Our Fellowship chaplains witnessed 140 professions of faith — Learn more!
I hope you always sense your church is a safe place to do life together with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Unfortunately, not everyone feels this way about the church. They find the church unsafe. Not welcoming. Not loving. A bit institutional.
I find it interesting that some of our brand-new church facilities look more like warehouses than church buildings, whereas our brand-new homes are seeking to become more like chapels. An oasis away from the ravages of daily life. Architects have replaced dining rooms with “great rooms” with awe-inspiring “cathedral” ceilings. My dad had a large, beautiful, stained-glass window in his home. Our houses are becoming chapels. A place of peace and refreshment from the dry weariness of life.
Spiritual orphans should find our churches to be safe places. A place to be transformed and renewed. It will be in these safe places that we will be equipped and resourced to launch out and complete the “everyday commission” (Matthew 28:18-20) in the spirit of the “everyday commandment” (Mark 12:30-31).
Fellowship Chaplains demonstrate the love of Christ
One group of noble “peace agents” within our Fellowship are our chaplains. They are an extension of our local church ministry in areas that our churches do not often penetrate. Our Fellowship chaplains provide the “ministry of presence” in places where people are searching for peace. Our Fellowship chaplains provide safety while demonstrating the love of Christ in airports, hospitals, truck stops, police cruisers, prison cells, and within our armed services. We have 179 Fellowship chaplains, but I continue to hear in my travels of dozens of others (often pastors) who are recognized chaplains in nursing homes, hospitals, police departments, and emergency services.
They are often going into “closed communities” where clergy and church members are not permitted to enter. In our last fiscal year (September 2023 to August 2024) our Fellowship chaplains reported:
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10,209 intentional encounters
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6,189 purposeful conversations
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3,241 discovering engagements
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140 professions of faith were reported and another 24 rededications
Please pray for our Fellowship chaplains and the Fellowship Chaplaincy Leadership Team (CLT) who serve and support our chaplains:
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Steve Jones, Fellowship Chaplaincy Director: sjones@fellowship.ca
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Larry Freeman, Fellowship Chaplaincy Coordinator: lfreeman@fellowship.ca
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Donald Rodier, Fellowship Chaplaincy Assistant Coordinator – Québec: donaldrodier@gmail.com
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Ross Helgeton, Fellowship Chaplaincy Assistant Coordinator – Western Canada: revrh@telus.net
Become a Fellowship Chaplain
If you desire to learn more about becoming a Fellowship chaplain – please connect with someone on the CLT or check out Fellowship Chaplaincy at fellowship.ca/chaplaincy.