Walk through the history of IFFEC's membership map and the absence is striking: a global family with deep roots in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, yet with almost no formal African membership — despite the fact that several of the largest free evangelical mission agencies in the world have been planting churches on the continent for more than a century.
The paradox resolves when you look more carefully. Africa is not absent from the free evangelical family — it is present, vigorously, but in forms that are not yet formally connected to the global structure.
The Congo connection
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Communauté Évangélique de l'Uélé (CECU) — planted through Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) missionary work over more than a hundred years — now counts over a thousand congregations and hundreds of thousands of believers. It is one of the most direct expressions of the IFFEC family's DNA on the continent: evangelical, believers'-church, self-governing, and multiplying. The EFCA's ReachGlobal mission arm continues to partner with the CECU through the Congo Consortium, but the church is unmistakably Congolese in its leadership and life.
Cameroon
The Evangelical Church of Cameroon (Eglise Evangélique du Cameroun, EEC-Cam), with over two million members, was planted by the Paris Mission Society — whose theological tradition overlaps significantly with the covenant and free-church stream. Although not formally an IFFEC member, the EEC-Cam's believers'-church tendencies and its size make it one of the most significant potential conversation partners for the free evangelical family in Central Africa. ReachGlobal has active teams in Cameroon working alongside local church partners.
East Africa
Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi each host active ReachGlobal ministry, building toward the kind of self-sustaining, self-governing church movements that characterise the mature free evangelical tradition. The 2026 IFFEC Worldwide assembly in Kenya — the federation's first gathering on African soil — is a signal that the organisation is serious about African representation, not merely African mission work.
The WWES layer
Across several African countries, Worldwide Evangelical Seminary graduates have planted churches and initiated national movements that share the free evangelical family's DNA — though in many cases without knowing the family's name or history. Connecting these movements to the broader tradition is part of why the Connexion exists.
The African story of free evangelical Christianity is one of the most important untold stories in global Christianity today.
