Mission's History

Wheaton Bible Church has always had a true understanding of Jesus' words in Acts 1:8, that we would be His witnesses in our local town and vicinity "and to the ends of the earth."  We have committed ourselves and our finances to making this possible as hundreds of missionaries have been sent from WBC for more than 75 years.

 

The Beginning

In 1933, we raised the support for the first Wheaton Bible Church family, Robert and Winifried Hockman, to be sent to the field during the same time we were raising money for our first church building.  Back then traveling to the field could take weeks, months, and sometimes the better part of a year.  Means of travel included trains, ships and caravans with pack animals.

 

Our Commitment

Our commitment to supporting missionaries around the world continues to be close to 25% of our church budget. The annual missions budget in 1931 was $600 and now, we invested over a million.  Today, our 90 missionaries and their families serve in 45 countries doing everything from church planting, evangelism and teaching nationals in schools of every sort to many kinds of support ministries, such as working in mission agency home offices and teaching missionary children.  Of our missionary families, approximately 45 have deep roots at WBC for different reasons: because they lived here for many years before going to the field, because one spouse "grew up" here, or as a result of being second generation WBC missionaries.

 

Recent Years

Our WBC missionaries can be divided into five emphases.

 

               

1.       Long-term interest in Africa is a characteristic of WBC’s missions emphasis. The fact that we have long and deep representation with two agencies that have been in Africa for over 100 years is meaningful. Both Africa Inland Mission and Sudan Interior Mission agencies are in many countries of Africa and our long time involvement with both of these missions is evident. Our current partnership and initiative in the AIDS crisis in Africa is facilitated by AIM missionaries and will continue for years.

 

2.       Bible translation work, primarily through Wycliffe Bible Translators is another distinctive. The fact that we support more Wycliffe missionaries than any other church in North America is a fact. The Bible translation work in Asia has been on-going for years, as well as many field missionaries with Wycliffe have returned to the U.S. Wycliffe offices to take leadership and training roles.

 

3.       Church planting in western and eastern Europe is a significant role of WBC missionaries. WBC has eight missionaries with Greater Europe Mission and two with Bible League, who either work alongside church planters or train national church planters. WBC has a great commitment to working in the difficult post-modern, post-Christian, multi-ethnic cultures of Europe .

 

4.      Seminary professors are now becoming a vital role in missionary work.  These professors are discipling and training nationals to do ministry.  They are teaching indepth Bible study methods, how to share their faith and disciple believers.  Many countries are closed to Americans coming in and proselytizing their countrymen. Missionaries have found that the nationals they train can go into those countries that Americans are not welcomed.

 

5.     A diversity of support roles on the field is another category that describes our missionaries. Professional roles such as physicians, educators of missionary children, pilots, graphics designers and photographers to name a few with the most representation, rounds out our attempt at categories.

 

The missionary endeavor is touched by WBC missionaries on every continent and among thirty some agencies.  The sun never sets on our WBC missionary impact around the world.

 

The Last Seven Years

In the past seven years we have sent out about ten GO (Global Outreach) Teams each year.  Our significant focus in GO Teams is that most of our teams are invited by one of our missionaries to serve a particular need.  These teams are involved in everything from construction work to teaching business in universities and from English classes to working with children at summer camps.  Our missionaries relish the opportunity for their new community to meet their American community.  Our ties grow stronger as both communities work together to meet local needs.