Fellowship Church

Coordinates: 32°57′48″N 97°02′00″W / 32.963352°N 97.033224°W / 32.963352; -97.033224

Fellowship Church (FC) is an evangelical Christian megachurch located in Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, that is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.^[1] FC is one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in the United States, with an estimated attendance exceeding 20,000. FC's pastor is Ed Young, who has pastored the church since shortly after its opening.

Though Fellowship is officially a member of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), as part of the "seeker sensitive" movement, it does not publicize its ties with the SBC and is not actively involved in SBC affairs.

History

Fellowship Church

FC started in 1989 as a mission church of the First Baptist Church of Irving, Texas, and was initially known as "Las Colinas Baptist Church". Approximately 150 members of First Baptist Irving relocated to the new church. FC initially met in a rented facility next to the Irving Arts Center and across from MacArthur High School, both of which would figure in its history.

Shortly after its opening, the membership hired Edwin Barry Young as its Senior Pastor. Young quickly convinced the church to adopt the "seeker church" style made popular by Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Community Church. One of the church's first actions was to de-emphasize its ties with the Southern Baptist Convention and change its name to "Fellowship of Las Colinas". Another move was to use contemporary music during the services, and to offer services on Saturday evenings. Most notably, FC adopted the concept of "age appropriate" teaching—children 5th grade and under are provided separate services at their level of maturity, and parents are encouraged (but not required) to send their children to those services. FC purports that several families, after initially being hesitant to return to FC—mainly due to its size and non-traditional approach to church—did so after finding out their children loved the activities.^[2]

The strategy proved highly successful, and FC quickly outgrew its original facility. Thus, it moved across the parking lot to the nearby Irving Arts Center. During this time, FC tried the concept of "simultaneous services"—one group would meet at FC's facility while another would meet at the Arts Center. The FC music team would play at one site while Young preached at the other, then midway through the services the teams would switch places. The concept proved unsuccessful and was shortly dropped.

Meanwhile, FC began to look for a suitable site for its permanent facility. FC discovered a 160-acre (0.65 km²) site on heavily traveled State Highway 121 north of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, which was being auctioned by the Resolution Trust Corporation. Though larger than FC wanted, FC did not have the option to bid on only a portion of the site—it had to bid on the entire site or not bid at all. FC agreed to bid on the site, and was the successful bidder; however, it had to borrow $1.675 million to make the payment. Approximately two years later, the announcement was made that Grapevine Mills would be built across the street from FC. Unsolicited offers came in for portions of the FC property, and eventually FC sold a 23-acre (93,000 m²) parcel on the north side of the property for the exact amount it had borrowed earlier, thus allowing it to begin construction debt-free.

Meanwhile, FC outgrew the Irving Arts Center before its permanent facility was complete. It thus moved across the street to MacArthur High School. In order to maintain the "age-appropriate" services for preschoolers and children, this required volunteers to undergo a difficult preparation procedure.

In April 1998, FC finally completed and moved to its current facility and adopted its present name. Young and Hybels spoke at the dedication service.

Satellite locations

After its initial growth, FC bought a nearby warehouse and office building, which today serves as the church offices and the center for The Mix, the middle school and high school student movement, renaming the office building to The Mix Center.

In early 2005 FC opened two satellite campuses, Fellowship Church Plano (which met at a church-owned facility in Plano, Texas) and Fellowship Church Uptown (which met at North Dallas High School). Fellowship Church Uptown was renamed to Fellowship Church Downtown after it moved to a church-owned facility in Downtown Dallas.

Later in 2005, a third satellite campus was added, Fellowship Church Alliance (which met at Northwest High School in Justin, Texas). In October 2007 the campus relocated to in a new facility west of downtown Fort Worth, near the museum district, was renamed Fellowship Church Fort Worth.^[3]

In 2006 FC opened a fourth campus and its first outside the DFW area, Fellowship Church Miami in South Miami.

In 2008, FC opened a fifth campus at Allaso Ranch in Hawkins, Texas, which also hosts a satellite weekend service.

