Report of the Board of Missions
“Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder!
Because I am doing something in your days—
You would not believe if you were told.”
Habakkuk 1:5
As we look among the nations, we are truly awed at what God is doing! We look at the Commonwealth of Independent States and we find God’s work almost unfathomable. For many years we prayed for those enslaved by Communism and opportunities to reach the Soviet peoples with the Gospel. It happened so rapidly that we scarcely could believe what was happening. Are we gearing up to put feet on our prayers, to do all that we can while the window of receptivity is open and before the cults and false religions claim their victims?
At the same time we are appalled at other events that are taking place. Such repulsive things as the civil war that is taking place in the former Yugoslavia. We are indeed concerned for our Christian brothers and sisters that are in that heinous conflict as well as those outside of Christ. Are we preparing to step in after the conflict in order to demonstrate Christian compassion and God’s love?
As we look back at the Persian gulf conflict we see three outstanding steps in the ultimate victory. 1.) The development of a broad cooperative effort and pooling of resources from among a coalition of nations; 2.) the development of goals and a very comprehensive strategic plan; 3.) the cooperative implementation of that strategic plan guarding their unity in the midst of many factors that could potentially divide the coalition of nations. A connectional unity — a collaborating plan — and a cooperative strategy. This is also God’s plan for the Church. The Bible Fellowship Church is a connectional fellowship. But in order for us to achieve God’s best, we must unite together to form common God-given goals and a cooperative strategy before there can be a great demonstration of God’s power and the ultimate fulfillment of His purposes.
The Church of Jesus Christ is called a body. A body comprises many members diversely gifted for the carrying out of the purposes of Jesus Christ, the Head of the Body. The writer of the book of Hebrews proclaims “the unchangeableness of His (God’s) purpose” (Heb. 6:17). In verses 13 and following, the author first alludes to the promise to Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3 where God promises to bless Abraham, give him a son and make of him a great nation; and secondly, to God’s unchanging purpose that through the heirs of Abraham (all believers in Christ according to Gal. 3:29) all the peoples of the earth shall be blessed. The eternal purpose of God is clear. The carrying out of that purpose is not always so clearly set forth in our objectives and the objectives of our churches. “Where God guides He provides” is an old cliche but it is also a statement that is eternally true. We KNOW the eternal purpose of God; and we also KNOW that God has provided all that the Church needs to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. May we be good stewards of all that He has entrusted to us and zealously apply our hearts and our cooperative strategies to His eternal purpose of world evangelization.
We rejoice in the many applicants that have come forward to offer themselves for Christian ministry. Some have been in a deputational ministry now for two years. This has been a very difficult time for raising financial support. One of our appointees has written a poem concerning this dilemma.
THE LABORERS WAIT
Written by — Louise M. Bertolet, 1992
The brothers prayed for workmen sent
To take His Name abroad.
In fervent prayer their time was spent,
As ordered in His Word.
Some willing ones He called apart,
In answer to their pleas.
Then praise ascended from the heart,
“Thank you, Lord, for these.”
These missionaries waited long,
Their work for Him to start.
They needed funds to reach the throngs,
Ere they could do their part.
Year after year, the brothers prayed
As workers languished here.
Reluctantly, the laborers stayed,
As His return drew near.
The brothers who had asked for these,
Grew doubtful with the years.
The Lord could give funds if He pleased,
“‘Twas not His will,” they feared.
Like lightning flash, the Lord returned
To lift His children higher;
To glory and the crowns they’d earned
And all they would desire.
“I gave you workers fit to go,
To gather souls for me.”
“Why did you not,”their Lord would know
“Send them abroad for Me?”
“But Lord,the needed funds,” they sighed
“We waited for Your hand.”
With saddened eyes, the King replied,
“My funds were in YOUR hands.”
