Fred Balbuena

Associate Pastor

Fred was born and raised in a small island in the Philippines. He believed the Gospel and committed his life to Christ at the age of 14. He believed that, “All have sinned and fall short (totally) of the glory of God” (Rom 6:23), and the wages of sin is death (6:23). He knew he was lost. He was not naturally seeking for the things of God and his heart was only inclined to the things of the world. He also believed Romans 5:8 saying , “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. That was a defining moment in his life, knowing that God loved him and died for him while he was lost in sin. God started using him in ministry through the encouragement and training he received from the OMF missionaries on his island. Through that influence he helped establish a student ministry while he was attending college where he earned his Bachelors Degree in Accounting. That experience gave him a deeper aspiration to pursue pastoral ministry.

Fred met Lori, his wife, in the Philippines while she was serving there as a missionary to orphaned and abandoned children. She became the adviser for the campus ministry that Fred organized while pursuing his undergraduate studies. Their relationship grew as they worked together in this ministry and they got married on December 1990. Two years later with all the overwhelming discoveries of the sovereignty of God they moved to Manila to attend Asian Theological Seminary.

In the fall of 1993, they left the Philippines in order for Lori to visit back home in the U.S. It had been five years since she had left the country. During this time, God led Fred to continue his studies at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN. While in seminary, they became members at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. He became oriented and was deeply challenged by the teaching of John Piper. Pastor John’s faithfulness to the Word of God shaped his thinking in regards to the absolute sovereignty of God and the necessity of serious study of God’s word. God used these experiences to develop a strong Biblical worldview in him, something he hadn’t understood when he entered seminary.

Fred’s passion is to be a faithful minister of the Word which ultimately means to be in the business of proclaiming the glorious perfection of God. He believes that the God of the Bible must not only be analyzed and explained, but His glorious perfection must, above all things, be made known among the nations.

Fred and Lori have four children, Josiah, Jedd, Katie and Karissa.