In 2012, FC added an internet campus called Fellowship Live.

In 2013, Fellowship Church opened two new campuses: Keller/Southlake, Texas (August 2013) and London, England (October 2013).

All satellite campuses act as extensions of FC; though they have live music and their own staff, all sermons are broadcast from the Grapevine campus.

FC today

Fellowship Church meets in eight locations across Texas, Florida and London, England as well as online at FellowshipLive.com, offering a wide range of activities and ministries.

FC operates a bookstore and coffee bar (The Source), which sells books and series by Young, Fellowship Church merchandise and music as well as home décor, and jewelry.

FC's facility offers outdoor baptistry. FC does not have an indoor baptistery, a common feature in church architecture among churches which practice baptism by immersion. Built like an amphitheater, the baptistry is located within a lake on the Grapevine campus. It is, however, physically separated from the lake and is also heated. There is another outdoor baptistery nearer to the main building, which is used most often during winter months to allow individuals to more quickly enter the building after being baptized.

In order to accommodate the large crowds for FC's Christmas and Easter Worship, over 20 separate Experiences are held during a 3-4 day period. In 2004, FC rented the American Airlines Center for its Christmas Worship Experience due to the NHL lockout which made the facility available. In 2005 it reverted to having multiple Worship Experiences at its campuses (11 at the Grapevine campus, five at Plano, three at Alliance, and two at Downtown).

Fellowship Church is the location for Ed Young's annual leadership conference, the C3 Conference, also known as the Creative Church Culture Conference.

In December 2005, Associated Press reported that Fellowship was one of several American mega-churches that would not hold services on Christmas Day, which in 2005 fell on a Sunday.^[4] At least one talk show host (nationally syndicated radio host Mike Gallagher, featured on local radio station KRLD) criticized Fellowship's decision not to hold services that day, since Sunday is the traditional day of worship in Christianity.

The night before Super Bowl XLI, Fellowship gave away 2 tickets and airfare from its Grapevine Campus to the game.^[5][6] In late 2008, Young encouraged the married couples of FC to engage in sexual intercourse every day for one week to attempt to strengthen the traditional family.

In September 2007, FC launched a website, ineed2change.com, in conjunction with a sermon series of the same name.^[7]

In September 2009, Fellowship Church in Grapevine hosted an ABC debate on adultery between Pastor Ed Young and AshleyMadison.com founder Noel Biderman.^[8]

Shortly after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Fellowship Church, in partnership with C3 Global, began to support local orphanages, providing food, water and medical supplies. Since then, Fellowship Church, C3 Global and its partner churches have provided over 3.8 million meals to orphans in Haiti.

In February 2010, Fellowship Church and Young were at the center of a controversy regarding Young's use of private aircraft in his travels.^[9] Young responded to the story the following weekend.^[10]

In January 2012, Pastor Ed and Lisa Young held a 24-hour bed-in on the roof of Fellowship Church in conjunction with the release of their book, "Sexperiment." The bed-in garnered international media attention as Ed and Lisa spoke with pastors and leaders from around the world on how to do marriage and sex God's way.

In March 2013, Fellowship Church hosted a city-wide Good Friday service for the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex at the newly built Klyde Warren Park.

In August 2013, Fellowship Church opened a leadership college, University of Next Level, designed to develop a generation of leaders to lead. Areas of study include theology, leadership development, and spiritual formation with a required internship. Degrees offered are a 2-year Associate in Church Leadership & Ministry and 1 year diploma in Church Leadership and Ministry.

In the beginning of 2014, FC took their student movement, The Mix, expanded it to the office building in Grapevine, and renamed the building to The Mix Center, due to large amounts of overflow in their previous meeting area.

Weekend Experience Times

All Worship Experiences are identical in format and content. Special "age appropriate" programs are held for newborns through 5th grade during all FC Worship Experiences.

References

External links

• Fellowship Church official site
• Featured church Vision Magazine Fall 2003