Straight Not Narrow

Planted on the Great Plains during the Great Depression the tiny Berean Fellowship of Churches has grown into a miniature portrait of the evangelical church in the United States. In 1932 five renegade deacons decided to separate from the modernism taking over their mainline denomination. Their small church grew into a fellowship of more than 50 local churches in the United States and eventually launched a similar movement on the other side of the world. This book examines its fundamentalist roots and its transformation to a less legalistic more grace-centered theology during its first 75 years.Centered on Ivan E. Olsen the Berean Fellowship's impulsive visionary founder and the humble hard-working Hugh Clark this book encompasses three generations of flawed yet faithful men and women who faced decisions about theological liberalism political involvement social issues and worship styles and became difference-makers for the kingdom of God.