Friday, April 15, 2016

How old is your church?

Recently, our church has been cooperating with a rather new congregation/church called Rock City.  I'd never heard of it until about 5 years ago when I went to an early movie at the Lenox Center, and found that the church had rented the theater and had about 5 services before noon! It was created in 2011 from a Bible study group. They were so loud, we could actually hear them in some of the other theater spaces.  Now they've grown, and are also having services on Sunday at our local high school and expanding to other suburban locations.  So, as far as I know, this is a pastor-based, rock music service, Christian church, not tied to classic Protestantism like Lutherans, or Presbyterians or Methodists, and not having any authority but its pastor and his advisors, but I'll do a bit more research.  It's the everyone's a pope phenomenon of American Christianity.

Here's an interesting outline--I'd seen something similar on Facebook, although not as complete. Of course, all Christian churches/sects will say they were "founded" by Jesus Christ, and for some reason God let the church go dark (his word says this can't happen), and then their particular founder or group (whose names are not given in the Bible) rediscovered the various truths of the church. This list doesn't include groups like Vineyard or Mormons or the various Wesley off-shoots.  But then, there are about 35,000 just in the U.S., so I suppose it would get too complicated. I've added some in italics that are not part of the web site.

Name: The Catholic Church
Founded in: 33 AD
Founded by: Jesus Christ

Name: Orthodox
Founded in: 1054
Founded by: A separation from the Catholic Church

Name: Lutheran Denominations
Founded in: 1517
Founded by: Martin Luther and his disciples

Name: The Church of England
Founded in: 1534
Founded by: King Henry VIII

Name: Presbyterian
Founded in: 1560
Founded by: John Knox (in Scotland) and John Calvin

Name: Congregationalist (most now UCC)
Founded in: 1582
Founded by: Robert Brown

Name: Baptist
Founded in: 1605
Founded by: John Smyth

Name: Dutch Reformed
Founded in:1628
Founded by: Michaelis Jones

Name: Quakers
Founded in: 1652
Founded by: George Fox

Name: Amish
Founded in: 1693
Founded by: Jacob Amman

Name:  Church of the Brethren/Brethren Church
Founded in: 1708
Founded by: Alexander Mack

Name: Methodist
Founded in: 1744
Founded by: John and Charles Wesley

Name: Unitarian
Founded in: 1774
Founded by: Theophilus Lindley

Name: Episcopal
Founded in: 1789
Founded by: Samuel Seabury

Name: Disciples of Christ (Christian Church)
Founded in: 1804
Founded by: Group of Presbyterian Ministers (Campbell movement, Restoration movement)

Name: Seventh Day Adventist
Founded in: 1860
Founded by: Ellen White

Name: Salvation Army
Founded in: 1865
Founded by: William Booth

Name: Christian and Missionary Alliance
Founded in: 1865
Founded by: Albert Simpson

Name: Assemblies of God
Founded in: 1914
Founded by: A group of Pentecostal preachers

Name: United Church of Christ
Founded in: 1957
Founded by: Union of several groups (including those birthed by the Puritans)

Name: Calvary Chapels
Founded in: 1965
Founded by: Chuck Smith

Name: Vineyard
Founded in: 1975
Founded by: Kenn Gulliksen, John Wimber

Name: Rock City Church
Founded in: 2011
Founded by:  a Columbus Bible study group

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