Papers of Edwin Leonard "Jack" Frizen, Jr. - Collection 434

[Note: What follows is a description of the documents in this collection which are available for use at BGC Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. The actual documents are not, in most cases, available online, only this description of them. Nor are they available for sale or rent.]

Table of Contents

Title Page and Restrictions

Brief Description of This Collection

Biography

An Essay on the Contents of the Collection (Scope and Content)

Lists of Audio Tapes and Video Tapes in This Collection (Location Records)

Audio Tapes
Video tapes

List of the Contents of Boxes of Paper Records in This Collection (Box List)

Collection 434 [January 7, 2013]

Frizen, Edwin Leonard “Jack” Jr; 1925-2012

Papers; 1929-1995, n.d.

11 DC; Audio Tapes, Video Tapes (4.93 cubic feet)

Brief Description: Oral history interviews, articles, brochures, booklets, clippings, correspondence, directories, financial records, manuals, minutes, publications, reports, and other materials documenting Frizen’s life. Material is mostly concerned with his family life, work with G.I. Gospel Hour, director of Far East Gospel Crusade (now SEND International), executive director of International Foreign Mission Association (IFMA), director of Tyndale House Foundation, trustee of the Henry and Susan Crowell Trust, missionary in the Philippines, Paul Rader, and the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle.

Restrictions: None

Biography

[Note: In the Scope & Content section, the notation “folder 2-5" means “Box 2, Folder 5"]

Scope and Content

The archivist left most of the materials in the order they were received. When order was unclear the folders were placed where they logically would fit. Most of the materials were created during the time Frizen was executive secretary and director for IFMA. Frizen’s involvement of over forty years in mission outreach through his leadership in FEGC and IFMA is highlighted in these records. Many documents in the collection are stamped “Rec’d IFMA” and appear to be Frizen’s personal copy while serving with IFMA. The documents are grouped into three groups as follows:

1    SEND International (formerly Far Eastern Gospel Crusade)

2    Personal

3    IFMA (Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association)

Series: I. Paper records.

Subseries: A: SEND International

Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title

Date Range: 1946-1996

Volume: 1.7 cubic feet

Boxes: 1-6

Geographic coverage: Alaska, Japan, Philippines, United States

Type of documents: Correspondence, directories, financial records, minutes, publications, yearbooks

Correspondents: Philip Armstrong, Olan Hendrix, Wilbert Norton

Subjects: Candidate orientation, Central Alaska Missions, Far Eastern Bible Institute and Seminary, G. I. Gospel Hour, missions, missionary internship, SEND International, the church in the Philippines and Japan

Notes: The subseries consists mainly of materials Frizen acquired as director, secretary, treasurer, and missionary of SEND. The correspondence in this subseries does not contain any from Frizen but instead consists of memos and letters from SEND officials. The structure and work of SEND is reflected in reports from the annual United States Council Conferences and Japan and Philippine field conferences. SEND publications include several for soliciting funds, those for SEND staff and personnel, for council members. Minutes of some council meetings were filed by Frizen in the “Miscellaneous Publication” file (folder 5-11).

Exceptional items: Some of the materials included annual conference reports (folder 3-1), FEGC constitution and by-laws (folder 3-6), Japan field conference and council minutes (folders 4-2, 4-3), Philippines council minutes (folder 5-2), G. I. Gospel Hour Planning Council for 1946-1947 (folder 4-6), minutes of U. S. Council executive committee (folder 4-7), and various FEGC publications (folders 5-6 to 5-12, and 6-1). Correspondence (folder 3-4) include letters and/or form letters from Philip Armstrong (FEGC executive secretary) and Olan Hendrix (FEGC home secretary). Eight yearbooks, The Vision, (1959-1966) of FEBIAS (Far Eastern Bible Institute and Seminary) are in folders 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, and 2-2. Folder 4-8 contains a letter from Wheaton College professor of missions & evangelism, H. (Hugo) Wilbert Norton, and in folder 5-5 is a report by Wheaton College anthropology professor Marvin K. Mayers, Tagalog Philippine Study.

Frizen’s 1953 masters thesis, A Study of Candidate Procedure as Followed by the Far Eastern Gospel Crusade (folder 3-2), The Story of Far Eastern Gospel Crusade written in 1949 (folder 4-6), and an interesting small notebook (folder 3-7) containing cards with FEGC missionaries photo, address, ministry, next furlough, birth dates and names of children.

Series: I. Paper records.

