Sunday, November 18th, 2012

On Sunday we were with Pastor Scot Cornoyer and High Point Independent Baptist Church of Elkridge, MD.  We had a fine day of meetings.

In the last week we have had three more churches come on line with support.  We are indebted to the Lord always, and thankful for His provision through His churches.

On Monday, November 20th we headed home for Nova Scotia.  We arrived Tuesday evening about 8:15pm to the arms of our oldest daughter, Brittany.  After almost five months of separation we are going to be enjoying having our whole family together.

Saturday & Sunday, November 10 & 11, 2012

This past weekend we had the pleasure of being with Grace Baptist Church (Pastor Steve Rogers) in Oxford, PA.  In fact, we had been staying in their missions apartment the week previous and Brother Rogers had me preach on Wednesday night. 

For the last five weeks Grace Baptist Church has been holding missions emphasis month (plus a week extra).  It has been one more of God's sweet blessings to see the desire for the Word and this church's growth toward and desire to, not only support church planting, but plant churches themselves.

On Saturday evening we attended their International Missions Banquet, where I spoke about How to Pray for Your Missionary. 

On Sunday, in Sunday School, I spoke on Love and Faith.  In the morning service I preached on the Grace of Giving and the Great Commission.  Then, in the evening service, I presented the ministry, and then preached on Confidence to Minister.  There was great liberty to preach.

One more meeting this coming weekend and that will complete our schedule for 2012.  In nine months of travel this year we have seen the never failing protection and grace of God every day of our travels and I thank my Lord and Saviour for it.

Sunday, November 4th, 2012

We were in New Hampshire again this weekend for a meeting with Monadnock Bible Baptist Church in Rindge.  Pastor Tom Peragallo and the members were are blessing to us.  We had good fellowship in the truth and folks seemed very interested in the church planting ministry in Eastern Canada, and beyond.

For those back at our home church you will be very interested to know that Sandy and I got to meet Mr. and Mrs. David Doremus.  Mr. Doremus was pastor of Chegoggin Baptist Church from 1959 to 1964.  After that he pastored in Massachusetts until retirement.  It was a real blessing to speak with him and find out a little history from that time.

Dan Doremus, David and Dorothy Doremus, and ourselves.

You will also notice that our received support is up to 55%, praise the Lord.  There is a significant amount promised, but I do not report that until churches officially take us on for support.

Baptist Distinctives and Mission Boards

Amongst Independent Baptists there are various opinions regarding mission boards.  Chegoggin Baptist Church of Yarmouth, NS, Canada does not support mission boards, and obviously, this means that we do not support missionaries operating under mission boards.  Please understand that this is not because we are against the men.  We are not.  This is because we are against mission boards in principle and practice.  We understand mission boards in structure and operation to be contrary to the Word of God.  I trust that the following will encourage and challenge.

Bible is the Sole Authority for Faith and Practice:    The Bible is the very Word and Words of the Living God and men will be judged by that Word.  This means that the Bible is the supreme and sole authority in men’s lives and the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Men have the freedom of will to rebel against the Word of God, but do not have the power to escape being judged by that Word.  The churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, NT. patterned Baptist churches, are not legislative bodies; meaning, they do not have the authority to make laws.  NT. patterned Baptist churches are executive only.  Commands, responsibilities, and administrations are given to Christ’s churches, of which they are love and duty bound to execute.  Neither individual nor church has any authority to operate contrary to the Word of God.  (See Matthew 18:15-18; 28:18-20; etc.)  How does this Scriptural truth and historic NT. Baptist church distinctives and practice compare with the very popular mission boards used by Independent Baptists?  Search the Scriptures for a mission board.  You will not find it.  The NT. patterned Baptist church is of Divine creation, foundation, and construction.  A mission board is the device of man, built on man’s authority and man’s wisdom.  To claim that the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice and then use UN-Scriptural means, method, structure, and wisdom is a direct violation of our professed faith.  God honours His Word and blesses our obedience to His Word, ONLY.  Jesus Christ alone is the head of His church and the Lord exercises that absolute rule through His Word and His Spirit.  All challenges against Christ’s Headship of His churches is treason and rebellion against God.

Autonomy of the New Testament Church:    The NT. Baptist church that the Lord Jesus built during His earthly ministry is the only and supreme executive authority for the Kingdom of God on this earth for this period of time.  NT. churches are equal to each other and each is to operate autonomously, as if it were the only church on earth.  (This does not preclude cooperation between churches of like faith and practice.)  You will fail to find in the New Testament the supremacy of one church over another or the supremacy of a man or men over a church or churches.  Baptists have historically stood against the Papal and/or Episcopal hierarchal systems which dictate the faith and practice of the churches under their rule.  What Baptist church would allow an outside individual or entity to install or remove their pastor?  Not one!  Then why do Independent Baptist churches allow mission boards or directors to send, direct, and recall their missionaries?  Mission boards usurp the authority of the NT. Baptist Church.

