About Messenger
An International Company of Leaders
Churches that look like The Kingdom.
Messenger Fellowship is an international community dedicated to developing leaders that lead like Jesus and churches that demonstrate The Kingdom. Messenger is called to convene leaders for the purpose of exploring The Ways of God, cover leaders by fostering supportive communities of safety and accountability, and co-mission leaders by providing essential theological resources and creating strategic ministry partnerships.
Vision
Messenger exists to be a relational Word and Spirit community of Christian leadership experiencing integrated Kingdom life.
Mission
Messenger’s mission is to cover, convene and co-mission Kingdom-minded leaders and churches with a desire to bring The Ways of God to their spheres of influence.
What is Messenger?
Messenger Fellowship International, Inc. is non-profit organization called to marshal ministry and marketplace leaders to recapture The Church’s core calling as a God-shaped community, re-center on The Gospel’s power in a Post-Christian Age, renew leaders in their passion for God, and rediscover what it means to fulfill the ancient prayer, Thy Kingdom come… on earth as it is in heaven.
Messenger is committed to model and communicate the principles and patterns of church and church leadership that are rightly aligned to The Kingdom of God. The culture of The Kingdom shapes the ways we do ‘church’ and relate to our world, and to be truly ‘Kingdom’ is to…
- Demonstrate God-shaped community, by seeking to understand The Eternal Communion of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit
- Define Our Values Biblically, by heeding the whole counsel of Scripture on every issue.
- Live under the shadow of The Cross, by walking in humility and compassion both within The Church and The World
- Minister in the power of The Holy Spirit, by engaging people in a ‘supernaturally’ natural way.
- Create church structures that make disciples, by designing systems that focus on equipping Jesus-followers to make more Jesus-followers
- Embrace culture pastorally and prophetically, by valuing God’s gifts in every culture, and by measuring every culture against Kingdom truths
Messenger seeks to fulfill this mandate by regularly convening leaders; providing practical, spiritual and theological covering for pastors, ministers, marketplace leaders and churches; and cultivating co-missioning partnerships aimed at galvanizing a worldwide movement of leaders and churches committed to seeing leaders lead like Jesus and churches look like The Kingdom.
Covering
Messenger covers and equips leaders and churches. We see ‘covering’ not so much as a top down structure, but rather providing a safe place for leaders who love The Ways of God… a support community in which accountability is cultivated through collegial relationships. As part of our covering ministry we offer (1) online courses through which we license and credential ministry and marketplace leaders; (2) resources and coaching designed to equip leaders to practically apply Kingdom paradigms to leadership and ministry.
Convening
Messenger Convenes leaders in seminars, roundtables and larger leadership summits, to worship God together and in humility hear Him together regarding current issues facing The Church. In these settings, we seek to find wisdom by exploring and interacting with each other, so that we can lead with Biblical clarity, and better align to His Kingdom designs. In this way, Messenger seeks to bridge divisions in The Body of Christ, and aim to fulfill the ancient prayer of Jesus: That we may be one even as Christ and The Father are one.
Co-missioning
Messenger co-missions leaders by fostering ministry partnerships among Messenger’s leaders and churches, locally and internationally, for the purpose of (1) kindling a global movement of other leaders and churches who are committed to developing leaders who lead like Jesus and churches that align to The Kingdom, and (2) sponsoring specific outreaches that demonstrate the power of The Gospel.
History
Over the years, Messenger Fellowship has evolved from a small band of youth pastors to a growing movement of leaders and churches today.
In the mid 1980s Steve Fry, in tandem with several church youth pastors, began Messenger International in order to mobilize youth for world evangelization, and equip local churches to become effective missionary sending centers. The first mobilization was an outreach to the 1984 Los Angles Olympics. During the remainder of that decade, Messenger was able to mobilize around 10,000 youth for world missions.
By the mid 1990’s the Messenger network broadened its scope to become a fellowship of leaders, both church and marketplace, who embraced a constellation of Kingdom values, and who would gather together to strengthen and encourage each other and develop rich relationships and ministry partnerships.
We changed our name to Messenger Fellowship and in 2010 began sponsoring annual leadership summits to convene leaders who mutually shared these values and address critical issues facing The Church.
In 2016, Messenger’s core leadership team felt the call to begin the process of becoming a “covering” organization, which we defined as being a ‘support community’ for pastors, marketplace leaders, and church congregations worldwide.
In 2019, we began to take steps toward establishing a Messenger Communion of Churches, to provide a sense of covering for church congregations who identify with Messenger’s vision and values.
