Community Church movement

The Community Church movement helps bring together and support local community churches. Community churches have been in the United States since the early 1800s. Small communities sometimes did not have enough people or money to support churches for every Christian denomination. So, leaders from different groups would work together to support one church. By the early 1900s, with the ecumenical movement growing, community churches decided to no longer tie themselves to one denomination. They wanted to show Christian unity while still being different. Community churches began to see themselves as beyond Protestant and postdenominational.

Origins of the movement

In the early 1920s, people began working together to help community churches in America. Orvis Jordan from Park Ridge Community Church led a group called the Community Church Workers of the United States.

Later, this group joined another to form the International Council of Community Churches in 1950. Churches from Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, and Shorewood, Illinois worked together. Today, the International Council of Community Churches is part of larger groups that unite different churches.