Page Index
Our Vision
Our History
Contact us
1.
Our Vision
OUR VISION:
Know God
Grow Together
Show the World
God wants us to know Him personally, grow together as His
people in that relationship with Him and each other, and show the world His
great love.
Know God
Grow Together
Show the World
(see file: statement of faith)
3. Values
(see file:
values cbc)
4.
Our History
History of Covenant Bible Church
In the fall of 1997, a family contacted the Evangelical Free Church about
the possibility of starting a church. Lewis Wimberley, the church planting
pastor with the EFC asked them to see if there were other families who were
interested in starting a church and said he would be glad to meet with a group
as soon as there were at 2-3 families. By the spring of 1998 there were 3
couples meeting for Bible Study and Lewis started to make the trip to
Farmington, MO to meet with these couples.
By 1999, the group had grown to 5-6 families and was meeting together for public
worship. A student at Covenant Seminary was traveling from St. Louis to preach
for them. At this time, they began to prayerfully consider calling a pastor.
In 2000, Dan Judge became their Interim Pastor. He and his wife were regular
attendees of the church and he was Chaplain of the State Mental Health facility.
CBC had several resumes before them by the spring of 2000 and they narrowed the
search down to Bill Younker, a former Missionary of the EFC and former Church
Planter. They called him in July of 2000 and Bill and his family moved to
Farmington in August. At this point there were 8 families active in the church.
The church continued to grow and in 2003, the people of Covenant Bible Church
bought 20 acres of land outside of Farmington. In March of 2004, the building
site was prepared and they started to build that year. They moved in October of
2004. Bill left Covenant Bible Church in December 2009 to pastor the
International Community Church in Columbia, MO.
In July 2010 Marco van Raalten was installed as the pastor
of Covenant Bible Church.
5.
Evangelical Free
Church of America
Covenant
Bible Church became a member of the Central District of the Evangelical Free
Church of America on March 4, 2003.
The History
of the Evangelical Free Church
The Evangelical Free Church of America was formed June 18, 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.
Our Mission:
The mission of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA)
is to glorify God by multiplying healthy churches among all people.
Distinctives of the
EFCA Movement:
Structure:
The word Free in the
Evangelical Free Church's name refers to its congregational polity, meaning each
member church is autonomous. The governing body of the EFCA is the Leadership
Conference held annually. Delegates to the conference are credentialed
ministers, chaplains, tenured university faculty, and representatives of each
EFCA church. The Leadership Conference elects the board of directors which acts
as the governing body between Leadership Conference meetings. As chair of the
National Ministry Team, the President coordinates the work of the various
national boards and ministries. The office of the President has responsibility
for reviewing the licensing and ordaining of ministers and, in addition,
oversees the discipline and restoration process for pastors.
The EFCA is divided into 18
regional districts which, among other responsibilities, examines and approves
applicants for ordination. The denomination maintains headquarters in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, and engages in ministries in education, publications,
camps, senior housing, children's homes, and camp facilities. The EFCA supports
the mission of Trinity International University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity
School in Deerfield, Illinois and Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, California;
and supports Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.
The Evangelical Free Church is
a member of the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches
Membership
The EFCA has
experienced tremendous growth since its formation in 1950, at which time there
were 20,000 members and under 300 congregations. By the 1980s there were over
800 congregations and over 100,000 members. In 2003, the Association reported
300,000 members in over 1,400 congregations. In 2010, the EFCA reported a weekly
attendance of 357,709 in 1,480 congregations. As of 2000, California had the
largest number of congregations with 175. However, membership is primarily
concentrated in the Midwest.
6.
Leadership
Our pastor
Ministry Leaders:
Deacons: Al Gainer, Mike Berg
7.
Contact us
(573) 747-0001
5165 Hwy D
Farmington, MO. 63640