Pastor Brian Crenshaw says Goodbye
Dear Fellowship Memphis Family,
I wanted to take a moment to update you regarding what I shared with our St. George’s campus Sunday. With many emotions I wanted to inform you all that my time on staff and as part of Fellowship has come to an end. We have been honored to serve here the past 17 years on staff.
I will try to keep it brief but wanted to tell you that though this may feel abrupt to some, it was not a quick decision and one we have wrestled with for some time.
I want to share words of gratitude, share with you what we are doing next and share my prayer for you all.
We are sad to leave Fellowship but are thankful for the many deep relationships that we formed here. When we moved here in 2003 to be part of the launch of Fellowship, we felt like God used this church to put language to something that our hearts longed for but couldn’t articulate… a church that reflected the racial diversity that we saw in Scripture fleshed out in a context of discipleship in the city of Memphis.
I’m grateful for a place that allowed our hearts for racial diversity to develop and learn. You all have been a place that has equipped us in this love for our city and have been patient with us as we clumsily walked through what it means to live this out as a pastor, family, and neighbors.
I also want to thank you all for the privilege to pour into your kids as student pastor for many years. These years serving with “FSM” were the highlight of my career with Fellowship. It was an absolute honor to invest in the families, teens, and siblings of this church. In many ways, whatever I was able to deposit in them was immensely overshadowed by how much I grew from being around them. In so many ways, your kids shaped me into who I am today as a pastor, husband, father, and man. I consider serving them one of the highest honors of my life and am a changed person because of them.
I am also grateful for my time spent at all campuses whether for a Sunday to preach or connect, or for a decade like Germantown, I want to thank you all for the privilege to serve you. As interim campus pastor for the past year and a pastor that called Fellowship St. George’s home for the past decade, we thank you for how you have cared for us, cried with us, and celebrated with us. You all have loved us so well and we are eternally grateful.
So, what is next for us? I am humbled to be stepping into the role as lead pastor with a new church called Wellspring Community Church here in the Germantown area. It has been a long journey and God has been sweet to affirm in many ways that this is where he is leading us. Though difficult, scary and at times feeling foolish on paper, we are excited to take this step of faith.
I do want to share that although we are taking this step, that this is not the full reason for our leaving but the path that God has for us due to our leaving. It is no secret that I have had disagreement with leadership and the direction of this church. Know that we have had many open and honest discussions and are at a place of peace before The Lord.
As I reflect on this, I would like to offer two things pastorally. First, my intention is not to be divisive, though the separation is intentional. We care deeply about Fellowship and love you all dearly. I want you all to know that we have prayed through this and sought wise counsel sifting through the different facets and taking intentional steps as to not be disunifying. This church is the bride of Christ, and we would never desire to do anything to tarnish that as we took steps towards starting another church.
Secondly, I want you to know that I, myself, do not know the full scope of why God is leading this way and ask that you all refrain from filling in gaps of this narrative. I believe God gives us a picture in Scripture of a parting of ways outlined in Acts 15 when Paul and Barnabas separated. Through this, God multiplied the Gospel with both parties, and this is my prayer for us all as well.
Finally, I wanted to encourage you as my final pastoral words to you to “risk it for the Gospel”. As we made this decision, I felt very strongly that I couldn’t teach others to lay it on the line for the Gospel and not live that out in my own life (though I fail at it many times). We only live once here on earth, but we live forever in Christ and as we all make decisions to give our lives away for the Gospel my prayer is that we will be willing to risk everything we have for the sake of the Gospel.
As Jim Elliot, the missionary and martyr quoted “he is no fool that gives up what he cannot keep to obtain what he cannot lose”. Fellowship, may you continue to put it all on the line… to risk it for the Gospel and pray the same for us. We love you all.
My prayer for us all is Colossians 3:12-15
“12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”
Love In Christ,
Brian Crenshaw and Family
