This newly-born church community that we call “The Commons”, here in Rochester, NH is blessed to be the adopted child of a global family of faith known as the Evangelical Covenant Church. For the reason that, for most of our launch team partners this journey of church planting has constituted a running introduction to the mere existence of the ECC - never mind vision, values and so on - my hope is to offer this short series of articles as a primer on the essential history and distinctives of the Covenant as our denominational and spiritual “home”. These articles will be framed around the six central “Covenant Affirmations” of the ECC, with a focus upon the historical forces that led to their articulation. May God bless and establish this new work, that as we grow in our awareness of where and how the Spirit of God has moved in and through our past, we might also grow in clarity and conviction regarding our future!
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Part I: We affirm the centrality of the word of God.
“We believe the Bible is the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct. The dynamic, transforming power of the word of God directs the church and the life of each Christian.”*
The Evangelical Covenant describes itself as a “Reformation Church” that continues to be shaped by pietism. This is true to the point that there can be no real discussion about the central affirmations of the ECC without at least some cursory understanding of the genesis and lasting influence of the pietistic revivals of the 17th-19th centuries. Pietism marked a move of the Spirit that would directly influence the emergence of each of these affirmations, as we shall see, but in much the same spirit as Luther’s great reformation of the 16th century, none perhaps more so than the return to scripture as the Church’s “primary source” for doctrine and praxis.
It is true of all movements that, without a periodic challenging and refreshing, even the most revolutionary of winds eventually turns stale. Such was the case with Luther’s reformation as we head into the late 16th and early 17th centuries. What had begun as a rejection of the corruptions of one form of institutionalization (namely the selling of indulgences and unbiblical doctrines and structures surrounding this practice) eventually became a formidable institution in its own right. Catalyzed, no doubt, by the ongoing conflation between religious devotion and civic/national loyalties (democratic “separation” of Church and State was as-of-yet unheard of, and clergy were agents of the State), German Lutheranism gradually succumbed to a culture of lifeless scholasticism. The plain Gospel texts were once again buried beneath layers of creeds, confessions and debates over doctrinal/theological minutiae. Some manner of Church attendance was compulsory, sermons were heady, theological oratory, and the prophetic voice of Christ’s Church was muted and coopted as a civic/political stabilizer. This was the world into which the winds of pietism began to blow.
Philip Jacob Spener (1635-1705) was a Lutheran pastor in Frankfurt, Germany. Inspired by a dissatisfaction with the lifeless formalism and rampant corruption of the German Lutheran Church of his day, he organized the first “assemblies of piety” as spaces for “organic”, heartfelt worship, spiritual conversation/fellowship, and the devotional reading of Scripture. In 1675, Spener would author his best known work, “Pia Desideria” (Pious Desires), which would lend its name to the movement that soon began to unfold. In it, he assessed the spiritual maladies of church and culture, clergy and laity, and finally proposed a series of reformations. He made (notably) six proposals for the sake of the life and witness of the Church: 1.) An intensive study of the whole Bible; 2.) A renewed commitment to the spiritual priesthood of all believers; 3.) An emphasis on the practice of Christianity, not just its doctrine; 4.) Fairness and generosity in doctrinal controversies; 5.) An emphasis on practical piety in theological education; and 6.) Simplicity and directness in preaching.
As already alluded to, Spener’s particular interest in the renewed study - and living application - of scripture was birthed out of his experience of a culture wherein debates around creeds, confessions and theological skirmishes at the boundaries of defined orthodoxy had effectively eclipsed active, personal engagement with the text of scripture itself. Sermons were given to framing and weighing in on theological debates, rather than exposition and exhortation. Pastors were more concerned with doctrinal acuity and career advancement then the shepherding and development of their flock. Spener and the pietists that would follow after him rejected this trajectory and sought to return to a simple, direct engagement with scripture itself as the Word of God. In this regard, the first affirmation of the Evangelical Covenant flows directly from its pietist headwater. The ECC describes itself as a “non-creedal” movement; which is to say that while there may be no particular argument with the Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, Ausberg Confession, and the like, the Covenant decided that the central commitment of Christian discipleship ought not be defined by affirmation of any creedal theological formula, per se, but by continual submission to the revealed Word of God itself: “…the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct.”
Here at The Commons, we take heart and find strength in that great, historically Covenant question: “Where is it written?” It is a guiding light and ever-present exhortation to faithfulness in our calling in Christ. I am convinced that if we (both as individuals and as a movement) are to remain faithful to the way of Jesus and the life that he has purchased for us at such great cost, it will be because we have remembered our calling as a people “of the book”; an enduring conviction for which we remain deeply indebted to the legacy of pietism.
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*Heading quotations taken from the "What does the Covenant Church Believe?" pamphlet, published by Covenant Publications
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