Report of
Church Extension
“So then brethren, stand firm…” II Thessalonians 2:15
STAND FIRM IN 2011
This year we have moved from our theme of Prayer Power in 2010 to our exhortation to Stand Firm in 2011. With religion in America waffling from one view to another, paganism rising, and even evangelical Christianity staggering in its biblical illiteracy, our exhortation to stand firm is a needed prodding for the western church. One of the greatest ways that the church can fight off this slippery slope into meaninglessness is to be more aggressive with evangelistic church planting. Starting new churches that stand firm on the Word is what will counter the downward slide of the church. New churches bring a new intensity to the ecclesiastical climate. They evangelize more aggressively, disciple more fervently, network innovatively in their communities, and are more missional in their philosophy of ministry than established churches. We must stand firm in our commitment to plant new churches if we are going to have the Gospel penetrate the lives of people and our culture.
Partner with us in 2011 to stand firm and fight off the growing
apathy toward the Gospel through the means of planting more Gospel-centered churches.
The BFC Corps of Church Planters
The BFC has a very gifted corps of church planters to serve the denomination. Please consider partnering with one of these men and commit your prayers and financial gifts to their ministry.
Mark Barninger – East/West Hanover Township, PA Mission Church
Freedom Bible Fellowship Church
Meets at: Holiday Inn, 604 Station Road
Grantville, PA 17028
Contact Info: mbarninger@freedombfc.com or 717-579-4414
Miguel Gonzalez – Church Planter Intern
Reading, PA – The Rock of Reading (La Roca de Reading)
Elliot Ramos – South Allentown, PA Mission Church
Lighthouse Bible Fellowship Church (El Faro)
Meets at: 641 South Genesee Street
Allentown, PA 18103
Contact Info: pastorelliot@elfarobfc.org or 484-951-1848
Carlos Rodriguez – Reading, PA Hispanic Mission Church
The Rock of Reading (La Roca de Reading)
Meets at Grace BFC in Reading
1128 Hampden Blvd.
Reading, PA 19604
Contact Info: rogoldcya@hotmail.com or 610-780-4103
Aaron Susek – Adams County, PA Mission Church
Bible Fellowship Church of Adams County
Meets at: 895 Coleman Rd. Gettysburg, PA 17325
Contact Info: aaronsusek@gmail.com or 717-476-2340
Dan Williams – Woodbury Heights, NJ Mission Church
New Beginnings Bible Fellowship Church
Meets at: 335 Glassboro Rd, Bldg A, Unit 101
Woodbury Heights, NJ 08097
Contact Info: newbeginningsbfc@gmail.com or 856-686-0555
Tim Zuck – Hellertown, PA Mission Church
Saucon Community Bible Fellowship Church
Meets at: Saucon Valley Community Center
323 Northampton St. Hellertown, PA 18055
Contact Info: timzuck@yahoo.com or 610-838-3111
David Smith – Harrisburg, PA Mission Church
Grace Fellowship Church
Meets at: Progress Fire Co. Hall
3440 Maple St. Harrisburg, PA 17109
Contact Info: faithalone2save@aol.com or 717-756-0206
Keith Strunk – Church Planter Intern
Bible Fellowship Church of Cape May County
Meets at: 1159 Route 9 South
Cape May Court House, NJ 08210
Ron Smith – Church Planter Candidate
South Smyrna, DE – Daughter Church Planting project – Newark, DE BFC
Scott Wright – Church Planter Candidate
Trooper/Audubon, PA – Daughter Church Planting project – Harleysville, PA BFC
REVIEW OF 2010 IN CHURCH EXTENSION
• The BFC mission churches recorded seventy-nine people making professions of faith and held twenty-four baptisms.
• Financial giving from churches increased slightly.
• We had net increases in our donor list and donor giving. A number of our faithful donors went home to glory in 2010.
• Two Training Dayswere held for our men, including guest presenters on missional outreach and other pertinent topics.
