In Depth:  FIEC

Phil Topham writes: Communities are becoming more culturally diverse as people from around the world make Britain their home. How can we prepare to welcome those from a diverse range of cultures to our churches?

The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) has gathered a group of pastors and ministry workers for a consultation to help launch our first Intercultural Ministry Team. By intercultural we mean churches that are neither mono-cultural nor multi-cultural, but rather communities of believers where different expressions of culture are welcomed, refined, and celebrated in the life of the church.

Graham Beynon has been announced as the FIEC’s new Head of Local Ministries.

He will take up his role with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches in September.

A bumper crop of mission initiatives is being highlighted by the the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) as it continues to mark 100 years since its founding in 1922.

‘Back in the spring we asked our churches to tell us about what they are doing to further the mission of proclaiming Christ and His gospel. We hoped 100 might respond and we could share their news; in the end we received more than 170 submissions,’ said Adrian Reynolds, FIEC Head of National Ministries and Chairman of the en Board.

The latest round of FIEC’s Training Fund grants have been allocated to men and women training for ministry in 2022, pushing the total amount of training grants to over £2 million. Adrian Reynolds, Associate National Director of FIEC, writes:

December saw another round of Training Fund grants at FIEC (the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches). What a joy! Before December’s meeting, we had distributed £1,953,905 in over 180 awards across Britain. Our latest grant decisions mean that we’ve now comfortably topped £2 million in help given since 2012.

The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) has launched a podcast.

In:Dependence is produced weekly for church leaders and anyone with an interest in church life. It will cover topics to help leaders of Independent churches lead their churches well in pastoral life, in teaching, in discipling, in evangelism, in governance, and in other important areas.

Evangelism for Every Believer is the title of a new series on the website of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).

FIEC Mission Director Andy Paterson explains the background to the launch of this new initiative:

Gifted women should be more widely recognised in FIEC churches, a key figure in the network says.

Elisabeth Smyth recently retired after more than 20 years of service with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).

Gabby Samuel has joined the FIEC as the Women’s Ministry Development Worker.

Gabby is the youngest member of the Ministry Team and is supporting the FIEC as it raises the next generation of women’s ministry workers, as well as helping FIEC to think carefully and wisely about issues related to ethnic diversity in church.

The coronavirus pandemic had a significant impact on the many churches who were looking to appoint a new pastor earlier this year. Yet in Jersey, there is a story of God’s provision at just the right time:

Quennevais Evangelical Church (QEC) called Leon Coates to be their pastor on 8 March. Leon was formerly Assistant Pastor at Dewsbury Evangelical Church in West Yorkshire, some 380 miles away, so a visit was arranged for the whole family.

An FIEC church in the north-east of England has been providing activity packs and food parcels to people struggling in the coronavirus lockdown.

New Life Church serves ten council estates in Middlesbrough, one of the poorest towns in Britain with high levels of unemployment. Pastor Ian Williamson says that they have been seeing great opportunities for the gospel during the pandemic.

Plans are underway for a new church plant in a deprived area of Liverpool.

The Cornerstone Collective – a group of FIEC and Acts 29 churches on Merseyside – will, God willing, plant into the Kensington area of the city in January 2021.

More than 70 people attended The Hub Conference in January, an annual event for those on their journey into pastoral ministry.

Organised by the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), The Hub is a chance for those training for ministry or exploring the call to come together for a weekend of teaching, seminars and practical advice.

Highfields Church in Cardiff was able to share the hope of Christ with around a million people as they hosted BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship on 17 November.

The live broadcast lasted 38 minutes and was split equally between singing and speaking, giving Lead Minister Dave Gobbett a great opportunity to share Christ with a worldwide audience. He said: ‘The main thrust of my message from Ephesians 2 was that Jesus uniquely brings people together because Jesus uniquely brings people to God. Only Jesus can pull our troubled world together.

A Cumbrian church affected by Storm Desmond in 2015 has come up with a novel way to house its Sunday School.

Carlisle Baptist, an FIEC church in the city, has been struggling for space since the school building it was using for Sunday services was flooded during the devastating storm. A record-breaking 13.4 inches of rain fell within 24 hours in parts of the county, and more than 3,000 homes were flooded in the city.

A church plant on an urban housing estate will this month celebrate its first anniversary and its success in building a congregation that represents around a dozen nationalities.

