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The Foursquare Church has appointed Rev. Kelly Fellows to the position of national NextGen director, effective September 1, 2009. Kelly will fill the vacancy left when James Craft was appointed senior pastor of Sonrise Foursquare Church in Simi Valley, Calif.

Kelly currently serves as NextGen director for the Southwest District of Foursquare Churches and has extensive pastoral experience with children, youth and adults. He and his wife, Leah, have been youth pastors and senior pastors, youth directors for two districts, and also served as part of the Foursquare national youth ministry in the late 1990s, directing regional and national conferences.

As this transition was processed, the vision of the NextGen ministries remained central: to create a cradle-to-college pipeline that will raise up Foursquare leaders from the next generation. Glenn Burris Jr., who begins a 13-month term in September as interim president of The Foursquare Church, said, “It is important to all of us to build on the incredible foundation we have experienced as a church under the leadership of James Craft during the past four years. ”

James helped reinstate the full time role of NextGen director, hosting NextGen Summit ’07. This historic event, with attendance of 3,500 young people and Foursquare leaders, was a tangible demonstration of Foursquare’s commitment to build community, build leaders, and release the next generation. Since his appointment in 2002, James has brought clarity to the NextGen identity, unifying Foursquare ministries to children, tweeners, youth and young adults through a single focus: NextGen.

For the past two years, James and his wife, Teri, have sensed a growing call of God to pastoral ministry, with a specific focus on the Simi Valley/Thousand Oaks area of Southern California. When opportunity arose for that call to be fulfilled, the process to select a new NextGen director was initiated. A significant number of leaders spoke into that process including National Church staff, the interim general supervisor, district supervisors, district NextGen directors, and the board of directors.

As the role of director transitions from James to Kelly, the NextGen office will relocate from the central offices in Los Angeles to the campus of Life Pacific College (LPC) in San Dimas, Calif. This move will facilitate increased partnership between our Foursquare NextGen Ministries and LPC, our primary youth training center, in cooperation with the Emerging Leader Network (ELN) and Ignite, some of our premier immersion discipleship ministries.

Tammy Dunahoo, recently named to the interim role of general supervisor beginning in September, said, “We believe Kelly Fellows is the right person to lead the national NextGen ministries into the future. His collaborative leadership style will serve the district NextGen directors and national NextGen team very well. We are thrilled with the partnership and integration that is taking place and we are excited to welcome the Fellowses to the National Church team.”

Kelly and Leah’s commitment is to lead young people to discover and become exactly who God has created, called and commissioned them to be. The Fellowses live in Southern California with their two daughters, Rachel and Emma.

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