The gospel of Christ fuels everything we do at Fellowship Church—Jesus makes us new people, places us in a new family, and sends us on a new mission. We want to call everyone to take their next step of faith with Jesus in each of these areas, and we are honored to faithfully strive towards this goal alongside our Fellowship Family.

Below are some brief stories from some of our ministries discipling their people to take their next step.

Summer, kids, and camp... Those three words belong together, and our kids’ staff couldn’t agree more.

On June 3, we loaded up two busses with 120 students and leaders and headed south towards the foothills of the Smokies and Harmony Family Center. We were ready for a weekend, enjoying the summer heat, playing together, and learning about Jesus.

But on June 4, we had a problem. The water for the entire camp stopped working. Remember when we said summer heat? Without running water, the showers and toilets wouldn’t work—we couldn’t even cook the food we had brought. We scrambled for ideas. The last thing we wanted to do was pack up and go home. But without water, toilets were filling, kids were getting smelly, and we still couldn’t cook. We realized we couldn’t care for the kids well if the water couldn’t be fixed. So, with heavy hearts, we developed a plan to bring the kids home early.

“But God” are two of the most beautiful words in the Bible. “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5).

As for our story, we would have had to leave camp, but God gave us water. At the last moment, the water began running, and after giving many thanks, we launched right back into what we set out to do: tell our kids about our great God. And so, we did. We talked about the Armor of God. We talked about how we have an enemy who wants to stop us in our tracks, but we have a mighty God who made a way for us to stand firm.

We may never know the full impact of our time there, but we’ve heard about how Elizabeth decided to commit her life to Jesus, and Elias told us he wanted to be in God’s army. We know that kids heard the Gospel of our Lord, who cares about everything from running water to our hearts.

And yes, clearly, He cares about summer, kids, and camp.

Kydn was new to Knoxville. Being new anywhere isn’t easy, but it’s even more challenging for a high school student moving across the country from California to Tennessee. All Kydn had when he got here was his family and faith in God, and the faith part was wavering.

He started coming to HSM at the beginning of his junior year. And slowly, things began to change.

In the life group he joined, he found a place to discuss “the real stuff” with friends and leaders who would listen and lead him rather than condemn him. He found teaching which dug deep into what the Bible is saying to us. And even though he grew up in the church, at HSM, according to Kydn, he found the best few months of his life. And even more than that, he found he could confidently say he trusts Jesus with all of his heart and soul.

In Adult Ministries, we invite people to become more deeply formed in Jesus. Jesus tells us plainly that the world will know us by how we practice His abundant life. He calls us "the light of the world" (John 8:12), "a city set on a hill" (Matthew 5:14), a people whose love for one another speaks mightily to those in need of Jesus (John 13:35). In community, we can obey His call to "one another." Formation isn't about what we know. It is about how "Christ is formed" in us (Galatians 4:19). Abundant life is meant to be lived out.
 
As such, the primary context for deep formation is community.
 
Through community, we understand joy, resilience, comfort, and other essential realities of the Christian life. That's why the Adult Ministries team asked God for a vision of a deeper way to live life together. The church was not designed to attend and consume; such a lifestyle contradicts our design and calling. God has more for each of us.

In June, the first inaugural Life Together met. Life Together is a three-week mini-course designed to explore the beauty, the necessity, and the cost of community. Between teaching segments, we encouraged participants to look around the room and ask, "Are the people in this room God's gracious provision for me?" Suddenly, "new family" becomes far more tangible.

The June cohort not only asked that question but also took risks to meet and connect with others. They came hungry and offered their all to the group: vulnerabilities, giftings, shepherding hearts, and ultimately "their very selves" (1 Thessalonians 2:8). At the end of three weeks, numerous people felt led to be shepherds of life groups, others offered to host, and still, others became bridges of connection to form groups. Each gave what they had to offer as the Body of Christ.

The June Life Together cohort stepped into more. They will experience one of the primary mechanisms of Christian formation—where God does "far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine."

As He concluded the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asked the "experts" in the law, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

"The one who had mercy on him," he replied.
"Go and do likewise."  

In the story, we hear a heartbeat for what our new mission is: love, mercy, and service to our neighbor. We think, "I have to go as BIG as the Samaritan. I need to clothe others, heal their wounds and provide food and shelter for them." And the answer is yes, yes, we do.
Most of us don't find a man beaten by robbers lying in the middle of the street on our way to work in the morning. We know there are people who need help in our community, but we don't know how to connect with them. Where do we even start?

The answer is simple: one step at a time.

Our mobilization team is here to disciple you into taking this next step of faith with Jesus as He sends you on a new mission. We're involved in many areas, from serving in our city to all over the world.

Lisa decided her next step was to volunteer with us providing free groceries to our friends in The Pines Community. The Pines is an apartment complex just over the hill from our church. You've probably passed it if you've turned at the Phillips 66 Station and driven down Francis Road. It may look like any other apartment complex with tan vinyl-sided buildings packed onto a lot, but this community is different.

The Pines is a beautiful tapestry of people from cultures all over the world. There are refugees from Iraq, Jordan, Iran, and Afghanistan.

So, for Lisa and her four children, helping our guests with their groceries became an experience of connecting with neighbors who've lived many different stories than their own.

One day, Lisa was delivering groceries to a woman who wasn't physically able to leave her house. As she helped with her groceries, Lisa heard more about this woman's story and struggles. Leaving the apartment, Lisa felt the spirit stir in her heart to go back and pray for this woman, but the moment passed, and she made her way back home.

That night, Lisa couldn't shake what she'd felt. She'd been given a next step, and she knew in her heart she was being invited towards something deeper. So, the next day, she went back. She found the woman's apartment and knocked on the door, and when the woman answered, Lisa said, "Can I pray with you?" They spent an afternoon praying together and talking.

The Lord told us what mercy for our neighbors looks like. The mercy of the Samaritan reaches so far and wide for the man in need, and for us, it seems a daunting task to "go and do likewise." Friends, it starts with one step. For Lisa, it was volunteering to help pass out groceries. We can't wait to hear what Lisa's next step is now that she's made a more profound friendship. We also can't wait to hear what next steps you are being led to take.

We rarely, if ever, choose to step into life’s most difficult seasons.

Living in a broken world leaves us exposed to circumstances frighteningly beyond our control; a diagnosis, the loss of a loved one, broken homes or broken marriages. Sometimes there isn’t even an obvious event but rather old traumas and wounds finding their way to the surface and sabotaging our ability to be ourselves let alone grow. What is the next step of faith when we’re deep into dark seasons like this?

Often, it’s just reaching out.

We know making the decision to get help for psychological and mental health is hard. In Biblical Life Counseling, we want to make this step as available as we can. From individual and marriage counseling to group meetings to adoption and foster care, when circumstances become overwhelming, we want to move that next step of reaching out that much closer to those in need.

This past year, we've seen many marriages restored to intimacy and recover from betrayal. We've counseled teens through pandemic, school, and developmental difficulties that typically manifest through anxiety and behavioral problems. We've led many groups through types of recovery and launched a new grief recovery group that now meets routinely. We've helped parents of infants, toddlers, teens, and young adults navigate the various life-stage challenges of parenting in a devolving culture. It's beautiful. In our Adoption and Foster Care Ministry, Chosen Children, we've seen over 100 families supported and encouraged mentally and physically through the challenging process of fostering and adopting.

We believe as the church, our Lord commands us to be the ones willing to walk alongside each other, even if it is one step at a time.