Calvinism in the Evangelical Free Church

Before we left our church because of Calvinism, we sent a long letter to the elders, expressing our concerns.  However, none of the elders cared enough or were concerned enough to do anything about it.  And so we left our church home, the place we had been at and loved for almost 20 years, the church we raised our kids in.

 After awhile, I became concerned that maybe the Evangelical Free Church, in general, didn't realize that there were dogmatic Calvinist pastors taking over their churches, blocking other views, manipulating people into agreeing with them.  And I thought maybe they would want to know this, especially since it seemed to contradict their "official stance" about this issue, which I believed was supposed to be a middle-of-the-road approach, falling under the heading of "significance of silence" (where they don't let the small controversial issues become big divisive issues).  I figured that if a pastor in one of their churches was manipulating people into agreeing with him, blocking opposing views, dogmatically forcing his views of controversial issues onto the congregation, wouldn't they want to know about it?  Afterall, if no one ever reports the problems to them, how can they fix them?

 And so I wrote an email to the EFCA itself to express my concerns.  And I got a letter back from Greg Strand, from the Evangelical Free Church of America offices.  (Notice that the "official stance" in the link above was written by Greg Strand.)

 And I am going to repost them here for you to read.  (Apparently, I misinterpreted “significance of silence” to mean that they would insist that this issue be a “background” issue, not allowing a church to become too dogmatic either way so that it doesn’t become divisive and split a church.  But apparently, all it means is that the EFCA organization itself will be silent on it and not divide over it, but they will allow individual churches to take whatever dogmatic stands they want to.)

 Anyway, this is my letter to them and their reply to me.  (For the record, just because I am not a Calvinist doesn’t mean I am Arminian, although it seems that Mr. Strand assumes I am.)  

 What I think is most telling about the EFCA, according to Mr. Strand's reply, is that the percentage of those who identify with Calvinism increases dramatically between those 50-64 years of age (35% identify as Calvinists) and those who are younger (of those 35-49 years old, 56% are Calvinists and of those 18-34 years old, 50% are Calvinists).  To me, this shows the future trend of Calvinism taking over the church, as the older folks are replaced with the younger.  (Also, keep in mind that a big provider of pastors for Evangelical Free churches is Trinity Evangelical Divinity school - home of Big Time Calvinist D.A. Carson.  Based on my research, Trinity trains their student pastors in Calvinist theology and then places them in Evangelical Free churches, spreading and entrenching Calvinism more.) 

 I will simply repost the emails as they were written, without commenting on them, and allow you to come to your own conclusions about Mr. Strand's response, the spirit it was written in, and what he is saying between the lines.




 My email to them:

We belonged to an EFCA church that we loved for 20 years, raising our kids in that church.  But about 6 years ago, we got a dogmatically Calvinist pastor who teaches that his way is the only way to see things and who doesn't seem to allow opposing ideas.  From what we understand, he also takes all the elders and leading men through what we call "Calvinist indoctrination" studies, ensuring that Calvinism spreads.

We read that the EFCA's official stance is a "middle of the road" approach, but that you allow churches to lean either way but that they should be welcoming to the "other side."  Our pastor does not lean; he falls very heavily on the side of Calvinism, and he does not seem to tolerate disagreement because he (or at least someone in the office) deleted a comment I sent to the church blog where I disagreed, politely and biblically, with his post on predestination.  The comment showed up for a couple hours, but then was deleted.

Eventually, we sent a letter to the elders (who I believe are all Calvinists anyway) about our concerns and about why we think no one should be dogmatic about this issue, cautioning them to reel him in a little because it's going to repel people who disagree with him.  But he only got more vocal about it.  And so, after 20 years there and being involved in several ministries, we resigned.

The problem - why I am reaching out to you - is that we can longer trust EFCA churches about this issue, because you do not enforce any kind of standard on this.  Having the official stance that the EFCA is "middle of the road" is meaningless if it's not enforced, if you allow pastors to dogmatically pick one side or the other, being intolerant towards the other side.

I know that this is a losing battle for us because most of the Big Name theologians are Calvinists, and they are breeding a batch of young, new Calvinist pastors.  And so I doubt the EFCA would ever disallow Calvinist pastors.  (And who knows?  Maybe all those in the EFCA offices are Calvinists too.)  But I would at least ask that you remove your misleading "official stance."

Anyway, thank you for the early years that we enjoyed as part of your church family.  But from here on out, I will be very cautious about trusting EFCA churches.  From studies I've seen, they are being taken over by Calvinism all over the place.  So please do not mislead people with your "middle of the road" stance.  Take that out and simply say that you have no official stance on it and that you allow each church to decide for themselves how dogmatic to be about it.  That would be closer to the truth.  Thank you




Their reply to me:

Dear Heather,

Thank you for your email.

