'The Fellowship' Tagged Posts
Was It Beliefs or Behavior?
The national president of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada sent out a public communication regarding our church’s removal from the Fellowship.[1] In that letter, the president stated that complementarianism was neither a related nor aggravating issue in our church’s removal. In fact, he maintains that to suggest as much is committing the same divisive behavior which warranted our removal. In the spirit of Proverbs 18:17 which says, “The one who states his case first seems right, until…
Another Three Bite the Dust
Yesterday at the Prairies regional convention for the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada (FEB) our church, along with two others (Fellowship Baptist Church, Edmonton and Park City Gospel Church, Winnipeg), were voted out. Our 66 year membership in the Fellowship was terminated. We were told this was not because of our beliefs but because of our behavior. The conflict began over gender roles in the church. The Fellowship’s national bylaws state, “In member churches, the pastoral office is…
Appeal to Fellowship Prairies Churches
For best results, view this article on a computer rather than a mobile device so that the embedded PDFs are visible. To my brothers and sisters in Christ, joined in a partnership of churches called Fellowship Prairies, greetings. I regret that this correspondence will take away valuable time from your ministry and kingdom work. I’m not keen on writing to you about ongoing disagreement in our region, however the Fellowship Prairies Leadership Board (FPLB) has recently given notice of a…
The Fellowship’s Unity Crisis
A few days ago 8 churches were excommunicated from Fellowship Pacific—and thus, from the national Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada (FEB).[1] They were removed for maintaining that churches within the FEB reserve the roles of elder/pastor, and the office of preaching to biblically qualified men. Bethany Baptist Church of Barriere, First Baptist Church of Kamloops, New West Community Church of New Westminster, Providence Baptist Church of Kelowna, Renfrew Baptist Church of Vancouver, Salt Spring Baptist Church of Salt…
Fellowship National Conference Votes Down Complementarian Policy
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article which was published by The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. That article was written because several churches within the Fellowship—ours included—brought forward a motion to re-affirm our 1997 position statement, “On the Gender Issue in Pastoral Leadership In Fellowship Churches.”[1] The statement is not a binding policy but was followed up by a binding bylaw in 2004, which says, “In member churches, the pastoral office is reserved for qualified men recognized…