Editorial
July/August, 1999
Volume 34, Number 4
Brethren Revival Fellowship is not a one issue oriented movement. We have been a loyal concern group, representing a sizeable spectrum of Brethren who have genuine concerns about some basic directions in the Church of the Brethren. Our primary concerns have had to do with the nature of Bible authority, the discarding of distinctive Brethren (clearly biblical) practices, and the salvation role of Jesus Christ who alone has achieved pardon for our sins. Our theological position is conservative, evangelical, and Anabaptist-Pietist in slant. We recognize that not all committed conservative evangelical Brethren will agree with absolutely everything that we publish on the pages of the BRF Witness, but without apology we stand for biblical truth.
Brethren Revival Fellowship believes that the doctrinal pluralism of the 1940s and 1950s has become the moral pluralism of the 1980s and the 1990s. Most church leaders are decent, fair-minded, and compassionate persons–but many have embraced relativism, pluralism, tolerance for all kinds of diversity.
Pluralism once meant willingness to live with various viewpoints, but always within the context of our historic Brethren theology. The term “pluralism” today is used to promote a new openness to all points of view–an attitude which says that one may believe anything (or nothing) and still be a member in good standing. Pluralism is used to designate a broad doctrinal diversity where there is room for any person, any idea, and any practice. Pluralism implies that the church is broad rather than narrow, inclusive rather than exclusive, and tolerant rather than intolerant.
Relativism is the theory that there is no absolute truth; truth is relative; you must decide what is right for you, and I must decide what is right for me. A statement which is frequently made, says, “That may be true for you, hut it is not true for me.” But relativism is really a closed minded, intolerant position. The relativist teacher says to his students, “Since no one has the truth about religion and morality, you should;be open-minded to the opinions of your fellow students.” But a thoughtful student replies, “If no one has the truth, isn’t that a good reason for me not to listen to my fellow students?” And furthermore, relativism is really judgmental and exclusivist. The relativist says that if you believe in objective moral and religious truth, you are wrong. Thus, relativism is judgmental–and since your beliefs in absolute truth are not legitimate options, relativism is also exclusivist.
Brethren Revival Fellowship believes that God’s Word is the measure of absolute truth for the Christian. One of the basic tenets of Anabaptist and Pietist thought was that the true Christian studies God’s Word and sets out to lead a holy life in accord with it. Donald Durnbaugh (page 49, Fruit of the Vine) says that “One way to describe their approach (to scripture) is to say that they were biblicists, taking the Bible at face value.” He says that they interpreted the Bible “in a straightforward common sense manner.” And so, when Jesus says in Matthew 5:33-37 that we are “not to swear at all” we set out to comply with the instructions Jesus gives; and refuse to swear an oath. Peter Nead frequently said that “The Scripture on swearing oaths is so plain that it needs no comment.” And many governments have granted to Christians exemptions from oath taking, and required only an ‘affirmation” of being truthful in a court of law.
BRF is troubled with evidences that more and more Christians seem satisfied to ignore some of the uncomfortable biblical commands, and seem to imply that God must be kidding when He speaks. William Smith, in the World magazine (August 8, 1998), listed some examples:
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
Malachi 2:16 “‘I hate divorce’ says the Lord God.”
Romans 13:7 “If you owe taxes, pay taxes.”
1 Corinthians 7:39 “She is free to marry…but he must belong to the Lord.”
1 Timothy 2:9 “Women (are) to dress modestly, with decency and propriety.”
Brethren Revival Fellowship believes in teaching that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God, without error in the original autographs. We believe in the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His visible second coming, and in His substitutionary atonement. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation and that the way to come into a right relationship with God requires repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. We accept the biblical guidelines for human sexuality…Those guidelines call for chastity outside of an honorable marriage bond between a man and woman, and lifelong fidelity within marriage. We believer that the first mission of the church is to evangelize the lost and to nurture believers. We oppose the discarding of clearly mandated New Testament beliefs, ordinances, and practices which Brethren have historically observed.
