Hi, cmc9-ga:
The church I regularly attend these days is part of the Evangelical
Free Church of America (EFCA) denomination (sometimes abbreviated as
Ev. Free). No, it doesn't mean the church has declared itself
off-limits to evangelicals. Quite the opposite, the denomination is
an evangelical one, with the word "free" denoting a Scandinavian
heritage from those who objected to belonging to the state-sponsored
churches, supported by compulsory taxes. Thus they started a church
"free" from state sponsorship.
Their denominational headquarters is in Minneapolis, MN. They have a
very successful seminary (expanded into a university) in Deerfield, IL
and other locations.
[Trinity International University - History]
http://www.tiu.edu/trinity/about/history.htm
Although perhaps not very well-known in comparison to some other
Protestant denominations (such as the Southern Baptists, the church I
grew up in), the Evangelical Free denomination has been very active in
overseas missions and other evangelical work.
Perhaps because of this success, the denomination has detractors who
seem able to "discern" heresy in seemingly minor variations of
theological statements. However in general my impression is that of a
conservative evangelical church with a lively democratic tradition of
congregational governance.
If you wish, shiva777-ga or I could post some links for you about the
doctrinal and historical development of this denomination as a
response to your question.
regards, mathtalk-ga |
