National President, Rev. Steven Jones declared in his 2011 Fellowship National Conference address, “The coffee break is over! We must reignite our Gospel passion by rediscovering our identity as a movement of local churches on mission together.”
Our President mentioned in 2015, after five years of ministry preparation, that, “‘It’s been a busy time of building a fruitful team, establishing a vision, consolidating our identity as a movement, focusing our departments to better serve our churches and donors, strengthening our Regional partnerships, and building new alliances along with being a listening ear to our leaders.”
The following are some highlights from 2011-2015:
• The amazing National staff I get to serve alongside. I’ve learned that one of my most important tasks is discovering the right people, adequately resourcing them, and championing their missional dreams and initiatives.
• Spending the first three years establishing Direction Documents for each of our National departments and ministries. These documents provide clarity of purpose and focus to our ministries in support of our churches by clearly identifying the mission, vision, values, and strategy for each Fellowship National department: Fellowship International, FAIR, Fellowship Advancement (Chaplaincy, Francophone, and Foundation ministries), Communications, and Services.
• Creating or updating the Policy and Procedure manual for each Fellowship National department and ministry.
• Clarifying how Fellowship National and our five Regions work together to support and serve our local churches outlined in the Support for Fellowship Baptist Churches brochure (2013).
• The creation of our We are the Fellowship direction document which involved hundreds of Fellowship leaders over two years and was ratified at FNC2014. This mission document helped settle some of our identity issues. A video was also prepared to clearly communicate our identity.
• Witnessing churches become healthier through consultations and the establishing of 47 church plants in five years (2011-2015) was especially gratifying.
• Watching the strengthening of our Regions in those five years to more effectively serve our local churches. Merger of the FEBCAST (vote: May 11, 2012) and FEBMid (vote: June 2, 2012) Regions to form the Fellowship Prairies Region; later ratified at FNC2012.
• Following a season of clarifying vision among our National departments, we experienced a recruitment boom with eight long-term and 12 mid-term missionary appointees, 44 chaplaincy appointments, and the establishing of 48 Francophone church plant partnerships (2011-2015).
• Our Fellowship Chaplaincy ministry was completely retooled in 2012 with a significant increase in new chaplains in three years (2012-2015), raising the total from 27 to 44 Fellowship chaplains.
• The redesign of our Fellowship National magazine in 2012 when The Evangelical Baptist became THRIVE, and the addition of several social media platforms to our communication toolbox in 2013.
• The retiring of the Fellowship French Mission (1958-2014) and establishing a new partnership model starting in 2015. This was difficult to do, but we joyfully established 48 new partnerships between English-speaking churches and Francophone church plants in Québec by 2015.
• The legal requirements for the formation of the Fellowship Foundation were completed in 2012, and a Policy and Procedure manual was completed in 2013, with a public launch of the Fellowship Foundation in March 2015.
• Fellowship Aid and International Relief (FAIR) transitioned from being a ministry of Fellowship International (1974-2014) to having department status with a new director, staff, and budget (2015).
• At FNC2015 (Gatineau, QC), Rev. Tim McCoy, Executive Minister of Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ), made a formal apology to FEBCC for their part in the schism that occurred in 1927 between our sister Baptist churches.