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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Conference materials, reports, circulars, and other miscellaneous records of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Central District Conference of the denomination, based in Boone, Iowa. Records consist primarily of annual and semi-annual conference materials of the national organization and the regional district.

Records were originally part of the personal papers of William G. Moritz, who was the pastor of the Upper Flat (Britt, Iowa) and Wesley (Wesley, Iowa) Evangelical Free Churches in northern Iowa during the 1970s.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Evangelical Free Church of America Organization Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,667

Processing Information:

Processed by: Lara Friedman~Shedlov, July 2002

Catalog ID number: 09-00323143

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The Evangelical Beacon (and its successor, The Beacon), the official publication of the Evangelical Free Church of America, is separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

Yearbooks and directories of the EFCA and its predecessor organization, the Swedish Evangelical Free Church of the United States of America, are separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

Histories published on the occasions of the golden (1934) and diamond (1959) jubilees of the EFCA are separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society book collection.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Clergy conference.

Sunday school conventions.

Christian education.

Persons:

Moritz, William G.

Organizations:

Evangelical Free Church of America -- Missions.

Evangelical Free Church of America -- Government.

Evangelical Free Church of America. Central District Conference.

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