Meet Our Church Leaders
Who We Are
Bradford EFC is a congregational church with local decision-making while at the same time (and very gladly) a part of a larger church movement, The Evangelical Free* Church of America. https://www.efca.org/explore
What’s a “Free Church”?
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Well, “Free Church” has two primary meanings:
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Firstly, it refers to a congregational form of church government with authority residing in the congregation. This reflects the biblical insight that “we are the church” – every believer being a vital and participating member of the local Body of Christ.In Church history this has often been distinguished from a more hierarchical form of local church government or a local church under direct denominational authority.
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Secondly, the “Free church” refers to a strong separation of church and state tradition. It arose in Europe in reaction to the “established” churches which sometimes, in return for being granted monopoly status by the state, would gradually forfeit their integrity.
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The `business’ of the church (and our church):
…To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph 4:12-16)
Dan Lea
Elder
Jim Newcomb
Nathan Puffer
Elder
Meet our Pastor
J Donald Dacey has been the pastor of BEFC since 1999. Donald spent the first half of his adult life in business in Europe, the Middle East and in the US. It was while living in Europe that he came to faith (Francis Schaeffer being instrumental in that transition). He and Mary then decided to take a sabbatical and study at Westminster Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity School. Which led to a different calling ... into the pastorate and BEFC. They have three children: Alastair, Jamieson and Elizabeth Blair (and three grandchildren).