Report of the Board of Missions
“Sing to the Lord, bless His Name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples…Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His Name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire; Tremble before Him, all the earth.”
Psalm 96:2,3,7-9
Worship is the ultimate goal of the church. The mission of the church is to declare God’s glory and His salvation to all ethnic groups so that some from all the families of the nations shall worship Him. Some day that goal will be realized and a new song will be sung, saying, “Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…” (Rev. 5:9; 7:9). We look forward to that day with great anticipation. But until then, we labor in the ministry of reconciliation that God has committed to us for all peoples. May our wonderful Lord find us faithful.
We are very gratified as we reflect on the ministry of our missionaries and the commendable spirit they have demonstrated. As you can imagine, there are many types of administrative activities that are required to keep these missionaries on the field. Some of these include receiving and receipting contributions for missionary support, tracking these contributions, and sending such contributions on a timely basis to the various sending boards. In addition to this, we have tried to keep missionaries and churches informed of various events and other information, plan the Pastors & Leaders Seminar, and the World Missions Week at Pinebrook. We have had meetings in churches to share and assist in many ways with the opportunity to sit down with several missions committees to assist them in their task. It has been a joy to us to be a small but vital part in God’s work to help people get to the mission field and to help local churches fulfill their responsibilities of world evangelism. The Executive Secretary was also appointed by Annual Conference to serve on the Inter-Cultural Ministries Study Committee which is seeking to establish ethnic churches in our own neighborhoods in a cooperative effort with the Board of Church Extension. A cooperative agreement has been signed with International Missions, Inc. (IMI) to work together with IMI personnel toward the goal of planting ethnic churches that will become Bible Fellowship Churches. Several possibilities are presently being explored that would include Chinese, Mexican, and Asian-Indian ethnic congregations.
We want to thank the many Pastors, Missions Committees, Women’s Missionary Societies, and others who have demonstrated their commitment to God’s priority of world evangelization and their active involvement. We want to thank you for the privilege of working with you in this noble endeavor and your cooperation with the Board of Missions in so many ways. We also want to thank each one who has given to the missionary outreach of your church through the Board of Missions during this economic recession. Many have done so sacrificially. We continue to make ourselves available to each church to assist them in any way that we can that together we may excel in the work of the Lord. If you have some suggestion(s) as to how we can serve you more effectively, please contact the Executive Secretary.
At our Annual Conference in 1988, we brought before you the need for retirement funds for forthcoming retirements of some of our missionaries. Some years ago this Board became aware that some sending agencies did not adequately take care of the retiring needs of their missionaries, some of whom are also our missionaries. A fund was established with a desire that we would determine what their pension program would offer and then provide the balance of what a pastor would receive from the MRF with the same number of years. This Board recognized that we did not have the finances available to make this a reality without the assistance of churches. In 1988, we recommended an additional 5% of your present giving to the Board that we could allocate to “Retirement/Board Ministries”. This was approved by Annual Conference. About 27 churches participated by sending in funds for this account or gave undesignated contributions. This means that we were not able to gain the kind of income for retirement purposes that we really desired. Because of this, this Board decided that we would request supporting churches of retiring Missionaries to assist the Board of Missions in providing retirement benefits for these individuals by continuing support of Missionaries in retirement on a prorata basis. We will be in contact with churches who have Missionaries approaching retirement recommending the percentage of support necessary to give them the amount a Pastor would receive with the same number of years. We would encourage your participation to adequately provide for these who have represented us over the years. We indicated to our Missionaries that we are not able to bear this responsibility after January 1, 1994, and recommend a review and augmentation of retirement funds, where necessary, equal to what a Pastor must place in the MAF. This step, however, only alleviates responsibility for time served after January 1, 1994.
This Board is grateful to the Annual Conference and our fellowship of churches for the encouraging support that you have given to us and to our first full time Executive Secretary elected and ratified in 1985. In 1985, there were 78 active Missionaries and 7 Appointees with an income from churches in the amount of $407,854.60. This year, we are reporting 106 active Missionaries and 25 Appointees with an income from B.F. Churches in the amount of $985,896.33 plus $84,254.92 from individuals equaling $1,070,151.25. Assistance with the many details of this Board is desperately needed. The Board is presently searching for this assistant and continuing to study various options. Pray for this Board as we evaluate our options. If you have input to give, or suggestions of individuals, we would be most appreciative of your involvement.
Patrick Johnstone, author of Operation World, has given some statistics that should encourage us in the missions vision that God is developing in the BFC. Southern Baptists have 1 missionary per 3,000 members; Assemblies of God has 1 missionary per 670 members; Conservative Baptists has 1 missionary per 300 members; and the Christian and Missionary Alliance have 1 missionary per 125 members. The BFC was not part of his statistics but at Annual Conference in October of 1993 we had 1 missionary per 66 members (excluding Church Extension workers). However, present statistics indicate that we are only supporting our missionary family at a level of about 55%. The Lord’s blessing is evident for which we give Him praise and glory. At the same time, we want to note that we haven’t arrived at the things the Lord intends for us, but we take courage in what He is doing!
