The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions (IBPFM) is a small
Presbyterian mission organization, which early in its history became an approved agency of the
Bible Presbyterian Church. Founded in 1933 by
J. Gresham Machen
John Gresham Machen (; 1881–1937) was an American Presbyterian New Testament scholar and educator in the early 20th century. He was the Professor of New Testament at Princeton Seminary between 1906 and 1929, and led a revolt against modernist t ...
, the IBPFM played a significant role in the
Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy within the
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) was the first national Presbyterian denomination in the United States, existing from 1789 to 1958. In that year, the PCUSA merged with the United Presbyterian Church of North Americ ...
The Independent Board continues under its founding charter, maintaining its original purpose of "promoting truly Biblical missions" consistent with Presbyterian doctrine and polity.
The Board has approximately 30 missionaries in Central and South America, Kenya, Cambodia, and India. There are four full-time headquarters staff members in
Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.
History
In 1932, the
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions
Presbyterian Mission Agency is the ministry and mission agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Founded as the Western Foreign Missionary Society by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1837, it was involved in sending w ...
took an ambiguous position in regard to a theologically liberal report on missions, a decision that provided conservatives in the denomination further ammunition when one of the denomination's most prominent missionaries, the author
Pearl S. Buck, endorsed the document as "masterly statement" and labeled traditional notions of salvation "superstitious." The following year, conservative theologian J. Gresham Machen was instrumental in creating the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. Interpreting the existence of the new board as a direct challenge to its denominational authority, the Presbyterian Church brought the members of its board to trial—although Machen was never given the opportunity to defend his actions. In March 1935, the members of the Independent Board were found guilty and suspended from the ministry. In 1936, fundamentalists less concerned than Machen with the board's Presbyterian identity, ousted Machen as president and installed "a minister of a nondenominational church." After Machen's untimely death in 1937, the IBPFM came under the control of
Carl McIntire, the founder of the Bible Presbyterian Church. Although Board members and missionaries from various Presbyterian denominations have served the Independent Board, it has remained closely aligned with the Bible Presbyterian Church. In the first 20 years of its existence the Board commissioned almost 150 missionaries.
[''IBPFM PraySendGo'' (Spring 2019), 3.]
Leadership
The Board has had seven presidents:
*
John Gresham Machen, founder
* Harold S. Laird
* James Gordon Holdcroft
*
Lynn Gray Gordon
Lynn Gray Gordon, D.D., (April 8, 1912 – June 14, 2003) was an American pastor, Christian educator, army chaplain, and college president.
Education
Lynn Gray Gordon was born on April 8, 1912, in Waxahachie, Ellis, Texas, US.
He received his A ...
* Earle R. White
* William R. LeRoy
* Brad K. Gsell (current President)
* Keith Coleman (current Executive Director)
References
*David O. Beale, ''In Pursuit of Purity: American Fundamentalism Since 1850'' (Greenville, S.C.: Bob Jones University Press, 1986), 317-19.
*Bradley J. Longfield, ''The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates'' (Oxford University Press, 1993).
*Gladys Tizck Rhoads and Nancy Titzck Anderson, ''McIntire: Defender of Faith and Freedom'' (Xulon Press, 2012)
External links
IBPFM website
{{Bible Presbyterianism
Presbyterian missionary societies