In Spring 1990, our fellowship started as a Bible Study at Randy and Lynna Blackwell's home at New Life Ranch with Art Smith leading. The group outgrew the Blackwell's living room and so the fellowship moved temporarily to a building on the grounds of New Life Ranch, then more permanently to a leased storefront in the Mt. Olive strip mall.
On August 24, 1990, the fellowship incorporated in the State of Arkansas and started calling itself Fellowship Bible Church. The church grew. After a few years Art Smith left, proving to be an opportunity for ministry for Glen Jones to step into a more central role of preaching and leading earning a partial salary.
By the Fall of 2000 Fellowship Bible Church enjoyed an attendance of about 65 people. A year later, at 70 attenders, the storefront location was officially "maxed out." In a season spanning over 2002 and 2003, Fellowship Bible Church bought the historic church on E. Twin Springs St. and moved in. The extra space and the more permanent facilities allowed for Fellowship Bible Church allowed for more growth to around 100 people.
Another transition period arrived at the end of the year 2006 when Glen Jones retired from pastoring. The church rallied and set a course to hire their first full-time pastor; a process that would take over two years. Helping the church through this growth step, Interim Pastor Carl Backie helped prepare Fellowship Bible for their "new era." So that by Summer 2008 the church was ready, calling as full-time pastor, Kevin Rees, with his wife Shellie and their five children.
For more information, read our Articles of Faith and Who we Are.
Kevin and Shellie Rees, and their five young children, joined the
already vibrant ministry of Fellowship Bible Church in September 2008 from their time serving with Greater Europe Mission (2003-2008) as
church planters in central Italy (2006-2007).
The Rees family is passionate about establishing and strengthening the local church, but they also enjoy the outdoors, traveling, reading, and finding creative ways to spend time together as a family. Shellie is a biologist at heart, and by training. Kevin enjoys to pick up the guitar or the camera from time to time. The children like sports, hiking, music, computer, and finding out which video games their father cannot seem to master.
To contact Kevin, use the email form under the contact page.
Want to know more? Visit Kevin's blog.
Meet Our Elders
The board of elders is the leadership hub of the church. They collectively serve the congregation in three general areas of leadership: the ministry of prayer, the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4), and the ministry of spiritual leadership (1 Peter 5:2-3) which includes but is not limited to setting direction, appointing other ministry leaders as needed, monitoring the overall spiritual health of the people, and if necessary navigating through conflict and/or dissension within the congregation.
“Oh!” Working your part so the team could succeed—the significance still hasn’t fully dawned on the veteran either. The month of May brings many things—flowers, pollen, end-of-the-year testing, graduation, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day—but it also brings analogies for life from the ball field. Though most of us do not wear team jerseys anymore, we are still players on many teams: family, work, community, church, etc. Yet, do we often realize that our individual contribution plays a larger role in the team’s success? Our participation sets into motion, creates the space, offers the time, holds back the opposition so that success, growth, advancement, progress, unity can mark a run scored in the cosmic box score. It is never just a random at-bat that leaves no mark in the overall team experience—it is one of relatively few at-bats that causes the other team to expend the energy to pitch and catch, that elevates the pitch count, that weakens the pitcher’s arm for later innings, that could allow her fastball to lose some steam, that could allow another player make contact with a pitch she could not turn on in earlier innings, that requires the shortstop to have to run deep into the gap to field the groundball, that leaves her off balance so that her throw to first base is off-target, that allows the game winning runner to reach third, so that when a rookie approaches the plate for the first time her humble contribution scores the lead-changing run. There is great significance in working your part so the team can succeed.
Paul said it this way, “the whole body [think: ‘team!’], being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16). “Oh.”
What is your part? What is your role? What is your contribution? What is your piece? Yours is not a random at-bat; it is one of relatively few that counts within the entire flow of the team and the conclusion of the game. Work your part so that the team can succeed. Individual stats are meaningless when compared to the end result of the team. “Wow!” May the significance fully dawn on all of us.
