Report of the

Joint Committee on Ethnic Church Planting

            The Ethnic Committee met numerous times during 2011 to plan, assist and promote BFC ethnic church planting.

            The El Faro Mission Church, continued its ministry in Allentown under Pastor Elliot Ramos’ direction. A community outreach, Light in the Park, was held over the summer in partnership with the Cedar Crest BFC. Many people in the community attended. Men are being trained to be leaders. The Transitional Leadership Team (TLT) investigated relocating the ministry to a more visible location but the plan did not materialize. Pray that the Lord will lead in the future of El Faro.

            The La Roca Hispanic Church in Reading, PA under the direction of Pastor Carlos Rodriguez continues to grow and reach many Hispanics in the city with the gospel. A number of salvations were recorded along with baptisms taking place throughout the year. Pastor Miguel Gonzales was called by Church Extension this past year to be the Assistant Pastor/Church Planter and has been active with youth and families. Miguel is also working with a Church Planting Resource Team (CPRT); made up of members from the BFC churches in the Capital Region. The CPRT is investigating a Hispanic church plant in the city of Lancaster.

            This past year the Ethnic Committee assisted financially with the Lancaster project and continued its financial support for Elliot Ramos and Miguel Gonzalez. The Committee also sent Miguel Gonzalez to visit the Merida, Mexico BFC.

            The Ethnic Committee continues its partnership with the La Roca BFC in Merida, Mexico. The Merida Church is doing well and has launched a daughter church plant in the neighboring town of Villa Magna, Mexico. Church Extension officially opened the BFC’s first international Mission Church in Villa Magna (La Roca – Villa Magna) and recognized Freddy Chi as the church planter at the Mission Church. Freddy is now completing his tests for credentials with the BFC. We continue to look for ways to assist Pastor Marcos and the Merida BFC with its vision to plant more daughter churches in the Yucatan area. The Ethnic Committee and the Ministerial Candidate Committee are working together to develop a plan for qualifying men from other countries with BFC credentials. Director Gundrum has not been making trips to Merida but he has monthly coaching sessions with Marcos via Skype to discuss the church planting vision of the church and assist with coaching Brother Chi as he plants in Villa Magna.

Note: In an effort to keep Pastor Marcos informed and “in the loop” with the BFC, we still have a project called “Merida is not Alone” in place. This plan is designed to give a monthly call to Pastor Marcos from our BFC Pastors. Pastor Elliot Ramos is the coordinator. If you would like to be placed on the pastor’s call list, please contact Brother Ramos

            The Ethnic Committee’s translation team of Miguel Gonzalez and David Schlonecker has worked on translating more BFC materials and the Ministerial Candidate Committee’s forms into Spanish. Both the Articles of Faith and the BPLs are available in Spanish and can be purchased through the Board of Communications. The Committee continues to look into a translation service.

            The Ethnic Committee encourages the BFC churches to reach out to the increasing number of ethnic people groups in their target areas, particularly the Hispanic people groups who are now located near almost all our churches. It has been encouraging to see several BFC churches starting their own ESL programs.

            The committee would like to encourage all the BFC Churches to reach out to the expanding number of ethnic people groups in their ministry target sites. We want to thank the BFC churches for their support. In 2011, we received financial support from a number of BFC churches for ethnic church planting. In order to further assist the planting of BFC churches among ethnic people groups we encourage ALL the BFC Churches to increase their support for ethnic church planting in 2012. If your church has not budgeted funds for ethnic church planting, please do so.

Send your contributions for ethnic church planting to the Board of Missions, designated for Ethnic Church Planting.

Joint Committee on Ethnic Church Planting: David E. Gundrum, Chairman; Donald S. Faust, Secretary; Miguel Gonzalez, Elliot H. Ramos, Alfred G. Roberts, Carlos G. Rodriguez, David K. Schlonecker, Dana E. Weller, Philip E. Yerrington.