Three new congregations will be considered for membership in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches (FGBC) this summer. (Click here to learn more about them.) Each group is dedicated to the five functions of a church — worship, fellowship, teaching, preaching, and serving — and is committed to the FGBC, a highly cooperative, missional, Bible teaching group of churches in the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean.
The Fellowship Council, the coordinating board for the FGBC, recently defined what constitutes a church for purposes of recognizing new member congregations. This allows the Fellowship to encourage new church plants while ensuring the future success of a developing congregation.
This process is only for churches who are located in the USA, Canada, or the Caribbean that wish to join the FGBC or are started by churches, ministries, or church starters who are already connected to the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches.
There are three stages to the process:
1. A new church start is comprised of a church starter (a person), a target location (a place), prayer partners, and a plan for a new church.
2. A new church is five families who have committed together to fulfill the five functions of a church. New churches are encouraged to complete a New Church Form two to three years before applying for formal membership in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches.
3. A church that has demonstrated a commitment to the five functions of a church for at least two years may formally apply for membership in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches using the New Member Application. (The appropriate forms are found at fgbc.org and need to be completed by June 1 to be considered at national conference that July.)
While there may be only three congregations joining the FGBC this summer, numerous other new church starts and new churches will be celebrated at VisionShift in Washington, D.C.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2014 issue of GraceConnect. If you’d like to receive the magazine, mailed directly to your home at no charge, click here.