1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (ESV): Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. What does it mean to be thankful? As Americans we may tend to struggle with the concept of thankfulness, because we live in a time and culture where we want more and can have more quickly. Want the newest iPhone? You can have it with an early upgrade. Need new shoes? Free two-day shipping for Amazon Prime members. At the r

The rod and reproof give wisdom,     but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Discipline your son, and he will give you rest;     he will give delight to your heart. Proverbs 29:15,17 The question most Christians have is how much law is too much law when raising our children? The Gospel is sweet and tells us that even though we have broken God’s law we are forgiven because Jesus obeyed the Law of God perfectly on our behalf and died as satisfaction for the wrat

As a father of three children under four and the Pastor of Family Ministries at Fellowship Church, I sometimes become worried that I am not doing enough to reverse the trend of high school graduates leaving the church. This growing statistic weighs heavy on my heart because I have the primary responsibility to disciple my three children and the responsibility to equip parents of Fellowship Church to do the same for their children. I am sure many of you have these same concern

The small, migrant town of Immokalee, located about 40 miles east of Naples, is mostly known for farming. However, for Fellowship Church (formerly known as FBC Immokalee), small would be a misnomer. They operate on a kingdom-sized mindset, taking faith-sized strides to support the mission of the church to know God and make Him known. “We do not have fancy programs or any outlandish techniques. Instead, we have sought to make God’s Word the program by which we do ministry,” sa

Let’s be honest, hospitality gets a bad rap. We have hijacked the definition of hospitality and replaced it with social entertaining that conjures up ideas of perfectly adorned rooms, dinner parties, and elaborate table settings. But, what if hospitality was more than meaningless entertaining? What if we used hospitality as a means to share the gospel and invite others into the presence of God? Imagine a world where homes were being used all across neighborhoods, to open the

As a church we have been going through a series in the Gospel of Luke called the Lost Are Found. This post is meant to be a complement to the sermons and small group curriculum we have gone through in January 2019. In Luke 14:12-24, Jesus shares a parable to a Pharisee about a great banquet. In that story many people rejected the invitation to a banquet. So, the ruler of the banquet instructed his servants to invite all of the poor and lame to this banquet. In verse 23 the ma

Flourish. Rest. Believe. Grow. What is your resolution or word for 2019? In 1716, Jonathan Edwards penned a list of seventy “resolutions”. Unlike most New Year’s Resolutions, these were rooted in a humble desire to obey God’s Word. Edwards began each of these resolutions with the simple word “resolved…”. Resolve means to firmly set in one’s heart to do something, to follow-through with a commitment, and to decidedly move in a certain direction with the purpose of reaching the

Does your family have a nativity set? In many Christian homes, children grow up playing with plastic figures of Mary and Joseph around Christmas time. But nativities aren’t just toys or decorations–they can be object lessons to teach our children about the people God invited to join heaven in celebrating Jesus’ birth. And seeing who got a heavenly invitation can teach us a lot about God. We hope you’ll join other Fellowship Church families in taking part in this six-day Adven

A youth pastor told me he was missing some of his core teenagers on Easter Sunday morning. They were playing in a school volleyball tournament. How did our culture come to this? Plenty of parents take zero interest in their children and their activities. Youth leaders celebrate good parents who support their kids’ endeavors, hoping that worthwhile activities will give their offspring a boost in life. But for believing families, all such decisions fall under the command, “Seek

We all learned a new word in 2012: “selfie.” ​ For those of you who may still be in the cultural dark on this one, a “selfie” is a self-portrait photograph typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone held at arm’s length and then shared on social networking sites. Time magazine considered “selfie” one of the top 10 buzzwords for 2012. By 2013, the word was listed as “word of the year” and had become commonplace enough for inclusion in the online version of

Church planters get pulled in many directions at once. The task of discipling men can get displaced quickly by the tyranny of the urgent. But we must raise up faithful men who can disciple others. It’s critical to our future success in the irresistible task of church planting! I share often with our men about my spiritual discipline of writing in a journal. You can find lots of articles on the Internet about spiritual journaling because the practice has been around for a very

Quick question - what do you and God have in common? It is very difficult to have thoughtful and productive conversations in today's society without having to pause and define terms. Words such as complementarian, egalitarian, and submission have snowballed and molded into a completely different animal than just 5 years ago. Another term that has received a bad rap lately is the term "helper". Today, women look at you with such disdain or refuse to be defined as a helper to t

“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (Luke 7:34) ​ Why did Jesus come? He came to serve, to give His life as a ransom, to seek and save the lost (Mk 10:45; Lk 19:10). I think we all get that part. But, how did Jesus come? What method did He use? In Luke 7:34, we are told that Jesus came “eating and drinking”. What was the purpose of Jesus’ seemingly ordinary act of sharing a meal?