We invite you to reed the following pages if you care to learn more about the origin, work, and goals of the BRF.
Brethren Revival Fellowship:
A Loyal Concern Movement
By Harold S. Martin
In 1999, Brethren Revival Fellowship marks the completion of four decades of witness in the Church of the Brethren. We have been calling the church to stand firmly for the veracity of the Bible, urging the church not to discard her historic doctrines, and pressing for an “as it reads” understanding of New Testament truth.
Brethren Revival Fellowship is comprised of a growing number of people in the Church of the Brethren who are committed to spiritual renewal, personal evangelism, moral uprightness, and doctrinal purity within the church. The Brethren Revival Fellowship is not a regional organization. We have representatives who receive quantities of our literature in churches in all 23 districts of the Brotherhood. Also, BRF has an Advisory Board comprised of mostly pastors from various parts of the nation. The BRF Committee meets with the Advisory Board on Wednesday morning each year at Annual Conference, at which time the Annual Conference business items are reviewed, especially in light of the Standing Committee recommendations which are made earlier in the week.
1. WHERE AND WHEN DID THE BRF GET ITS START?
Brethren Revival Fellowship came into being following the 1959 Annual Conference at Ocean Grove, New Jersey. A few years later we began publishing the BRF Witness. Thus, 1999 marks the 40th year of BRF’s existence and the 34th year of publishing the Witness.
Decisions made at the 1958 Annual Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, have much to do with the formation of the Brethren Revival Fellowship. As a result of the larger church’s emphasis on “home missions” and “church extension,” the Annual Conference in 1958 decided to abandon the requirement for trine immersion baptism, and to supplement the three part love feasts with permission for Protestant type Sunday morning “bread and cup communions.” Historian Donald Durnbaugh says that the 1958 decision was designed to “attract new members by downplaying some of the traditional expectations for membership.” The ruling permitted churches to take in new members by transfer on the basis of a former baptism by any mode–even if that baptism was limited to mere infant baptism.
Many more conservative Brethren were alarmed by the church’s liberal direction, and the attempts to become more ecumenical and Protestant in its bent. The decision was an affront to our whole Anabaptist heritage, for the word “Anabaptist” was a nickname given to those who refused to accept infant baptism and insisted on believer’s baptism. (Infant baptism to the Anabaptists was a meaningless ritual.)
There were other evidences of departure from the teachings of the Bible. Brethren produced literature minimized the importance of the verbal inspiration of the Bible, the substitutionary atonement achieved by Christ’s death on the cross and the Bible’s teaching on creation (as opposed to evolutionary theory).
These concerns precipitated the first gathering which led to the formation of the Brethren Revival Fellowship. It occurred in June, 1959, at Ocean Grove, New Jersey when a group of more than fifty brethren and sisters met together for prayer and a discussion of concerns about directions in which the Church of the Brethren was going.
Those who gathered came from various parts of the Brotherhood. It was decided to announce a larger meeting for all concerned persons, and that meeting was held near Greencastle, Pennsylvania in August, 1959. A committee of five was elected to function as a voice for concerned members of the Church of the Brethren. During the early 1960s, several area BRF meetings were held and a few resolutions were passed. The original committee was composed of five ministers–Linford Rotenberger, Hartman Rice, Ralph Jones, Murray Lehman, and John Geary–all ordained elders and pastors in the Church of the Brethren.
The first BRF Witness was distributed in 1966. It was an article contrasting statements from a then recent Brethren publication (called “The New Youth Curriculum”), with some clear words that were quoted from the Bible. The BRF mailing list was derived from responses to a brief survey of questions that had earlier been sent to every licensed and ordained minister in the 1965 Church of the Brethren Yearbook. Linford Rotenberger and Harold Martin had compiled the survey and saw that they were mailed. Those who returned the survey card with a positive response comprised our first regular mailing list.
