Report of the
Strategic Planning Committee
The Strategic Planning Committee met nine times in 2002. As was reported to the last Annual Conference, we have been working with the following vision statement for the Bible Fellowship Church:
“We, the Bible Fellowship Church, seek to become an expanding fellowship of churches united to make disciples of Jesus Christ.”
Leadership Summit
The statement was developed in presentations to the 119th Annual Conference in April. The Committee then worked with the Pastor, Elder, Deacon Retreat Committee of the Board of Christian Education to provide a Leadership Summit in place of the regular PED Retreat in November. At Pinebrook Bible Conference on November 1-2,members of the Strategic Planning Committee led in open discussion of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the denomination. We are grateful for the commitment of the 31 pastors and leaders from 27 Bible Fellowship Churches who took of their time to give input during this important Summit.
A report on the Leadership Summit is attached.
One Voice: BFC2004
Plans are underway for a second denomination-wide gathering on May 15-16, 2004 at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem.“One Voice” will be a two-day gathering for challenge, fellowship, worship, and praise. Our goal is to develop the Vision Statement and related objectives for presentation to the denomination at that time. We are working with the Board of Youth and Young Adults to begin the convocation with a youth-oriented concert on Saturday night and a concurrent adult banquet in a nearby facility. Sunday’s gathering will begin in the early afternoon with a worship service followed by ministry for all ages on the Stabler campus. The weekend will then conclude with a worship-gathering for everyone in the Arena. Questions or ideas regarding “One Voice” may be directed to Richard Paashaus at Rpaashaus@Juno.com.
Regionalization
The regions we have established continued to meet during the past year for fellowship, prayer and ministry. Our regions report different levels of activity. Some have met for combined services while others have met for prayer and fellowship. Some have shared ministry efforts and are seeking ways to begin new churches. In some, the delegates have begun to participate. Those regions which meet regularly have found their gatherings and shared efforts to be encouraging, valuable, and contributing to the growth of the Bible Fellowship Church. All pastors and delegates are encouraged to develop the ministry of their regions according to the directives of the Faith and Order regarding regionalization (Faith & Order, 601).
Consolidation of Offices
Though the Board of Missions and Board of Church Extension are not currently seeking consolidation as previously discussed, a Task Force of leaders from both boards and outside counsel have determined that the provision of a denominational administrative center would be a value to both ministries and to the Bible Fellowship Church. With this in mind, the Strategic Planning Committee appointed an ad-hoc committee to consider consolidation of offices and the feasibility of provision of a denominational headquarters or administrative center. This Committee is comprised of Rev. Richard Paashaus, Richard Drosnock, Daniel Oswald, Robert Buckwalter, David Schlonecker, Michael Werley, Robert Evans, and James MacArthur. Their mandate was to consider options for consolidation of offices for Bible Fellowship Church ministries including some or all of the following: Board of Missions, Board of Church Extension, Board of Directors, Archives, Conference Pastor, and Board of Communications and, further that they were to consider the logic of centralization, appropriate location, the best options (buy, build, lease), the experience of other denominations, cost effectiveness, and timing for the same. They have met three times and have made significant progress. Their findings will be presented to the Strategic Planning Committee in early 2003.
Denominational Communication
Since the last Annual Conference, all pastors and delegates have been included in the BFC
E-groups. The group for pastors and delegates includes 187 members. Last year 299 messages were sent via this group (bfc-AC@yahoogroups.com). This site is host to the official calendar for the Bible Fellowship Church. There are 150 pastors participating in the separate E-group for pastors alone (bfc-pastors@yahoogroups.com). On that group 147 messages were sent last year. Valuable denominational information, prayer concerns, and messages of importance are all being transmitted via this means. We believe this is the most accurate, fastest means of communication within the denomination and encourage continued use of the E-groups. For information regarding this site, please contact Roy A. Hertzog at rhertzog@enter.net. Roy has been a tremendous help in overseeing the activity of these E-groups.
The Committee has expressed to the Board of Communications its strong desire that the BFC website be upgraded and updated and that consideration be given to delegating care of the website to a capable webcarrier. They also have expressed the need for a new logo for the BFC. Both requests have been received by the Board of Communications and will be addressed.
Other Concerns
This year’s action at Annual Conference will include the demise of a denominational ministry, The Stewardship Council. The Strategic Planning Committee supports this decision but cautions the fellowship of churches about the potential movement from corporate ministry toward independent congregations. We believe the uniting of the churches for corporate ministry is of great importance and that the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. We together can accomplish much more than we can individually and separately. May the future of the Bible Fellowship Church include corporate efforts that will expand the Kingdom and carry out God’s purposes in a way that we individually could never accomplish.
We appreciate the participation of our Annual Conference Chairman, William G. Schlonecker. Bill attended many of our meetings and gave valuable input in our discussions.
Strategic Planning Committee: Dana E. Weller, Chairman; Richard T. Paashaus, Secretary: Byron Barnshaw, Elliot H. Ramos, Richard E. Taylor, J. Robert Vaughn, Robert H. Zentz.
Addendum to the
Report of the Strategic Planning Committee
Report of the Leadership Summit held November 1-2, 2002
The Strategic Planning Committee has proposed a mission statement to guide, focus and unite the Bible Fellowship Church in its ministry. “We, the Bible Fellowship Church, seek to become an expanding fellowship of churches united to make disciples of Jesus Christ.” The Committee has presented this statement but understands that formulating a mission statement is not enough. The mission statement needs to be made practical. We need to understand that statement in terms of ministry objectives; what we are to do. We need to answer in a practical way; “What is God calling the Bible Fellowship Church to do?”
To answer that question, the Strategic Planning Committee has begun a dialogue with those who serve as leaders in our church. The first phase of that dialogue was a Leadership Summit held at Pinebrook Bible Conference in November, 2002. The next phase of that dialogue will be meetings with the leaders in each of our regions and are planned to begin in the fall of 2003.
The Leadership Summit held in November was very helpful. The Strategic Planning Committee is grateful to each church and leader who came to share in the dialogue. The agenda of the summit centered in an analysis of our perceptions of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
What did we learn during this summit?
Strengths – Several strengths were listed: commitment to the authority of the Scriptures, emphasis on missions, elder leadership, emphasis on church planting. Most of us agree that our desire to be taught and led by the Scriptures is not only strong but a vital part of what we are and do.
Weaknesses – Our most deeply felt weaknesses are our lack of ethnic diversity, lack of evangelistic fervor, resistance to change, few opportunities for leadership development, ineffective denominational communication, and lack of denominational identity.
Threats – Our leaders believe we are threatened by such things as the constant change of our culture, our apathy and lack of commitment, the need for a denominational vision, our resistance to change and the absence of a centralized denominational structure.
Opportunities – The groups at the Leadership Summit saw significant opportunities including relevant ministry to our changing and needy culture, a growing and diverse population, telecommunications, and a sound doctrinal position giving us a unique message.
The Strategic Committee is seeking to analyze and understand what we have heard. The next step for the committee is to generate proposals for objectives and ways to implement those objectives. We must seek to identify those issues and characteristics that we believe are important in what we are and do. When the committee has finished the proposals, meetings will be established in regions to allow the input of the leaders of our churches.
The Strategic Planning Committee is grateful to all who participated in the Leadership Summit. As we prepare for further dialogue, we encourage you and the leaders of your church to join in the regional meetings when they are held.
We ask you to pray that our God will guide into greater and more effective ministry to the glory of our risen Savior.
Richard E. Taylor