FULL GOSPEL BUSINESS MEN'S FELLOWSHIP IN CANADA

 

Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship in Canada

4309 - 49 St., St. Paul, Alberta T0A 3A4

Phone: +1 (416) 449-7272 or +1 (877) 296-1715

Email: Contact Us

 

 

Welcome to Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship in Canada

~  The Canadian Arm of a Worldwide Vision  ~

 

There’s no other organization quite like it! A young dairyman by the name of Demos Shakarian had been leading a weekly prayer breakfast with numerous other businessmen at Clifton’s Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles, California. They called themselves the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. During the night preceding their anticipated “last meeting and the end of the Fellowship”, Shakarian received a startling, sovereign vision from God. He had been in deep prayer on the floor of his living room when suddenly, through a series of supernatural revelations, God presented His plan for the Fellowship. It was Saturday, December 27, 1952. The time was 3:30 a.m.

 

It had all begun nearly a year earlier with one small gathering (chapter) in Los Angeles. Suddenly, the Fellowship was now thrust into a global ministry through prophetic visions and prophecy. The Fellowship's story graphically depicts man's plans falling short of the mark, but God's plan succeeding. The complete story is told in the classic inspirational book, "The Happiest People on Earth" by Demos Shakarian, as told to John and Elizabeth Sherrill.

 

In 1955, Toronto businessman Larry Snelgrove encountered the Fellowship in Denver, Colorado. It was there that he met Demos Shakarian and other American leaders. When Larry arrived home, much to his surprise, he received a telegram from California informing him that he had been elected an International Director of the Fellowship.

 

In 1958, Larry Snelgrove, Syd Brazier, Paul Krohnert, Stew Berlett and Howard Hesseneur met in Stew Berlett's home in Toronto to discuss launching the Fellowship in Canada. During that meeting (at midnight) they phoned Demos to invite him to speak at a World Pentecostal Convention in Toronto at the Royal York Hotel so that others, too, would come to know more about FGBMFI. On September 20th, Demos came to Toronto to speak at the WPC. Approximately 500 people from many Christian organizations around the world were in attendance. Demos told about the fire of the Holy Ghost and of the vision he received about FGBMFI.

 

Paul Krohnert was elected an International Director in 1958 and Stew Berlett in 1961. Syd Brazier was also invited to become a Director in 1958, but declined because he was blind.

 

In February, 1959, 21 men from Toronto boarded a plane and flew to Atlantic City for the first-ever FGBMFI Airlift. After the men returned, full of excitement and enthusiasm for what God could do through the Fellowship in Canada, they held prayer meetings and dinner meetings in each other's homes, speaking about Jesus and sharing testimonies. After much planning, it was decided to start a chapter and hold regular meetings for the public to attend. The first was at Hemstead's Restaurant, located on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition, on February 20th, 1960. Sixty-six men ate together, prayed together, and then one of them told about the life-changing power of Jesus Christ in his life. When that meeting was called to order, FGBMFI had officially launched its first public meeting in Canada and the organization had truly become “International”.

Today, several Fellowship associations operate in more than 150 countries under that original vision. Thousands of chapters hold meetings in small hamlets, farm towns, outlying suburbs and urban power centers. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, these meetings are a time of fellowship, outreach and personal ministry.

 

The backbone of the Fellowship is its men - men who have a vision inspired by God to reach out beyond their personal lives - to help others find the reality of the Spirit-filled walk with Christ - tens of thousands of men putting God first and letting their lights shine to the world - men who join the Fellowship and participate in the ministry outreaches available, making a commitment to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and to make disciples of other new Christ-followers, both personally and through this Fellowship.

 

The body of the Fellowship is its people. First, its men who have a vision inspired by God to reach out beyond their personal lives - who help others find the reality of the Spirit-filled walk with Christ - tens of thousands who now put God first and let their lights shine to the world – men who join the Fellowship and participate in the ministry outreaches available. Second, its adherents - people (men and women) who make a commitment to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and make disciples of other new Christ-followers, both personally and through this Fellowship.

 

 

 

Our Vision

 

Our vision for the fellowship is based upon a series of prophetic messages given over a period of time and confirmed by a literal vision from God.

 

In the vision, untold masses of men from every continent and nation, of all races and diverse culture and costume, once spiritually dead, are now alive. Delivered and set free, they are filled with power of God's Holy Spirit, faces radiant with glory, hands raised and voice lifting their praises to heaven.

 

We see a vast global movement of laymen being used mightily by God to bring in this last great harvest through the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

Our Mission

 

• To reach men in all nations for Jesus Christ
• To call men back to God
• To help believers to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to grow spiritually
• To train and equip men to fulfill the Great Commission
• To provide an opportunity for Christian fellowship
• To bring greater unity among all people in the body of Christ

 

 

 

Our Doctrinal Statement

 

• We believe in one God, Maker of all things and being in Trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
• We believe that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, became incarnate, was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man.
• We believe in the resurrection of the dead, the eternal happiness of the saved, and the eternal punishment of the lost.
• We believe in personal salvation of the believers through the shed blood of Christ.
• We believe in the Bible, in its entirety, to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and conduct.
• We believe in divine healing, through our faith, and healing is included in the Atonement.
• We believe in the Christian's hope - the imminent, personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• We believe in intensive world evangelization and missionary work in accordance with the Great Commission, with signs following.
• We believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit, accompanied by the initial physical sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives utterance (Acts 2:4) from the new birth, and in the nine gifts of the Spirit, listed in 1 Corinthians 12, as now available to believers.
• We believe in sanctification by the blood of Christ, in personal holiness of the heart and life.