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vestment that can make the difference in whether or not a pastor and wife stay on the field. We need to build on the investments of money, time, and energy if we are to maintain healthy fellowship and unity in our convention. This year we have tried to keep our churches better informed of prayer needs from sister churches on a weekly basis through CareNet. One of the most important ways we can build genuine fellowship is to pray for one another. Our Highlights Editor Judith Lynn Maxwell continues to provide helpful, informative, inspirational, highquality information through the IBC’s Newsmagazine. Highlights reaches into each IBC church and beyond to friends, former members, and partners around the globe. Our diverse experiences cause us to have different expectations with regard to fellowship. For some, who have never been a part of a caring family of churches, it is a new experience. I challenge you to invest time in getting to know other pastors and leaders. For others, who come from large conventions that were able to provide full services in many areas, realize that the IBC depends on each pastor and church to take an active part so that we can support one another. For some who come from fractured fellowships where strife and disunity and theological tensions are common, join us as we respect the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives within the bounds of evangelical theology. The intent of the recently approved Summary of Basic Beliefs is to bring us together on the essentials while respecting each Ministry Leadership Conference For pastors, church staff, key leaders and spouses Friday-Tuesday, 13-17 March 2009 Tivoli Carvoeiro Hotel, Algarve, Portugal Carvoeiro is approx. 50 km from the Faro airport. If you cannot get a flight to Faro, it is possible to get a train from Lisbon. Reservations should be made with the IBC Office by 15 December. church’s need to express locally the “faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3). I challenge our IBC leadership, pastors, and other leaders to recommit to strengthening the spirit of unity we enjoy. Christ intends that we live together in love, overcoming obstacles that could divide us. I am thankful that there are no significant rifts that threaten our fellowship. I believe, however, that a deeper fellowship is needed for our “partnership in the Gospel.” Our local ministries will be more effective when we take the time and effort to work together as churches. In our fractured world, such a commitment to pursue Christ’s vision for unity will make a deep impact. It will also please Christ. I call on the Church Development Ministry Team to take a look at our process for receiving new IBC churches into the convention to assure that we are communicating effectively both the expectations and benefits of being a part of the IBC. We also need to review our expectations of current member churches and seek to challenge every pastor to lead his church to take its membership commitment seriously so that genuine fellowship can flourish. Perhaps the Executive Council needs to address the issue of inactive members in the IBC. I call on our Regional Coordinators in the coming year to prioritize genuine fellowship among the churches in their region. Each region can do something that will enhance its churches’ effectiveness in ministry and mission. Supporting Baptist Groups When Herman Stout and family came to Wiesbaden in 1957 to begin an English-language church, he immediately made contact with the local German Baptist pastor Gideon Dreisbach. Together they formulated plans for the establishment of an English-speaking Baptist work. A year later, when twin brother Herbert Stout and his family arrived in Germany to begin “Bethel Baptist Church,” German Christians participated in the first service as a sign of their partnership. This pattern of cooperation has been followed for many of our churches. As was true for the first two “IBC” churches, it is common still for many of our churches to share facilities with local national Baptist churches and to work together in various ways. English-speaking international churches have a unique mission. We reach and minister to some people who would not be reached by national churches. This unique ministry should complement the work of the unions and churches where we serve. A spirit of competition and independence among ministries is foreign to the calling of Christ. I have seen in recent years the benefits and blessings of getting to know national leaders in our work as Baptists. Most are interested and eager to help when asked. National churches have a lot to teach us about the communities where we serve. There are many reasons to cooperate, and none to compete. It is often advisable for IBC churches to affiliate directly with the national Baptist unions. It is always advisable for us to seek strong relationships with local churches and national Baptist unions where we serve. In many cases, they can help with legal and tax issues that can hinder our churches from getting pastors. They can also provide mutual encouragement. Several times this past year, it proved beneficial to enlist the advice and assistance of leaders of national unions and pastors in local national churches. We continue to enjoy a good relationship with the Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland, or German Baptist Union. Because the IBC offices are in Germany, we depend on the GBU for legal and charitable status through a trustee agreement. Our bank in Europe as a convention is owned by the GBU. At our request, a member of the Executive Board of the Sparund Kreditbank, Bernd Primke, serves 6 | Highlights 12/2008
