Analyzing the Growth of Reformed Theology/Neo-Calvinism in the Evangelical Free Church of America: Northern Plains District

Today I am unveiling the numbers from the Northern Plains District as I study the rate of Neo-Calvinism in the Evangelical Free Church of America. I am now moving onto the fourth district in this project. It is my belief that at the end of the year I will be writing about the theological hijacking of a denomination.

“Truly, God’s plan of redemption is about more than me and you and our neighbor down the street. It’s about men and women from every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth becoming a part of His covenant community.”   

Matt Chandler (Jesus Centered Church)

“What’s tragic is that Christians who come and go from churches are merely mimicking so many pastors. A man comes for several years, hears of another opportunity, leaves, and thinks nothing of it. His understanding of love is devoid of any sense of long-term obligation to a flock.”   

Jonathan Leeman (The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love: Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline)  

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16 NLT

Before I get into this post which is the second of two posts by the way I want to define what is Neo-Calvinism which has a strong Neo-Puritan bent.

• Neo-Calvinism has authoritarian leadership which has little if any accountability. For example I present issues with Mark Driscoll and C.J. Mahaney as an example.
• It embraces a complementarianism  structure that is patriarchy centered.
• Its rooted more in the Old Testament than the New Testament and deals with dominionism issues.
• Views the church as the final authority and often avoids civil responsibility or accountability. For this example I would present Sovereign Grace and the Acts 29 network in how parts of it functions.
• Election which is more of a determinism or fatalism.

Brad Sargent has a good list here, plus I also used that Tim Challies post in discussing John Piper. For further reference Roger Olson wrote a good post a while back that I will also link to in today’s post.

 

Neo-Calvinism in the Evangelical Free Church of America Project at The Wondering Eagle

At The Wondering Eagle I am going to undertake a massive project of which today’s post is the third installment. I am now moving on to the fourth district of the Evangelical Free Church of America.  This project will carry over for at least a year and I’ll have my work cut out for me. What I am going to is research and write about each district in the Evangelical Free Church of America.  To the very best of my ability I am going to find out which churches are Reformed/Neo-Calvinist and get some numbers to calculate the growth of Reformed Theology throughout the denomination. There are 17 districts and over 1,300 churches throughout the United States. At the end of this project I will use the numbers I have created and write a final post. Today I am unveiling the results from the Northern Plains District of the Evangelical Free Church of America.

I will unveil my numbers at the bottom of this post but to give you some understanding let me explain how I arrived at my numbers, or how I determined the baseline.

• If a church is affiliated with The Gospel Coalition, Acts 29 or 9 Marks it is included in the list. A couple of examples include Bethel Evangelical Free in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota which is led by Bruce Dick is a member of The Gospel Coalition. Meanwhile Trinity Evangelical Free Church in Minot, North Dakota which is led by Eric Bonness is affiliated with The Gospel Coalition and 9 Marks which is from Capitol Hill Baptist Church here in Washington, D.C.
• Other churches that are reformed but not affiliated with a Neo-Calvinist network are included. In these situations I examined the doctrinal statement and came to the conclusion they are reformed. In examining all the websites for the Northern Plains District I didn’t see any examples of this like I did in the Eastern, and Southeast District of the Evangelical Free Church of America. 
• In other situations I examined the recommended resources to see what books the Senior Pastor is reading, consuming or pushing. Again in the Northern Plains District I didn’t see much indicators here like I did Eastern and Southeast District of the Evangelical Free. I really didn’t find much in regards as blogs or hints that would be give aways in Neo-Calvinist theology.  
• In other situations in examining the website there was not enough information to go on, so I did not include them in the list. If there was reason to doubt, then I did. For example there are a couple of churches that did not have doctrine statements and explained what they believed. Others were extremely basic and didn’t share enough information to make a determination.
• In some situations I could not find a website to review. In other districts I believed this is due to the church being closed. In the case of the Northern Plains District I am going to guess that in the small rural areas there is no need to have a website. The church probably lacks the funding and manpower to maintain such a site, especially in a town that has 1,200 people or so. But if I can’t find a church website expect to find an asterisk next to it.