We are very gratified as we reflect on the ministry of our missionaries and the commendable spirit they have demonstrated. As you can imagine, there are many types of administrative activities that are required to keep these missionaries on the field. Some of these include receiving and receipting contributions for missionary support, tracking these contributions, and sending such contributions on a timely basis to the various sending boards. In addition to this we have tried to keep missionaries and churches informed of various events and other information, plan the Pastors & Leaders Seminar and World Missions Week at Pinebrook. We have had meetings in churches to share and assist in many ways with the opportunity to sit down with several missions committees to assist them in their task. The Executive Secretary was also appointed by Annual Conference to serve on the Inter-Cultural Ministries Study Committee which is searching ways to develop ethnic churches under the Bible Fellowship Church. It has been a joy to us to be a small but vital part in God’s work to help people get to the mission field and to help local churches fulfill their responsibilities of world evangelism.
We have attempted to be sensitive to all our pastors and churches to perceive how we can better serve you in the task of world evangelism. Throughout the year we have added various features to our reporting to you. As requested by a particular church, we now send churches a receipt for each check sent. We also send a quarterly report listing what we understand your budget to the Board of Missions to be and the payments that you have made toward your commitment. This, too, has been at the request of a particular church. If errors are made by us in allocating your contributions or if we misunderstand your budget to the Board of Missions, please contact us immediately.
If you have some suggestion(s) as to how we can serve you more effectively, please contact the Executive Secretary or any of our board members.
We want to thank the many Pastors, Missions Committees, Women’s Missionary Societies, and others who have demonstrated their commitment to God’s priority of world evangelization and their active involvement. We want to thank you for the privilege of working with you in this noble endeavor and your cooperation with the Board of Missions in so many ways. We also want to thank each one who has given to the missionary outreach of your church through the Board of Missions during this economic recession. Many have done so sacrificially. We continue to make ourselves available to each church to assist them in any way that we can that together we may excel in the work of the Lord.
The Board of Missions met six times this year and the following information indicates some of the highlights of the year between September 1, 1991 and August 31, 1992.
Missionary Candidates
This past year we have been involved with many individuals in various stages of preparation for the field. At this point we have about 21 active applicants. To some degree we worked with 42 different applicants this year of which 13 became appointees. We also worked with 27 in the appointee category, 7 of whom left for their field of ministry this year. They progressed through the process as follows (number of adults):
Applicants at September 1, 1991 (16 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Applicants Added (6 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Applicants Transferred to Inactive (6 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Applicants Withdrawn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
Additional Applicants accepted by this Board
(8 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
(Getter, Herring, Hunsickers, LoRussos, Millers, Morrisons, Murrins, Nicelys)
Applicants at August 31, 1992 (12 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Appointees at September 1, 1991 (7 family units). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Appointees who became missionaries on their field of ministry. . . . . . . . . 7
(4 family units – Herring, Morrisons, Reyes, Wimbles)
General Statistical Report on August 31, 1992
1. Number of Sending Boards under which our
missionaries are working. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2. Number of countries in which our
missionaries are working. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3. Number of Missionaries:
Family Total
Units Couples Singles Adults
Active Missionaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 41 13 95
Leave of Absence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 2 0 4
Appointees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 10 0 20
Active Applicants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 9 3 21
TOTALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 62 16 140
4. Geographical Areas where our missionaries are assigned and their number
Area Families Adults Countries
U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 31 U.S.
North America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8 Canada, Mexico
(excluding the U.S.)
Central America. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 9 Bonaire, Costa Rica, Guadeloupe, St.Vincent
South America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 12 Bolivia, Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela
Europe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 13 U.K., France, Austria, Spain, Yugoslavia
Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 16 Kenya, Morocco, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zaire
Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 Mongolia, Thailand
Southeast Asia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 Malaysia, Philippines,
TOTALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 95 25 COUNTRIES
Missionary Teacher Promoted To His Heavenly Reward
Fred A. Gibbon went to be with his Lord on January 3, 1992 after having suffered a massive stroke on November 11, 1991. He ministered in Kenya for 37 years and was presently teaching at Moffat College of Bible. He completed his Master’s Degree in Missiology because of his primary concern in missions while he was at Moffat. Marian, his wife, is remaining in Kenya to continue the medical work at Kijabe which was very near and dear to her heart. Marian is scheduled for furlough beginning in August 1993.