Priesthood of the Believers:    This Bible doctrine is based upon the doctrine of salvation.  Since the blood of Jesus Christ has made each saved person on equal footing before God, and each saved individual has equal access to God, then there is no priesthood standing between the children of God and God.  (See Galatians 3:28; 5:6; 6:15; Ephesians 2:13, 19; Revelation 1:6.)  Additionally, since each child of God is a priest then they have priestly duties to fulfill.  In 1Peter 2:5, 9 we see that the child of God is to offer up spiritual sacrifices and praises to God.  In Romans 12:1-2 the child of God is exhorted to offer a sacrifice, the living sacrifice of their very bodies to the service of God.  But, please read the rest of the chapter.  The rest of Romans 12 teaches us where we are to serve God—in the NT. patterned Baptist church, Christ's body!  1Corinthians 12-14 bears this same teaching.  Mission boards fight against this Bible doctrine and historic Baptist distinctive in two ways.  First, mission boards remove the work of the Great Commission from the place of service. Every child of God documented in the Book of Acts serves God in a church.  The Apostles, pastors, evangelists, and every other child of God all served in a church.  Second, mission boards remove the work of the Great Commission from the people of service.  The members of a church have graciously gifted spiritual abilities to enable them to minister and when a church exports its service opportunities to outside ‘professionals’ there are members that are being robbed of their God given office of service and the gaining of glory for God. 

Two Ordinances; Baptism and the Lord’s Table:    The ordinances were given by the Lord Jesus Christ to His churches.  (See Matthew 26:26-30; 28:19-20; 1Corinthians 11:2.)  These ordinances guard and speak to the nature, the doctrine, the unity, and the purity of the Lord’s churches.  Baptism is the door to the church (Acts 2:41) and guards the pure Gospel (Acts 19:1-7).  The Lord’s Table maintains the doctrinal unity and moral purity of the church (1Corinthians 11:17-34).  Mission boards exercise influence and control over the doctrine and purity of a missionary on the field which is a realm of authority that belongs to the church.  Even if it is a case of a missionary on the field going into heresy or immorality, it is still a case where, according to the Scriptures, only that missionary’s church has jurisdiction to recall and discipline that man.

Individual Soul Liberty:    The basis of soul liberty stands in human freedom of will and responsibility toward God.  Man was created with a free will, but this freedom is not freedom from the governance of God over His creation.  So, that while man has the freedom to choose to obey God or not, God will bring every man into judgment.  This judgment will be between the individual man and God.  Therefore, no man or group of men (I.e. society, government) has the right to coerce a man to believe, worship, and serve God contrary to that man’s beliefs.  (See Ecclesiastes 11:9; Acts 17:30-31; Romans 2:5-11.)  An additional Scripture teaching comes into play here, the teaching of the spheres/institutions of authority.  God has instituted three spheres/institutions of authority under His own universal and absolute authority as Creator and Almighty God.  These spheres are The Home, Human Government, and the NT. Church.  To sum this up for brevity and get to the point needed for our subject matter at hand (How mission boards are contrary to the historic Baptist distinctives?); individual soul liberty comes into play when a home, a government, or a church coerces a person to act or profess contrary to their beliefs that belong only to God.  (See Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:1-4; Ephesians 5:22; 6:1; Matthew 18:17.)  For the remainder of this discussion see below, under heading of Separation of Church and State.

Saved and Baptized Membership:    This is evident throughout the entirety of the New Testament.  The pre-requisite to Scriptural baptism is the new birth.  The pre-requisite to church membership is baptism.  Therefore, the only person that can be a member of a NT. Baptist church is a born again and water baptized person.  (See Acts 2:41; 8:35-38.)  For the remainder of this discussion see below under heading of Separation of Church and State.   

Two Offices; Pastors and Deacons:    NT. Baptist churches have always recognized the only two offices that we have are pastors and deacons.  The Pastoral office is for leadership, and is necessary for the spiritual growth of the church.  The office of Deacon is the office of temporal service and only needed when the pastors need help so that the temporal needs do not take them away from their work of prayer and the Word of God.  The mission board system creates non-Scriptural and non-church offices that exercise authority over churches. 

