In November, the Riviera International Centre, Torquay, hosted The FIEC Leaders’ Conference. This year’s theme, Leadership at Every Level, was perfectly timed; as attendance reached 1,000 and the FIEC continues to grow numerically, now is the time to carefully consider how to raise up leaders to ensure growth is lasting, sustainable, and deeply rooted in biblical truth.
John Stevens, FIEC President, opened proceedings by reminding the gathered pastors, elders, women’s workers, and other leaders of the biblical vision for leadership from Ephesians 4. Godly leadership, he instructed, proceeds from an identity rooted in the gospel; to lose sight of that is to build ministry on oneself. And the danger? A ministry that finds its worth in oneself will be slow to delegate, loathe showing humility or weakness, and will find pride in concentrating power. Only the gospel sets one free to serve.
A further two sessions, from Colin Smith, pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Chicago, talked through the profile of the godly leader from the portrait of Israelite kingship in Deuteronomy 17, and then explained the shepherd as the primary image of spiritual leadership in both the Old and New Testament. These clear and powerful sessions laid the groundwork for everything else that followed. A particular highlight was his encouragement to be leaders who meditated on the word, as the Old Testament kings were required to do. ‘[Look how the people of God in the Old Testament ensured that their leader was godly] they put a crown on his head and they immediately sent him into the study.’
Conference participants could choose from nearly 20 seminars, from ‘Raising Titus 2 Women’ with Jonny Prime, to ‘Elders and Trustees: How to Make It Work’ with Caroline Eade. One of the more popular seminars was ‘Raising Up Godly Elders’ with Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. In these seminars Dever challenged pastors to shape a church culture in which leaders are identified, nurtured, and allowed to grow. He aptly pointed out that churches often ask themselves how to bring the gospel news into neighbouring communities, but rarely ask how the gospel will get into the future. Future gospel ministry, he said, comes by finding and training the leaders and preachers of tomorrow. Finding and training leaders, however, should not be primarily motivated by statistics or programmes. Instead, training up leaders is relational. It requires love and patience to help young people learn to think carefully and through a biblical worldview. It requires humility to delegate responsibility, knowing that young leaders-in-training won’t get everything right. It requires laying down pride to believe the best in other people. ‘The people who have worked in your life most are the people who have believed in you – so believe in others!’ Dever implored.
As always, one session of the conference was reserved for the FIEC AGM. While this involves a certain number of necessary administrative tasks, the conference was deeply encouraged by the reports on the life of the Fellowship. In the last year, 33 churches have joined the FIEC, 12 church plants were recognised, and roughly £800,000 is being distributed through the FIEC Mission Fund. God is clearly at work amongst the affiliated churches – there is much for which to be thankful for and much hope for the future.
On the third day, as conversations of joys and struggles of ministry life and reunions of long-time friends inevitably came to a close, Andy Prime, pastor of Gracemount Community Church in Edinburgh, concluded the conference with a call to not lose heart from 2 Corinthians 4. For those thinking of quitting because it’s hard, remember, ministry is hard. But God is merciful and powerful.
The FIEC Leaders’ Conference left me with a number of encouraging takeaways. First, the FIEC is committed to planting churches, including (perhaps especially) churches in hard places. These commitments are rightfully being backed up with cash and other resources. Second, the FIEC is a hospitable home for all local churches, including the smallest. Even after a conference filled with well-known speakers from huge churches, it’s clear that the local church is where the real action takes place. The work of Christ is exalted through the local churches – that’s where people are evangelised, discipled, and new leaders (for next year’s conference) are raised up.