Subseries: B: Personal

Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title

Date Range: 1929-1993

Volume: 1.7 cubic feet

Boxes: 2, 6-11

Geographic coverage: Philippines, United States

Type of documents: Articles, brochures, booklets, clippings, minutes, pocket calendars, reports

Correspondents: Peter Stam, Joseph Stowell, Ken Taylor

Subjects: Chicago Gospel Tabernacle, Crowell Trust, evangelization, missions, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), Tyndale House Foundation, Wheaton College

Notes: Frizen’s articles and addresses are primarily missions related themes such as education for mission, discipleship, missionary challenge, standards of accounting and financial reporting for missionary organizations, history of missions, understanding the mission agency, worldwide missionary challenge, and missionary recruitment. Some of Frizen’s papers which he wrote while a doctoral student at TEDS include the subjects of modern missiologists, Bible book studies, leadership in the local church, Christianity and communism in China, and church growth. His pocket calendars generally record daily appointments. Frizen’s participation and leadership with the Henry and Susan Crowell Trust as trustee and Tyndale House Foundation as director are reflected in the minutes and correspondence of these organizations.

Exceptional items: Over twenty papers Frizen wrote while a students at TEDS, his application to TEDS, and the first chapter of An Historical Study of the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association of North America (IFMA) in Relation to Evangelical Unity and Cooperation, are in folder 8-3. Folder 9-1 contains notes from his world trip in 1972 and African trip in 1968-1969. Over thirty articles, reports, and addresses by Frizen are in folder 6-3 including an address on Discipleship he gave at a Wheaton College mission chapel in January 1971. His personal pocket calendars in folders 7-3, 8-1, 8-2 cover the years 1964-1991. The calendar for 1965-1966 records Frizen’s trip to the Carribean and Central America. Two large miscellaneous files (folders 7-1, 7-2) contain mostly church missionary conference bulletins Frizen’s participated in and mission program brochures. Frizen’s time serving in the United States Navy is documented in the book, Forty-Second Battalion - Amadu, (42^nd Naval Construction Battalion) in folder 6-4. Frizen is listed on page 134. Folder 11-3 contains miscellaneous materials from Frizen’s participation in the 1987 Wheaton College commencements programs as president of the Wheaton Alumni Association.

Folder 10-6 contains Frizen’s correspondence to and as a trustee for the Henry Parsons & Susan Coleman Crowell Trust for the years 1975-1993. Also in the folder is a chronological list of the election and succession of Crowell Trustees from 1927 to 1977 and a letter (December 17, 1992) from Joseph Stowell, president of Moody Bible Institute, thanking Frizen for a large donation from the Crowell Trust. Many of the letters are on IFMA letterhead are written by Frizen and a few by Peter Stam III (president of IFMA).

Tyndale House Foundation minutes of the board of directors meetings (1964-1992) are in folders 11-11 and 11-12. There is correspondence of Mark Taylor and Frizen in folder 11-10.

Three Chicago Gospel Tabernacle (CGT) booklets (folder 10-5) contain information about Daniel Paul Rader’s third missionary journey, radio ministry of CGT, and messages by Rader and Gerald B. Winrod.

Series: I. Paper records.

Subseries: C: International Foreign Mission Association (IFMA)

Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title

Date Range: 1961-1992

Volume: 0.8 cubic feet

Boxes: 1, 9-10

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: Financial records, manuals, reports

Subjects: Church growth, evangelism, mission administration, student mission groups, U.S. tax information,

Notes: Executive retreat reports contain messages on mission related themes, church growth, areas of missionary work, evangelism, and national churches. Some of Frizen’s annual reports give the current status of the work of that organization, question to consider to improve it, countries he visited and conditions there, recruitment of missionaries, and missionary statistics. IFM Update: Government/Business provide tax information for missionaries. There are papers which address the philosophy and objectives of student mission groups (folder 9-8)..

Exceptional items: Folders 1-1 and 1-2 contain the EFMA Mission Executive Retreat Reports (1961-1972) and folder 1-3 are the mission staff and member missions lists (1978-1987). Some of the IFMA materials include Frizen’s executive director’s reports and address to the IFMA annual meetings (folder 9-4), mission administration manual (folder 9-10), staff directories for 1983-1989 (folder 10-1), and statistical reports for 1963-1991 (folder 10-3). A postage stamp from India in folder 9-7 commemorates the 100^th anniversary of the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission.

Series: II. Audio Visual Materials

Arrangement: Chronological

Date Range: 1925-1995

Volume: 0.73 cubic feet

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: Audio tapes (reels & cassette) and video tapes.

