Sweet Fellowship Continues to Grow

Sweet Fellowship is more than just a cute name for a church. Foundationally, Sweet Fellowship Church (SFC) is built upon five big ideals: Serve, Worship, Evangelize, Encourage, and Transform. Everything SFC does is centered around these principles, and it’s from these that Pastor Perry Crisp got the name Sweet Fellowship from.

Perry and Dorinda Crisp started SFC in 2020 during COVID while everything was shut down. Although Crisp had left his previous pastor position in Nov 2019, God had other plans for him. Crisp describes it like this: “At that point, I knew God was giving me these sermons and I had no place to teach them, so I got on Facebook Live and started preaching. After restrictions were lifted, we started meeting in parks. It became clearer and clearer that God wanted us to start a church. At the time I was 59 or 60 starting over from scratch, and I’d never started a church before.”

Crisp didn’t let fear hold him back, and he believes God affirmed it so strongly and so heavily that he didn’t want to do anything else. In his own words, Crisp says “we went from a heck no to a heck yes in about nine months time.” Now, Crisp’s church is growing, and he is able to continue his goal of raising up future church leaders and planters. “In this late season life, it’s not really about me planting a church as much as it is pouring into people during these years that I have left,” says Crisp.

SFC is located in Yantis, Texas, which is about an hour and a half east of Dallas. SFC attracts church members from five nearby communities, and purposefully builds relationships within these communities. Sweet Fellowship has cultivated a reputation for being known as a generous church, and church members organize kindness outreach events to show people Christ’s love in real, tangible ways.

On Nov 5, SFC will host a large outreach event to celebrate its’ second anniversary. Although SFC still maintains a large online presence, Crisp has encouraged all church members and online viewers to come in-person on Nov 5, and bring a friend. They’ve been inviting folks to come by utilizing signage at their property, social media advertising, and card handouts. Crisp appreciates their location and says that “if you’re driving down Highway 154, you can’t miss it on Nov 5.”

One of the more impressive things about Crisp’s leadership at Sweet Fellowship is that the church already owns property, and is raising more money to build a worship center on the 13 acres and repurpose the existing structure on the land to have additional bathrooms. Crisp casts vision to his congregation and he obediently follows where God leads him. There isn’t an exact timeline for construction or building completion, and SFC will continue to meet offsite at a separate location until the new building is completed on the property they own off Highway 154.

God used a couple who were ready to retire and ignited in them a passion for church planting. “I think this is the way God wants us to finish. At this point, we don’t really care about retirement,” admits Crisp.

More information about Sweet Fellowship can be found online: www.sweetfellowshipchurch.com