Fellowship Memphis

About ten years ago, Vicki and Brad Phipps began their life together as a couple. Both of them had experienced prior marriages that were partnered with baggage and turmoil. Early in their marriage, they realized that the baggage from their past marriages had not been unpacked, and now it was causing mistrust and frustrations in their new life together.

It came to the point that Vicki actually left Brad and moved to California, with no intention or hope of reconciliation. At a point of desperation and longing for their marriage to be whole, Brad sought counsel from the pastor of the church they were attending. The pastor in turn helped them to connect with a small group. This group’s investment in them helped them find healing individually and for their marriage, as they joined in vulnerability and community with other believers.

Fast forward eight years… Brad and Vicki heard about, visited, and eventually joined Fellowship Memphis. But one day they voiced to each other the conflict in their spirits between the clear calling they sensed to Fellowship Memphis versus the overwhelming sense of lack of accountability and shared life.

They knew well what was missing, because they had experienced it with a community of believers during the season of crisis in their marriage. So they requested placement in a Fellowship small group. Fear began to set in... What if they don’t like us? What if we don’t like them? What if it’s not at all like what we imagined? But they continued to pursue community and soon realized that the “what ifs” were an attempt by the enemy to keep them bound in fear and unable to get connected again with other believers.

For the past seven months Brad, Vicki, and a dozen others have participated in the Community Group led by Eddie and Becky Cunningham. They have shared in each other’s joys, grown in discipleship, and carried each other’s burdens. Most recently, their group stepped in to help carry the heavy financial and emotional burden that Vicki has encountered in caring for her mother, who is terminally ill. Vicki best shares her love for these newfound brothers and sisters in these words, “By myself my gratitude grows weary. But because of this small group I can feel God’s mercy.”