Seminary Professor
DMin, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina
MDiv, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Former Executive Director, Baptist World Mission, Decatur, Alabama
Office: Old Main 301
Fred Moritz admits he will miss his long-time ministry.
But he won’t miss the airports.
“I know for sure I traveled 65,000 miles on Northwest Airlines last year,” Moritz said. “I haven’t yet added in Air India, Air Vietnam, Thai Airways and Kingfisher in India. At my age (66), I think I’ve taken (the travel) very well. But I am not upset about changing pace.”
The Executive Director of Baptist World Mission will join the Maranatha Baptist Seminary faculty when the seminary opens this fall. He will be teaching several theology classes.
“I love the systematic theology courses,” Moritz said. “I also get to teach Isaiah, one of my very favorite books. It will be one of my great delights.”
Moritz became assistant to Dr. Monroe Parker at BWM in 1981 and became Executive Director in 1985. He oversees 350 total missionaries (husbands and wives) and is also field administrator for Eastern Europe and Canada.
Moritz first met Maranatha President Dr. Charles Phelps in 1981, when Moritz was preaching at Grace Baptist Church in Owatonna, Minnesota, and Phelps was the youth pastor.
“Fred Moritz brings a wealth of experience to the classroom,” Phelps said. “He has been on dozens of mission fields, preached in hundreds of churches, taught numerous classes and has a passion to pass along a separatist Baptist position to a new generation of leaders.
“He continues to find time to be engaged in the learning process. His encyclopedic mind is matched by a tender heart and a desire to produce biblically trained, practically burdened ministers of the Gospel. We’re fortunate to have him joining our team of mentors at Maranatha Baptist Seminary.”
Moritz previously pastored at four different churches and was a full-time evangelist from 1979-85. He graduated from Pillsbury Baptist Bible College with a bachelor’s degree in 1963, and earned his MDiv from Central Baptist Theological Seminary four years later. He also earned a DMin degree from Bob Jones University in 1992. Moritz had previously been given honorary doctorates from Indiana Baptist College (1980) and Maranatha (2001). He is the author of two books.
The Peoria, Illinois, native first began teaching graduate modules in 1994 and has taught both graduate and undergraduate classes at Maranatha, Faith Baptist Bible College, Northland Baptist Bible College, Bob Jones University and Baptist College of Ministry.
“I love the classroom, and I enjoy the classroom experience and the privilege of working with young people,” Moritz said.
His duties at BWM, Moritz said, include working with missionaries on topics ranging from “fellowship to counsel to budgets to policy issues.” The BWM headquarters are in Decatur, Alabama. Moritz said he intends to remain with BWM during the transition to a new Executive Director, yet to be named.
Moritz said he is confident of the wisdom of his next step, in part, because he is confident in Maranatha.
“The heart and spirit of Maranatha is what it has always been—a Baptist school that is fundamental, separated, and evangelical in its emphasis,” Moritz said. “The No. 1 thing right now, in addition to Maranatha’s long history, is the privilege of working under Dr. Phelps’ leadership. He embodies the best of Christian leadership qualities.”
When Moritz begins teaching theology, he will definitely be doing so from a dispensational standpoint.
“For a number of years, reformed theology has had a great appeal in the evangelical world,” Moritz said. “It has a certain amount of appeal in the fundamental world as well. But I do believe the Scriptures are unequivocally clear that there is a distinction between Israel and the church. Dispensational theology is not imposed on Scripture, but is a system we get out of Scripture.”
Moritz will speak at Maranatha’s chapel sessions March 12 and 13. He and wife Judith, married 46 years, plan to relocate to Watertown during the summer. They are the parents of two adult daughters, Elisabeth (Wertz) and Christin (Dupee), and a son, James, who died in 1969.
“To leave a ministry we’ve been in so long, working with missionaries we love, is getting more difficult by the day,” Moritz admitted. “We are also confident that the Lord is in it, and that this is His next ordered step.”
--Posted by Andrew Call, 1-19-09