Summer Missionary Financial Aid
Financial assistance totalling $4,000 was given to twenty-three applicants from twelve Bible Fellowship Churches to serve with recognized organizations in twelve different areas of the world.
Missions Emphasis Events Of The Board Of Missions
The Board of Missions conducted its Sixteenth Missions Seminar for Pastors, Missionaries, and Key Lay Missions Leaders on March 31, 1992 at our Sinking Spring Bible Fellowship Church. The general theme was: “Missions Is Still The Heart Beat Of God!” Dr. George W. Murray, General Director of Bible Christian Union, was the speaker. About 185 people attended this seminar.
World Missions Week at Pinebrook Bible Conference was held from August 8 – 14, 1992. Dr. Ron Blue, Professor from Dallas Theological Seminary and now President of CAM International, was the evening speaker and his general theme was: “YOUnited In Mission.”
A Conference-wide Missionary Rally was conducted on May 14, 1992 at our Reading Church.
Dates To Mark On Your Calendar Of Events:
Tuesday, March 30, 1993. . . . Pastors & Leaders Missions Seminar from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in our Quakertown Church. James W. Reapsome, Editor of Evangelical Missions Quarterly will be the speaker.
Thursday, May 13, 1993. . . . Conference-Wide Missionary Rally from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at our Lebanon B.F. Church.
August 7 — 13, 1993. . . . . . . World Missions Week at Pinebrook Bible Conference. Rev. Eric Crichton will be the evening speaker.
Annual Reports From Missionaries
The annual reports from missionaries will again be published in a book entitled Missionary Directory and Annual Ministry Reports of the Bible Fellowship Church Missionary Family 1992. For financial considerations this one will not be a pictorial directory. We anticipate that this book will be ready for distribution at this Annual Conference. We have printed a limited quantity which will be distributed to each of the churches in proportion to church membership. This year these books are being made available to you free of charge for distribution to your members as you so see fit. We are enclosing an envelope in each book encouraging recipients to make a contribution to enable the Board of Missions to continue this ministry of providing these books free of charge.
Recommendations To The 109th Annual Conference
1. WHEREAS, the three year term of Charles J. Albert, Jr. as Financial Secretary of the Board of Missions has been completed; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Missions has re-elected him to his second term at the May 19, 1992 Board meeting; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that we ratify the election of Charles J. Albert, Jr. as Financial Secretary of the Board of Missions.
2. RESOLVED, that a memorial for Fred Gibbon be included in the 1992 Year Book.
3. RESOLVED, that we amend the Board of Missions By-Laws in the Faith and Order, pp. 153 to 157, as follows (FIRST READING):
NOTE: [ ] Bracketed material is to be deleted. Italic material is to be added.
A. Purpose
Board Of Missions. Purpose. The Board of Missions is delegated by /Annual Conference to direct and promote the Missions program of the Bible Fellowship Church and to select, oversee, and care for its missionaries who serve in foreign countries and in the United States of America in ministries other than Bible Fellowship Churches and Agencies, except where cooperative ventures in cross-cultural church planting have been developed with the Board of Church Extension.
C. Election
(Change in last paragraph only.)
The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Missions shall be elected annually by and from the board of Missions at its organizational meeting. The Chairman, the Executive Secretary, and the Financial Secretary shall [constitute] comprise the Executive Committee of the Board of Missions.
E. Duties of the Chairman of the Board of Missions
1. He shall serve as Chairman of the Executive Committee.
[2. He shall prepare an agenda for each Board meeting in consultation with the Executive Committee.]
2. He shall call Board and Executive Committee meetings and preside at the same.
3. He shall appoint committees as necessary and monitor their progress.
[5. He shall arrange for applicants to be interviewed by the Board of Missions.]
[6. He shall arrange for all missionaries to be interviewed periodically by the Board of Missions.]
