M E M O R I E S:
Life and Time of Pastor Rudy Bernal & His
Glimpses on
History &
The People’s Struggle for Freedom
Chapter 35 –Rev. Edwin Lopez, Choice of Rev. Famillaran as General Secretary; We Opposed. The GS Must Come
from the Ranks of the 3 Field
Secretaries.
Rev. Moley
Famillaran, immediately with his
election as CPBC President, focused on
the searched for the General Secretary that he believed could
respond effectively to the problems, challenges
and need of churches under the current social and political situations.
For some years, the CPBC has few staff
and the ministry was hardly felt. The three programs - Evangelism, Christian
Education and Stewardship respectively under Rev. Penuelito Sacapano, Rev. Apolonio
Francia and Rev. Alfeo Tupaz, though committed and dedicated leaders, but the
programs under them were struggling
under a very limited resources. They
cannot respond effectively to the need
of the churches and communities. Strengthening and revitalization of the
programs of the Convention was greatly needed.
Rev. Famillaran
decided to get Rev. Edwin Iglory Lopez as General Secretary. They were together
in the College of Theology, and they
knew each other well. Rev. Lopez was a
dynamic preacher. We heard he has capacity for mobilizing people under his leadership.
But we have scant knowledge of his work in the
churches. We have little knowledge of his work in some regional
programs of the Convention. In the 70’s, he worked as director of a Family
Planning program in Romblon. There were feelings, that Rev.Lopez may lacked the
skills and experiences as General Secretary of the Convention. Rev. Famillaran was decided to take Rev. Lopez
as General Secretary.
The young Baptist
pastors and church leaders again met.
They decided to oppose the plan
of the President Famillaran to get Rev. Lopez as General Secretry,
unless a dialogue is made, and we will
be have a chance go see Rev. Lopez at close range – learning his first
moves as General Secretary if ever elected. We wrote a letter to the President and the
Board of Trustees. In our letter, we
opposed the plan to get Rev. Lopez as General Secretary.
We proposed to the
President and the Board, the next
General Secretary must come from
the ranks of the 3 Field Secretaries,
who were the top executives of the Convention. They knew the problems and have knowledge of what to
do.
We sent our letter
to Rev. Moley Famillaran, President, copy furnished all members of the
Board. We sent the letters by Registered and Special Delivery mails.
The letter was signed by Rev. Eliseo Fantilaga, Pastor
Antonio Elequin, Rev. Hilarion Leysa, Pastor Domingo Bernal, Mr. Fred Bat-og, Mrs. Victoria Bat-og, Rev.
Esfe Tandog and Pastor Rudy Bernal.
We do not knew how the Board will react reading our letter. It was, I think, the
first and last letter received by CPBC President and Board of
Trustees related to the appointment of a General Secretary. It was a
soft letter, that was both a request and a demand.
What will the
President and the Board think of our letter? How will the Board react reading it? Perhaps, they will just ignore it. And
proceed with the election
of the General Secretary that June 1976.
The Board listened
to us. They postponed the election of the new General Secretary that June; They requested
Rev. Famillaran to call the young
pastors and church leaders for a dialogue with the Board, the President, Vice President and Rev. Edwin Lopez. That was a victory. The President, Vice President and the 13
members of the Board, listened to us.
The dialogue in
Bacolod City was open and fruitful. President Famillaran facilitated the dialogue.
We were introduced to the Board. We have sharing of our works and plans. Then,
we shared the reasons for our letter. The Rev. Moley Famillaran, introduced Rev. Edwin Lopez and asked him to outline his plans, if he will be
elected General Secretary. Rev. Edwin Lopez presented
his initial plans for the Convention, if elected
General Secretary. It was plan for 3 months.
His plans for 3 months, include the following:
1) To call for
Program Planning workshop with representatives of churches and
staff of the Convention to see
the needs and priorities;
2) To pursue, a 2nd
Phase of Program Planning with sectoral
groups, Kasapulanan representatives from provincies and regions together with the CPBC institutions;
3) On the
3rd Phase, to involve all members of the Board of Trustees, CPBC
Staff, Presidents of Kasapulanans, some
representatives of big city
churches in Panay and Negros in the planning process. Consolidation of outputs of the program planning workshops.
4) Writing
the draft of the consolidated reports. From this consolidated report, the
program of the Convention will be drafted and written.
After Rev.
Lopez summarized the proposed plans, the young pastors and church
leaders asked further questions. After
some more discussion , we accepted the plans. We also verbalized our support to the planned program
of the Convention.
On July 16, 1976, the Board elected
Rev. Edwin Iglory Lopez, General Secretary. That election helped much in
putting the CPBC in the spotlights as
one of the churches that soon made fast
growth in evangelizations and church
planting; in Stewardship and in
Christian Education.
Under Rev. Lopez
leadership, CPBC started a dynamic and creative efforts for evangelism and
church planting, a decisive Christian
Education works with Sunday School guides for all ages. It developed a creative
Stewardship ministry that organized massive education that seek to train church
members to give there tithes to the
church.
Rev, Famillaran said
the
Board will meet in July
1976 and elect the General
Secretary. He said,
he needed people to join him in the
work. He asked some of those present to assist him. He will propose to the Board the following: Rev.
Esfe Tandog as Executive Assistant. Mr.
Fred Bat-og and Mrs. Victoria Bat-og as Directors for the Pilot UIM project at
Insular Lumber Compnay (ILCO) in Hinobaan, Negros Occidental.
He asked Rev. Larry
Leysa to serve as CPBC Iloilo Minister
in a partnership with Iloilo Kasapulanan, in joint ministry. He asked Rev. Eliseo Fantilaga to continue his
services with NCCP but assist CPBC in some tasks. Pastor Tony Elequin will continue in his task
in Antique. Pastor Bernal was asked to go on with his ministry in Central Maao and pursue the radio ministry with possible assistance from the Convention.
But Mr. Fred Bat-og
decided not to accept the offer to head UIM Pilot Ministry, He had some other
priorities, the Negros Kasapulanan
Baptist Youth Fellowship where he
served as Officer- in -charge that time.
Pastor Bernal was asked by Rev.
Lopez to head the UIM pilot in ILCO.
That year, Pastor
Bernal resigned from Maao Central Evangelical Church and joined CPBC. He was assigned to start the
Pilot Urban Industrial Mission (UIM) project in Insular Lumber Company, in Bacuyangan,
Hinobaan, Negros Occidental.
Rev. Moley Famillaran and Rev. Edwin Lopez, that year
started their ministry with the Baptist
Convention. It was a beautiful journey of Rev. Famillaran, as Secretary to the
Mayor of Bacolod City, to the Convention Baptist, Then he was called by
Cosmpolitan Church of Manila as their pastor. He was asked by the Board of International
Ministry to be part of the world Baptist ministry.
Rev. Edwin Lopez
also made the great journey of faith. As General Secretary of the Baptist
Convention, he was called to be staff of
the Asian Baptist Fellowship. Then called to be General Secretary of the
Baptist World Alliance (BWA), for Asia.
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