Who is the Evangelical Covenant Church?

The Covenant values the Bible as the word of God and connected with the living Christ. We celebrate the gift of God’s grace and ever-deepening spiritual life that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. We believe in the importance of extending God’s love and compassion and participating in advancing God’s justice in a broken world.

The Evangelical Covenant Church is:
Evangelical, but not exclusive
Biblical, but not doctrinaire
Traditional, but not rigid
Congregational, but not independent

What covenant do we make with one another?

In order to live out this identity, we covenant with each other.

We cultivate communities of worship committed to prayer, preaching, and study of the word; the celebration of the sacraments; and relationships across gender, ethnicity, age, culture, and socioeconomic status. We equip loving, giving, growing Christians to reach out with the good news of Jesus Christ—evangelizing the lost, ministering to those in need, and seeking justice for the oppressed.

What Does The Evangelical Covenant Church Believe

The immigrants who founded the Covenant were products of a trans-Atlantic evangelical renewal movement that emphasized life in the Spirit over the rigid confessions of the state church. Valuing genuine devotion over empty ritual, they renounced forms of church life that elevated doctrinal confessions over Scripture, and that sought to control the individual’s conscience. Rather, they viewed personal faith as evidence of a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. They often asked each other, “How goes your walk with Jesus?” and “What do the Scriptures say?”

Our Six Affirmations

  1. We affirm the centrality of the word of God.

  2. We affirm the necessity of the new birth.

  3. We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the church.

  4. We affirm the church as a fellowship of believers.

  5. We affirm a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit.

  6. We affirm the reality of freedom in Christ.

While the Covenant is nonconfessional, we take our theology and our history seriously, and we value the early creeds. Our common Christian affirmations are that we are an apostolic, catholic, Reformation, and evangelical church. In that heritage, we share central Christian beliefs, which draw us together in faith and fellowship and make possible a freedom among us on more widely ranging issues.