At our last Vision and Strategy Committee meeting we invited Pastor Rick Dobrowolski to be with us and present his thoughts and passion for planting churches in the Large- Metro urban context. Rick pastors one of our newest Bible Fellowship Churches, Citylight Bible Fellowship Church, in the city of Allentown. Before coming to Allentown, Rick had a desire to plant a church in Philadelphia but ended up planting the Allentown Bible Church that eventually merged with our Lighthouse BFC in Allentown and is now Citylight BFC.
Rick presented a proposal to the committee with a way that the BFC can focus on urban church planting and refresh our vision for reaching Large-Metro cities. The Vision & Strategy Committee will continue to discuss Rick’s proposal and look to the Lord for guidance to lead the BFC into Large-Metro cities.
Urban Church Planting in Bible Fellowship Church History
Throughout our history, the Bible Fellowship Church and its predecessor the Mennonite Brethren in Christ started churches in the “Large-Metro” context meaning cities with populations of 150,000 to millions. We recorded church starts in the city of Philadelphia including Salem in 1899, West Philly in 1918, Wissinoming in 1922, and Roxboro in 1960. In the mid to late-1930s and early 1940s churches were started in cities like: Irvington/Newark, NJ; Port Richmond, NY; Brooklyn, NY; Trenton, NJ; Newark, NJ; Staten Island, NY; and Binghamton, NY. From this list, only Wissinoming BFC in Philadelphia, PA and Newark, NJ still have a BFC church.
Since 1980 the Bible Fellowship Church has not started a new church in a Large-Metro city. There was an attempt to plant a Chinese church in Philadelphia and one in Brooklyn Chinatown in the late 90s and early 2000 but both these church starts closed. More recently we attempted to plant a church in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, and this did not move forward. We have a church plant in the Naples-Marco Island Fl Metro area (450,000 people).
Bible Fellowship Church Planting in Smaller Cities
Bible Fellowship Churches in smaller cities mostly followed the national trend of leaving the city for the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s as the people in those small cities left for the suburbs. Bethel BFC of Allentown PA which began in 1889 planted Cedar Crest BFC in the suburbs of Allentown in 1966. In 1980, Bethel Allentown closed and many of its members moved to Cedar Crest BFC. The BFC in Easton PA began in 1909, but closed in 1985. Now we have a church in Forks Township, PA which is in the suburbs of Easton. Bethlehem and York moved out of their small city.
Grace BFC of Reading, PA remained in the city even while many of the attenders moved out. Church Extension and Reading came up with an answer to reaching the changed Reading demographic. They began a Spanish-speaking congregation in the Grace BFC Reading building in 2008 with Church Planting Pastor Carlos Rodriguez to reach out to the vast Hispanic population of the small city.
Why Urban Church Planting?
Allentown native Tim Keller famously started Redeemer Church in New York City. God blessed his efforts and the church grew from 50 people in 1989 to over 5,000 by 2008. He poured his efforts into turning the church’s attention to reaching the city. In his bookCenter Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City, Keller gives reasons why planting churches in cities is an effective way to reach lost people for Christ, edify those who have been won to Christ, and bless your city. Some of those reasons are:
- Because people are moving to cities, especially young people.
- Because cultural elites often reside in cities.
- Because minorities, especially those who may be a part of an unreached people group, tend to flock to cities.
- Because poor people tend to prefer cities over anywhere else, and the Bible clearly tells us we need to reach the poor.
Please pray for God’s leading and provision for the Bible Fellowship Church to plant churches in Large-Metro cities. Providentially, God recently led a man to contact us about planting a church in Philadelphia and we are assessing this man. Pray for him and for Rick and for Church Extension as we prayerfully formulate plans for reaching Large Metro Cities for Jesus Christ through evangelistic church planting.