REPORT OF THE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH BOARD OF MISSIONS
TO THE 102nd ANNUAL CONFERENCE
J. Robertson McQuilken summarized his book, THE GREAT OMISSION, by this searching response to the question with which he started: “With so many unreached people, how come so few are going?”.
Who is calling? God is. But the more crucial question is, who is listening? With the need so vast and the laborers so few, why do we not go? Someone isn’t listening.
“How come?” We have heart trouble. We are so preoccupied with our own interests that there is no room for compassion for others; we are so committed to our own fulfillment that it is impossible to love God with all our lives.
“How come?” We have eye trouble. Even when we study the Bible we don’t see reality from God’s viewpoint.
“How come?” We have head trouble. We try to figure out all the mysteries of an infinite God and all the proper destinies of human beings. Then we play God, trying to alleviate the pain of human lostness by arrogantly setting aside the teaching of Scripture in favor of our own logical conclusions.
“How come?” We have knee trouble. We play at prayer when God has put in our reach the most powerful weapon of spiritual warfare.
“How come?” We have ear trouble. God calls, but we don’t listen.
What should we then do? Should we not repent of our cold hearts, blind eyes, arrogant mind-set, prayerless lives, and deafness to His call? Let us give ourselves to prayer till He ignites us with the flame of His love and scatters us as firebrands throughout the darkness of a lost world.
URBANA `84 AND SUMMER MISSIONARIES
The Board of Missions gave $100 scholarships to the Urbana `84 Missionary Convention to 26 young adults from our Denomination. The Board also approved and gave financial aid to eight young adults from our denomination who served as Summer Missionaries.
SEMINAR FOR PASTORS AND KEY LAY MISSIONS REPRESENTATIVES
The Board of Missions conducted its Ninth Annual Seminar for Pastors and Key Lay Missions Representatives on March 18, 1985, in Newark, NJ, and on March 19, 1985, in the Bible Fellowship Church in Ephrata, PA. Conrad Wilcox, Missions Consultant with the Evangelical Alliance Mission, was the guest speaker.
He gave an abundance of practical suggestions concerning promoting missions in the local church and had a large selection of missions literature available. The Tenth Annual Seminar for Pastors and Key Lay Missions Representatives has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 11, 1986, at Pinebrook Bible Conference. Rev. Frank Severn, General Director of SEND International, will be the guest speaker.
INTERNAL BOARD MATTERS
The Board of Missions approved a revised Preliminary Application and also approved a revised Doctrinal Statement for Missionary Applicants. The Board also passed legislation which requires that non-ordained missionaries complete the Bible Fellowship Church FAITH & ORDER Questionnaire on a regular basis.
FULL-TIME EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
Whereas, the Church must give top priority to Christ’s Great Commission, and whereas, the Bible Fellowship Church missionary family has grown significantly in the past few years, the Board of Missions is strongly persuaded that a full-time Executive Secretary is needed. The Board has elected Rev. Roy A. Hertzog as the full-time Executive Secretary subject to ratification by Annual Conference. If his election is ratified, he will begin to serve immediately as Executive Secretary on a part-time basis and assume his responsibility on a full-time basis as agreed upon by the Board of Missions and the Cedar Crest Bible Fellowship Church, but no later than January 1, 1986.
“OUR VISION”
The following is the “vision” of the Bible Fellowship Church Board of Missions in reference to engaging an Executive Secretary to serve on a full-time basis for the purpose of fulfilling more effectively our role in the carrying out of Christ’s Great Commission. As the Bible Fellowship Church is seeking to strengthen and expand its ministry in the U.S.A. through the “WIDER HORIZONS” program, even so the Board of Missions is seeking to strengthen and expand the missionary program of the Bible Fellowship Church around the world.
A. OUR VISION CONCERNING OUR MISSIONARIES AND THEIR FAMILIES
1. To provide increased opportunities for communication and interaction with our missionaries for the purpose of providing more effective pastoral care and oversight for them.
2. To assist our missionaries in developing their spiritual gifts and talents, and in becoming all that God intends them to be. This may include the recommendation of continued missionary education or training.
3. To assist the missionaries’ children who are in the U.S.A., as we are able, in ministering to their spiritual and practical needs.
B. OUR VISION CONCERNING OUR APPOINTEES, APPLICANTS, AND INQUIRERS
1. To provide increased opportunities for counsel, encouragement, and instruction of missionary appointees, applicants, and inquirers.
2. To guide appointees and applicants through the application and educational process associated with equipping them for effective missionary service.
3. To establish a missions training program and candidate school for the Bible Fellowship Church missions program, as the Lord provides and enables.
C. OUR VISION CONCERNING THE RELATING OF THE BOARD OF MISSIONS TO THE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP CHURCHES, BOTH INDIVIDUALLY AND CORPORATELY
1. To assist pastors, missions committees, and Boards of Elders in organizing, strategizing, implementing, and promoting of the missions program in the particular Bible Fellowship Churches.
2. To prepare a manual for particular churches assisting them in the training of prospective missionaries.
3. To provide training seminars for missionary preparation.
4. To establish a missions resource center which may be used by churches, missionaries, and prospective missionaries.
5. To seek to discover ways to release more resources into the harvest fields of the world.
6. To cooperate with the administration of Pinebrook Jr. College in seeking to promote missions in our denominational institution of higher learning.
RECOMMENDED LEGISLATION CONCERNING RATIFYING A FULL- TIME EXECUTIVE SECRETARY FOR THE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP
CHURCH BOARD OF MISSIONS
Whereas, the Bible Fellowship Church takes seriously the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ and desires to involve itself significantly in the task of making disciples of all nations, and
Whereas, our Bible Fellowship Church missionary family has grown substantially in the past two years so that it now has seventy-eight (78) active missionaries, and seven (7) appointees, and several applicants, and
Whereas, we are praying that the Lord will thrust out many more laborers from the Bible Fellowship Church into His harvest fields, and
Whereas, there is a great need for the Board of Missions to provide additional pastoral care and oversight for our missionaries, their children in the homeland, our appointees and applicants, and
Whereas, there is a great need for the Board of Missions to provide additional and more effective assistance to our particular churches in organizing, strategizing, implementing, and promoting of missions in our Bible Fellowship Churches, and
Whereas, there is a great need for the Board of Missions to develop closer working relationships with the sending mission boards with which our missionaries are affiliated, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that we ratify the election of Roy A. Hertzog as the full-time Executive Secretary of the Board of Missions.
Paul G. Zimmerman, Executive Secretary
Bible Fellowship Church Board of Missions
R.C. Reichenbach, Chairman; David E. Thomann, Financial Secretary; Paul G. Zimmerman, Executive Secretary; William L. Graybill II, Roy A. Hertzog, Austin G. Shelly, Robert Breitegam, Kermit K. Gehman, Gerald Schlonekcer, James Sunday, BOARD OF MISSIONS