BIBLE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH PROFILE
December 16, 2020
AN OVERVIEW
Bible Fellowship Church is located in a beautiful valley in sunny Southern California. To the east one can see the powerful backdrop of Mt. San Jacinto, snow-capped in winter with a blue-green timber-lined view in summer. The mountains provide a great place for hiking, fishing, and hunting, and the ocean is only an hour and a half to the west, where one can enjoy the waves and great beaches.
The San Jacinto Valley has an old and varied tradition. Beginning in the 1700s, Spanish land grants to the Pico and Estudillo families covered territory previously occupied for hundreds of years by Cahuilla Native Americans.
The famous Ramona Pageant is celebrating its ninety-seventh year in our valley and is the oldest outdoor play in California. The storyline is set during the time of the Spanish and illustrates some of the early difficulties that existed between the settlers and the Native peoples.
In the late 1800s and throughout much of the twentieth century, the San Jacinto Valley was a productive agricultural valley, offering up apricots, olives, wheat, barley, and cattle. Today, thousands of acres of thriving citrus are still grown here. In fact, Bible Fellowship Church was first called “The Grapefruit Grove Fellowship” before it was incorporated under its current name back in 1977.
The area is now a diverse community composed of a multicultural and multiethnic population. There is large a percentage of seniors on one end of the spectrum and on the other end, over 22,000 teenagers who need Jesus.
If this overview interests you, we invite you to take some time to get to know us by reading this profile and visiting our website at www.bfchemet.org.
OUR HISTORY
In the spring of 1976, several Christian families gathered together after it became evident there was a need for a Bible-teaching church that embraced small-group individual growth where people could study God’s Word, have the opportunity to dialog, and pray for one another. As the group quickly outgrew the living room, they moved to a carport at a local grapefruit grove. It was originally termed “The Grapefruit Grove Fellowship.”
The group quickly resolved to be an elder-run church and changed the name to Bible Fellowship Church of the San Jacinto Valley, the name under which it is currently incorporated.
Frank Tichy, an ordained minister and missionary, was selected to be Bible Fellowship’s first pastor. In September 1976, the group rented space at Ramona Elementary School in Hemet where they held Sunday services until 1983. Frank and his wife, Nancy, were called back to the mission field. At that time Gil Olsen was asked to become the full-time pastor; he accepted the position on November 6, 1976.
Burdened with the substantial volume of work involved in a “portable” church, Bible Fellowship Church began to diligently pray for a home. In December 1977, prayers were answered and we purchased five acres of land between Stetson Avenue and Johnston Avenue.
Building began shortly thereafter with completion and dedication in January 1983. Since then, Bible Fellowship added a two-story education wing, a multi-purpose room with a kitchen, a youth house, and office space. All building was financed solely by the generous loans and gifts of Bible Fellowship members. In the fall of 2011, Bible Fellowship celebrated with a “burn the mortgage” gathering because the final payment was made on those loans.
In 1998, Bible Fellowship Church planted a church in west Hemet, sending off ten percent of our congregation along with our assistant pastor. West Valley Bible Church continues to meet in Hemet, CA.
Bible Fellowship Church is currently a small-to medium-sized congregation with a Sunday membership/regular attendee roster of approximately 200 with roughly 70 in regular attendance due to COVID (not including children and youth). We seek to reflect God’s eternal grace as He extends it to everyone and strive for transformed lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Dr. Olsen pastored Bible Fellowship Church for 39 years, retiring in December 2015. He turned Bible Fellowship’s pastoring duties over to Jason Stewart, who lead the church until the summer of 2020.
OUR COMMUNITY
The area in which Hemet is located was first inhabited by members of the Cahuilla Indian tribe. Then in the early 1800s, it became a cattle ranch for Mission San Luis Rey and was called Rancho San Jacinto. When the missions were broken up by the Mexican government, a Spanish land grant was awarded to Jose Antonio Estudillo in 1842.
