Our history began on the American frontier within the various "Christian" church and American Restoration movement and is rooted in the formal organization of the Christian Church, June 28, 1804, in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
Initially, churches in and adherents of the Restoration Movement identified themselves as: The Christian Association . Free Christian Church . Campbellites . Baptists . Unitarian Baptists . Restorationers . Baptist Reformers . Reforming Baptists . Republican Methodists . Primitive Christians . Church of God . Disciples . Disciples of Christ . Christian Church . Church of Christ . Brethren . Campbellite Baptists . The Christian Society . New Lights . The Christian Connexion . The Christian Congrgation . Reformers . Church of Disciples . Restition Church of God . Christadelphians . Christian Disciples
In Laura, Ohio, in 1854, an anti-slavery remant of the Christian Disciples organized as The Evangekical Christian Church taking the message of Christ to the black community. A number of Evangelical Christian Churches invited black ministers to preach in their pulpits. Many white ministers preached to workers in the Abolition Movement and participated in the Underground Railroad. These views reflected those of Stone.
The early Christian Church was noncreedal and stressed basics beliefs that represent our Statement of Faith this is simple, Biblical Christianity. In addition to Stone, the early Christian Church also had its origins in the work of two other former Presbyterian ministers, Thomas and Alexandar Campbell.
From these men sprang the present day Independent Christian Church and Churches of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Churches of Christ (non-instrumental), and the International Churches of Christ.
Unfortunately most of the churches of the American Restoration Movement abandoned many of the teachings of Stone and became more and more Campbellite. The Evangelical Christian Church remains true to the basic teachings of Stone
Several church bodies identifying with the Stone-Campbell movement today are very creedal and range from ultra-concervative to ultra-liberal as can be seen in the United Church of Christ which is an attempt to unite all Christian denominations into one national body as well as the National Association of Congrgational Christian Churches which merged English Christians with American Christians in 1931. Another group, The Christian Congregation, claims direct lineage to the early Stone movement.
In 1905, nearly all conggregations of The Evangelical Christian Churches became independent and a formal organization ceased to exist until 1966 when churches calling themselves Evangelical Christian Churches, Christian Churches of America, Christian Missionary Churches, Bible Evangelical Churches, Community Churches and Evangelical Congregational Churches were chartered and incorporated as members of the Evangelical Christian Churches, Farmland, Indiana.
Throughout the '80's and '90's the Evangelical Christian Churches were beset by a number of separations. One group formed the California Conference of the Evangelical Christian Churches, Long Beach, California, now defunct. A number of Pennsylvania congregations eventually ceased to exist as they iunited with the Evangelical Christian Church, Wesleyan, a small holiness denomination formed in 1892, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Mid-West Congregational Fellowship, Modoc, Indiana, absorbed a dew churches and another group became Trinity Fellowship, Williamburg, Indiana. The majority continues as the Evangelical Christian Churches, Albany, Indiana.
The theological history of the Evangelical Christian Churches traces its origin to the teaching and preaching of the New England Congregationalist, Horace Bushnell, generalyy recognised as a theoligical liberal. A few former ministers of the Evangelical Christian Church, disagreeing strongly with the theology of Bushnell, and wanting to return to their Resoration roots, desired to reorganize The Evangelical Christian Church. On April 4, 2001, The Evangelical Christian Church was formally incorporated in Indiana.