Evangelical Free Church of America

The Evangelical Free Church of America was formed in 1950 by a merger of the Evangelical Free Church of America (known until the mid-1930s as the Swedish Evangelical Free Church of the United States of America) and the Evangelical Free Church Association (known until the mid-1930s as the Norwegian-Danish Free Church Association). Both predecessor organizations date back to the late 1800s, but trace their roots to the early congregations of the New Testament period and the Protestant Reformation. The Free Church movement was initially centered in Scandinavia but migrated along with the immigrants who came the the United States, settling primarily in the Midwestern states of Minnesota and Iowa. The denomination grew out of a reaction against the institution of established state churches with ecclesiastical hierarchies, as well as doctrinal differences with other Protestant denominations. It is characterized by belief in the bible as the unerring word of God, the primacy of biblical authority over ecclesiastical authority, the doctrine of salvation by faith and not by works, and the right of each local church to govern its own affairs.

Historical information was taken from the EFCA web site (http://www.efca.org) and its published history, The Diamond Jubilee Story of the Evangelical Free Church of America, by H. Wilbert Norton, et al.

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