Welcome to the January 2026 edition of Together, the online newsletter of the Fellowship Community. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. Romans 15:4 (NIV) It's funny to me how we move from one year to the next, how we think of the past, present and future, not to mention eternity. What we know is that God is faithful--and what he tells us in scripture helps us to understand his goodness and faithfulness to all generations, forever, and right now. His word teaches us the endurance of those who have gone before us, and encouragement to be faithful in our own generation for one single purpose: that we might have hope.
"Hope and a future" is our theme for the National Gathering April 27-30, 2026 in Zionsville, Indiana. Our plenary speakers (Kara, Scott and Mark), our pastor pre-gathering speaker (Drew), our preachers, worship leaders, workshop leaders, as well as the fellow attendees, will tell their story and God's story of faithfulness to give us hope. Hope for our ministry. our hearts, our discipleship, our churches, and hope for TFC and all that God has entrusted to us and provided for us to be a network that maintains and celebrates that hope in gathering, equipping, and encouraging leaders.
In the next few weeks, here are a few things that are giving me hope for the church: - I'm going to Pakistan with Roger Dermody, executive director of Friends of Forman and a few other TFC pastors to see what God is up to through significant missional partners.
- Chuck Hunt and I are starting a four-month pilot TFC/Fuller Youth institute Growing Young Leadership Cohort of southern California pastors to discern one initiative to grow younger and future leaders.
- I am meeting with the TFC Leadership Pipeline Team to clarify our vision and strategy to identify, train, place, and support 250 younger and future pastoral leaders.
- Next week, the TFC Board meets to discuss and discern next steps to make our national gathering and our initiatives be impactful for you and your ministry.
In the past few months, we have talked to several churches that have recently affiliated with TFC--discerning that our values and beliefs are a good match and helpful to their faithfulness. We have also received new financial gifts from churches who believe in our mission and want to fund scholarships so that missionaries, seminarians, small church pastors, and spouses can afford to attend our national gathering. You might want to join these churches in helping us provide future stories of endurance, encouragement and hope for your church.
Please let us know how we can serve you.
Together in Christ, |
Mike McClenahan TFC Executive Director |
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April 28-30, 2026 with an optional pre-gathering for pastors starting the evening of April 27 Zionsville Presbyterian Church Zionsville, IN
Featured speakers include: Kara Powell, Scott Sunquist, Drew Hyun, and Mark Labberton! |
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New TFC Leadership Pipeline
Since the 2025 TFC National Conference in Florida, a Leadership Pipeline Task Force has been laying a foundation to recruit, train, place, and launch a new generation of leaders in support of TFC churches around the country. Our passion is to situate the TFC as a relational network that actively recruits new ministers and CREs, helps to train them in practical pastoral skills, cultivate placement opportunities by directly coordinating with PNCs, CPMs, and COMs, and launching them into strategic ministry opportunities in TFC churches around the country with ongoing support and mentoring.
By living out this strategy together, we envision a future within 10 years in which TFC has together raised up 250 new TFC leaders in the PCUSA.
Want to help us make this happen with us? Our immediate goal is to recruit 30 younger/future leaders to join us at the TFC National Gathering in April 2026. Know of someone in your church who might be interested in joining us? We’d love to hear from you!
Daryl Ellis Executive Pastor Presbyterian Church of the Master Mission Viejo, CA |
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Yesterday I put away the last of the Christmas decorations. I like to leave at least a few things up until Epiphany, but now we are clearly into 2026. It’s funny how fast we move on from things, isn’t it? By the time you read this, all the anticipation of Advent, moving towards Christmas, then to the end of the year and the beginning of a new one…will be a distant memory. It’s almost a little too quick for me. I’m not much on resolutions these days, but I do find the end of a 52-week year and beginning of another a great time to reflect and think. I like to total up the year just past, though some of that is done for me: credit card companies send the year’s expenditures broken into categories, Spotify issues a summary on my music listening habits for the year. I total up my running and biking miles (or Strava does) and peruse the list of books I read. It’s all sort of fascinating, and to some extent describes not just my habits but my priorities.
TFC Board member Dan Baumgartner encourages us to think about the kind of people we will be this year. |
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With You Always
With You Always is a grassroots movement emerging among Presbyterians that seeks renewal in global mission involvement. This is a Kairos moment in Presbyterian mission sending, precipitated by the PC(USA) leadership decision to no longer send mission coworkers. Some of these missionaries continue to affirm their call to serve, and partner churches and ministries welcome them. With You Always stands in the gap to accompany these individuals, as well as congregations that don't know how to continue their global mission support. The initiative is facilitating connections and networking to "resend" mission workers at the website below.
With You Always came into being as a result of concern among mission network leaders and took shape as a major focus at the New Wilmington Mission Conference. An eight-member “With You Always” coordinating team is working to involve individuals, congregations, presbyteries, mission networks, and mission-sending agencies to urge God’s people to renew their calling as the sent people of God. A prayer initiative is beginning to propel this renewal effort. |
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Regional Connections Opportunities to Connect with TFC |
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Zoom Gathering Third Thursday of each month 10:00 - 11:00 am eastern |
| Zoom Gathering for DFW area leaders Third Thursday of each month 2:00 pm central |
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Mini-Retreat Saturday, March 7 9:15 am - 1:45 pm eastern Presbyterian Church of Deep Run Perkasie, PA |
| In-person Lunch Gatherings The Outreach Foundation in partnership with the Fellowship Community presents Dr. Ivan Rusyn, President of Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary. Tuesday, January 20 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm pacific Solana Beach Presbyterian Church Solana Beach, CA |
Wednesday, January 21 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm pacific Fuller Theological Seminary Pasadena, CA |
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Zoom Gathering Second Thursday of each month 1:00 - 2:00 pm pacific |
| Zoom Gathering Third Thursday of each month 1:00-2:00 pm eastern |
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TFC is committed to helping churches find compatible leaders - and vice versa! To that end, we invite you to check out the "Find a Call" page on our website, where you can see a variety of open positions throughout the country. We have received quite a few new postings recently, so be sure to stay connected!
If you would like to post a position on our site, please send us an email. All positions welcome - pastoral, administrative, mission service, etc.
We are also looking for ways to improve this feature, so please think about how we might serve best in this area and send us any ideas or feedback. |
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Do you have an idea for a future story? Are you involved in a ministry others need to know about? Let us know, and we'll include it in a future month's Together!
Are you interested in learning more or becoming part of the Fellowship Community? Click here for more information. |
Thanks for reading and connecting with us. Reach out with any questions, and know that we are praying for you and your ministry. |
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Board Members Timothy Scoonover - President Cynthia Betz-Bogoly - Secretary Jim Witherow - Treasurer Dan Baumgartner Goodwyn Bell Paul Cunningham John Fullerton Eric Hoey |
| Sung Joo Jennifer Kenney Daniel Ko Tamara Mitchell Jeff Myers Matthew Pooley Clint Tolbert Jonathan Tony Jason Tucker Jill WIlliams |
| Staff Mike McClenahan - Executive Director Ray Garcia - Coordinator for Connections & Recruitment Andrea Hall - Administrative Coordinator Brittany Kirkpatrick - National Gathering Coordinator |
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