A New Year Letter From Our Regional Director
Special Convention
Over the past few years, it has been customary for the Regional Director to write a short article encouraging churches to welcome in the new year, get excited for all the possibilities that God has for them, and embrace the mission of reaching this country (and beyond) with the gospel. And while I believe that these things are true for 2026 just like previous years, I must also acknowledge the heaviness I am feeling this January.
The past year has not been an easy one. Significant leadership change can be challenging at the best of times (and I do believe we have navigated that transition well—though I may be slightly biased). When that transition is combined with one of the most significant seasons of conflict our region has experienced in the past couple of decades, it makes for a particularly difficult year.
This past week, I participated in my first EQ Bootcamp as Regional Director. During one of the sessions, I shared about a defining moment in our region’s history in the early 2000s, when Rob Waller was commissioned to conduct a deep assessment of Fellowship Pacific and to recommend a way forward. At that time, we were facing theological conflict, significant financial decline, and—perhaps most discouraging—many of our churches were seeing little evidence of spiritual fruit, including few baptisms. One of the key conclusions of the Waller Report was that we were at an inflection point, with a limited window to turn things around.
During the two decades since that inflection point, Fellowship Pacific has made incredible strides to become a region where we truly ‘leverage the collective strength and potential of our churches and agencies to individually and cooperatively achieve an unforgettable God honouring impact’. We have worked hard to make our mission statement become reality. We committed to Partnership 2016 with nearly a unanimous vote. In doing so, we declared that we were bound together by more than just our Statement of Faith; we were committed to our mission and living out our values and doing this together, as partners.
That is why, for me, this past year has been so difficult. Although the conflict has been centred on a theological topic, the deeper issue for me has been the attack on what we have worked on so hard for the last two decades to become: a group of churches working together. Last year, during Impact, the refrain ‘this is not who we are’ was reiterated repeatedly in the presentation before the motion, and I think it captures the angst of our leadership with regards to this conflict.
On Saturday, February 7th, Fellowship Pacific will be gathering for the Special Convention. This is not a joyous event. It is a sobering and, in many ways, sad occasion - yet one we believe is necessary. It is another inflection point in our history, where you are being asked: what kind of region do we truly want to be?
If you haven’t read the letter from our Regional Board explaining the reason for calling this Special Convention, I encourage you to read it (here). I would ask that you continue praying for the Special Convention, for our leaders, and our future as a region. These are important days, and we need wisdom, humility, and grace as we move forward together.
Brent Chapman,
Regional Director
