Statement of Purpose

Our motto: “If in the Bible there's a command, we're going to obey it; if there's an example, we're going to follow it; if there's neither command nor example, we're praying about it.” When principles and practices are discussed this motto continues to be the basis of our ministry to the Dutch and to colleague missionaries after thirty-one years of missionary work in the Netherlands. No one need doubt where our focus is. Is there any good reason why we should even discuss that which God has made so clear? Let’s just go and do it! Why wouldn’t we want to start and establish churches just like Paul did it?

Our philosophy: No missionary is ever to be permanently the pastor of a mission church, director of a seminary or the leader of any ministry designed to be a part of the indigenous church. Jesus laid the foundation of ministry and said: “Let us go to the next towns, that I may preach there also” (Mark 1:38). Paul saw his missionary position as a pioneer to open the way for others (Philippians 1:12-26): “As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon” (I Corinthians 3:10). Paul was significant to the work (“wise”) but not indispensable (“another buildeth”). The primary task of the missionary is to be secondary. This can be known as the John the Baptist principle: “He must increase . . . I must decrease” (John 3:30). This is certainly more an attitude that a procedure. This self-emptying attitude is to control our ministries (Philippians 2:4) and free us to reproduce ourselves. When Paul sent his apprentices to the foreign mission field, Timothy and Titus were instructed to select and train local church members to be the permanent leaders of the work. We cannot expect to find such leaders, we must cultivate them. We must discover and develop men and women who are gifted and called by God for leadership in the local New Testament Church. It is the responsibility of the missionary to train new leaders at the level of competence at which we expect them to replace us in the work. This is known as the Barnabas principle: turn it over and get out of the way. Acts Chapter 20, Philippians Chapter 1 and I Thessalonians Chapter 1 have impacted my life as no other chapters in the Bible have done concerning example, motivation and practice in our missionary endeavors in the Netherlands.

Our practice: 1. We chose to send all three of our children to Dutch schools (kindergarten through High School) right from the beginning of our ministry in Holland. We accepted that our children would be more Dutch than American in their attitudes and mannerisms. All three have since graduated from Piedmont Baptist College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina with Bachelors degrees. Our son is presently pursuing his Masters in Divinity at Baptist Bible College, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. We continue to feel today that European nationals rightly question why American missionaries refuse to integrate into their communities.

2. We continue to choose as best friends the Dutch Christians that we have won to the Lord. European nationals must know where the missionary’s allegiance lies.

3. We choose Dutch Christians to fellowship with first and foremost above other fellowshipping opportunities with American Christians in Europe. We want to confirm our loyalty to the Dutch so that they will choose to follow our example of a Christ like walk.

4. We choose to live in the same location in the same home longer than five years. At least five years is needed to establish contact with neighbors and the community we desire to win for Christ - moving on to a ‘so-called’ better location wastes at least five years of ministry for each move. Many missionaries have left Europe without ever beginning a church for this reason alone.

5. We choose to have a Dutch life-style. We do Dutch things, we have Dutch attitudes and we aspire to be like the Dutch. We choose to decorate our home so that the Dutch will see to what extent we’re willing to go to be like them. Some missionaries have even complemented us by saying that we’re too Dutch.

6. We choose not to take furloughs until national leadership is in place to replace us, freeing us to begin a new church in a new location. For this reason we have reported to our supporting churches only four times in thirty-one years. Not one time have we taken a furlough in the States for a whole year. We have instead been to the States just for weeks at a time. We never want the Dutch churches to doubt about where our home is and what is important to us.

7. We choose to train the pastors of the churches we’ve started in our own institute. As stated in our philosophy of church-planting: ‘It is the responsibility of the missionary to train new leaders at the level of competence at which we expect them to replace us in the work.’

If there be any reason to call what Christ has done though us ‘successful’, then I believe it to be a result of our single minded dedication in reaching the Dutch for Christ. This is the basis of any success that we might claim.

Cork and Ruth Albright
Bijvaerdeweg 33
3660 Opglabbeek, Belgium
tel. (32) 89 51 58 68