Compiled for our 2004 Missions Conference by Miss Elizabeth Studenroth.

Kutztown Bible Fellowship Church has always highly valued missions and was initially started as a church plant with the primary goal of serving students and faculty at the university nearby. KBFC was first established in 1981 when Pastor Randall Grossman began evening services in the Kutztown Fire Hall, later growing to include morning services, Sunday schools and Wednesday Bible studies in members’ homes.

Later, in 1984, God enabled one of Pastor Grossman’s dreams to become reality when the congregation purchased an old stone chapel, known to the local community as the“Gonser Chapel”, down the road from Kutztown University. Within a year, the congregation was accepted into the Annual Conference of the Bible Fellowship Church and recognized as an independent Bible Fellowship church. In 1988, the church bought a house on Main Street to serve as a parsonage for Randall and his wife Nancy, and started renting a room in the basement of the church across the street from the Gonser chapel (now the Lehigh Valley Chinese Christian Church) for the adult Sunday School class.

In the summer of 1990, God called Pastor Grossman to accept an invitation to pastor Grace BFC in Reading, leaving the little flock in Kutztown. Dr. Osborne Buchanan served as an interim pastor, by request of the pastoral search committee, for about six months while the congregation looked for a new leader. Dr. John Studenroth from Hatfield BFC asked to be considered by the committee and soon found himself leading the maturing college town congregation.

During this time, the missions committee led the congregation to determine which missions tasks they found most important, producing a list of the ten ministries to focus on and support. The members personally supported many missionaries and several participated in a short-term missions trip to the Dominican Republic. Church members, including members of the youth group, worked with local crisis pregnancy centers, volunteered at a nearby food pantry, caroled for nursing homes, and started a children’s week-long neighborhood summer outreach program and weekly kids club. Pastor John also started an evening service at the church that continued for several years.

John served for a total of nine and a half years until he resigned in order to focus on campus ministries and become a chaplain for colleges in Berks and Lehigh counties. Before he resigned as pastor, Chaplain John led the church in a reform of their missionary support list, removing missionaries that weren’t personally acquainted with the church and adding people who were.

In the Spring of 2000, Allan Vivona became the new pastor and is faithfully leading the congregation to this day. Since he started leading KBFC, he has begun Bible classes, and serves as the youth group Sunday school teacher. In these four short years, the Women’s Ministries Committee has hosted several evangelical events under the guidance of his wife Sandy, and the Women’s Bible Study has been reformatted to accommodate more members and visitors. Pastor Vivona had been hoping that it would be possible to host a missions conference shaped after past conferences he’s hosted at other churches. This four-day event will be focused around serving God by reaching out and ministering locally, domestically and internationally.

KBFC has come a long way since the firehouse days over 20 years ago, we’ve grown spiritually and physically while serving others and the Lord.

Elizabeth Studenroth
2004