Archive for category: Conference

2026 Post-Conference Report

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2026 Post Conference Report


On behalf of your EFCC family, I bring you warm greetings!

This past June, the Evangelical Free Church of Canada gathered for its biennial conference at Winnipeg Evangelical Free Church. This was a celebration and homecoming for our church delegates who travelled from across Canada to join with their brothers and sisters in Christ!

Centered around the theme of In All Things – The Centrality of Jesus Christ, we celebrated Who it is that unites us as Evangelical Free Churches – our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Sessions, Worship, and Breakout Sessions

Our plenary speaker was Dr. Matthew St. John. Matthew is Lead Pastor of New Hope Evangelical Free Church in Minnesota and Board of Governors Chair of Trinity Western University. Matthew nourished our souls and led us in worship through the Word as he lifted our eyes to Christ. Matthew’s three conference sessions will soon be available to all of our churches. We encourage you to consider using them for your Sunday services, in a special series of Sunday school classes, or some other creative gathering!

The Winnipeg EFC worship team led us well throughout conference as we sang praises to God. On Friday morning, worship leaders from several of our EFCC churches joined them. It was a joy to see our people sharing their gifts and partnering together as one family. Delegates were additionally equipped and encouraged by several breakout sessions as each explored how their churches could minister to one another well and reach their communities.

Annual General Meeting

We held our Annual General Meeting at the onset of the conference and dealt with important EFCC business. EFCC Conference delegates:

  • Elected new leaders for our Board of Directors and committees; and,
  • Approved our 2027 EFCC Budget and 2025 Audited Financial Statements.

Banquet and Reports

On Friday night we travelled to Steinbach, where Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church hosted the President’s Banquet. We enjoyed a fabulous meal together, and heard from several of our friends during the evening program:

  • Dr. Todd Martin – President of Trinity Western University – shared updates on the University, including the arrival of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS at TWU);
  • We celebrated as we heard testimonies from several students who have benefited from our Project:LEAD bursaries;
  • Rae Phillips, Director of Organizational Relations and Strategic Projects for the Evangelical Free Church of America, brought us welcome and encouragement from our brothers and sisters south of the border; and,
  • I shared my heart regarding the bright future I see for the EFCC.

In between the scheduled events, there was time for people to connect with old friends, make new friends, and talk about life and ministry.

There was a palpable sense of family and excitement as we looked to our future as the EFCC! One pastor commented that this was the most encouraging conference he has ever attended.

We are very grateful to Winnipeg EFC for hosting us so well and to Emmanuel EFC for putting on a great banquet. We hope you will consider joining us next year in Calgary for our 2027 Theology Conference, and two years from now at our next EFCC Conference! Plan to come and to fully take part in each family gathering, and anticipate leaving encouraged and refreshed as we celebrate God’s goodness to us as the EFCC!

shaun wick

Post-Conference Report

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post conference report

Greetings EFCC friends!

I trust that you are well, and that you have times of refreshment planned for the summer! I want to share with you what happened at our 2024 EFCC Conference, held June 13-15, 2024.

  1. On June 12-13, we were blessed to have over 40 pastors and church leaders attend EFCC Pastor’s Orientation at Home Office!
  2. We were graciously hosted by our friends at Grace Community Hanin Church, in Surrey, BC.
  3. Grace Hanin led us in wonderful times of worship on Thursday. We had a great time of celebration for ServeCanada and ServeBeyond on the first afternoon.
  4. Later that evening, we acknowledged the contributions of several past leaders on this, the 40th anniversary of the EFCC. We additionally honoured Dr. Mark Husbands for his years of service at Trinity Western University.
  5. Dr. David Pao challenged us to be Curious Readers of the Word and those who live out Jesus’ Kingdom values.
  6. Rick Hiemstra from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada enlightened us about the Search for the Authentic Self, and how it has become the predominant cultural message of our country at this time.


Key decisions from our time together:
  1. We approved the new EFCC Ministerial Accreditation Process. I will be meeting with the Ministerial Standing Committee later this summer to assemble our first cohort for this new formative process! I am excited to see how God uses this new process to build a dynamic Free Church culture.
  2. We approved our 2025 budget. This budget is based on each EFCC church giving 2.5% of their operating budget to the EFCC general fund. Please factor this into your church budget as you set your budget for 2025.

It was so good to see many of you there! Unfortunately, only 36% of our churches sent delegates. Those who were not there – you missed out! Please mark your calendars now for our 2025 EFCC Theology Conference! It will be held May 8-9, 2025, at the Coast Nisku Conference Centre in Leduc, Alberta. Dr. Carmen Joy Imes (former Old Testament professor at Prairie College, now associate professor at Biola University) will help us wrestle with what it means to bear God’s image and bear His Name well.

During that Conference we will also hold our 2025 Annual General Meeting, where we will elect the next EFCC Executive Director! Please plan to be there in person!

May our God encourage you as you walk with and serve Him!

Serving you,

bill t

In case you missed it and would like to engage with the material presented at the EFCC Conference 2024, all three of Dr. David Pao’s session recordings are now available for purchase.

Avail of the videos now