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Swedish Lutheranism and Pietism

Though headquartered in the United States, the Covenant Church traces it roots back to Sweden. While the state Lutheran church dominated much of the religious and social landscape in 19th century Sweden, the English evangelist George Scott, found significant traction for his Wesleyan preaching there. Eventually forced to leave Sweden after comments critical of the state church, the revival work continued under the leadership of Swedish pioneers like C.O. Rosenius. While Rosenius was not a trained minister he had been influenced by the Moravian tradition in a way similar to Wesley. These early "mission friends" that rallied around Scott and Rosenius, were heavily influenced by the previous pietist revival that had been suppressed by the Swedish state in the 18th century. This recaptured pietist focus on a personal encounter with the spirit of God flourished under Rosenius' leadership who was eventually succeeded by P.P. Waldenström. Though Waldenström was initially committed to working within the state church, he created two significant controversies that lead to the formalization of the Mission Covenant Church in 1878.

First in 1872 Waldenstrom writes a sermon arguing that because God is love and since God cannot change, the atonement cannot be an event that moves God from wrathful to loving. It can only be an event wherein God changes something in us. This seems to conflict with the Augsburg confession (1530) on which the Swedish state church was founded.

Later in 1876 he serves the eucharist at a gathering despite the fact that the State Church did not allow anyone to administer or receive communion outside an official state church. Although an ordained minister Waldenström maintained the pietist perspective arguing that any gathering of believers was in fact a church regardless of location or sanction.

These controversies contribute to the Mission Covenant Church being formed independent of the theology of the Augsburg confession on which the state Lutheran church was based. 

Covenant in America

These events had ripple effects as the pietist spirit was carried to America through Swedish immigrants who had moved across the ocean. As early Swedish immigrants attempted to establish churches and coordinate their efforts in their new home, existing Swedish synods, now influenced by Waldenström, began looking at new ways to organize with more freedom.

As C.V. Bowman would later describe the justification for the new american denomination:

“The Mission Friends have a principle that is still more unique and takes a very prominent place in their program. They hold that the local church shall consist of only believing members but at the same time have room for all true believers, no matter what their viewpoints are on controversial doctrines. It is this principle which really distinguishes Mission Friends from other Christian denominations, and which justifies their existence as a particular church.”

–About the Principles of the Mission Friends (1910)

The tension was now in how to organize such a church. Some preferred a minimal structure that preserved the freedom of the local congregation but also provided for the support and accountability of a denomination, others were adamantly opposed to any structure, seeing it as a return to the restrictions of the state churches in Europe. 

Eventually a number of the early Mission Friends did form a new denomination in 1885 called the “Swedish Mission Covenant Church” and those opposed to the formation went on to play significant roles in the founding of the free church movement in America. 

affirming a Generous Posture 

During the early 20th century the founding concepts of the denomination were quickly put to the test. The fundamentalist controversy that overtook much of American religion hit the Covenant as well. New advances in geology, biology and biblical criticism had left many Christians feeling adrift and the solution for many seemed a hard, almost militant defence of what became known as the fundamentals.

Northpark University in Chicago (1894) had been recently founded in order to facilitate the education of ministers in the Covenant and took a progressive view incorporating a liberal arts educational into the curriculum. Even as pressure mounted to affirm a particular hardline posture on the fundamentals, the university and the denomination held true to the founding principles of the Covenant affirming a commitment to the centrality of scripture but also to the freedom of believers to disagree on the specifics of Christian faith, stepping back from more divisive language like the "verbal inspiration" of scripture. 

A Post Swedish Church

In 1936 the name of the denomination was changed to the Evangelical Mission Covenant Church reflecting a Swedish immigrant population that was moving into a second generation where the distinctive Swedish elements had begun to give way to a more American identity. An emphasis on church planting expanded the foundation of the denomination and a strong commitment to the American civil rights movement led to a purposefully multi-ethnic denomination that is today able to celebrate the immigrant part of our history even as the Swedish heritage has become less central. 

Today the Covenant church celebrates all of these different streams that have led to our current identity and expresses that generous posture in our affirmations:

• We affirm the centrality of the word of God.
• We affirm the necessity of the new birth.
• We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the church.
• We affirm the church as a fellowship of believers.
• We affirm a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit.
• We affirm the reality of freedom in Christ.

History in Calgary

Scandinavian Mission Church