Fellowship Church in Poplar Bluff will celebrate its 50th Anniversary Saturday and Sunday by honoring its past and looking ahead to continuing its outreach to the community with ministry and compassion.
Organized on May 2, 1973, as a mission church, the official formation as a church body came on July 15, 1973.
Senior Pastor Rev. Byron Beck said the anniversary weekend would begin on Saturday with an RSVP meeting and dinner for church members.
Public worship services on Sunday will celebrate the milestone during the regular 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. times.
Fellowship Church had 81 charter members, and a number of those people are still around, not only some of the adults who were part of the founding but also their children, many of whom are still members.
“It’s a time to look back and honor the people on whose shoulders we stand,” Beck said.
“Nobody’s totally a self-made person; we all stand on the shoulders of somebody else, and we’ve had some wonderfully generous and faithful people who have been a part of this church family for a number of years,” he said. “Part of our task is to honor them and give thanks to God for them with this celebration.”
Beck and his wife, Kathy, moved to Poplar Bluff in 1985. Beck became senior pastor at Fellowship in 1987, a position he’s been in for 35 years now.
“I thought maybe I’d be here five years,” he said. “It’s been good for me and for our family, and it’s been a healthy relationship with the church.”
Fellowship has grown from a single building at its current location on Highway 67 North to two expansion projects and the annexation of a neighboring building. The mission itself, however, has grown beyond its physical boundaries.
“We have grown over the years in outreach and people that we’re reaching, the number of ministries that we provide to the community,” Beck said. “We have a broad range of ministries that we try to offer the community for people who are struggling, suffering or hurting.”
Fellowship has a history of offering financial assistance to different groups and ministries at the local, state, national, and international levels, meeting needs including in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami, and the earthquakes in Haiti.
“The church has grown in our prayer ministries,” Beck said. “We have more people who are serious about prayer, study, and discipleship who are growing in their commitment to those kinds of things.”
One recent addition is a Hispanic ministry started about seven to eight years ago, according to Beck. The church brought in a Hispanic pastor to come to Poplar Bluff to minister to the Spanish-speaking members of the community. That service meets at the church on Sunday afternoons.
Regarding the vision for the church as it enters its next 50 years and beyond, Beck said, “We have not set long goals simply because when you think 10 years down the road, the world changes so fast, it’s really hard to set solid long-term goals.
“Probably we will look in the future to increasing ministries to disciple people to look and act and talk like more like Jesus and to impact our community and our country,” he said.
“Sometimes the best ideas that we get for ministries come from people with a passion, and they start doing something that makes a difference,” Beck said.
He cited Travis and Amanda Gowen, who started a summer soccer camp as an outreach ministry 10 years ago.
“Now they have a vibrant ministry in our community, and I never would have dreamed of something like that,” he said.
“Sometimes there are interesting and creative ministries that come out of people who feel something, and then we say, ‘Hey, we’ll support you and encourage you.’”
Evangelist Tim Keller, a popular author and speaker, asks church leaders to consider what would happen if their church disappeared — would their community miss them?
Beck answered that question by saying, “A church’s real purpose ought to be making their city better. Our goal is not just to make a better church but to make a better community.”
One of those ministries is called “4PB,” where church members do things in the community to show appreciation, show thanks, or surprise people with good deeds and gifts.
“We live in a world where people just don’t have a positive idea about God or the church,” Beck said, “so we want to try to change that to encourage people to realize something different.”
The church’s “Fellowship of Acceptance” group, in operation for many years, tries to help people with addictions.
“We’ve spent a lot of money and had people giving many volunteer hours to try to bless and encourage people who are struggling with addiction,” Beck said.
Fellowship also oversees the Salvation Army Ministry in Poplar Bluff and coordinates the bell ringing donations at Christmas time.
“We’ve raised over $500,000 in our community in order to bless people,” he said.
The church also promotes a Christmas giving campaign called “Be Rich,” which has raised more than $450,000 since 2015. Funds are distributed to local, regional, national and international agencies that meet a diverse range of needs, from clean drinking water to food pantries to building beds for children.
“I don’t feel like we’ve come anywhere near scratching the surface of what we ought to do,” Beck said, “but we have attempted as a congregation to be faithful witnesses to Jesus in our community through the lives of our people.
“There are no strings attached when you love people in the name of Jesus.”
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