About Us
Sunday Services at 9:15 am & 11:15 amWhat we’re all about
We are a non-denominational church where all people, regardless of where they are on their spiritual journey, are welcome to learn about God and how to have a relationship with Him. As a Christ-centered, Bible-believing church, we exist to help people reach their full redemptive potential in Christ.
We believe that church ought to be the most exciting and meaningful experience of a person’s week. That’s why we use theatrical lighting, sound, and video. That’s why we have cutting-edge music along with creative and relevant messages that speak to real-life challenges. That’s why we designed and built a kid’s village, theater, and so much more!
We also believe that people need a grace-filled environment where they can meet Jesus and continue on their spiritual journey feeling safe, respected, accepted, and understood. That’s why we are forever committed to offering a place of healing for hurting people, as well as a place of encouragement and acceptance for anyone on a spiritual journey.
Executive Team
Randy Goldenberg
Since becoming a follower of Jesus at 23, Pastor Randy has had one single passion – to serve Christ and help as many people as possible come to know and follow Him. Pastor Randy started out as a union carpenter doing construction work while pastoring a small church in Middletown, Maryland. In 1991, he launched Frederick Christian Fellowship Church with a small handful of Christ followers who shared his desire to help people return to trust in their Creator and discover their full redemptive potential in Him.
Pastor Randy grew up in southeast Washington D.C., but now he and his wife Janet enjoy rural life in Emmitsburg, Maryland with Mowgli their German shepherd and a handful of guinea fowl.
Pete Gillott
Pastor Pete and his wife, Jess, have lived in Frederick, Maryland serving the local church and community as worship pastors since 2006. Having grown up the son of a missionary and ministering with his family both locally and abroad since early youth, Pete’s heart for passionate worship, and desire to see others experience authentic relationship with Christ and each other, has shaped his ministry philosophy and tenure over the last 17 years of full-time ministry. Pete and Jess have three children, Ethan, Daniel and Zoe. In their free time, they love running go-karts on their property, making huge bonfires, smoking a good cut of meat and flipping the occasional fixer-upper.
Kim Kesecker
Originally from West Virginia (… mountain mama), Kim has called Frederick home since 1989. After 6 years of teaching special education in Frederick County, she began working for the church and helped launch FCF. After having served in just about every capacity, in 2002 Kim was ordained as the spiritual formation pastor where she gets to pursue her passion for helping people get rooted and grow in their faith. Kim’s other passion: rescuing dogs.
FCF is an elder-governed, leader-led church. The elders are the overseers of the church as a whole. Their role is to make sure that the church stays on a biblical track, not swaying from the clear teachings of Scripture. Daily operations and decisions are the role of leaders within the church. Elders can be reached at [email protected].
Bruce
Bryant
Travis McCrory
Mike Pritchard
Bruce McMahan
Our History
With God’s direction, grace, and help, FCF has grown from an average attendance of about 60 people in 1992 to nearly 1,800 in 2018.
In July of 1991, under the leadership of pastor Randy Goldenberg, a small handful of people embarked on a telephone campaign. They made 22,000 phone calls to Frederick County residents asking if they were interested in a new church forming in Frederick. Over 2,000 people said yes and received several mailings with descriptions of the newly-forming church community.
On October 27, 1991, the first official service of the new Frederick Christian Fellowship Church was held at South Frederick Elementary School. Everyone was so excited that no one took an official count of how many people actually attended the first service!
A year later, we began holding services at Ballenger Creek Elementary School. We continued in ministry there for almost 14 years, until June of 2005, when we moved into our newly-leased facility at the Lynfield Event Complex. With God’s miraculous intervention, we were able to purchase the complex in 2009 and put down roots in God’s more permanent home for us.
With a home base for ministry and campus to grow, FCF Church is excited about reaching more people than ever before!
Our Mission
We exist to help people reach their full redemptive potential in Christ.
Our Vision
To become a biblically-functioning community that expresses the heart of God to the people of Frederick.
Our Values
We believe that Spirit-empowered teaching is the catalyst for transformation in individuals’ lives and in the church.
We believe the church should operate as a unified community of Spirit-gifted servants led by men and women with leadership gifts.
We believe that enthusiasm and excellence honor God and inspire people.
We believe lost people matter to God, and therefore, ought to matter to the church.
We believe every aspect of church life should be permeated by love and governed by the balance of grace and truth.
We believe that the pursuit of full devotion to Christ and His cause is normal for every Christ follower and will produce generous giving of one’s time, abilities, and money.
We believe that the church should be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.