The Board of Missions met eight times this year and the following information indicates some of the highlights of the year between September 1, 1993 and August 31, 1994.
Missionary Candidates
This past year, we have been involved with many individuals in various stages of preparation for the field. At this point, we have about 12 active applicants. To some degree, we worked with 24 different applicants this year of which 9 became appointees. We are pleased that 11 were able to leave for their field of ministry this year. They progressed through the process as follows (number of adults):
Applicants at September 1, 1993 (7 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Applicants Added (8 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Applicants Transferred to Inactive (3 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Applicants Withdrawn (0 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
Additional Applicants accepted by this Board
(6 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
(Bigley, Kroh, Barry Millers, Jerry Moyers, Ohlin, Pauleys)
Applicants at August 31, 1994 (7 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Appointees at September 1, 1993 (17 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Appointees Withdrawn (2 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Appointees who became missionaries on their field of ministry. . . . . . . . . 8
(4 family units – Barnshaws, Bertolets, Klaassens, Morrisons)
Applicants who became missionaries on their field of ministry. . . . . . . . . .3
(2 family units – Kroh, Pauleys)
Transfer from Leave of Absence to Active (Leas). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
General Statistical Report on August 31, 1994
1. Number of Sending Boards under which our
missionaries are working. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2. Number of countries in which our
missionaries are working. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3. Number of Missionaries:
Family Total
Units Couples Singles Adults
Active Missionaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 45 16 106
Leave of Absence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 2 0 4
Appointees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 10 5 25
Active Applicants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5 2 12
TOTALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 62 23 147
4. Geographical Areas where our Missionaries are assigned and their number:
Area Families Adults Countries
U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 37 U.S.
North America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8 Canada, Mexico
(excluding the U.S.)
Central America. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7 Bonaire, Costa
& (Caribbean). . . . . . . . . . . Rica, Guadeloupe,
South America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 14 Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela
Europe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 15 U.K., France, Austria, Spain, Yugoslavia
Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 13 Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire
Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4 Korea, Kyrgyzstan, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mongolia, Thailand
Southeast Asia & Pacific. . . . . . .2 3 Guam, Malaysia, Philippines,
TOTALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 106 26 COUNTRIES
Summer Missionary Financial Aid
Financial assistance totalling $4,000 was given to thirty-one applicants from ten Bible Fellowship Churches to serve with recognized organizations in various parts of the U.S. and 10 other countries. With the economy as it presently stands and decreasing undesignated funds, the Board of Missions has prayerfully decided to discontinue summer missionary financial aid.
URBANA Scholarships
Financial assistance in the amount of $2,100 was given to fourteen individuals to attend the URBANA conference. The Board of Missions has prayerfully decided to discontinue scholarship aid for persons to attend URBANA conferences in the future because of the lack of undesignated funds.
Missions Emphasis Events Of The Board Of Missions
The Board of Missions conducted its Eighteenth Missions Seminar for Pastors, Missionaries, and Key Lay Missions Leaders on April 12, 1994, at our Lancaster Bible Fellowship Church. The general theme was: “Seven Dynamics For Advancing Your Church in Missions”. Tom Telford and Larry Walker, both of ACMC, were the seminar leaders. About 160 people attended this seminar.
World Missions Week at Pinebrook Bible Conference was held from August 6 – 12, 1994. Dr. Kenneth E. Moon was the evening speaker. Many missionaries were present to take part in the programs.
A Conference-Wide Missionary Rally was conducted on May 12, 1994 at our Ephrata Church.
Dates To Mark On Your Calendar Of Events:
Thursday, May 11, 1995 Conference-Wide Missionary Rally from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. will be at the Cedar Crest B.F. Church in Allentown.
August 5 — 11, 1995 World Missions Week at Pinebrook Bible Conference. Dr. Will Varner will be the speaker.
—– Pastors & Leaders Missions Seminar will be held in the Fall of 1995. Details to be announced.
Annual Reports From Missionaries
The annual reports from missionaries will be sent out by the missionaries themselves. The annual reports for 1994 will be sent out in early 1995.
Recommendations To The 111th Annual Conference
1. Resolved, that the material on page 47 of the 1993 YEARBOOK be adopted (SECOND READING) as follows:
Regional Programs
The Board of Missions shall coordinate Regional Programs as deemed advisable.
The following material in brackets [ ] is to be deleted:
[1. The Board of Missions shall establish groupings of churches for Regional Programs.
2. The officers of the Women’s Missionary Society of each church of a region shall constitute an organizing committee for the region.
3. Each regional committee shall establish officers as it deems necessary.
4. Regional officers shall be elected at an Annual Meeting held in the autumn. These officers shall be members of the Bible Fellowship Church.
5. The elected officers shall plan regional programs, including establishing the frequency and dates of regional rallies.]
Board of Missions: R. C. Reichenbach, Chairman; Roy A. Hertzog, Executive Secretary; Charles J. Albert, Jr., Financial Secretary; Kenneth F. Barber, Robert Breitegam, Leroy O. Herb, Gerald Schlonecker, Thomas P. Shorb, Ralph M. Soper, and James Sunday.