ABBOT EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCH is a member of the Evangelical Free Church of America (www.efca.org/explore). ‘Evangelical’ refers to our commitment to the proclamation of the Gospel and the authority of Scripture. ‘Free’ refers to our form of church government, which establishes an autonomous local church ‘free’ from a central controlling body. The Evangelical Free Church of America is divided into districts; the Abbot Church is a member of the New England District, headed by Sam Huggard our District Superintendent (efcneda.org).
We are committed to Jesus Christ, to the gospel and to one another. As an association of churches that aligns itself with the same Statement of Faith, we are distinct yet deeply connected.
New immigrant families settling in the Midwest in the late 1800’s began gathering in homes to study the Bible and worship. It didn’t take long for churches to blossom from those small gatherings. By 1884, several churches were sharing a treasury. Supporting missionaries, caring for the elderly, establishing Bible Institutes, youth conferences, new churches and orphanages were all part of the EFCA lifeblood from the earliest days. In 1950, two existing collections of churches – the Norwegian Danish and Swedish Evangelical Free Church Associations merged. The result was the Evangelical Free Church of America.