Connect25: State of the Fellowship Address

A couple of questions have been asked more than once during previous Connect meetings.

The first question: Why do I give a report and then also give an address? Well, my annual report is intended to convey what I have done over the past fiscal year, so the member churches are kept apprised of my work. This is my address, sometimes referred to as the “State of the Fellowship” address. While the report gives you an idea of what happened from April 2024-March 2025, this address is to tell you what the state of our ministry is today and give you some idea of where I think it is headed tomorrow. Just for fun, I Googled: “What is a state of the organization address?” and got the following response: “A State of the Organization address is a communication, often a speech, given by leadership to update stakeholders on the organization's current status, strategic direction, and future plans.”
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The other question that gets asked is: “What is the point of approving the president’s address?” My answer is: “I don’t know. That’s what our forefathers did, and so we have maintained the tradition.” So, in a sweeping move of Fellowship reform, I have asked the chairman for permission to forego approving this speech, so when it’s done, it’s done, whether you approve or not.

But let’s get to the business of updating you on the current status and direction of the FEBC.
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Folks, we need to praise God this afternoon! He is a mighty, awesome God, and he is our great Provider, and he has provided for our Fellowship in an amazing way. To fully explain the situation over the past 6 or 7 years would take too long, and you’d fall asleep. Many of you know it by heart, but some of you may be new, so I will give you the briefest explanation possible, and if this leaves you wondering what happened, talk to me or a director later.

In 2018, we had a bunch of funds in reserve. They were mostly from estate gifts and the like. The directors didn’t want to just sit on the money, they wanted to use those funds to help churches. The delegates agreed, and we expanded our ministry quite a bit to better serve churches. The most notable change was the addition of a full-time Ministries Coordinator. The idea was to serve your churches as well as possible until either giving increased enough to cover our expenses or the reserves ran out.

There were some big challenges, such as COVID keeping us from connecting in person and the economic downturn in FY2023. So here is a quick snapshot of how we used reserves to keep going. In FY2022, we transferred about $92,000 from our unrestricted reserves to pay the bills. This was about $20,000 less than we budgeted, so we felt pretty good about it. But in FY2023, when the economy really tanked, we drew over $185,000 from unrestricted reserves. We had budgeted to spend $139,000 from those reserves. It appeared that the plan was no longer sustainable.

So, at Connect23, the directors proposed that we make sweeping changes to our ministry. Many of them, such as selling our office space and moving our paper magazine to online-only, have been implemented. But the delegates at Connect23 insisted that we keep the Ministries Coordinator position, moving it to a support model. We continue to pay Gary’s salary and expenses, but as donations come in for his support, we can offset those costs within our budget.
What has happened since that moment is nothing short of miraculous.

As I reported last year, in FY2024 we budgeted to transfer $120,000 from reserves in spite of some cuts happening mid-year. But through God’s provision, we ended up only transferring about $5,000 from unrestricted reserves.

But as I said last year, this amazing situation did not mean we were out of the woods. Our numbers were influenced by the income from selling our building, and we were still trying to raise support for Gary. So, we have prayed and waited to see how things would turn out this year.

This past year, FY2025, for the first time since we expanded our ministry by faith in 2019, we saw a net income. We gained over $14,000 in unrestricted funds. We had budgeted to transfer about 60,000 from unrestricted reserves.

There is no one factor to explain a $70,000 improvement from projected to actual. God did it. Our investments did better, but more notably, general giving to the FEBC from member churches went up significantly last year, while at the same time, both churches and individuals increased support for the Ministries Coordinator position. We also kept our expenses $15,000 below budget. There are many factors, but one author. I give all the glory to God.

We have not arrived yet at financial stability. We are still leaning on God to provide. As you know, the cost of everything just keeps increasing, and so the cost of ministry increases as well. We have not yet received full pledged support for our Ministries Coordinator, so the balance of that expense remains. Overall, the proposed budget you will consider tomorrow includes around $50,000 in transfers from unrestricted reserves. This is the lowest budgeted amount since 2018, but it reinforces the fact that we need to stay vigilant and pray for God’s provision.

