We are a part the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. You can explore their site below, or directly at cmalliance.org
We embrace the C&MA Statement of Faith and share the Core Values of The Alliance, believing that our mission-central objectives are critical to all we are and do.
Read below to find some of the distinctives of The Christian and Missionary Alliance. There are links included that will provide even more background.
We seek to embody in all dimensions of our community life these seven Core Values:
1. Lost people matter to God. He wants them found. Luke 19:10
2. Prayer is the primary work of the people of God. Philippians 4:6-7
3. Everything we have belongs to God. We are His stewards. 1 Chronicles 29:14
4. Knowing and obeying God’s Word is fundamental to all true success. Joshua 1:8
5. Completing the Great Commission will require the mobilization of every fully devoted disciple. Matthew 28:19
6. Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we can accomplish nothing. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5
7. Achieving God’s purposes means taking faith-filled risks. This always involves change. Hebrews 11:6
Everyone has a mission. It’s what gives our lives purpose and what motivates us to roll out of bed each morning. In The Alliance, we are all about Jesus, and our mission is to fulfill His final request on this earth—The Great Commission. We also refer to it as the Call. We are people of action. But we know that completing our mission successfully requires a healthy blend of “being” and “doing.”
Being.
Sitting at Jesus’ feet, devoting ourselves to prayer and immersion in His Word radically transforms us. It also increases our hunger to go deeper in our relationship, to know Him as our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King.
Doing.
Motivated by our love for Jesus, we are compelled to serve Him. Alliance Great Commission Ministries are the expression of our service to Jesus, the means by which we seek to complete the mission.
We believe that God’s instrument to complete this mission is His Church. That’s why we focus our efforts and resources into developing dynamic, healthy local churches—in the United States and across the world.
To accomplish the vision, we will develop healthy people (fully devoted followers of Christ), who will build these churches serving as ministry centers to successfully win the lost. Out of these ministry centers and churches will flow international workers committed to pushing back the darkness in areas where unengaged, unreached people groups abound.
When Alliance founder A. B. Simpson left a lucrative pastorate in New York City, he had a call from God to reach the lost masses both in New York and around the world. Prostitutes, longshoremen, and the homeless received the reconciliation message that all people are eligible for Christ’s amazing grace. He established the New York Gospel Tabernacle to bring like-minded people together into an organization that could facilitate outreach ministries. And he set up the Missionary Training Institute (MTI) to provide training and resources for men and women God was calling to take the gospel to the world.
During that time, Simpson’s group sent out the first team of missionaries to the Congo in 1884. Since then, thousands of people have followed God’s call to serve Him through The Alliance in the United States and abroad. In 1974, The Christian and Missionary (C&MA) officially became a denomination, but it still had at its core a heart for overseas missions. Past Alliance president Dr. L. L. King said of the C&MA that it “was not established as a mission divorced from the normal activity of a church, but a church which had within it the life and function of a mission…. The mission came first and the church grew out of a mission.”
Today, the C&MA focuses on planting churches in the United States and overseas. More than 800 missionaries and workers minister in 50-plus countries planting churches and training national church leaders, providing relief and development assistance, medical and dental care, and micro-enterprise projects. Nearly 2,000 churches in the U.S. minister Christ’s love to their communities and cities.
Living the Call Together describes what The Alliance is and does—living out the preeminence of Jesus, fulfilling His Great Commission, in an alliance made of up of churches around the world.
The Founding Years (1887-1919)
The C&MA grew out of the vision of Rev. A.B. Simpson, a Presbyterian pastor from Canada. Simpson believed that Christ was not only his Savior, but also his Sanctifier, and Healer through dramatic spiritual encounters that changed the direction of his life. Formed as a missionary society and not a denomination, early Alliance congregations were known as “branches” and were made up of members from most major denominations. Find out more about those early years where the movement began.
Sacrifice and Expansion (1919-1946)
After Simpson’s death in 1919, Dr. Paul Rader, a dynamic evangelist and pastor, was chosen to lead the C&MA. During this era the “tabernacle strategy” became popular. C&MA tabernacles sprung up in many U.S. cities and in Canada. The Great Depression and World War II had an impact on The Christian and Missionary Alliance, though it did not deter its expansion to new mission fields. Discover how challenging times fueled the movement.
