Our Story
A Century ago...
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During the first months of EFCA West's formation in 2003, a misplaced and forgotten booklet was found in our Turlock offices. Published in 1948, it introduced readers to the ministry of the Evangelical Free Church of America and the Western District Conference. The District had been formalized in Turlock, California, in 1908 with a goal of promoting more effective evangelism up and down the entire West Coast through the coordinated efforts of a handful of churches. Without staff, this regional effort depended upon "preaching stations" staffed by the existing churches' pastors. In 1929 in Los Angeles, the district was legally incorporated, and included all seven Western states. A notable trait of this early ministry was a willingness to flex structure to most effectively accomplish the task of reaching out with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Due to the preaching station paradigm and its emphasis on one pastor servicing all the needs of the churches under his care, the seven-state district was subsequently divided through the years into seven "sub-districts" small enough for one man to service |
A Century later...
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Who could have foreseen a West Coast explosion to nearly 53 million people, speaking over 150 languages over their dinner tables? In the spring of 1997, seven West Coast District Superintendents began a bold consideration of how to more successfully multiply healthy churches. Most of the participants concluded that the one-hundred year old model of one-man district organizations was no longer the best way to plant churches, befriend pastors, coordinate pastoral placement, mediate in conflict, raise funds, administrate legal processes and credentialing, counsel and train elder boards, run camps, develop specialized ministries to children, youth, men, women, and seniors, network with universities and seminaries, connect churches with other churches, and more. A new model was needed. |
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EFCA West is born...
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After years of planning, the Central California and Southwest Districts officially voted at their respective March, 2003 conferences to launch a three year experiment of an unprecedented regional model of district ministry. More than two merged districts, it was an intentional restructuring around four core values: |
1. Ministry is relational, not programmatic or institutional. This applies to local, district, national, and international realities.
2. Ministry is best when gift-based. God has uniquely gifted various members of the Body of Christ with differing strengths, gifts, temperaments, and passion. A team of complimentary members is more effective than solo generalists.
3. Ministry multiplies when strategically focused on key leaders who multiply themselves. No one can serve everyone.
4. Ministry is committed to excellence in a few services rather than mediocrity in several areas. This excellence is enhanced by close alignment with, not reproduction of national and international EFCA personnel, resources, and services.
Not unlike the way God kept filling the widow's jar of oil, He enabled EFCA West to increase the number of people serving our churches from one District Superintendent to what is currently a team of seven "specialists" with differing gifts and passions. After three years of experimentation, the former Southwest and Central California District churches unanimously voted to formalize the new model. Then, in November of 2006, the member churches of the Southwest Border District (Arizona, New Mexico, Las Vegas, and El Paso) voted to begin a one year trial merger with EFCA West. Sixteen months later, at their district conference in Phoenix in March of 2008, this partnership was also ratified.
Change Invites Challenges...
We don't pretend to have everything figured out. In fact, this project has been likened to building an airplane while we fly it! But we have much in the way of evidence to suggest that we are on the right track as it pertains to our corner of the harvest field.
Seeking a Balance
Our motives are simply to recapture a healthier balance between the extremes of an impossibly under-resourced one man structure and an over-resourced, unresponsive, self-serving institution. May God grant such a balance.
The Autonomy Issue
EFCA is rooted in the Post-Reformation Free Church movement which protested governmental control of the church. The autonomy of the local church to govern its own affairs is a cornerstone of our history and distinctives. We celebrate that. Local churches have a right to expect excellent, efficient, consistent help from a denomination that exists to serve them, not the other way around. And we believe this is best done in a "culture of discipline," where local district leadership works closely with and is held directly accountable by the President of the EFCA and his Board of Directors. The focus must be on how best to serve the local church and its mission. In a day where local church leadership has disengaged from what it perceives to be unresponsive, uncoordinated, and self-serving denominations, we believe the time is right for a change. Local churches have direct access to the President and his board. In fact, some would argue that a local church has a greater likelihood of influencing district leadership through him than through a cumbersome annual delegate process. While our by-laws give the President significant input into the selection and appointment of the Regional Director (and the initial Regional Council members), the reality is that these selections are done in a climate of mutual trust and only after extensive communication and collaboration with local district leadership. Regional council members then must be affirmed by delegates at the district conference. This added climate of accountability in rhythms of annual/monthly/weekly disciplines of goal setting and reporting, national financial audits, and intentional alignment of personnel and services... at the local, national, and international levels... makes for an entirely new level of effectiveness. We have linked our legal documents below.
On behalf of the entire EFCA West team, we count it a privilege to serve you in our shared mission to glorify God by multiplying healthy churches among all people.
In His faithfulness,
EFCA West Team Leader