For several years I looked for a church with the following characteristics:
- Fidelity to the Bible as the Word of God.
- Emphasis on a peron’s individual relationship with Jesus.
- Strong support of world evangelization.
- Acceptance of the movement of the Holy Spirit–but without the excesses of some Pentecostal and Charismatic groups.
- Focus on holiness that is inward-out–rather than the outward-in type of holiness promoted by some legalistic groups.
Well, I found it!
When I met the woman who is now my wife, she introduced me to the Christian and Missionary Alliance–her lifelong denominational affiliation.
Begun in about 1887 by A. B. Simpson, the Christian and Missionary Alliance emphasizes the ”deeper Christian life” and world missions. Like other denominations, the C&MA started as a movement within Protestant Christianity. A. B. Simpson was a Presbyterian from Prince Edward Island, Canada, who had a spiritual experience of deeper consecration to God that also led him to feel desperately the need to win lost souls in his new homeland of the United States and in all parts of the world. He started separately the Christian Alliance to promote spiritual growth and the International Missionary Alliance to train, fund, and send missionaries to other countries. At first there were Christians from many different denominational backgrounds who participated in the conferences of these groups, but the two merged and eventually became, for all intents and purposes, a distinct denomination.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance proclaims the Fourfold Gospel: Jesus our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. It focuses on the Great Commission, in which Jesus told his disciples to “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. . . .” It practices the laying on of hands by elders for the healing of the sick. It permits but does not promote speaking in tongues as a gift of the Holy Spirit.
I’m not hung up on denominations. I’m a follower of Jesus first and foremost, and every other follower of Jesus is my brother or sister. We’re all in the same body and we are all working to build the same Kingdom. But I’m thankful for the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and how its teachings and practices resonate with me. I’ve learned a lot through the ministry of the C&MA and have been privileged to minister in various ways as a part of it.
2 responses so far ↓
thenonconformer // May 11, 2008 at 7:57 am
Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper’s church too..
These are the rich folks who steal from the poor folks and abuse them
RG’s Response:
That is a slanderous comment that you should not make without evidence to back it up.
Do you have the bank records or any relevant legal agreements to back up your accusation? Are you a party to it yourself? Are you an eyewitness to what happened, or can you quote an eyewitness by name?
I know almost nothing about this matter, but I intend to find out what I can.
Without knowing much about the specific situation, I will offer a few thoughts:
1. In some of these situations, the assets that a congregation is using acutally belong to the denomination by legal agreement. My own congregation, for example, was temporarily using a building that belonged to our district. Had our church closed, the district would have retained legal ownership of the property.
2. If a congregation is violating any of the policies of the C & M A or teaching doctrines contrary to its stated positions, then the denomination has the right to kick out that congregation. That is even more true if the congregation is violating any of the legal regulations it must follow as a non-profit corporation.
3. There are many ethnic congregations within the Christian and Missionary Alliance that are running just fine and having no problems with the denominational leaders. Whatever happened in these specific cases is not typical or normal.
thenonconformer // May 11, 2008 at 7:58 am
http://obadiah1317.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/christian-missionary-alliance-fraud-by-james-sundquist/
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