The printing and mailing of the first BRF Witness marked the beginning of rapid growth and increased outreach for the Brethren Revival Fellowship. It also led to lots of charges of divisiveness and legalism and fears of departure from the larger denomination. In spite of those criticisms, BRF has always claimed to be a loyal concern movement within the Church of the Brethren. We have had a display booth and an Insight Session at Annual Conference every year since 1971. Brethren Revival Fellowship secured secretarial help in 1974 and employed the services of a staff person in 1977. A second staff person was employed in 1986.
2. WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC CONCERNS OF THE BRF?
Brethren Revival Fellowship appreciates the latitude within congregations to map out programs in keeping with their basic beliefs; we are grateful too for our denomination’s excellent record in responding to major disasters at home and abroad. We know that many members of the Church of the Brethren are persons of character and integrity, and seek more and more to be conformed to the mind of Christ. On the other hand, many in the Church of the Brethren are heartbroken over the feeble kinds of preaching they hear, disturbed especially because of lax attitudes toward radical feminism and the new openness toward accepting homosexuality as a valid lifestyle, and distressed because one by one the distinctive Brethren practices are being dropped.
a. BRF is concerned about the fact that many within the Church of the Brethren have set aside a firm belief in the trustworthiness and authority of the Bible, and knowingly or unknowingly have embraced the historical critical views of biblical interpretation.
b. BRF is concerned about the drift from a balanced Biblical-Anabaptist-Pietist and Brethren oriented understanding of church and state, war and peace, church discipline, and New Testament ordinances (such as the three part love feast).
c. BRF is concerned about the turn from preaching the Gospel of reconciliation of individuals to God through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, to a human centered program of political involvement. We believe that cultural renovation begins one by one with personal conversion to faith in Jesus Christ.
d. BRF is concerned about the diminishing membership and the need for revival and evangelism within the Church of the Brethren. It seems that many of our church officials are not ready to accept the fact that doctrinal beliefs and morality issues are affecting the giving and are contributing to the membership decline.
e. BRF is concerned about the content of Brotherhood produced materials which so often contain calls for the acceptance of more diversity, and give evidence of more and more drift toward a broad inclusiveness that embraces even those who practice a sexually immoral lifestyle.
f. BRF is concerned about our denomination’s participation in the NCC/WCC (and their local affiliates) with their slant toward syncretism, and their reimagining God and allowing room for multiple gods and goddesses.
g. BRF is concerned about saving the Church of the Brethren and not fragmenting it by splintering and dividing into many small independent groups. We encourage evangelical members of the Church of the Brethren to stay in the denomination and witness there.
Brethren Revival Fellowship aims to serve as a voice for those who share the concerns named
above. Brethren Revival Fellowship emphasizes the distinctives that set Brethren apart from the traditional Protestant churches. BRF is a gathering place for Brethren who hold traditional faith values. It is not our aim to call the church backwards; it is our objective to call the church forward to fulfill the historic mission of the church in the future.
3. WHAT PRECISELY DOES THE BRETHREN REVIVAL FELLOWSHIP DO?
We are aware that it took a number of decades for the church to drift to where we are today, and that improvements do not come quickly. BRF is attempting to halt the drift into apostasy, and to call Brethren to a faithful stand for Bible truth in the following ways:
a. BRF mails out the bi-monthly BRF Witness to individuals, and we mail quantities to persons who agree to serve as congregational representatives and share extra copies with interested people in the local church.
b. BRF meets with denominational leaders on occasion to discuss vital issues. We keep in touch with the denomination’s Executive Director, representatives of Bethany Seminary, and members of the General Board Staff.
c. BRF conducts one week Bible Institutes each summer on the campus of Elizabethtown College, and in congregations in various parts of the nation. The cost for the systematic Bible study sessions is partially underwritten by BRF.
d. BRF in cooperation with the Brotherhood office trains at least one BVS Unit annually, and oversees their work–currently working at the Food Bank in Lewiston, Maine. The BVSers live with and are accountable to a houseparent couple.
e. BRF sponsors a senior high youth summer work camp. Our youth work campers have served in Brooklyn, New York; Falfurrias, Texas; the Dominican Republic, and at the Germantown Church of the Brethren in the Philadelphia area.
