CAMERON:

Five years ago this summer I had just started a job working for a public affairs group with some dear friends. We had an exciting new client which they hired me to help out with. It was a network of churches and organizations brought together by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship all focused on mission and ministries in the Southwest. They were calling it “Fellowship Southwest.” My friends sought me out because of my experience with churches and my personal connections inside these networks. I was part of the team who would help strategize and assist with communications for this budding new organization.

We had many dreams about what Fellowship Southwest would be. But as it turns out, the things I am most thankful for, most proud of, are the things I didn’t even know to dream about back then.

I wondered if Marv Knox felt the same way. So I asked him, “Where is FSW now that you never could have imagined 5 years ago?”

MARV:

So much for seeing into the future!

Five years ago, I drafted a plan for how to launch Fellowship Southwest. At the beginning, CBF Coordinator Suzii Paynter dispatched a couple of senior staffers, Dave Gunter and Harry Rowland, to meet me at Fellowship Southwest’s “world headquarters” — the kitchen table in our home near Dallas. I presented a document I’d been poring over, packed with detailed goals for the first month, quarter, six months and a year. (Enneagram 1s like to do stuff, and we looove plans.)

They said, practically in unison: “Setting goals is great. Your sequence sounds about right. But don’t tie everything to specific dates.”

Great advice. Timely, too. Two weeks later, Hurricane Harvey decimated the Texas Gulf Coast. We set aside launch plans and spent the next several months helping churches and other partners recover from Harvey’s wrath.

Then, as that endeavor subsided, another flood — of humanity — covered the U.S.-Mexico border. Again, we laid aside those original launch plans and poured our energy into building and sustaining a network of pastors who continue to feed, shelter and protect immigrants along the border. 

When FSW’s immigrant relief ministry reached equilibrium, we thought we’d get back to those original plans. We intended to sponsor conferences to strengthen churches, host mission teams across the Southwest and form strategic networks, called faith collaboratives, to support a broad range of ministries and advocacy initiatives. But then — you see this coming — the COVID pandemic put the kibosh on all that.

So, from the start, calamities such as hurricane, immigrant influx and pandemic stipulated what FSW could not do. But they freed FSW to develop wonderful attributes that weren’t printed on those original plans.

For example, FSW is agile. Because we didn’t have a portfolio of longtime commitments, we were free to be nimble. We could shift gears and meet needs that appeared before us. And since we’ve been agile from the start, it’s imbedded in our DNA.

Also, "kindness” never appeared on those early plans. But because circumstances propelled us to serve people suffering from all manner of challenges, they compelled us to be kind. When I think about FSW people, I always feel their kindness.

The past five years also caused us to expand and define one word that definitely appeared on those launch plans — “ecumenical." Back then, we knew we wanted to play well with others, but we didn’t know exactly what that meant. Even though we wanted to be ecumenical, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship gave us our start, and it seemed we might reflexively become too Baptist. But we found we couldn’t meet the needs of hurricane victims, immigrants and cooped-up COVID survivors alone. Month by month, we became more ecumenical by doing things with Methodists and Catholics and Lutherans and Pentecostals. We’re so ecumenical, we even work with Southern Baptists! And because we can, we’re interfaith, too, collaborating with Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. 

I’m so thankful Harvey, and soon after, Hurricane Hanna, blew those launch plans to smithereens. FSW is agile and kind because of events we never expected. And because of the courage and tenacity of our border pastors and the support of folks who love the vulnerable, our immigrant relief ministry has blessed — and continues to bless — some of the most at-risk people in the world. 

Thank God, I never saw all that coming. 

Oh, and one more thing: Five years ago, I didn’t really expect to be retired now. But Joanna and I did what we felt was best for our family, and that meant I moved out of the way and turned the reins of FSW over to a new generation. One of the greatest joys of my life is watching Stephen Reeves and Cameron Vickrey lead dearly loved Fellowship Southwest. They’re taking FSW far beyond my imagination, and I can’t wait to see what happens the next five years. 

CAMERON:

I sure love walking down memory lane with Marv. He may think he’s turned the reins over to us, but I will keep pestering him with questions and advice and requests to write until the day he dies.

And although big anniversaries are a fun time to think about the past, they are also an opportunity to keep dreaming about the future.

So I asked Stephen Reeves, our current leader, a different question: “Where do you see FSW in the next 5 years?”

STEPHEN:

FSW has come a long way in just five years and what a time to have been born! I’m grateful to Marv and all those there at the beginning who had a vision for a unique and innovative organization. 

I believe the next five years will be a time of growth and of renewing our focus. I’m certain we’ll find more churches and Christians who share our passion for compassion and justice and are looking for new connections. We’ll offer new pathways to serve and love our neighbors in the region. 

At our 10 year anniversary I hope hundreds of churches look to FSW as their key partner when they want to better serve and advocate for those facing food insecurity, for immigrants, for indigenous communities and who want to work together for racial justice across our broken systems. I believe the future of Fellowship Southwest is bright because I know people of faith are seeking ways to work across divides to impact our world together. 

CAMERON:

What a great vision for the future. I pray that we don’t have any more crises that interfere with our plans, but I know that if we do, we will go where the Spirit leads us, which is usually to a place of deep need in our region. We can promise to always be found there.

Elket Rodríguez, a CBF field personnel in Harlingen, Texas, who before that was (and really still is) the immigrant and refugee missions and advocacy specialist for Fellowship Southwest, reminded me of other ways that Fellowship Southwest has been the body of Christ in the Southwest. He said, “FSW has been an honest, truthful and reliable source of compassionate news –from the Christian perspective– about border issues. And FSW has become a reliable partner to many on the left and the right.”

Furthermore, Elket’s network, as well as Jorge Zapata’s, have been instrumental in FSW’s progress toward more diverse partnerships. These relationships are the heartbeat of the organization.

And how would I answer the same question, “Where do you see FSW in 5 years?” Well, since I am newly responsible not just for our communications but also for our fundraising, I am focused on growing the wonderful community of donors that this organization brings together. With the generosity of so many interesting and committed people, Fellowship Southwest can make a big impact in our region. In five more years, I think that our staff will grow, further maximizing our capacity and reach. I hope we continue, through Elket’s work, to be a national voice in immigration advocacy and advocacy in other areas too. And I hope we will engage more faithful people who share our vision of working across divides to impact our world.

I’ll leave you with a little collection of my favorite photos of the past 5 years. Thank you for being an integral part of this network of the most faithful, thoughtful, courageous and kind people I know.