The City of Hemet owes its inception and initial growth to two iconic events and the dedication of two wealthy men and several investors.
The first significant happening was the building of a dam in order to provide a continuing supply of water to the valley. The two men involved in the water project were William Whittier, who purchased 3000 acres from Estudillo in October 1886 and another 3000 acres from early settlers, and Edward L. Mayberry, the engineer for the dam. This partnership led to the formation of the Hemet Land and Water Company on January 27, 1887, which sold land and water rights. The Hemet Dam was finished in 1895.
In 1888, the Santa Fe Company brought railroad access to Hemet and San Jacinto. Mayberry built his three-story brick Hotel Mayberry on Florida Avenue. Whittier built a warehouse, an opera house, and many shops on north Harvard Street as Hemet began to prosper. Farmers profited from the irrigation water on their alfalfa fields, fruit orchards, and row crops, particularly potatoes.
The second event was the visit that Ramona author Helen Hunt Jackson made to the San Jacinto Valley in 1883 in order to gather material on the Sobobas, a group of Mission Indians living on the east side of the San Jacinto River. From her scholarship came a book and subsequently The Ramona Pageant, which has become a large community play each year. Since 1923, with brief interruptions during the Depression, World War II, and the 2020 Pandemic, the people of Hemet and San Jacinto have joined together to stage this outdoor pageant each spring. Several in Bible Fellowship’s congregation are involved in the play each year.
Hemet was also home to the Ryan School of Aeronautics, which trained about 6000 pilots for the Army Air Corps between 1940 and 1944. Hemet Ryan Airport exists today at the site of the original Ryan Flight School.
The character of Hemet began to change dramatically in the early 1960s with the development of Sierra Dawn, the country’s first mobile home subdivision to sell individual lots. Other mobile home parks and retirement housing developments followed, and Hemet became well known as a senior community.
Hemet today has become home to significant numbers of younger families and a growing population of those who are fleeing the more urbanized areas of Southern California. It has grown more socio-economically diverse than it was 40 or 50 years ago. The economy is based primarily on ancillary services such as schools, financial institutions, and health care providers.
Hemet is home to numerous beautiful golf courses and Diamond Valley Lake, where one can find hiking and mountain bike trails, and where, at times, the fishing can be off the charts. The Western Center for Archeology and Paleontology is located in the southern end of Hemet near the lake. It features a charter middle and high school along with wonderful exhibits of the creatures that roamed this area in past ages.
OUR VALUES
Since 1976 when Bible Fellowship Church began, the leadership has stressed the idea that we exist for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12). Our teaching style has always been expositional, usually alternating between Old and New Testament books. Not long ago, we undertook a chronological study of the entire Bible called “Route 66.” This journey proved to be a lot of fun as well as spiritually stimulating.
In order to make our mission memorable, Bible Fellowship has adopted three simple core values to guide us: love God, love one another, and make disciples. We stress these values in a number of different ways within the Body: through preaching and teaching, as well as through our ministries, visuals, our website, and other media.
Loving God
The first and greatest commandment is to love God with our whole being: heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mk 12:30). We believe that loving God with all our heart and soul is best expressed in worship on Sunday mornings and that people who are going to be involved in this church need to be worshiping the Lord regularly. To love God with our minds, we have committed to studying the whole counsel of God’s Word through expositional preaching and daily devotions that encourage the worship of God on a daily basis. We are known in the San Jacinto Valley as a “teaching church.” We also look for creative and celebratory ways to worship the Lord with all our strength on Sunday mornings as well as being active in our community in various ways.
Loving One Another
A portion of the New Commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples is that we would love one another: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). Small groups are stressed at Bible Fellowship Church because we believe that this is the best way to learn to love one another. Our church has been known for small-group ministries since its inception. It is in small groups that people care for one another, learn about their spiritual gifts, and have an opportunity to exercise them. Small groups also find ways to reach out to others who are not part of the Body of Christ. Our Women’s Ministry finds many creative ways to love others by caring for the lonely, sick, new mothers, widows, and shut-ins. We also have another church meeting in our facility, a Slavic church. We fellowship together and show love to one another in cross-cultural ways, sharing food, fun, and music.