This dynamic of inflated costs over the years is also why we recommend that each member church give a percentage of its annual budget. As your budgets increase with the economy, the FEBC income will organically increase to match inflation. If your church has not already adopted this approach, I encourage you to consider it.

Aside from increased giving from our existing churches, the best way to achieve stability is through adding new member churches. The extensions are looking at potential church plants, but I am more directly involved in attempting to identify and recruit new churches from outside our Fellowship. As I have mentioned before, this can be a difficult process to tackle. It would not be very effective to just call churches and ask if they want to join a new fellowship. There is a tiny subset of churches who are not already affiliated with a group but want to be. And when you consider that they must align with us doctrinally, that tiny subset becomes somewhat miniscule.

But I have always been hopeful – more churches are becoming dissatisfied with changes within their own denomination, and as they leave, I believe many will look for another group of believers with whom they can affiliate. My plea for the past few years has been simple: If you know of a church who might be a good fit, talk to them, and if they are interested, connect them with me. For a couple of years, it seemed like we weren’t gaining much traction, but in the past 18 months or so, opportunities began to appear, one by one.

I can report that at this moment; there are 7 churches having a conversation with me about the potential of joining our Fellowship. I would say the probability of each joining us varies wildly. One is a pastor who has probed a little and asked if he could use some of our resources at his church. Another is a pastor who has invited me to present the FEBC to his congregation this fall, and the rest are somewhere between those points. There is never a guarantee that things will work out, as an excited pastor doesn’t necessarily equate to approving elders or congregation members. But I have had several years with no potential churches on the phone, and 7 is simply extraordinary. On top of these concrete possibilities, there are other churches that are just now being brought forward as maybe someone to talk to. There are pastors who have expressed interest in associating with our Fellowship even though their church is clearly not ready to join us yet. In short – I see God moving in this area! Not only did he provide for us financially last year, but he has been and continues to provide potential opportunities for growth.

We have received other affirmations of the value of the FEBC. When Richer Fellowship Church lost their pastor, they requested an FEBC Steering Team, as they trusted that we could provide them with the guidance they need for a stable future. Community Bible Church of Wolf Point, MT left our Fellowship a few years ago but reached out last year to ask if they could rejoin. These are church leaders who have seen the value of connection and fellowship, and they want to be part of this family.

Our churches are generally healthy. As I mentioned in my report, our recent Annual Church Survey reveals that 79% of our churches reported some growth from the previous year, while only 10% reported a decline.

This has been an amazing year, and I want to praise God for that! In fact, we’re going to sing the doxology right now.

Now I want to give a brief update on our work and our direction.

As you likely already know, we have not done as well with the online Fellowship Focus as we had hoped. Our Fellowship Focus Editor, Rebecca Meyer, has simply been amazing. She did a great job of publishing the last couple of print editions and then transitioning us from a print magazine to online-only. But for the past year or more, her life has gotten more complicated. She has tried to keep up through multiple big life changes, but it just isn’t working. And so, we have hired a new editor, and the two are working on turning things over.

Our new Fellowship Focus editor is Sarah Stutler. Sarah has good experience and is knowledgeable in the tools we use to create the online Focus, and I believe she is well qualified. She also happens to be the daughter of Rev. Gary Krehbiel, and the granddaughter of former FEBC President Don Krehbiel, and she grew up here at Crosspoint, so I believe she will bring a genuine interest and connection to her work, and I look forward to seeing how God will use her. 

I am very proud of the rest of the staff. Gary, Janet, and Crystal continue to go above and beyond to serve you well, and each of them is an honor to serve alongside. It has also been great to work with Annie Bueckert and her team as they handle the FEBC Canada bookkeeping. They are still learning the ropes but are clearly competent and easy to work with.

We will continue to evaluate how to better utilize our tools and resources this year. We want to serve you well, and part of that involves our behind the scenes processes. As we improve and streamline things such as our administrative processes, our documents, and our website, we continue to sharpen our focus on strengthening churches.

Gary and I each have a renewed desire to visit churches, so don’t be shy about inviting us to come see your folks. We also want to get back to developing more helpful resources. I will talk more about this when I give my Vision Update.

