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Mission | Purpose | Objectives | Background

Mission Statement: 

Called into being by God to encourage and support renewal and reform leaders from the “mainline denominations”, the ASSOCIATION FOR CHURCH RENEWAL, is incorporating to proclaim the ecumenical convictions of our common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, through a cooperative publication, news service, and the presentation of resources for renewal. It is our mission to mobilize the faithful members and leadership of our historic churches for discipleship, evangelism, holy living, orthodox faith, Biblical apologetics, and the protection of the sanctity of human life, sexuality, marriage and family.

Purpose:  

The publication and communication ministry of the ACR will serve to:

• Lift up the eternal Word of God as the standard for faith and ethics for Christians in mainline churches and a culture in confusion, proclaiming that there is no conflict between Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture, the revealed truth by which every other claim to truth is measured.

• Give widespread visibility to the huge diversity of mainline renewal related ministries and missions that fulfill the great commission of Jesus Christ, providing for the least of these, and ministering to the persecuted church.

• Reveal the breadth and scope of an authentic ecumenism whose faithful consensus offers hope for the emerging church, including the good news from the dynamic churches birthed through mainline foreign missions that now offer faithful leadership to their spiritually deteriorated North American parent denominations.

• Engage in vigorous Christian apologetics in the postmodern environment surrounding North American Christianity, especially within the acculturated mainline denominations, encouraging the theologically gifted and called of this and a coming generation to speak with power and authority.

• Promote the work of renewal ministries throughout the mainline North American Churches, including coverage of significant denominational developments, pronouncements, and decisions.

• Defend those who are persecuted or on trial for their faithful testimony to Biblical faith in the growing intolerance of the “progressive” religious ideology prevalent among mainline denominations.

Objectives:

The ACR project’s print and digital publications will bring together the best work of its constituent ministries in an ecumenical witness that demonstrates our solidarity in Christian faith and life, including:

• The publication of “RENEWALL”, a free circulation, general interest, cooperative print and digital, Christ centered, Biblically faithful Journal of News and Commentary.

• An ACR news service that will provide to the media one outlet for the dissemination of renewal news provided by our constituent organizations as well as other critical events and statements that represent our unified mission.

•  A publishing entity and online bookstore for the creation and distribution of resources to fulfill our mission and purposes.

Background:

The Association for Church Renewal was founded in October 1996, as an outgrowth of cooperative meetings of leaders representing “mainline” denominational renewal movements that had been ongoing since 1979. This early collaborative of renewal leaders had been grounded in an ecumenical realization of their unity in Jesus Christ and their common struggle for the Biblical integrity of the church.  Their notable expression of this singular work of the Holy Spirit included:

• “A clarion call to the entire church of Jesus Christ expressing concern about the Church’s drift away from the evangelical faith”, entitled “The Dupage Declaration”. This call in 1990, affirmed the Trinitarian name of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one way to salvation – God’s way to us in Jesus Christ, and that the Holy Scripture is the written Word of God. It further affirmed the Biblical guidelines for human sexuality, the sanctity of human life, and the mission of the church to spread the good news of salvation by word and deed to a lost and despairing humanity.

Since its formation in 1996, under the leadership of Rev. Jim Heidinger of the Methodist Good News Movement, the ACR has had a significant role in strengthening and encouraging the work of the participating renewal movements, coordinating and encouraging their faithful efforts to work for reformation within their denominations. In the words of Diane Knippers, “we have been a vital force in a contemporary reformation that is mature and diverse, ecumenical, profoundly theological, morally grounded, global and generational.” We are presently an association with over 30 constituent organizations representing all of the mainline denominations in North America.

 Notable landmarks in the work of the Holy Spirit through the ACR have included:

• “Proclaim Liberty: A Jubilee Appeal” to the 50^th Anniversary gathering of the World Council of Churches in Zimbabwe in 1998, a multi-dimensional appeal for the reformation and recovery of the founding vision of the WCC. We appealed to the WCC that there would be a genuine jubilee that would be “an occasion for repentance, for recommitment to the Triune God, who reigns over all the earth and for restoring human relationships. Indeed may the ecumenical movement be revitalized with a fresh dedication to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in every land.”

• A “Congregational Covenant for Family Life”, formulated in January, 1998 which called for a faithful support for family life, marriage and those struggling in the age of sexual license.

•  A national gathering of renewal minded leaders and laity in Indianapolis in 2002 which included among several notable proclamations, “Be Steadfast: A Letter to Confessing Christians,” authored by 18 mainline evangelical theologians calling for mainline members to remain as “faithful confessors”. It said, “we urge our brothers and sisters not to withdraw but mutually to encourage one another to a struggle in which there is good hope.” “We commend ourselves and our churches to a renewed commitment to the classic Christian faith made known in history and attested to by the prophets, the apostles and the martyrs.”

• A letter on behalf of the ACR constituents to Anglican Archbishop Rowan in 2003, calling on him to join with us affirming marriage to be a covenant between one man and one woman and the sanctity of Biblical standards for human sexuality.

• A commitment in October 2006 to the creation of a more formal, incorporated organization with a mission to further our call to the cause of Christ through a cooperative endeavor of publication and communication.