About First Free Church
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The ministry here at First Free Church dates back to 1914, when the Norwegian Evangelical Free Church held tent meetings and subsequently organized about a dozen charter members into a church which met in a rented chapel. In 1946, that church merged with Moody Memorial Chapel, began holding worship services on Campbell Road in La Crosse, and was renamed Moody Memorial Evangelical Free Church. In 1960, the name was changed to First Evangelical Free Church of La Crosse.
During 1950, the church built a new sanctuary on top of the existing basement. In this sanctuary the congregation added a second Sunday worship service, with attendance growing to an average of 100 by 1990.
With God’s blessings, attendance grew over the next eleven years. During that time, First Free Church, as it has come to be called, rented local high school auditoriums for Sunday services and searched for land large enough to support the growing congregation and its ministry needs.
In 1999, after much prayer and considering many possibilities, the congregation decided to purchase the current building site north of Onalaska. Through the power of God and the generous sacrifice of the congregation, the land was paid for outright and over a quarter of the construction cost for the new facility had already been given before breaking ground.
Sunday attendance averaged around 700 in July of 2002 when the congregation made the big move to 123 Mason Street in Onalaska. As of the Spring of 2014, average weekly attendance is over 2,000.
