About Us
We are a fellowship of independent fundamental Baptist churches that has as its main goal to strengthen the local church in its pursuit of the Great Commission.
Preamble
We, Bible-believing and God fearing Baptists, convinced that we face in this generation history's greatest opportunity in evangelism, church building, and missions; Believing that the historic Baptist position for worldwide evangelism is to send forth missionaries united in their belief concerning the Person of our virgin-born, crucified, risen, exalted, returning Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; we do not, therefore, move with power while operating under any so-called "Inclusive Missionary Policy," that is, inclusive of believers and unbelievers alike, which while recognizing faith, condones unbelief and violates conscience; and
Believing that God's blessing will not fall upon Baptist support of an affiliation with apostate ecumenical organizations, [that is organizations that would coercively combine the professed Christian religions of the world into one universal church]; and also believing that God's blessing will not rest on Baptist support of neo-evangelical philosophy and policy because it is unscriptural [2 John 6-11; 2 Cor 6:14-18] and as a result, knowingly or unknowingly, promotes the ecumenical world church movement as well as confusing the minds of believers in Christ; and
Knowing the rising tide of desire for fellowship among Bible-believing Baptists across the nation; and for the purpose of establishing more Bible-believing Baptist churches;
We do hereby enter into fellowship with one another upon a sound Biblical and historical Baptist foundation as declared in our Declaration of Faith.
Officers
- Dr. Rick Arrowood
President - Dr. Leigh Crockett
Vice President Central Region - Rev. Ron Peterson
Vice President Northern Region - Rev. Mark Felber
Treasurer - Rev. Wayne Scott
Secretary - Rev. Anthony Slutz
Trustee - Rev. Chuck Phelps
Trustee - Rev. John Ray
Trustee - Rev. Darrel Flaming
Trustee - Dr. Lawrence Hufhand
State Representative
Our History
By Dr. Lawrence D. Hufhand, State Representative of the IFBF
The IFBF has its roots in the old liberal Northern Baptist Convention. In the early 50’s a lot of good and godly men saw the need of a strong, fundamental, mission agency within the American Baptist Convention. Many of their students were going off to good schools and being called to the Mission Field, and did not want to go to the Mission Field under the American Baptist Mission Agency because it was so liberal, so to provide for them, the Conservative Baptist Foreign and Home Mission Societies were formed. These were separate from the American Baptist Convention, but the founders were all Convention men. It wasn’t long until these men saw the need of an Association of Conservative Baptist Churches with a national identity and so they formed the Conservative Baptist Ass’n. of America. 95% of all the strong fundamental men brought their churches out of the American Baptist Convention and identified themselves with this new CBA of A. Many were crucified by the Convention and paid the price. In the early days this Association was led by Dr. B. Myron Cedarholm and it became a power-house for God, planting new Churches all across America. Many of our churches in the State of Indiana were planted under the auspices of the Indiana chapter of the CBA of America. From the early fifties through the early seventies, the CBA of A was one of the leaders in the Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement. It became one of the three major Independent Baptist Church planting agencies. The other two being the Baptist Bible Fellowship and the GARBC.
The CBA of A was divided into three separate Regional Associations: The Eastern, the Central, and the Western. Each of these Regional Ass’n. had their own officers as well as their own area meetings. The Eastern and Western Regionals were less militant than the Central Regional, having soft, ecumenical leadership; whereas, the Central Regional was strong, hardcore, and militant in its approach. This of course created a division amongst the Pastors. It wasn’t long until the two mission agencies were drawn into the fray and finally took sides with the two soft regional groups. The seeds of Ecumenicalism were sown into the CBA via the two seminaries out west: Western Theological Seminary in Portland, Oregon and Denver Theological Seminary, in Denver Colorado. The Denver Baptist Bible College was founded by the strong conservative men of the area, and tried to toe the line, but alas it succumbed to the pressures of the soft crowd and it soon folded. The Central area had Pillsbury Baptist Bible College and Central Seminary, both of which were located in Minnesota, the most militant state in the CBA Central Regional. Dr. Monroe Parker was the President of Pillsbury, followed by Dr. Cedarholm; and the Seminary, was led by Dr. Richard Clearwater, who also pastored the Fourth Baptist Church of Minneapolis. The two major issues that divided the pastors and their churches were inclusivism as it related to the ecumenical movement and a soft position on Eschatological matters. In 1967, the National CBA of A meeting in Denver, CO left many Central Area pastors completely disillusioned. The CBA of A had been taken over by the soft core crowd and the Central regional had all but lost it’s voice. It was time to consider abandoning ship. However, we had a great State CBA Fellowship and we didn’t want to lose that; so a meeting of the CBA churches of Indiana met at the First Baptist Church in Tipton in July of 1967 to decide what to do.
At that meeting we voted to retire the name “The Conservative Baptist Association of Indiana” and become the “Indiana Fundamental Baptist Fellowship of Churches.” From that day until this, we have kept the torch burning, holding forth the Word of God. We take a strong stand on separation, holding to the fundamentals of the faith. Our pastors preach from the King James Version of the Bible; we are traditional in our music; evangelistic in our outreach; and missionary in our vision.
Our purpose in being is five fold:
- To encourage one another by fellowship.
- To exhort one another through preaching.
- To share with one another ideas in church growth.
- To help churches reproduce themselves where they are needed.
- To be accountable to one another to stay trueto our calling.
We meet as a fellowship on a bi-montly basis in churches across the State. We have a yearly Men’s Fellowship Meeting at Muncie and a State Ladies Retreat every 2-3 years. We have our Annual Meeting in the Indianapolis area in April and a few years ago we added an IFBF Northern Fellowship of Pastors. We are a not-for-profit, Tax Exempt 501C3 organization recognized by the State of Indiana and the Federal Government.