Separation of Church and State:    The separation of church and state is a Scriptural doctrine that we have already broached under “Soul Liberty.”  We have already spoken of the fact that God has ordained certain spheres of influence and the appropriate institution to operate within that sphere.  Therefore, human government has its sphere of authority and the NT. church has its sphere of authority and the two should never be combined for mutual empowerment.  That does not mean that the state should be against the church or vice versa, but that they should not use each other for ascension of power.  I have chosen to deal with Individual Soul Liberty, Saved and Baptized Membership and the Separation of Church and State under one heading because these three are inseparably linked in the subject matter being discussed.  Here is the link.  The mission board (or Association; or Convention) system is contrary to the New Testament at its very foundation because it is a hierarchal usurpation of the authority that belongs only to NT. patterned Baptist churches alone.  If the principle of mission boards were allowed to envelope other areas of NT. church faith and practice then these churches would become what Roman Catholicism or Episcopalianism is—a beast of church-state sacral religion.  Mission boards are built on the premise (although initially denied, no doubt) that human wisdom, human innovation, the power of numbers, and the rule of the elite few over the many is the way to accomplish the work of God.  Mission board-ism is a man-made beast that will grow into fellowship-ism, then convention-ism, them Episcopalian-ism, and finally Romanism.  If the full grown monster of Romanism is the antipathy of Soul Liberty, Saved Church Membership, and Separation of Church and State (and it is), then the best way to avoid the monster growing to full strength is to kill it in its infancy.

New Hampshire Missions Conference

From October 24th to 28th, 2012 we had the pleasure of being one of three missionary families to attend the 6th Annual Missions Conference of Bible Baptist Church in Nashua, NH.  Pastor Steve Bates, his family, and the members spoiled us with kindness and hearty fellowship.

The Dan Herr family, planting a church in Chester, Mass., were at the conference at the first of the conference.  Larry Nelson and his wife, church planting in South Africa, were in attendance the entire conference.  Brother Larry preached each night, and the Lord blessed and worked in hearts.

Conference decorations at Bible Baptist.

Our family with Pastor Steve Bates family.

Adam singing with Bible Baptist youth.

What has been going on.

Starting on Sunday, October 14th we were with Bible Baptist Church of Ash Grove, Missouri (Pastor Mitch O'Neil).  We had a great time in the Lord presenting the ministry, ministering in music, and preaching.  The key preacher was Brother Thomas Smith, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in St. Clair, Missouri.  What a blessing these messages were to my soul.

Pastor Mitch O'Neil and Paul Burbidge.

We are honoured that Bible Baptist Church of Ash Grove, MO voted to take us on for monthly support.  We thank the Lord for this trust and partnership.









On Wednesday, October 17th we had to leave Missouri and headed north to Davenport, Iowa where we had a Wednesday meeting with Crossroads Independent Baptist Church and Pastor Dave Wellman.  We had a fine meeting and fellowship.

On Thursday, October 18th we drove to Goshen, Ohio.  About a week before Pastor Travis Burke of Cozaddale Baptist Temple had emailed me to announce that they had voted to take us on for monthly support.  Praise the Lord once again!  I knew I was going past Goshen on Thursday coming, so I let Brother Burke know.  We attended Cozaddale Baptist Church's mid-week service and were able to thank them in person and had the additional privilege of preaching.

On Friday, October 19th we headed to New Matamoras, Ohio to stay with Evangelist James and Lori Males.  Brother Jim is working on a church plant in New Martinsville, WV.  Sunday, we attended the meetings of this mission work and had the pleasure of hearing Brother Jim's youngest son, Isaiah, preach.  What a blessing.

Music ministry; Our Adam and Natalie with Isaiah Males and Heather Males.

As you can see from our heavy travelling we have not had much to post, and hope this brings you up to date.

Sunday, October 7th, 2012

Our first foray in Wyoming has been a blessing.  On Sunday we had the blessing of being with Glenrock Baptist Church and Pastor Les Potter.  We had a great time in the Word of God and folks seemed very interested in the church planting work in Nova Scotia and beyond.

Tonight, Monday, we are meeting at Glenrock Baptist Church and the youth are having a life skills lesson.  The girls will be making bean soup from a real working keeper-at-home wife and mother, and the boys will be learning roping from a real working cowboy.  When we first heard that they were teaching roping as a life shill we were a little surprised, until we remembered that this is Wyoming--this is the west.  Wyoming only has a human population of about one-half million.  The cattle and Pronghorn each outnumber the people.  Roping and bean soup is a life skill here.

We leave Wyoming on Tuesday and head to Minnesota for a couple of days.  From there you will hear of us in Missouri, as the Lord supplied us with a missions conference beginning this Sunday which we had not planned to attend.

I was notified today by Pastor Travis Burke that Cozaddale Baptist Temple in Goshen, OH has honoured us with support.  Praise God for all His supply.