as one of our IBC trustees. We were happy to have Regina Claas, General Secretary of the GBU, with us for this year’s Annual Meeting. We are thankful for this partnership. The IBC is a member of the European Baptist Federation, a family of more than 50 Baptist unions, representing 13,000 churches and 800,000 members from nearly every country in Europe and Central Asia including five unions in the Middle East. Although our most prominent involvement in the EBF is through the Indigenous Missionary Project, we also help to support all efforts of the EBF – mission and evangelism, human rights and religious freedom, theological education, and humanitarian aid. We were happy to have Tony Peck, EBF General Secretary and a prince of a man, to speak for our Annual Meeting. For more information about the EBF, go to www.ebf.org. We are also members of the Baptist World Alliance. The BWA is a fellowship of 214 Baptist conventions and unions comprising a membership of 36 million baptized believers and a community of 105 million. Learn more about the BWA by looking at their website, www.bwanet.org. I challenge IBC churches to celebrate the partnership with other Baptist churches around the world. Locally, every pastor should seek to establish healthy relationships with other pastors and churches. Certainly you should pray for them and with them regularly. Work together on projects where your visions intersect. Nationally get to know those who serve as leaders of the union where you serve. Certainly there are ways you can bless their work, and let them know about yours. See how you might work together. International churches can offer a vital spark of Gospel fervor if they will engage meaningfully, particularly in spiritual environments often described as post-Christian. There is an excitement about our ministry that can encourage and stimulate others. I challenge our military churches to make every effort to work with chaplains and others who minister to military members. If they see you as a friend and a person willing to help, and not just someone who wants to use them for access, they will usually embrace you. If you consider them a threat, you will almost certainly cripple your own ministry. Let’s support in appropriate ways the work of other Baptist groups around the world. Former BWA President Denton Lotz used to say often, “We belong to each other because we belong to Christ.” Engaging in World-Wide Missions The heartbeat of our convention since its inception has always been missions, whether locally or globally. Most pastors come to IBC churches out of a compelling sense of global awareness and mission commitment. Most live outside their countries of birth. This is also true for most IBC church members. Bringing the Gospel to the whole world seems like a natural result of our Christian commitment and global representation. With churches in more than 25 countries, members from over 125 countries in our churches, and many churches with up to 50 nations represented in one church, we have the world not only at our doorsteps but also within our walls. One of our cooperative mission efforts as a family of churches is through the European Baptist Mission. In recent years the EBM has gone through a transformation to involve in leadership people from its traditional mission sending countries and mission receiving countries to serve together more effectively in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and India. Hans Guderian, who has led the EBM for many years, will be leaving at the end of this year to serve as a pastor in Berlin. We are grateful to Hans for the good way in which he has worked with the IBC in our support of the EBM missionaries. I am still looking for the day when an IBC church member will serve the EBM as a long-term or shortterm missionary. There are current needs including a finance manager and two medical doctors to serve in Cameroon, and an experienced missionary couple to start and lead an HIV-AIDS children’s home in Mozambique. Perhaps God will call someone from an IBC church to serve. Until that day, we can continue to pray and give toward the good work of the EBM. More information can be found on their website at www.ebm-masa.org/index_eng.html. Every IBC church is involved in direct missions of some kind. The Gospel of a gracious God who sent His Son to hurting and needy people is our motivation for sending and going to the entire world with Gospel. It is natural that every church be involved in strategic ways as the Lord leads them. In addition, the EBF’s Indigenous Missionary Project offers us good opportunities for personal mission involvement. We are planning for 2009 a joint mission trip with our partners in Virginia. I hope members from several IBC churches will be able to join other IBCers and Virginia volunteers to work with some of the Indigenous Missionary church planters. The Missions Ministry Team is working with Virginia’s Partnership Coordinator Craig Waddell to plan this trip which will probably involve working in several locations in Moldova. There could be an additional trip or two planned, perhaps to Romania, if there is interest. Last year, we approved a new plan for our cooperative mission giving. The IBC Global Missions Offering will be emphasized during the month of December and combines a number of special mission offerings that previously were taken throughout the year. In 2008, the distribution of the offering will be as follows: International Mission Board, SBC: .........22.5% European Baptist Mission: ...............22.5% Indigenous Missionary Project: .............5% IBC Church Planting: ....................5% Together We Build: .....................20% IBC Home Missions (previously May Missions):.20% Emergency Projects: .....................5% The Missions Ministry Team took the decision to recommend combining all IBC Special Offerings as a result of requests from churches to reduce the number of appeals during the year. We hope this once-a-year special emphasis will help our churches to promote effectively and give generously. As with other emphases, the key will be pastoral leadership. If the pastor leads, the church will follow. I challenge our pastors to make it a priority in their churches to promote the IBC Global Missions Offering this year. If you will promote it, your people will gladly give. I challenge our churches to make mis- 7 | Highlights 12/2008
Page 1 and 2: Highlights Volume 46, Issue 3 Publi
Page 3 and 4: Others Constantly Change Farsi-spea
Page 5: Officers and Ministry Team Coordina
Page 9 and 10: IBC Summary of Basic Beliefs We do
Page 11 and 12: From the Editor’s Pen • In the
Page 13 and 14: News from the Churches Lagos, Portu
Page 15 and 16: News from the Churches Spiritual Gi

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