Fellowship Memphis

       I hope this letter finds you well and rejoicing greatly in our Great Savior, Jesus Christ! It’s hard to believe that 2010 is coming to a close, and we’re on the threshold of a brand new year. I wanted to take a few moments and reflect over what the Lord has done in our church, Fellowship Memphis, in 2010.
       If there’s one word that describes the last twelve months it’s change. In a lot of ways, change is nothing new, in fact it’s just a natural part of life. Seasons change. Time changes. We as people change. But the kind of change we experienced as a church in 2010 was some of the most monumental transitions we’ve had over the life of our body. Just reflect with me over some of the seismic shifts that have occurred in one calendar year: Leaving Crichton (now Victory University), a place we’d attended for nearly five years, and coming to Colonial Middle School. A major transition in our worship department, both personnel wise and philosophically, where one worship leader who was with us for five years left, and in his place we hired two worship directors who rotate on Sunday mornings between our two outposts. In this past year we’ve hired a production and worship pastor, made major changes in our communication, held our Resurrection Sunday service at the Orpheum where two thousand people showed up, are in the process of hiring a full time family pastor, adding two elders, and increased our operating budget by twenty percent. As if these changes weren’t enough we’re in the midst of planning to launch our third outpost, which is sure to shake things up in a great way for the glory of God, along with sending out several residents who are involved in planting churches around our city. If there’s one reality about life at Fellowship Memphis, it’s to never let ourselves become comfortable, because right when we settle in, it’s time to ride another wave of change.
       In the midst of all these changes I want to personally thank each of you for your incredible commitment, and God honoring sacrifice. As many of you know the process of our worship leader leaving was a difficult one, yet you responded biblically, following our leadership and embracing him and his family in a loving way. When we needed seventy thousand dollars to transition well into Colonial you stepped up and gave close to eighty! And when we pressed on the gas by increasing our operating budget you have continued to give generously helping us to run in the black. As your pastor I could not be prouder of a body of believers!
       Every spring our directional team is involved in a strategic planning process where we prayerfully seek God and discuss initiatives that we want to pursue for the coming fiscal year (August 1- July 31). This past spring we had some exciting discussions as we allowed our imaginations to wander out five years or so, and wrote down some huge dreams. After dreaming aloud, we realized that we don’t have the infrastructure in place currently to support these dreams, so we agreed to tighten things up on the inside, so that we’ll be positioned to charge these huge hills in the future. To help us with this, more residents have been brought on board. We also established a clear staff accountability process that’s meant to encourage and inspire our staff team.
      Along with our strategic initiative of infrastructure development for this fiscal year, we also said we need to communicate better with our body. Mike Cruser, our production and worship pastor, was hired to help us with this. Bringing to us years of expertise in the area of communications we’ve already seen astronomical improvements. Mike has helped to develop a new worship guide that documents some real God moments in the body, along with helping to capture gospel stories on video, communicating to our body the wonderful God movements in our lives.
      Brandi Holbrook, our children’s director, has really helped to develop the infrastructure of our largest ministry. She has put together a phenomenal team of capable people who help to care for our precious children. We knew that Brandi would be with us for a season as her real passion is with her own family, so when the time was right we brought on Mark Ottinger. “Mo,” as we call him, has been a part of our church since day one and he brings a real passion for family, and specifically adoption. We’ve asked Mo to expand our horizons by establishing and giving leadership to our new Family Ministry. Specifically, he will oversee our children’s ministry, be responsible for proactively investing in marriages, as well as leading the charge in helping our church care for orphans around the city.
      As you can see, there’s a lot going on at Fellowship. I feel a little like the writer of Hebrews after he got finished talking about all the great men and women of faith who God used throughout history and realized he had left a bunch of people out, so he simply said, “And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of…” I could go on and on about our student ministries department and the wonderful team they have in place and the great work they’re engaged in. I could write pages about our residents and all that God is doing, along with the overall growth of our church. But let me end by giving you a few things to pray for as we turn to 2011:

      It’s my great joy to not only be your pastor, but to serve with the elder and directional teams in giving leadership to this great body of believers. I leave you with a passage of Scripture that has been stirring in my soul for the last six weeks:

Already we’re seeing this as word is getting out across the nation about our church to the glory of God. May we continue to make Him famous!

Bryan Loritts
Lead Pastor
Fellowship Memphis