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International Christian Fellowship

organization

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ1666416 ↗
Source-derived summary

International Christian Fellowship (ICF) is an international charismatic Christian association of churches. The headquarters is located in Zürich, Switzerland.

History

ICF was founded in 1990 by Heinz Strupler. In 1996, leadership was taken over by Leo Bigger and Matthias Bölsterli, who emphasized an international policy of expansion. Around 2005, worship attendance at the Zürich church was 2,000 participants. In 2017, it was 3,500. In 2020, it would have more than 40 associated churches in 12 countries. ICF has 4 Bible Colleges, ICF College.

Beliefs

The association has a charismatic confession of faith.

Small groups

Senior pastor Leo Bigger (b.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “International Christian Fellowship” as organization. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around International, Christian and Fellowship.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1990, 1996, 2005, 2017—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1990. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with International, Christian and Fellowship providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “International Christian Fellowship”, the useful work is to connect “organization” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1666416. VIAF identifies the subject as 157446209. The Library of Congress control number is no2003004838. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1990, 1996, 2005 and 2017.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “International Christian Fellowship”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow International Christian Fellowship primary sources, International Christian Fellowship archive and International research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “International Christian Fellowship”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “International Christian Fellowship” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.