The Missionary Church was the name selected following the merger of the Missionary Church Association and the United Missionary Church in 1969. This was possible because both denominations were committed to preaching only what was in the Bible and to evangelizing the world.

The United Missionary Church, known until 1947 as The Mennonite Brethren in Christ, was formed at a meeting near Dayton, Ohio, in 1883. It began, however, in the 1850's when a number of Mennonite ministers were dismissed from their former churches for having prayer meetings, holding revival services, and giving public testimonies. It was largely through the leadership of Daniel Brenneman and Solomon Eby that the denomination was organized.

Joseph Ramseyer founded The Missionary Church Association after he was dismissed from his former denomination for wanting to be baptized by immersion as a born-again believer in Christ. Ramseyer continued to preach the message of God's love through Jesus Christ as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. In 1898 those who shared his convictions adopted the name "The Missionary Church Association" because of their desire to evangelize the world.

Early ventures included Liberia (1890) Sierra Leone (1898), Nigeria (1901), and India (1924). These early years were frequently marked by hardship and disease and yet as missionaries gave their lives for the cause of Christ, the number of new applicants swelled. In the following years, new works were opened in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, France, Spain, Indonesia, Thailand, Portugal, and Cyprus. National churches functioning autonomously exist today in eleven countries, and national groups from a variety of countries have asked to be identified with us. Partner agencies provided opportunities for many to reach beyond our own ministries to serve in radio, medical, translation and other specialized works.

Since that time ministry has continued to expand into Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The identification and development of key national leaders to launch church multiplication movements has allowed us to extend the influence of the gospel far beyond the efforts of our own staff and open doors that would otherwise have remained inaccessible for political or religious reasons.

Guiding Values and Ministries

Our commitment is to make disciples of Christ, launch disciple-making movements, and expand His Church in such a way that its spread is unhindered by the barriers of culture, politics, economics or education. To that end, we affirm the following:

• We are committed to the Supremacy of the Great Commission and believe it must be the driving force in the task of mission.
• We believe that every follower of Christ is responsible for seeing disciples made.
• We develop disciple-making strategies based on God’s leading, the host culture and the spiritual gifts of team members.
• We believe making disciples results in the multiplication of leaders and churches that are Spirit-led and culturally appropriate.
• We model only what is reproducible, intentionally utilizing ministry tools readily available and affordable to the host culture.
• We give priority to ministries in the least reached areas of the world.
• We partner with churches, national leaders and other agencies in making disciples and multiplying churches.

Church Planting

We believe the correct relationship between making disciples and planting churches is that we plant churches by making disciples rather than the converse. We emphasize the reproduction and multiplication of disciples, not the reproduction of organizational structures, meetings, events, and programs.