Report of the
Director of Church Extension
Daniel G. Ziegler
For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own. As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. … But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully; consider what great things he has done for you.
1 Samuel 12:22-24
Thirty-two Years of Church Planting
This is my final report to Annual Conference subsequent to my retirement on April 30. I am grateful to the Lord and to you for allowing me to engage in this great work of extending our Church through the formation of new congregations. The years have flown by; my work has been challenging, but also enjoyable and satisfying.
Church Extension, as we practice it in the Bible Fellowship Church, is very much a team enterprise. I want to recognize in this report the people numbering in the thousands who have been part of this ministry.
When I assumed the position of Interim Director in September 1968, there were six missions. Two of them continue to the present as Particular Churches — Finesville, NJ and Walnutport, PA. Over the next few years, it was my sad duty to participate in the closing of the other four.
It was much more joyful and exciting to make plans for the start of some new congregations — including recruiting three organizing pastors and a team of students for the TIE (Teamwork in Extension) Team of three openings in east central New Jersey.
Thirty years ago, in 1970, the leadership of the church extension ministry of the Bible Fellowship Church passed from the World War II generation to the last generation of the twentieth century. The preceding generation — 1940 through 1970 — had not been a good time for the growth of the denomination. In those thirty years membership had increased only 428 — a mere ten percent. All of that growth had been produced by the handful of new churches that had been started. Despite those new churches, however, more had died. The number of worshiping congregations had dropped from 45 in 1940 to 42 at the beginning of 1970.
Today, when ninety-eight percent of American church planters work alone, Bible Fellowship planters work in teams. Few if any other church planting organizations form their church starters into teams, though this is an eminently biblical principle. Other distinctives of Bible Fellowship Church Extension are: wide and deep evangelism, well-defined steps and stages of congregational development and use of demographics, technology and strategic planning in new-church formation.
Three organizing pastors comprised the first team in east central New Jersey in 1970. Their moves to the three target areas were preceded by six weeks of intensive door-to-door visitation evangelism to thousands of families by a team of six seminary and college students. Thirty-two other church planting attempts followed — thirty-five in all! Now, in the last year of the century, we may assess the results.
Ten fully-formed and self-supporting churches stand as magnificent products of the past thirty years. Nine of them meet in their own buildings: Howell, NJ; Poughquag, NY; Newark, DE; Oley, PA; Camden, DE; Kutztown, PA; Holmes, NY; Mount Pocono, PA and Red Hill, PA. In Piscataway, NJ, Christ Community Church meets in the beautiful Livingston Student Center on the campus of Rutgers University.
Four other churches, fully organized but not yet self-supporting, are in Toms River, NJ; Pleasant Valley, NY; Brodheadsville, PA and Aberdeen, NJ. Two old churches that had essentially died have, through the efforts of the Church Extension Department, been reorganized and are now once again growing churches — Walnutport and Scranton, both in Pennsylvania.
In addition to the sixteen Particular Churches, there are eight continuing congregations that are still in their mission stage — a total of twenty-four congregations still alive and very active.
Three of the missions are out at the edges of BFC territory — in Thompson, CT; Chesapeake, VA and Las Cruces, NM. Also of note are the two churches through which, for the first time ever, our Church has targeted people groups other than Germanic and English. They are African-Americans in Newark, NJ and Hispanic-Americans in South Allentown, PA. The remaining three missions — all in New York — are in Beacon, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Church planting requires great faith and hard work. It also entails a willingness to take risks. Not all attempts succeed. Thirteen of the church starts of the last thirty years did not survive.
Thirty years ago, all of the Bible Fellowship churches were in but three states; today, there are seven states all of which have more Bible Fellowship Churches than ever before.
In 1970, the distance between our northernmost and southernmost churches (Scranton and Wallingford, PA) was 106 miles. Today there are 430 miles between Thompson, CT and Chesapeake, VA. The distance from east to west in 1970 (Staten Island, NY to Harrisburg, PA) was 106 miles; now it is 300 miles between Thompson, CT and Harrisburg, PA. Our mission in Las Cruces, NM is about 2000 miles west of the nearest Bible Fellowship Church. The increases in the boundaries of the BFC have helped to highlight the need for regionalization.
