Our Vision for Fellowship Memphis

Our Vision for Fellowship Memphis

Almost 18 years. Hard to believe that countless faithful men and women have been serving the city of Memphis as part of this Fellowship family...for nearly 18 years. What a gracious God we serve. What a gracious God we serve. A God who chooses to work through ordinary men and women to accomplish His purposes. A God who gave us His word which birthed a vision in these ordinary men and women.  A God who, time and time again, has displayed His mercy and power through that vision, when we strive to be the kind of church dreamt of 18 years ago...a Gospel-Centered, Disciple Making, Multi-Ethnic Church in the heart of Memphis, TN.

And yes we've got a beautiful history filled with testimonies of God's grace and goodness. But we also believe our work is truly just beginning. Just getting started.

But in order to press onward, we must always remember who we have been...and who we still are...and what we will always strive to be....a Gospel-Centered, Disciple-Making, Multi-Ethnic church.

Gospel-Centered

For us, Gospel-Centered means that everything...and we mean everything...is built on and fueled by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It means that the power for Christian life is Christ's death and resurrection. It means that anything we do is only because Christ has done. It means the Gospel is not just the ABCs...it's the a to z. It means the Gospel is not just good news for the day of our conversion, or when we die...it's good news infiltrating every second of every day that we're alive.

Being Gospel-Centered means in order to understand what we are called to do, we must first understand who we are declared to be in Christ.

Being Gospel-Centered means that everything we teach is understood in light of what Jesus has done for us.

I guess you could say that being Gospel-Centered means that Jesus will always be the hero of our story.

Disciple-Making

What comes to mind when you hear the word "discipleship"? For some, you might envision a couple of people at a coffee shop with open bibles. For others, you might think of time alone in the Word or perhaps you envision a small group. Perhaps you imagine serving others in your city.

When we say that we want to be a disciple-making church, we believe that becoming a disciple involves ALL of those scenarios and even more. Jesus commands us in Matthew 28:20 to teach His people to observe all that God has commanded. He commands us to teach and learn SO THAT we might believe and obey.

We believe that this obedience and submission to the authority of the word can only take place through a life of discipleship. A disciple of Jesus is one who reflects Jesus to everyone they encounter. When the world encounters a disciple of Jesus, they encounter....well...Jesus. A disciple is a living parable of what it means to live in the heavenly kingdom.

How is this even possible? John 15 says that when we abide in Jesus, He will abide in us. And as we continue to abide in Jesus, He produces the fruit of a disciple.

Multi-Ethnic

Christianity is the most ethnically diverse religion that has ever existed. Nothing in all of human history has carried the power to unite people of all races, socioeconomic backgrounds, geographies, and generations. God, in His good pleasure, has sent the truths of the Gospel to every corner of the earth and given the invitation "Come to me ALL who are weary and heavy laden" to be called sons and daughters in His heavenly kingdom.

In other words, the Kingdom of God IS multi-ethnic.

When we say we strive to be a multi-ethnic church, this is not OUR vision or idea. In reality, we want to build God's kingdom and value what God values...and scripture is clear that God intends for every tongue, tribe, and nation to hear and respond to His Gospel message.

And we see it as our role to be a church that brings forth the Kingdom of God into every part of the city of Memphis and surrounding areas. We want to be a church that looks like the city of Memphis racially, socioeconomically, generationally.

Pursuing this...is...hard. It means that we will likely never be a church where everyone is happy with everything we do.

Finally,

A Gospel-Centered, Disciple-Making, Multi-Ethnic church. That has been the aspiration since the beginning nearly 18 years ago. Those statements still propel us forward into the future.

And what does the future hold for us? We don't know exactly–but isn't that the type of adventure God has called us to--To cling to him, trusting in his leading?

What we do know is what we are inviting you into. We know we're gonna pray. We know we're gonna go hard after Jesus. We know we're gonna support one another and build each other up. We know we're gonna die to ourselves so that Christ can live in us. We know we're gonna love one another and we're gonna love the Lord even more.

We're gonna be gospel-centered, remembering that Jesus is the hero. We're gonna be disciple-making, forming and equipping men and women to be living parables of the risen Christ. We're gonna pursue a multiethnic church, breaking down barriers between God's sons and daughters so that God might truly confound this city by forming us in unity...one in Christ.

We know what the hearts of our people beat for...hearts that yearn for the Gospel, hearts that submit to a life of surrender to Jesus, and hearts and long to break down every dividing line that the enemy has built between the sons and daughters of God.

You see, God is leading us into a new season. Of that we are sure. We are sure that the Lord is moving in our midst. In our hearts. In our people. These last 18 years have been nothing short of miraculous. And remembering what lay behind us empowers and emboldens us to turn our gaze forward, towards the Lord's leading, towards faith.