PROPEL | A Podcast by Fellowship Pacific Fellowship Pacific

In this episode, we have the privilege of hearing from Barton Priebe, Lead Pastor of Central Baptist Church in Victoria, as he talked with Jessica Powell about his new book, “Adopted by God: Discover the Life-Transforming Joy of a Neglected Truth.”

You’ll get to hear him explain why the doctrine of adoption is such an important one, why he says it’s been a neglected truth in the church, and how there is life-transforming joy to be found when we truly embrace our identities as sons and daughters of God. He also shares how understanding and teaching this doctrine can be incredibly helpful for us as church leaders who are trying to help navigate our churches through controversies, such as the ones many of us are dealing with now during Covid!

Get the book:

Adopted by God (Barton Priebe)

BARTON PRIEBE

After working four years at Trinity Western University and thirteen years as lead pastor at Dunbar Heights Baptist Church in Vancouver, Barton became the lead pastor of Central Baptist Church in 2015. You will enjoy his preaching as he knows how to ask the right questions, engage attention, and thoughtfully guide you to biblical answers that impact all areas of faith and life. Barton enjoys cycling, skiing, sushi, reading, date nights with his wife, and having fun with his four children. He received his Doctor of Ministry from Northwest Baptist Seminary. He is also the author of "Adopted by God," "The Problem with Christianity: Six Unsettling Questions You Have Asked," "Belonging to God's Family: Measuring the Effect of Sermons on Paul's Doctrine of Adoption in the Lives of Believers," and co-author of "Everyday Apologetics: Answering Common Objections to the Christian Faith."

Our Leadership Development team has had the opportunity this year to partner with a group of women in Kampala, Uganda who had reached out to us as they were looking for resources for mentoring women in leadership.

In this episode, Krista Penner had a conversation with Betty Mutunda, who is on the ground in Uganda — serving God with her gifts and mentoring other women to do the same. You’ll get to hear her share about the challenges the church in Uganda is facing and how they are serving their communities in the midst of it.

What God is doing through these women is incredibly inspiring and we are so grateful that Fellowship Pacific gets to play a small part in partnering with them in their ministry!

Parenting is hard. We know that. As parents we love our kids deeply and we long to see them flourish and thrive, but knowing how to help them do that often feels like a complete mystery. And then on top of that there’s the pressure we sometimes put on ourselves as leaders in the church to be setting an example in how we raise our kids!

Whether you’re in the middle of raising teens yourself, preparing to do so in the future, or simply want to be able to come alongside other parents in your church to help and encourage them, you will definitely benefit from this conversation.

In this episode, Elizabeth Faulkner sat down with Mark Gregston—cofounder of Heartlight Ministries and Parenting Today’s Teens—to talk about what the most important thing to know is about parenting teenagers.

For resources mentioned, visit the episode page HERE.

MARK GREGSTON

Mark Gregston, along with his wife Jan, are cofounders of Heartlight Ministries and Parenting Today’s Teens. Mark is the Executive Director of Heartlight, a residential counseling center for teens in crisis located in Hallsville, Texas. Heartlight has become one of the country's finest residential counseling centers for teens and is known throughout North America as the “place to be” if your teen is struggling and hope is diminishing.

Mark is also the host of Heartlight Radio's weekend program and heard on hundreds of stations with their daily program, Parenting Today's Teens. He has authored 12 books, written hundreds of articles about parenting teens in a difficult culture and is also the host of the nationally acclaimed read program. From his 45+ years of experience of working with teens and their families, Mark shares his insight and wisdom through podcasts, the Heartlight Stories YouTube channel, seminars, and weekend parenting retreats.

It’s a brand new ministry year and once again, it’s a ministry year that is beginning in the midst of a lot of the kind of change and uncertainty that makes leading well even harder than it usually is.

So to kick off this new season of the podcast, we turned to three incredible leaders who are very familiar with the challenges of leadership and who also happen to be on our very own Fellowship Pacific team!

You’ll get to hear Krista Penner, Elizabeth Faulkner, and David Horita talk about their own leadership journeys and what they’ve learned from all the highs and lows — or the “good, bad, and ugly” — of leading.

