sentences:  The general superintendent or constitute the executive staff.Ordinations are approved by the Credentials Standing Committee and ministerial credentials come from Central Office.Ordained or licensed ministers, both male and female, provide leadership for the church and preside over the ordinances.The early participants in the Evangelical Christian Church (Christian Disciples) consisted of those who came away from a variety of fundamental, evangelical denominations, not in an attempt to reform any particular denomination, but rather in an effort to "restore" the "original" church according to the New Testament pattern, while basing its Biblical mission on the Great Commission found in the gospel of Matthew.