One thing I would also like to say, if there is any mistake in the analysis such as a church being listed as reformed when it is not, or when it is and I missed it; well I invite feedback and correction. Just email me at wonderingeagle261@gmail.com and I will correct it. Also for the record I am neither Arminian nor Reformed, I am somewhere in the middle. The current crop of Neo-Calvinist leaders such as John Piper, C.J. Mahaney Mark Dever and their minions are deeply corrupt and I wouldn’t trust them to feed my goldfish. Also for the record if you want to read the problems with 9 Marks this is one of the most read posts at my blog. It’s called “9 Marks : What is it? How Mark Dever Undermined it and Made it Absolutely Worthless.” That said, there are a couple of reformed people I respect such as Matt Redmond, and Wade Burleson. Having explained all that here is why I reject Reformed Theology. I need to write a long , detailed post on it, but Reformed Theology makes the problem of evil worse. It leads to a corrupt God, and it ultimately makes acts of evil as acts of worship if God foreordains every act, especially as there is no free will. It puts a whole new twist on situations from a shooting in an elementary school in Connecticut, to flying a 767 into 1 World Trade on September 11, 2001. It also removes accountability from people especially if the Lord foreordains every act. In short order you have determinism which is all John Piper is about. I’ve written about the problem of evil here and how I found a working answer to it for me. In the process I also thank Pam Palmer and the other Sovereign Grace families who filed a lawsuit against C.J. Mahaney for teaching me as to how you deal with the problem of evil. Having explained all that below you will find all the churches in the Northern Plains District, a link to their website, and if they fall in the Neo-Calvinism camp.

 

Northwest Minnesota

1. Sonrise Evangelical Free Church (Ada)
2. Newfolden Evangelical Free Church (Newfolden)

Eastern Montana

1. Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church (Plevna)

North Dakota

1. Grace Evangelical Free Church (Beulah)
2. Grace Point Church  (Bismarck)
3. Community Bible Church (Bottineau)
4. Cavalier Evangelical Free Church (Cavalier)
5. Eagle Valley Evangelical Free Church (Christine)
6. Cornerstone Community Church (Cooperstown)
7. Saron Evangelical Free Church (Cooperstown)
8. Bethel Evangelical Free Church (Devils Lake) (TGC)
9. Bethany Evangelical Free Church (Esmond)*
10. Bethel Church (Fargo)
11. Salem Evangelical Free (Fargo)
12. Fargo-Moorhead Chinese Christian Church (Fargo-Moorhead)*
13. Faith Evangelical Free Church (Grace City)*
14. Faith Evangelical Free Church (Grafton)*
15. Faith Evangelical Free Church (Grand Forks)
16. Grace Evangelical Free Church (Hettinger)*
17. Riverside Evangelical Free Church (Mayville)
18. Trinity Evangelical Free Church (Minot)(TGC, 9 Marks)
19. Mott Evangelical Community Church (Mott)
20. New Rockford Evangelical Free Church (New Rockford)
21. Evangelical Free Church (Pembina)
22. Calvary Evangelical Free Church (Rugby)
23. Faith Evangelical Church (Underwood)
24. Elim Evangelical Free Church (Valley City)*
25. Faith Church (Wahpeton)
26. Shiloh Evangelical Free Church (West Fargo)
27. Liberty Evangelical Free Church (Williston)
28. Mission Evangelical Free Church (Wilton)

Northern South Dakota

1. Evangelical Free Church (Aberdeen)
2. Rose Hill Evangelical Free Church (Langford)
3. Lakeside Bible Church (Mobridge)
4. New Life Evangelical Free Church (Watertown)(TGC)

Percentages of the Northern Plains District which is Reformed

There are 35 Evangelical Free Churches in the Northern Plains District. Of that number I only found 3 that are Neo-Calvinist or Reformed.  One is in South Dakota and two are in North Dakota. If I did the math on those numbers that means that 9% of the district is Reformed or Neo-Calvinist. Compared to what I found in the Eastern and Southeast Districts those numbers are low. There are a few reasons why that might be the case, and some of this was a hunch as I started to tackle this district. The first is that many of the Neo-Calvinists probably are not attracted to the northern plains areas. Many Neo-Calvinists are people driven by celebrity fads, who love attention. Quite simply you are not going to find that in North Dakota or northern South Dakota. Second these churches which are smaller and more established I believe are harder to theologically hijack. Some of these churches go back generations and I can’t imagine people willingly allowing their church to be taken over in a theological coup. Now it will be interesting to see what happens when I get into the rest of Minnesota which is in the Forest Lake District and the North Central District. The North Central District has 157 churches alone that I will have to analyze.

Churches that are Reformed/Neo-Calvinist in the Northern Plains District

1. Bethel Evangelical Free Church (Devils Lake) (TGC)
2. Trinity Evangelical Free Church (Minot)(TGC, 9 Marks)
3. New Life Evangelical Free Church (Watertown)(TGC)