f. BRF has established three new Church of the Brethren congregations in the state of Maine. Oversight of the three churches is now in the hands of the Church of the Brethren Maine Ministries committee.
g. BRF personnel are available without cost to any local congregation for informational meetings, Bible conferences, teaching sessions, etc, where such meetings are desired. Contact BRF for any help you may wish to request.
h. BRF has been actively involved at Annual Conference each year for nearly three decades–with Insight Sessions, meal events, and a literature display area.
i. BRF holds an annual general meeting on the second Saturday of September each year in various geographical areas of the Brotherhood. The meetings are intended for sharing information, proclaiming truth, and building fellowship.
j. BRF is developing a Brethren Mission Fund designed to support members of the Church of the
Brethren who are involved in evangelical mission work. For more information about this program write to James F. Myer, 234 Keener Road, Lititz, PA 17543.
If you are interested in an informal meeting to gather information about BRF concerns, or if your church or Sunday School class would like to sponsor systematic Bible study classes, write to Brethren Revival Fellowship at its Ephrata, PA address.
4. WHO IS THE BRF COMMITTEE AND HOW ARE MEMBERS ELECTED?
Brethren Revival Fellowship is governed by ten committee members, each elected for six year terms. Members may serve on the Committee only until age 65. The terms of two committee members expire every year. Members on the Committee are chosen from a slate of nominees presented to the people gathered at a public meeting on the second Saturday of September. Nominations may be made from the floor of that meeting.
Present Committee members are:
- Craig Alan Myers (Columbia City, Indiana)–BRF chairman and assistant Witness editor. Craig serves as pastor of the Blue River Church of the Brethren in the Northern Indiana District. He has served on the District Board in Northern Indiana.
- James F. Myer (Lititz, Pennsylvania)–BRF vice-chairman and staff member, and former Annual Conference moderator, is a farmer and widely used evangelist who serves in the nonsalaried ministry in the White Oak Church of the Brethren.
- Kenneth G. Leininger (Denver, Pennsylvania)–is the BRF secretary, and is a minister and moderator of the Cocalico Church of the Brethren. Ken is self-employed in a woodworking and used book business, and serves as principal of the summer Brethren Bible Institute held on the campus of Elizabethtown College.
- Carl L. Brubaker (Lititz, Pennsylvania)–BRF treasurer, and is a banker, minister, and moderator of the Midway, Pennsylvania Church of the Brethren near Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Carl has in the past served on the denomination’s Church of the Brethren Benefit Trust.
- J. Eric Brubaker (Ephrata, Pennsylvania)-serves as a minister in the Middle Creek Church of the Brethren. Eric and his wife Linda are the editors of the Brethren Mission Fund newsletter. Eric is a self-employed draftsman.
- Samuel M. Cassel (Manheim, Pennsylvania)–is a self-employed painter and serves as a minister in the White Oak Church of the Brethren, and has completed a term on the Annual Conference Standing Committee, representing the Atlantic Northeast District.
- Dean A. Garrett (West Alexandria, Ohio)–serves as a supply pastor in the Prices Creek Church of the Brethren in the Southern Ohio District. Dean works in the Preble County, Ohio Headstart Program.
- Walter Heisey (Newmanstown, Pennsylvania)–is a minister in the Heidelberg Church of the Brethren in the Atlantic Northeast District. Walter is a farmer.
The BRF Committee meets each year with an Advisory Board to review Annual Conference business items, and to get their input from a broader perspective. Advisory Board members are mostly pastors from the various districts of the Brotherhood, persons who hold to an evangelical theology. They receive copies of the Minutes of the BRF Committee meetings. Readers of the BRF Witness are invited to correspond with any of the Committee members to share concerns or to seek information.
5. HAS THE BRF ACCOMPLISHED CHANGE IN THE CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN?
As a result of the resolve and the witness of the Brethren Revival Fellowship, a number of individuals have been influenced for good. We keep getting occasional letters which express the thought that is spelled out in the following paragraph:
“If it were not for the BRF movement we would have left the Church of the Brethren for good several years ago. Your ministry is very important to us and we read through each copy of the Witness like a thirsty man drinks water.
