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Evangelical Free Church of America

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"Evangelical Free Church" redirects here. For other uses, see Evangelical Free Church (disambiguation).
Evangelical Free Church of America
File:EFCA 2014 Logo.jpg
EFCA – Multiplying Transformational Churches Among All People
ClassificationProtestant
OrientationEvangelical
PolityCongregationalist
AssociationsNational Association of Evangelicals, Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability
RegionUnited States
HeadquartersBloomington, Minnesota
OriginJune 1950
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Merger ofSwedish Evangelical Free Church and Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association
Congregations1,500[1]
Members371,191 (weekly attendance)[1]

The Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) is an evangelical Christian denomination. The EFCA was formed in 1950 from the merger of the Swedish Evangelical Free Church and the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association.

History

Community Evangelical Free Church of Soap Lake, Washington

The Swedish Evangelical Free Church formed as the Swedish Evangelical Free Mission in Boone, Iowa, in October 1884. Several churches that had been members of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Ansgar Synod and the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Synod, along with some independent congregations, were instrumental in organizing this voluntary fellowship. In the same year, two Norwegian-Danish groups in Boston, Massachusetts, and Tacoma, Washington, began to fellowship together. By 1912, they had formed the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association. The Swedish and Norwegian-Danish bodies united in June 1950 at a merger conference held at the Medicine Lake Conference Grounds near Minneapolis, Minnesota. The two bodies represented 275 local congregations at the time of the merger.[2]

The EFCA shares some early ties with those who formed the Swedish Evangelical Covenant Church. It has been a member of the National Association of Evangelicals since 1943, the year after that organization was formed.

Doctrine

In its Statement of Faith, the Evangelical Free Church of America affirms the authority and inerrancy of the Bible; the Trinity; atonement through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; original sin; Christ as head of the church and the local church's right to self government; the personal, premillennial, imminent return of Christ; the bodily resurrection of the dead; and the two ordinances of water baptism and the Lord's Supper.[3] In addition, the church claims six distinctives:[4]

  1. Believer's church—membership consists of those who have a personal faith in Jesus Christ
  2. Evangelical—we are committed to the inerrancy and authority of the Bible and the essentials of the gospel
  3. Embraces a humble orthodoxy in partnership with others of like faith
  4. Believes in Christian freedom with responsibility and accountability
  5. Believes in both the rational and relational, i.e. the head and the heart, dimensions of Christianity
  6. Affirms the right of each local church to govern its own affairs with a spirit of interdependency with other churches

The EFCA passed a substantial revision to its Statement of Faith on June 26, 2008, the first revision since the Statement was first adopted in 1950.[5] This revision was proposed in order “to update archaic language, to clarify some theological ambiguities, to seek greater theological precision, to address new issues, to have a SoF that would be better suited to be used as a teaching tool in our churches.”[6] Specific beliefs based on biblical interpretation can vary somewhat due to the congregational governance system that gives autonomy to individual local EFCA churches.

Structure

An Evangelical Free church in Superior, Nebraska.

The word Free in the Evangelical Free Church's name refers to its congregational polity, meaning each member church is autonomous.[7] The governing body of the EFCA is the Leadership Conference held annually.[8] Delegates to the conference are credentialed ministers, chaplains, tenured university faculty, and representatives of each EFCA church. The Leadership Conference elects the board of directors which acts as the governing body between Leadership Conference meetings. As chair of the Directional Team, the President coordinates the work of the various national boards and ministries.[9] The office of the President has responsibility for reviewing the licensing and ordaining of ministers and, in addition, oversees the discipline and restoration process for pastors.

The EFCA is divided into 17 regional districts which, among other responsibilities, examines and approves applicants for ordination.[9][10] The denomination maintains headquarters in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, and engages in ministries in education, publications, senior housing, children's homes, and camp facilities. The EFCA supports the mission of Trinity International University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois; Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, California; and supports Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

The Evangelical Free Church is a member of the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches.

The EFCA has experienced tremendous growth since its formation in 1950, at which time there were 20,000 members and under 300 congregations.[11] By the 1980s there were over 800 congregations and over 100,000 members.[11] In 2003, the Association reported 300,000 members in over 1,400 congregations.[11] In 2014, the EFCA reported a weekly attendance of 371,191 in 1,500 congregations. In the United States there are 1,314 EFCA churches and 176 church plants with 270 multi-ethnic churches and 102 multi-site or second language services. Close to 550 missionaries serve in more than 80 countries. [1] As of 2000, California had the largest number of congregations with 175.[12] However, membership is primarily concentrated in the Midwest.

Notable Members

Presidents

  • E. A. Halleen: 1950-51
  • A. T. Olson: 1951-1976
  • Tom McDill: 1976-1990
  • Paul Cedar: 1990-1996
  • William Hamel: 1996-2015 (1996 Interim, 1997 President)
  • Kevin Kompelien: 2015-present

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c About the EFCA: Statistics. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  2. ^ About the EFCA: Our History. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  3. ^ EFCA Statement of Faith. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  4. ^ About the EFCA: Distinctives. Accessed 2 September 2014.
  5. ^ EFCA: Resources for Statement of Faith Transition. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  6. ^ Strand, Greg. EFCA Statement of Faith: Introduction. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  7. ^ About the EFCA: Who We Are. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  8. ^ About the EFCA: Our Structure. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  9. ^ a b About the EFCA: Office of the President. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  10. ^ Steps Toward Credentialing, page 2. January 2000. Accessed 10 March 2010.
  11. ^ a b c "Historic Archive CD and Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches". The National Council of Churches. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
  12. ^ "2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Study". Glenmary Research Center. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
  13. ^ "FIFTH DISTRICT" (PDF). Official Congressional Directory. 2011.

References

  • Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton, editor
  • Handbook of Denominations in the United States, by Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood
  • Religious Congregations & Membership in the United States (2000), Glenmary Research Center
  • This Is the Evangelical Free Church. Minneapolis, Minn.: Evangelical Free Church of America, [199-]. Without ISBN
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