Bread of Life Ministries International

History

In the early 1980s, Pastor Butch Conde, originally wanted to start a half-way house for prostitutes in Olongapo City, where the U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay was located. Until in August 1982, when the Lord gave the calling to the 12 people, including Pastor Conde, to start a new church in Loyola Heights, Quezon City. Marynoll College (now Miriam College), offered its auditorium to launch then "Bread of Life Christian Fellowship" and the first service gatherings on November 14, 1982. This continuously increased into hundreds by invitations of people and groups.

In 1984, from a gathering of 120 members in Maryknoll College, weekly attendance steadily increased to a thousand, BOL prompted to move temporarily to the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City on January 8 and 15, 1984. But later on January 22 on the said year, BOL worship gatherings transferred to Celebrity Sports Plaza in Capitol Hills, Quezon City to accommodate 1,200 members. Pastor Conde had always wanted to show that God Himself provides for Filipino churches, and the Filipinos must break free from colonial mentality. He always wanted to establish that how the Filipino can be independent from the foreign missionaries.

After the People Power Revolution in 1986, Pastor Conde drew inspiration from his Korea Prayer Study Tour and the Prayer Mountain experiences in South Korea, then BOL acquired a piece of land in the mountains in Rizal to build the country's and Southeast Asia's first Prayer Mountain facilities to spread the same spirit of prayer in the Philippines led to building the first Filipino prayer mountain facility on the said year, in 1988, BOL dedicated the Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain, its ministry of intensifying and deepening the prayer lives of the Filipino Christians through fasting. Today it continues as a place dedicated to restoration in prayer and has become a haven for believers from different churches and denominations to pray for the Philippines, Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain is located in Antipolo City, Rizal, an hour away from Manila.

On April 5, 1987, BOL services move to Circle Theater (now Circle Events Place) located at Timog Avenue, and started to divide into four worship gatherings every Sunday. Between 1989 and 1991, it was considered one of the fastest growing churches in the country with membership up to 2,000 people in 1992, and BOL changed its name to "Bread of Life Ministries". BOL also planted another central church in Makati, and had been planting church satellites nationwide.

In August 1993, BOL began building its own ministry center along Mother Ignacia Avenue in Quezon City. BOL is an indigenous church, which built without the help of foreign Christian churches, financial assistance, political support, or even with the church partnership, it was built by the Filipino Christians.

In 1996, BOL started to plant international outreaches reaching for Filipinos and other nationalities, they started by planting BOL USA in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, California. On November 29, 1998, the church dedicated Crossroad77 (now known as Crossroad Center) and weekly attendance averaged up to 2,500 each of the four service gatherings. The rapid growth of the church can be attributed to the personal care of new members and neighborhood small groups presided by trained leaders, the ministry center also puts prayer rooms and it houses all the ministries of the church.

In 2001, BOL Makati split into two centers and transferred its worship services from Mondragon building to a larger space. BOL Makati is now located on Glorietta 4 (G4), and Greenbelt Onstage, the latter located at the Project Mosaic, 3F Greenbelt 1, Ayala Center, Makati City.

In 2002, several members of BOL and Board of Elders led by Pastor Conde established the Meridian International Learning Experience, a multi-lingual institution that attempts to shape its students into Godly, excellent, patriotic and competitive Filipinos, with the foundation rooted on the Bible, the call of the school is to build a new generation of Filipinos like the national hero Jose Rizal, it is also the commitment to continually build a strong university for Christ and the transformation of the country.

On November 25, 2007, BOL marked its 25th Anniversary with a grand celebration. The theme was the "Global Village 25/25", attended by the thousands of members from BOL local and international outreaches. The celebration was held at Ynares Center, Antipolo City, Rizal.

In 2012, Pastor Conde announced his retirement as senior pastor, having served as such for the past three decades. He now serves as the Pastor Emeritus of the church. On May 20, 2012, one of the associate pastors and head pastor of BOL Makati and Singapore, Rev. Noel Tan was installed as the new senior pastor.

