OUR CRISIS:
The church of Jesus Christ in the United States faces a crisis of relevance and authenticity like none we have faced in our lifetime! Declining participation, aging congregations, failing leaders, clergy shortages, and an anti-Christian spirit in our culture are forcing us to rethink everything about church. For 25 years people have said that the conflicts we faced as people with a heart for renewal were peculiar to our involvement with the United Church of Christ. Both friend and foe told us we should sensibly leave the UCC to join some other branch of the church. We replied that the heartaches in the UCC were contagious to the whole church and whole culture. We replied that we could stand for the gospel of Jesus Christ right here where we had been placed or be forced to do exactly the same somewhere else. Now, I don’t know about you, but I personally find little satisfaction in being proved right. But God is still speaking, and the historic churches still have a great part to play in His plan for the next generation
OUR CALL:
I was called to the specific ministry of church renewal as a college freshman responding to Francis Schaefer’s invitation to renew the North American Church while giving his historic lectures, which became his landmark book, “The God Who Is There.” God had already called me to ministry from the text of Ezekiel 3 to be a watchman, called to those who were of the household of God but had grown hardened and obstinate. My entire life has been a verification of the call of God. Indeed, the point of all of our lives together in Christ is to verify the truth of His word that has called us out of sin into eternal life.
BWF has always had two dimensions to its call. One was to be a watchman whose prophetic voice called the church back from its infatuation with cultural idolatry. We are well known for this. The second dimension, however, has been to unleash renewal in the local church. We have encouraged a new generation of pastoral leaders, offered a summer institute to provide pastors with vision and tools for renewal, recommended renewal resources through our publications and mobilized local churches for missions.
Across the landscape of our towns and villages, where going to church has become the exception rather than the rule, where young people have no reference for understanding Jesus, the historic church is strategic to God’s plan to introduce His son to those who have never met Him. Our vision and the insights of our unique experience are strategic to turning our churches inside out.
OUR COMMITMENT:
Since 1993, Biblical Witness Fellowship has not had a fully focused Executive Director. The work of BWF has only sustained through the generous partnership with the Congregational Church in Candia NH that provided us with office space, office equipment and 80 – 90 % of my support. Being the Sr. Pastor of a local church as well as working for renewal has been both a great challenge and for the most part a great blessing. Often along this path the ongoing renewal in the church at Candia provided a good laboratory as well as a foundation of intercession and support for the work of BWF. Now a new generation who has either grown up or more newly come to the church as it evolved into a firmly established work with a solid Biblical foundation, needs to move on from the conflicts and triumphs of a previous generation.
Meanwhile God has been clearly calling me to make a full time commitment to church renewal rather than congregational care. So in November of 2006, I announced to the Candia Congregation that I would be leaving them on January 1, 2007 after 25 + years as pastor, the longest pastorate in the history of the church since its founding in 1771. This is a faith commitment only as great in risk and uncertainty as when Laurie and I and 3 children came in response to God’s call to the church at Candia with their budget of $22,500 in the autumn of 1983. I am truly excited by the possibilities and I believe it will also be good for BWF to have an Executive Director who is technically a layman.
In addition to the prophetic ministry you have come to expect, we will be developing out of the breadth of our experience, resources to “renew the historic church.” These will be resources that can be used by pastors starting out or getting a second wind in our unique setting. We will be drawing on the resources developed in our summer institutes as well as the wealth of experience and information so many of you amassed over the years. We will work more closely with local church pastors and lay leaders to effectively turn churches around. I will also be working with a dynamic initiative called Vision One, through which Vision New England is seeking to turn New England churches inside out. www.visionnewengland.org)
We are also actively moving on two other dimensions. One is the critical and overdue development of an intercessory prayer network. Secondly is a nationwide network of young adults who have been called by God from our UCC churches to the work of renewal.
We need your support, first in prayer and then of course financially. You and you alone are the only foundations on which we are dependent. We are deeply grateful for your incredible faithfulness and generosity. This has been a challenging year for us financially, and we need any help you can provide.
In His Grace,
David Runnion-Bareford
Executive Director
Biblical Witness Fellowship