By Chris Williams, Senior Pastor at Fellowship Church
Fellowship Church’s story can be summed up in three words. ”Beauty from Ashes.” In 2011 we began as a legacy church plant in a donated facility with a few amazing folks. It was in those early days the Lord began to build the desire within our church to see a thriving neighborhood church in every neighborhood in west central Missouri. In 2019 we launched in Raymore, Missouri through the selfless giving of First Baptist. We had come full circle. Starting as a legacy church replant and expanding our kingdom reach through a second legacy replant.
This new launch only increased the desire to replant dying churches and see the neighborhood church live again. In January 2022, through a demonstration of faith and gospel unity, First Baptist Archie voted to join us in this revitalization adventure. We became acquainted with the needs of this historic church through one of the great ministries of the Missouri Baptist Convention, The Resound Network. Indeed, we are better when we cooperate together.
After 18 months of gospel work, the Lord was blessing. We had doubled in size, witnessed the first baptism in the building after a 5 year drought and the church began to live again. Yet, we sensed the Lord had more. We began to earnestly pray for some sort of move of God that would help us better reach more folks across the generations and particularly more young families.
In early 2023 in the Lord’s providence, we met Casey Luther, pastor of Merwyn Community Church a few miles away. Together, we dreamt of creating a family of churches that would exponentially multiply what we were doing. It didn’t take long for the Lord to knit our hearts together on mission, and notice He had been working something big. Merwyn Community Church was in need of more space for their growing ministry, and we had been praying for a second jumpstart to take us to the next level of growth.
June 4th, 2023 together we launched our first Fellowship Family of Churches church. Christ Fellowship in Archie, Missouri with 255 individuals from across the generations. Only a few weeks in, life is coursing through the building. Every classroom is full, bustling with energy and gospel activity. Each week in the month of June, guests have arrived curious about what the Lord is doing as they’ve witnessed the revival of this once great church live again.
For more information, or help with your church revitalization reach out to the Missouri Baptist convention Resound team or call Fellowship Church.