Making Disciples
Making disciples by serving our world is one of Bible Fellowship Church’s greatest strengths. We want every member to get involved in a ministry to our community in order to be salt and light in the San Jacinto Valley. Community outreaches that found their genesis within our church and remain viable include a crisis pregnancy counseling center, My City Youth, and the hospital chaplaincy. Other ministries we support regularly are the Community Pantry, The Valley Restart Center which cares for the homeless, and Calicinto Ranch, a ministry to children of incarcerated parents. We have participated with other churches in the valley in The Big Serve which involves taking a Sunday to go out and work in our cities once a year. In addition, we have stressed that each of our homes can be a Lighthouse of Prayer, praying blessings for our neighbors and sharing the gospel with them (Mk 12:31).
Serving the Lord Jesus Christ in the world also involves reaching those who do not have the Gospel message readily available. We are seriously committed to the support of missions in other parts of the world, especially in the 10/40 Window where most of the unreached peoples live. In 1993, we adopted the Buryat people group and have worked each summer in Siberia so that a previously unreached people now has a viable indigenous church that is reaching other Buryats in that vast land.
We have a motto of “Pray! Send! Go!,” providing everyone in our church a way in which they can be involved in missional pursuits to a world waiting to hear the Good News (Lk 10:2).
A Great Commission Church
Bible Fellowship Church is a “Great Commission Church.” We believe that all who have put their faith and trust in Christ must be obedient to the “making of disciples of every nation” (Mt 28:19). Disciplemaking has always been a goal, and we seek in all our ministries to create people who can “pass it on.” We encourage ministries that not only make disciples but that also create disciplemakers, whether it is in the San Jacinto Valley or in Buryatia.
We are now beginning to pray for the Lord of the Church to direct us to adopt another unreached people group in the near future! Our goal is to devote one-third of our overall income to missional pursuits, and we come close to that every year.
OUR MINISTRIES
With God’s help, we’ve risen to the challenges and restrictions of the pandemic. Our elders and staff have prayerfully continued reaching out to the congregation and are engaging in safe reopening practices. Perhaps half of our families have returned to church and are participating in worship by attending and serving. Those who cannot attend have access to livestream worship services and can, of course, contact us in various ways with any needs, concerns, or prayer requests.
Children’s Ministries
Our Children’s Ministry program is well staffed with a director, a staff worker, and wonderful volunteers. We constantly attempt to provide parents with resources that will help guide their children into a deep and abiding faith, and family devotions are provided each week to encourage worship at home. Outreach opportunities are promoted by praying for our missionaries, directing families to serve in local missions, participation in Samaritan’s Purse Shoeboxes and Compassion International. Invitations to our neighborhood occur throughout the year with a view to evangelism and growing the ministry. Currently, Sunday school materials are emailed to families every week.
Youth Ministries
The Youth Ministries of Bible Fellowship Church exist to help students (grades 6-12) grow in loving God, loving others, and discovering their gifts through serving others. We provide Bible-based teaching, local outreach events, service opportunities, camps, and other enrichment activities for students. Weekly programs run on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings and are available to a community of at least four high schools and numerous middle schools.
Our young people have a dedicated meeting place, the Youth House, built for weekly and special events. It is an inviting environment complete with stage, sound, and lighting. The Youth House provides an engaging spot where kids feel comfortable, and the addition of foosball and ping pong tables gives the students opportunities to unite in healthy interaction. Not only is the Youth House a home away from home for our youth body, but it is also an appropriate place for spiritual growth.
Teaching is biblically based, focusing regularly on the gospel message. Each week, a short message introduces the topic and the scripture passage to the larger group, but a small-group approach is the primary application method as it allows for deeper questioning and introspection. Groups are led by volunteer adults, and students are encouraged to relate to and share with the whole group as they apply the Bible to their lives.
