Mission Friends

The Mission Friends had their origins in the spiritual reform movements founded by laymen within the Lutheran Church of Sweden from the mid-19th century onwards, particularly the teachings of Swedish Pietists Carl Olof Rosenius and Peter Fjellstedt. The Evangeliska fosterlands-stiftelsen (today the Swedish Evangelical Mission), founded in 1856 by Fjellstedt and others, was the main association for the group. They called themselves {{Lang|sv|missionsvänner}} ('mission friends') or simply friends because of their particular focus on home and foreign missions. Other associated organizations included the Swedish Holiness Union ({{Lang|sv|Helgelseförbundet}}, today part of the Evangelical Free Church in Sweden), Swedish Alliance Mission, and the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (today part of the Uniting Church in Sweden).{{Cite book |last1=Carlson |first1=G. William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5YviDwAAQBAJ |title=The pietist impulse in Christianity |last2=Collins Winn |first2=Christian T. |last3=Gehrz |first3=Christopher |last4=Holst |first4=Eric |publisher=ISD LLC |year=2012 |isbn=9780227901403 |location=Cambridge, U.K. |pages=204 |oclc=847592135}}{{Cite book |last=Skarstedt |first=Ernst |url= |title=Svensk-amerikanska folket i helg och söcken: Strödda blad ur svensk-amerikanernas historia : Deras öden och bedrifter, nederlag och segrar, livsintressen och förströelser, jamte biografiska uppgifter om ett antal markesman. |date=1917 |pages=123 |language=sv |chapter=E. Missionskyrkan |oclc=484015477 |author-link=Ernst Skarstedt |access-date=2022-04-26 |chapter-url=https://runeberg.org/svamfolket/0131.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426173921/http://runeberg.org/svamfolket/0131.html |archive-date=2022-04-26 |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |last=Gustafson |first=David M. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/847592135 |title=The Pietist Impulse in Christianity |date=2012 |isbn=978-0-227-90140-3 |location=Cambridge, U.K. |chapter=Swedish Pietism and American Revivalism: Kindred Spirits in the Evangelical Free Tradition |oclc=847592135}}

The Mission Friends first emigrated to the United States in the early 1860s.{{Cite book |title=Nordisk familjebok |year=1913 |edition=Uggleupplagan |volume=18. Mekaniker - Mykale |language=sv |chapter=Missionsvänner |chapter-url=https://runeberg.org/nfbr/0363.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426173548/http://runeberg.org/nfbr/0363.html |archive-date=2022-04-26}} They considered themselves Lutherans "but [did] not consider it right to call themselves after anyone." Their first missionary society was formed in Swede Bend, Iowa, on July 4, 1868, by missionary preacher Carl August Björk as a revival movement in an attempt to reform the local Lutheran church. At almost the same time, revival movements were also being started elsewhere in the Midwest. At Swede Point, north of Des Moines, Hans Blom preached, and elsewhere in Iowa, A. W. Hedenschoug and John Peterson were active preachers.{{Cite book |last=Arden |first=Gothard Everett |title=Augustana heritage; a history of the Augustana Lutheran Church |publisher=Augustana Press |year=1963 |location=Rock Island, Illinois |pages=162–164 |oclc=248089782}} In Galesburg, Illinois, Nicolaus Bergensköld, disciple of the "Reader Count" ({{Lang|sv|läsargreven}}) Adolphe Stackelberg, preached.

In Chicago, too, a missionary society was formed, which in 1869 became a congregation and was incorporated with the same rights as a church society. The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Synod was formed in 1873 and included most of the then-existing Swedish mission congregations in America, with the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Ansgar Synod founded soon after.

American evangelist Dwight L. Moody was highly appreciated and influential among the Mission Friends, despite his lack of personal connection to Sweden or the Swedish language.{{Cite book |last=Gustafson |first=David M. |url=http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:17528/FULLTEXT01.pdf |title=D.L. Moody and Swedes: shaping evangelical identity among Swedish mission friends, 1867-1899 |date=2008 |publisher=Linköping University, Department of culture and communication |isbn=9789173939959 |pages=6, 167, 299 |oclc=489777085}}