Recommended Resources:

Leadership and Self-Deception (The Arbinger Institute)

The Culture Code (Daniel Coyle)

KRISTA PENNER

Krista Penner is the Team Lead for the Leadership Development Team at Fellowship Pacific and also manages the Immerse program.

Krista has a degree in the Humanities and over 20 years of corporate experience that she has the privilege of drawing from as she teaches board governance and leadership principles in our Fellowship Pacific churches. She has been with the Fellowship Pacific team since 2008, and although her role has expanded and changed over the years, her passion for the mission and vision of Fellowship Pacific has remained crystal clear.

ELIZABETH FAULKNER

Elizabeth Faulkner serves on the Leadership Development team for Fellowship Pacific.

She has a Bachelor’s degree from Northwest and 15 years experience leading a variety of teams and ministries at SouthRidge Fellowship including children, family, discipleship and interns. She is passionate about mentoring and developing leaders and teams and loves using her experience in those areas to serve our churches.

DAVID HORITA

David is the Regional Director of Fellowship Pacific.

After completing his Master of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, he has served in both small and large churches, as well as planting a church in Surrey in 1990. During those years he also received his Doctor of Ministry degree, and worked extensively on a variety of Fellowship Pacific Boards.

Throughout the last twelve years, David has enjoyed working alongside others in the Fellowship Pacific Ministry Centre, applying much of his education and experience to developing church focused tools to help them achieve their unique vision within the Kingdom of God.

In all the many conversations we’ve been having about what the future holds for the post-Covid church, there’s been one common idea that we keep hearing: a sense that God is at work doing something new in His church through Covid and a deep desire to participate with Him in whatever that is.

But how do we know what it is that He’s asking us to participate in?

In this episode, Jessica Powell sat down with Jon Thompson, Senior Pastor of Sanctus Church and author of the books Convergence and Deliverance to talk about the importance of asking God if He has something specific for us to do before we jump into making our plans and what that actually looks like in practice for us as church leaders who are trying to discern what to do in a post pandemic world.

More from Jon Thompson:

www.thrivewithconvergence

Books:

Convergence

Deliverance

JON THOMPSON

Jon Thompson is the Senior Pastor of Sanctus Church, a multi-site church in the Greater Toronto Area where he has been on staff for more than 20 years. Under Jon’s leadership, Sanctus is characterized by dynamic Biblical teaching, vibrant community groups, compelling media, and powerful times in worship.

Jon has a Master of Theological Studies from Tyndale Seminary, Toronto and a Doctorate of Missiology from Fuller Seminary, California. Jon is husband to Joanna and father to three kids—Hannah, Emma, and Noah.

Jon speaks and teaches globally on the convergence of spiritual gifts, spiritual practices, and spiritual experiences in the life of the believer and the local church.

We know from Revelation that heaven is going to be an incredible, multicultural celebration—more than we could ever imagine! And if we are serious about joining Jesus in asking for God’s kingdom come here on earth, then shouldn’t we expect our churches to start looking more like that multicultural reality?

In this episode, Mike Mawhorter had a conversation with Josh Buys (Lead Pastor of Kingdom Life Community Church), Mark Buhler (Multicultural Pastor at Faith Fellowship Baptist Church), and Don Schuiling (Lead Pastor of Richmond Baptist Church) about what it takes to be intentional about growing diversity in our churches and why it matters.

JOSH BUYS

Josh is the Lead Pastor of Kingdom Life Community Church.

MARK BUHLER

Mark is married to Catherine and is blessed to have 4 children and 7 grandchildren.  He is a trained high school Math and Science teacher, personal and career counselor and school administrator. He chose to follow Christ while on a trip to India right after university. He served at Rift Valley Academy in Kenya for 20 years in education and community development. Upon returning to Canada in 2011 he has served at Faith Fellowship Baptist Church in Vancouver in multicultural ministry and mentoring / discipleship.

DON SCHUILING

Don has been in ministry in a variety of roles for over 30 years. He loves people and walking through life with them. Helping people gain a better understanding of who Jesus is and how much he loves to lavish grace on them is what motivates his pastor’s heart. Don and his wife Deb enjoy being outdoors whether it is just taking a walk in a local park or hiking in a more remote place. Their family is extremely important to them and they love getting together with their adult children.