Worship Leader / College Minister

by Donn Seale
(Huntsville, TX)

Fellowship of Huntsville Church
Letter of Introduction for Music and College Minister

Located about 3 miles west of I-45 in Huntsville, Texas, Fellowship of Huntsville is a unique blend of ministries, people, and backgrounds. The church began in 1986 as a Southern Baptist church committed to progressive, contemporary worship and ministry in the community. In 1996, the founding pastor, Dr. Larry Petton, was called to another church, and the current pastor, C. F. Hazlewood, began his ministry at Fellowship. It was at the time that the church’s name was changed from Believer’s Fellowship Baptist Church to Fellowship of Huntsville. Pastor Hazlewood brought a Bible-centered, exegetical teaching style to the pulpit from his training at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Shortly after Pastor Hazlewood arrived, the pastor of Huntsville Bible Church, David Hodges, began a conversation with Pastor Hazlewood about how the two churches were much alike in doctrine, teaching, and ministry. With this conversation and friendship, the blending at Fellowship began. The two churches merged in November of 1998, creating a strong fellowship of believers. There was some falling out on both sides as not everyone was in favor of the merge and the subsequent changes that took place. But in all, the blending created a healthy mix of young and old, contemporary and conservative, and Bible church and Baptist church oriented believers. With this blending in mind, today, the church is unique in Huntsville.

Between the two worship services on Sunday, the church averages about 400 people. If everyone happened to show up on any given Sunday, there would probably be closer to 550 – 600 in attendance. The two services are different in the style of worship and are led by different men on part-time salary. The first service is a traditional, piano-led, hymns and choruses style of worship with strong vocals from a 5-member praise team backing up the worship leader. The second service is a band-led, contemporary style service with up-to-date praise songs and hymns led in contemporary arrangements. Utilizing electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, electric drums, keyboard, piano, and French horn, saxophone, violin, as available, the worship leader has a great sound that is backed up with 6-7 vocals. The two services are appealing to the attendees as most people favor one style of worship over the other.

Fellowship is an elder-rule church with 6 elders and 15 deacons. Three pastors and a secretary make up the full-time staff and two worship leaders, women’s ministry leader, and college leader comprise the part-time staff. More information on the staff and history of the church is available on the church website www.fohc.org .

Small groups are an important aspect of the FOHC ministry. Not only is every family encouraged to join a small group, but there are also “informal” small groups within the church. The adult singles get together on a regular basis, as do the group of widows and the group of home-schooling families for various activities. There is a good diversity of ages, family situations, and backgrounds in our church. Racially, there are handful of minority families who attend FOHC, but it could not be considered a racially diverse church.