Happy 2025 to each of you in Fellowship Pacific!

It is great to enter into another year of service together with you, seeking tangible and meaningful Kingdom outcomes that will honor our Lord and God. It is a blessing to join with you in ministry.

However, while it is truly fulfilling to be “appointed to his service” as per Paul in 1 Timothy 1:12, we also know that there are challenges in that service. While true, I sometimes wonder whether anything in the nature of those challenges has actually changed or will change in 2025.

There is a tendency for many of us to resolutely accept that the world has gotten worse or more adversarial to the gospel that we love and preach. Sure, there are all kinds of indicators that our country is less “Christian” than it once was, but please allow me to at least question whether or not this assumption is actually true. You may well disagree with me, but it is harder for some than others to not ask questions about our assumptions! That certainly includes me. But feel free to engage the conversation in the discussion section of the Commons, our Fellowship network.

Hello Fellowship Pacific! We want to keep you in the loop about staffing changes that are occurring at the Fellowship Ministry Centre, specifically that Dr. Mike Mawhorter has stepped down from his role on the Connect team, effective the end of 2024.

Some of you may be aware that Mike joined the team in 2019, with an expectation that he would be helping out for an interim period. Mike proved to be such a great addition to our team that his time with us ended up lasting over 5 years.

What an inspiring milestone! Seven more graduates have launched into ministry, marking the 10th graduation for Fellowship Pacific's Immerse program. Since the program’s inception, Immerse students have grown through a unique blend of theology, leadership, and practical ministry, all within the nurturing environment of the local church. They truly embody Christ’s vision for leaders in His church.

This past month, several staff teams from within our Fellowship Pacific family of churches participated in the Safe Sanctuaries Seminar: Nurturing a Culture of Safety and Dignity in the Church. This seminar, led by Lorrie Wasyliw, Executive Director of WINGS Fellowship (Women In Need Gaining Strength), provides in-person training to church leaders, drawing on Lorrie's extensive advocacy work for victims of abuse.

On August 4-9, Sunnybrae Bible Camp in the Shuswap hosted the third annual Ministry Workers Family Camp.

This camp is made possible through a partnership between Fellowship Pacific and Sunnybrae and was attended by ministry families from throughout our region. Children, youth, and adults attended chapel together, played games, rode horses and ponies, competed in a variety of individual and team activities, and went away making new friends and feeling refreshed and renewed.

Here at Fellowship Pacific we believe effective leadership is CRITICAL to the present and the future. Valued Leadership is lived out through our family of churches when we serve our youth ministries, and Krista Penner knows we are investing in a bright future!

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"The world’s going to hell in a handbasket." My grandma used to say this and sometimes, I think this statement perfectly captures my perspective after watching the 6 o'clock news.

Our social climate doesn’t always fill me with exuberant hope and heart-swelling confidence, and yet, there are next-generation leaders saying YES to Jesus despite the stigma and disdain of our culture. I see them in our churches, hear their stories, and wonder how they have managed to reach young adulthood with integrity, perseverance, and a passion to share the love of Jesus.

On Sunday, June 23, during our Staff Training week, our entire staff team went to Central Baptist Church in Victoria, BC to be commissioned for our summer of ministry. We brought along banners that had the names on them of every camper coming to Qwanoes this summer. We were welcomed by the senior pastor, and near the beginning of the service all 200 of us went up on the stage.

This past month, at least four Fellowship Pacific churches partnered with others to send Maaqtusiis and two other Band’s youth to an Aboriginal Youth Conference.

Maaqtusiis Community Church’s full-time missionaries to First Nations, Jacob and Rachel Hwang, express their deepest gratitude to those who prayed for their Youth to attend the AYC (Aboriginal Youth Conference), and they ask that you continue to pray for them.

Here at Valley Church we are reaching families of children and teens through focusing on the Cowichan Valley (and the city of Duncan) being a better place to live. We believe that being a visible presence of Jesus in the Cowichan Valley will radically transform our community. Our church culture is warm and inclusive, with many coming through our doors who are new to the community, new to church, or new back to church.

Prior to our one year anniversary, we lost our meeting location and was provided for by Camp Qwanoes, who allowed us to meet there for the month of January 2024.

My family moved here from South Korea four years ago. We came here with a heart to raise up the next generation to be global leaders equipped with the gospel. However, I never envisioned ministering to Koreans at South Delta Baptist Church. What has happened here is beyond my wildest dreams. It was definitely God's providence and leading. 

Celebrating 60 Years of Baptist Housing!

At our opening banquet for Impact 2024 we embraced the opportunity to celebrate Baptist Housing's 60th anniversary!

By now some of you may have heard the news that ACTS (Associated Canadian Theological Schools), of which Northwest Seminary is a part, is planning on moving the traditional course-based part of the seminary into a new Trinity Western School of Theology, effective May 2026.