Pam and her sons Brandon and Jimmy (not shown here) have been a vital part of Fellowship for 10years now

Pam Watson has been around Fellowship Church longer than almost everyone here except for one other member.  She has a heart for God that has stretched back some 25 years ago when she became a follower of Christ in Eastern Pennsylvania.  Besides a brief stint living back in PA in 2002, Pam has been proud to call Massachusetts her home forover 10 years now, and Fellowship Church her home church

Pam says, “The one thing that keeps me coming back to FC are the people.  When one member hurts, the rest of us hurt too.  When a need is presented, those that can lend a hand, money, or their heart do so without any questions being asked.  The only motive is to show people that we at FC are real and practice what is preached.  People that reach out to others at FC are never in competition with each other….they serve because HE served and they team together to make what needs to happen, happen.”

Pam is no stranger to serving either.  She has almost done every ministry possible during her time at the FC, including cleaning, children’s ministry, administrative duties, and Sunday guest services.  Currently she leads a small group every other Tuesday for older members of Fellowship and is a part of a Thursday small each week.

One of the funniest things Pam has seen at Fellowship Church was the video on the topic of love produced by the FC production team.  Here it is:

As far as the person who has influenced her the most:  (This was not coerced, I swear!)  “Ok now for the person that I have watched grow since I have been a member at FC.  That person would be our Sr Pastor, Marty Holman.  Ten years ago he came to this church as a young man who simply had a desire to serve the Lord.   He was our worship leader and was the person in charge of doing all that was needed to be done in the church building.  Ten years later he has become our Sr. Pastor, a husband and a man that still has a desire to serve the Lord but does so now seeking God’s face continually and wanting nothing more than to please his God by encouraging his sheep to grow in their relationship with each other and their Savior.  He has always loved people….but has had to balance his desire to fellowship with preparing messages and searching the scripture to teach all of us what is TRUE in God’s word versus what tradition teaches.”

Actually, Pam has been a huge influence in my life, and people like Pam, are the reason why Fellowship Church continues to follow God’s vision even years later!

Let’s give it up for Pam!

Wes and Tenley and a cat

In August of 2008, two young future missionaries invaded Fellowship Church to become interns here for a full year.  One of those men was Wesley Janke.

Wes was born in Canada, and lived much of his life in Venezuela, where his parents were missionaries to the tribes.  His desire is to follow in his parents footsteps as a missionary to a tribe somewhere in South America.  He’s already spent two years at New Tribes Bible Institute, and in August of ’09, he’s headed for New Tribes’ Mission Training Center (MTC) in Missouri.

Wes says his time here at Fellowship has been great and that “I think Fellowship Church is awesome!”  He serves in the student ministry, and has a desire to see the lives of teenagers changed and challenged for Christ.  He also serves once a month on Sunday mornings in Gambogee Place, FC’s Sunday morning elementary environment.

Wes also says that at Fellowship Church, he has been motivated to begin thinking outside the box.  “I love New Tribes Missions and all that, ” he says excitedly, “but they think inside the box, but I like the thought I’m putting into everything now.”

One of his favorite things about participating in the student ministry is watching all the teens being involved in serving at Fellowship and watching them grow in the process.

In August, Wes will be heading out to reunite with his girlfriend, Tenley (shown above) in Missouri (“it’s misery being apart right now”) and hopes to graduate from New Tribes’ MTC in two years, then eventually become a missionary to South America.  His vote is that he goes with Tenley and not without her.  We agree.

Fellowship Church loves having Wes around to help continue the vision of connecting and leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ,and he’s another great reason why God is using us to make an impact here in the central Massachusetts area.

A shout out please to Wes Janke!

It’s Fellowship Week and I want to introduce you to Billy McGuiness, our First Impressions Director and the guy who is making the web campus at FC a force to be reckoned with on the info superhighway.

Billy and his wife Colleen came to the FC in the summer of 2001, and they have helped us lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ for the last 7.5 years.  Billy has a servants heart and the talent to make things happen in whatever he’s doing.  Currently in the last 2 months he’s made some impressive headway in turning our web campus into a viable option for attending church and building authentic community @ FC, which has really been a help for people here in Central Massachusetts as each week it seems we’re getting another snow storm.

Billy says that the craziest thing that has happened to him since he’s been here is watching our friend, Alvin the Chipmunk, find his way onto the stage a few times on Sunday Mornings @ Fellowship, and the greatest thing about FC to Billy:  The commitment to build a community of people who want to love Jesus more, and not an earthly kingdom of Sunday morning isolation.

You can find Billy’s blog here, and if you ever want to actually find him, you can see him running the web campus on Sundays, in his FC office on Mon., Wed., and Fri., or hanging out with his Colleen and his two wonderful daughters, Emilie and Erynne.

Give a shout out to Billy, an all around great guy from Fellowship Church!

The Baltimore Sun picked up a quote from Martyholman.com this week when reporter Andrew Ratner featured President Obama and the Pope, and how they have each utilized the internet to share their message with the people they represent.  The article in the Sun is here. The post that Ratner quotes from is here.

This Sunday was great at Fellowship Church in Holden, Massachusetts!  There was an electric spirit  as our FC family was able to come together without snow or ice obstacles for the first time in several weeks.