Subjects: See the description of each tape

Notes: Edwin Leonard “Jack” Frizen, Jr. was interviewed by Paul A. Ericksen on August 9 and December 19, 1990, July 1 and July 16, 1992, and February 8, 1995. Interview tapes T1-T9 were conducted at the Billy Graham Center Archives and tapes T10-T12 were done at the headquarters of Pioneers in Orlando, Florida. The events described in the interviews cover the time period ca. 1925-1995. Topics discussed in the interview are listed in the order in which they were discussed. Audio tapes T13-T57 and video tapes V1-V8 were collected by Frizen most likely in his capacity as an officer of IFMA. For a description of these materials see the Audio Tape and Video Tape Location Records in the guide.

T1 (70 minutes). Description of father and mother; memories of family and childhood in Chicago; influence of Paul Rader; evangelist father’s work as song leader with Rader at the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle; Jack dedicated by Rader for missionary service; people and organizations who influenced Jack: Lance Latham, North Side Gospel Center, Awana, Clarence Erickson, Boys Brigade, Pioneer Boys, Bert Long, and others; attitude toward Wheaton College, radio beginnings at WMBI; more influences in life: Billy McCarrell, David Otis Fuller, Independent Fundamental Churches of America; high school years; call to missions; boys club at North Side Gospel Center; one semester at Wheaton College; recollections of Billy Graham and Ruth Bell; joining the United States Navy; training; work in the Aleutian Islands.

T2 (30 minutes). Continuation of naval service in the Aleutians; remembrance of Paul Rader, Lance Latham, Louis Paul Lehman; Pocket Testament League meetings led by his father; experiences in Camp Parks in California; First Covenant Church in Oakland; Servicemen’s Center; evangelism to servicemen; Navigators; Dick Reed (one of the founders of ELWA); ethnic background of and interaction between churches; father’s work in St. Petersburg, Florida.

T3 (50 minutes). Father becomes musical evangelist for Paul Rader, Hyman Appelman, Bob Wells, Louis Paul Lehman; traveled and led singing, sang solos, held children’s meetings; Frizen’s military career in California, Hawaii, South Pacific; building roads, airstrip, hospital, camp in the Philippines; G.I. Christian Servicemen’s Center; G.I. Gospel Church; Youth for Christ meetings; meetings held in a funeral parlor in Manila; beginning radio program, G.I. Gospel Hour; first impressions of the Philippines; contact with nationals; damage done to Manila during war; contact with nationals as servicemen living in self-contained units; difficult time for Filipinos; hospitality of Filipino people; development of the black market.

T4 (45 minutes). Prayer meeting Sep 21, 1946, that resulted in Far Eastern Bible Institute and Seminary (FEBIAS) as interdenominational Bible school; treasurer appointed, tithes and offerings began; leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Bomm; the G.I. Gospel Crusade in Japan and FEBIAS joined to form Far East Gospel Crusade (FEGC, now SEND, International); headquarters established in the United States; Bomm became treasurer and Philip Armstrong became CEO about 1949; support came from boards of FEBIAS and GI Gospel Hour; regional meetings based on college campuses, such as Wheaton College, to collect, pack, and mail books, clothes, etc.; gospel teams sent out to churches.

T5 (65 minutes). Recollections of people: Chaplain Leon Hawley, George Hixon; Far Eastern Gospel Crusade built new building for international members; student internship program under Missionary Internship, Inc.; relationship with Philip Armstrong; Frizen elected home secretary; issues deal with and changes in focus of FEBC under leadership of R. Ernest Thompson, Virgil Newbrander. FEBC and FEBIAS seen as service agencies; school for missionary children in the Philippines; training school in Japan; Thompson changed focus from service to church planting and church development; nationals encouraged to take over operations of both FEBC and FEBIAS; cooperation with Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF), Conservative Baptists, etc.; start of a bookstore, language studies; cooperation of servicemen from various backgrounds and denominations; development of the Association of Bible Churches of the Philippines (ABCOP); attending Columbia Bible College; met wife Grace, marriage; acceptance as missionaries to the Philippines; trip by freighter; called to Manila office after only two weeks as field missionaries; agreed to work there temporarily because of financial and tax difficulties and their experience in those matters.

T6 (65 minutes). Continuation of talk about beginning missionary work in the Philippines; office cared for by missionaries with no experience in financial and tax matters; Frizen and his wife both had experience and took over the problems, including debts; records burned to get rid of termites; financial arrangements and changes made to combat problems; worked ten to twelve hours per day; active also in Christian service outside the office; language problems, little time for training; FEBC helped other missionary groups begin work in the Philippines; frustration of never having much free time and never getting caught up with work; conditions of work; Frizens’ the focus point for visitors; necessity of entertaining guests; stringent budget helped return mission to fiscal responsibility; difficulty of balancing budget at school when people couldn’t pay their bills; their house girls went to FEBIAS, became missionaries.