• Numerous new contacts were made, door-to-door surveys took place in the mission churches’ target sites and in Delaware and Cape May Court House, NJ. Several thousand Gospel tracts were distributed and numerous bulk mailings were facilitated by the office reaching several thousand people.
• Church Extension, with the assistance of several churches, made renovations and maintenance repairs on the BFC properties we occupy in Allentown, PA, and Cape May Court House, NJ. The costs for these jobs were paid for by the mission churches, BFC churches and Church Extension.
• The DELMARVA Team focused their attention on Milford, DE, conducting community surveys and holding a Bible study and a discipleship class in Milford, DE. We are no longer targeting this site for a new church plant. Our efforts will be focused on assisting Ron Smith, Church Planter Candidate, and the Newark, DE church with their vision to plant in South Smyrna. Our Aquila & Priscilla Team in DELMARVA, Harry and Sandra Workman, continued their assistance at New Life BFC, Long Neck, DE and assisted with the work in Milford. We hope to launch the South Smyrna plant in July, 2011.
• Several couples serve as Aquila & Priscilla Teams: Neil and Lisa Christensen serve the El Faro Mission Church in Allentown. Jason and Joanne Engelhart serve alongside Carlos Rodriguez at the La Roca Mission Church, Doug and Kashie Boyd assist at the Cape May Mission Church, Russ and Nell Ruch serve at the Hellertown Mission Church, and Tommy and Kelly Gambrill serve at the Woodbury Heights, NJ Mission Church.
• Ray Bertolet continues to hold a Bible study in Milford, DE and is serving part-time as interim pastor at the Camden, DE BFC. He also assisted with work projects at several of the mission churches and will be assisting the new plant in South Smyrna, DE.
• Grace Fellowship Church, Harrisburg, PA has avision to move into the city of Harrisburg and grow a multi-cultural church in the city. The church is pastored by David Smith, and Ed Suthers and Jonathan Folks serve as elders. Brother Smith was approved as a probationer in the BFC, and received a call from Church Extension; he is the first Afro-American man to reach this stage of our credentialing process.
• The Hellertown Mission Church has continued to grow. The mission church has prepared for graduation this year at BFC Conference. All our assessments of the mission church were satisfactory.
• Pastor Mark Morrison continues to serve full-time as Assistant Director. He is serving as interim church planter at the Cape May County, NJ Mission Church, and coaching the team at the El Faro Mission Church in Allentown, PA. Brother Morrison still needs to raise his full support and we ask that you consider supporting him. Mark is now coaching Keith Strunk, Church Planter Intern at Cape May Court House.
• Six ministry and work teams were sent out to assist our plants in DELMARVA, Cape May Court House, NJ, South Allentown, PA, Reading, PA, Adams County, PA, and Woodbury Heights, NJ. Cedar Crest, PA BFC again assisted the El Faro Mission Church with a significant outreach in South Allentown called “Light in the Park.”
• The Cape May County Mission Church has experienced some wonderful growth this past year with several active families now assisting at the mission and new families coming into the church. A Bible study takes place mid-week along with numerous fellowship activities. We are seeking a man to be called as full-time church planter and develop the plant in Cape May. Keith Strunk is now serving as an intern here and, Lord willing, may be the candidate for church planter. The mission church completed the renovations on the Family Center and the ministry is progressing well.
• Aaron Susek serves as church planter at the Adams County Mission Church. The mission continues to experience growth and Aaron is very active networking in the community. The mission developed Gospel Community Groups to provide intimate fellowship for the people and an indigenous outreach to the communities where the groups are located.
• Administrative Assistant, Lisa Christensen, remains a vital asset to the planters and the administration of Church Extension. Lisa heads up an active volunteer force that assists with numerous mailings and work around the office. This year, Ruth Richards, who formerly served as our Administrative Assistant, came back on board as our bookkeeper to assist us with the transition of our books and reporting systems so they are compatible with what the Executive Board is requiring of us. Lisa had back surgery this past year and was out of the office a number of weeks, but we look forward to her recovery.
