The Servants' Church: Faith Evangelical Free Church, 1920-2020

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"In the 1870s many immigrants from the region of Hedmark, Norway settled in the historic farming community of Concord, Massachusetts. Most of them took jobs as hired farm hands and domestic servants. One of them, a shoe salesman named Ole Thorpe, was also a gifted preacher, with the help of the American Trinitarian Congregational Church in Concord, organized a new congregation that met as the Scandinavian Branch of the American church, with Mr. Thorpe as their pastor. Together with other Norwegian churches from Maine to New Jersey, they formed the Eastern Evangelical Free Church Association, which eventually became part what is now known as the Evangelical Free Church of America. This volume gives an account of the experiences of these immigrant servants as they worked hard to assimilate as American citizens, while still retaining their ethnic and faith traditions. They eventually constructed their own building and became an independent church in 1920. In 1975 they moved from Concord to nearby Acton, MA, and are preparing to celebrate their 100th year as an independent church. The book is divided into three parts: 1) The history of the movement since the early 1870s, 2) A recognition of the many people and organizations involved in creating and supporting the church, and 3) An evaluation of the congregation's successes and failures throughout the years, with a recap of lessons learned. An appendix includes short biographies of each of the charter members and significant friends of the church"-- Provided by publisher