ClobberBlog | Mormonism, Evangelical Christianity

Here are some things that I love about the ECC:

Multi-ethnic. If you examine the denominational logo from my last post, you’ll note that it looks like four differently colored people (red, yellow, black and white) forming a circle. That’s intentional. The ECC has a huge heart for encouraging ethnic diversity and it has built itself into one of the most multi-ethnic denominations in existence. Read the 1995 Resolution on Racial Reconciliation and the 2008 Resolution on Racial Righteousness for more information.

Women in ministry. I’ve talked about this elsewhere, but a major selling point for me with the ECC is that they are one of the best denominations about encouraging women in ministry. I’ve yet to find another denomination that attempts to keep a list of churches pastored by womenon its Web site so that people can seek these churches out if they desire. Since attending DeerGrove, it’s been regular for me to bump into female MDiv students from North Park Theological Seminary and other female pastors from the denomination. Read the 2006 Resolution on Women in Ministry for more information.

Freedom in Christ. The ECC does not take sides on some of the issues that have traditionally divided Christians such as Calvinism v. Arminianism, credobaptism v. paedobaptism, etc. They try to allow believers to make their own decisions in these areas and then support them in those decisions. I supposed strident members of one camp or the other would see this as a bad thing, but in time I’ve come to see it as a good one. If we don’t think these issues are important enough to brand someone a heretic for being wrong on them, then it’s probably not worth it to take a strong position on those matters.The exception is women in ministry, where they do take a strong “pro” position, but it’s hard to find a true compromise position on that issue.

Apolitical. I noticed that there seems to be a good blend of Republicans and Democrats in the pews with me, which is good because it helps keep people from one of those camps from feeling ostracized by a cultural political position. I can’t find any statements on the denominational Web site concerning Proposition 8, and when I checked the list of “Yes on 8″ donors, I found that only one local Covenant church had contributed $300. (Note that there is one church in the database with the word “Covenant” in its name that is not ECC, and another church with the same name as an ECC church but in an entirely different city.) There is a statement on the denominational Web site naming homosexuality as a sin, so they do take a conservative theological position on homosexuality. But I can’t find any evidence that the denomination has tried to use the government to impose its views in that regard on unbelievers. Read the 1996 Resolution on Human Sexuality for more information.

Other Evangelical Covenant Church Resolutions

I attended the new members retreat last weekend, which was a great experience. There were four couples there who are joining the church with me (yes, I was the one person who was joining sans spouse) and we shared our testimonies with each other. I don’t want to go into too many personal details since it was a private meeting, but wow. Such amazing stories.

There was an African American couple who have been seeking out a denominational home that is committed to ethnic diversity. Of course, there are very few sects out there which will openly say that they’re opposed to ethnic diversity in their ranks. Most groups would like to have more participation from ethnic minorities and will at least say they’re committed to diversity. However, the litmus test for this couple has been, “Show us your leaders.” A denomination that is not installing minorities as leaders (both locally and at the international level) is probably not as committed to ethnic diversity as it would like you to think, and they have been very pleased with the Evangelical Covenant Church in that respect.

There was another couple where the husband was raised in the Greek Orthodox church and the wife was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, and they basically decided to become Lutherans as a sort of compromise. They mentioned how, years ago, they took their three year-old daughter to a church that does not ordain women, and she wanted to know why all of the priests were boys. They nicely tried to explain to her that in this church, only boys can be priests. “Then why are we here?” the little girl asked. Yes, that’s right. Patriarchy was effectively pwned by a three year-old.

(BTW, this little girl is now 16-18 years old and she was the young woman who preached way back on that very first day I visited DeerGrove.)

That was a common theme for most of the women at that retreat: we’d all had poor experiences with Christians and denominations that advocate forms of patriarchy. These were all strong, intelligent, outspoken women, so obviously blessed by the Spirit with gifts and talents that could be used for building up and leading the church. It really made me wonder how much the Body of Christ is missing out on all because of the error of male headship.

I learned some other interesting things about procedure in the ECC. For example:

Anyhow, next Sunday morning I am meeting with the DeerGrove leadership team to review my membership application, then I should be received into membership in May or June.

One of the professors from North Park Theological Seminary (the main ECC seminary) is taking my Church History 9000 class this semester, so I got to ride with him for our field trip today. We were discussing the ECC and he mentioned that he thinks the ECC is as progressive as a denomination can be and still be considered “conservative evangelical.” And I thought . . . perfect. That’s exactly how I think of myself.

I don’t expect to love everything about my new home, and I’m basically waiting for people to start telling me things about the denomination that I won’t like. But overall, I think it’s a pretty good fit for me, and I’m happy I found it.