• We praise God for blessing our two major fundraising projects, SummerTen and Christmas Gift Month. A total of over $130,000 came in through these fundraisers. Praise God for the donors He has raised up to support this mission.
• The mission church in East/West Hanover Township, PA,under the leadership of Pastor Mark Barninger, has grown and continues to meet at the Holiday Inn in West Hanover Township. The mission continues to look for 24/7 facilities and be more visible in the community. The mission church has informed the director of Church Extension that they will be preparing for graduation in 2012. In 2011 we will assist the mission in preparations for its upcoming assessments.
• New Beginnings Bible Fellowship Church in Woodbury Heights, NJ has experiencedsignificant growth. Pastor Dan Williams and his team successfully passed their assessments, and the mission church will graduate at this year’s Conference.
• Our Vision and Strategy Committee is working with the director on developing a new Forward Plan for 2012.
• A number of meetings were held with eight prospective church planters.
• Forty-seven churches were visited this year by the Church Extension staff. We presented our mission and vision.
• Our Hispanic church plants in Reading (La Roca) and in Allentown (El Faro), under the leadership of Pastor Carlos Rodriguez (Reading) and Pastor Elliot Ramos (Allentown) actively reach Hispanic people in the cities with the Gospel. La Roca continued to grow in 2010 and now meets in the Grace Bible Fellowship Church’s sanctuary on Sunday afternoons at 1pm. El Faro, in Allentown, was very active this year with a variety of ministries including Light in the Park outreach and its mercy ministry. El Faro will need to experience growth in 2011 in order to reach its graduation goals.
• Miguel Gonzalez is a church planter intern at the La Roca Mission Church and ministers alongside Pastor Rodriguez. Miguel and his wife Jessica are very active with the youth and families of the church. Miguel is seeking the Lord’s leading for future ministry in the BFC since 2011 is the last year of his internship.
• Daughter Church Planting – This year God has raised new interest among our churches to plant daughter churches. The Newark, DE and Harleysville, PA churches are both investigating daughter church planting. Ron Smith from Newark and Scott Wright from Harleysville are heading up these investigations. Meetings with the Capital Region of churches have begun to discuss and look into daughter church planting and the Lehigh Valley Region is discussing daughter church planting.
• I chaired the Joint Committee on Ethnic Church Planting this past year. The committee continues its focus on Hispanic church planting and desires to work with all people groups and assimilating them into the BFC. A Merida Task Force is working with the church in Merida, Mexico. Plans are in place to assist Merida with planting daughter churches from the Merida church. A town by the name of Villa Magna has been targeted for a BFC church plant. The Biblical Principles for Living has been translated into Spanish. The Articles of Faith are also in Spanish and both are available. I held several conversations this past year with some foreign missionaries about church planting and connection with the BFC. I served again this past year on the Ministerial Candidate Committee and have enjoyed working with the new men coming into the BFC.
PROJECTIONS FOR 2011 IN CHURCH EXTENSION
• The DELMARVA Project
Milford/Camden, Long Neck DE – We have discontinued our efforts to plant a church in Milford, DE but have maintained a presence in the area with a weekly Bible study. Ray Bertolet will continue his interim position as pastor of the Camden, DE, BFC and assist Church Extension with various projects. We will work with the elders of the Camden church and look for the Lord’s leading in assisting this church as well as assisting the Long Neck, DE church until it is able to call a pastor.
Newark, DE – The Newark, DE BFC is investigating a daughter church plant in South Smyrna with Ron Smith heading the investigation. We will focus most of our DELMARVA efforts of planting on this daughter church from Newark.
• Hispanic Church Planting
La Roca – Reading, PA Hispanic Church Plant – I will continue my coaching of both Carlos and Miguel and assist them with the mission’s growth in terms of monitoring the facility needs, facilitating the program, and developing the mission toward graduation. I will counsel with Miguel about his future ministry with the BFC after this year’s internship ends.
