This is an irregular category, as not all Evangelical churches were part of the Pietist movement, and evangelism play an important role in many of the Christian churches that are listed elsewhere.

In a small sense, this might be considered a catch-all category, although we will try apply a level of structure to it. Labels cannot always be perfectly applied, and that will be the case here.

In the early 1900s, and even before, most of the mainstream Protestant churches were facing similar challenges.

Competition between different Protestant churches provided a motive for an ecumenical movement. Significant pressure was placed on various denominations to overcome their differences, largely through compromise, and merge, thus forming larger Christian bodies.

Meanwhile, seminary and Christian university professors had begun looking at the Bible less as the sacred Word of God, and more like a historical document that could be studied like any other ancient document. In many cases, this led to a reappraisal of the Bible itself. Some scholars called into question the biblical stories miraculous events, giving more credence to what science said was possible.

At the same time, scientists were suggesting that life had evolved over a very long period of time, as one species involved into another, and that human beings had come about in a process of evolution, rather than by creation.

Liberals and progressives, many of whom had risen to the higher echelons of church leadership within the mainstream Protestant churches were willing to let the Bible yield to science.

As champions of these new ideas arose, they found themselves under attack. Seminary professors, in particular, were vulnerable to attacks from conservatives forces.

By the 1920s, however, those who supported the new ideas were gaining ground in many of the larger denominations. In time, the leadership shifted, and the modernists took control.

As the conservatives lost influence in the larger denominations, they began to leave and form new denominations. As they left their former denominations, many of them abandoned the traditional Calvinist theology in favor of dispensationalist teachings.

By the end of World War II, the conservatives who had left the larger denominations found themselves divided into two camps, the separatist fundamentalists and the neo-evangelicals.

In the evangelical group, some formed conservative denominations intended to recreate their former denomination before the liberals took over. For the sake of categorization, these will be listed as subcategories of their former denomination.

Others separated from their former denominational traditions, forming various evangelical Christian bodies. The majority of these adopted dispensationalism as a means of interpreting the Scriptures. Today, evangelicalism is among the most rapidly growing religious movements in the United States. In the United Kingdom, evangelicals are mostly represented in the Methodist, Baptist, or Anglican churches.

Pietism has roots in the 17th century Lutheran Church but has had a significant impact on the evangelical movement in the United States, especially among Lutherans who were removing themselves from the Lutheran churches. Pietism also influenced the Methodist and Holiness movements.

Pietism emphasizes the importance of sound Biblical doctrine, as well as the individual piety, and living a dynamic Christian life, marrying salvation by grace with the importance of works.

Many Pietist groups take the New Testament literally and stress the necessity of putting its teachings into practice.

Among the denominations that may be included here are the Evangelical Congregational Church, the Evangelical Covenant Church, the Evangelical Free Church of America, the Moravian Church, and the Schwenkfelder Church.

Smaller Christian bodies that would be appropriate here include the Amana Church Associaton, the Apostolic Christian Church, and some of the non-Anabaptist Brethren churches.

For the purpose of categorization, when an evangelical or pietist denomination still identifies as Methodist, Presbyterian, Mennonite, or by some other classification, it will be listed as a subcategory of that category. Those which have made a more abrupt break with its former denomination will be listed here.

It's not an exact science. For example, the Moravian Church actually predates the Protestant Reformation, it shares many of the characteristics of the evangelical or pietist bodies, so we have elected to list it here. If its category were anticipated to be larger, we might have elected to place it in a category of its own. The Schwenkfelder Church predates the Pietist movement, but shares so many Pietist features that it is included in this section as a forerunner of the movement.

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