About Us
Our Pastor
Sam White is a graduate of Dallas Christian College and a veteran of many years of service in the pulpit and as a hospice chaplain. His passion is to preach and teach through books of the Bible so that we can discover God’s complete word together and put it into practice. He is greatly aided in his ministry by his wife, Martha, who is a teacher with AISD. Both are active in visiting the members of the church, both the well and the sick.
Our Administrator
Each year, Fellowship of Believers elects a member in good standing to serve as the church administrator. This person prayerfully serves the church in taking care of all business matters and seeing that the goals of the church are furthered. The administrator also keeps track of the members so that any needs can be addressed by the congregation.
Our Members
All who are believers in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are welcome to come and join us at Fellowship of Believers. Whatever your denominational background has been, we welcome you to bring what you have learned to join us in worshiping God and serving the people of Hereford. We all take part in visiting each other, but especially taking care of the sick.
What Makes FOB Distinctive
We are not part of a denomination. We are, as our name suggests, a fellowship of believers who have come together to worship God and his Son Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. We come from different backgrounds to join together in this task. (Matthew 25:40)
We give our members money! We give our members $50 and encourage each other to find someone nearby—community, friends, strangers—who needs some help. We use the $50 to help pay bills, to buy gas or food, we’ve even helped graduates pay for their gowns. It’s up to the member how the money is spent, we just ask that it be used to help someone who needs help.
We pray for each other. A focus of our worship together and our lives lived during the week is praying for each other. We focus a part of each worship service in prayer and we meet regularly during the month for “Brown bag prayer luncheons”. If you have a need, contact us so that we may pray for you! (James 5:16)
Our Vision
We want to provide a place where people can come and worship God with friends. We proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2, Galatians 2:20)
We want to encourage each other to be Jesus’s emissaries in this world through love and service. We seek to “equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Ephesians 4:12)
Fellowship of Believers History
I remember our first meeting on a Monday morning in The Hereford State Bank. A group of crushed people who had been through the kind of blood bath only a church can provide. Many had been members there all their lives. Others had invested years of service and interest there, only to have it be made plain they were no longer welcomed in that place. We talked of our pain, our sense of loss, our anger, and we tried to explore our options. The only thing we knew was that we could not go back to our church.
We began meeting on Sunday nights in the home of J and MSH. We sang, shared and worshiped together. Looking back it is evident we were waiting for God to show us what the next step was to be. At the time, we gave that very little thought. We were busy trying to heal. We gradually were able to move past the pain and the anger, and then we seemed to be ready for the next step.
We began moving toward the establishment of a new kind of church. Some of the most memorable times of my life were the nights we met to try to figure out how we were going to function. We were able to wipe the slate clean of old patterns and traditions, and simply ask, “What is a church supposed to be, and how can we structure ourselves to be that kind of people?”
All of us were sick of the power struggles and politics of the church. We sought to design a government that reduced the possibility of these to a bare minimum. This gave birth to the one administrator idea. I cannot count how many people have told me that the idea could never work, but we tried it anyway. Ten years later it is still the best form of church government I have ever known.
We were equally tired of the church being built around, and controlled by, the clergy. It is my belief that most of the politics and power struggles come from the pastor’s efforts at control. This led us to structure our church as a simple fellowship. The worship leader was one member of that fellowship, but all were equal. The decisions were to be made by the consensus of the congregation.
It was my privilege to serve as worship leader for seven years. I cannot begin to relate what those years meant to me. Nor can I relate how much the experience still impacts my life. Through the Fellowship of Believers, I discovered some truths that still bless me.
I discovered that a church really could be Christian to each other. Jesus talked about interpersonal relationships more than almost every other subject, and yet I had never seen it work in a church. Somehow we were able to gather a diverse group of folks together and learn to love each other in spite of our differences. Just knowing that could happen continues to be a blessing to me.
I discovered that Christian people, if left alone, without outside pressure and guilt, will find a way to express their faith and serve God. Our emphasis was always on each individual finding where God wanted their time, talents and money. I was constantly amazed at how many of the members took this seriously and found a way to be a part.
I discovered that folks enjoy giving when they can see that the money will be spent helping people. I remember having a goal each year of being broke by Christmas and we never could make it. The more money we gave away, the more we had.
To say that I miss the Fellowship of Believers would be a gross understatement. B and I regularly talk about how much we would love to have such a place to worship.
I tell everyone I possibly can about this wonderful experiment. Everyone I tell ends up saying they wish they could belong to such a place and such a people. I always respond with, so do I.
D. Manning (circa 2000)
What the Bible says about God’s tremendous Love for Us!
(all Scriptures from the New International Version)
1 Kings 8:23 – Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping the covenant and showing faithfulness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart
Psalm 36:7 – How precious is Your mercy, God!
And the sons of mankind take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
Psalm 86:5 – For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all who call upon You.
Psalm 86:15 – But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
Slow to anger and abundant in mercy and truth.
Psalm 136:26 – Give thanks to the God of heaven,
For His faithfulness is everlasting.
Zephaniah 3:17 – The Lord your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will rejoice over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy
John 3:16-17 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.
John 15:9-13 – Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:17 – This I command you, that you love one another.
Romans 5:1-5 – Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and [b]we celebrate in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but [c]we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 8:31-39 – What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 Just as it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Ephesians 2:4-5 – But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
1 John 3:1 – See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.
1 John 3:16 – We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.
1 John 4:7-8 – Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:9-11 – By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.