Christian and Missionary Alliance

   The Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) grew out of the ministry of Canadian-born Presbyterian minister Albert Benjamin Simpson (18431919). Simpson's ministry was shaped by an experience of healing at a Holiness camp meeting and his own zeal for evangelism. He left the Presbyterian Church in 1882 to found an independent congregation and start a magazine devoted to missionary concerns. The work blossomed into the Christian Alliance, consisting of like-minded independent congregations, and the Missionary Alliance, which sponsored missionaries overseas. in 1887, the two organizations merged.

   Simpson adopted a version of the Holiness theology in which sanctification made the believer holy as part of the Christian life. He also developed a Christocentric theology that centered on Christ as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King - popularly known as the Four-fold Gospel.

   The alliance was a growing evangelistic church in North America, but its real spirit was channeled into support for missions. During its first decade it sent out more than 200 missionaries. in the 20th century, it developed work in some 50 countries. Many of the mission churches later became autonomous bodies and were reorganized as a set of partnership churches through the Alliance World Fellowship. In 1974, the alliance, which had operated as a fellowship of independent congregations, reorganized and declared itself a denomination.

   in 2003, the CMA reported some 350,000 affiliated believers worshipping in approximately 2,000 churches in the United States. One-fourth of the congregations predominantly serve new immigrants and minority groups. The alliance supports around 700 missionaries. The World Alliance community numbers more than 2 million people.

   See also International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; Montgomery, Carrie Judd.

   Further reading:

   ■ H. D. Ayer, The Christian and Missionary Alliance (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 2001)

   ■ J. H. Hunter, Beside All Waters: The Story of Seventy-Five Years of World-Wide Ministry: The Christian and Missionary Alliance (Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publications, 1964)

   ■ Robert L. Niklaus, To All Peoples: Missions World Book of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (Camp Hill, Pa.: Christian Publications, 1990)

   ■ ----, John S. Sawin and Smuel J. Stoesz, All for Jesus: God at Work in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Over One Hundred Years (Camp Hill, Pa.: Christian Publications, 1986): Lindsay Reynolds, Footprints; the Beginnings of the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Canada (Toronto: Christian & Missionary Alliance, 1981).