Founded in 1810, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church grew out of the Second Great Awakening, and was named for its origins in the Cumberland River Valley of southern Kentucky and north-central Tennessee.

In the early 1800s, there was a shortage of ordained Presbyterian clergy willing to move to the frontier beyond the Appalachian Mountains., while the Baptists and the Methodists were sending preachers with little or no seminary training into these regions, and were successful in organizing congregations.

The Cumberland Presbytery began ordaining men without the seminary education required by the Kentucky Synod of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. They also required only that ministerial candidates agree to the Westminster Confession so far as they found it to agree with the Scriptures.

These two matters led to a lengthy dispute that culminated in the expulsion of the Cumberland Presbytery and its ministers from the PCUSA. These became the core members of a new denomination.

Three of the expelled Presbyterian ministers, Finis Ewing, Samuel King, and Samuel McAdow, reorganized the Cumberland Presbytery in 1810, which became Cumberland Synod in 1813, and a new denomination in 1829, when the General Assembly of Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized.

By 1900, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was the third largest Presbyterian body in the United States and growing. However, in the early 1900s, the majority of the northern congregations rejoined the PCUSA.

In 1814, the new body formulated a Confession of Faith that drew upon the Westminster Confession, but which affirmed the key points that were made by its founders. Contrary to the strict Calvinism of the PCUSA, the CPC held that there were no persons who were predestined by God to hell, but that Christ died for all of humanity, not solely for an elect. They also did not believe that infants would be consigned to damnation. In many ways, the CPC's theology resembles that of the United Methodist Church, being more Arminian than Calvinistic, although it is not nearly as liberal as the UMC.

The Cumberland Church were among the first to admit women to their seminaries, to accept them in leadership roles, and to ordain a female clergy. The denomination also has several racially integrated congregations.

In other matters, the Cumberland Church holds positions that are not accepting to LGBTQ issues and, for the most part, it holds more conservative beliefs than the Presbyterian Church (USA). In general, it is moderately evangelical, but not fundamentalist, and is Reformed in theology, but not Calvinistic.

Like other Presbyterian bodies, local congregations are represented by elders at Presbyteries, who form a session to govern the local church. Presbyteries send delegates to Synods, while the larger body of the Church is governed by the General Assembly, which appoints or elects a number of boards and agencies to handle the day-to-day operations of the denomination.

Cumberland Presbyterians have a presence throughout the United States, but largely in the US South, with the highest concentrations in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, and Texas. They are more commonly found in small towns and rural areas, rather than in metropolitan regions, as it was the metropolitan churches, for the most part, that rejoined the PCUSA in the early 1900s.

The denomination also has congregations, missions, and membership in several foreign countries, including Columbia, Hong Kong, and Japan. Within the United States, the denomination has Korean-language congregations.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, with a primary black membership, separated from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1874. Although relationships between the two bodies have been cordial, a bid to reunite the two denominations in the 1980s failed, as the CPC would not agree to an equal representation of members of the CPCA in all of its boards and agencies. The two denominations share a confession of faith and cooperate in many of its ministries.

The Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a small denomination that separated from the CPC over its membership in the National Council of Churches, and the use of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Websites representing the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, and the Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church are appropriate for this category or its subcategories, if available. Affiliated councils, agencies, educational institutions, associations, organizations, or corporations may also be submitted to this category. However, those representing local congregations should be submitted to the Local & Global category that corresponds to the geographical location of the church.

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