Independent Baptist Fellowship International

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The Independent Baptist Fellowship International or IBFI is an organization of fundamentalist Independent Baptist pastors and missionaries. IBFI was formed in May 1984 at Fort Worth, Texas. The organization's founding resulted from a controversy concerning Arlington Baptist College, an educational arm of the World Baptist Fellowship. The controversy arose when Raymond W. Barber, the President of the WBF, made accusations concerning the college. He felt that the school was straying from the original purpose of it's founder J. Frank Norris, in seeking accreditation. He also believed that the school was beginning to endorse the Christian doctrines of Calvinism, and even went so far as to charge some of the faculty with promoting Hyper-Calvinism. He was not alone in his concerns, and over the course of about 5 years, was able to amass a strong following of Pastors and school faculty members who shared his opposition to the direction the school was taking. Many unfortunate decisions were made during this time, including the filing of a lawsuit, by Barber and two of his fellow Pastors, against Earl Oldham, the recently retired President of the college. The controversy that took place only hurt the WBF as churches began dropping their monthly support of the fellowship mission agency and college, weary of the fighting that was stunting the fellowship's growth. By 1984, Rev. Barber had no other choice but to break his allegience to the WBF and begin the IBFI fellowship. The new fellowship founded a Bible college, a monthly publication, and a mission agency. Rev. Barber is famous for stating in his sermons, that "When we started...we had nothing, not even a paper clip." The early years were tumultuous. Interestingly enough, Calvinist pastors Jack Green and Jack Warren were both invited to teach at IBFI's Norris Bible Baptist Institute, even though one of Barber's strongest complaints against rival Arlington Baptist College was it's retention of Calvinist-friendly professors. Even though, it has been in existence for 23 years now, the IBFI has been unable to generate a strong interest in it's unaccredited seminary or mission agency. Financial problems have plagued the fellowship in recent years, and enrollment in the Bible college consistently lags between 10 and 25 students. The mission agency, considered the heart of the fellowship, services less than 30 missionaries. In it's prime, Arlington Baptist College had a consistently expanding enrollment that was close to 1,000 students. Almost 25 years after the split, total enrollment for both schools runs under 200 students annually. Today, many Independent Baptist leaders, even former supporters of the fellowship, believe that the demise of the IBFI is imminent.