Evangelical Covenant Church

This religious study will define the evolutionary growth of cultural and racial diversity of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) in the late 129th and 20th centuries. The original pietisten philosophy of the Swedish protestant movement defines the foundations of the ECC in the late 19th century. However, the formation of Mission Friends societies throughout the United States, and especially in the Chicago area, prompted a break towards a more radical evangelical ideology. These “conventicles” would define a distinct American style of evangelical practice through the leadership of Carl Olof Rosenius (1816-1868) and eventually, under the leadership of Paul Peter Waldenström (1838-1917). These cultural shifts would occur during the Great Migration

Skogsbergh’s influence was extended through Nyvall’s pursuit of new educational values that would be based on the formation of schools for ministers and other non-Swedish members that were beginning to join the ECC. This form of evangelical leadership would lay the foundation for educational institutions and Church community services to become embedded in the greater Chicago area. The Evangelism of North Park Congregationalists defines the impact of Nyvall’s creation of the North Park University, which formed a powerful educational institution for immigrants coming to the United States. More so, the belief in premillennialism began to emerge in 1909, which became a part of the ECC’s doctrines for the salvation of humankind in the arrival of Jesus in the Second Coming. Once again, this cultural shift away from the pietistic foundations of the Swedish Lutheran Church illustrates the dynamic changes in the ECC during this historical period. These values define the premise of the inerrant word of the Bible, which took a literal interpretation of the text in the traditions of the Believers’ church

Theodore W. Anderson merged other denominational churches into the ECC in the post-WWII era, which greatly expanded the cultural diversity of the church during the 1960s. This shift away from “isolation’ provided a more dynamic and integrated evangelical community in the ECC for Americans of all differing ethnic backgrounds. This form of foundation dispensational ideology marked a major transition in the Church during the mid-20th century. This new trends in the merger of differing denominational backgrounds into the ECC provided platform for greater racial diversity in the evangelical style of Lutheranism in the late 20th century. In the 1970s and 1980s, the growth of women’s conferences and the inclusion of African-Americans and Hispanic believers into the ECC provided an important and positive development that shifted away from the primarily Swedish ethnic foundations of the church. This new form of women’s participation the church allowed women to preach the gospel through ministerial training. In terms of gender identity, the ECC became increasingly progressive in encouraging women to take leadership roles in the community during the era of the women’s Civil Rights Movement. For instance, the CHET (Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos) was founded by the ECC to help