It is interesting to note too that Donald Fitzkee in his recent book, Moving Toward the Mainstream, says that Brethren Revival Fellowship helped to prevent the Church of the Brethren from getting swallowed up in a large Protestant merger plan. He says, “During the 1970s, groups such as the Brethren Revival Fellowship and Brethren Peace Fellowship gained wider respectability and gradually nudged the church out of the ecumenical mainstream into a less controversial position along the ecumenical edge, where Brethren could have some exchange with other churches without losing their Anabaptist and Pietist footing” (page 252, Moving Toward the Mainstream: 20th Century Change Among the Brethren of Eastern Pennsylvania) .
Also, Elmer Gleim, in his book, History of the Church of the Brethren in Southern Pennsylvania, says of the Brethren Revival Fellowship:
“The BRF has won extensive followings in many congregations of the Brotherhood. By its literature and its preaching, the movement has begun to make its own contributions to Brethren life and thought. BRF has awakened many church members to the need for effective evangelism in the present age. It has become a source of information to Brethren who are interested in trends within the denomination. It has acted as a loyal opposition movement to some trends within the church, keeping alive the right to dissent within the denomination itself” (page 153, Change and Challenge: A History of the Church of the Brethren in the Southern District of Pennsylvania.).
The major influence of the Brethren Revival Fellowship is being felt at the grassroots level of the Church. The BRF Witness is mailed without obligation to 11,000 Brethren every other month; the Bible Institutes are building faith in the lives of those who attend; youth are involved in the summer Bible Institutes and in the senior high work camps; BRF has become a rallying point for conservative ministers and lay persons alike; a public general meeting is held each September with Brethren usually attending from eight or more districts in the Brotherhood.
Letters from people in many congregations and in various places of church responsibility can help answer the question about BRF influence. Some excerpts follow:
From Michigan:
Enclosed is a $100 contribution to help continue the essential and important work of the BRF. We need you more and more as the years go by. I read everything you write with great interest and with great benefit. Your writings have made a difference in my life and I am grateful to God for His sustaining you. Please send 30 copies of the Brethren Card to use with my congregation.
From Virginia:
We are most grateful for your sending copies of the Brethren Card for use in our “People of the Covenant” group, and also for the book, New Testament Beliefs and Practices: A Brethren Understanding, which so clearly and strongly explicates the doctrines set forth on the Brethren Card. We shall make good use of the cards and of your book. Our study group here thanks God for your ministry of exposition and interpretation through writing and teaching, and for what you are doing for the spiritual revitalization of our Church.
From Ohio:
I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for your excellent article entitled “The Glorious Return of Jesus Christ” in the March/April, 1996 issue of the BRF Witness. It is well written, well documented with Scripture, and makes a compelling call for spiritual faithfulness. As a boy, I recall many sermons that focused on this topic, and during my formative years the truth of the Second Coming was deeply instilled in my heart. Thanks for your excellent ministry.
From California:
In searching through some papers today, I found a pink booklet of yours titled “The Assurance of Salvation” and published in 1988. The main article was such a tremendously inspiring message that I am wondering if it is still available in quantity form? I could easily use 100 copies.
From Minnesota:
After reading Carl Bowman’s book, Brethren Society, described by Donald Durnbaugh as a “study of the radical changes that have taken place in the Church of the Brethren,” we are again reminded of the urgency of the work which BRF is doing. We are convinced that the great majority of members in our churches are much nearer in agreement with the values upheld by BRF than with those values reflected in the material coming out in the mail from our church leaders.
Brethren Revival Fellowship does not have a spectacular success story to tell. We have no firm hopes of completely reforming the denomination. We see very little evidence of a general return to accepting the plain reading of the New Testament as a valid guide for life. Speakers are sometimes laughed at if they quote from the Bible on Annual Conference floor. We are often accused of being judgmental and narrow. But we are not militaristic fundamentalists; we are peace loving, nonresistant brothers and sisters who seek to influence the church toward again being “a people of the Book,” and taking seriously the use of “the New Testament as our rule of faith and practice.”
