The morning of August 9, 1886 dawned as any other day in the popular summer resort community of Old Orchard, Maine. At the edge of town people gathered in the open-air amphitheater for the mid-morning Bible hour at the convention called by Albert B. Simpson. No one would have suspected the dramatic results that were to follow the service of that morning.

The speaker for this occasion was W. E. Blackstone, a Chicago businessman turned preacher. That morning he addressed the convention on the subject “The Need of the World and the Work of the Church.” Blackstone related the second coming of Christ to world evangelism in such a way as to electrify the audience.

Building his message on Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”, Blackstone cried out, “It is the business of the church to be a witness and to proclaim the gospel. Oh, for a tongue and power to wake up the church to her duty.”

The echoes of that dynamic sermon soon died out in the grove, but its spiritual impact lived on. When people gathered one year later for the second Old Orchard Convention, the missionary enthusiasm generated by Blackstone’s sermon took on a concrete form. The Christian and Missionary Alliance was born that summer at Old Orchard.

Thousands attended the annual Old Orchard Convention of the Christian Alliance (now The Christian and Missionary Alliance) in order to hear the preaching of the Word of God, celebrate the fellowship of the Alliance and to commit themselves to the work of missions. A. B. Simpson and other great men of God preached on the evangelization of the world. God’s Word was proclaimed “with much power, and many souls were saved.”

In the August 14 & 21, 1891 edition of “The Christian Alliance and Missionary Weekly” we read the following about the Old Orchard Convention, “It was God’s work, and God’s alone. By one mighty sweep of the Holy Ghost, God led a humble Convention of plain people, few of whom were rich, to pledge, in a single hour, nearly thirty thousand dollars for the evangelization of the world, and to provide for the sending out of nearly sixty additional missionaries.... In less than five weeks, He has provided for the support of over eighty missionaries.”

Following the great tradition of the Old Orchard Convention, The Christian and Missionary Alliance has historically committed itself to faithful “stewardship in money.” As a people we believe God owns it all. The real truth of God’s ownership of all is we are no longer our own, we have been “bought with a price.” We now belong to the Father. If we don’t own our own lives, then we truly own no property.

Moved by God’s faithfulness in arousing His people to action at the Old Orchard Convention, the name “The Orchard Foundation” has been chosen to identify the arm of the Alliance assigned to deal with “stewardship in money.”

There is no desire to live in the past, but rather a longing on our part to have the fresh wind of God blow through our ranks as it did in those days in Old Orchard. The vision of The Christian and Missionary Alliance is to be a movement of Great Commission Christians who are glorifying God by building Christ’s church worldwide.