Chapter 10
Election of Rev. Edwin Lopez, CPBC
General Secretary
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 technical and
financial resources. The 3 Field
Secrataries were the only employees of their departments.
They
cannot respond effectively to the need
of the churches and communities.
The 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 to work under
his leadership.
But we
have scant knowledge of his work in the churches. We have
no 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 him 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 to 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.
Rev, Lopez was a prominent personality among
Baptists. He was a dynamic speaker, he
could have become a well-known evangelist.
Or he could have been a pastor of a big city church. But we do not knew his skills as an
administrator and leader.
We
proposed to Rev. Famillaran
and the Board, the next General
Secretary must come from the ranks of the 3 Field Secretaries, who were
the 3 top executives of the Convention. They knew the problems and
have knowledge of what
to do, as they have been long in the job.
We
sent our letter to Rev. Moley Famillaran, President, copy furnished to 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.
By these time, they provide leadership to more than 50 per cent of
pastors in the Baptist Convention.
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
Secretry. 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.
But
the Board listened to us. They postponed
the election of the new General Secretary. 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 victorcy for change. 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 sharings 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.
His plans for 5 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 several sectors, Kasapulanan representatives from
provinces 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, presidents of CPBC Institutions 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 disucssions, 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
evangelization and church planting, in
Stewardship and in Christian
Education. The concept of Urban
Industrial Mission (UIM) the Convention Development Arms, was incorporated in
the report of Rev. Lopez.
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.
The stewardship program, was strengthened with a project, “kinutsara system”
of
rice support, were all church members
were asked to give a spoonful of
rice, deducted from every cup of
rice they will cook daily. These
rice kinutsara share, was conceived to help provide
pastors and their family, enough rice daily. That was a simple and easy to manage method,
but no one have thought of it, before the CPBC started it.
The Baptist Convention ministry was slow.
In Manila and Luzon, barely few churches were organized. In Mindanao, planting of new churches was
minimal. The tyranny and human rights violations, were not addressed, except by
some efforts of Dr. George Veterbo from Roxas City, The need to respond strongly and decisively
to present needs, was the demand of the
hour.
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 to work with the Convention. He asked Rev. Esfe Tandog, to serve
as Executive Assistant to the Office of the General Secretary.
He
asked Mr. Fred Bat-og and Mrs. Victoria
Bat-og as Director and Assistant Director for the Pilot UIM project at
Insular Lumber Company (ILCO) in
Hinobaan, Negros Occidental.
He asked Rev.
Larry Leysa, Iloilo Kasapulanan to be
part in the Kasapulanan-CPBC 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 Maao
Central 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. Later, he was asked by the Board of International
Ministry to be part of the world Baptist ministry in the Asia-Pacific area.
Rev. Edwin Lopez
also made a great journey of faith. As
General Secretary of the Baptist Convention, he was called to be Secretary of
the Asian Baptist Fellowship. Then called to be General Secretary of the
Baptist World Alliance (BWA), for Asia. These were beautiful jouneys of faith by men of God
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