Church Planting Regional Elders and Assessors

Northwest Region
1. Elder – Dan Hammer (dhammer@isonrise.org)
2. Assessor – Anthony Simmons (apsimmons003@gmail.com)
Upper Midwest Region
1. Elder – Rich Doebler (richdoebler@gmail.com)
2. Assessor – Sam Snyder (sam@crossculturemn.org)
Midwest and Upper Midwest Region
1. Elder – John Sprecher (fcaelder@gmail.com)
2. Assessor – Jared Katke (pastorjaredkatke@gmail.com)
Southwest Region
1. Elder – Mark Brattrud (MBrattrud@aol.com)
2. Assessor – Tom Alexander (talexander@2rcaz.org)
East Coast Region
1. Elder – Floyd Nicholson (Pastorfloyd@gracepointgospel.org)
2. Assessor – Shelly Sampson (Pastorshell@orangecountyfellowship.org)

Online Directories

The 2022 FCA directories* are available to members only in a private (protected) area of the website.

Click the button below to go to your country’s member site. Once there, you can login using your member registration ID (username). Don’t remember your username? You can find your ID registration number on your latest FCA membership card.

 

*Directories include:
• US Ministers
• Canadian Ministers
• US Churches
• Canadian Churches and Ministries
• US Parachurch Ministries
• Global Partners and Affiliates

Paul Zettersten: Finishing Well

This month the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies said goodbye to one of the truly great FCA leaders of our times.

Paul Zettersten

Paul Zettersten was born in Sweden in 1922 and passed away December 6 at the age of 99. While still in Sweden, young Paul followed in his father’s footsteps to enter the ministry. He married his wife, May, on November 15, 1947 while still in the old country, but they immigrated to the United States the following year.

Together, Paul and May served Immanual Christian Assembly in Los Angeles from 1948 until 1976. Paul resigned as pastor to move to Seattle, Washington, where he ministered for years at Philadelphia Church. He retired from that role in 1996 but continued to serve in multiple ways.

Throughout many of those years, Paul served the Fellowship as editor of a monthly magazine, Conviction (later Fellowship Today). He was named the first president of Fellowship Press, when it was incorporated to publish the Fellowship magazine.

Paul’s faithful and consistent editorial efforts fostered connections and relationships among Fellowship pastors long  before social media was around. With his wife, May, managing the subscriptions and addresses, Paul’s reliable output kept ministers informed about news and updates from around the FCA, both in the U.S. and Canada.  The magazine’s timely and thoughtful articles spoke to pastors and church members alike for many years.

More recently, Paul also contributed his thoughts to the FCA website. Read “Revival Is Within Reach” to get a taste of his ongoing passion and commitment to the cause of Christ.

After retiring from his pastoral duties, Paul continued to remain active in teaching at the Seattle Bible College. His influence there, drawing from his strong academic and theological roots as well as his extensive experience in pastoral ministry, continues to impact numerous ministers and ministries throughout the Fellowship.

Paul’s granddaughter, Erika Franke, writes that her grandfather “was an incredible man of God and was in the ministry as a youth pastor, lead pastor, and teacher for a total of 77 years.” She also notes that he served as president of a missionary outreach organization and even into his latter years helped to promote Southwest Bible College in Moreno Valley, California. His leadership remained strong to the end and at the age of 99, Paul was one of the first Fellowship ministers to renew his registration as a member of the FCA for 2022.

A private graveside service was held for Paul Zettersten December 16 with a public memorial scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, January 8 at Philadelphia Church, Seattle.

 

God, Our Only Hope

by Thomas Yerman

The end of each year brings us a special opportunities to reflect upon the presence of the faithful, loving, and all-powerful “God with us.”

On Thanksgiving Day we took time to reflect on those things we are thankful for. As we head toward Christmas celebrations, we find ourselves reflecting upon the birth of Jesus Christ—the Son of God who came to earth, put on flesh, and walked among us.

This celebratory season has to be the most beautiful time of the year. It’s a time when our thoughts and hearts move determinedly towards hope, love, joy, peace, and the One who promised them—Jesus, “the reason of the season.”

Let’s reflect on the first word in the list—hope.

Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. It’s believing or wanting something to happen. We’ve all expressed hope, but as we can see, hope defined by an American dictionary does not express any certainty, just a wish of its possibility.

Now let’s look to Scripture and further define hope. “You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas” (Psalm 65:5). This verse reveals hope as a person, the person of God. And that changes a wishful thought into certainty, both in the definition and the experience of hope.

When you add God into the definition, it expands hope’s reach, bringing a person into a state of being sure of something. Why? Because hope rests on the person of God and so the promises of his Word. Believers trust everything that God has said or promised.

In fact, trust is what makes a person a believer. Our hope in God is not just something we wish for or dream about. It’s a sure confidence. When we have a biblical hope, it not only desires something good for the future, it expects it to happen. And since God cannot lie, he is our only hope.

Christmas is the fulfillment of God’s Word of the coming Messiah. God sending his Son to earth is the ultimate expression and gift of God’s love for us. Yet, there are so many more promises and treasures that we can discover in the Word of God.  As believers we are right to hunger to know what other great things we can expect from him. God is awesome!

Christmas is a time of remembering and being reminded of how important it is to see things through the eyes of God. We must constantly be moving in a direction to build our faith so that we can hold on to our hope. They work together. When our hope rests on the Word of God, we experience growth in our faith. And when we use our faith in God to look to the future, we will have hope. Our hope is a Person of promise, who forgives us and transforms us into his likeness. Hope is a biblical principle and a strong spiritual force. Be encouraged.

“The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will, Jesus became poor and was born in a stable so that 30 years later he might hang on a cross.” (J. I. Packer)

Jesus fulfilled God’s will that he be sent to earth and give the victory to us. As we take our stand during these difficult times, let us remember that we have a hope that is rock solid, a hope that cannot be taken away from us.

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1).

“While we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Thomas Yerman is an FCA pastor ministering at Living Hope Church in Elk Grove Village.