Ministry and service are important aspects of Bible Fellowship Church’s Youth Ministries. Opportunities to serve the community locally and abroad are provided for the students in order to help them grow spiritually and gain confidence in their faith. Students can serve the immediate body through worship, greeting, game, and snack shack ministries–or they can serve the community through Feed the Homeless, Calicinto Ranch, and other local opportunities. Mission trips are also strongly encouraged. A variety of activities are also available including summer camps at Hume Lake Christian Camps.
Small-Group Bible Studies
Bible Fellowship Church believes that Bible study is an important factor in individual growth as a disciple of Christ. People are strongly encouraged to attend small group Bible studies on a regular basis. These study groups are offered throughout the week at the church facility and in individual homes. The format involves the study of a particular subject or book of the Bible, prayer for one another, and fellowship. Approximately one-third of the congregation participates in these groups, but our goal is always more! Many small groups have not restarted as of this writing.
Community Ministries
Many of our members are actively involved in various community outreach programs: My City Youth, BirthChoice Services, Calicinto Ranch, Community Pantry, and the Valley Restart Center. We also work alongside other churches in our valley to improve our cities whenever possible.
Adult Ministries
On Sundays, an adult Bible class meets in the Multipurpose Room. This group is led by enthusiastic people who are an invaluable resource at Bible Fellowship Church. They love and serve one another with great joy.
Baja Outreach
Baja Outreach, a ministry within Bible Fellowship Church, leads teams to Tecate, Mexico, usually at Christmas, for the purpose of distributing food and sharing the love of Christ with those in need. These trips serve two purposes. First, those who receive are blessed; second those who give are impacted greatly by their experience. We encourage families and youth to participate.
The Buryat Mission Team
Bible Fellowship Church adopted the Buryat people of Southern Siberia in 1993 when they were considered to be an unreached people group, and we sent a research team to Buryatia in 1997. Since then, every summer (except 2020) Bible Fellowship Church has sent a team of people to Buryatia for the purpose of encouraging growth in the very young church that has sprouted up amongst the Buryats in just the last few years. Training and outreach continue via online platforms. Pastor Gil also provided leadership training for the Russian and Buryat pastors in Siberia.
Prayer Ministries
Bible Fellowship Church believes in the power of prayer. We encourage attendees of Sunday services to write out their prayer requests on a communication card and turn them in as they leave the service. The requests are emailed out to over 60 people on Monday morning, and as more requests come in throughout the week, by phone or email, they are sent out in the same manner. Several hardy souls meet one morning a week to pray for our missionaries and unreached people. On Thursday at 5 pm a group gathers to pray for the needs of the church (including our new pastor and his family), wisdom for our elders and ministry leaders, our nation, state, county, valley, city, and whatever else the Lord brings to mind.
Love in Action
The Love in Action ministry seeks to reach out to every individual or family associated with Bible Fellowship Church. During these trying times when people are quarantined or unable to fully fellowship, phone calls, emails, and/or text messages are used to connect so people know they are not forgotten and to help them maintain a link with BFC.
Worship Arts Ministry
The Worship Arts Team is composed of musicians, singers, and audio/visual technicians. These dedicated people provide BFC with engaging expressions of worship that help facilitate a transcendent experience with our Heavenly Father. Our a/v team also manages our livestream and YouTube channel.
Welcome Ministry
The Welcome Ministry fulfills a vital role in creating a warm, encouraging, and loving environment for our guests and church family, which honors our Lord, the community, and one another. The welcome team members realize it’s not about going to church, it’s about being a church. Our team is full of committed members who faithfully use their masked smiles and sincere elbow-bumps to share the love of God. This ministry is significant in maintaining BFC’s friendly reputation, because people matter.
