You are most welcome in Frikirken Randers for all our servicesester and events are open to everyone.

The church is centrally located at Niels Brocks Gade 1, 8900 Randers C. You can park behind the church building. At the Sunday service there will be hosts who will welcome you in the church hall and whom you can contact if you have a question.

The services are interpreted into English and the interpretation is wireless. Free coffee and tea are served before and after the Sunday service.

 

If you want to hear a Sunday sermon, you can find it here on the site as a podcast.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to send an email to kontor@frikirkenranders.dk or   to contact one of the church's priests: Kent Jakobsen on 22521130 or Rune von Weydenberg Kærlet on 2124812

 

Frequently Asked Questions for Free Churches

Although free churches have been part of the church landscape in Denmark for more than 175 years, it is still an unwritten leaf for many. Here we will try to give short answers to the most frequent questions about free churches.

 

1. What does it mean to be a Christian?

The word "Christian" actually means "little Christ". It is the belief that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world that makes one a Christian. One accepts forgiveness by simply saying a prayer to God.

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2. What then is the meaning of the church?

The word "church" actually means group or assembly. Just as we all need to belong to a family, Christians need to belong to a church. Here you get spiritual food in the preaching and singing, here you are stimulated in the social community, and together with others you get the strength to do much more in society than you could do alone.

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3. What is a free church then?

Free churches and folk churches rest on the same foundation and have the same creed, but a free church is self-financing and decides for itself what form the services should take and what they should contain. Personal experiences of faith are also important for the free churches, and in several places a priest's experience of calling to the ministry will be ranked higher than theological education - even though in recent decades much has been made of the fact that the priests also have a solid theological ballast.
In addition, most free churches use rhythmic music and modern instruments – there are very few organs. Most free churches only baptize people when they are old enough to have decided on the Christian faith themselves - infant baptism is, however, practiced in a few free churches (the Methodist Church and - in very few cases - the Missionary Union).
Some free churches also have a café or a cafeteria, where coffee and light snacks are sold in connection with religious services and other events.

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4. Is free church the same as sect?

Absolutely not! A sect is characterized, among other things, by the fact that you believe you are the only ones who are right, and you usually have a guru or a strong, dictatorial leadership. You often want to isolate yourself and refrain from collaborating with people other than your like-minded people.
This is in stark contrast to free churches, where team-based, pluralistic leadership is advocated and where people like to work together with other churches. In addition, all Free Church communities have a structure of responsibility and care, which ensures that the individual priest or church does not go off on a tangent or come to face its challenges alone.

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5. How do you become a member of a free church?

Each free church has its own procedures for membership, but basically you can become a member if you believe in Jesus Christ. It is free to become a member. All expenses are covered through voluntary donations.

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6. What if I am a member of the folk church?

When you join a free church, it is to one degree or another because you are looking for an alternative to the folk church. You cannot therefore be a member of both the folk church and a free church - joining a free church is considered by the folk church as a de facto withdrawal from the folk church.

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7. Is there anything that is not allowed in a free church?

To be a Christian is to follow Christ. To be a church is to live in a Christian community. Therefore, it is assumed that you want to live according to the Bible's guidelines and preserve the good community in the church. There are no explicit rules about what you should and shouldn't do in a free church. Sometimes the church father Augustine is quoted in this connection: Love God and do what you want.

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8. Can one be baptized in a free church?

Yes, all churches have a practice of baptism. The only exception is the Salvation Army, which does not practice the sacraments. But where in the folk church one is baptized in order to become a child of God, baptism in the free churches is more of a confession that marks that the person being baptized believes in God and is already a child of God. This view of baptism also applies to infant baptism in the Methodist Church and the Missionary Association.
Many of those who are baptized as adults in the free churches are also baptized as children. When they are baptized as adults, it is usually because they need to mark a conversion to God that has taken place in their lives.

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9. Can you get married in a free church?

Free churches, like all recognized and approved religious communities, have the right to perform weddings with civil validity according to the Marriage Act. However, at least one of the parties must be members of the Free Church in question.

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10. Can free churches arrange funerals?

You can be buried from a free church. The actual burial or interment usually takes place in ordinary cemeteries and burial grounds. At funerals, it is the undertaker who coordinates everything. The family simply has to state in which context they wish to bury the relative. It differs from municipality to municipality as to whether it costs extra to get a burial plot when you are not a member of the folk church.