Eve Aty - Fifth Ruunmversari Y

1894 eve aty - fifth rUunmversari y 1969 Tlliiusterial Hflssociatioii of the Ivangelical (SKurck of EnagricQ idfliRisteriQ Hflsso nation f; Executive Eommtttee Andrew E. Johnson, Lawrence H. Larson, Chairman Vice Chairman June 16,1969 Dear Ministerial Brethren: Another milestone has been passed as we celebrate the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of our Association. These have been wonderful years richly blessed of God in so many ways. Beginning with so very few we have grown to some 760 members. We rejoice in our God and Saviour Jesus Christ and praise the Lord for the evidence of His L. D. Fast, blessing upon our fellowship and service. As we reminisce and praise God for Secretary His faithfulness, let us also claim His promises for today and the future as the :l8li^B Lord may tarry. The message we proclaim is as relevant to the basic needs of men today as it 4wr£v- •#| was 75 years ago. Man's needs are the same, God's Word is the same as is the Great Salvation in Christ Jesus. The troubled times in which we live should spur us on as never before to bring God's Word in contact with man's need! We sincerely hope that this book may afford many hours of pleasure as we peruse its contents. May it give us ocassion to thank God for each other and also be a reminder to uphold one another in prayer. Every effort has been made to make this publication as meaningful, John Hedlund, attractive and accurate as possible. It was a greater task than any of us could Vice Secretary envisage. The vast amounts of information and the many pictures plus the limitations of time and space have been keenly felt as we come up with the finished work. We know you will be charitable concerning its shortcomings. \ Especially helpful have been Mrs. David Yeats who has assisted in compiling and editing of materials sent to us, and Dr. Roy Thompson who out of a rich experience and understanding of our developement has written a most excellent history of our organization. May God's richest blessings rest upon us now and in the days that lie ahead in wh ich the Lord gives us, "A Time to Speak." 6^7C^^^ Ernest J. Vick, Andrew E. Johnson, Chairman Treasurer A HISTORICAL SKETCH By. Dr. Roy A. Thompson When the Diamond Jubilee Story of the Evangelical which they have received. Free Church of America was prepared tenyears ago, Dr. Not only the ministers but the entire membership Arnold Olson, president of the denomination, and constituency of the Evangelical Free Church of described the story as one of "groans and growth, America is also indebted to the Ministerial Association heartaches and heart-throbs, faith and works, prayer for the heritage they now enjoy, for, as a matter of fact, and practice, independence and interdependence, the small group of ministers who formed the individualism and conformity, freedom and association in 1894 really gave birth to the Evangelical limitation." "The diamonds have been few," he wrote, Free Church of America. That first conference in "but the pebbles and rocks on the pathway have been Boone, Iowa, in 1884, was a conference of ministers, many." almost without exception. The men who formed the A more apt description and characterization of the very loose organization at that time were the same men Ministerial Association's history could hardly be made. who formed the stronger organization ten years later. That is the conclusion I have reached after reviewing By that time they recognized their need of a stronger the record of the Association in the carefully prepared organization, not only for the Ministerial Association and well preserved minutes of the organization in but for the united work and they took one step after preparation for writing this brief historical sketch in another to organize the entire Free Church work on a commemoration of the diamond anniversary of the more orderly and solid basis than had characterized the Association. work at the beginning of the movement. But though the "pebbles and rocks on the pathway" The need of organizing a Ministerial Association have been numerous, and though there have been became evident to the leaders during the decade groans and heartaches aplenty, it may also be said that following the Boone conference in 1884. Recognizing the heart-throbs have overshadowed the heartaches and the need, a meeting was finally called, held in Phelps that the groans have only contributed to its wholesome Center, Nebraska, on October 11, 1893, when initial growth; also that "showers of blessing" have far steps were taken toward the establishment of the outnumbered the "storms of misunderstanding," and Association, the final steps, with the adoption of a the victories have outweighed the defeats and failures. I constitution, being taken the following year, in Boone. am sure the "diamonds" on the pathway have outshone Concerning this event, the Rev. A. A. Anderson, who the "pebbles and rocks." later became Superintendent of Missions of the The record of these 75 years will show that the 37 Evangelical Free Church of America (what we now call ministers who organized the Ministerial Association in "president"), commented in Frikyrkans Minnesskrift 1894 established it on such solid principles that the (a 30-year history of the Evangelical Free Church almost 800 members who now comprise its published in 1914:) membership are proud to be a part of the organization " Until the year 1893, the Free Church and would agree that it is indeed "a goodly heritage" was for the most part an unorganized movement. Consequently there was Ministerial Association, I am impressed by the caliber nothing to prevent a person from of the men in the leadership. They were men of posing as a "free preacher" and thus outstanding ability, with keen spiritual insight, diligent identifying himself with the movement students of the Bible, gifted preachers and writers, in regardless of how unworthy or ungodly close touch with the contemporary scene, well he might be. Again and again this balanced in every respect. happened in the churches and brought Such a leader was the Rev. A. A. Anderson, who was disrepute to the worthy corps of Free chairman of the Association during the entire first Church preachers. Thus our Free decade of its existence. He was a Bible teacher and Church movement became a kind of writer of no mean ability, what we might call a sanctuary or refuge for undesirables, "specialist" with respect to the prophetic portions of who, perhaps because of sin, had been the Bible. He established a number of our Evangelical excluded from other denominations. Free churches, was a missionary among the Mormons in This caused considerable sorrow and Utah, and for several years the Superintendent of concern to our pioneer brethren over a Missions for the Evangelical Free Church of America. period of several years until they For some years he also edited the official paper of the realized the necessity of forming a Church. ministerial association, which would The secretary of the Association for thirteen years, make it possible to exclude those who from the beginning, was the gifted and powerful were not worthy of confidence and preacher, the Rev. G. A. Young. He was a leader in all recognition." phases of the Evangelical Free Church work, serving at The object and purpose of the organization, one time or another in almost every official capacity. however, was much broader than merely to keep the The kind of minutes he kept for the Association during unworthy preachers out of the fellowship. The rather those first critical thirteen years of its existence reflects simple constitution adopted in 1894 was revised in his thoroughness, his orderliness and his gifts of 1909, at which time the object and purpose of the expression. organization was stated as "to promote and extend the The Association was not more than ten years old work of the Lord by the preaching of the Gospel; also when the Halleen brothers entered the Free Church to foster more intimate fellowship among the brethren, work and were active in the leadership of the and in an affectionate and loving manner be of Association, Dr. E. A. Halleen becoming the president assistance one to another." of the Evangelical Free Church for some thirty years, There has been no change in the wording of this and his brother, the Rev. Irving Halleen, likewise active article in the sixty years since it was adopted. in the various administrative boards of the As I read the minutes of the first 25 years of the denomination. Other men whose names are worthy of a place in this we have sustained through his death is beyond our catalog of Free Church pioneers active in the leadership ability to comprehend." of the Ministerial Association might include the Rev. The Free Church movement, in its early days, was Edward Thorell, most of whose life-work was centered exceedingly fortunate, or blessed, to have had men of in the Rocky Mountain region; the Rev. Axel Nordin, this high caliber in its leadership; also that the rank and the bachelor preacher who became the founder of the file of its membership were, for the most, good Christian Children's Home in Nebraska; the Rev. P. J. followers. Most of these ministers were not highly Elmquist, superintendent of the Free Church work for educated, according to modern standards, even as the a number of years and the founder and first president people to whom they ministered were not. They were of the Swedish Bible Institute (the Free Church young immigrants struggling to make a living in the new School); the Rev.

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