For nearly 15 years, members of Fellowship Bible Church of Rutherford County were a body of Christ on the go.
“A core group of people gathered together and we met for about a year (in homes) and then had our first public worship gathering (in a day care) on the other side of town,” recalled Monty Waldron, who was sent to Murfreesboro by Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock to plant a church. “In the fall of 2002, we started meeting in Blackman Middle School.”
But recently, Fellowship Bible Church opened the doors to its new facility at 4236 Veterans Parkway, right in front of the new Overall Creek Elementary. And although the church membership is still going and doing ministry within the community, they now have a permanent place to have Sunday worship and to hold classes.
Phase one of the vision for FBCRC was the 12,650-square-foot facility that houses a 325-seat worship sanctuary with state-of-the-art sound system, 11 classroom spaces with video capability, seven offices and a nursing mother’s room where worship can be piped in, explained Jenny Rone, women’s pastor.
Each classroom also offers plenty of storage, too.
“Our volunteers have been super excited to have cabinet space ... because they’ve been doing (portable) tubs forever and had to haul everything in a trailer,” Rone said.
The new worship space isn’t just a twice-a-week-use facility, either.
“These (children’s) classrooms also double for (adult) classes during the week. And we’ll also be able to have child care (for adults with children) at the end of the hall,” Rone said.
While having a permanent place to worship is an important addition to the FBCRC mission, much of the actual close fellowship continues to happen in homes. Small groups are an integral part of the membership, Waldron explained.
“I grew up really longing to be in a church that was very authentic, very transparent, very well connected relationally and very actively trying to have an impact on the world,” Waldron said.
That connectivity began with a couple of dozen members over the 14-year-period, eventually blossoming to hundreds by the time the church made the move to a permanent facility.
“When we look back, probably what God was doing was growing us in a faithful, steady way and kept us sane as dads and husbands and leaders. We’re glad it happened that way. One leader said ... fast growth is cancer,” said Jeff Patton, teaching pastor who has been with the church body since 2002. “We felt the Lord brought together a solid group of people to our church.”
In 2010, however, the church leaders said the growth had outgrown the school setting. So plans were made to find a permanent place where they could build. The current 12,000-square-foot facility is just the beginning, too. Eventually hopes are to expand the sanctuary to seat 800, along with expanded offerings for the community of worshipers.
Plans are to keep the trend of meeting in small groups in homes, Waldron said.
“We need each other and we need to know what we need from each other (through small groups),” Waldron said.
FBCRC isn’t just a show-up-and-worship kind of place.
“Our philosophy as a ministry is to do life on life versus set up a bunch of programs where people just show up and watch a talking head and leave,” Patton chimed in. “We are all pretty human and broken and needy of Christ. So we’re going to share that brokenness and I think part of why people come here is they feel safe here and they feel like everybody’s got pasts and hurts and wounds.”
Church should be a place for progress, not perfection, Waldron said.
“No church is perfect, but we are striving to be a place where anybody can come and encounter God in a real way,” Waldron said.