T7 (35 minutes). Budget systems set up; audits; personal relationships through fiscal difficulties; language difficulties; book store problems; university situation in the Philippines; improvements during second term.

T8 (65 minutes). The mission bureaucracy; self-directed fields; home office leadership were ex-chaplains; first missionaries; first field councils; contact with the home office; three major fields: Japan, Okinawa, and the Philippines; make up of boards; differences between Japan and the Philippine fields in the early days; lack of women on the boards; personnel problems; “try it out” attitudes versus “life time commitment”; short-term missionaries; field councils and conferences; personnel difficulties; operational difficulties; calls for recognition of gifts; OMF as model of a faith mission; election of officers.

T9 (65 minutes). Second furlough at Florida State University, Jack for M.A. in counseling and Grace for an M.A. in social studies; problems for missions because of a lack of personnel and finances; matching people and gifts for effectiveness; difficulties in making partners of single women; preference for married couples; problems experienced by Millie Young because of oriental look and discrimination against Chinese; relationship between field and home councils, attitudes toward finances; creation of inter-field council; overseeing fields by General Director; Christ for Greater Manila, World Literature Crusade; Every Home for Christ; creation of Faith Academy; inter-field and inter-mission ministries; printing business; influence of FEGC general director Philip Armstrong on the corporate personalities of these other agencies; each mission attracts workers who fit into existing mentality and spirit; intermission conferences; business leaders’ meetings.

T10 (75 minutes). Description of FEBC pioneers: Chaplains Leonard Sweet and Russell Honeywell (first president of FEBIAS), Carl Urspringer, Harry Stam; personality of FEGC and SEND International; G.I.s’ ideas about being a service organization, not competing with denominations already in the field; prepared workers for all organizations; FEBIAS graduates became leaders in many areas; unusual events surrounding move of Frizen to Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association (IFMA); misgivings about move; after years of working together, IFMA did not allow husbands and wives in the same office; Grace invited to sit on board of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society (WUMS), became General Office Manager; living above IFMA offices in New Jersey; working with James Reapsome and the Evangelical Missions Quarterly; Clyde Taylor and Wade Coggins of IFMA; beginnings of other mission organizations, such as Evangelical Missions Information Service (EMIS); travel to Asia and Africa to learn about missions first hand, meet with national church leaders; conferences in Latin America, Central America; overseas involvement.

T11 (75 minutes). Relationships with African missions; African organizations and missions; Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar; negotiations between nationals and missionaries, success of Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) with national/missionary relations, leading by example and service; John Orme; work with various mergers between mission organizations; changes in IFMA, job description of General Secretary; problems with mergers come from boards, not staff or missionaries; relationship between Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies EFMA (formerly Evangelical Foreign Missions Association) and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE); talks about merger between EFMA and IFMA; some board member thought groups with different beliefs should have their own organizations to belong to, such as Pentecostal and charismatic; problems caused by IFMA search committee meeting without Frizen present to select a successor; most gratification was working with great people; greatest frustration was the financial strictures; description of Coggins; most significant event for IFMA-EFMA was joint Congress on Church’s Worldwide Mission held in Wheaton in 1966 with key national leaders; Berlin, Lausanne, and World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF) conferences; growth of post-colonial international participation.

T12 (40 minutes). Changes in Lausanne, WEF, IFMA, EFMA; cooperation between groups; retirement in Orlando, Florida; work as missions consultant for Pioneers; life in retirement; difficulty in adjusting to music in Florida churches; the leading of God throughout his life.

Provenance

The material in this collection was given to the BGC Archives by Edwin Leonard “Jack” Frizen, Jr. in August and December 1990, July 1992, and February 1995.

Accessions 90-87, 90-127, 92-64, 92-73, 95-22

March 12, 1997

Janyce H. Nasgowitz

July 31, 2006 Accessions 92-8, 92-110, 93-24, 93-38

Wayne D. Weber

LOCATION RECORD

Accessions 90-87, 90-127, 92-8, 92-64, 92-73, 92-110, 93-24, 93-38, 95-22

Type of Material: Audio Tapes

The following items are located in the AUDIO TAPE file.

Item# - Reel or cassette, speed, length, number of sides, contents (title of session, participants) according to the program, date. Note: T10-T12 were originally recorded on cassette and later transferred to reels by the Archives’ staff.

LOCATION RECORD

Type of material: Videos

Accession: 93-24, 93-38

The Archives has one copy of each video, unless otherwise noted. The following items are in the Video FILE:

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