Now, of course, being a Steeler Fan, next Sunday I’m looking forward to one of the greatest finales of all time.  That is the last segment of our series entitled “30 days to live”!  What else could it have been?

As we prepare for next Sunday morning @ Fellowship, I’m going write a series of blog posts highlighting some of FC lead team, life group leaders, and Fellowshippers who are making an impact for the kingdom of God in the Central Massachusetts area!

I hope you’ll check out the blog on a regular basis this week, and see what God is doing here at Fellowship.

And GO SUNDAY!!!

I got this idea from viewing the NFL Network this morning.  It’s Super Bowl week, and all week they’ll be interviewing and highlighting people who are a part of the Super Bowl (like the Steelers) and people who are not a part of the Super Bowl (insert your team here).

The genecrite, first cousin to the hypocrite, is a problem I’ve seen in myself and all around the world lately.

It’s a fascinating development in this last decade and gathering steam going into the second decade of this millenia.  You see, we’ve always had had a problem in the world with hypocrites, those that say they represent one leader or belief or group, and actually live out something completely different, but recent developments have brought a frenzied wave of a new cousin.

Around the turn of the century, a firestorm of love and service began to blaze throughout the world.  People began to start organizations to help and serve people in record numbers.  The world appeared optimistic and things looked great!  You can read all about this in Gregg Easterbrook’s amazing book, written in 2004, called “The Progress Paradox”.

But in the last year, with the downward spiral of our economy and the overarching pessimism appearing everywhere, people still believe in giving, but it’s a different kind of giving.

Here’s how I do it.

I love to give and be generous, so I’ll invite someone out to eat for lunch, and I’ll pay for their lunch.  But what I wonder is whether or not I would be so generous if I were geting nothing out of it.  That is, would I just give that person $15 for lunch without me?  Or am I a genecrite?

A genecrite is a person who says they are generous (as I did above) and then will only give when they get something out of it?  A conditional generosity.

I will give money or gifts to my family if they come and visit me?  Genecrite.

I will share what I have with people I like?  Genecrite.

I will give to my church as long as they are making me happy?  Genecrite.

I will take someone to lunch, only if I get to do some of the eating?  Genecrite.

What about you?  Are you a Genecrite?

Obama to Biden: "Ummmm, please shut up."

I don’t say a lot about politics on here, but I thought this story was worth a mention, because it speaks more about character in the little things than anything else.  (Coincidentally, I just read from Matthew 25 when Jesus tells the story of the master who gave a bit of responsibility to 3 servants)

Sometime in the last 24 hours, President Obama and Vice President Biden were talking to the press.  Someone asks Biden if he was going to swear everyone else in, because Biden had forgotten that he had more to do.  Then Biden immediately decides to make a joke, essentially selling out Justice Roberts from the Supreme Court and his little mess up at the inauguration and says “I don’t have as good of a memory as Justice Roberts.”  At this joke, the press laughed really hard, and it even received a few “ooohhhh”s.

But Obama’s reaction was stone cold. (this link is time sensitive and will probably not be there tomorrow, but eventually you’ll be able to check it out on you tube)  He didn’t laugh.  He didn’t smirk.  He simply and slowly reached out his arm, and touched Biden’s arm as if to say, “We don’t have time for your partisan, crappy jokes that have the intention of drawing attention away from yourself and onto others shortcomings.”

An absolutely amazing moment.  One of the things this little story did for me was helped me realize that though I might not agree with everything President Obama does, as I haven’t agreed with everything any other president has done in the last 20 years, I already respect him for being the person who he says he is, and this is a quality that has been non-existent in our nations capitol maybe since Washington in his two terms.

What do you think?  Was this character or just for show?

We’re going through a series in our church called “30 days to live.”  The main question for the series that we are asking:  If you had 30 days to live your life, how would you spend it?

It would appear that this has come absolutely true for one of our members, Stanley Urbanowicz.  Stan was an amazing guy who, in the year I’ve known him, poured so much of his life into mine.  Then this morning, he passed away to be with Jesus.  In his last 30 days, he couldn’t move much, or work hard, or see too many people, which made me ponder the above question a lot more.

Because if I had 30 days to live, would I even be able to spend it doing much of anything?  Would I be too sick or too tired or even too unmotivated?

The reality is that none of us know when we’re going to pass on.   God has given me a little bit of time and little bit of space in this world to do what He has enabled me to do, and it’s up to me to use my time now to accomplish those things.

But man, is it scary.  Watching someone pass on is a sure fire motivational tool for seeing your life differently, for scrutinizing what you should be doing as opposed to what you are doing.

There’s really no point to this post other than for you to know that Stanley Urbanowicz was an amazing man who loved Jesus and that his passing makes me celebrate his life and contemplate my own.

Thanks Stan.

Excuseme, Mr. Flacco, I think I'll take that ball and raise you 7.

You may not like football, but you have to like heart.  And perseverence.  And everyone likes a sweet grudge match, right?

This week I’m smilin’ cause the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl.  Or should I say, it’s just another reason I’m smilin’.  I usually smile anyway.  I had 31 text messages sent to me during the game, and only 1 afterwards. But…

I’m still smilin’

Congratulations to our next president.

Here’s a video I recently edited, mixing some MLK jr. with some Harry Potter, and topped it with a Fellowship splat – and this is what you get.

Enjoy!