El Faro – Allentown, PA Hispanic Church Plant – This year Mark Morrison and I will aggressively work with the El Faro TLT and Pastor Ramos to assist them in reaching their goals of becoming a particular church in the BFC. Ariel Suero is still being considered as an intern to assist Pastor Ramos.
Merida, Mexico – I will be working closely with the Joint Committee on Ethnic Church Planting and Pastor Ramirez to facilitate the Merida church’s vision to plant daughter churches, particularly in Villa Magna near Merida. I will also investigate with the Merida church the possibility of establishing a Church Planting Training Center at the Merida church.
Capital Region, PA – Church Extension and the Ethnic Committee began discussions with the Capitol Region regarding the possibility of a Hispanic church plant in the Capital Region.
• Daughter Church Planting
Capitol Region – I am encouraging the region to consider a daughter church planting project.
Newark, DE – The Newark, DE BFC is investigating a daughter church plant (see above).
Metro Region – I will revisit discussions with the Metro Region about a church plant in South Amboy, NJ.
Harleysville/Buxmont Region – I will be assisting Scott Wright and the Harleysville church and hopefully some churches of the region in investigating a daughter church plant in the Trooper/Audubon, PA areas.
Lehigh Valley Region – Tim Zuck is dialoguing with the pastors of the Lehigh Valley about a daughter church plant. I will monitor these discussions to see how Church Extension can assist.
• Connectional Projects
Grace Fellowship Church, Harrisburg, PA– I will continue working with the leaders at Grace and develop a plan for graduation into the BFC.
• Recruitment
Cape May Court House, NJ – We will continue our efforts to confirm and call a church planter to Cape May.
DELMARVA – We will look to call Ron Smith for planting in South Smyrna, DE and Scott Wright for planting in Trooper/Audubon, PA.
Hispanic – Depending on how the Capital Region moves ahead in their approval of a plant in the region, we may need to recruit a Hispanic planter in 2011-12.
• Church Planting Academy
We have developed a number of training opportunities for our planters. Yearly, we hold two all-day Training Days, three Church Planters’ Roundtables, a regular Coaches Corner Newsletter, and the distribution of various materials and books. I would like to begin planning for a Church Planters Academy. This would be for current planters and anyone in the BFC or outside the BFC who would be interested in learning more about church planting and becoming a church planter with the BFC.
• Graduation Preparations
I will be assisting with the final steps for graduating and releasing the Woodbury Heights, NJ and Hellertown, PA mission churches. Mark Barninger and the East/West Hanover Township, PA TLT have informed me that the mission church will begin its graduation preparations for 2012. I will be assisting the Hanover mission church with the plan for graduation that will include scheduling their assessments at the end of the year.
• Facility Needs
Two plants are searching for new meeting places if they continue their current growth rate. I will be assisting Hellertown, PA and East/West Hanover Township, PA with counsel and with the financial considerations. We may also be searching for launch facilities in the proposed new sites of South Smyrna, DE and Trooper/Audobon, PA.
• Development
The Development Committee will be working on several projects in 2011: first, the organization and planning of a thank you dinner for donors who give generously to the Mission; second, further development of our relationship with the Mennonite Foundation in seeking ways to increase our invested funds; third, seeking a retired individual with investment expertise to assist me with donor follow-up and communication.
• Frontier Concerns
The BFC has three church frontiers: New England (Thompson, CT BFC), New Mexico (Las Cruces, NM) and Mexico (Merida, Mexico). These churches are far off and isolated from the BFC. Our vision in receiving these churches into the BFC was to cluster other BFC churches near these locations and form regions of several churches in each frontier site. We are doing this in Merida but have not made any efforts recently to cluster other churches near our New England and New Mexico sites. I will investigate how we might be able to plant other BFC churches in our frontier sites and form regions of BFC churches in these frontiers. God has given us these frontiers and we need to consider ways of better connecting with them.
