Two Schools Become One

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the EFCA, we are highlighting significant events throughout Free Church history that led to the 1950s merger.

By the 1930s, the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church and the Swedish Evangelical Free Church were moving toward a merger. At the time, both associations spoke English in their churches and few knew the mother tongues by the 1940s. In 1938, the Swedish association suggested a merger, but the Norwegian-Danish association didn’t feel the time was right. By the 1940s, however, several clear steps were taken toward a merger.

The first step was merging the respective schools. The Norwegian school had been in Minneapolis and was known as “Trinity Seminary and Bible Institute,” and the Swedish school had been in Chicago and was known as “Free Church Bible Institute and Seminary.” Each school struggled with financing, faculty retention and space limitations. Yet each graduated quality students who were becoming respected pastors and leaders.   

In 1946, after serious discussions, a resolution to merge the schools was approved, and Dr. Thorvald Madsen was chosen as acting president of the joint school with a dean to lead each school. For a few years the schools continued to function on their separate campuses, but by 1948 the decision was made to sell the Minneapolis campus and consolidate the school under the name “Trinity Seminary & Bible College” in Chicago.  

In 1949, the student body and faculty from Minneapolis moved to Chicago for the start of the academic year. At the same time, they named a new president: Dr. C. Raymond Ludwigson, formerly at Wheaton College. Highly qualified in academia, he was a solid, spiritual man, fully consistent with Free Church theology.  

Less than a year before the two denominations merged, the schools became one. God has greatly blessed this union over 75 years with thousands of graduates impacting the world for Christ.