The Association

HISTORY

Organizational Background and Description:

GMAE was founded in 1965 to connect evangelical churches with each other and to leverage the collective capacity of these churches for common purposes. The association allowed these churches to have a stronger voice in the public square and to carry out joint programs at a time when evangelical churches were few in number and had limited individual capacity.

As church leaders responded to community needs they developed and funded joint social ministry programs conducted under the banner of GMAE. The association also provided initiative to convene evangelical leaders, organized ministerial gatherings, cross-denominational worship services and community outreach, and represented evangelicals to the media and to government officials. Over time the social ministry programs were internalized by GMAE and became the organization’s primary focus as opposed to being a networking entity for its evangelical constituents. Some programs developed into subsidiary organizations that remained affiliated with GMAE, and others were either discontinued or spun off as independent organizations.

In recent years, GMAE’s primary function has been to provide leadership and operational support to these affiliate organization which are: Damascus Way Reentry Center (provides housing and reentry services to men leaving prison), New Life Family Services (operates five pregnancy care centers, and provides adoption services and related support groups), World Relief Minnesota (a local affiliate of the international World Relief organization, provides refugee resettlement and related immigrant services), and Wings Outreach (a support group network for persons with disabilities).

An 18-member Board of Directors governs GMAE and oversees a Board of Managers for each affiliate organization. Each Board of Managers supervises an Executive Director. The GMAE Board of Directors appoints a President and Chief Executive Officer to develop and implement the association’s vision and conduct the affairs of the entire organization. The association itself is today comprised of 162 member churches that are located primarily in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.