We believe accomplishing God’s purposes calls for Scripture-based risk-taking, flexibility, and perseverance.
We believe that life change happens best in small groups.
What We Believe About
God
God is the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. He has eternally existed in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are coequal and are one God.
Jesus
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is coequal with the Father. Jesus lived a sinless, human life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on a cross. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to Heaven’s glory and will return again someday to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Human Life
Life is God’s gift to humanity and He places great value on every individual human life from its very conception. Therefore, our role is to honor, cherish, nurture and protect every individual life from its conception in the womb until it finishes its developmental journey at life’s end. We believe we must especially guard and protect a person’s life when they are the most vulnerable, as in the womb or in sickness.
Colossians 1 (16) Christ made everything in the heavens and on the earth. He made everything that is seen and things that are not seen. He made all the powers of heaven. Everything was made by Him and for Him.
Genesis 1 (27) So God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Jeremiah 31 (3) The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying “I have loved you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 1 (5) Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.
Psalm 139 (13) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (16) Your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Marriage, Sexual Activity, and Sexual Identity
Romans 12 (2) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
We believe that God’s will, as revealed in His word, is always the highest good a human can experience in this life and the product of God’s perfect knowledge and love. The most unloving, hurtful thing we can do to a fellow human is to affirm, in anyway, any ideas or practices that they have that are contrary to God’s good will. Therefore, FCF Church must not and cannot affirm any beliefs or behaviors that are contrary to God’s will as revealed in His word.
Genesis 1 (27) So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (28) God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
Genesis 2 (24) That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Based on God’s clear revelation of His will for human sexuality, FCF Church must not and cannot affirm any thoughts or notions that human beings can or should choose their gender or sexual identity.
Clearly one’s gender and sexual identity are received biologically at birth. To affirm anything else would be unloving to the person and distrusting toward God. Further, we see clearly that God has created two distinct sexual identities – male and female – based on one’s biology at birth. Likewise, God has chosen to multiply the human race based on the sexual union of one born a biological male and another born a biological female within the God-ordained union of marriage.
Therefore, FCF Church must not and cannot affirm marriage except between one born a biological male and another born a biological female. Nor can FCF Church affirm any present-day popular ideas on sexual activity such as promiscuity, unmarried sexual activity, pornography, or homosexuality. Nor can we affirm present-day popular ideas on sexual identity such as transgenderism and gender fluidity.
God loves all people and wants all of us to experience life as He intended it, the very best life possible. FCF Church is made up of imperfect people needing God’s forgiveness and in the process of learning to live and love God’s way. This happens as we find God, as He is revealed in Christ, worthy of our trust.
Therefore, FCF Church respects and loves all people so much that we will speak the truth to them even when that is not comfortable or maybe even unpopular in society.
If you have further questions, please reach out to us directly. You will find us safe and easy to talk to, whether we agree or find that we have to respectfully disagree.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is coequal with the Father and the Son of God. He is present in the world to make men aware of their need for Jesus Christ. He also lives in every Christian from the moment of salvation. He provides the Christian with power for living, understanding spiritual truth, and guidance in doing what is right. He gives every believer a spiritual gift when they are saved. As Christians, we seek to live under His control daily.
The Bible
The Bible is God’s Word to us. It was written by human authors, under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of truth for Christian belief and living. Because it is inspired by God, it is the truth without any mixture of error.
Human Beings
People are made in the spiritual image of God, to be like Him in character. People are supreme objects of God’s creation. Although every person has tremendous potential for good, all of us are marred by an attitude of disobedience toward God called “sin.” This attitude separates people from God and causes many problems in life.
Salvation
Salvation is the restoration into a relationship with Christ our Creator that is motivated solely by our complete trust in Him. It is the entrance onto a path and initiation of a process that results in progressive Christlike character development and ultimate entrance into God’s eternal domain.
Eternity
God created humanity in His image initially as mortal beings, but with the potential of receiving immortality in time from God the Creator. God now gives the gift of immortality to all those who are reconciled to Him by placing their trust in Jesus Christ and becoming His follower. All who have been reconciled to God in this way will live with Him forever in His kingdom. They will be raised from the dead and given an immortal, spiritual, resurrection body like the one Jesus had when he was raised from the dead.
All humans will stand before God to be judged based on how they lived during their time on earth and then they will be separated based on whether or not they were reconciled to God through trust in Christ or refused to return to God in trust. Those who refuse God’s sacrificial love and mercy as revealed in Christ exclude themselves from God’s kingdom by their own life choice.
