by Dave Janney
Pastor, Orlando Baptist Church
Our Fellowship has always revolved around three important emphases — missions, church planting, and fellowship.
Missions has been a bright light in our Fellowship. We have the ability to support whom we want and to where we want. We partner with missionaries who possess our philosophy of ministry, those with competence, and approved through our BBFI mission process.
We have always believed church planting is the way we carry out the Great Commission here and around the world. This is also a support-whom-you-want, where-you-want approach. While I personally have been driven by the call to evangelize the world for many years, focused largely on distant lands, these days, God has been recalibrating my vision and church planting has moved to the forefront along with missions.
Churches are in decline across America, including our BBFI churches. The same is true in missions. While I am excited about nationals we are raising up around the world through our many years of world missions, we must continue to raise up missionaries from America. I only see two ways this is possible. We must have relevant, vibrant churches, and we must start relevant, vibrant churches. Thus, church planting is the call and the key for the days ahead in the BBFI for me.
Fellowship is the third important area that makes who we are special. I attend great conferences. Over the years we have attended meetings, wanting a better idea, a better model, a Holy Spirit revival, and a myriad of other reasons. Again, in our Fellowship we get to do what each of us as pastors believes is best for our churches and their future. And I like that.
However, after all the conferences are over and all the information and inspiration has been obtained, there is one thing we still need from our Fellowship and that’s fellowship. Pastors, we need each other. We need this band-of-brothers experience in our Fellowship meetings. I do not complain about who spoke, or what the music was like at a Fellowship meeting. I come to fellowship, and I need it, and I love it. And by the way, there are a lot of guys who need us and some good fellowship along the way.
With all this in mind, I want to invite you to attend our National Fellowship Meeting in Orlando, FL, at Orlando Baptist Church, February 16-18, 2015.
Our church, our staff, and I are excited about our meeting as the emphasis is church planting. I promise all of our church planters a great week with an exciting inside look at where we are going as the BBFI in church planting, along with great help sessions. We will also have a track for encouraging pastors in practical matters to help as we pastor and build our churches. We will have great preachers and great breakout sessions, but above all, we will have great fellowship. And it just will not be complete without you there. See you in February!