6. HOW IS THE WORK OF THE BRF BEING FINANCED?
Brethren Revival Fellowship is a nonprofit organization incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and governed by a Board of Directors of ten members with a larger advisory board. All gifts to the Brethren Revival Fellowship are tax deductible. The organization is financed by means of gifts from individuals who are in sympathy with our concerns, and by offerings taken by churches that believe BRF activities are worthy of support. Some congregations include BRF in their annual budgets.
All of our pamphlets are distributed free of charge, and our services are offered without cost to congregations. Thus BRF appreciates gifts from those who are moved as good stewards to share part of their giving. Those who desire to support the various activities of BRF may send checks to the Ephrata, Pennsylvania address or they may be sent directly to our treasurer: Carl L. Brubaker, 1425 Furnace Hills Pike, Lititz, PA 17543.
Our funds have always enabled us to operate in the black. However, with high postage rates and increased printing costs, along with the expansion of our outreach–money will need to keep on coming in. A treasurer’s report is available in the spring of each year.
7. HOW MAY A PERSON BECOME A MEMBER OF THE BRF?
There is no “official” way to become a member of the Brethren Revival Fellowship. There are no cards to sign, no subscriptions to buy, no dues to pay. Your name can be placed on our mailing list by writing to: Brethren Revival Fellowship, P.O. Box 543, Ephrata, PA 17522-0543. [Or e-mail via our contact form.] Request that your name be added to our address files. In this way readers can keep informed about our concerns and activities.
BRF is simply a loosely knit fellowship among those who share similar convictions about major doctrines of the Bible, and about current issues confronting the church. If you find yourself identifying. with the concerns and convictions which characterize BRF, as described earlier in this brochure, you may consider yourself a part of the movement.
Some will say, “But what can I do to help the cause?” There are several important answers to that question. You can help the Brethren Revival Fellowship in several ways:
a. By praying for the Church of the Brethren and its leaders, and supporting it in any way that you in good conscience can.
b. By assisting BRF in its attempt to get the Witness into more and more Brethren congregations. If you are not already doing so, perhaps you could serve as a contact person for your congregation to receive several copies of each issue of the Witness to share with others in your church.
c. By financially supporting the Brethren Revival Fellowship. As we continue the labors, we hope you will consider a special gift for the work of BRF by contributing to our Endowment Fund and/or the Annuity Plan. For contributions to either of these funds, contact James F. Myer, 234 Keener Road, Lititz, PA 17543.
d. Faithful prayer support is one of our greatest needs. It is not an easy task to challenge the established church leadership, but we believe it needs to be done. We try and do it without becoming abrasive and bitter. Our goal is to be charitable in every effort.
Brethren Revival Fellowship plans to continue training BVS groups, serving on district and denominational committees when invited to do so, stressing soul saving evangelism, providing evangelists and Bible teachers for those churches requesting speakers for revival series or weekend Bible Conferences, publishing literature, conferring with denominational leaders about concerns, and encouraging individual members of our congregations to witness clearly and kindly in their respective churches.
Brethren Revival Fellowship is not a group of belligerent people who want to start a new split. The prevailing mood among most of those associated with BRF is to save the church and not to fragment it. We don’t encourage leaving the denomination, and yet we can understand why, in some settings, people sense the need to leave. We are not trying to “tear down” the Church of the Brethren. We are not in sympathy with those who leave the Church of the Brethren (because of affiliation with the NCC or because of its political action emphasis)–and then go elsewhere and “stomach” almost any aberrant teaching–including infant baptism, militarism, the eternal security teaching, immodest dress, marital unfaithfulness, etc. How the Lord may direct a particular individual about one’s denominational loyalty, we do not judge–but the BRF as a movement is pledged to continue its witness within the Church of the Brethren. But we are concerned about obedience to the Word of God, and we plan to continue to speak out on the issues, seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit as we do so.