The directors continue to discuss various issues that impact our Fellowship, and they are always seeking the best way to offer amazing care and support. I believe you have a network of churches that truly want your church to be as healthy and effective as possible. I think we should embrace that blessing. ​

This year I want to challenge you to fully embrace the blessing of our Fellowship.
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How can we fully embrace the blessing of our Fellowship?
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1.  Be prepared to invest when needed. God may be calling you to increase your individual or church giving. He may be calling you or your church to help us meet our goal of full support for the Ministries Coordinator position. He may be calling you to serve on a commission or as a director.
2. Be prepared to receive help when needed. We want nothing more than to serve you and your church. If you need some type of advice or help, do not hesitate to reach out to us. It is okay to need help, and even if it seems like no big deal, sometimes just having some friendly advice can make a difference.
3. Be prepared to share the blessing with others. As people from your church grow in their appreciation of our Fellowship, they will step up in these other areas. If you are one of only a few people to hear this message firsthand, go back and share with others about our Fellowship. And as I have said many times, there are churches who would benefit from our Fellowship, but they do not know about us. If you have friends or family attending one of those churches, share the blessing of the FEBC with them. Give them an opportunity to get to know us.
4. Here's the last, and most important thing. As I have shared, God has provided in miraculous ways. I believe that the faith shown by the directors and delegates back in 2019 is reaping dividends. I also think the miniature financial crisis of 2023 was a reminder. We were reminded that God is in control of all of this. We can plan and formulate and work, but without God, we are nothing. Our plans are nothing. Our efforts are nothing. Only he could have provided the blessings of these past two years. It wasn’t amazing leadership or strategic marketing; it was the work of God.

 
With that in mind, the most important thing you can do to embrace the blessing of our Fellowship is to pray. Prayer is a powerful, effective, essential tool in the lives of believers, and we need to pray for this Fellowship. Pray for us as leaders, pray for our financial needs, pray for your fellow churches, pray that God would truly strengthen local churches through this joint effort. I challenge you to continue to pray for the FEBC throughout this coming year. Put it on your calendar or whatever you need to do to remember the FEBC in your prayers. And let us collectively thank him for the blessing of this Fellowship.

Thank you for your ongoing support, encouragement, and prayer. I couldn’t imagine a better group to serve.

“Strengthening our churches with timely resources that strengthen their leaders”

This is our vision, and we are truly focused on how to strengthen churches. This past year continued a trend that began a couple of years ago – we are so busy providing resources and support to our churches that we are unable to spend a lot of time developing new resources. We only have so many hours, and our top priority is to serve you when you reach out for assistance. I am quite pleased to let that trend continue for as long as you have needs.
That said, we do continue to work toward providing new resources as we can. I have done some revamping of the Worship Workshop, so even if your church has had one in the past, consider setting one up to help strengthen your worship team. A couple of our churches have chosen a Worship Weekend, where I work with the worship team on Saturday and preach about Biblical worship on Sunday. Let me know if this could benefit your church.

Gary has also been expanding his toolkit, as this past year he introduced FEBC Fusion, an event where your church body can come together for a relaxed night of games and fun but also learn a bit about our Fellowship. My personal observation is that if you have trouble coming up with a way for the elderly folks and the young kids in your church to all enjoy the same activity, this is undoubtedly an event that unites them. If you haven’t had Fusion at your church, contact Gary. Or if you have already done it, do it again!

Gary also recently achieved certification in the Working Genius tool, and we have already seen a couple of churches blessed by the insight this tool can provide for your leadership team. Talk to Gary or attend his breakout session to learn more about how this resource might benefit your church.

We had a handful of churches face some level of difficulty last year, and we were honored to walk alongside them. I pray that our efforts to support and strengthen them were beneficial.

I encourage you to be involved in this vision of strengthening local churches. If you think there is a resource that would really benefit other churches like yours, give us a call. If you come upon a new situation or a question you don’t know the answer to, give us a call. Gary and I do not have every answer, but I absolutely guarantee you that we care more about your ministry than Google does, and we’re pretty good at recognizing and solving problems.

We are here to support and help you. And as I said earlier, the best thing you can do is pray. Pray that the implementation of our vision will continue to truly strengthen local churches, and that the Gospel would have a greater impact in our communities.

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