Church Planting

Central District, Evangelical Free Church of America

	Jesus Christ said, "I will build my church" Matthew 16:18 kjv

Brief History

The Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) is an association of some 1,250 autonomous churches united by common spiritual beliefs and a form of church government that places control at the local church level. The National EFCA and International EFC headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The EFCA is divided into 20 districts.

The organization was formed in 1950 by the merger of two church bodies: the Swedish Evangelical Free Church and the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church. The Norwegian-Danish group was formed in Boston, Massachusetts and Tacoma, Washington in 1884. The Swedish group, the Evangelical Free Church of America, was originally formed in Boone, Iowa that same year.

By 1898 the Swedish group or Iowa District had 20 “preaching points” in Iowa visited by a circuit rider, Rev. G.A. Young. Rev. Young served as a preacher and assisted the fledgling groups with business affairs. By 1934 nine of these “preaching places” had organized into churches. Six churches were established in South Dakota during this same time. These first 15 churches formed the Iowa-Dakota District in 1939. They hired the first full-time superintendent in 1944.

In 1951 the present organization had 35 churches and changed the name to Central District in compliance with the 1950 national merger. The organization also decided to hold an annual conference each March. Delegates representing the member churches would vote on issues that affected the entire district. The delegates from each church were to be appointed annually by the local church leadership. Each church would be allowed two delegates for the first 100 members and one delegate for each additional 100 members. The senior pastor of each church would also serve as a voting delegate.

By 1964 the Central District contained 40 churches (District Superintendent’s Report, Central District Annual Conference, 1964.) By 1989 the district had 50 churches, including two in Missouri.

At this time the Central District Conference ushered in the Church Planting Program, using men who had been experienced pastors and would serve as Church Planting Missionaries (CPM.) The CPM would raise his own support, assist groups in planting their own local churches, and serve as pastor until the church was established enough financially to pay their own pastor.

Rev. Bob Nieuwendorp assisted the first official church plant in 1989 in Central Iowa. Arlyn Abrams, Merlin Egland, Lewis Wimberley, Mark Doss, Kent McKinnon, and Dennis Coe followed him. Bob Nieuwendorp, Lewis Wimberley, Merlin Egland, and Kent McKinnon have moved on to other positions. In the past 13 years the CPMs have assisted in planting 33 churches. Three additional church plants were unsuccessful.

In 1998 the Central District boundaries changed to include the northern third of Missouri (excluding Kansas City). The total churches in the district numbered 88 (Central District Centennial Conference Annual Report, 1898-1998.) In 2005, the Arkansas and southern Missouri portions of the Mid-South District merged with the Central District adding 15 churches to the District.

As of the March 2006 annual conference, there is a total of 130 churches in the Central District of the Evangelical Free Church of America including 4 church plants and 6 projects.

Phone: (515)432-9175

Central District, EFCA
PO Box 607
Boone, IA 50036

mail toE-mail: office@efcacentral.org