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The Community Church movement aims to bring together and support local community churches.
Community churches have existed in the United States since the early nineteenth century. Small communities did not always have the population or finances to sustain churches of all
Time">1934 Time
articleon the CCW-US Protestantism in the United States Christian movements Protestant ecumenism Christian ecumenical organizations
Community churches have existed in the United States since the early nineteenth century. Small communities did not always have the population or finances to sustain churches of all Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is a distinct Religion, religious body within Christianity that comprises all Church (congregation), church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadersh ...
s, so community leaders would cross denominational lines and pool their resources to support a single church. By the early twentieth century, with the ecumenical movement
Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
in full swing, community churches were ready to cut formal ties with denominations and to demonstrate Christian unity through diversity. Community churches began to understand themselves as post-Protestant and postdenominational.
Origins of the movement
Community Church Workers
One of the first organized efforts to unite the community churches of America began in the early 1920s. Orvis Jordan of Park Ridge Community Church became the secretary of the Community Church Workers of the United States (CCW-US) and its first newsletter editor. Jordan was later named the group's first president.International Council of Community Churches
The CCW was the forerunner of the white community-church group that merged with a similar African-American group in 1950 to form theInternational Council of Community Churches The International Council of Community Churches (ICCC) is a Christian religious association of ecumenically co-operating Protestants and Independent Catholics. Based in Frankfort, Illinois, in the United States, it is the main organization of the C ...
(ICCC). Peoples' Church of Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, First Community Church of Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...
, and St. Paul Community Church of Shorewood, Illinois
Shorewood is a village in Troy Township, Will County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,686 at the 2000 census, and estimated to be 15,615 as of 2010.
Geography
Shorewood is located at (41.5181961, -88.2150390). The village is app ...
, joined the Park Ridge church and other churches in this effort.
The term "community" has also been adopted by those who, while holding strict Biblical doctrinal principles, shun ecumenism
Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
as compromise and simply wish to indicate that they are not a part of any particular denomination or what has become known in certain circles as the "Emerging Church
The emerging church is a Christian Protestant movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries that crosses a number of theological boundaries: participants are variously described as Protestant, post-Protestant, evangelical, post-evangelical, ...
" yet wish to indicate an openness and welcome to the community at large.
Today the ICCC flourishes as a model of living ecumenism: it is a member of the World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...
, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and the Council on Church Union.
See also
*Intentional community
An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious ...
References
{{ReflistExternal links
Time">1934 Time
articleon the CCW-US Protestantism in the United States Christian movements Protestant ecumenism Christian ecumenical organizations