Converge Worldwide (Baptist General Conference) and the Baptist General Conference of Canada, are evangelical Baptist denominations of the Swedish Baptist variety, who gained influence from and a connection with fellow Pietists and Radical Pietists within the Mission Friends movement.{{Cite web |last=Gehrz |first=Christopher |date=2011-01-15 |title=Recovering a Pietist Understanding of Christian Higher Education: Carl H. Lundquist and Karl A. Olsson |url=https://christianscholars.com/recovering-a-pietist-understanding-ofchristian-higher-education-carl-h-lundquist-and-karl-a-olsson/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928061208/https://christianscholars.com/recovering-a-pietist-understanding-ofchristian-higher-education-carl-h-lundquist-and-karl-a-olsson/ |archive-date=2022-09-28 |access-date=2023-02-01 |website=Christian Scholar’s Review}}{{Cite book |url=https://ect.edu.in/library/index.php?p=fstream-pdf&fid=21&bid=26 |title=The missional church and denominations: helping congregations develop a missional identity |date=2008 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Pub |isbn=978-0-8028-6358-4 |editor-last=Van Gelder |editor-first=Craig |location=Grand Rapids, Mich. |oclc=221160518 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201165511/https://ect.edu.in/library/index.php?p=fstream-pdf&fid=21&bid=26 |archive-format=PDF |archive-date=2023-02-01 |url-status=live}}{{Cite magazine |date=2019 |title= |url=https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/uploaded/ch132s.pdf |url-status=live |magazine=Christian History |issue=132 |isbn=978-1563649028 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205061352/https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/uploaded/ch132s.pdf |archive-date=2022-02-05 |access-date=2023-02-01}}{{Cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Phil |last2=Safstrom |first2=Mark |date=Summer 2009 |title=The Pietist Impulse in Christianity Conference at Bethel |url=http://www.pietisten.org/xxiv/1/pietist_impulse.html |journal=Pietisten |volume=XXIV |issue=1 |access-date=2023-02-01 |archive-date=2022-08-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809080256/http://www.pietisten.org/xxiv/1/pietist_impulse.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Gehrz |first=Chris |date=2018-08-02 |title=The Pietist Option for Baptists |url=https://pietistschoolman.com/2018/08/02/the-pietist-option-for-baptists/ |access-date=2023-02-01 |website=The Pietist Schoolman |language=en |archive-date=2023-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201090919/https://pietistschoolman.com/2018/08/02/the-pietist-option-for-baptists/ |url-status=live }} The missionary societies of Converge and the Baptist General Conference also played a significant part alongside other non-Pietist, non-Mission Friends, and non-Baptist missionary organizations in establishing the evangelical denomination, Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church.{{Cite web |last=Dirshaye |first=Menberu |date=1912–1988 |title=Seri, Daka |url=https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/seri-daka/ |access-date=2022-03-22 |website=Dictionary of African Christian Biography |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Fantini |first=Emanuele |date=2015-07-01 |title=Go Pente! The Charismatic Renewal of the Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia |url=https://www.academia.edu/15028661 |journal=In Ficquet E., Prunier G. (Eds), Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia,: Monarchy, Revolution and the Legacy of Meles Zenawi}}

Other denominations with historical and theological connections formed in later years, Some of these groups include the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies{{Cite web |last=Autumn |date=2019-03-16 |title=FCAministers.com {{!}} Fellowship of Christian Assemblies |url=https://www.fcaministers.com/ |access-date=2023-11-03 |language=en-US}} and the Independent Assemblies of God International,IAOGI, [http://www.iaogi.org/styled-5/index.html History], Official website, USA, retrieved August 17, 2017Ron Rhodes, The Complete Guide to Christian Denominations: Understanding the History, Beliefs, and Differences, Harvest House Publishers, USA, 2015, p. 357{{Cite web |title=AllWebCo Photographer and Artist Website Template |url=http://www.iaogi.org/gallery1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613184911/http://www.iaogi.org/gallery1.htm |archive-date=2011-06-13 |access-date=2010-04-05}}Handbook of Denominations in the United States, by Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood both of which are Pentecostal associations and denominations with roots in a revival among the Scandinavian Baptist and Pietist communities. Also, the Swedish Pentecostal Movement in Sweden proper emerged out of revivals among communities of Baptist, Scandinavian Baptists, and other theological traditions, namely the Baptist Union of Sweden, which is of Pietist Baptist origin.

