Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen

The Swedish Evangelical Mission (SEM) (Swedish: "Evangelical Homeland Foundation", EFS) is an independent, low-church, New Evangelical () movement within the Church of Sweden. It emphasizes the importance of lay involvement in the church and is rooted in 19th-century Swedish revivalism and the Mission Friends movement.

Organization

The EFS is a movement within the Church of Sweden and is therefore not a denomination in its own right. The intra-church nature means that the EFS considers itself to be part of the Church of Sweden and the Church of Sweden considers the EFS to be part of it. This is done on the basis of common confession.

, EFS has approximately 22,400 members. it is a democratic organization in the social movement tradition () and is made up of about 350 affiliated local associations (missionary associations and EFS groups, with at least former names such as Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society, , Missionary Society, Chapel Society and Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society) organized in seven districts and with a common national organization based in Uppsala, Sweden. Most of the local associations function as autonomous entities, not entirely unlike free church congregations, but there are also a number of cooperative and collaborative churches where a missionary association or EFS group runs a local church in cooperation with a congregation within the Church of Sweden. In some cases, church activities are carried out in cooperation with other Christian denominations. EFS's children's and youth activities are organized in , which has about 6,500 members. Scouting activities are also conducted there, from 2014 under the name (formerly EFS Scout), with about 2,000 members.

EFS is involved in mission work in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Malawi and India and has a couple of sailors' stations.

The EFS mission director has been since 2017. She is the 20th mission director of EFS and the first woman. She succeeded , who took up the post of mission director on 1 June 2009. Since the annual meeting in 2019, is the chairman of the board.

Theology

The EFS shares the Evangelical Lutheran confession of the Church of Sweden, but on this basis emphasizes in particular the need for an individual position on faith and that this should have consequences for daily life. The individualistic trait is echoed in the movement's emphasis on the universal priesthood, inherited from Pietism: the idea that every Christian lives in a direct relationship with God, without the need for mediators in the form of ordained ministers. This emphasis is evident in the strong role of lay people in all activities, including church services.

The emphasis on personal commitment to Jesus Christ has also provided the theological basis for the movement's extensive missionary work.

History

Founding in 1856

In the mid-1800s, the growing free-church movement as well as foreign churches such as the Free Church of Scotland and the Methodist Church began to influence Swedish Lutherans, such as revivalist preacher and writer Carl Olof Rosenius, in a Pietist direction centered on conversion, revival, and missions work (see Mission Friends). This included the influence of Scottish pastor James Lumsden, whose impact on Lutherans such as , Peter Fjellstedt, and led them to see the need to form a mission society to bring revival to the Church of Sweden. At the same time, the rise in free church members in Swedish society began to put pressure on the state church's sense of unity.

In 1855, Fjellstedt proposed the foundation of a mission. The EFS, originally , was founded on 7 May 1856 on the initiative of Lundborg, active in Lindesberg, and with the support of Rosenius.''Twice-Born Hymns'' by J. Irving Erickson, (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1976) p. 111. The aim was to lead the new evangelical revival movement on an Evangelical Lutheran path, faithful to the Church of Sweden, and to counter the free-church movement.

A number of free-church colporteurs, itinerant sellers of Christian literature, were involved early on; however, many left the following year to form the Baptist Union of Sweden.

Buildings

The early gathering places were called shelters () or mission shelters. Examples are the shelter in Ede, Krokom Municipality, and the mission shelter on Kungsholmen in Stockholm. There was also a mission shelter on Styrmansgatan in Helsinki, Finland. A similar term is ''chapel'' (), such as Ragvaldsträsk Chapel in the municipality of Skellefteå.

In 1857, the EFS bought Scottish Methodist missionary George Scott's former church building, consecrated in 1840 as the first free church in Sweden, after he was forced to leave the country due to his preaching. Under the EFS, the church became Bethlehem Church.

Publications

In 1857 the newspaper ' was founded with Bernhard Wadström as editor.

One of the most important tasks of the EFS was the distribution of Christian literature and tracts, which was largely carried out by colporteurs. Much of the literature was produced by the EFS publishing house, which was founded in the same year as the movement and since 1992 has been part of . The first book published by the EFS publishing house was Luther's Church Postil, in 1860, which was published in eight editions and 70,000 copies.

Missions work

Rosenius' focus on foreign missions led the EFS, which had focused on domestic missions work, to decide as of their 1861 annual meeting to carry out foreign missionary work. The following year, the Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsens Missions-Institut, now Johannelunds Teologiska Högskola

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