Understanding the families

The historical journey

Understanding the Protestant families, their heritages, their differences and the colour code of the historical journey.

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Page 10 / 49A change of focus · the timeline is complete

Wide angle

From the shared history
to the families of churches

From here on, the guide does not start the story again: it moves in closer.

Clarification · the short answer

“Where do our churches come from?” — rarely from a single source. Their identity has been formed in layers: the heritage of the Reformation, an understanding of the church and of baptism, revivals, missionary work, migration, church planting, groupings.

A single congregation can belong to a historical family, receive more recent influences and be a member of a union of churches: these levels complement one another without being confused.

Behind us · what the timeline has shown

The major dates, revivals, migrations, ruptures, unions and the routes by which the Protestant currents developed.

Ahead · what begins now

The leading figures, the families of churches, their own heritages, their differences of status and their meeting points.

1 · Get your bearings

Find the colour

Each family keeps the same colour from one page to the next.

2 · Put a face to a name

Discover the portraits

The gallery presents the people whose names recur in the timeline and in the family stories.

3 · Follow a heritage

Open a church family profile

Each profile traces the present-day family back to its main historical milestones, without reducing its history to a single origin.

Three kinds of link not to be confused

Historical lineage

A person, a revival or a movement contributed, directly or indirectly, to a later development. A historical arrow does not always imply continuity of organisation.

Theological or spiritual closeness

Churches may share convictions, practices or vocabulary without belonging to the same union, the same denomination or the same network.

Institutional link

An official membership, a federative affiliation or a legal succession must be established by statutes, directories or explicit declarations.

The key point: closeness does not mean affiliation.

Next page · a reminder of the families’ colour code10 / 49

Colour code of the families

  • General history, civil powerPeter Waldo, Wycliffe, Jan Hus
  • Reformed and Lutherans (Huguenots)John Calvin, Antoine Court
  • Anabaptists, Mennonites, BaptistsMenno Simons, John Smyth
  • Free Evangelical Churches and Brethren assembliesFrédéric Monod, J. N. Darby
  • Moravians, Methodists, revivalsJohn Wesley, Robert Haldane
  • Pentecostals and charismaticsDouglas Scott, Clément Le Cossec
  • Shared structuresFPF 1905, CNEF 2010
  • Millerism and AdventismWilliam Miller, Ellen White

Understanding the key

What distinguishes the eight coloured threads

These are not eight equivalent denominations: six threads follow families or movements, grey gives the historical context and black links the shared bodies.

Grey · General history

Forerunners, civil powers, persecutions and public freedoms: a contextual marker, not a family of churches. In the origins animation, a dotted grey line, distinct from this solid thread, sets apart the comparative trajectory of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Blue · Reformed and Lutherans

The confessional Reformation of the 16th century: biblical authority, preaching and sacraments, with churches that were historically territorial. This model cannot be reduced to the automatic membership of every inhabitant.

Turquoise · Anabaptists, Mennonites, Baptists

Churches of professing believers, and baptism tied to personal faith. The Radical Reformation gave it a lasting Protestant form, without inventing the church of professing believers outright. The Baptists have their own history: kinship is not a single lineage.

Brown · Free Evangelical Churches and Brethren assemblies

Independence and personal commitment draw them together; the Free Evangelical Churches come from the Reformed Réveil, while the Brethren favour a collegial exercise of ministries.

Purple · Moravians, Methodists and revivals

Renewal of lived faith: conversion, holiness, prayer, mission and service. These revivals can run through several families of churches.

Red · Pentecostals and charismatics

Emphasis on the present-day work and gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Pentecostals form churches; the charismatic renewal also runs through existing churches.

Black · Shared structures

The FPF and the CNEF represent their members, link them and help them cooperate: they are neither a doctrine nor a new denomination.

Green · Millerism and Adventism

A 19th-century eschatological movement, from which the Seventh-day Adventists arose. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, born of the same soil, are outside the common trunk: they are presented separately, in a comparative appendix.

Online guide · church families and key points · 2026 edition11 / 49

Sources and key references

Bibliography of the journey

  • Sébastien Fath, Une autre manière d’être chrétien en France. Socio-histoire de l’implantation baptiste (1810-1950) [Another way of being Christian in France: a social history of the establishment of Baptist churches in France, 1810–1950], Labor et Fides.
  • Sébastien Fath and Jean-Paul Willaime (eds.), La nouvelle France protestante. Essor et recomposition au XXIe siècle [The new Protestant France: growth and reconfiguration in the 21st century], Labor et Fides.
  • André Encrevé (ed.), Les protestants [The Protestants] (Dictionnaire du monde religieux dans la France contemporaine), Beauchesne.
  • Patrick Cabanel, Histoire des protestants en France, XVIe-XXIe siècle [A history of Protestants in France, 16th–21st century], Fayard.
  • Jean Baubérot, Histoire du protestantisme [A history of Protestantism], PUF, “Que sais-je ?”.
  • Musée virtuel du protestantisme (Virtual Museum of Protestantism) — thematic and biographical entries (in French).

See all the sources of the journey

Further reading

Explore the Protestant families

Choose a family to discover its origins, its main convictions and its links with the other Protestant traditions.