carthage Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Scaife Family Foundation. The organizations are based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-External links:*...
, and to a lesser extent by the Smith Richardson Foundation
Smith Richardson Foundation
The Smith Richardson Foundation is a private foundation based in Westport, Connecticut, that supports policy research in the realms of foreign and domestic public policy....
.
In 2007, the IRD released a report http://www.ird-renew.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=fvKVLfMVIsG&b=470745&ct=3274035 that showed that in fiscal year 2005 the National Council of Churches
National Council of Churches
The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is an ecumenical partnership of 37 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member denominations, churches, conventions, and archdioceses include Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African American, Evangelical, and historic peace...
mainline umbrella organization
Umbrella organization
An umbrella organization is an association of institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or pool resources. In business, political, or other environments, one group, the umbrella organization, provides resources and often an identity to the smaller organizations...
actually received more money (US$1.76 million) from secular foundations and other non-church organizations than from member communions. (US$1.75 million). IRD remarks, "We should be clear that there is no necessary sin in a Christian organization—the NCC, the IRD, or the Salvation Army—accepting contributions from or forming alliances with persons or groups who may not themselves be Christians. The problems come when the non-church funding and alliances loom so large that they cannot help but change the nature of a Christian organization. Then serious questions arise: Are the non-church funders and allies determining the programs and positions of the Christian organization? Or are organization leaders reshaping their programs to fit the priorities of the funders and allies?"
Presbyterian
One of the fastest growing Confessing Movements is within the Presbyterian Church (USA)Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Presbyterian Church , or PC, is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. Part of the Reformed tradition, it is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S...
. In February, 2002 more than 800 laity, pastors, deacons, and elders gathered in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
for the first National Celebration of Confessing Churches. Participating churches affirm that Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
is the only way of salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
, that the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
is infallible in its teachings,
and that sexual relations are exclusively for marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
.
More than 1,300 of the denomination's 11,000 congregations have adopted such declarations and become part of a loosely knit Confessing Church Movement.
The books Union in Christ: A Declaration for the Church (1999) and A Passion for the Gospel: Confessing Jesus Christ for the 21st Century (2000), both by Mark Achtemeier and Andrew Purves
Andrew Purves
Andrew Purves is a Christian theologian in the Reformed tradition through the Church of Scotland . He holds the Chair in Reformed Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary....
have served as rallying cries for Confessing Presbyterians.
Methodist
The Confessing Movement within the United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
quotes Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
's founder, John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
, who said:
Leaders have included Thomas C. Oden
Thomas C. Oden
Thomas Clark Oden is an American United Methodist theologian and religious author associated with Drew University in New Jersey. He was born in Altus, Oklahoma, and holds a Doctor of Literature from Asbury College....
, Steve Harper, Maxie Dunnam
Maxie Dunnam
Maxie D. Dunnam is chancellor of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, where he also served as president from 1994through 2004. Widely known as an evangelist, leader, and pioneer in small-group ministries, he organized and pastored three United Methodist churches before becoming the...
, Bill Hinson, John Ed Mathison, Karen Covey Moore, William J. Abraham
William J. Abraham
William J. Abraham is a United Methodist pastor, theologian, and philosopher. A native of Ireland, he is currently the Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.Dr...
, and James Heidinger. Good News Magazine is the main publication of Methodist members of the movement. The movement has been very successful in maintaining doctrinal standards and traditional United Methodist positions on theology and practice at the General Conferences in Cleveland (2000), Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
(2004), and Ft. Worth (2008). At the 2008 conference for instance delegates voted to retain language in the Social Creed defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. They also maintained the traditional teaching, that although homosexuals "are individuals of sacred worth", homosexual practice is "incompatible with Christian teaching."
Episcopalian/Anglican
The newly-formed American Anglican CouncilAmerican Anglican Council
The American Anglican Council is an organization which exists to allow theologically conservative Anglicans to network with one another. It was incorporated in 1996 and is one of several key organizations in the movement for Anglican realignment and is a founding member of the Anglican Church in...
states:
Church of the Brethren
Brethren Revival Fellowship was one of the earliest evangelical concern movements among the mainline Protestant denominations. It says:Lutheran
Conservative traditions have always been strong in the Lutheran synods of North America. Over the last two centuries, most of the many new synods were started by members who felt their synod was straying from Christian orthodoxy. There are several reform movements that have been founded in recent years to affect change within existing Lutheran denominations.The largest of these organizations is the WordAlone
WordAlone
WordAlone is a Lutheran grassroots network of congregations and individuals within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America , the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. According to its website, WordAlone advocates reform and renewal of the church, representative governance,...
Network, organized in 2000 in opposition to the Concordat/Called to Common Mission agreement with the Episcopal Church USA. Under that agreement, the ELCA agreed to undertake the Episcopal practice of being governed by bishops in the historic episcopate. Many Lutherans saw this as contrary to Lutheran theology and organized in opposition to it.
While the WordAlone Network has worked to reform church governance, sometimes with little visible reward for their effort, they succeeded at the 2005 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA in slowing the efforts of those who sought to revise the understanding of homosexuality within the ELCA. This was accomplished in cooperation with others who did not oppose the historic episcopate through the Solid Rock Lutherans organization. WordAlone has also been an incubator for launching related groups working to reform the church. They include a new publisher of a Lutheran hymnal (Reclaim Lutheran Worship), LC3, and Lutheran Core.
The most successful WordAlone outgrowth is Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ is an association of Lutheran congregations in the United States. It began in 2000 in response to the liberalization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America . LCMC is characterized by the traditional stances it takes on Lutheran polity, biblical...
