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A lot has happened since the last time we published the Focus. The last time I wrote an article for the Focus, we were just beginning to accept pledges to support the Ministries Coordinator position. We are well on our way to the support level needed but can still use help. Check out the Ministries Coordinator Support page here on our website for more information. We are finishing the last of our three retreats for pastors and their wives this month. I always look forward to this time of year, when we can spend time together connecting and encouraging one another. Pray for your pastors and their families. I do not have space to share all that has happened in the past few months, but allow me to give a few highlights: Commission Leadership Updates
Church Leadership Updates
We are grateful for the years of service provided by these men of God. Pray for these men and the churches that are seeking a new pastor.
Praise God for his provision! We welcome these men who have chosen to serve within the FEBC.
Other Church Updates
Praise and Prayer
In Memoriam
We are so grateful for the men who have sacrificed time and energy over the years to lead this Fellowship. As we approach the Easter season, I am reminded of the amazing love that God showed for us through Jesus. The sacrifice he made so that you and I could be free is such a foundational part of our faith, and such an inspiration to serve him. Ephesians 5:25 says that: “…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (ESV). Let that sink in for a moment. Christ loved the church so much that he gave himself up for her. That knowledge motivates me to serve this Fellowship – as our Fellowship exists to serve, support, encourage, and love the church through our 40 local churches. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Reconnecting3/11/2024 It has been a long while since our last Fellowship Focus, and we apologize for that delay. Developing the online content in a way that is appealing and manageable turned into a need to redesign our whole website. With limited resources (such as inexpensive web platforms and part-time employees who also have other jobs and responsibilities), this process took time. But now we are back, and not only am I happy to be back – but I am really pleased with the new layout. I would like to thank Rebecca Boyd (Fellowship Focus Editor) for the many hours she has poured into skillfully designing our new look. Please take some time to look around. Most of the articles currently posted are from the last print edition of the Focus. These were used to develop the look and feel of the online magazine with actual Focus articles. Over the next month or so, we will be working on new content and gathering information from our contributors, to provide the first full online edition of the Focus at the beginning of April. This format gives us the flexibility to add new content at any time, but we still plan to launch an “issue” once every two months. Please keep an eye out as we add subscription methods and other functionality to our online magazine. Welcome to our new look! We hope you find this new format not only convenient but also immersive and engaging. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Ministries Coordinator Support8/1/2023 WILL YOU JOIN US? We are charting a new course for the FEBC, and we need your help. The position of full-time Ministries Coordinator was established in 2019 to better help and equip our churches. Rev. Gary Krehbiel has filled this role, serving many of your pastors, elders, and other leaders. Among other things, he provides encouragement, support, prayer, and on-site assistance with problems. He helps develop resources. This position has been funded with reserves, mostly from estate gifts, with a plan to increase our general income over time to cover the cost. Due to multiple factors, that model is no longer sustainable. We announced earlier this year that the position would be suspended as one part of planned budget reductions. The President’s Address on page 5 was presented when this plan seemed inevitable. But at Connect23, many of your delegates expressed their appreciation for the work that has been done to strengthen churches, and a desire to see this position continue. After prayer and considerable deliberation, the delegates instructed the FEBC directors to develop and implement a plan to pay for the position through a support-based model of funding – similar to the way individuals support missionaries. Many overseas missionaries support and encourage local churches. In the same way, our Ministries Coordinator supports and encourages local churches in North America. Would you consider pledging a monthly amount to support this work? To cover the salary, benefits, travel, and other related expenses, we need about $7,000/month. At Connect23, several of your delegates showed their genuine concern for this need by pledging about $1,100/month total. We are looking for $5,900 more in monthly pledges over the next few months. As the original plan put forward by the directors included suspending the Ministries Coordinator position at the end of July, we are accepting funds now. However, if you wish to make a pledge that begins in the future, please let us know. We plan to raise support for this position until income from existing and future churches is sufficient to resume funding with general income. While this could take a few years, we would gratefully accept a pledge for any duration. And while the key to maintaining this position will be monthly giving, we can also accept one-time gifts for the position or for general FEBC needs. To make a pledge, please email finance@febcministries.org , or call our office at 402-965-3860. To begin giving right away, click the button below. Any amount can help! Please pray about whether God is leading you to support churches by providing for this need. Spending of funds is confined to board approved programs and projects. Each contribution directed toward an approved program or project will be sued as restricted with the understanding that when the need for such a program or project has been met or cannot be completed for any reason as determined by the board, the remaining restricted contribution will be used where most needed.
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Connecting & Changing8/1/2023 There is so much to report that I am not sure we can fit it all into this issue! We recently met together at Connect23, and there are many things that will look different as we move forward. I need to decide where to start.
First, Connect23: We had an amazing time together. Our hosts in Grunthal, MB, were well-prepared and very gracious, and our keynote speaker, Dr. Paul Nyquist, challenged us. The outings, meals, breakout sessions, and so much more were thoroughly enjoyable and deeply meaningful. We connected. But I entered the event with a mixture of excitement and sadness. To make a long story as short as I can, our financial plan that began in 2019 has suffered setbacks recently due to several factors, including COVID and the recent economic downturn. Our funds have been depleted more quickly than anticipated. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Scholarships & Elections 20238/1/2023 Recently, the FEBC Scholarship Team met to select recipients for the 2023-2024 school year. Congratulations to these awardees:
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Embracing Change8/1/2023 Change is a constant and inevitable part of life, and it is with a mix of anxiety and excitement that I pen this letter to you, our faithful subscribers and supporters of The Fellowship Focus. Over the years, our beloved magazine has been a beacon of inspiration and knowledge, sharing the message of faith, hope, and love with communities near and far. Today, in this issue, we announce a significant transformation that we believe will propel us into the future and enable us to spread the Good News and keep our churches connected and supported even more efficiently.
