Our Story

National EFCA History

The Evangelical Free Church of America was formed in 1950 by the merger of two church bodies: the Evangelical Free Church of America (Swedish) and the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association. Both groups had been birthed in the revival movements of the late nineteenth century.

The Swedish group had its formal beginnings in Boone, Iowa, at a conference held in October of 1884. In that same year, two Norwegian-Danish groups began to worship and fellowship together in Boston, Massachusetts and Tacoma, Washington. By 1912, both the Swedish Evangelical Free Church and the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association had been formed.

Those two associations, representing 275 local congregations, were formally joined together as they gathered for a merger conference in June of 1950 at the Medicine Lake Conference Grounds near Minneapolis, Minnesota. The international and national offices of the EFCA have been located in Minneapolis since the merger took place.

Local Church History

A group of Norwegian friends banded together on January 8, 1907 to start Betannia Apostolisk Evangeliske Free Kirke ave Canby. Meetings were held in various homes until a small white frame church was built on the corner of SE 2nd and Knott Street. Services were held in the Norwegian language until 1926, when English became the language spoken from the pulpit.

For many years the structure was referred to as the "Little Norwegian Church" or "Little Bethany". We changed our name to Bethany Evangelical Free Church in 1960, and we moved to our current Ivy Street location in 1963.