A Church Built for the Back Mountain
Fellowship Church sits along Hildebrandt Road in Dallas, Pennsylvania, where the Back Mountain meets the Wyoming Valley. From this single location the congregation serves families, college students from five nearby universities, people facing homelessness in Wilkes-Barre, and missionaries spread across several continents. The church belongs to the EFCA East District of the Evangelical Free Church of America, and its identity flows from that connection. Fellowship describes itself in four short words: a worshipping, growing, serving, and multiplying fellowship, a vision that shapes everything from Sunday morning services to its newest church plant in Edwardsville.
The building itself is designed around hospitality. First-time guests are invited to park in reserved spaces near Door B, where parking attendants are ready to direct them. The main entrance to the Worship Center is Door D on the northwest side, and the Food Pantry uses Door A. Inside, the First Impressions team greets visitors with a gift and answers questions about the church before settling them into a service that begins at 10:30 every Sunday morning.
Sunday Morning at 10:30
The Sunday gathering is the center of life at Fellowship. Worship begins at 10:30 am, and regular attenders are invited to come a few minutes early for coffee and conversation. There is no dress code; jeans and t-shirts share the room with suits and ties. Song lyrics are projected onto the main screen so that first-time visitors can join the singing without fumbling through a hymnal.
The music itself is a blended approach. The worship team describes itself not as a performance group but as a congregation of believers - a worship band, choir, and soloists whose goal is to lift up the name of Jesus and encourage the gathered body. The aim of each service is an encounter with the living God that results in deeper love and service to Him.
Services are livestreamed through Vimeo and made available afterward on YouTube and as a podcast on Podbean. A Spotify playlist of recent songs is also kept current for those who want to listen during the week.
EFCA Beliefs, in Their Own Words
Fellowship Church holds to the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America. The church teaches that there is one God, Creator of all things, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is the verbally inspired Word of God, without error in its original writings, and the ultimate authority for faith and life.
The church confesses that human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God and under His wrath, and that salvation is found only through the atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, born of the virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, raised bodily, and now seated at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit convicts, regenerates, indwells, and empowers believers for Christ-like living.
The true church is made up of all who have been justified by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. Two ordinances are observed: baptism and the Lord's Supper. The church looks for the personal, bodily, and glorious return of Jesus Christ and for the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the new heaven and new earth. The full statement of faith is explored in a video series produced in partnership with Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Kids' Ministry, From Nursery Through Fifth Grade
Children are a major part of Fellowship's life, and the church aims to give parents the chance to focus on worship while their children are well cared for and taught. On Sunday mornings, kids from four years old through fifth grade attend Kids Church, where teachers use The Gospel Project, a chronological, Christ-centered curriculum that walks through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Children begin in the Worship Center with their parents and are dismissed to their classes before the sermon.
For younger children, the nursery offers a safe, clean, and loving environment for babies through three-year-olds during the service. A nursing mothers' room is also available. Parents can pre-register online through Church Center so that check-in on Sunday goes smoothly.
On Wednesday nights during the school year, Kids4Truth meets for children ages three through sixth grade. The midweek program grounds kids in systematic theology and Bible doctrine, helping them understand the Scripture they memorize and how it applies to daily life. The evening includes recreation, snacks, large-group teaching, and a short time of corporate worship. Registration for the September-through-May session opens each summer.
Throughout the year, the Kids' Ministry hosts fellowship family events such as campfire nights, indoor and outdoor movie nights, and picnics, plus community events including the Fall Festival and Easter Festival.
Youth and College Ministries
The student ministries at Fellowship cover both teenagers and college-aged young adults. The youth ministry, branded as TNT, exists to help students see God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, equip them to become like Christ, reach out to unsaved peers with the Gospel, and support parents as the primary disciple-makers in the home. The ministry emphasizes Bible study, Christ-like relationships, leadership development, and Spirit-led service, along with a healthy dose of fun.
The College Ministry grew out of a striking reality: nearly thirteen thousand students are currently enrolled on five universities within a fifteen-mile radius of the church. Its mission is to make disciples who make disciples, and the ministry pursues that through Bible study, community, discipleship, leadership development, integration into the life of the congregation, and service. A weekly College Bible Study meets on Tuesdays at 7:00 pm and is open to currently enrolled students between the ages of 18 and 25.
Nick Forrester serves as Pastor of Student Ministries. He joined the Fellowship staff in June 2020 as Director of College Ministry and transitioned into his current role in December 2021. He holds a bachelor's degree in Youth Ministries from Clarks Summit University and a master's in Higher Education from Geneva College. Jesse Francis serves as Director of Student Ministries and has been part of Fellowship Church since 2012.