4. He shall be responsible to see that the Board’s decisions and policies are implemented.
F. Duties of the Vice-Chairman
He shall fulfill the duties of the Chairman in the absence of the Chairman.
G. Duties of the Executive Secretary of the Board of Missions
1. He shall call for and conduct the election of the Chairman.
2. He shall prepare an agenda for each Board meeting in consultation with the Chairman.
3. He shall arrange for all applicants to be interviewed by this Board.
4. He shall arrange for all missionaries to be interviewed by this Board.
[2]5. He shall [keep] be responsible for an accurate record of the proceedings of this Board’s meetings and [distribute] the distribution of the same to all Board members.
[3]6. He shall be the custodian of the minutes and records of this Board and of the files of the applicants, appointees, and missionaries.
[4]7. He shall be responsible for all correspondence with particular churches, applicants, appointees, missionaries, and others, except correspondence pertaining to financial matters.
[5]8. He shall receive all inquiries and applications for missionary service.
[6]9. He shall be responsible for public relations for this Board and seek to promote interest and involvement in missions among the constituency of the Bible Fellowship Church.
[7]10. He shall seek to know and to minister to the spiritual needs of the missionaries.
[8]11. He shall represent the missionaries and their needs to this Board and to the particular churches.
[9]12. He shall annually submit the Board of Missions Report to the Annual Conference.
[10]13. He shall personally interview missionaries on furlough at the earliest possible time.
Communism Is Dead!?
What Is Filling The Void?
What Shall Our Response Be For Christians’ Cry For Help?
Virtually all of you prayed for those under the grip of the former Communist regime. We rejoiced at the demise of the Communist party believing that it was in answer to many prayers. Today in the former Soviet Union (now the CIS), the communist party is somewhat dormant but many of the communist leaders are still in places of authority and leadership. There are purportedly still some communists reading the mail that goes through the CIS postal system to remain aware of what is going on. With the political instability, there could be a resurgence of communist power at any moment.
At this moment there is a big void in the CIS. Cults, false religions, pornographers and profiteers see their opportunity and are rushing in to fill the void. In Central Asia the Saudis and Iranians have spent millions of dollars on importing Korans and building mosques. At a recent meeting of agencies working in the CIS, it was announced that several months ago there were 300 foreign agencies registered and resident in Moscow. A leader in the Evangelical Baptist Church (EBC) acknowledged that this was true but that only about 14 agencies were involved and assisting the evangelical church. Today there are over 900 foreign agencies registered and resident in Moscow! Few of them are helping the evangelical churches. Most of the foreign agencies registered have been described as “raiding parties” going for their booty. Can you imagine the confusion and pandemonium in the evangelical church especially among the new believers and the spiritually immature? The President of the Evangelical Baptist Church visited the U.S. at the beginning of this year to meet with leaders of evangelical sending agencies to seek their assistance in a cooperative effort. Leaders have traveled to the CIS at the invitation of evangelical leaders of the CIS. The cry coming from virtually all of the republics and the Eastern European evangelical communities is “come and help us.”
The Apostle Paul heard the Macedonian call, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” You remember the prompt response of Paul — “…immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them” (Acts 16:9, 10). How shall we respond to our “Macedonian call”?
How long will the window of opportunity remain open? Mark Elliott in a recent article in the Evangelical Missions Quarterly was attempting to demonstrate the urgency of a cooperative effort, giving the following incident. “At one meeting, urgency and the need for evangelical agencies to cooperate was proclaimed. The three themes of the Evangelization of Russia Conference were: 1) the ‘greatness of the present opportunity in Russia, with its doors open’; 2) ‘the necessity of taking up the work at once, or the danger of delay’; and 3) the need for ‘conducting the work in Russia upon such a broad evangelical basis as not to unduly exhibit to the new Russia the denominational differences which have existed in our evangelical work in America.’ These words, spoken at Chicago’s Moody Tabernacle by Dr. Jesse W. Brooks, superintendent of the Chicago Tract Society and chairman of the meeting, date not from 1991, but from 1918… Urgency and cooperation still should take precedence because it is an open question whether or not the present opportunities will last much longer than the short-lived opening of 1917-18.” (Quote is from an article entitled, “New opportunities, new demands in the old Red Empire” in the EMQ, January 1992, page 34. Author of the article is Mark Elliott, professor of history and director of the Institute for East-West Christian Studies, Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College.)
