Report of the
Board of Higher Education
During the 2001 calendar year, the Board of Higher Education (BHE) has met three times, for a total of twenty-five times since its inception in the fall of 1994. The BHE continues to oversee the work of the Pinebrook Educational Foundation (PEF), to develop working relationships with Biblical Theological Seminary (Biblical), and to consider how else it might foster higher education in the BFC.
The Pinebrook Educational Foundation
The Board of Directors of the PEF for the past year was as follows:
Term expiring in 2004: Raymond R. Dotts Jay H. Fasnacht
Term expiring in 2003: Gary E. Karch Robert C. Newman
Term expiring in 2002: Olivia M. Barnes Stephen C. Cassel
The report of the PEF is appended to the report of the BHE.
Working Relationships with Biblical Theological Seminary
In the past year, the BHE has been working on two projects involving Biblical: (1) a BFC chaplain who would visit Biblical regularly to counsel students and encourage some of them to consider service with the BFC; and (2) an internship program in which BF churches would take pastoral interns from Biblical.
1. Since the Fall of 1999, retired BFC missionary Edward K. Moyer has served (under our auspices) as BFC chaplain to students at Biblical Seminary. Due to changed demographics at Biblical – nearly all students part-time and commuting, and block scheduling with classes only three days per week and meeting from early morning to late evening – it is impossible to be at school for a few hours (or even one day) and expect to have access to most of the students. Ed has been doing a fine job under these circumstances, and we have been considering how to give him more exposure to the students. So far we have not had much success in this. We appreciate Ed’s enthusiasm and willing spirit. For the Spring term of 2002, with a total enrollment of 309, Biblical has six students from BF churches.
2. The pastoral internship machinery for BF churches at Biblical Seminary is up and running and can be used by interested churches at any time. Since the internship program was instituted at Biblical, several BF churches have availed themselves of this opportunity. Internship brochures were printed and handed out at Annual Conference in 1998, 1999, 2000, and again in 2001, as well as at the BFC Ministerial Convention in September 1999. It would be good to see more BF churches avail themselves of this opportunity.
Other Ways of Promoting Higher Education in the BFC
The BHE has taken time at the end of most of our meetings for wide-ranging discussions on how we might promote higher education in the BFC. These discussions have included a number of topics: (1) how to get the BHE and PEF better known in the BFC; (2) how to encourage talented Christian young people in our churches to seek higher education so as to serve the Lord more effectively in whatever vocation he has called them to; (3) how to encourage BF pastors to get advanced education to strengthen their ministry; (4) how to reach out to students and faculty at colleges and universities that are in the vicinity of our BF churches; and especially (5) how to reach out to foreign students in these schools who will return to their own countries, so that they may be even more effective missionaries than those who must learn a foreign culture.
Some progress has been made in implementing these. (1) We are using brochures and personal contacts with pastors and BF churches to promote the PEF. (2) Claude Gates has been looking into the feasibility of some sort of “college fair” that would be denomination wide. (3) We have asked the PEF to devote one of its endowment funds to helping pastors get advanced or continuing education. Currently, the Daniel K. Ziegler Memorial Endowment Fund of the PEF supplies this need for pastors seeking an advanced degree, but is not (as currently structured) open to non-degree education. (4) One of our members, John Studenroth, has started Collegiate Outreach, a ministry to faculty and grad students at colleges and universities in Berks and Lehigh Counties, with a board consisting of BFC people approved by their elders. John Quigley, a member of Ebenezer BFC, has started Winsome Media, an outreach to seekers who may be attracted to a friendly, yet persuasive presentation of Christian evidences. Since 1980, the Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute associated with Biblical Seminary, and including a number of current or former BFC people on its board, has been preparing materials to strengthen the church in outreach to educated unbelievers and seekers. See its website at www.ibri.org for a significant amount of free materials for this purpose. We would like to encourage our BF churches to make use of the services provided by these ministries, perhaps by hosting training sessions preparing BF members’ children for attendance at secular colleges, or having some sort of outreach meetings such as a Skeptics Night.
Brothers, thanks again for praying for us this past year. We are seeing the Lord moving among us. Please pray that we will desire His agenda above our own, and that He may use us powerfully to strengthen the BFC in understanding the times in which we live and becoming more effective in reaching the lost.
Resolved, that the Annual Conference ratify the election to the Pinebrook Educational Foundation of Jessica Sterner and Stephen Cassel for terms to end in 2005.
Board of Higher Education: Robert C. Newman, Chairman; Raymond R. Dotts, Vice-Chairman; John C. Studenroth, Secretary; Stephen C. Cassel; G. Wayne Clapier; Claude Gates, Alan Russell.
Pinebrook Educational Foundation
The Board of Directors of the Pinebrook Educational Foundation met three times in 2001. The Board dealt with a number of matters which are described below:
1. The Board engaged Asset Planning Services (APS) of Harleysville, PA, as investment manager for the Foundation. The Foundation’s investments will be held in a central asset account to be established by APS, through a provider of their choice, so as to consolidate the holdings of the Foundation into as few accounts as possible. In December, 2001, $70,500, which included all funds held in Federated Investment Money Market, was transferred to APS for investment in Vanguard Accounts in accordance with the investment policy of the Foundation.
2. The Board agreed that Pinebrook Educational Foundation will reimburse, insofar as appropriate funds are available, the Board of Directors of the BFC for legal work associated with seeking to transfer to the Foundation bequests made to Berean Bible School and Pinebrook Junior College (PJC).
3. Conversion of the Andrew W. Ungerer Memorial Work Fund from PJC to Pinebrook Education Foundation is nearing completion. Earnings from this Board-Designated endowment fund will be used for General Scholarships.
4. Scholarship grants were made as follows:
(a) $500 to Timothy Bertolet from the Rev. and Mrs. R. C. Reichenbach Scholarship Fund. Timothy attends Lancaster Bible College.
(b) $500 to Kolleen Bowne from the Berean Bible School Scholarship Endowment Fund. Kolleen attends Geneva College. She is the daughter of Douglas and Linda (Cooper) Bowne, both graduates from Berean Bible School.
(c) $500 to Deanne Hottel from the General Scholarship Fund. Deanne attends Philadelphia Biblical University.
The Foundation received a bequest of $4,070.90 from the estate of Evelyn G. Granda. The Funds are to be used for the general purposes of the Foundation.
Charles D. Weaver, former member of Salem BFC in Allentown, stipulated in his will that a percentage of his estate should be given to Berean Bible School. The Pennsylvania Attorney General who monitors bequests to charitable organizations traced Berean Bible School to PJC but questioned the succession to the Pinebrook Educational Foundation. After a hearing on December 7, 2001, in which the Weaver family fully supported the bequest to the Foundation, Judge Lawrence J. Brenner, of the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas, decreed that the Pinebrook Educational Foundation is awarded $71,988.72 from the Charles D. Weaver Estate. We thank the Lord for blessing the Foundation with this major gift.