Zeal for Your House is

Consuming Me

Our Savior discovered that His temple had become a place inhabited by unjust merchants. His response was appropriate, controlled rage. The idea that sinful human beings would be so corrupt as to pollute the house of God is incredible. According to the Apostle Paul, the Christian local church is now the house of God. The local Christian church is the organism that is able to extend uncorrupted life to the cities of our world. Yet our cities wait for Christians who tend to minister in suburbia or rural areas. What is needed are strong urban churches who, by design, minister to the full demographic of the city in a way that honors God by rescuing people—all kinds of people. This is my zeal, and I hope it consumes me. Thank you for joining us as we seek to build such a church in Boston.

Past Prayer Requests

In our last prayer letter, the Bostonian Bible Study group was highlighted, and I asked you to pray for the members of this segment of our fellowship. It has been a tumultuous two months since we last corresponded. A heated argument erupted over illegal immigration. It was intense, and the possible ramifications for the group disheartening. Yet, you must have been praying, for God brought us a great and awesome victory. It took most of two months, but our God has brought the group back together, and the Christian bond is stronger than ever before. One of the main protagonists made this statement in our gathering last Saturday, “I have run from many churches before, but I’m done running.” Praise the Lord! We finished our study that day with united prayer. Together we asked God to help us reach a thousand immigrants from all over the world in Boston. From possible fragmentation to spontaneous supplication, what a powerful God we serve. We believe that these kinds of volatile situations are bound to increase as the diversity of our fellowship increases. We are not concerned, but rather, embrace these confrontations. We hope to demonstrate to the non-Christian world that the strength of Christianity to build a unity is stronger than the forces that seek to divide us. This is part of our authenticating ministry.

Our Chinese congregation continues to mature, although it is going global. We now have several baptized members who have returned to China with whom I am endeavoring to maintain contact. In fact, I have an on-line live video Bible study with one of these friends. This friend lives along the coast in China, and, in one meeting, he showed me the skyline of his city. How exciting it was to realize that our God has brought us one step closer to seeing churches established in urban areas around the globe, by ministering in Boston. This young man greatly desires to live a consistent Christian life and to be an effective Christian testimony. Please pray for him. Back in Boston, Jianwei and Xiuhua still desperately need to find employment suitable to their education. Despite their tough work situation, this couple continues to grow in the Lord and are therefore a great edifying influence in all of our lives. Another disciple’s parents recently returned home to China after spending several months in Boston with their academically gifted daughter. This young woman is thankful that each time her parents come to Boston, we are able to introduce them to more of the Christian message. The gospel is making its way to China by means of Christian discipleship in Boston.

In the last prayer letter, I also asked you to pray for our vocational workers: Toby and Susan Stevens and Andy Scott. Toby and Susan are making application with a mission agency. They are a great blessing and very well suited for urban ministry, divinely prepared. Andy is having difficulty finding appropriate work. Andy has been nothing but a complete blessing here. He has his Master of Divinity degree at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary, and has been an intern twice in this ministry. I have had the privilege of participating in Andy’s education by means of internships, but also as an instructor of several of his courses necessary for graduation from Faith. It has been edifying to watch Andy steadily grow in his ability to minister effectively to the urban community. He is a life-giver, making the spiritual difference in the lives of people in Boston, and thereby, impacting the world. Andy finished his undergraduate and graduate work in only five years, but now has a large school debt to pay. We need Andy full time, so I am praying that God would providentially help Andy pay off his school debt, allowing him to be one step closer to full-time vocational ministry. Will you pray with me? At the very least, Andy needs a good job in Boston.

Our daughter, Linda, is now back in college at Maranatha. She called tonight to report that they did well in her soccer game, winning 4-0. Through her hard work at seeking out employment and working many hours, she was able to pay her way through the first semester. It is likely that she will be back in Boston after Christmas. Thank you for praying for Linda.

Thank you for praying for Deb. She is feeling much better and continues to be all-out engaging individuals in evangelistic relationships. We have now engaged several of these individuals in evangelistic Bible studies. In fact, there are a large number of ongoing evangelistic and discipleship studies throughout Boston being hosted by several of the members of the IBF. Our congregation is being equipped to effectively minister the gospel to the world which is in Boston.