Women’s Ministries
Women’s Ministries is a vital assembly of women. The Women’s Ministries chairperson, along with other women from the congregation, meet monthly to pray and organize various ministries in the church and community. They help with the communion set up each month ands well as organizing food and diaper drives to support local ministries. They also put on an annual pancake breakfast to help support our youth group. Volunteers regularly send cards to those who are ill, grieving, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, shut in, or “just because.” All women who attend Bible Fellowship Church are welcomed at the meetings.
Men’s Ministries
Bible Fellowship Church hopes to re-establish a Men’s Ministry. This would be a way of providing openings for men to plug into church ministries. Through Men’s Ministry, we can encourage and provide avenues for men to offer hands-on assistance to the needy of our Church through service as well as build camaraderie at church workdays and planned events just for men.
CHURCH GOVERNANCE
Bible Fellowship is an elder-run church. Our pastor serves as an elder on the board which governs and proceeds on a consensus-only basis. The pastor is one voice amongst the others on the whole board whose job it is to work together for the benefit of the congregation.
Bible Fellowship Church is an independent, nondenominational body of believers established in the San Jacinto Valley in 1976.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Our Doctrinal Statement
The Bible
We believe that the entire Bible is the inspired Word of God which reveals the complete will of God for all mankind through every age. Inspiration may be defined as the inward work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of chosen men who then wrote the Scriptures as God directed. The Bible in all of its parts constitutes the written Word of God to man. This Word is free from all error in its original writings. It is wholly trustworthy in matters of history and doctrine and is the final, supreme authority in life and faith.
God
We believe in the one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is the absolute and sole creator of the universe.
The Father
We believe that the Father is the first person of the Godhead and is the Original Source of all things. He is the Source of grace, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Father of all men as the source of their being. He is particularly the loving Father of all those redeemed by the blood of His Son.
We believe that the Father is the Author of the plan of salvation, that He sent the Son into the world, that He is the disciplinarian of His children.
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ in the flesh was both God and man that He was miraculously born of a virgin and lived a sin-free life, being fully God and fully man. He is Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
We believe that Christ died on the cross for the sins of mankind, was raised bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven there to intercede for believers and from whence He shall come again to receive believers unto Himself.
We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins as a substitutionary sacrifice and that all who believe in Him are justified through His shed blood, being declared righteous.
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person, possessing all the distinctively divine attributes. He is God.
We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He regenerates, seals, and sets apart the believer to a holy life. At regeneration, He baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ and comes to indwell him/her permanently.
Mankind
We believe that man is created in the image of God; however, after the fall of Adam and Eve, all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their own sin, but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are offered as a free gift to all by the Lord Jesus Christ based on His grace alone. When a person repents of sin and receives the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit. All his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord.
Salvation
Salvation is initiated, attained, and procured by God through the death of Christ on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead. The salvation Christ offers is available to anyone, who as an act of his/her will, receives freely, by grace alone, and through faith in Christ alone, apart from good works, this salvation. The person is then justified and sealed once and for all.
Eternal Life
We believe that every true believer is assured of eternal life with God.
We believe that every believer looks forward to the hope of Christ’s coming when each will receive a resurrection body, whether through resurrection from the dead or translation while still living.
We believe that all believers will share in the eternal state after Christ’s millennial reign.
The Church
We believe that people and not buildings are the Church, for the local church is a coming together of believers.
We believe that Christians are to commit themselves to the local church with an attitude of love for one another as they carry out the activities of Bible teaching, fellowship, prayer, the Lord’s table, and water baptism, seeking to build up one another in love as a witness to unregenerate people.
Human Sexuality
We believe that legitimate sexual relations are exercised solely within marriage. Hence, sexual activities such as but not limited to adultery, fornication, incest, homosexuality, pedophilia, and bestiality are inconsistent with the teaching of the Bible and the Church. Further, lascivious behavior, the creation and/or distribution and/or viewing of pornography, and efforts to alter one’s gender are incompatible with the biblical witness.
