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A
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
BIBLE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH
Seven Mennonite revivalists, under pressure from their bishops to
give up their style of evangelism, huddled at a farm house in
Milford Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It was Friday,
September 24, 1858, just two weeks before the next high council.
Should they acquiesce to restrictions upon the freedom of
expression they enjoyed in their revival and prayer meetings? No,
they would not. And so they established the Evangelische
Mennoniten Gemeinschaft (Evangelical Mennonite Society). One year
later, the first Tuesday in November 1859, they held their first
semi-annual preachers conference in the Evangelical Mennonite
Meeting House in Haycock Township, Bucks County. Eleven days later
they dedicated a new meeting house in Upper Milford Township,
Lehigh County. Thus began the Bible Fellowship Church. As other young men joined the preachers in revival, the
organization developed. In 1866 they published their Glaubenslehre
which contained a statement of faith and church order along with a
constitution for their mission society. The articles of faith were
essentially the Mennonite Dortrecht Confession of Faith of 1632.
Their mission was to proclaim the Good News everywhere they could
and to help others do the same where they could not go. They added
meeting houses and preaching stations from Coopersburg,
Pennsylvania to Wadsworth, Ohio. Mennonite
Brethren in Christ, Pennsylvania Conference Other Mennonites were influenced by the same revival winds which
blew through southeastern Pennsylvania.
Some New Mennonites, followers of Daniel Hoch, united with
these Reformed Mennonites to become the United Mennonites (1875).
These kindred spirits found the Evangelical Mennonites of
Pennsylvania and together became the Evangelical United Mennonites
(November 1879). With the new union came a church paper, greater structure and new
theological emphases. The Gospel Banner edited by Daniel Brenneman
provided reports of evangelistic activities, stories to challenge
the heart, and doctrinal articles which developed a new way of
thinking…Articles selected from Methodist sources pointed away
from Mennonite emphases. A new understanding of the Return of
Christ to establish His earthly kingdom gained acceptance. In 1883 a small group in Ohio which called itself Brethren in
Christ merged with the Evangelical United Mennonites to form the
Mennonite Brethren in Christ. At the turn of the century, the Conference began to commission
missionaries to diverse parts of the world, and new articles of
faith were debated and approved. The Wesleyan emphasis on a
"Second Blessing" or second work of grace, was evident
in the article on Entire Sanctification. According to this
teaching, the sin nature could be eradicated and the sanctified
person be free from all conscious or intentional sin. The new
articles on the Return of Christ reflected the widespread
preoccupation with the impending end of the age. World War One, the Great Depression, and the outbreak of World War
Two did not dampen the spirit of evangelism. By 1920 the
Conference was double what it had been in 1900. In the next twenty
years it doubled again. The Wesleyan notion of eradication of the sinful nature was
replaced by the idea that the tendency to sin was counteracted by
living victoriously in the Spirit as taught by Keswick sources.
This was the beginning of an emphasis on the process of
sanctification rather than on a second work of grace. Relations with the other Mennonite Brethren in Christ conferences
were not good. Doctrinal and ecclesiological disagreements were
magnified by personality differences. When General Conference in
1947 voted to change the name of the denomination to United
Missionary Church, the Pennsylvania Conference resisted.
Pennsylvania was allowed to use the old name, but five years later
voted to separate from the other conferences. The official reasons
included differences over the doctrine of holiness, foreign
mission programs, educational plans, financial autonomy, church
government, and objection to a projected merger with The
Missionary Church Association. The
Bible Fellowship Church In 1959 the Conference adopted a new name, Bible Fellowship Church.
New articles of faith were ratified which reflected more
accurately the beliefs of the Fellowship. The practice of feet
washing was dropped, and many other changes were made.
The pursuit of a biblical basis for every facet of the
denomination characterized annual conferences and ministerial
conferences. A multitude of study papers, discussions, and
recommendations focused on a wide range of topics. From a loose association of Mennonite revivalists, influenced by
the holiness movement to a Wesleyan denomination to a Reformed
fellowship holding to believers baptism, the Bible Fellowship
Church stands today. Once each congregation was autonomous. Later
they came under the strong hand of presiding elders in a modified
episcopal system. Today particular Bible Fellowship Churches are
ruled by local elders. Each particular church sends elders along
with their pastors to Annual Conference. New churches continue to
be built, education facilities are being added and new
congregations and daughter churches planted. Adapted
from the history of the BFC found at http://www.bfchistory.org/files/briefhist
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