A good day for British evangelicals!

Saturday 28th November 2009 was a good day for evangelicalism in Britain. Why? Because it was a day when the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) took a decisive step in the direction of a better structure that I believe will hugely improve support for pastors, ministerial training and church planting.

At one level the issues addressed by the special meeting of the FIEC churches in Birmingham were pedestrian; the appointment of a new director (John Stevens, currently an elder at City Evangelical Church in Birmingham), the reduction of the number of trustees from 35 to 11 and the establishment of a new leaders' conference. But, as we all know, the structures of an organisation massively impact its ability to deliver its vision. As the proposals were overwhelmingly accepted by the assembly, the 400+ churches of the FIEC acknowledged that independent evangelical churches must be more willing to work in fellowship to achieve things we cannot do alone, and that such tasks require leadership from godly men who will encourage and help churches to think outside the box of "things that bring immediate benefit to my church."

It was exciting to hear speaker after speaker articulate a vision for a partnership of churches across the nation united by a commitment to the biblical gospel of Christ and to the sovereignty of the local church. I was particularly thrilled to be reminded that the FIEC welcomes churches with different views on baptism, elder governance, the millennium, the Mosaic law, creation, miraculous gifts and a host of other issues. As our traditional denominations slide further and further into unbiblical positions on a host of theological and ethical issues there seems to be a real opportunity for evangelicals of many different stripes to get stuck in to gospel partnership in the FIEC.

The opportunities are vast. But the challenges are huge too! Our churches have been too bad at training people for gospel ministry for too long; a problem eloquently testified to by the aging profile of the pastors in FIEC churches. And our church planting has been sporadic and fitful rather than strategic and continuous.

This, though, was a day for positives. A day to be thankful to God for the fellowship of like-minded believers in churches throughout the land. A day to rejoice that he has given us people to serve the churches of the FIEC. And a day to hope that God will bring many new believers to our churches and many new churches to our fellowship.