Baptist Bible Fellowship International :: bible colleges, chruch, fellowship

The Baptist Bible Fellowship International has done great things throughout the many years of its existence. The reason for the group’s success has been through missions, evangelism, Bible Colleges, and church planting. In the 1950’s the World Baptist Fellowship ruled the Baptist scene. During the era of the WBF there was a conflict that arose as J. Frank Norris attempted to overthrow G.B. Vick’s presidency at his Bible College. Norris desired to be president of the college that Vick established. Norris attempted to push Vick out by spreading rumors and causing dissension regarding Vick’s character among the students that attended the college. Jeffery D. Lavoie writes in, Segregation and the Baptist Bible Fellowship, that G.B. Vick aided a â€Å"movement† for a new fellowship after being removed from his presidency by J. Frank Norris. When about one hundred pastors decided leave the WBF and start a new fellowship. With the leadership of Vick and t he other pastors, a brand new fellowship called the Baptist Bible Fellowship was created in May 1950 (Lavoie 2). The WBF was the most prominent fellowship among Baptist pastors, and slowly after the BBF was formed, the WBF faded away. To this day is still existing and running as a missions agency. As time passed, the BBF had the desire to communicate the need for missions and missionary help. In 1975, in order to raise the awareness of missions, the BBF changed the name from, Baptist Bible Fellowship, to Baptist Bible Fellowship International or BBFI. The reason for the name change was to emphasize missions among the group of pastors (Lavoie 3). This change of heart and emphasis helped in creating some of the greatest missionaries the world has ever seen. The Baptist Bible Fellowship International produced an abundance of great missionaries, while all missionaries deserve their honor and dues: three of the most influential missionaries from the BBFI are John Birch, Fred Donnelson, and Bob Hughes. One of the most influential missionaries within the BBFI is John Birch, whom God brought to the world on May 28th, 1918, in Landour, India. Mike Randall the writer of an article in Our Baptist Heritage about John Birch explains how John Birch’s parents, George Birch and Ethel Birch, taught at Ewing Christian College in Allahabad, India. George suffered from chronic health problems, but that problem did not stop them from completing at least three years of ministry in India.