In 1979, Neal Laybourne, a recent graduate of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and his wife Leisa moved to Vermont to "plant" (start) a new church in Barre city.  The pastor would be "bi-vocational", meaning he would earn his income through a job in the marketplace.  Barre was targeted because there was a clear opening at that time for a church that held to the inerrant nature and complete truthfulness of all of the Bible, salvation only through Jesus Christ, unity in the essentials of the faith while charity in the nonessentials, and a special emphasis to reach out to younger families who weren't regularly attending church.  Well over 60 percent of the people in Washington County were not attending a worship service on any given week.

The church held is first public worship service in March 1981 with the encouragement of the Bradford Evangelical Free Church.  After a year of renting a room at the high school, the congregation began renting unused office space on the second floor on Main Street in downtown Barre above Sidewalk Village.  They doubled their attendance in a month and also started Sunday School.  In 1984, having outgrown their current space, the congregation rented and renovated new space on the second floor at 131 North Main Street.By 1987, the congregation took a financial step of faith and committed to pay Pastor Laybourne "full-time".  Fred Villari's Karate Studio allowed the church to use their space for the expanding Sunday School.By 1989, the congregation had outgrown its worship and Sunday School space.  With rents and real estate prices beyond its financial means, the church "mothered" (started) a "daughter" church in Northfield with a core of 27 committed people from the congregation.The Barre Evangelical Free Church is committed to a very aggressive missions program.  God has greatly multiplied the efforts of this small congregation so that the Gospel could be unleashed in other parts of the world.  They kiddingly say that the church has six full-time pastors; it's just that that only one lives in Vermont.  In addition to raising support for five national missionaries in Belarus and India, they have sent over 30,000 items of clothing, 40,000 pairs of new, mended socks, thousands of boots, medicines and Sunday School materials to help the believers in these countries.In the winter of 1996, the Semprebon family and Calmont Beverage Company donated their downtown beer and wine warehouse to the Barre Evangelical Free Church to be converted into a church building.  Construction began in the spring of 1997.  The initial phase involved over 12,000 volunteer labor hours and very many generous and sacrificial gifts, which resulted in the congregation holding its first worship service in the new building on December 5, 1997.  The dedication service was held in July 1998 as additional phases were completed.  The sanctuary was completed in July 2001 just in time for our first church wedding.

Visitors to our church often comment on the large number of children and young families, on the strong, straightforward teaching from the Bible and on the friendliness of t he congregation.  The Barre Evangelical Free Church stresses discipleship and evangelism in accordance with our Lord Jesus' Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20