A Letter from Our New President

To our Fellowship Family in Canada and

Worldwide,

Greetings in the name of Jesus! I would like to express my humble thanks to our National Council for my recent calling to serve our entire Fellowship family. The Lord has wonderfully guided our discussions over several months to affirm this new posting for my family and me. I want to thank our National Council Chair, Larry Nelson, and Interim President, Ernest Kennedy, for their special help and care as we have prayerfully considered and accepted the role of National President. Marilyn and I are grateful to God for leading us to this new and exciting challenge.

I walked into Bramalea Baptist Church in January of 1979, only three weeks after my recent conversion to Christ. I was an art student attending the Ontario College of Art. I was largely un-churched. I thank God for my early formative years being spent in such a healthy Fellowship Baptist Church under Stu Silvester’s anointed ministry. My wife, Marilyn, grew up at Forward Baptist, in Toronto, under exceptional pastors like Hal MacBain, Paul Kerr and David Bell. The Fellowship is our family. It has been our family for over 30 years. We are humbled by the task our Lord and spiritual family have now asked us to steward. We covet your prayers.

I have had an opportunity to visit and dialogue with our Fellowship’s Senior Ministry Team, Regional Directors and National Council. It has been exciting to witness how the Lord has confirmed each step of the careful process we have just completed. We have an amazing team already in place in our Guelph office, Regional offices across Canada, Chaplains and Fellowship missionary family around the world.

I sense a brand new day for our Fellowship. There is an enthusiastic commitment to pursue God’s vision for our churches, a clarity regarding the roles all parties play in accomplishing the mission and chemistry between our national and regional staff. I was overjoyed to witness and experience this firsthand. The Spirit of God has given me a renewed hope and confidence for our Fellowship movement in the days ahead. God is good.   Please pray for my Temple Baptist Church family (Sarnia, ON). With our departure there is some sadness. Temple has been our family for 11 years, and, naturally, we find the transition to be bittersweet. Pray for Temple, your sister church, as they begin the process of searching for their next Lead Pastor.

Please pray for my family. The transitions we will experience over the next few months are huge. Our two eldest children, Katelyn and Alec, will not be following us to Guelph as they continue their lives and university studies in London, ON. The empty nest has begun…ouch! Our youngest, Jessica, must finish her Grade 12 year and graduate from high school in a new city away from her close friends. You can only imagine how difficult this is for our girl. Marilyn needs to find new employment (nursing) in Guelph and move her mom to a new long-term care facility as Mom is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. On top of this, we need to sell and move a home. I will be doing some French language studies in Quebec in July and move into the Guelph offices in August. I feel like I’ve got a tiger by the tail. Your prayers would be most appreciated. I plan to develop a “President’s Prayer Partner Team” in the months ahead and would covet your prayer support.

We rest in the sure knowledge that we serve a God who is in total control. Our dependence is on him. Please join with me as we trust God for the Fellowship’s greatest years. They are ahead of us. Glory to God.

Warmly in Christian love,

Steven Jones