FIEC News - February 2010
FIEC LEADERS’ CONFERENCE
The second FIEC Leaders’ Conference is to be held at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick from Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 October this year. This conference is designed to build on the success of last year’s event.
Why should you encourage your leaders to put the Leaders’ Conference in their diaries? Because this is our conference – designed by FIEC church leaders for FIEC church leaders. The conference is for anyone who exercises any kind of leadership role within an FIEC church. It is intended to give us the opportunity to meet together to debate matters of mutual concern and to discern how we can serve the Lord together more effectively as a family of churches on a mission today.
We are delighted that Ray Evans, pastor of Grace Community Church, Bedford will be preaching at our two evening devotional sessions. As well as the main consultation sessions, we plan to run an exciting seminar track, including Ray leading two seminars on growing church. The Women’s Ministry Team are planning sessions for pastors’ wives and women in ministry. The seminar track will enable us to model for church leaders some of those aspects of ministry that FIEC does well.
Brochures and booking forms for the conference will be sent to church pastors and correspondents within the next few weeks. We have more places available this year and want to encourage representatives of church leadership teams to attend the conference together. However, we need to balance this with our desire to see as many affiliated churches represented as possible.
FELLOWSHIP FOCUS - 9 TO 23 MAY
The period 9 to 23 May 2010 has been designated as FIEC’s Fellowship Focus Fortnight. With significant changes afoot in FIEC there will be plenty to pray about.
This year the Fellowship Focus materials will be printed as part of the Spring edition of FIEC’s Together magazine. Copies of Together will be delivered to the churches and FIEC supporters by the end of April. There will also be a PowerPoint presentation available to download from the FIEC website. These materials will help to make your congregation aware of our work as a movement of gospel churches and to encourage us all to pray for each other.
You may feel that you could arrange some expression of local inter-church fellowship during this period with your FIEC friends and neighbours; your Visitor will be delighted to help facilitate this. If you find that the dates for the Fellowship Focus Fortnight simply do not fit your circumstances, don’t worry. What matters is that we seize the opportunity at some time to pray together for our witness at this critical time for our nation.
FIEC FOR A NEW DAY
On 28 November 2009, nearly 200 delegates met in the Octagon at the Edgbaston School for Girls in Birmingham to vote on the most important range of issues facing the Fellowship for a generation. For the previous seven months, churches had been considering how the Fellowship could deliver its ministries in the most effective way, given the spiritual state of the nation.
In the event, delegates agreed overwhelmingly to establish an annual leaders’ conference which will incorporate the annual assembly, to replace the existing FIEC Council with a trust board and to appoint a team of Directors in the place of the President and General Secretary. Thanks to the generosity of a number of churches and friends, John Stevens has been enabled to commence his role as Director-Designate from 1 January and the constitutional changes will take effect from 1 September 2010.
It has taken nearly five years to see through the process of changing our structures; delivering the benefit to the churches on the ground will take just as long. As we anticipate the dawn of a new day, the hard work is just beginning. Please pray for Rupert Bentley-Taylor, our President and for John and the team as they prepare for the challenges that lie ahead.
PRE-RETIREMENT CONFERENCE
We hope very much that churches see the importance of helping their pastor and his wife to prepare for one of the biggest lifestyle changes they will ever have to face. It’s called retirement. For some, retirement cannot come soon enough; for many more, it looms like a very unwelcome end of the road.
Once again, FIEC is joining forces with the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (South East) to provide a pre-retirement conference at High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Herts. This event will take place on Monday 19 April 2010. The aim is to provide pastors, their wives and church officers with a framework for thinking about this important stage in life’s journey.
Our hope is that churches would consider paying for their pastor, his wife and a member of the leadership team to experience this important event together. Copies of the brochure are available from the FIEC office.
A PASSION FOR LIFE MISSION
Events linked to the A Passion for Life mission will be taking place at various locations around the country during March 2010. Churches in each local situation are holding their own programme of outreach events under the overall theme of A Passion for Life. Many FIEC churches are participating in these local events. Please pray that this period of outreach in the run up to Easter will reach many people with the gospel and that those churches that are involved will be encouraged and built up as a result.
PREPARED FOR SERVICE (PfS)
There are currently about 35 PfS course lecturers. Most are serving pastors; some of whom lecture jointly with their wives. Others are Bible College lecturers from LTS, Moorlands and WEST. We now have 24 course members. Course members come from all over England and Wales - Kent to South Wales; the north (Liverpool, Stafford, Shropshire, Yorkshire); the south (London, Dunstable, Portsmouth, Bournemouth) and Reading. PfS continues to train them on behalf of, and in partnership with, their sponsoring churches.
Several of the present course members are currently serving as youth workers and some as ministry/church apprentices. One is a full-time pastor, two are assistant pastors and one couple are placed at Coley Park Baptist Church for the duration of their PfS course serving together as a trainee pastor and wife. One-third of the current course members live in the Reading area, serving three of the local churches. We praise God that seven recent PfS graduates have been called into pastoral ministry.
