What Alliance Christians believe, and how they worship

What Alliance Christians believe

The Christian and Missionary Alliance began in New York in 1887 under A. B. Simpson, a Canadian-born Presbyterian minister who left a comfortable pulpit to reach the poor and send missionaries abroad. The Canadian branch has governed itself since 1981 and today calls itself The Alliance Canada. Its Statement of Faith is squarely evangelical: the Bible is the inerrant Word of God; there is one God in three Persons; Jesus Christ died as a substitutionary sacrifice and rose bodily; salvation is by grace through faith; the church is sent to all nations; and Christ will return personally and premillennially.

What gives the Alliance its flavour is Simpson’s Fourfold Gospel: Jesus Christ our Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King. Alliance people speak of the “deeper life,” the conviction that after conversion Christ wants to fill and sanctify a believer wholly. The Statement of Faith says provision for healing of the body is made in Christ’s redemptive work, so Alliance churches pray for the sick and anoint them with oil, without promising healing in this life. The Alliance practises believer’s baptism, normally by immersion, and keeps the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance. Above all it is a missionary church, sending “international workers” abroad through its Global Advance Fund.

Worship: what a service is like

An Alliance service feels like most contemporary evangelical churches: twenty to thirty minutes of singing led by a band, prayer and an offering, and a sermon of thirty to forty minutes with practical application. Communion is typically monthly and open to all believers. A visitor may notice the regular attention to missions and the readiness of elders to pray for healing. Baptisms by immersion and baby dedications take place several times a year.

How Alliance churches are organized

Each church is led by a lead pastor and a board of elders, but Alliance churches are bound together more tightly than independent congregations. Congregations belong to a district — Ontario churches are in the Central Canadian District — under a superintendent who licenses pastors and helps place them. The national General Assembly meets every two years and elects a President; the national office is in Toronto. Pastors train at Ambrose University and Seminary in Calgary.

Compared with Reformed churches

An Alliance member would find much that is familiar in a Canadian Reformed church: a board of elders, a serious sermon, a love for Scripture and the gospel of grace, and a strong sense of belonging to a wider body. A. B. Simpson was himself raised and ordained a Presbyterian, so the family resemblance is real.

The differences begin with baptism: Reformed churches baptize the infants of believers as members of God’s covenant, and children make public profession of faith in their late teens. The Three Forms of Unity (Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dort) describe sanctification as the steady fruit of God’s grace through a believer’s whole life rather than a second, decisive experience, and Reformed churches do not expect a millennial reign of Christ on earth. Prayer for the sick is ordinary pastoral care rather than a special emphasis. Worship follows a fixed liturgy in two services every Sunday, one preaching through the Heidelberg Catechism, with Psalms sung to Genevan tunes and organ, and congregations are joined in classis and synod. You would be very welcome to visit.

Further reading

• The Alliance Canada — the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada
• Statement of Faith
• Ambrose University — the Alliance’s university and seminary in Calgary
• Evangelical Fellowship of Canada