President's Blog

Where there is no vision, the people perish (Hosea 4:6a). Vision based on God’s Word is mandatory.

In Don Cousins’ book, Experiencing Leadershift, he states, “Virtually all (church) vision statements say they want to reach lost people for Christ. But only 10% of those same churches have a viable strategy to fulfill vision.”

Yes, vision is mandatory, but it is not enough. On May 25, 1961, JFK stated, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

Wow, what a vision. What a clear picture of a preferred future that appeals to all people; a vison that clarifies the direction in which a nation needs to move for a decade. I was a kid when my dad and I watched Neil Armstrong step on the moon in July 1969.

However, a lot happened between stating the vision in 1961 and its fulfillment in 1969.

As an association of churches, our mission and vision is stated in a direction document entitled, “We are the Fellowship.” I encourage you to click here to see the document that states our Fellowship’s overarching mission, vision, values, and strategy statements. Click here to watch a brief video that explains the Fellowship’s mission and vision.

This document acts as our Statement of Mission to help identify “who we are” and “what we do’ alongside our Statement of Faith.

This document states our entire Movement’s vision: “We serve together to ensure every church has unforgettable Kingdom impact.”

But just like a church with a vision statement but no plan to implement it, how does our Fellowship of churches intend to experience “unforgettable Kingdom impact?”

One word: PARTNERSHIP.

Each of our Regions have partnership documents that formalize our collaborative efforts together as churches.

Each of our Fellowship National departments have directional documents that share how our local churches can enter into partnership with our international, relief and justice, chaplaincy, and francophone ministries.

In fact, PARTNERSHIP is the “unforgettable Kingdom impact” of the Fellowship’s vision statement. The following are the Vision Statements of:

• Fellowship International:
  "Fellowship International personnel work strategically among under-reached and unreached peoples to catalyze ‘disciple-making movements’ (DMMs) and promote leadership development by partnering with nationals for evangelism, social justice, business and relief initiatives to advance the Kingdom of Christ.”
• FAIR:
  “Partnering to alleviate suffering and facilitate social development: FAIR seeks to be the key channel through which Fellowship churches provide humanitarian aid in Christ’s name.”
• Fellowship Francophone:
  “Fellowship Baptist churches and donors will establish collaborative relationships with francophone church plants until French Canadians self-identify at 2-3% evangelical Christian (currently 0.8%).”
• Fellowship Chaplaincy:
  “Fellowship Chaplaincy will be a dynamic extension of the local church resulting in transformed lives…in partnership with our churches.”

My hope and prayer is that the VISION expressed in the previous statements will inspire you and our churches to want to PARTNER; to collaborate and accomplish more together than we could ever do by ourselves. We are stronger together!