Open Bible Churches
Open Bible Churches belongs to the Pentecostal (Trinitarian) family of churches.
Governance: congregational.
Open Bible Churches reports 242 congregations in the United States (RCMS 2020 (ARDA national table), 2020).
A 1935 Des Moines merger of two revival streams — one out of Florence Crawford's Apostolic Faith, one out of Aimee Semple McPherson's Foursquare — into a congregational Pentecostal family.
Heritage
Open Bible Churches descends from two departures that became one arrival: the Bible Standard Churches, organized at Eugene, Oregon in 1919 by Fred Hornshuh and ministers leaving Florence Crawford's Portland-based Apostolic Faith, and the Open Bible Evangelistic Association, formed at Des Moines in 1932 by John R. Richey and ministers leaving the Foursquare church. The two bodies — both children of woman-founded movements, both seeking freer congregational life — merged in 1935 as the Open Bible Standard Churches, now Open Bible Churches, headquartered at Des Moines. RCMS 2020 counts 242 congregations.
Theological family
Trinitarian, evangelical Pentecostal: salvation in Christ, Spirit baptism with the gifts in operation, divine healing, and Christ's return — mainstream Pentecostal doctrine with a mild, missional temper.
Who decides what
Congregational within a fellowship: local churches own their property and call their pastors, while regional and national leadership credential ministers and coordinate mission — association chosen precisely because both founding groups had left more centralized bodies.
What a first-time visitor would find
Contemporary evangelical-Pentecostal worship in most congregations: worship band, practical preaching, prayer ministry, the gifts welcomed without spectacle.
What it has always cared about
Local-church liberty remembered as the founding issue; church planting and world missions from a modest base; ministerial training; and the Midwest and Pacific Northwest as its two historic hearths.
Its gift to the wider church
A tidy lesson in Pentecostal genealogy offered to the whole church: renewal movements keep having children — and the children of strong founders often build flatter houses, without repudiating the inheritance.
Commonly confused with
With Foursquare and the Portland Apostolic Faith, its two grandparent movements; with the Assemblies of God, which it resembles in doctrine and temper; and with any congregation using "Open Bible" as a generic church name, of which there are many.
Range of views inside it
Range in worship style and congregation size across its two historic regions and beyond; doctrinally it is a body of the Pentecostal center, without a contested wing.
A note from the mapmakers: Nothing here may be asserted of an individual congregation. "Open Bible" appears in many unaffiliated church names, so our name-based matching cannot settle affiliation. Sentences drawn from this record hedge as "Open Bible congregations typically…" and yield to the congregation's own materials.
Sources: Open Bible Churches — our history (Open Bible Churches) · Handbook of Denominations in the United States (Abingdon Press) · 2020 U.S. Religion Census (ASARB)
Where Open Bible Churches churches are on the map
1 Open Bible Churches congregations appear on The Church Map, across 1 states.
- Oregon — 1
More of the Pentecostal (Trinitarian) story · Find these churches on the map