While Hope Church Vauxhall’s first year has brought some challenges, including the death of one of its young couples, Senior Pastor Sam Gibb says he is seeing tremendous gospel progress.

Every year, FIEC provides two retreats exclusively for women. Thrive is for women in ministry and the Ministry Wives’ Retreat is for those who are married to men in full-time pastoral ministry.

It’s an opportunity for women to spend time away from the busyness of church life and be encouraged in their service to Christ.

While some churches struggle to keep attendance levels up, an FIEC church in Hampshire has been experiencing a different kind of problem.

Cowplain Evangelical Church, part of the FIEC network for 80 years, has quadrupled in size over the past decade, challenging its leaders to fit everyone into the building.

An FIEC church serving four social housing estates in the North-East of England could be forced to relocate unless money can be raised to buy the building it has been renting.

New Life Church, Middlesbrough, has been meeting in Ormesby Methodist Church Hall since 2014 but the owners no longer need the site and are putting it up for sale.

‘A name change on its own doesn’t really mean much… but it’s a great opportunity for us to use this to talk to people in Enfield about Jesus!’ said pastor, Nathan Howard, to a room full of church members.

And so it was put to the church: a ‘relaunch’ as Enfield Evangelical Free Church became Enfield Town Community Church. There would be new signage, a new website and a timely excuse for a big invitation to all their community.

In Hinckley, during February, 20 people from Trinity Community Church (TCC) got together for a ‘work day’ restoring an old Wesleyan chapel called Wesley House.

TCC was planted in 2010 by 15 people, and now over 100 people gather in a school hall each week. Many of the congregation are new Christians.

There’s been an increase of nearly 7,000 people attending FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) churches in the past two years.

Some of the growth has come from new affiliations, but churches have grown by 3,900 people. There were 950 baptisms in the past year.

Eight couples were whisked away for the first ever Church Planters’ Retreat hosted by the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) in May.

Andy Paterson spoke on Psalm 91 at the retreat. He was keen to organise the gathering as part of the Fellowship’s support for church plants. It was designed to give planters a break and to help them to recharge their batteries spiritually and physically.

It was announced at the end of April that Jonathan Prime (Johnny) will become Pastoral Ministries Director for the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches when Richard Underwood retires at Christmas.

Johnny will move to FIEC at the beginning of 2018, bringing to an end 24 years’ service in Enfield. As Pastoral Ministries Director, he will oversee the FIEC Pastors’ Network, a group of more than 500 men serving as pastors in Independent churches up and down the country.

The pastor of Holbrooks Evangelical Church in Coventry shared his ‘unspectacu-larly spectacular’ story in late March of 16 baptisms in his congregation in 2016.

Reported on the FIEC website, Ben Holmes emphasised that he does not want others to see Holbrooks as a ‘go-to’ model.

Taking place each January over the past five years, more than 500 have attended The Hub Conference to explore routes into Independent church ministry.

It is an opportunity for those training for ministry – or those exploring the call – to come together for a weekend of teaching and seminars and to meet with experienced gospel workers and representatives from the major theological training colleges.

For more than 12 months, Becky and Sarah have been reaching out with the gospel to women in prostitution in Leicester, and below is a personal account of the ministry of Saffires.

It’s a bright Wednesday afternoon and I’m walking down a busy street with a friend, carrying a box of delicious homemade cupcakes tied up with a pretty blue ribbon. But we’re not visiting a new mum or dropping off cakes with someone who’s sick.

Six baptisms at North Swindon Baptist Church (NSBC) in December, led to a reflection on the past few years of God’s work there.

Planted out of Swindon Evangelical Church in what proved to be an excellent partnership with The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism around 15 years ago, the first pastor came in 2009.

The House of Mercy Christian Assembly joined the FIEC in the Autumn.

The church was formed in 2015 and the leaders are two pastors from Cameroon. Their vision is to reach the French-speaking community in London and they meet in a community centre in the Docklands area of London. Self-consciously Pentecostal with lively worship, direct gospel preaching and a congregation that expects God to work through his Word and Spirit, they currently have 24 members, but are likely to outgrow their premises by the end of the year.

Adrian Reynolds, an en director, will be joining the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) to serve as their new Training Director in 2017.

Currently Director of Ministry with The Proclamation Trust (PT), Adrian has spent more than seven years as part of the leadership team of PT, delivering more than 100 conferences, including overseeing the move of the Evangelical Ministry Assembly from its historic location at St Helen’s Bishopsgate to its new home at London’s Barbican Centre.