The twenty-four vibrant continuing congregations of the seventies, eighties and nineties have led the way to sixty percent growth in denominational membership — from 4500 members in 1970 to 7200 today. That’s two thousand seven hundred more people today than in 1970 who have received Jesus as Savior and Lord, confessed Him in baptism and been welcomed into our churches. Not all denominational growth was in its new congregations, but it is widely known that denominations that start new churches grow, and those that do not start new churches stagnate and decline.
This past year, 1999, was a good one of growth for the congregations in the Department with all but one of our missions and churches gaining ground on their goals and objectives. The one exception is the Philemon Mission in Atlantic County, NJ. The organizing pastor, Richard A. Moyer, has served bivocationally with his “other job” being chaplain of the Atlantic County Correctional Institution. He has resigned the Philemon pastorate to become chaplain of a large state prison in Bridgeton, NJ. We are maintaining the Philemon work in a dormant state hoping the Lord will call a new organizing pastor who will have the gifts, abilities and heart’s desire to plant a church comprised of released inmates and their families. This is one of the most needy and neglected people groups in the United States.
The mission in Las Cruces, which started in the year, is a joint venture with Integrity Mission, Inc. whose director, Jack Becker, is interim organizing pastor. The congregation meets at a senior housing complex in Las Cruces, the fastest growing city in New Mexico, and one of the fastest growth areas in the nation. The congregation presently averages about 30 at worship on the Lord’s Day. It happily reflects the diversity of the community — with participants from the Anglo population, mostly senior adults; the Hispanics, mostly young families and a few Native Americans.
Lighthouse mission in South Allentown began public worship on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1999, in the building in which Salem Church formerly met. Worship is conducted in both Spanish and English languages. The congregation is growing and developing wholesomely and should soon be able to form its charter membership roll.
Two of the churches celebrated anniversaries in 1999. Toms River, Ocean County, NJ had a banquet in honor of its tenth anniversary on September 11, and Bayshore Church in Aberdeen, NJ commemorated its fifth anniversary on November 21. Bayshore produced a brief video picture of its history for that occasion. Other churches which might like to present the video to their people may contact Bayshore to obtain a copy.
I have been blessed with great colleagues — the church planting pastors who have served during the time I have been director. They are: John Herb, Dave Branning, Norm Weiss, Austin Sullivan, Don Barnhart, Terry Byrd. Harold Weaber, Ron Jansen, Don Knauer, Bob Minnig, Tom Phillips, John Vandegriff, Charlie Kramer, Bob Draper, Bill Bartron, Art Frisbie, Jim Koch, Jim Wickstead, Roger Reitz, David Chappell, Dean Stortz, Bill Mull, Bob Commerford, Ron Erb, A.L.Seifert, Dennis Spinney, Dave Watkins, Randy Grossman, Dennis Cahill, Dave Way, Neil Harding, Chris Morrison, John Reed, Rick Ravis, Bill Schlonecker, Ralph Ritter, Larry Smith, Ron Denlinger, Rick Moyer, Jonathan Tait, Dave Heineman, Willis Dowling and Elliot Ramos. I would also cite interim pastors Paul Virr, Dave Cook, Jack Becker, Jerry Clark and Ray Dotts.
I want to give special recognition to the Department’s senior church planter, Bert Baker. He has been my pastor for a longer time than any other, and the only pastor our children knew while they were growing up. Bert is a diligent student of the Scriptures and the city. For more than 25 years, he has been serving as an evangelist-pastor-teacher in the Clinton Hill area of Newark, NJ. After a careful survey of the city, that neighborhood was chosen as the target for the new church. Bert, knowing no one in the area, began systematically to go door-to-door with the Gospel. Through that process, the Lord raised up a core group and the Newark BFC was underway.
Bert has led his congregation with sensitivity and vision. Surely he is on the front rank of evangelical practitioners of urban pastors in his understanding of the city. His preaching and teaching, which are strong in his grasp of the meaning of the Scriptures and his application of biblical truth to his hearers, have been instrumental in producing strong, mature, disciples who live that truth.
