The Evangelical Christian Church's name stands out in history as the Restoration Movement also known historically as the "Stone-Campbell Movement, a Christian reform movement that can be traced to the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States and Canada. Barton Warren Stone and Alexander Campbell were leading figures of four independent movements with like principles who merged together into two religious movements of significant size. These churches have a total population of about 3,000,000 in the United States, and over 1,000,000 in Canada.

Restorationism sought to renew the whole Christian church, on the pattern set forth in the New Testament, without regard to the creeds developed over time in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or Reformed Protestantism, which allegedly kept Christianity divided. Churches are found throughout the globe, claiming to "concentrate on the essential aspects of the Christian faith, allowing for a diversity of understanding with non-essentials." Basically, there are those whose beliefs and doctrines may differ on minor subjects, but who believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God as the Savior and authority of the church. Among key practices are the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper on the first day of the week and a commitment to believer's baptism by immersion in water.

Stone's passion for unity and liberty among God's people may well be the most dramatic fact in our exciting history. He was the right man with the right idea at the right time. He saw unity as the very essence of the Christian faith. Some years after his death, John Rogers said of Stone: "He hailed with enthusiastic joy the least indications of a growing spirit of forbearance and brotherly love among the different denominations." For in the universal prevalence of the spirit of union among Christians, he saw sin dethroned in the lives of God's people, and the world snatched from the fires of Hell.

The Great Western Revival was a tidal wave of religious interest and excitement which began in about 1800, reaching its crest in 1803, and then gradually diminishing as it merged with the normal stream of evangelism. Its principle expansion fields were in Tennessee and Kentucky. On Sundays of May and June 1801, there were a succession of Great Western Revival meetings at churches in the region around Lexington, Kentucky. At the last three meetings, the attendance ran to 4,000 for the first, 8,000 for the second, and 10,000 for the third, according to contemporary estimates. The "May communion appointment" at the Concord Church, of which Stone was a member, brought together between 5,000 and 6,000 people of various sects and many preachers of different denominations.

The combined influence of the frontier and renewed revivalism helped to give Southern Christianity a distinctive character in another way. It helped frame the notion of the minister as essentially a preacher. His task was to give sinners the opportunity to be converted. Often, they were not around to do such pastoral work as counselling, visitation of the sick, or the Lord's Supper.

The Second Awakening helped advance the liberation of both black slaves and women within American-Canadian society. The new birth offered entry into a new kind of life for black ministers who were invited to preach in the pulpits of some of The ECC churches, while many of The ECC white ministers continued to minister to mixed congregations against the opinions of others. The various societies to purity the Christian church became the first institution where women and blacks made an important contribution in leadership roles within The ECC churches in North America in the days of great revival and renewal.