CONWAY — Anyone traveling along Hogan Lane in Conway during the last several month is sure to have noticed construction at Fellowship Bible Church.
Area residents have a opportunity to take a look inside today as the church, 1051 Hogan Lane, celebrates "The Opening."
The celebration began Saturday with a fall harvest festival and a concert by Charlie Hall. Today's agenda includes two worship services, one at 9 a.m. and the other at 10:45, followed by and old-fashioned cookout on The Plaza until 2 p.m., prepared by the Teal Grill. The church's teaching pastors, Ken Wilson and Jim Wilson, who are brothers, say the theme of today's sermon will be "Celebrating Our Identity and Vision." Services are available for children and youth as well as adults.
"We will offer spiritual food as well as physical food," Jim Wilson noted.
"It's not about the building," Ken Wilson said of today's event. "The
Anyone traveling along Hogan Lane in Conway during the last several months is sure to have noticed construction at Fellowship Bible Church.
Area residents have an opportunity to take a look inside today as the church, 1051 Hogan Lane, celebrates "The Opening."
The celebration began Saturday with a fall harvest festival and a concert by Charlie Hall. Today's agenda includes two worship services, one at 9 a.m. and the other at 10:45, followed by an old-fashioned cookout building is just a testament to God's provisions. God has blessed us in so many ways. This is just a place to hear his word, to expand his kingdom."
Jim Wilson said the construction project, which began about a year ago, includes a new worship center as well as a new fellowship center, or "gathering" place for people to congregate before or after Sunday services. "We want people to share in fellowship, to get to know one another," he said.
The new worship center will seat 600, and can be expanded to 800 seats. The former worship center, built in 1989, held approximately 300 people. With the addition of the new space, the old worship center will be used for youth activities as well as an expanded kitchen facility. The $2.2 million construction project was financed by First Security Bank. Clements and Associates of Little Rock served as the architect and James Cone Construction of Little Rock, the builder.
One of the most noticeable features of the building is "The Tree," a design on the building which is visible from the road. "That (symbol) came about five or six years ago," Ken Wilson said. "It was part of a sermon series in which I talked about the 'roots of being, the fruits of doing.' I called a graphic artist who is a member of our church and asked him to come up with a design. We call it simply, 'The Tree.' It captures a good message: Being precedes doing."
Ken Wilson said there is no "formal" membership of the church, but an average Sunday attendance is about 700. "Over the course of a month, about 1,000 people will say that this is their church home," he said, noting that not everyone attends all services. He said the local church is part of a looseknit organization of Fellowship Bible churches across the United States, but each is independent of the other. "There are about 700 to 800 Fellowship Bible churches across the county, which started in Dallas in the early 1970s," he explained.
Fellowship Bible Church is a nondenominational, conservative Bible-based church, Ken Wilson said.
"Our mission is to help equip believers to walk with God, love each other and impart their beliefs on the world," Jim Wilson said.
"We are Bible-based with contemporary worship," Ken Wilson added. "We are also involved in missions work, taking at least 100 people a year on short-term mission trips. We've gone to Mexico, the Czech Republic, the Ukraine and Niagara. We are very mission-oriented, in participation, not just fundraising."
Ken Wilson came to Conway about eight years ago from Washington State, where he taught at Western Seminary in Seattle. Before that, he taught at Colorado Christian University in Denver, and pastored for a number of years in Anchorage, Alaska, which he considers home. "Our dad was in the Air Force, so we moved around a lot," he said. He spent most of his time, from age 8 to 30, in Alaska.
Ken Wilson and his wife, Dawn, have been married 21 years and have two sons. Jordan attends Baylor University, and Josh attends Conway High School-West.
Jim Wilson pastored in Houston for 12 years and in Jacksonville, Texas, for seven years. He was in architectural design before he entered the ministry. He and his wife, Melanie, have been married for 30 years. They have two daughters, Hope Davis, a graduate of Auburn University, who lives with her husband, Josh, in Huntsville, Ala., and Candace Wilson, who is a senior at Auburn University.
Fellowship Bible Church offers Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:45. Middle school students meet the first hour, high school students, the second hour. Community groups meet as well during the week, as do special groups such as Celebrate Recovery and men's and women's study groups.
For more information, call (501) 327-3444 or visit the Web site www.fellowshipconway.org.