In the 1880s, talks were held to determine whether or not to form a union of mission churches. Due to their desire to remain separate from other congregations, {{Lang|sv|De fria vännerna}} ('the Free Friends') split from the majority in 1884, first known as the Swedish Evangelical Free Mission and later becoming the Evangelical Free Church of America. They did not believe in labels, rather focusing on interdenominational mission work. To this group belonged preachers such as Fredrik Franson, strongly influenced by Moody and his ecumenical revival preaching.{{Cite book |last=Gustafson |first=David M. |url=https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:17528/FULLTEXT01.pdf |title=D.L. Moody and Swedes: shaping evangelical identity among Swedish mission friends, 1867-1899 |publisher=Linköping University, Department of culture and communication |year=2008 |isbn=978-91-7393-995-9 |pages=304–305 |oclc=225548281 |access-date=2022-06-25 |archive-date=2023-04-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410084126/https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:17528/FULLTEXT01.pdf |url-status=live }} Some of the radical Free Mission Friends, led by August Davis, formed a separate group known as the Free Free. They participated in speaking in tongues and healing, practices common in Pentecostalism.{{Cite journal |last=Gustafson |first=David M. |date=2015 |title=August Davis and the Free-Free |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700747-03702002 |journal=Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=201–223 |doi=10.1163/15700747-03702002 |issn=0272-0965|url-access=subscription }} The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Synod merged in 1885 with another association, the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Ansgar Synod, as well as some independent Mission Friends to form the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant in America.{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Craig E. |date=2016 |title=Tributaries of Faith |url=http://www.pietisten.org/xxxi/1/tributaries_of_faith.html |journal=Pietisten |volume=XXXI |issue=1 |access-date=2022-04-29 |archive-date=2022-08-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807164134/http://www.pietisten.org/xxxi/1/tributaries_of_faith.html |url-status=live }} It eventually became the Evangelical Covenant Church,{{Cite book |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/scandinavian-pietism-0 |title=Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions |chapter=Scandinavian Pietism |access-date=2022-04-29 |archive-date=2022-04-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220429134038/https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/scandinavian-pietism-0 |url-status=live }} considered a sister church to the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden.

In the early 1910s, the Mission Friends ran "an immigrant mission, Alaskan and Chinese missions, and a retirement home and hospital" as well as founding what is today North Park University in 1895. Their publication {{Lang|sv|Missionsvännen}} was published from 1874 to 1960.{{Cite journal |date= |title=Missions-vännen |url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/999559767002121 |access-date=2022-05-07 |website=UW-Madison Libraries}}

While initially associated with the Augustana Lutheran Church, the Mission Friends disapproved of their lack of zeal for missions and what they saw as a blend of "'spiritual' and 'worldly' elements", seeing it as "no great improvement on the state church of the old country".{{Cite book |last1=Olson |first1=Ernst Wilhelm |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofswedeso01olso |title=History of the Swedes of Illinois |last2=Schön |first2=Anders |last3=Engberg |first3=Martin J. |publisher=Engberg-Holmberg |year=1908 |location=Chicago |pages=584 |oclc=1032036835 |author-link=Ernst Olson}} The Mission Friends' beliefs were described by professor Axel Mellander, who stated, "they generally stand on Lutheran ground in their attitude to the means of grace." While believing it wrong to name themselves after anyone, they held a high view of Luther and often studied his writings. "They will not be bound by the Augsburg Confession, although sanctioning its contents in the main... It may be said with relative accuracy that the Mission Covenant sustains the same relation to the Lutheran Church in this country as the Brethren (Moravians) do to that of Germany." He also compared their ecclesiology to "a middle road between the Congregational and the Presbyterian form."{{Cite book |last=Olson |first=Ernst Wilhelm |url=https://archive.org/details/swedishelementin00olso |title=The Swedish element in Illinois: survey of the past seven decades: with life sketches of men of today |others=Axel Mellander, quoted from Missionsförbundets Minnesskrift, 1885–1910 |year=1917 |pages=352 |author-link=Ernst Olson}} Swedish nyevangelist Paul Petter Waldenström's influence on their theology was substantial: particularly his doctrine of the atonement, at odds with that of the Church of Sweden, that humanity is reconciled to God in the atonement rather than the reverse "was adopted by virtually all of the Mission Friends".{{Cite thesis |last=Lindell |first=Terrence Jon |title=Acculturation among Swedish Immigrants in Kansas and Nebraska, 1870–1900 |date=1987 |publisher=University of Nebraska - Lincoln |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33138811.pdf |access-date=2023-05-12 |archive-date=2023-03-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317161940/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33138811.pdf |url-status=live }}

• George Scott, associated Methodist preacher
• Pietisten, Rosenius' and Scott's journal for Mission Friends
• Minneapolis Veckoblad, Swedish-language Mission Friends newspaper founded by Erik August Skogsbergh
• Swedish Holiness Union

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• {{Cite book |title=Nordisk familjebok |language=sv |chapter=Missionsvänner |chapter-url=https://runeberg.org/nfbr/0363.html|year=1913|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426173548/http://runeberg.org/nfbr/0363.html|archive-date=2022-04-26|edition=Uggleupplagan|url-status=live |volume=18. Mekaniker - Mykale}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bowman |first=C. V. |url=https://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/oca/Books2008-03/missionsvnnern00bowm/missionsvnnern00bowm.pdf |title=Missionsvännerna i Amerika: En återblick på deras uppkomst och första verksamhetstid |publisher=Minneapolis Veckoblad Publ. Co. |year=1907 |language=sv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507092641/https://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/oca/Books2008-03/missionsvnnern00bowm/missionsvnnern00bowm.pdf |archive-date=2021-05-07}}

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Category:Christian organizations based in the United States

Category:Swedish-American culture

Category:Pietism

Category:Radical Pietism