Bread of Life 30 Years

BOL celebrated its 30th Anniversary with the theme "Perlas Ng Silangan: Bread of Life 30th Anniversary". The grand celebration held at the SMX Convention Center on November 18, 2012 with approximately delegates of 15,000 from different BOL outreaches worldwide.

Crossroad Center (Bread of Life Ministry Center)

Construction of the Crossroad Center (formerly Crossroad77 at Mother Ignacia Ave., Quezon City began in August 1993 and completed in November 1998, dedicated on November 29, 1998, it was served as BOL's international headquarters. Crossroad Center has 5th storey, 2 basement floor and 2 parking lots, it houses 2,500-seater "Convenarium" (where Sunday worship service gatherings and young adult ministry Kalantas and Wide Awake (formerly Overnight Prayer) held), Vision 21 Hall (prayer program such as Dawnwatch). Land 21 Hall (home of children's ministry Sonshine Street), Pugad Haribon (home of the youth ministry Kampilan); medical and wellness ministry like More than C-onquerors, RX Wellness Medical Cell; 4th floor resides Planet Infinity, MTM Gym as well as Jojiberry; residing in the 3rd floor offices are More Than Medals, ministry for athletes. Other ministries like BibleWalk Academy, Beyond Borders OFW ministry, The Fellows for Jesus is the ministry of husbands, The Homemakers for Jesus is for the ministry of housewives, I-Connect is the ministry for couples and The Yogurt Company is the ministry for senior adults. In these journey groups that meet once a week to do Bible study, fellowship and ministry work. The 3rd, 4th and 5th storey of the ministry center was also community center which was supported by BOL.

Core Values

BOL embraces to the Statement of Faith on Holy Scriptures to be the verbally inspired Word of God in its entirety, sixty-six books composing of the Old and New Testaments, the final authority for faith and life. That believes in one triune God, eternally existing in three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections. Embraces the absolutely essential for man to be born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, in which he is no longer conformed to the world system but redirected to the things of the Spirit, in order to be saved; and that the only way to salvation is to turn in genuine faith from the heart to Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior. The Church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of born-again persons, not to any specific organization. Believes the great commission that it is the obligation of the saved to witness by life and by word to the truths of the Holy Scripture and to seek to proclaim the Gospel to all mankind.

The vision of BOL from the beginning of its ministry work up to present is to build a strong national uniqueness by becoming independent from foreign sources, to rediscover Filipino Christian indigenous spirituality. BOL emphasizes the independence of the indigenous church and is challenging other denominational churches to revive their identity through God's word as well. This belief is founded on the distinction which BOL applied to the uniqueness of the Christian journey by emphasizing the centrality of Christ, the foundation of Scriptures, prayer, worship, operated by the power of God, the way of service through sacrifice and being people of faith.

Congregations

BOL have established 59 satellite outreach in local and international congregations, 14 satellite outreaches with weekly attendance of around 15,000 to 20,000 people within Metro Manila. Rural congregations has a total of 27 satellite outreaches. And 18 international outreaches in 12 countries in Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East and North America, with overall membership approximately up to 35,000 people as of 2012..

Multimedia

In 1990's, all the Sunday services' sermons was aired through 702 DZAS-AM Radio, but this time is discontinued. But in BOL USA, live streams and video archives of sermons was shown on its outreach's official website.

Controversy

On October 18, 2004, BOL published a paid advertisement in the Philippine Daily Inquirer titled “Misplaced Priorities Can Mislead the Nation,” which was a part of the Kingdom Of A Higher World series authored by then BOL Pastor Bong Saquing. The advertisement highlighted the story of an eleven-year-old girl named Faye San Juan, who purportedly emerged victorious in the “Intercontinental Science Quiz Net” held in Australia. According to the narrative, Faye triumphed in the competition with assistance from the Japanese embassy, without any accompanying support from the Philippine government.  After further scrutiny in the media, BOL began an investigation about the backgrounds of the girl and the mother, and found the whole story a hoax created by Faye's mother who is mentally ill. BOL and Associate Pastor Jesmael M. Montaña (head of the Kingdom of a Higher World write-ups) issued a public apology to the media and cancelled the column.