I (Bill) have one major request. I need to discipline myself to do the work of urban pastoring. Our membership needs shepherding, and, if we are to accomplish our God-given goals, it will partially be because I do well as a pastor of the IBF. This means more disciplined time in administration, sermon preparation, and the discipling of young Christians to maturity, and a little less time circulating in the city as an evangelist. I have always viewed myself as Philip the evangelist—free to move at God’s leading and minister the gospel in many different and interesting places. Pastoring is not like that. It demands more regimentation and less freelancing. You may think it strange that this change of emphasis seems a bit claustrophobic to me, but it is not funny to me! Please pray that my love for the city and my great desire to join my Savior in His urban work will motivate me to become an effective urban pastor.

Finally, there is the opportunity for some to financially join our Boston ministry team. We recently revised our support estimate. While we were able to reduce some areas of our support estimate, other areas were adjusted upward. Although our support level remains about the same, we are $1000.00 short of our monthly support estimate. We are able to minister and live within our current budget, but, if we are able to raise the additional amount, it would greatly enhance our ability to minister in Boston. Thus, you could join us in this blessed ministry by supporting us monthly. You can find more information about supporting us at Bill and Deb’s Website for Supporters . Click on the Financial Support Information tab on the right side of the page. On the bottom of that page, you will find two links: one to our support estimate and another to the BMM missionary support page.

Financial supporters or prayer supporters, we are thankful to God for you,

Bill and Deb Edmondson

Dear Friends and supporters,

In a recent prayer letter, I described the various groups which make up our fellowship. In this communique, the blessing of our Bostonian Bible study group will be shared.

Our Bostonian Bible Study

This segment of International Baptist Fellowship is made up of men and women, many of whom have made serious mistakes in life and know it. Whether it be drug abuse, promiscuity, or some other life debilitating sin these individuals have seen the bottom and are fighting to get up. I love being part of this group. I wish you could join us for this Bible study sometime. This is no quiet, meek, and mild study group. Rather, when meeting, we tend to be kind of loud and in your face as various members explain their opinion concerning the way in which the Scripture relates to life or when holding each other accountable. And progress is being made—lives are being rescued and changed. Salvation is happening. At times during this gathering, I am compelled to quietly bow my head and thank God for the transformations that are happening right before my eyes. I am so blessed to be allowed to be part of this. Maybe the reason I identify so much with this group is that I came from a very similar background. I abused alcohol and drugs and I was in jail a couple of times, and yet God saved me as He is saving these individuals in Boston. Please pray for the leader of this study, Bruce, and the rest of us who attend the study regularly: Bill, Antonio, Richard, Toby, Felicia, Micheal, Dawn, Alex, and the children, Rosalie, Isaiah. Pray for us by name that we will grow and overcome sin in our lives, and that the children will be raised in an environment that helps them know the Lord at an early age and grow up in a secure environment. As one participant put it, “I want to break the cycle of sin that destroys life and the life of our children.” We plan on this absolutely happening.

Our Chinese Fellowship

The other major part of our church fellowship is our mainland Chinese congregation. The needs of this group are very different from the other group, but these individuals are also in great need of our prayers. During the summer, this academically oriented segment scatter across the USA and the world. This fact makes evangelistic, baptism, and discipleship studies difficult. There is a second major need as it pertains to our international friends. Several need work desperately. If they are not able to find jobs in their field of study, they will be forced to return to the country from which they came. This is not a good thing for some. Please pray for Jianwei, Xiuhua, and Wendy as they look for full time employment in the USA.

Our Vocational Workers

Perhaps I should say our potential vocational workers. I am referring to Toby and Susan Stevens and to Andy Scott. Toby has finished his internship and he and Susan are now praying about their next move. They plan to minister in the city vocationally, but the details of how this will happen have not been finalized. Andy Scott will be finished with all of his academic work (M.Div.) by early August and will then be looking for a job that will help him pay off his school debt. Please pray for Andy, Toby, and Susan as they continue to make plans to minister long-term in Boston.

Our Daughter Linda

Linda continues to diligently seek additional employment to help pay her way back into college. She is working as a waitress in the evenings, and during the days she is doing various odd jobs for various people. She is helping a hoarder sort through belongings, baby sitting and even counting cars. She spends much of her free time searching for more jobs. Please pray that she will be able to find enough work to pay her tuition and board at Maranatha Baptist Bible College.

