Evangelical Covenant Church
| Evangelical Covenant Church | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Moderate Evangelical |
| Region | United States, Canada |
| Origin | 1885 Chicago, Illinois |
| Congregations | 840+ |
| Members | 178,000 |
| Official website | www.covchurch.org |
| Covenant Yearbook, 2011–2012 | |
The Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) is an evangelical Christian denomination of more than 800 congregations and an average worship attendance of 178,000 people in the United States and Canada with ministries on five continents. Founded in 1885 by Swedish immigrants, the church is now one of the most rapidly growing and multi-ethnic denominations in North America. Historically Lutheran in theology and background, it is now a broadly evangelical movement.
Swedish Lutheran immigrants founded the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America (now ECC) on February 20, 1885, in Chicago, Illinois.
A pietistic religious awakening had swept through Sweden around the middle of the 19th century. Out of this awakening and reformation came the Swedish Mission Covenant Church in 1878. The state church discouraged the gathering of these believers. It was people from this movement that emigrated to America and formed the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America. Early leaders and influences included PP Waldenström, 1838–1917 and David Nyvall, 1863–1946, among others. They desired to create a voluntary covenant of churches that were committed to sharing the Gospel of Jesus, as well as provide means for ministerial training. The name was changed to the Evangelical Covenant Church of America in 1954 and the "of America" was eventually abandoned because the denomination includes a Canadian conference.
The denominational offices are located in Chicago, Illinois, where they also operate North Park University, North Park Theological Seminary and Swedish Covenant Hospital. There are related Bible colleges in Alaska and California.
The church is divided into eleven (11) regional conferences – Canada Conference, Central Conference, East Coast Conference (org. 1890), Great Lakes Conference, Midsouth Conference, Midwest Conference, North Pacific Conference, Northwest Conference, Pacific Southwest Conference, Southeast Conference - and its newest conference, the Alaska Conference. The Covenant presence in Alaska dates from 1887 as a foreign mission outpost, but gradually transitioned its status to a home mission, and then finally full conference standing in 2015.
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