Evangelical Free Church of America

Protestants have invested in a more internal unity.

So I'm in an Evangelical Free Church in America, down the street's a Baptist church.

I'm not in competition with them.

They're a good gospel preaching, biblical Baptist church.

movement doing

yeah so we basically it's it's an association of churches called the evangelical free church of america or efca and i that's fine it doesn't matter just letters um i i forget it half the time but we have about 200 congregations spread over seven states that um seven western states that i am responsible for we help we work with we help develop pastors We work with leadership issues in the church.

We help start churches.

We help, you know, raise money for churches.

Um, where were you going to church?

So for the f- the, before we were married, um, I was going to a, I think they were technically affiliated with, like, Evangelical Free Church or something, but they were functionally non-denominational to all appearances.

Um, you know, a, a Bible church-type thing.

Uh, 'cause I was living in a smaller town near Um, my, my husband was still in college then and he was living at home to save money, and that was-- it was in the town where his family lived.

We're glad that you're here.

If you're joining us for the first time, we are talking today about the Holy Spirit and the article number six in the EFCA Statement of Faith.

And John and I have the pleasure of having this conversation together.

And John, it's good to see you.

And maybe you could read the article of faith and then say a word of prayer.

Sounds good.

So it's Article 6 in the EFCA Statement of Faith, and it reads this way.

We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that he does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's our agency.

They're based out of, I think it's, I thought it was Minnesota where the EFCA headquarters are.

But it's one of those Midwest and Northern states that I don't think I've been to yet.

There's Pioneers down in Florida.

Evangelical universities founded by dispensationalists such as Biola College and Gordon College ditched the theology as well, as did some evangelical denominations.

In 2019, the Evangelical Free Church of America removed premillennial theology from its statement of faith.

So while rapture theology remains very popular today, it draws most of its inspiration from pop dispensational writings like the Left Behind series.

Some historians go so far as to call it a form of folk evangelicalism, as the theological muscle backing the belief has diminished, as evangelical theologians and institutions have turned away from it.

It is a lot to take in.

My task tonight is to try to make this and bring this to a practical level and have some examples of how this idea of the subversive gospel in polarized times has impacted our church, our approach to our church, and some things within the EFCA that have been important markers in leadership as we've tried to bring clarity in that venue as well.

We're in a time that it's difficult to know exactly how to lead, how to teach, how to bring scripture to bear in a way that isn't going to fall into creating greater divides.

And so we're going to solve that tonight.

And so there were all kinds of divisions within the church.

But the apostles didn't hesitate in addressing them and calling people back to the gospel.

And so we in June 2003, so two years ago, we in the EFCA, so this is on the EFCA side of things, had some things that were coming up like most movements right now and some some challenges that were being raised.

And so we produced a statement, um, that was called a statement of denials and affirmations.

It was probably a decade ago, honestly.

And I was working actually at the time at, let me think if I was at Our Savior Evangelical Free Church.

I grew up in the free church tradition around here, so I went to Trinity.

When I was on the grounds crew, actually probably more than that, probably 15 years ago, you recommended Al Martin's little book, The Practical Implications of Calvinism.

Since you're a first-time guest, we always have first-time guests give a summary of their salvation testimony, which would include the kind of religious atmosphere in which you were raised.

You actually just hinted at that before.

You were raised in the EV Free Church, Evangelical Free Church.

Tell us about that and what kind of providential circumstances the Lord raised up in your life that drew you to himself and saved you, and how you came to embrace the doctrines of grace as well.