Deb and Bill

Deb has been fighting a chronic cold for quite awhile—I am concerned. The last several years she has been prone to catching colds, and this year the cold has lingered for months. I (Bill) will be traveling to Denver next week to attend the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches annual meeting. I am praying, asking our Father for the opportunity to share with some the need for an urban church-planting movement.

We are thankful for the blessing of answered prayer in regard to our need for a new grill. Deb has needed a tool like an outdoor grill to assist her in her hospitable endeavor to feed the various guests we house, as well as the whole church family on Sunday afternoons. In response to our posted need on Bill and Deb’s Website for Supporters, a generous friend felt moved to provide us with funds to purchase a new grill. We are very thankful for this answer to prayer, and hope it will function as a small cog in the clockwork of our ministry.

Ministering the gospel to the world by means of the city, love you,

Bill & Deb

Dear Partners in Ministry, It has been too long since we have communicated with our supporters and it feels good to catch you up on our global-church planting efforts in Boston. Our March prayer letter detailed the ministry of the International Baptist Fellowship (IBF). This letter will chronicle what God is doing in the other areas of our global-church planting endeavors. As you may remember, the goal is to help facilitate a church-planting movement originating in Boston and, Lord willing, flowing to other world-class cities. We hope to accomplish this by developing networks on the local, regional, continental, and international levels. By reviewing these networks in reverse order, you will hopefully get a sense of how God is leading in our service to Him.

International Two of our disciples, whom we baptized, recently contacted our church family after having returned home to China. Both Jay and Kai miss our church fellowship terribly and plan to stay in contact with us. They are only two out of a number of disciples with whom we hope to continue discipling by means of web-based technology.

Last week we joined several friends for supper with the parents of another one of our baptized disciples. These parents have become our friends and we have the opportunity to not only share the gospel with them, but also to visit them when they return to China. These examples are but a few of the many that could be provided. Although in its infant stages, the international network is growing. We are working for the day in which we will see churches planted in China (as well as other places) which will become disciple making centers in their civilizational context.

Continental We had the opportunity to minister at Central Seminary in early February. Bill’s topic for the Mac Donald Lecture Series was Global-Church Planting. This event was an excellent opportunity to network with seminarians, educators, pastors and others concerning the need to network together in an urban church-planting movement.

Earlier this month, we traveled to Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary where we were honored to receive Alumni of the Year award. Receiving this reward was an indication that our message concerning the importance of an urban church-planting movement is resonating with our constituency.

We returned from Iowa to greet a missionary team from Piedmont Baptist College. We spent the week with them ministering across Boston and introducing them to some of the elements of urban church planting.

We hope that our continental network building efforts will result in a network of institutions, churches, and individuals committed to global church-planting in urban areas. This effort is important due to the fact more than 50 percent of the world’s population resides in cities, and world- class cities have the innate ability to influence the whole world for good or ill.

Regional In addition to participating in missionary conferences and speaking in church services, we also ministered at the Trinity Leadership Conference in April and attended the Northeastern Regular Baptist Fellowship meetings. In all of these instances, we continued to explain our call to urban church-planting and the need to network our efforts on a regional level.

Local The network on the local level is beginning to grow. Evan and Natalie Collier are church planters with Biblical Ministries Worldwide and they will soon be moving to the Dorchester/Mattapan area of Boston to begin what they hope will be the first of many church plants. They will be joined by a family from our fellowship—the Adam and Heather Brandt family. We are excited to watch as our God forms this team that will minister the gospel to this very needy area of Boston. This new ministry formed partially as a result of a prayer meeting held in our ministry home on a Sunday afternoon. This example is what networking is all about—working together to strategically build the body of Christ.

The International Baptist Fellowship Our fellowship continues to slowly grow and the goal is to become a church sometime towards the end of 2011 or in early 2012. As the number of our redemptive relationships grows, decisions must be made concerning space needs. Two weeks ago the IBF had an exceptional business meeting. We had a major problem in our children’s ministry—our administrators and teachers had moved away, and we did not seem to have replacements for them. I explained to our group that I didn’t know who would fill the positions, but whoever did would need to be qualified and willing to be used of God by ministering to children. It was amazing to watch as God helped us work out the problem with a very good solution. Things are moving forward in the ministry of the IBF—our God is making Himself known in our midst.