The Evangelical Era (1947-1974)
Following World War II, many people began moving to the cities, and the C&MA continued to move forward. the tabernacles were exchange for traditional church buildings and many C&MA churches moved to the suburbs. In 1974 the C&MA officially declared itself to be a denomination, along with a sweeping restructuring of the organization. During this time, Dr. A.W. Tozer and Dr. Louis L. King greatly influenced The Alliance. Dr. King as head of the missionary effort began to implement the indigenous church policy—envisioning each national church of the C&MA as self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing entity. Learn more about the growth of the church both overseas and domestically.
The Missionary Church Era (1975-present)
The C&MA in the U.S. and Canada became increasingly multicultural with the influx of refugees from Southeast Asia in the mid-1970s, and immigrants from many parts of the world. As ethnic churches were planted the awareness of a need for mission-sending congregations was never higher. Find out how The Alliance is answering the call to go and make disciples.
Key Figures in the C&MA
Listed below are four Alliance leaders who followed the Holy Spirit’s lead with reckless abandon in pursuit of Christ and His Kingdom. Read their stories and be inspired by God’s use of ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.
A. B. Simpson Learn more about the founder of The C&MA.
Robert Jaffray What caused him to turn his back on fortune?
A. W. Tozer Learn more about this pastor to pastors.
L. L. King Learn more about this statesman of the faith.
How do you live your life so authentically that there is no question about what you believe? Some people call it their creed, others call it dogma or position. Basically, doctrine is the bedrock on which you build your beliefs—a body or system of teachings relating to a particular subject.
What The Alliance believes about God, how He relates to us, and how we relate to Him is foundational in its teachings. The Alliance wholeheartedly serves God and the people of His world, based soundly on the Bible. We live and die by these words and believe they bring the only life worth living—one wholly committed to the King Jesus.
Our Statement of Faith
There is one God,(1) who is infinitely perfect,(2) existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.(3)
Jesus Christ is the true God and the true man.(4) He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.(5) He died upon the cross, the Just for the unjust,(6) as a substitutionary sacrifice,(7) and all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood.(8) He arose from the dead according to the Scriptures.(9) He is now at the right hand of Majesty on high as our great High Priest.(10) He will come again to establish His kingdom, righteousness and peace.(11)
The Holy Spirit is a divine person,(12) sent to indwell, guide, teach, empower the believer,(13) and convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.(14)
The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice.(15)
Man was originally created in the image and likeness of God:(16) he fell through disobedience, incurring thereby both physical and spiritual death. All men are born with a sinful nature,(17) are separated from the life of God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.(18) The portion of the unrepentant and unbelieving is existence forever in conscious torment;(19) and that of the believer, in everlasting joy and bliss.(20)
Salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all men; and those who repent and believe in Him are born again of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of eternal life, and become the children of God.(21)
It is the will of God that each believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly,(22) being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service.(23) This is both a crisis and a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion.(24)
Provision is made in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the healing of the mortal body.(25) Prayer for the sick and anointing with oil are taught in the Scriptures and are privileges for the Church in this present age.(26)
The Church consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church, (27) which has been commissioned by Him to go into all the world as a witness, preaching the gospel to all nations.(28) The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation of the gospel, and observance of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.(29)
There shall be a bodily resurrection of the just and of the unjust; for the former, a resurrection unto life;(30) for the latter, a resurrection unto judgment.(31)
The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent(32) and will be personal, visible, and premillennial.(33) This is the believer’s blessed hope and is a vital truth which is an incentive to holy living and faithful service.(34)
[1] Deuteronomy 6:4, [2] Matthew 5:48, [3] Matthew 28:19, [4] Philippians 2:6-11, [5] Luke 1:34-38, [6] 1 Peter 3:18, [7] Hebrews 2:9, [8]Romans 5:9, [9] Acts 2:23-24, [10] Hebrews 8:1, [11] Matthew 26:64, [12] John 14:15-18, [13] John 16:13; Acts 1:8, [14] John 16:7-11, [15] 2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Timothy 3:15-16, [16] Genesis 1:27, [17] Romans 3:23, [18] 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, [19] Revelation 21:8, [20] Revelation 21:1-4, [21] Titus 3:4-7, [22] 1 Thessalonians 5:23, [23] Acts 1:8, [24] Romans 6:1-14, [25] Matthew 8:16-17, [26] James 5:13-16, [27]Ephesians 1:22-3, [28] Matthew 28:19-20, [29] Acts 2:41-47, [30] 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, [31] John 5:28-29, [32] Hebrews 10:37, [33] Luke 21:27, [34] Titus 2:1-14
- © 2023 The Alliance South