From the Pastor/Elder Roger Roberts ...
On August 26 & 27 the elders met together for an overnight retreat for a time of prayer, sharing, evaluating and planning. We enjoyed a sense of God’s presence, resulting in unity of thought and heart as we considered what God is doing at IBC Brussels and how we can join him in his work. During our recent members’ meeting the elders shared a statement of vision, mission and core values, which we believe to be a biblical perspective on who we are as IBC Brussels and a strategic guide for our priorities in ministry.
Vision: To see God glorified through fulfillment of the Great Commandment (Matthew 22: 37-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 19-20).
Mission: To encourage and equip the church to glorify God, through His Son Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The means to fulfilling this mission is through our obeying:
- The Great Commandment to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, soul and minds, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, and
- The Great Commission of Jesus Christ to make disciples at home and around the world.
Core Values: In fulfilling this mission we hold the following as core values:
- Scripture-based instruction
- The power of prayer
- Evangelism
- Discipleship
- God-centered worship
- Loving fellowship
- Caring ministries
- Servant leadership
- Open communications
- Living missional lives at home and in the workplace.
As you can see from my Preaching Schedule Fall 2011, I plan to preach from the two passages in our vision statement in November, “sandwiched” between completing our series from Exodus, a sermon on intercession on the World Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, and an Advent series.
I’m grateful for the ways God is blessing and adding to our fellowship, and pray that he will continue to lead and empower us to fulfill his mission for us at IBC Brussels.
To God be the glory!
Roger
International Baptist Church (IBC) of Brussels 
Dr Roberts, just saw this on the internet. You was my pastor back when we lived in Fairborn, Ohio. At the time, I was a young Major-select in the USAF. And I will always recall two memorable sermons you preached. As I’ve heard several hundred (maybe a few thousand) sermons over the years (at least one per week for about 60 years or so; I’m 64 now) that is more important than you may think. One sermon was about the theory or relativity–you talked about how God could see our sin across time. A recent song I heard: “When He was on the Cross, I Was On His Mind” brought that sermon anew to me as if I were there in the congregation today. The second was about a light house along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean–as I’m from North Carolina originally to me that described Cape Hatteras (but I’m from the NC mountains, not the coast) for some reason that message just captured my mind. You talked about how the workers would go out to rescue those perishing and then come back to shore and celebrate their victory against the raging sea. But soon they just had the parties and didn’t bother to go out in the boats to rescue those perishing–alas, much like many of our modern day churches. Thanks for preaching such a God-inspired message. As an active Sunday School teacher, I have used those ideas many times in bringing my classes God’s Holy Word.
Give my regards to your family, especially your wife. She is a gifted musician.
In Christ’s Love,
Dr Jery McMahan
Vice President, Aviation & Aerospace
Tetra Tech EMC