We believe that marriage has been ordained by God. This church recognizes marriage as exclusively the legal union of one man and one woman in which such union is a lifetime commitment.
Because the whole counsel of God’s Word indicates otherwise…
We reject any philosophy or theology which denies that human free will can be exercised in the receiving of Christ’s free gift of salvation. Specifically, we reject the belief that Jesus’ atonement was limited in its extent. Instead, we believe that He died for all unrighteous people and that any perceived limitation rests in one’s free rejection of Christ’s finished work of atonement. We also reject the assertion that God’s wooing grace cannot be resisted or that He has elected some people to go to hell. Instead, we believe that anyone who wills to come to Christ may do so freely as a result of the Holy Spirit’s conviction and wooing persuasion of the heart.
We reject “positive confession,” also known as the Faith Movement, which teaches that faith is a force to create one’s own reality and that God can be commanded to heal or work miracles according to man’s will and faith.
We reject human prophecy that supersedes or is contrary to the Scriptures.
We reject any psychological or philosophical teaching which is contrary to scripture and is in substance “according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”
We reject the “Emergent Church” and its postmodernism, insofar as it departs from the historic orthodox Christian doctrines.
We reject the overemphasis of spiritual gifts and experiential signs and wonders to the exclusion of biblical teaching.
We reject any “spirituality movement” that incorporates into a believer’s communication with God any alien Eastern philosophies of religion, pantheism, and/or panentheism and results in the “emptying” of the mind and the vain repetition of words.
OUR NUMBERS
BFC Financial Summary
Bible Fellowship Church has ended the calendar year with a positive revenue flow for each of the previous three years. While the valley has experienced an economic downturn, the staff of the church has carefully controlled costs, and the congregation has remained faithful to their financial responsibilities. Bible Fellowship Church has always maintained a passion for missions, consistently growing our contribution to various missionaries and organizations, both locally and around the world. One-tenth of the general fund of Bible Fellowship Church is tithed to missions.
Our facilities at Bible Fellowship Church have been completely paid off and no outstanding debt remains on any of our property.
OUR CAMPUS
Our facilities consist of four buildings. There is a worship center including a sanctuary which can seat up to 300 people (pre-COVID). The sanctuary has recently been renovated to a more modern appearance including stage lights, dual screen projectors, new chandeliers, sound panels, and a pallet wall. Also in the worship center building is a prayer room, a resource room, a nursery, two upstairs classrooms, and restrooms. A two-story education wing houses our Children’s Ministries as well as a large meeting room primarily used by The Slavic Church of Hemet, who share these facilities. At the west side of the property is a multipurpose room with a food-preparation and serving area, the Youth House, and the offices.
THE MAN WE ARE SEEKING
Bible Fellowship Church is searching for a pastor. We need a man who is outstanding in biblical studies to provide expositional teaching of God’s Word at various levels as well as leadership for the varied ministries. He must be a visionary in missional service to our community and to the world. He must have a pastor’s heart. He will provide oversight for the various ministries of Bible Fellowship Church as outlined in the more formal job description at the end of this profile
This job offering comes with the deep conviction that leaders should grow into their position within the local church, a concept that will be tested because of the pandemic of 2020, which has been a disorienting experience for everyone. The pandemic has interrupted our country’s institutions and practices all the way down to local communities and individual households. Bible Fellowship has felt the pandemic’s effects. We have been mandated to cancel in-person services as well as conduct services with curtailed capacity and added safety protocols. Bible Fellowship Church has strived to remain a vital, necessary part of its congregation’s lives, even when our only means of doing so may have been virtual. The pandemic has caused frustration and uncertainty for us all as attendees grapple with when, if, or how to return to services. It has been a difficult time to be without a pastor, but God knows what He is doing! Our church is patiently awaiting a full return to a safe and fully operational status. The new pastor, then, will need to be willing to assume his duties in this context, at least to some extent. Though the hiring process is slated to be complete in the spring of 2021, we can only guess as to the state of affairs the pandemic will present to us at that time. So, we seek a new pastor with a willingness and the energy to accept a challenge and recognize the potential for growing God’s kingdom amidst adversity and uncertainty (so, really, what’s new?).
