April 2023 Fellowship Connections Newsletter

Dear church family, 

I can say with complete honesty that I have never experienced being a part of church that felt more like a family than ours. It has changed our lives, and Hanna and I are deeply grateful to the Lord. As I get to know more of you as an elder, I figured you may want to know a bit more about me and my family.

I grew up in Philadelphia with two faithful, believing parents (George and Carolyn, who recently joined the church as well; in fact, you can typically find them sitting with us on a Sunday morning). I confessed Christ from a young age, but it was not until age 15, when we lived in York, that I experienced true repentance leading me to forsake habitual sins. It was then that I was baptized, and from there the Lord burdened me for ministry. I went to Liberty University, where I met Hanna (a fellow Yorkian), and from there went on to serve at a church elsewhere in York as a student ministry worker. I now serve full-time with ABWE (the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism), in addition to my ministry at the church. Our kids are Davion (10), Lydia (5), and Calvin (2). 

What’s your story? If we haven’t yet officially met, let’s connect soon. It is my aim to help the pastors shepherd well and to know the flock well (Proverbs 27:23). 

A congregation is more than a group that gathers on Sundays; it is a community committed to Christ, to our inheritance as believers, to Scripture, to love and good works, to the next generation, and to displaying the gospel throughout our locale. May the Lord help us get to know one another better!

 In Christ,

–Alex Kocman 

March 2023 Fellowship Connections Newsletter

Hungry for some more fellowship on the Lord’s Day? Come to the parsonage following the service. The Bunting family wants to make it abundantly clear that there is a standing invitation to the entire church that, after corporate worship on Sundays, the parsonage is open for a time of food and fellowship and that everyone from our church family is invited. 

During this time, we eat lunch together, drink coffee together, chat together, talk theology together, and eventually go outside and get some fresh air together. 

There have been as few as three people there on a Sunday afternoon and as many as forty. No matter what, we make it work! 

If you are interested in joining us, please just stick around after the service long enough and follow the herd of people over to the parsonage. If you are more of a planner, just text Liz the night before, and she will give you all the details you need. Hoping to see ALL of you at some point on a Sunday afternoon this year, and I really do mean that! 

Press on. 

— Pastor Wes Bunting

February 2023 Fellowship Connections Newsletter

The new year always brings excitement. A common practice over the past several years at Faith BFC every January has been to have a new membership class for anyone interested in becoming a member at our church. This is particularly exciting because I am always reminded that God is at work here at our church. Any numerical growth is a result of God’s tremendous grace toward our church.

We had over fifteen people interested in becoming members who attended our classes in January. That number, as exciting as it is, is not the most encouraging thing to come from those classes. The most encouraging thing as I talk to these people is to hear how welcoming our church was when they first visited and how we continue to be welcoming months after they decided to keep coming. It means a great deal to us to hear that you all are going out of your way to greet visitors with a smile and make sure that they feel welcomed. It is one thing for the pastors and leaders to greet and welcome a visitor; it is expected. It’s quite another thing when the people who make up the church go out of their way to greet and welcome visitors. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, and keep fighting the good fight.

— Ricardo Vargas

January 2023 Fellowship Connections Newsletter

As we enter a new year, we praise God for each and every member and friend of Faith Bible Fellowship Church. We truly see His love, grace, and mercy at work in our midst. It is our desire never to rest in our efforts to see our church grow… not just in numbers, but in godliness, in love, and in commitment. As we grow, there are growing pains. One area of concern is our children’s ministry. The number of children we are responsible for has grown exponentially this year. We are stretched for space and, more importantly, we are stretched for teachers and helpers. Our philosophy is that, because our children’s ministry primarily takes place during the morning worship hour, we want to spread that work out, involving enough teachers and helpers so that no one’s spiritual needs are neglected. Therefore, we are committed to recruiting and training for this important ministry. 

We are also discipling several men to be Elders in the church. A church our size needs more than three elders to adequately care for and minister to our people so that no one is neglected. Pray for us, support us, encourage us, and ask God what role He wants you to play in our growing church. 

— Ken Good, elder

December 2022 Fellowship Connections Newsletter

A Thankful Pastor

Many of you don't know this, but November 18 was my three-year anniversary as the Senior Pastor at Faith Bible Fellowship Church. And as I looked back on and reminisced about all that God has done over the past three years at this church, I realized that I have so much to be thankful for.

Things like elders who are men of high character, deacons who are selfless servants, and a worship team who love to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Things like, life groups that fellowship together, Bible studies that try to discern God's Word together, and a youth group who genuinely seems to love one another.

And finally, things like, members of old who are steadfastly committed to this church body, new members who are excited to build up this church body, and the new visitors each week who get to see the powerful testimony of the love of Jesus Christ manifested within this church body.

Press on.

— Pastor Wes Bunting

November 2022 Fellowship Connections Newsletter

Growing pains: as we grow, we all experience them. There are the physical growing pains we experience in our youth as our bodies grow and our bones stretch, the ones that wake us up in the middle of the night looking for the comfort of our parents. Then there are the emotional growing pains that we experience as we mature. These are often the results of relationships: people hurting us, people breaking our trust, people growing apart. These types of growing pains often occur because we are doing life with people, bumping shoulders with one another, getting our hands dirty together. The more that we do life with one another, the more opportunities there are for growing pains.

Growing pains are a part of life; they are a part of living with our relatives, and they will be part of life within the church. Paul experienced growing pains all throughout his ministry. In 2 Timothy, Paul mentions several people who caused him great pain by leaving him at a time when he needed them the most (2 Tim. 1:15, 4:10, 14). Growing pains should be expected as we continue to grow as a church body and grow closer to one another.

In these moments, we need to persevere and live out the many “one anothers” that we find throughout the scriptures. We are called to love one another (John 13:34), build one another up (Rom. 14:9), bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2), and forgive one another (Eph. 4:2). The list goes on, and in more than one place you will find some commands repeated. As we grow, we will hurt one another and let one another down, but our response in those moments is a great opportunity to live out the gospel towards one another. Our prayer as the elders here at Faith BFC is that we continue to grow in our love for one another, even through difficult times.

— Ricardo Vargas, on behalf of the board of elers

October 2022 Fellowship Connections Newsletter

Welcome to Fellowship Connections, York Faith Bible Fellowship Church’s new newsletter. Seeing that our church is growing rapidly, the board of elders is seeking additional ways to foster, encourage, and develop fellowship. Fellowship begins with getting to know one another. In this edition and the ones that follow, we will provide opportunities to get to know one another and our church’s mission and ministries better.

In addition to the types of articles included here, in the future we plan to have family interviews. It is not uncommon for us to hear people say, “I don’t know half the people I see on a Sunday morning!” While we believe that the expository preaching of God’s Word and the proclamation of the gospel is of paramount importance, we do not want to be a church of people who attend, listen to sermons, and sing songs but don’t know and care about one another. The model of the early church, filled with the Holy Spirit, is seen in Acts 2:42: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

— Ken Good, on behalf of the board of elders