As many of you may already be aware, The Fellowship Focus will be embracing a new chapter in its journey. We have made the decision to transition from a traditional print magazine to an entirely digital publication. This shift comes with careful consideration and a profound understanding of the changing landscape of media consumption in the 21st century. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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From Generation to Generation8/1/2023
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The Greatest Priority8/1/2023 To pay homage to the impact of our print publication and the contributions of our past editors and content contributors, we’ve decided to re-publish a select number of articles from the archives. In this issue, we discuss the impact and importance of Gary Krehbiel within the position of FEBC Ministries Coordinator. While Gary has had significant and invaluable interactions with the churches within our Fellowship, he has also been a contributor of thought-provoking pieces like the one below, originally published in the 2020 Sept/Oct issue of Fellowship Focus. “You have to do the first thing before you do the second.” It can’t get much more basic than that. It may have been the most common thing I heard as a distracted child. “Do your chores before you go play.” “Do your homework before you watch TV.” “Clear your plate before you get dessert.” Priorities. Sometimes even a good priority can prevent us focusing on one that is more important. It is often a struggle to keep our priorities because we are easily distracted, often selfish and occasionally overwhelmed. With the pandemic and political unrest that has become a common part of our lives, we need to remember that God has told us what our priority is. Years ago when people were asked what the most commonly known verse in the Bible was, they usually responded that it was John 3:16. The message of the gospel. Now the most commonly quoted verse in the Bible is likely Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” And if it’s not that, it might be, “Love your neighbor as yourself ” (Matt. 22:39 niv). Both of those verses represent the priority of the culture: non-judgmental acceptance. That cultural priority has had an impact among churches and those who claim to be followers of Jesus. The cultural definition of love has begun to shape the way the church attempts to demonstrate the love of Christ to the world around us. Love becomes defined by the culture. But should it be? We are known by our love for one another. We are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. God is love. Jesus loved sinners. But how do Christians love the way Christ loves? The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind (Matt. 22:37). As important as it is to love others, the greatest commandment sets everything else in order. The priority is to love God -- fully and wholeheartedly. An emphasis on the command to love your neighbor misses the priority. We have to do the first thing in order to do the second. We cannot disregard the other implications of that commandment. We are to love God with complete commitment and trust. It means that He receives our full loyalty and devotion. His priorities have to be ours. To fully love God demands that we love the things that God loves and the things that proceed from the character of God. We love people because God is love. We love justice because God is just. We love holiness because God is holy. Too often people and churches emphasize the second commandment without prioritizing the first. I thought about this as a friend described her conversation with someone about gender. They discussed someone they knew who is transitioning their gender. The other person suggested that everyone needed to be supportive of the person transitioning so that they would feel loved and accepted. My friend pointed out that the emphasis on acceptance doesn’t acknowledge that God can and does use difficulty and brokenness to bring people to Himself. Attempting to draw someone to God by trying to make Him fit their perceived needs places the second commandment ahead of the first. To truly love God is to love who He is and what He loves. We cannot compromise any of that and remain faithful to the first commandment, the first priority. In Matthew 22, Jesus answers the question of what is the greatest commandment. The religious leaders of the day were trying to undermine Jesus’ credibility and authority before the crowds. They pressured Him to align Himself with a political movement, tried to draw Him into a theological conflict, and attempted to force Him into a virtue dispute. They tried to force Him into taking a ‘with us’ or ‘against us’ position. Each time, he stepped out of the trap. In summarizing the greatest commandment, He prioritized all allegiances and obligations. Our culture attempts to force us to make declarations and alliances so that people will know which side we are on. The pressure to signal our virtue by agreeing with the morality of the day can lead Christians to take positions that ignore our first priority. If the church focuses on the second great commandment, we are always at risk of defining love by the response of the culture we live in. When we focus on the greatest commandment, God orders our hearts and minds so that we reflect His character without the need to conform to the world. Ancient church buildings and cathedrals were often built with towering ceilings and spires to direct worshippers’ eyes upward and remind them of the supremacy and majesty of God. As our culture and events draw our eyes downward to the needs around us we must maintain our first priority in order to truly be agents of reconciliation and hope to the world around us.
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Connect23 President's Address8/1/2023 Following is the "State of the Fellowship" address presented by President Kevin Stone at Connect23. Today I am charged with giving a State of the Fellowship Address. If you read my Annual Report, you have a decent idea of the state of our fellowship, but this address is different. The Annual Report is a report of everything that happened in the past Fiscal Year, which was April, 2022-March 2023. This address is to give you my assessment of the state of our Fellowship – today.
Last year at this time, I had only positive things to report – we were coming out of COVID, we were adding a new church, we had filled several open pastoral positions around the Fellowship, and most of our churches were reporting financial and numerical growth. Our Vision strategy was gaining momentum. The word I used last year during this address was “poised.” We were poised to move forward well. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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3/11/2024
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