News at ABWE
Dr. Allen McFarland’s statement about FBFA/ABWE Partnership
On December 18 and 19, I along with several members of the FBFA steering committee had a chance to sit down with several key leaders of ABWE. Their president, Dr. Michael G. Loftis, and I had a great time communicating with each other about our desires to initiate a partnership. The two organizations are not strangers, but this is one of the first meetings of this magnitude. We definitely sensed the presence of God in those days of meetings and came away with the commitment to pull our resources in carrying out the Great Commission.
We feel the body of Christ needs to ethnically reflect what our organizations are all about. While the FBFA is predominantly an African American organization and ABWE is predominantly a white organization, president Loftis and I share the same vision in trying to move our organizations forward. Our theology is one. Our mission is one. As the prophet Amos said, “How can two walk together unless they are agreed?” And the way Amos put it was, “How can two walk together unless they first come together and agree to walk together.” Michael Loftis and I shook hands to say that our organizations are agreeing to be one, to partner together in order to do the work of God together.
While we are still in the infancy stage of committing to a definite direction, we do see God in the midst of this, and we look forward to partnership in many ways. Some of the key components that we talked about included reconciliation. All of us know about the past and how segregation and separation divided us in the body of Christ. We feel that African Americans and white Americans need to show forth to the world this oneness that is in the body of Christ.
We also talked about an Adopt-a-Village program. We want to get our churches to think through how they can get involved by doing something small, such as adopting a village. They can go into the village and help people not only come to know the Lord but help them in other ways. There is the idea of helping people to help themselves, so that they don’t depend on people in America for everything.
We also discussed a Chieftaincy ministry. The head of a village is a chief, so why not reach the chief and work with him? Once the chief says he is going to do something, everyone else in the village falls in line. So trying to get the chief born again and discipled can help us reach the entire village.
We had a wonderful time as we shared our thoughts together about this partnership.
I am excited, and I am going to try to get all of the churches in the FBFA to fall in line and open their churches for ABWE, so that we can make this partnership something that will show the world that two can walk together because they agreed to do so.
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