Prayer Request In addition to the prayer request generated from the above report, we have two other needs to place before you. First of all, we need help with our ministry home. It is a well used home and it is in need of maintenance and repair. If you would like to read more about this please go to our supporter’s website and click on the Needs and Wants tab. You will find information about our home maintenance needs under the heading Ministry Home.

Secondly, please pray for my daughter Linda who has just finished her first year of Bible College. She needs work that will enable her to pay her school bill for next year. She has been diligently and creatively looking for employment and devising ways to make money, but she has not come close to finding or creating what she needs. Please pray for her.

Serving our Savior in Boston, The Edmondsons

Dear Supporters,

It feels very good to be communicating with our beloved supporters and partners in ministry. As you know, our Spirit-derived goal is to help facilitate a church-planting movement in Boston, which will hopefully flow into other world-class cities. We intend to do this by joining our Savior in the building of a local church in Boston, (The International Baptist Fellowship), and by developing local (Boston), regional (New England), continental, and international networks of those with whom we are doctrinally and methodologically compatible. Progress is being made; we have many blessings and prayer requests to share with you.

The International Baptist Fellowship (IBF): Firstly, our fellowship has instituted an addition to our Sunday morning prayer ministry. (The IBF spends at least 30 minutes praying at the beginning of each Sunday morning service). Each of us now has prayer partners with whom we individually pray on a weekly basis. If it is not possible for prayer partners to meet personally, these prayer times are managed by means of phone, email, chat, or by some other way of communication. A young woman, who joined us about a year ago, is leading this portion of our prayer ministry. Within the last year, this young lady has trusted in Christ, has been baptized, and is now faithfully serving the Lord. Secondly, the IBF decided as a congregation to move the Lord’s Supper from our early Sunday afternoon weekly session to Sunday morning. We did this at the request of one of our members who is not able to attend our Sunday afternoon meetings. This means that one Sunday a month our morning service will be given over to teach about and to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Thirdly, in other IBF happenings, we are ecstatic to report that another individual has confirmed that their faith is now in Christ Jesus. In addition to this, we recently met yet another person who recently became a Christian and is now in need of Christian baptism.

Our fellowship collectively is teaching English as a second language to at least twelve international students. This type of activity establishes our general care for people and this, in-turn, helps authenticate that our message is from God. Indeed, some of these language partners are becoming Bible study partners.

Therefore, we are currently establishing evangelistic relationships with at least twelve individuals, are engaged in at least three evangelistic Bible studies with five people, and are helping along three friends who are in need of believer’s baptism. Quite a number of the IBF are young believers who need infant discipleship, leading towards a stable Christian life conducive to growth in Christ. There are, in addition, other more mature, yet not very old in the Lord, Christians who must not be forgotten. Deb and I are wired to minister to those whom have not heard, and this strength can also be a weakness—it is possible to neglect the needs of these in-between Christians (no longer infants in the Lord, but not yet completely mature in the Lord).

In addition to those engaged in evangelistic relationships, in evangelistic studies, in baptism studies, in infant discipleship studies, and those young but not fully mature Christians, the IBF is also made up of more long-term Christians. These also have their needs for growth and maturity. Toby and Susan Stevens are now established in Boston and are becoming part of the ongoing ministry of the IBF. Adam and Heather Brandt are asking for wisdom concerning the next step for their ministry in the Dorchester/Mattapan area of Boston. Andy Scott (former intern) is fruitfully ministering in Boston and is at the same time finishing his M.Div. studies at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary—a very busy young man. Rob and Amanda Edmondson are preparing to move back to Jackson, Wyoming, taking with them some of the lessons learned in Boston. Deb is busy as can be. She is fully engaged in the ministry of hospitality, has ten language partners, and will soon be adding academic work to her very busy schedule. Bill is busy working to facilitate church planting on the various levels mentioned above, engaged in several evangelistic studies and endeavoring to be a decent pastor to the IBF.

We had intended to write a little more about the local, regional, and continental levels of our church planting endeavors, but this letter is already long enough. We will need to save more news for next week’s (Lord willing) letter. Hopefully we can bring you to date on our network building efforts then.

This afternoon Jeff and Sherry Newman arrive in Boston for a several days of ministry. Dr. Newman is a faculty member at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary. Please pray as Jeff and Sherry interact with the IBF. May this be an edifying experience for all of us.

Please pray that time will permit us to send another prayer letter next week.

Bill and Deb Edmondson