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LifeChange Camp Celebrates 20 Years of Ministry in Clinton, Missouri

This summer marked the 20th year of campers exploring God’s creation across the 85 acres of LifeChange Camp in Clinton, Missouri. Not only did 160 young people hear the good news of Jesus Christ this summer, but lives were changed. One evening during their campfire gathering, God stirred among the junior high campers in a [...]

Neighbors House Church Sees God’s Hand at Work in the “House Church Movement”

Pastor Matt Harris knows the blessing of fellowship within the church body. This led him to begin Neighbors House Church last year, a collection of house churches that meet weekly in private homes in northeast Indiana. On August 20th, Neighbors House made its first commitment to do a Sunday morning gathering as a collective group. [...]

Christian Service Foundation Welcomes New President

In January 2023, Bruce Wright became the new president of the Christian Service Foundation (CSF), the organization that serves the FEC by providing financial services to churches and members. Although Bruce is new to his role at CSF, he has been a part of FEC for 30 years as a member and elder at Brookside [...]

King’s Cross Church Welcomes Second Baptist through a Merger

When Pastor Sam Andres of King’s Cross Church and Pastor Max Begley of Second Baptist Church met in 2021 to talk about merging their two congregations, God had already been at work behind the scenes. Their friendship began years earlier through a clergy fellowship group in Defiance, Ohio. It was at the monthly clergy fellowship [...]

Churches Provide Sabbaticals for Pastors

Most pastors work long hours and regularly deal with difficult issues. The pandemic shutdown, racial strife, and political division of 2020 added more challenges. The statistics on pastor burnout reveal that “75% of pastors report feeling ‘extremely stressed’” (soulshepherding.org). This summer, two FEC churches, Pine Hills Kendallville and Evermore Community, invested in their pastors by [...]

Tom Bennardo, FEC Church Multiplication Director, Launches New Book for Church Planters

Whoever said, “Experience is the best teacher,” overlooked another important teacher: Someone else’s experience, especially someone else’s failure. Tom Bennardo has written about his own ministry successes and failures in his new book, The Honest Guide to Church Planting: What No One Ever Tells You about Planting and Leading a New Church. In the current [...]

5 Tool Ministries: Reaching the Youth Sport Culture

Youth sports in America has become a big industry. Five years ago, a 2013 ESPN article highlighted the growth of youth sports in America, estimating that at least “21.47 million kids between 6 and 17, or more than the population of Texas in 2000,” were involved in a sport. A large percentage of those children [...]

Helping Pastors Achieve Financial Health

“90% of pastors in America today don’t bring home a paycheck big enough to meet their family’s financial needs,” according to Lilly Endowment research. The organization’s research also found that pastors across America face financial challenges like retirement savings, student loans, and medical bills with no apparent solution. That kind of problem has been at [...]