After a season of prayer, if you sense that God is leading you to apply at Bible Fellowship Church of the San Jacinto Valley, then please do so.
JOB QUALIFICATIONS
General
Must have a clear testimony of a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.
Must have a pastor’s heart.
Must be demonstrating a growing maturity of elder qualifications as specified in 1 Tim. 3 & Titus 1.
Must commit to Eph. 4:11-12 as a pattern of ministry (Paul, Barnabas, & Timothy).
Must have a personal devotional life, which emphasizes the disciplines of the Holy Spirit (both disciplines of engagement and abstinence with special attention to prayer; including a day of solitude once per month).
Specific
Must have received the call to pastor from the Lord.
Preferably have a Bachelor’s Degree in a ministry-related field. Be working toward or have an M. Div. from an evangelical college/university, with an emphasis in exegetical/expositional skills in God’s Word.
Must have proven positive experience in pastoral work for a minimum of three years.
Must go through the existing Elder qualification process.
Must attend Elder meetings.
JOB PURPOSE
To provide vision and leadership for Bible Fellowship Church’s present and future ministries that are founded upon and informed by the Word of God. To impart this vision and leadership to the congregation, staff, elders, and other leaders of the church so that they can give their time, treasures, and talents to the further expansion of Christ’s Church in the San Jacinto Valley and the “uttermost parts” of the earth (Mt. 28:18-20 & Acts 1:8).
RESPONSIBILITIES
General
Pastoral
See “walk-ins” seeking impromptu counseling from a pastor.
Visit shut-ins/those admitted to the hospital as needed.
Reach out to church members/attendees/guests regularly.
Respond to phone calls, emails, texts, or other messages in a timely manner via personal phone call.
Attend/participate in BFC ministry-related events regularly.
Work closely with the Elder Board to observe/analyze current culture of the community and its impact on future ministry to cast vision for overall ministry with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Complete any or all additional assignments or duties given by the BFC Elder Board.
Lock and alarm BFC campus as needed.
Specific
Teach
Teach God’s Word from the pulpit.
Engage in weekly preparation.
Establish a yearly preaching calendar.
Schedule qualified men to preach when out of the pulpit.
Lead
Train leaders
Create and lead discipleship ministry for elders, teachers, and men for leadership.
Lead/Oversee small-group Bible study ministry
Lead/Oversee Adult Ministries
Lead/Oversee Welcome Team Ministry.
Lead/Oversee spiritual growth in staff and elders.
Lead/Oversee teaching New Member and similar classes.
Lead/Oversee administration of Sacraments: communion, baptism.
Lead/Oversee performance of marriages, funerals, parent/child dedications, etc., according to BFC by-laws and standards of practice.
Support, encourage, and participate in local/world missions.
Plan
Through “creative leaves,” conferences, and other means provide leadership in charting the future course for BFC working closely with staff and elders.
Develop and encourage church planting both here and abroad.
Supervise
Oversee staff (ministry and administrative) and lead weekly staff meetings.
Pray
Encourage and attend the prayer ministries of BFC.
Be involved in the Christian Ministers Prayer Fellowship of the San Jacinto Valley.
Creative Leave
Take a creative leave once a year.
The pastor is encouraged to take a creative leave, away from normal surroundings, for the purpose of having intimate and private time with God for personal reflection, self-examination of commitment to the body, and vision for the body and not be impacted by day-to-day routines, vacation activities, or family responsibilities
Administrative
Be responsible for the authorization and calendaring of PTO & Vacation schedules for each employee of BFC.
Supervise and provide yearly evaluations for ministry and administrative staff.
Supervision
Received from the elder board. Pastor will be given yearly evaluations by the elder board. Input may be included from staff and/or select church members.