• Vision and Strategy Committee
Our current Forward Plan, Missions Here and Now is due to end December 2011. The Vision and Strategy Committee will be working this year on a new Forward Plan for the Board of Church Extension to approve and recommend to the BFC Executive Board.
I am called to serve Christ and His Kingdom through the preaching and teaching of the Gospel and, at this time, as Director of Church Extension Ministries. It is a great and awesome privilege to serve such a gracious and almighty God.
I am concerned about the struggles that many of our churches are facing with their lack of finances, and now a number of our churches are without pastors and have little financial means to call a pastor full-time. This is a dilemma that more of our churches may face in the future when current pastors who are ministering bi-vocationally, or relying upon the income of their wives to support their ministry, will retire or move out of the church. Church Extension and I are committed to having the mission churches, who are received into Conference from Church Extension, be fully self-supporting, equipped with a solid core of leaders and have an adequate group of committed members so that the church will be able to continue to grow and battle the attacks of the Devil. We are constantly looking for ways to strengthen our local churches.
I continue to hold to the following conviction: all our churches must be unified in their doctrinal commitments to the Articles of Faith, engaged in trust and love for each other, and mobilized to accomplish our vision of being an expanding fellowship of churches through the planting of new churches.
Pray for Church Extension in 2011. Pray for God to give us a mighty unction of His power to fulfill our charge and stand firm. Pray for our team: Assistant Director Mark Morrison, Assistant Church Planter Ray Bertolet, Administrative Assistant Lisa Christensen, Bookkeeper Ruth Richards, Special Projects Coordinator Carol Snyder, and our Aquila & Priscilla teams and many volunteers. Pray for your church planters and their families who serve the BFC; and finally, pray for me as I direct this vital mission.
In His Love and Service, Respectfully Submitted,
David E. Gundrum, Director of Church Extension
Resources for Churches and Regions
Seeking to Plant and Resources for Prospective Church Planters
(See our website, www.churchplantingbfc.org, for all publications)
Churches and Regions
• Churches Planting Churches – A guide designed to walk your church through the process of planting a daughter church.
• The Dynamic Daughter Church Planting Handbook (DCPI) – The Biblical basis for planting a daughter church. Answers to common questions, such as: Can we afford to plant a daughter church? What size do we need to be to daughter? What is in it for us as a mother church? Won’t a daughter church destroy the fellowship in the mother church? A six-step process for planting a daughter congregation.
• Demographic Workbook – A tool to assist you with understanding your ministry target area. It includes educational, ecclesiastical, community, and population surveys.
• Visitation Follow-up Training – A helpful seminar to assist the church with encouraging and training visitation teams.
• First Impressions – What do your guests say about your church after they visit? We have materials that will help you make positive first impressions with your guests.
• Community Surveying Manual – A guide for conducting community surveys in your ministry target areas in order to produce a needs assessment along with making contacts.
Prospective Church Planters
• DCPI – Pre-Assessment and the BFC Comprehensive Assessment – The DCPI booklet is an inductive and introductory assessment for those looking into church planting. The BFC Assessment is a complete assessment process to determine whether a man has the gifts, abilities and competencies to plant churches.
• BFC Church Planting Guide & DCPI Handbook – The BFC plan and approach to church planting. A complete systematic process for the planter and his team to move from the initial Identification Stage to the Graduation Stage.
• Church Planter’s Toolkit – The Church Planter’s Toolkit includes 12 audio CDs as well as detailed checklists and action planning worksheets to form a comprehensive package for church planters and their teams.
Addendum – Church Extension Activity Chart (see next page)
Board of Church Extension: Richard E. Taylor, Chairman; William G. Schlonecker, Secretary; Robert W. Davies, Treasurer; James Arcieri, Kenneth D. Keeler, Alfred G. Roberts, Robert A. Sloan, Jr., William R. Singletary, Clyde W. Snyder, Carl K. Spackman, James Stapleton, Robert H. Zentz