Featured I'm in the process of trying to educate myself in regard to the mainline Protestant denominations.

Liberal protestants? American Baptists, Episcopal Church, Disciples of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church USA, United Methodist Church, Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist Church. This is by no means all liberal denominations in U.S. but are the usual suspects.

 

Here is an older Gospel Coalition article:

FactChecker: Are All Christian Denominations in Decline?

You probably could have found this yourself with a simple Google search.

 

Book Reference:

Handbook of Denominations in the United States
Originally by Frank Mead and Samuel Hill, now I see it's by Roger Olson.

 

It leaves out the relation between John Smyth and the Mennonites of the time.

 

Mainline denominations are going to include:

1. The United Methodist Church
2. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
3. Presbyterian Church USA
4. Episcopal Church
5. American Baptist Churches in the USA
6. United Churches of Christ

 

No, these are THE ones usually called "mainline." There's nothing really special about the word mainline. They are just typically some of the oldest and largest denominations, and, usually, liberal.

 

Yes there are different types of Presbyterians. PCUSA is one denomination, not all Presbyterians.

 

Few conservative, as vast majority liberal, denying bible is inspired, Jesus not God, did not die for sins, no physical resurrection. the few moderate conservative churches would consist of those such as various Methodist and other free will group still somewhat orthodox in theology!

 

The range wouldn't liberal to conservative, but from ultra-progressive to not being extreme on anything !

Add to Walter's list of nine these in bold:

source

American Baptist Churches USA
Congregational Churches
Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ)
Episcopal Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Friends (Quakers)
Moravian Church in America
North American Baptist Conference
Metropolitan Community Churches
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Reformed Church in America
United Church of Christ
United Methodist Church
Unitarian Universalist Church

 

There are many more than two!

Here is a chart with a dozen of the larger Presbyterian denominations in America.

But there are many other Presbyterian 'microdenominations'.

 

It leaves out a lot of things.

From the gospel times there were what we would now call Evangelical churches. Before Constantine came to power you would find a simple gospel service, Within 50 years the churches were filled with incense and flowers. At that time Sylvester was the bishop of Rome. Constantine was head of the church. The Waldensians claimed their departure from Rome at the time of Sylvester.

During the time of Constantine, the corrupt church split into two, Greek and Latin. The true church fled into the wilderness Revelation 12:6. During that time the papacy developed until it reached is utmost persecuting power in the dark ages.

It began to come out of the wilderness at the reformation. Revelation 10.

 

Not all Quakers are mainline. From my reading, there are the Evangelical Friends, conservative and holiness-leaning. Some even practice baptism and communion.

 

Yes, it's similar with Congregational churches: splintered into a number of groups, but definitely a large contingent would be considered mainline.

 

Another thing that the chart is absolutely wrong about is Pentecostal. Charismatics. The first were the Montanists. They developed a number of heresies, such as tongues an prophecy, Montanus was of accused with saying he was the Paraclete, but more likely he was speaking as an organ of the Holy Spirit. Other heresies were, the teaching that there were two sins, Venal and Mortal, later absorbed into the RCC. Another was that marriage was wrong as it consisted of the same act as adultery.

There were many more such cults in History. There were some at the time of Luther, who disputed with them. There were the Camisards, or French prophets who began in the 17th century. When they were persecuted and murdered by the papst Kings of France, some escaped here to England. Charles Wesley, in his journal says he spent a night in a fhrench prophets and he "Gobbled like a turkey cock all night long." From them came the English Prophets, among their leaders was John Lacy.

About 1694 there was a group meeting in Water Stratford in England . The leader was John Mason who had a number of strange teachings including that he would not die. His body was exhumed to proof to his supporters that he was in fact dead.

Then there was Edward Irving and his followers in the early 18th century. They had prophecies and tongues. From 1825 Irving preached on dispensationalsim Some of his prophets said that the 'rapture' would occur in 1833. After Irving's death his church became 'The Catholic Apostolic Church.' This continued till relitively recent times, one of my aunts attended their services in London before the war. Their main church in London, University Church of Christ the King, is now an Anglican church

Ther have been many other such groups in history one is the Shakers, others appeared in Catholic convents. But that will do for now,

 

Flowers? Oh no!