The Newark congregation is uncommon in its love and sociological strength. It has become very diverse in ethnic, social and economic make-up. It practices outreach and in-reach in the city in measures that far excel what might be expected of a church of its size.
The congregation has outgrown its building. It has acquired a nearby vacant property on which to erect a worship center that will accommodate two to three times the present average worship attendance. Preliminary plans for the building are in preparation. Their implementation awaits the acquisition of a necessary access property, which the congregation is diligently pursuing.
It is difficult for me adequately to express my admiration and appreciation of the men who have extended the Church by planting new congregations. They have willingly accepted the hardest and riskiest ministry that the church can offer, usually receiving a compensation package at the low end of the denomination. They are committed to the Bible Fellowship Church and speak only well of her. They are visionaries — seeing the church before it is visible, able to say “follow me and let’s see the Lord raise up a church here.” The people have followed and their faith and commitment have been justified and rewarded.
These pastors are strategists, able to see what needs to be done, and apply themselves to implementing the strategy and managing people and resources for accomplishment of goals. They are opportunists committed to making and taking every possible opportunity to advance the developing congregation. They are economists who cherish every opportunity and appreciate and use all means that God brings to them.
These church planters are flaming evangelists, sharing the Gospel with all people, reaching their communities out to the fringe, inviting men, women and children to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. They are discipling teachers of those who confess the Lord, seeking to build them up in our holy faith.
These faithful and fruitful servants of Christ among us deserve the gratitude, appreciation and love of their Church for their selfless and sacrificial work in extending the Bible Fellowship Church.
The people who come to be members of the young missions and churches are part of the great team. It is their transformed lives, their love for the Lord, their witness to the Gospel, their offering of their spiritual gifts for the Lord to use in their churches, their growth in grace, their tithes and offerings — all together that advance the church in their communities. I salute them. Eventually the Lord raises up elders, deacons, teachers, financial officers and other members and leaders in the congregation.
We have had a sizeable group of men who have served as surrogate elders for the congregations in their mission stages. We are grateful for them and for the people who have served on assessment committees.
Hundreds of brothers and sisters have been volunteers to advance the cause of church planting evangelism. Many have visited the communities in which the churches are forming to be ministry teams for evangelism, youth work, children’s work and other ministries. Many have been part of telephone campaigns, visitation teams, literature distributors and prayer walkers. Scores have been part of work teams, investing hundreds of hours on repairs and improvements to the buildings — saving literally thousands of dollars. Special thanks is extended to Chris Merrick for his leadership of many of the work teams.
We have also been blessed with volunteers who have come regularly to our office to stuff, assemble and sort large mailings.
Our largest group of partners is undoubtedly those who pray regularly for our Department, the church planters and the young congregations. Many receive and use The Extension Call, our monthly prayer calendar, It Happened Like This, a monthly sheet that tells the story of our work, and the periodic prayer letters of our missionaries.
When I became director, all of the Department’s gift income came only from the Bible Fellowship churches. In recent years, a full one-third of the gift income comes from individuals. This has made a major impact on what we have been able to do. We are grateful to all who have been our faithful prayer and financial partners.