At the end of 2018, the EFCA conducted a Doctrinal Survey. This is done by the Spiritual Heritage Committee on behalf of the Board of Directors. Here is a brief description of those who received the survey along with the response. (All this information related to the Doctrinal Survey is found in the document linked.)

          All senior pastors of EFCA churches (not all are credentialed in the EFCA), and everyone credentialed by the EFCA (not all are in EFCA ministries) received the survey through email. The 49-question survey was conducted from November 8, 2018 to December 11, 2018. SurveyMonkey was used to conduct the survey and compile the data. The survey was sent to 3,000 individuals, it was completed by 1,509, which represents 50.3%. This is an excellent response rate, especially remembering this 49-question survey takes about 20-30 minutes to complete. In addition to completing the survey, 8,341 comments were made by respondents.

The two questions in the Doctrinal Survey related to the issue you raise regarding Arminianism and Calvinism are listed below. I also include the options of answers to the question, along with the final response of respondents, followed by assessments and comments. 

Article 6, The Holy Spirit 

Q17 As you consider the logical order of a believer's exercise of saving faith and the Spirit's work of regeneration, which best describes your belief? 

·         Faith precedes regeneration (I believe and then I am regenerated). 32.86% 461

·         Regeneration precedes faith (I am regenerated and then I believe). 39.27% 551

·         These cannot be put in any logical order. 27.87% 391



Q18 Do you believe that those who have truly put their faith in Christ and have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit can lose their salvation? 

·         Yes 3.22% 46

·         No 93.70% 1,339

·         Don't know 3.08% 44

Assessments

·         We lean in a Calvinist/Reformed direction on matters of salvation, with 39.27% affirming the Calvinist/Reformed view of salvation, and with 32.86% affirming the Arminian/Wesleyan view of salvation. 27.75% of respondents did not list any logical order.

o   Among those in the 65+ age category, 46% identify as Arminian/Wesleyan. Those aged 50-64, 36% identify as Arminian/Wesleyan and 35% identify as Calvinist/Reformed. Those aged 35-49, 56% identify as Calvinist/Reformed. Those aged 18-34, 50% identify as Calvinist/Reformed.

o   There is a slight change in the percentages in the logical order of salvation from 2013: 37.60% Calvinist/Reformed and 34.65% Arminian/Wesleyan. The percentage of those not listing any logical order remains the same as the 2013 survey.

·         Respondents strongly affirm “eternal security,” “perseverance of the saints,” as 94% do not believe one “can lose their salvation.”.

o   This remains the same as the 2013 survey.

Comments

·         We reflect well our ethos regarding the belief in the order of salvation, providing a place for both Arminians/Wesleyans and Calvinists/Reformed. There are generational differences in understanding this issue, with the younger identifying as more Calvinist/Reformed. Interestingly, when approaching the issue of the possibility of losing one’s salvation, there are virtually none who affirm that view.   

As you read in the Doctrinal Survey – 39% identify as Calvinist, 33% identify as Arminian, and 28% do not identify as one or the other – it is accurate to speak as we do about the “significance of silence,” or that we “major on majors and minor on minors.” That commitment is not considered a via media, or as you state, a “middle of the road” belief or perspective. The undergirding principle is stated as follows: “Once [the early Free Church leaders] began to put in writing what was commonly believed among them, they were silent on those doctrines which through the centuries had divided Christians of equal dedication, Biblical knowledge, spiritual maturity and love for Christ.’ This ‘significance of silence’ reflected our strong concern for Evangelical unity in the gospel.” (Evangelical Convictions, 24-25) We conclude, “This expression [the significance of silence] does not mean that we will not discuss and debate these issues but simply that we will not divide over them.” (Evangelical Convictions, 24, n. 18) Of course, this is not lived out the same in each EFC church. But we do not speak about the expression in each local church but rather we speak more broadly about the EFCA.

I am grateful to hear the EFCA has been a wonderful church family for many years. I am sad to hear about the end of this relationship. I will say this. Based on what you have written about your desire, which reflects your aspirations and expectations, I believe you will have a difficult time finding a church and/or a denomination that fits what you wish. And if you find you are more comfortable in a church that is less Calvinist in its belief and practice, or even anti-Calvinist, then you may well fall prey to the same problem of which you accuse the leaders of this church, albeit in the opposite theological direction.

Thank you, once again, for writing to me. Thank you for allowing me to shed some additional light on this.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

In Christ,
Greg



Greg Strand

Executive Director of Theology and Credentialing

Interim Director of Pastoral Care Ministries

Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology, TEDS

Evangelical Free Church of America

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