There are many who believe history indicates that the window of receptivity may only be open for 2 to 3 years. The time is NOW! The trumpets are being sounded throughout the land NOW! I believe that NOW is the time for us as a denomination to band together with the church in the CIS in a determined strategy to help the church reach their republics and ethnic groups with the Gospel message.
What can we do? At present there are several cooperative efforts of evangelical missions with which we could identify. But in my mind there are 2 major cooperative efforts worthy of our consideration and hopefully our participation.
1. The CoMission.
The CoMission is a cooperative venture of many Christian organizations–individual churches, denominations, para-church organizations, and mission agencies–from all over the world. The goal is to field in the CIS, Bulgaria, Rumania and Albania, 1,200 10-member teams. CoMission team members commit one or two years (or ever longer) to work primarily with public-school teachers and students. Their job would be to share the Gospel, do follow-up, disciple new Christians, lead small group Bible studies, and oversee large Video Bible Classes. A brochure and list of qualifications accompany this information.
2. The Saturation Church Planting (SCP) Alliance.
AD 2000 and DAWN (Discipling A Whole Nation) Ministries has asked United World Mission, Dwight Smith President, to form an Alliance made up of mission agencies and denominations to cooperate together to field training teams and, in some cases, church-planting teams in the CIS and Eastern European countries. The fielded trainers and facilitators would provide training for the nationals in leadership and church planting skills, as well as work alongside national leaders to plant new church movements in unreached areas. The ultimate goal is to have one church for every 1,000 people throughout all of these areas. This Alliance is in the early stages. Worldteam has joined the Alliance and is serving in a leadership role with United World Mission. Woody Phillips, formerly on the pastoral staff at The Church of the Saviour, will serve as the field coordinator for the Alliance. At this very time he is taking up residence in Prague where he will coordinate field activities. They hope to have teams begin training in the U.S. in January of 1993. There are three types of teams that they are praying for: 1) Pioneer church planting teams; 2) Leadership training teams; 3) DAWN teams to assist nationals in church planting. Their first five-year goals are to train 12,000 national and expatriate church planters, and to plant 5,500 churches. The objective is to have at least half of each team to be mature, seasoned, deployed missionaries, pastors, Bible teachers or church leaders. Teams #1 and #3 are long term but leadership training teams, #2, (pastors, Bible teachers, church leaders) are desired even for a short term (about 1 year in length).
Wouldn’t it be great to have a part in shaping the destiny of a nation — to be involved in transforming a nation’s value system from an atheistic foundation to the absolute transcultural standards of God’s Word? Our teachers could possibly take sabbaticals to work with the CoMission for a year. Pastors and teachers of Bible (men and women) could possibly take a sabbatical to work with the SCP Alliance for a year. Missionary candidates could be preparing for long term involvement in the SCP Alliance while others are going short term to fill the gap and the immediate need that is there. In several republics everything is in place to start a sort of “seminary training.” In the republic of Moldova they planted 46 churches last year and have a goal of 200 more, one in every village. Workers are ready. They desperately want and ask for help in training leadership. For many years we have been singing “Send the Light” and preaching “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel”. Isn’t this the time to make a strategic effort to respond to the call for help? “If not now — WHEN? If not you — WHO?”
For further information write to the Bible Fellowship Church Board of Missions, 2721 Andrea Drive, Allentown, PA 18103-4624 or call Roy Hertzog at (215) 820-4161.
Board of Missions: R. C. Reichenbach, Chairman; Roy A. Hertzog, Executive Secretary; Charles J. Albert, Jr., Financial Secretary; Kenneth F. Barber; Robert Breitegam; Leroy O. Herb; Gerald Schlonecker; Thomas P. Shorb; Ralph M. Soper; and James Sunday.