Editing Confessing Movement (section)

===Reformed===
====Continental Reformed====
Working within the [[Reformed Church in America]] is the Reformed Revivalists in America, which aims to restore what it sees as theological orthodoxy in the denomination.<ref name="Wingfield2023"/>

====Presbyterian====
{{Main|The Fellowship Community|Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals}}
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One of the fastest growing Confessing Movements is within the [[Presbyterian Church (USA)]]. In February, 2002 more than 800 laity, pastors, deacons, and elders gathered in [[Atlanta, Georgia]] for the first National Celebration of Confessing Churches. Participating churches affirm that [[Christ]] is the only way of [[salvation]], that the [[Bible]] is infallible in its teachings, and that [[sexual relations]] are exclusively for [[marriage]].

More than 1,300 of the denomination's 11,000 congregations have adopted such declarations and become part of a loosely knit Confessing Church Movement.

The books ''Union in Christ: A Declaration for the Church'' (1999) and ''A Passion for the Gospel: Confessing Jesus Christ for the 21st Century'' (2000), both by Mark Achtemeier and [[Andrew Purves]], have served as rallying cries for Confessing Presbyterians.

The positions held by these caucuses is similar to that of denominations such as the [[Presbyterian Church in America]]; a more conservative denomination is the [[Free Presbyterian Church of North America]].

Still working within the Presbyterian Church (USA) is Presbyterians for the Kingdom, which aims to restore what it sees as theological orthodoxy in the denomination.<ref name="Wingfield2023"/>

====United Church of Christ====
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In the [[United Church of Christ]], a denomination in the [[Congregationalist]] tradition, the first confessing movement founded was the [[Biblical Witness Fellowship]], formed in 1977 after a General Synod sexuality study that, to the founders, seemed to take a decidedly permissive attitude toward non-marital sex and homosexuality. The BWF advocates a dual goal of local church renewal and national level reformation. Under the leadership of executive director David Runnion-Bareford, a [[Candia, New Hampshire]], pastor, this movement has presented reformation initiatives before each of the last five Synods of the UCC, including a successful reaffirmation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the denomination's historic symbol, the "Cross Triumphant," in 2005. "Focus Renewal Ministries" was founded as a charismatic expression within the United Church of Christ, although its membership is small. More recently, some UCC conservatives began a "Faithful and Welcoming" movement, led by the Rev. Bob Thompson, pastor of [[Hickory, North Carolina]]'s Corinth Reformed UCC. Like the founding of the BWF, that initiative followed the controversial General Synod of 2005 (in which the denomination in effect endorsed the efforts of same-sex couples to marry) and seeks to keep churches from leaving the denomination. Generally speaking, the F&W movement is perceived as less strident than the BWF, which has close relationships with established para-denominational evangelical organizations such as [[Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary]] in Massachusetts.

However, the UCC's renewal advocates have been far less successful than their counterparts in other mainline bodies: according to Faithful and Welcoming, over 250 congregations have withdrawn from the denomination since 2005, and despite the work mentioned above, the national leadership, and probably a majority of the remaining congregations, are resolute in their support of liberal theological and social stands. It is thus likely that laypeople and clergy espousing the aims of BWF, FRM, and F&W will remain small minorities in the denomination for the foreseeable future. Given this scenario, many more of the remaining advocates may well defect to more conservative Congregationalist denominations such as the [[Conservative Congregational Christian Conference]], leaving the UCC as perhaps the U.S.'s most politically and theologically liberal Christian group.