Why a Fellowship Beyond the Local Church is Vital

So, why does the FBFI exist?  It’s a fair question. If I cannot answer that question I should probably quit my job as FBFI President! Let me explain why the ministry of the FBFI is essential in the landscape of ministry today.

Fellowship.

Pastors need fellowship.  There are pressures and difficulties that come with pastoral ministry that are greater than most can possibly imagine. Pastors need other pastors and friends with whom they can share, pray, find encouragement, and hold one another accountable (pastor’s wives need fellowship with other pastor’s wives too).  This fellowship needs to be more than preaching sessions, it also needs to include prayer and conversation.

Ministry requires relationships and the fellowship meeting is a place for forge relationships beyond the few college cronies that most ministers develop along the way.

I know some younger men in ministry think that the few buddies that they communicate with online are enough, but they are not.  They need to expand the realm of their fellowship beyond that small group of friends.  For this reason, let me suggest that every church, and every church leader consider sending their pastor to our annual fellowship in Denver this summer.  The speakers, workshops, fellowship time, and ministries presented will not only be an encouragement, there will be an exchange of ideas that help invigorate a pastor and have positive impact on his ministry when he returns home.

Networking.

Independent local churches need one another. There are things that we must do in cooperation with one another in order to carry out the Great Commission.  We have to cooperate with one another and with Mission Boards so that we can effectively send missionaries out throughout the world. The logistics necessary to accomplish worldwide missions are far beyond what one particular local church is able to supply.  It is similar situation with other para-church (yet necessary ministries) like publishing companies, educational institutions, and much more.  A well-organized fellowship provides a rallying point for ministries with similar beliefs and goals to come together and learn how to help one another.

Problem-solving.

We will always have issues that we have to work through.  Sometimes they are theological challenges, and other times ministry challenges.  The most visible present example is prominently in the news right now. It is the issue of pastoral abuse.  I have written on this in the past year fairly often, but in the last month expose articles have come out in major newspapers identifying pastoral abuse in the Independent Baptist Church movement, the Southern Baptist Convention, and of course more news about abuse in the Catholic Church.  Dan Coulter, in First Things, called the situation the The Evangelical Apocalypse.  He identified the problems in evangelicalism that have led to this issue.  These would include loose organizational ties between churches and ministries that allow abusers to move around from job to job undetected, a false concept of forgiveness that not only restores repentant abusers to church membership but also the leadership, a tendency for ministries to go into self-preservation mode and cover up sin rather than dealing with it.

These are our problems too.  A team from the FBFI board is meeting this week at our annual board meeting to make recommendations to churches on how to avoid such problems in their local ministries.  These types of tasks are greater than individual churches can accomplish, and it would simply be foolish for every church to have to each individually come up with their own policies.

Military.

The ministry of the military chaplaincy has become a prime feature of the FBFI in recent years.  Not only does our fellowship endorse more than 60 military and community chaplains, we are blessed to have some of the best chaplains in all of their chosen branches of service.  They are highly regarded by their peers and are doing a great work for God in this important area of ministry.  It takes a fellowship to have an endorsing agency and support these chaplains’ needs. The FBFI recruits potential chaplains, vets their qualifications, and then supports them as they serve.  It is the endorsing agency that protects chaplains from the pressures to compromise that come often in the ecumenical setting of the military chaplaincy. Military regulations dictate that a chaplain must comply with the theological and ministerial demands of his endorsing agency.  We provide theological “cover” so that our chaplains cannot be forced to violate their consciences (or sacrifice their military ministries).

There is more that we do.  We encourage pastors not only in the US, but also in fellowships around the world.  We also publish six issues of FrontLine Magazine per year.  The Proclaim and Defend website not only gives us an opportunity to publish quickly and address issues in a timely manner.  It also provides a portal for busy local church pastors to keep up with news and opinions of importance to them and their ministries.

The FBFI is an important ministry.  Would you consider joining with us?  We would treasure your fellowship.