Described as "middle-of-the-road" due to maintaining its independence within the church while not separating from it,[1] the association emphasizes the importance of lay involvement and is rooted in 19th-century Swedish revivalism and the Mission Friends movement.
[5] EFS is involved in mission work in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Malawi and India and has a couple of sailors' stations.
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.
[4] 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.
The emphasis on personal commitment to Jesus Christ has also provided the theological basis for the movement's extensive missionary work.
The EFS, originally Fosterländska Stiftelsen för Evangelii befrämjande, was founded on 7 May 1856[10] on the initiative of Lundborg, active in Lindesberg, and with the support of Rosenius.
[12][13] 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.
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 Verbum Förlag [sv].
Fjellstedt and Bishop Samuel Gobat influenced the organization to begin mission work among the Oromo people in the Horn of Africa.
In the early 1880s, four young missionary students from Eritrea were sent to Sweden for training at Johannelund: Onesimus Nesib, Marqos Girmai, Tewolde-Medhin Gebre-Medhin (1860–1930), Haile-Mikael Kidanu (1856–1926) and Hagena Natanael (Jigo).
[12] The EFS has later also carried out missionary work in other parts of East Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania) as well as in India, Israel and other countries.
Around 1878 there was disagreement over the meaning of the Atonement of Jesus, the Augsburg Confession and Communion; "[p]astors concerned with the growing radicalism and rationalism regarded the Swedish Evangelical Mission as an important bulwark.
[19] In 1893, Adolf Kolmodin [sv] became the organization's mission director, though not without controversy: although he "had obtained his chair in bitter competition with a person advocating the new trend of critical scholarship in Bible exegesis, he was himself considered too 'modern'.
"[1] Missionssällskapet Bibeltrogna Vänner broke off from the EFS in 1911 under the leadership of Axel B. Svensson [sv], a believer in verbal inspiration who, among other things, objected to Kolmodin's closer ties to the Church of Sweden.
[10] During the 1950s, when the Church of Sweden was rocked by struggles over the issue of female clergy, EFS members were divided on the theological right of women to the ministry.
They are usually trained at Johannelunds Teologiska Högskola, founded in Stockholm in 1862 as EFS Missionsinstitut and located in Uppsala since 1970, next to Heidenstams torg in the Löten area.
A small group of preachers from Västerbotten, including Tore Nilsson [sv], left the EFS and founded the Lutheran Bible Study Foundation.
She wrote over 1,700 poems and hymns, including some of the most famous Swedish hymn lyrics: "Tryggare kan ingen vara", "Blott en dag", "Jesus för världen givit sitt liv" and "Jag kan icke räkna dem alla [sv]".
[27] The EFS has its origins in the Läsare revival movement, to which Rosenius and other influential figures belonged, so-called because of its strong emphasis on the individual's reading of religious works, including the Bible, and interpretations of it.