Leaders from evangelical churches across Cumbria met for a Vision Day in June to consider prayerfully how to reach more people in the county with the gospel.

Facilitated by the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), more than 30 leaders gathered to consider ways they might work in partnership to help reach Cumbria for Christ.

Despite being forced out of the building they meet in because of December’s flood-ing, Carlisle Baptist Church (CBC) has seen tremendous opportunities for the gospel in the months that have followed.

In February, CBC held an evangelistic men’s meal, where one of the elders who has been forced out of his flooded home was interviewed about his faith. Around 30 men attended the meal, with about a quarter brought along by church members.

After months of prayer, planning and preparation, The Globe Church held its first public meeting in Southwark, London, on 20 September.

Led by Jonty Allcock, The Globe Church hopes to reach the diverse area of the South Bank which is home to tens of thousands of people. 120 people gathered for the first service at The Globe and Jonty preached from Romans 5.8, explaining that everyone needs to hear the same message. We are not lovely people who deserve the love of God, but rather God demonstrated his love for us in this: while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.

More than £1million has now been raised to help men and women from Independent Church backgrounds to train for gospel ministry it was reported in mid-September.

The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) has been able to use its Training Fund to offer financial support to more than 30 churches and nearly 40 individuals since its launch in 2011. The Fund enables churches to employ a trainee to learn more about gospel ministry as they serve alongside an experienced pastor, while individuals can be helped with expensive course fees and accommodation.

The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) in partnership with the Free Church of Scotland is to offer a new training course at Edinburgh Theological Seminary (ETS), it was announced in September.

FIEC directors will deliver the lectures alongside other experienced pastors which will enable participating students to obtain a new ETS certificate in ‘Independent Church Ministry’.

A church plant in Scotland has taken out a six-month lease on a local shop to reach more of the community with the gospel.

Buckhaven Community Church (BCC) started meeting in January 2015 and since then three members of the community have come to faith in Christ.

On Monday 15 June more than 120 people gathered at Bankside Space in Southwark, London – which will be home to The Globe Church – to hear about this new venture.

The Globe Church is being planted in an area of art galleries and entertainment venues with theatres, restaurants and hotels on its doorstep. It’s also home to tens of thousands of people who live in Lambeth and Southwark. The new church is a joint initiative between several FIEC churches in London and the capital’s Co-Mission network of evangelical churches.

More than 30 women who have been set apart by their churches for Christian ministry gathered in Worcestershire on 29 May for a conference called Thrive, organised by FIEC.

George and Ele Hawkins, from Beeston Free Church in Nottingham, led the main sessions with George speaking from the book of Ruth. Event organiser Elisabeth Smyth said: ‘As a Fellowship we want to support and promote the biblical ministry of women in our churches, and one way we can do that is through Thrive investing in those women whose godliness and gifting for ministry has been recognised. It was a particular joy this year to appreciate the diversity of role, church and background represented by those who joined us, and to hear many say that they were feeling blessed and refreshed as they returned to their churches.’

Christians are being encouraged to pray for areas where there are very few – or no – evangelical churches by using Go Into prayer cards launched by the FIEC in late March.

The cards are designed to encourage churches to pray for 50 UK towns and cities considered to have significant need of a gospel work with a view to seeing churches planted there. Each card has a photograph of the place with some key facts about it.

A new church is being planted on the South Bank of the Thames in London during 2015, and just in case you were wondering about the reasoning behind this, the FIEC have put together a very valuable Q&A about the real need for another Bible-centred church in the metropolis that is the UK capital city.

Q: Aren’t there already lots of gospel churches in London?

Following the decision in May that Prepared for Service (PfS) would no longer be owned and run by FIEC, it has been announced that Bethel Church, Coventry, will be taking ownership of the PfS course and will launch PfSPlus from September 2014.

Earlier this year, leaders at Bethel Church, Coventry, shared their vision for a training programme in Coventry. Then, in early June, PfS leaders met with leaders of Bethel. It soon became apparent that there was a clear alignment of vision and providence which met the criteria which had been set as to how PfS might be developed and owned by a church. In God’s goodness he had provided a church that were already running training courses, yet were very positive about the PfS syllabus and who had facility to add value to the course through mentoring and media facilities.