, a post-denominational association of 724 congregations in ten countries, with 656 of them in the United States.
The Evangelical Lutheran Confessing Fellowship (ELCF) is one of the more recent of these "reform" movements, inspired by the other Protestant "confessing movements" described in this article.
The ELCF was organized in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in February, 2002 by about 60 pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
s and laypersons who belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA officially came into existence on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three churches. As of December 31, 2009, it had 4,543,037 baptized members, with 2,527,941 of them...
, the largest and perhaps most liberal Lutheran body in North America. The goal of the movement is to remain faithful to the orthodox or traditional teachings of the church, especially with regard to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the unique Lordship of Jesus Christ, the authority of scripture, and human sexual intimacy. Its efforts have been to persuade the ELCA to reform itreturn to orthodox positions with regard to its theology and teachings, rather than separation from the ELCA. According to their initial press release, a primary goal is to head off apparent movement toward formal recognition and ordination of homosexual clergy. http://www.elcf.net/news_061802.html In 2005, the proposals to allow ordination of homosexual clergy and blessing of homosexual relationships were defeated at the ELCA's national convention.
United Church of Christ
In the United Church of ChristUnited Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
the first confessing movement founded was the Biblical Witness Fellowship
Biblical Witness Fellowship
Biblical Witness Fellowship is an evangelical renewal movement composed of members of the United Church of Christ. Founded in 1978 as the United Church People for Biblical Witness, the movement reorganized as the Biblical Witness Fellowship at a national convocation in Byfield, Massachusetts in...
, formed in 1977 after a General Synod sexuality study that, to the founders, seemed to take a decidedly permissive attitude toward non-marital sex and homosexuality. The BWF advocates a dual goal of local church renewal and national level reformation. Under the leadership of executive director David Runnion-Bareford, a Candia, New Hampshire
Candia, New Hampshire
Candia is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,909 at the 2010 census. The town includes the villages of Candia, Candia Four Corners and East Candia.-History:...
, pastor, this movement has presented reformation initiatives before each of the last five Synods of the UCC, including a successful reaffirmation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the denomination's historic symbol, the "Cross Triumphant," in 2005. "Focus Renewal Ministries" was founded as a charismatic expression within the United Church of Christ, although its membership is small. More recently, some UCC conservatives began a "Faithful and Welcoming" movement, led by the Rev. Bob Thompson, pastor of Hickory, North Carolina
Hickory, North Carolina
Hickory is a city in Catawba County, North Carolina. Hickory has the 162nd largest urban area in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 341,851, making it the 4th largest metropolitan area in North Carolina. The city's population was 37,222...
's Corinth Reformed UCC. Like the founding of the BWF, that initiative followed the controversial General Synod of 2005 (in which the denomination in effect endorsed the efforts of same-sex couples to marry) and seeks to keep churches from leaving the denomination. Generally speaking, the F&W movement is perceived as less strident than the BWF, which has close relationships with established para-denominational evangelical organizations such as Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary is an evangelical theological seminary whose main campus is based in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, with three other campuses in Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina and Jacksonville. The current president of Gordon-Conwell is Dennis Hollinger...
in Massachusetts.
However, the UCC's renewal advocates have been far less successful than their counterparts in other mainline bodies: according to Faithful and Welcoming, over 250 congregations have withdrawn from the denomination since 2005, and despite the work mentioned above, the national leadership, and probably a majority of the remaining congregations, are resolute in their support of liberal theological and social stands. It is thus likely that laypeople and clergy espousing the aims of BWF, FRM, and F&W will remain small minorities in the denomination for the foreseeable future. Given this scenario, many more of the remaining advocates may well defect to more conservative groups also, leaving the UCC as perhaps the U.S.' most politically and theologically liberal Christian group.
Uniting Church in Australia
After a 2003 decision not to make an outright ban on the ordination of practicing homosexuals, conservative members of the Uniting Church in AustraliaUniting Church in Australia
The Uniting Church in Australia was formed on 22 June 1977 when many congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Congregational Union of Australia came together under the Basis of Union....
formed The Reforming Alliance in order to discuss the issues and work out a strategy. This process was helped by another group called Evangelical Members within the Uniting Church in Australia
Evangelical Members within the Uniting Church in Australia
The Evangelical Members within the Uniting Church in Australia is a conservative lobby group within the Uniting Church . They were previously known as Evangelical Ministers of the UCA....
(EMU) which had been formed in the early 1990s as a conservative response to what is seen as the church's growing liberalism.
Liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
Groups calling themselves Confessing Movements (or analogs)
- The Confessing Movement within The United Methodist Church
- Unofficial Confessing Movement Page (United Methodist)
- The Confessing Church Movement Within The Presbyterian Church (USA)
- A confessing movement within the United Church of Christ
- Faithful and Welcoming Churches of the United Church of Christ
- American Anglican Council
- Word Alone Network - Building an evangelical, confessional Lutheran future in America
- Good News Movement - United Methodist
- Association for Church Renewal - Multi-denominational - a fellowship of renewing and confessing movement leaders within mainline Protestant denominations in the United States and Canada
- Anglicans United, Working for Orthodox Anglicanism (formerly Episcopalians United)
- Community of Concern within the United Church of Canada
- The Presbyterian Layman (Presbyterian Church USA)
- Brethren Revival Fellowship within the Church of the Brethren
- The Institute on Religion and Democracy
- Disciple Heritage Fellowship (Disciples of Christ) (See also the English Wikipedia article "Restoration MovementRestoration MovementThe Restoration Movement is a Christian movement that began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century...
," specifically the section "Churches of Christ / Disciples of Christ split.")