Personal Biography of Paul J. Bucknell

A Short History

I (Paul) am humbled by God's call to begin Biblical Foundations for Freedom (BFF). Although I have traveled over large parts of the world and have had many opportunities to deepen biblical knowledge and theology in others, my burden for Christian revival has been the underlying passion that has shaped my life and ministry for these last 50 years.

I owe a large part of my burden to my praying grandfather, who looked forward to retirement as a greater opportunity to pray. And pray he did until he died blind at 99. He was persecuted in Latvia’s homeland and came as a missionary, pastor, and teacher here in America, largely working with Russians.

My family served as missionaries in Taiwan under OMF International during the 1980s. How It was thrilling to co-labor with fellow Chinese brothers and sisters in church planting ministries. Due to my wife and daughter's worsening asthma, we returned to America in the 1990s, where I thoroughly enjoyed pastoring at the Pittsburgh Chinese Church in Pennsylvania, United States.

A Calling from God on High

In the year 2000, God spoke to Linda and me in a mysterious way about leaving my pastoral ministry in Pittsburgh. With the elders' permission, I resigned. Without a ministry and financial support, I desperately sought the Lord. Early one Saturday morning in November, before all my seven children awoke, I cried out to the Lord. He heard.

All of a sudden, God poured faith and vision into my feeble soul. Within those two days, God envisioned me for the Biblical Foundations for Freedom.

Idea after idea flooded my mind. He gave Linda and me faith (see below) to trust Him in His care for us. He has faithfully cared for us without regular support for over fifteen years. This was a huge step for us. At that time, I had never written a web page and had (and still do) so much to learn in this fast-developing field.

Strong on the Local Church

In 1995, when pastoring, we helped start the PCC Oakland church in Pittsburgh’s university area to reach out to Chinese students. At first, it was bilingual, but now has two separate services—one in Chinese and one in English (under the name Oakland International Fellowship—OIF). This is where our family served and worshiped for many years.

My Calling

God first called me while studying engineering at the University of Maine in Orono. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my engineering studies, God began to take up a larger part of my heart through learning about inductive Bible study through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

One day, as I was looking out my second-floor dorm window, the Lord started conversing with me in my mind about the many people walking back and forth across the big campus. "There are a lot of people out!" I responded to myself, "Sure are." He impressed on my mind, "They need the Lord." I agreed. Then the Lord further pushed me by asking, "What is holding you back from serving them?"

I thought about my health, openness, etc., and realized He was hinting that I go into full-time ministry. I did. I dropped my full scholarship, and after working for a semester, I graduated with a major in Foreign Missions and a minor in Biblical Languages from Moody Bible Institute in December 1977. I finished my degree in Asian studies at the University of Florida. Our home church in Massachusetts ordained me after our first four-year term in Taiwan in 1985. After returning to Taiwan from leave in 1986, we led a large team to start the Nanjing church and a church in our home in Wujya, southern Taiwan. The beautiful teamwork during that time still stirs up the most wonderful memories in our minds.

More on Our Family

Although I grew up in a broken home, God has taught me to love and cherish my wife and thoroughly enjoy all eight of my children ( See December 2009 family letter ).

Although I grew up in a broken home, God taught me to love and cherish my wife and thoroughly enjoy all eight children (see family letters below). We, perhaps, could contest for homeschooling the longest period, with our oldest daughter starting in her fourth grade in 1990, after returning from Taiwan. Six children are now married. In 2007, Linda and I became grandparents for the first time! We now (2021) have nine grandchildren and celebrate more than forty years of a wonderful marriage! Our youngest three children have moved out, having completed almost thirty years of homeschooling, sold our home, and eventually moved to the south, to North Carolina, where four of our children and five of our grandchildren live.

I trust that our web-designed materials will cause you to grow in the hope of God's power, love, and relevance in your own life so that you will be more like our gracious Lord Jesus Christ. I have much more to share about my life. For example, my personal struggles have become a key reason for many of my writings. I had a ton of personal problems, including anger, lust, and insecurity. You will find many more resources in our Digital Libraries, where you can gain ongoing access to graphic-enriched slides, video training series, handouts, 25+ books, and more. Our search at the top of the page searches both of our websites.

In the South

A Faith Ministry

We are a faith ministry. This means that we do not have any guaranteed salary. We do not know how much we might get from month to month. The Lord led us to start the ministry and trust Him for what we need.

God's amazing provision constantly sets our hearts to praise. We do not have anything against guaranteed salaries (I like them!) but find that this faith journey forms another blow against secularism's empty words by showing how God is alive.

One person went so far as to say that we can't live off what we do! I assured her that we do! Another more recently stated, "You can't do that." I tried to explain we have been doing it for eight years! Now in 2025 it has been 25 years!

God's Miracles of Grace

It is true. Without God, we could not survive. As a testimony of God's grace, we have a bigger family than most (nine children now) and find, without a guaranteed income, that God has many ways to provide for our needs. We even had a postman once bring us firewood along with our mail! Our children have together witnessed God's amazing work.

Apart from the provisions for our family, we have also seen how God has wonderfully blessed this ministry! For 16 years, I have gone overseas to train many pastors and church planters in third-world countries, often at our ministry's expense.

We regularly have over 20,000 web pages daily viewed on the BFF websites from every part of the world. In 2023, we had over 7 million pages viewed. The BFF Store page provides information on the many larger materials that God has blessed us with since our beginning. Included in our BFF Digital Libraries are:

• Books by Paul J. Bucknell (2024)

• Seminars offered and developed by Paul J. Bucknell

Join our prayer team by getting our monthly prayer letter to get updates on our current situation as we continue to bring life-changing ministry around the world (sign up at the bottom). While many missionaries are leading people to the Lord through church planting, we further equip national leaders so they can do a much more effective job of training those who are saved. We welcome your prayers!

Click here if you are interested more about financially investing in the ministry of developing godly people and leaders around the world. BFF is one of the best spiritual investments that you can make. We do a lot with a little! Biblical Foundations for Freedom became an officially recognized non-profit (501(c)(3)) in late 2007 and provides tax-deductible receipts for American donors. We encourage churches to add BFF to their mission support!

As you read the website pages, you will get to know me as I share how God has worked in my life. I am so sorry that I do not have the opportunity to know you better and get acquainted with how God works in and through your life, at least on this side of heaven.

We appreciate any suggestions, advice, prayer, encouragement, and support you can give us at Biblical Foundations for Freedom!