Our Fellowship of Evangelical Churches consists of more than 70 churches throughout the United States. A special thing happens when we do life alongside one another. Such is the case when Matt Owlett, the youth pastor at Upland Community Church in Upland, Indiana, led 40 teens on a spring break trip to another FEC church in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Despite the ice and snow, excitement was in the air as True North Church welcomed the group.
The Upland crew served True North throughout that week doing demolition, clean up, and drywall in the basement after flood damage. Some of the group painted a large mural in an after-school space the church has local teens. Leaving something tangible behind like that spoke to the teens. “To be able to use that art to minister to others,” Pastor Matt says, “that was helpful to open their eyes to that possibility.”
An Upland youth band was able to lead some of the worship on Palm Sunday at True North. Matt says the relationship of worshipping and serving together made it that much better. “To fellowship and get to know the people–those connections are really powerful.”
This was Upland’s second spring break trip to serve another FEC church. Matt’s vision is to continue connecting with other FEC churches on future service trips, bridging an important gap between our church families. He’d love to see other churches step into this opportunity and experience the blessing of connecting with brothers and sisters in FEC. “There is a need there. It’s had a great impact on us and the churches we’ve gone to.”
