Apostolic Christian Church of America
Apostolic Christian Church of America belongs to the Anabaptist family of churches.
Governance: congregational.
Apostolic Christian Church of America reports 87 congregations in the United States (RCMS 2020 (ARDA national table), Apostolic Christian Church of America only, 2020).
Fröhlich Anabaptist, unrelated to Apostolic Pentecostalism despite the name.
RCMS lists six Apostolic Christian bodies; 87 is the largest.
Swiss Anabaptist revival congregations where conversion is testified aloud before the whole church, members greet one another with a holy kiss, and the singing has never needed an instrument.
Heritage
Samuel Heinrich Fröhlich, a young Swiss preacher converted in 1825, began baptizing believers in 1832 and was promptly barred from the state church; his movement gathered old Anabaptist congregations and new converts across Switzerland and beyond. Benedict Weyeneth carried it to America in 1847, planting the first congregation at Croghan, New York, and it took root in German-speaking farm communities of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas. RCMS 2020 counted 87 congregations of the Apostolic Christian Church of America, the largest of several bodies descending from Fröhlich's movement.
Theological family
Anabaptist with a revivalist heart: believers' baptism following a testified conversion, a disciplined and closely bonded brotherhood, nonresistance, and separation from worldliness held together with a strong assurance of salvation. The New Testament is read as a pattern to be obeyed, not merely admired.
Who decides what
Congregational, led by local elders who preach and shepherd without salary; a national brotherhood of elders confers on questions touching all the churches. Decisions of weight are carried to the congregation.
What a first-time visitor would find
A visitor finds unaccompanied congregational singing, extended Scripture reading, and preaching delivered without prepared notes, in the conviction that the Spirit supplies the word for the day. Services are long by modern standards, and the fellowship meal between or after them is part of the point. Women wear head coverings in worship; members greet one another with the kiss of peace.
What it has always cared about
The tested conversion — becoming a member is a public, congregation-witnessed turning, not a private decision; mutual aid and care for the elderly, expressed in the church's well-regarded retirement and nursing homes; and a deliberate unhurriedness about worship.
Its gift to the wider church
A living demonstration that conversion is a church event: the Apostolic Christian practice of testimony before baptism keeps the congregation, not the individual alone, as the home of saving faith — an emphasis much of American Christianity has had to relearn.
Commonly confused with
With Apostolic Pentecostalism, which is unrelated despite the shared word — Fröhlich's churches predate Pentecostalism and do not share its distinctives; with the Amish and conservative Mennonites, plain neighbors from a different Anabaptist stream; and with the several other Apostolic Christian bodies (Nazarean and others) descending from the same movement.
Range of views inside it
Congregations vary in language use (English having largely replaced German), in strictness of separation, and in how the tradition's practices are explained to newcomers; the several Apostolic Christian bodies differ more from one another than congregations within this one do.
A note from the mapmakers: Nothing here may be asserted of a specific congregation. RCMS 2020 lists six distinct Apostolic Christian bodies, and our data cannot always tell which body a given congregation belongs to; the 87 figure covers the Apostolic Christian Church of America only. Sentences drawn from this record hedge as "Apostolic Christian congregations typically…" and yield to the congregation's own materials.
Sources: Apostolic Christian Church of America — history and beliefs (Apostolic Christian Church of America) · Handbook of Denominations in the United States (Abingdon Press) · 2020 U.S. Religion Census (ASARB)
Where Apostolic Christian Church of America churches are on the map
1 Apostolic Christian Church of America congregations appear on The Church Map, across 1 states.
- Illinois — 1
More of the Anabaptist story · Find these churches on the map