I had the privilege of traveling to the Amish Country of North-Central Ohio this past weekend. The purpose of my travel was to join several missionary agency directors/presidents for a C.E.O. Retreat for the Fellowship of Missions. The F.O.M. was officially organized in 1969 and is made up of about 30 like-minded mission agencies, representing over 2,000 missionaries, serving on all six continents. The goal of our time together was to meet for collaborative interaction for ministry development, accountability, and encouragement. We gathered at the beautiful Berlin Grande Hotel in Berlin, OH.
During our time together, we enjoyed a great time of fellowship and ate way too much food. After checking-in on Saturday, our first event together was to walk next-door to the Berlin Farmstead Restaurant. We enjoyed a delicious buffet. I know Paul tells us to “buffet” our bodies in 1 Corinthians 9:27 (NASB), but one of the problems with a buffet is we tend to overdo it. I was determined to get just a little bit, but you know how that goes – a little bit of a lot of stuff is a lot of food. When we walked back up the hill to the hotel for our meeting, I felt like I should just keep walking. I was so full that I didn’t even eat breakfast the next morning, and when lunch rolled around I still wasn’t hungry.
We were treated to some tremendous singing and teaching during our meetings. Dr. Dan Anderson from Appalachian Baptist College led the singing and his wife accompanied. Every session had a specific theme. What an encouragement to be reminded at the beginning of our meetings to cast all of our cares upon the Lord (1 Peter 5:7). David Smith from Open Door Baptist Missions, opened our session for us with a challenge from Acts 16:6-10. David serves as the Board Chairman for the F.O.M.
On Sunday morning, we gathered together again for a great time of singing and then ministry from the Word. Tom Gibbons, the new director of Gospel Missions of South America shared with us a convicting message from Luke 10:38-42. How many times am I more like Martha, busy serving, but missing the correct priority of sitting at Jesus feet? We often talk about priorities, but we should talk about “the priority.” The word itself means that something is first. Our first responsibility is to find ourselves at the feet of Jesus to hear His instruction and to offer worship. This is the priority that we can choose even though it isn’t always popular. He asked us, “What are we doing FOR Him that keeps us FROM Him?” This though, is the priority that Christ approves.
Next, Captain Steve Brown, United States Navy (Retired), shared with us from Daniel 1. Steve is the President of Associated Gospel Churches, a Chaplain Endorsing Agency that was founded in 1939. They are serving a great need as evidenced in their mission statement: Mission Statement: “Rooted in the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), and recognized by the federal government as an official ecclesiastical endorsing agency, the Associated Gospel Churches (The AGC) exists to represent historic and classic fundamental churches, for the purpose of recruiting, endorsing, and supporting ordained men to serve as chaplains – Pastors in Uniform – in restricted access institutions.” Steve challenged us to “Aim Long.” He told us about growing up in the State of Michigan and learning to drive on snow and ice. He took a driver’s education class. He said that when he was learning he would often look at the line on the left as he drove. Inevitably, he would start drifting to the left. He then would look at the line to the right. He would then start to drift to the right. The instructor told him, “Aim Long!” That is the lesson we learn from Daniel and his three friends. His message was very appropriate as it addressed the biblical response to a corrupt, pagan government. Daniel refused to be assimilated. The reminder to Aim Long is something that I don’t want to forget. I created an image that I set as my desktop background that will serve as a reminder to me to aim long.
You can download the image below by right-clicking the image and selecting “save image as.” After downloading the image, open it by double-clicking the downloaded file. In the Windows Photo Viewer, click the three dots at the top right. This will open a drop down menu. You can then select “set as” and select “set as background.” This will serve as a daily reminder to “Aim Long.”
For lunch, we piled in our cars and traveled to the Chalet in the Valley, for another delicious buffet lunch. Most of the businesses were closed so most of us just rested on Sunday afternoon, a novel idea. We then met again for supper, this time at a pizza place called East of Chicago. If you are ever in the Berlin area, I highly recommend each of these restaurants.
Maynard Belt serves as the President of F.O.M. He was unable to make it due to health reasons. In his place on Sunday evening, we heard from Nathan Osborne, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Winter Haven, FL. He serves as the President of Faith Baptist Mission. I know we all were blessed to learn more about his ministry and see God’s hand upon the mission.
Monday, we had one more opportunity to gather for preaching as Chris Hindal, Director of Regular Baptist International shared with us from John 10. He opened with an illustration that I thought was very appropriate. We all can remember playing some kind of sport as child. Everyone would gather around. Captains would be determined and then they would get to choose. One-by-one the next-best-player would be picked until you got to the last few. These were the others that would get designated to a specific team. Most of us are the others described in John 10. We weren’t drafted first, but we were chosen. He reminded us that our ancestral blood-line wasn’t important. It is Christ’s blood that makes the difference.
Our final meeting was a time where the men and women divided to spend time in prayer. I believe this is one of the most enjoyable times of the retreat as we were able to share needs with one another and take them before the Throne of Grace. We were given several books at the conference. One of them was The Hidden Life of Prayer, by David McIntyre. The book is sub-titled “The Life-Blood of the Christian.” The singing, the preaching, and the teaching were wonderful, but praying together was what tied it all together.
Monday afternoon, we all traveled back to Cleveland to the Headquarters for Baptist Mid-Missions, for the annual meeting of the F.O.M. We were joined by several other missionaries for the meeting. I am grateful to Vernon Rosenau and his wonderful staff for their hospitality. The meals were tremendous. The tour of their facilities was impressive. The messages by Pastor Ken Spink and Dr. Jim Tillotson were right on point. I’m already looking forward to next year when Lord willing, we will all gather together again.