Have you heard about Bible Fellowship Church?
By Guest Columnist Scott Kimball
If you’ve lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for any length of time, you probably have heard about Bible Fellowship Church (BFC), a small Bible church in Pass Christian that has been a fixture in the community since 1977. Our senior pastor, Dr. Don Trest, prefers to go by Pastor Don and has served Bible Fellowship Church for over thirty-five years. Pastor Don and his wife Inge love the Lord and help people mature in their faith.
Bible Fellowship Church is an independent nondenominational Bible church and one of three loosely-affiliated Bible churches on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Bible churches are elder-led, with the pastor serving as one of the elders. Bible Fellowship Church adheres to this model and uses the biblical structure of elders and deacons to serve the congregation.
Each of our elders is responsible for specific ministry areas within the church. Dividing ministry responsibilities enables our pastor to concentrate on teaching the Bible and allows him more time to guide the men of the church in biblical maturity and future ministry.
Our church is family-integrated, meaning that on Sunday morning we invite the whole family to worship together. As a result, we have a good mix of the cross-section of our community, everything from grandparents down to newborn babies. Our children are in the church service with us and have busy bags and activity sheets to encourage them to listen to the Sunday message.
After the service, the children come forward to show what they learned and receive a reward for their attentiveness. We made the decision in 2020 to do away with age-segregated Sunday School and instead use the time for a church family breakfast, fellowship, and a short devotion.
Many churches have continuous programs for men, women, singles, children, and others who share age-related experiences. At BFC, we opted to use short-term ministries, which we call Life Apps.
Life Apps typically run in the spring and fall, are twelve weeks or less in duration, and can target age groups, interest groups, men or women, or any other segment for fellowship, Bible study or any other interests.
BFC has four events each year following the seasons. In the spring, we have Easter with our Easter service. The summer is time for the BFC Children’s Bible Club, as well as swimming and games at the pastor’s house or at the church (depending on the weather). The fall is time for harvest, and our Trunk or Treat event in the church parking lot welcomes the whole community. Winter is time for Christmas and New Year with our Christmas service.
Bible Fellowship Church is a friendly church open to those who are searching for biblical teaching that will give confidence in salvation with spiritual growth and maturity in the faith.
We are located at 7030 Menge Avenue, and you can learn more about us at BibleFellowship@bfc4u.org, or come visit us on Sundays for breakfast fellowship at 9 a.m. and church service at 10 a.m.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Scott Kimball serves as Associate Pastor of Bible Fellowship Church.