I want to recognize and honor a very special group of people — the Priscilla and Aquila Teams who have gone to be part of new congregations and in doing so have made an incredibly great difference in the development of their new church homes. The circumstances of their relocations vary, but all have gone and made a great impact. I may miss a few; I hope I have not. The Priscilla and Aquila Teams are:
Barbara and John Burkard – Franklin, NJ to Poughquag, NY
Sue and Tom Ward – Hatfield, PA to Poughquag, NY
Mary and Ray Dotts – Quakertown, PA to Camden, DE
Barbara and David Way – Poughquag to Pleasant Valley, NY
Carol and Clyde Snyder – Coopersburg, PA to Edison, NJ
Emma and Roger Bowne – Staten Island, NY to Howell, NJ
Diana and Dick Vroman – Hatfield, PA to Edison, NJ
Gloria and Sal Roseti – Stroudsburg to Mt. Pocono, PA
Ethel and Paul Rutman – Harrisburg to Mt. Pocono, PA
Beth and Paul Brown – Graterford, PA to Ocean County, NJ
Stephanie and David Markesun to Ocean County, NJ
Mary and Ed Kramer – Denville to Ocen County, NJ
Joanne and Dave Van Winkle – Allentown (Cedar Crest) to Walnutport, PA
Trish and Dave DeRonde – Whitehall, PA to Aberdeen, NJ
Sarah and Tim Weaber – Graterford to Walnutport, PA
Sherry and Jon Vandegriff – Howell to Aberdeen, NJ
Sue and Don Brensinger – Quakertown to Red Hill, PA
Edna and John Moran – Mr. Pocono to Scranton, PA
Laura and Emmanuel Suarez – Coopersburg to South Allentown (Lighthouse), PA
Daisy and Mark Marushak – Emmaus to South Allentown, PA
Sue and Herman Artiachi – Emmaus to South Allentown, PA
Becki Ziegler – Newark to Aberdeen, NJ
Steve Ziegler – Newark to Aberdeen, NJ
Lori and Todd Newman – Bethlehem, PA to Las Cruces, NM
There is a couple, Eleanor and Russell Ruch, who has earned special appreciation for going to four different congregations to help get them established. Originally from Hatfield, PA, they relocated to Newark, DE, to assist in the early years of that mission. After that work became established, they moved back to Hatfield and became involved in the Somers Point, NJ, mission. Following that they commuted to Red Hill to help in the establishment of that work. Today they are part of Calvary Church in Walnutport, PA. It is virtually impossible to overstate the impact of this couple’s service in these four locations, and certainly difficult adequately to express our appreciation for them.
For the past ten years, Carol Snyder has served as Director of Development and Communication with office at her home in Steinsburg, near Coopersburg, PA. Her work has been invaluable and has advanced the quality of our communications by light years. She has been a great associate. She is also retiring at this time.
Through the years we have had ten persons who have served as secretaries in the office — the first eight in Plainfield, the last two in Steinsburg. They are Priscilla Baker, Cathy Ernst, Ruthie Vandegriff, Patty Cahill, Diana Vroman, Barbara Suderly, Marge Watkins, Dennis Cahill, Mary Ellen Long and Rachel Kistler.
I have been a member of the Board of Church Extension since 1966. In these 34 years, I have served under five chairman: A. L. Seifert, James G. Koch, LeRoy S. Heller, Dana E. Weller and Richard E. Taylor. These men and the rest of the board members have been involved, concerned and supportive. I am grateful for their partnership. The other men with whom I have served have been W. David Armstrong, Kenneth F. Barber, Bert N. Brosius, W. Robert Buckwalter, Dennis M. Cahill, John L. Deily, Joseph L. Dugan, John C. Elias, Bruce A. Ellingson, Arthur H. Frable, Harvey J. Fritz, Jr.; David J. Focht, Jr.; T. D. Gehret, Kenneth L. Good, David E. Gundrum, William A. Heffner, Charles Hersh, Earl M. Hosler, Robert F. Johnson, John F. Moran, Donal E. Nilsson, Alfred G. Roberts, Salvatore J. Roseti, William G. Schlonecker, Edward Shockley, Sr.; William R. Singletary, Robert W. Smock, Clyde W. Snyder, John C. Vandegriff, Jr.; Clayton E. Weber, Robert H. Zentz and Warren L. Zimmerman.
For most of our churches, church extension is not something “far away … out there.” Rather there is a keen and enlightened interest in this essential aspect of the life of our fellowship of churches. I am grateful for that interest and for the steady and dependable support from most of our churches. I want to note the super-supporting, “second mile” churches that last year gave more then three percent of their total offerings to support the Church Extension Department:
Church Percent
Hatfield, PA 8.77
Graterford, PA 5.71
Harleysville, PA 4.97
Staten Island, NY 4.16
Wallingford, PA 4.13
York, PA 3.90
Church Percent
Mt. Pocono, PA 3.43
Maple Glen, PA 3.24
Coopersburg, PA 3.23
Red Hill, PA 3.17
Toms River, NJ 3.08
Emmaus, PA 3.03
During that year (1998), all of the churches together averaged two percent of their total offerings as their support for church extension..
