We are a regional conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), which is a rapidly growing multiethnic denomination in the United States and Canada with ministries on five continents of the world. Founded in 1885 by Swedish immigrants, the ECC values the Bible as the word of God, the gift of God's grace and ever-deepening spiritual life that comes through a faith with Jesus Christ, the importance of extending God's love and compassion to a hurting world, and the strength the comes from unity within diversity.
Church Planting has always been a core value for the Northwest Conference. A key part of our mission is to see the starting of new congregations throughout the Northwest Conference. It is our desire to see God birth a passion in our conference churches that will lead to the planting and growing of thriving churches, which will in turn multiply themselves and fulfill Jesus' command to go and make disciples.
Essentially, church planting is simply a nearby mission project. In Acts 1:8, Jesus gives the map of mission when He says, "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." On the mission map, Jerusalem is equivalent to where we live. It is, and remains, a key focus of our energies.
Then, together with over 800 other Covenant churches, we have developed an "ends of the earth" world mission enterprise twice as large as the Covenant at home. So, we are strong locally and far away. Church planting helps us fill in the map of mission by reaching into neighboring communities, the nearby. Since the founding of the Northwest Conference, we have been engaged in seeing new congregations started that have allowed us to reach neighborhoods, people groups, and communities we would not reach any other way.