Women's and Men's Ministries
The Women's Ministry seeks to encourage and equip women through the study of God's Word, with a particular emphasis on the Titus 2 model of older women teaching younger women. Studies vary in length and topic and meet on various days, times, and locations. Women's Connect groups meet seasonally around shared interests to build meaningful relationships, and Focus on the Heart seminars bring women together in a small-group setting for spiritual and emotional maturity. An annual Women's Conference offers a weekend of worship, teaching, and fellowship.
The Men's Ministry is built around a clear call: to encourage men to love God, love their families, love their church, and glorify their Lord in all things. A Monday Night Men's Study meets weekly with dinner at 6:30 pm and study at 7:00 pm. Men's Connect groups gather around shared activities, including beekeeping, auto mechanics, fishing, woodworking, fitness, tiling, trail hiking, and running. Open groups include Saturday in the Park (third Saturday of each month at 8:00 am), Men of Prayer (second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 am), Wing Night, and Saturday Breakfast.
Home Groups Across the Region
Home Groups form the core of Fellowship's discipleship life. These sermon-based small groups meet in homes and are deliberately intergenerational - young adults, older adults, singles, married couples, teens, and families learning from one another according to the biblical model of church unity. The current season runs from September through mid-November, takes a break for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and resumes in January, concluding the week of April 25. Registration opens each August, and group communication runs through the Church Center app.
Community Care: Food, Clothing, Quilts, and the Homeless
Fellowship's care for the wider Back Mountain and Wyoming Valley community takes several forms. The Food Pantry distributes groceries free of charge to families in need and is open Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Visitors enter through Door A. The Clothes Closet is a free community ministry run by volunteers and supported entirely through donations.
Since 1999, the Quilting Ministry has been making quilts by hand for people who are ill, recovering, grieving, recovering from the loss of a child, or simply in need of encouragement. The team meets every Monday from 9:30 am to noon under the leadership of Anita Schweitzer, and supplies are provided. No prior experience is required.
The Homeless Outreach ministry serves the homeless community in Wilkes-Barre, providing thousands of meals each year to men and women facing homelessness. The church also partners with CarePortal, a platform that connects vulnerable children and families in the foster care system with local churches willing to meet specific needs, and supports Pathways Pregnancy Help Center as it serves women facing unplanned pregnancies.
Counseling and Congregational Care
Fellowship Church partners with Foundations Counseling Services, a biblically based Christian counseling ministry that serves members, attenders, and the surrounding community. Individual, marital, and family sessions are available. The church's Congregational Care team, along with pastors and elders, walks alongside people during difficult seasons through prepared meals, handmade quilts from the Quilting Ministry, prayer, visits, phone calls, and assistance with living expenses.
Missions and Church Planting
A large portion of Fellowship's operational budget goes directly to missionary families. The church supports workers serving in Queretaro, Mexico with church planting and pastoral training; in Stuarts Draft, Virginia with The Navigators for prison and international student ministry; in Waxhaw, North Carolina with Wycliffe Bible Translators; in State College, Pennsylvania with college students; in Asia; in Prague with EFCA ReachGlobal; in Ethiopia with SIM; in Latin America with EFCA ReachGlobal and IBAC; and globally with EFCA ReachGlobal Crisis Response. Additional missionaries serve with the National Network of Youth Ministries and with ReachGlobal church planting efforts in Northeast Pennsylvania. Some missionaries serve in sensitive regions and are not named publicly.
Fellowship is also actively planting a church. Frank Yamrick serves as Resident Church Planter for Faith and Life Church in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, a new Spanish-friendly congregation with a dedicated children's ministry and a focus on evangelism. Frank has been a member of Fellowship since 1992, holds an MBA from Misericordia University, and is pursuing a Master of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He and his wife, Joan, served as missionaries in Russia from 1996 to 2001 and have participated in short-term mission efforts in Moldova, Ukraine, Bolivia, and the Czech Republic.
Becoming a Member: The 411 Class
Anyone interested in learning more about Fellowship can take the 411 Class, a four-part introduction that walks through connection, learning, and discovery before culminating in affirmation of membership. The classes meet on Sunday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 am and rotate on a regular basis. Topics include the church's ministries, what Fellowship believes and why, and the Statement of Faith. Visitors who want to learn more before attending are invited to come on a Sunday or reach out to the church office.
Generosity as Worship
Fellowship teaches that giving is an act of worship. Members and supporters can give in person through a dropbox in the Worship Center, by mail to the church address, or online. The church has published a set of biblical principles of giving, including worshiping God through the gift, giving freely and cheerfully, giving generously and sacrificially, giving a predetermined amount, giving according to the means God has given, and giving privately rather than for show. As a guideline, the church encourages giving ten percent of income to the local church, with additional sacrificial giving as the Lord leads.
Stay Connected
The Church Center app is the hub for most church communication. It carries group directories, event registration, giving, sermon notes, and a directory of ministries. Fellowship also maintains an active presence on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Vimeo, and produces both a sermon podcast and additional podcast series covering topics like men's ministry, the college ministry, and church planting updates.