The gracious, spacious parsonage at 1049 Kenyon Avenue in Plainfield, NJ, has been our home for almost twenty-eight years. It has provided a great base for the church planting ministry and for a family ministry to our neighborhood. It has allowed us to be on-site participants in five of the Department congregations — most particularly Newark. Our personal tithes to these churches have reduced the need for appropriations from the Church Extension Department treasury.
By being exempt from property taxes, the home has saved nearly two hundred thousand dollars through the years. By being closer to most of our young congregations, hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars of car expenses have been conserved. The house has paid for itself several times over through the years.
My concept of my work has been that I should go to the men on their fields rather than expecting them to come to me for meetings. This allows them more time for their work in their fields, is properly part of my administrative duties, and has kept me more aware of progress on these fields.
I am very conscious of our Lord’s protection through the years. In carrying out the work, I have driven over a million miles; 330,000 of these in the auto I have had for nine-and- a-half years. It has had a minimum of down time for repairs; it has been nearly trouble free, and it has saved literally tens of thousands of dollars in auto acquisition cost. It has averaged 38 to 39 miles per gallon of regular gasoline.
Regarding the future, when I first encountered the concept of bringing the Church Extension and Mission Departments together into a new missions entity of the BFC, I was skeptical. But I was asked by the Board of Church Extension to serve on a six-man task force (three from each of the boards) to explore the possibilities of this new concept. Through the deliberations of the task force, I have become convinced that this relationship has good prospects. There is but one Great Commission, and one would believe that a unified philosophy and strategy for missions will prove constructive and productive. It should yield synergies that will spur the work forward. The foundation and a name for the new missions agency will come before this Conference. I believe we should approve them. It is my fervent hope that this new paradigm will advance and enhance our pace of church planting evangelism.
I submit nine steps that could spur the formation of new churches, which will, in turn, accelerate and abet the growth of the whole denomination:
1.More of the churches should seriously consider the prospect of planting daughter churches. Living, vibrant churches should reproduce themselves.
2.When we have larger regions that will have greater strength and means, we should look to the regions to spearhead new church formation.
3.Ad hoc clusters of churches may form within or across regions to sponsor new churches. Recent BFC examples of this are Kutztown, Red Hill and Lighthouse in South Allentown.
4.Our churches need intentionally to seek to identify and raise up pastors and church planters from among their members.
5.We should concentrate on planting ethnic Bible Fellowship Churches.
6.We must substantially increase our dollar commitment for church planting.
7.We should encourage our people to become Priscillas and Aquilas — to help new churches get underway.
8.We should look for opportunities to enter into cooperative agreements with other organizations in planting churches. Recent examples in our history were the partnership with Rural Home Missions Association in forming Community Church in Red Hill, PA and partnership with Integrity Mission, Inc. in Grace Church in Las Cruces, NM.
9.We should pray for a great spiritual awakening in our needy nation. If the sovereign Lord moves, we would do well to have as many churches as possible in our land to gather and disciple those who will come to Christ in such a time.
Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of working closely with Dave Gundrum on the Intercultural Ministries Study Committee. In that context we have come to know and understand each other very well. For five years, Brother Gundrum has been a member of the Board of Church Extension. Further, we have worked closely together on the Joint Ethnic Church Planting Committee of the Board of Church Extension and the Board of Missions. Finally we have traveled extensively through the last year, with ample time to talk together. This has occurred in several trips to Ocean City, MD, for meetings of the surrogate elders of our Chesapeake, VA, mission, and a trip together in January to attend a church Multiplication Forum in Colorado and visit our mission in Las Cruces, NM. The more I have come to know Brother Gundrum, the greater my confidence that he is the Lord’s man to direct our church planting work. I expect good things from him; I pray he will have good success.
Next Monday, pending this Conference’s ratification of his election as Executive Director, Dave Gundrum will become the eighth director in our history. During the last generation of the twentieth century, the Church Extension Department has, by God’s grace and power, overcome inertia and built growth momentum — providing a foundation for new churches and denominational growth in the first generation of the dawning twenty-first century.