
A Steady Pace Toward Merger
Two early free church leaders planted seeds for the 1950 EFCA conference.
75 years! In five months, the EFCA will celebrate one of the most important events in EFCA history – the merger of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association with the Swedish Evangelical Free Church of America in 1950. Each month I’ll be writing on different aspects of that merger.
Both groups had formed in the 1880s and while they shared commonalities, the language divide kept them as separate bodies. During the great wave of immigration from Scandinavia starting in the 1860s, small communities formed across much of the USA, and especially in the Midwest. The Homestead Act of 1862 led many to claim 160 acres of rich farmland. Swedes tended to form communities together and start Swedish-speaking churches, even as Norwegians and Danes did likewise. (The Norwegian and Danish languages were very similar due to various historical reasons.)
As their churches formed, they worshipped in their mother tongues and the first generation of children did likewise. But the second and third generations attended schools in English and never learned their parents’ language. So by the 1930s many of the churches were holding to bilingual services or separate English services for the younger generation, and by the 1940s most worship was in English.
Leaders in the two denominations made occasional suggestions that they should merge into one Free Church entity. Certainly, there was reluctance on the part of the older generation, but many could see that English was the language of the future and that a merger would have some great benefits.
We praise God for the foresight of men like Rev. C.T. Dyrness, who spoke in 1921 of moving away from the mother tongue to work with others, and Rev. L.J. Pedersen who suggested a merger of the pastoral training programs.
Though it took another three decades, the seed had been planted, and God brought it about in His own time.
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