First Filipino's Church Planting FAMILY TREE
I recently attended the Momentum Church Planting Congress in Montreal. Our Fellowship sponsored 53 church planters to be there and take part. Fellowship National hosted a Fellowship Night during the conference and 60 of our leaders showed up. A sweet evening together!
Our Fellowship Regions and churches are currently involved with 35 church plants. There are still others in the gestational phase of being established. God is so good!
First Filipino Baptist Church Multiplication
Back in the early summer I spoke at the 40th anniversary of First Filipino Baptist Church (FFBC) in Toronto. After the morning service we went to a large banquet hall to continue the celebrations. I was surprised to see over 700 people there. They came from multiple churches that have all been birthed from this one church. Honestly, I was blown away! With the help of some of the pastors present, I started to map out the church planting family tree of this one Fellowship Baptist Church on my serviette. I quickly ran out of room. It’s amazing to see, and God gets all the Glory!
FFBC started with four young adults gathering at the foot of Roncesvalles Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard during the summer of 1975 in Toronto. The Bible study grew and two years later (May 1977) they formed First Filipino Baptist Church. Their first pastor was Godfrey Catanus who moved to the USA as a missionary in 1982. His brother, Eliezer, became the lead pastor and served 31 years, retiring in 2015.
From 1984-2017, First Filipino Baptist Church planted eight churches out of which nine granddaughter and great-granddaughter churches were born… a total of 18 churches. They honoured the four founding believers at the Celebration Banquet… all still attend the church. Pastor Henry Manansala of North Victory Baptist Church, one of the daughter churches of FFBC sent me the attached Church Plant Family Tree. Take a peek!
First Filipino and its daughters and granddaughters have much for which to thank God. Our Fellowship has much to be grateful for as dozens of new church plants have been established in recent years. Please be regularly praying for our church planters and their young churches.