In the mid-seventeenth century, some puritan leaders began to worry about their society’s growing commercialization and declining piety, or "declension." identify the statements that describe the half-way covenant and its impact on the church.

Congregational churches faced a crisis in the mid-17th century as the number of members was greatly reduced. The Half-Way Covenant was proposed as a solution to this problem.

The Half-way Covenant allowed baptized persons who had children to present them to baptism. This generated a great controversy in the Congregations since the conservatives argued that this flexibility would lead to a lower moral standard in the churches.

These debates led to a council being held with ministers of churches and religious organizations to discuss who should be baptized. It was deliberated that each Congregation could make the decision to accept or reject the Half-Way Covenant. Some churches followed the original 1700 standard. Other churches became more flexible and agreed to baptize  children even if their parents and grandparents were not baptized.