After interviews during the Autumn modules, seven new candidates started PfS in February 2010. Fees are held at the same levels as in 2009.
The PfS team have been invited to return to the Wales Evangelical School of Theology (WEST) to deliver the first week of their six-week Summer Season from 25-28 May. Our PfS speakers will be Eric Harmer, Rupert Bentley-Taylor, Chris Sinkinson and Andy & Kath Paterson. Two more PfS graduates joined the Binary Course at WEST in September 2009, following the first one in 2008.
For anyone interested in starting PfS in Reading in September 2010, applications need to be received by 15 May. Application forms are available from the Administrators or they can be downloaded from the FIEC website. An Interview Day is planned at Trinity Baptist Church, Gloucester on 3 July. In the meantime, prospective candidates are invited to arrange a visit to the course through the administrators during the next three modules:- 1-3 March, 26-28 April and 7-9 June.
The PfS Graduation Service will be at Carey Baptist Church on 9 June at 7pm, God willing. We look forward to a time of testimony from the graduates and ministry from God’s Word, with Paul Mallard as our guest speaker.
David & Laraine Cook, PfS Administrators
FIEC DIRECTORY
It is intended to produce a new edition of the FIEC Directory by June 2010. Any updates to your church or personal contact details should be communicated to the FIEC Office by 16 April 2010 in order to ensure their inclusion in the Directory.
Although it is intended that the information in the directory is as accurate and up-to-date as possible, please include only definite, current information. Anticipated changes, however far advanced, can sometimes fail to materialise.
NEW CHURCH AFFILIATIONS
Beauly Baptist Church, Phipps Hall, Station Road, Beauly, IV4 7EH (Region 1)
Grace Church Stirchley-Cotteridge, Dell Road Gospel Hall, 8 Dell Road, Cotteridge, Birmingham B30 2HZ (Region 5)
Causeway Free Church, The Causeway, Potters Bar, EN6 5HQ (Region 8)
Thatcham Community Church, Thatcham Parish Hall, Chapel Street, Thatcham RG18 4PL (Region 8)
Clink Evangelical Church, Clink Road, Frome, BA11 2EN (Region 10)
CHURCH CLOSURE
Park Avenue Evangelical Church, Whitchurch (Region 5)
PASTORAL CHANGES
Will Andrews from Royston Evangelical Church (Region 8)
Trevor Argent to Pound Lane Mission, Basildon (Region 8)
Alan Bass from Guithavon Valley Evangelical Church (Region 8) to Little Totham Evangelical Church (unaffiliated church in Region 8)
Dale Brown to West Shore Baptist Church, Llandudno (Region 3)
Gervase Charmley to Bethel Evangelical Free Church, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent (Region 5)
Peter Dale to Zion Christian Fellowship, St Saviour, Guernsey (Region 11)
Ben Epps to Longmeadow Evangelical Church, Stevenage (region8) (as second pastor)
Dan Green to Banstead Community Church, (Region 11)
Jason Griffiths from Surrey Chapel, Norwich (Region 9) (assistant minister) to Stapleford Baptist Church, Nottingham (Region 6)
Roger Hart from Banstead Community Church,
(Region 11)
Clive Hickman from Peacehaven Evangelical Free Church (Region 11)
Stephen Marchant from Crockenhill Baptist Church (Region 11)
Robert Pickering to Selhurst Evangelical Church, South Croydon (Region 11)
Timothy Mitchell (Pastors’ Association member) to Eastgate Baptist Church, Lewes (non-affiliated church in Region 11)
Simon Ward from Belhus Park Chapel, South Ockendon (Region 8)
RETIREMENTS
Don Attwater from Smallfield Evangelical Church, Horley (Region 11)
Brian Bradshaw from Titchfield Evangelical Church, Fareham (Region 11)
John Mollitt from Ingleton Evangelical Church (Region 4)
Winston Saunders from Selhurst Evangelical Church, South Croydon (Region 11)
PRESENT WITH THE LORD
Arthur Ratcliffe founder & first pastor of Croxteth Baptist Church, Liverpool (Region 3), aged 96, August 2009
Reginald White former pastor of King’s Heath Evangelical Free Church, Birmingham (1942.51) Subsequently resident and ministering in USA, aged 98, August 2009
Charles Workman (FIEC Partner in Region 10), on 9 December 2009.
PASTORS’ ASSOCIATION
The following men have been welcomed as members of the FIEC Pastors’ Association:
Arthur Bentley-Taylor - Workington
Nigel Butcher - Cheam
Harry Davies - South Africa
Charles Fadipe - Chippenham
Ivor Greer - Bawtry/Cambodia
John Griffith - Worthing
John Hughes - Bristol
Tim Martin - Virginia Water
Martin Moore - Bristol
James Paton - Norwich
Peter Price - Craven Arms
Jonny Raine - London
Matthew Seymour - York
Donald Wilson - Eltham