From WWES.
One of the gaps the Evangelical Free Connexion exists to address is formation: not just news about the free evangelical family, but genuine understanding of what the tradition is, where it came from, and what its convictions mean in practice. News without formation is interesting but thin. Formation without connection is deep but isolated. The Connexion aims to provide both.
Toward that end, Worldwide Evangelical Seminary is developing a free online course on the Free Church Movement — its history, its theology, and its expression across the global family. The course is in development and details are forthcoming, but the intention is clear: to make a substantive, accessible introduction to the free evangelical tradition available to anyone — pastors, movement leaders, students, and curious believers — at no cost.
What the course will cover
The course will trace the historical roots of the free evangelical tradition: the pietist revival, the holiness movement, the Keswick current, the Evangelical Alliance, and the way these streams converged in the national bodies that now form the IFFEC family. It will unpack the core theological convictions: the believers' church, congregational polity, the primary/secondary distinction, every-member ministry. And it will survey the global family as it exists today — from Germany to the Philippines, from Finland to Brazil — looking at how the tradition has taken root in radically different cultural contexts.
Who it is for
The course is designed primarily for two audiences: leaders within the free evangelical family who want a more systematic understanding of their own tradition; and leaders outside it — particularly in the Global South — who are discovering that their church shares the family's DNA and want to understand what that means.
WWES's broader curriculum is available at wwes.ca. The Free Church Movement course will be offered as a standalone, free resource — consistent with WWES's commitment to making formation-grade theological education accessible to church leaders who cannot access or afford traditional seminary education.
Updates on the course will be announced on this site. Subscribe below to receive the weekly digest and be notified when the course becomes available.
