Founded by a Pastor with a Heart for Pastors
Everett as a young small church pastor (with hair!) in Newkirk, Oklahoma (2006)
Everett as solo pastor of a mid-size church in Washington Court House, Ohio (2012)
Everett doing mission work in Piedras Negras, Mexico (2022)
Everett and his family (2023)
FLS founder and director Everett Miller served as a Presbyterian pastor for 12 years, with many of those years at small churches. While he now works in higher education development, he still loves Christ’s church. He teaches adult Sunday school, helps with men’s ministries, participates in a weekly theological/biblical studies book group, and, along with his wife, participates in a “life group” with three other couples from their nondenominational church in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA.
In spring 2024, Everett became friends with a local solo pastor who was lonely, discouraged, and under-resourced, which brought back difficult memories from Everett’s own time as a pastor. This friendship inspired Everett to reach out to find other small church pastors in similar situations. He contacted pastors throughout the United States and formed an initial cohort group of five, offering connection and encouragement. Filled with enthusiasm, Everett expected struggling pastors to flock into what he had named Fellowship of Lone Shepherds (FLS). He was, however, surprised and disappointed to find a lack of interest among pastors in the United States.
Unbeknownst to Everett, his plan’s failure was part of a greater purpose—God had something far bigger in mind!
FLS Goes Global
Everett accepted the offer of Christian Ministry Alliance to bring FLS under CMA’s umbrella as a program of the Alliance. He did this in the hope that it would draw more small church pastors into Fellowship of Lone Shepherds. The Alliance sent out a press release to its entire e-newsletter mailing list, encouraging interested pastors to email Everett. The emails flooded in from pastors who had been praying for something just like Fellowship of Lone Shepherds! To Everett’s surprise, however, none of the emails came from American pastors. Instead, they were from small church pastors in countries across Africa, especially in Kenya and Uganda, as well as in places like the United Arab Emirates and India.
Afraid that this might be a distraction from his original US-based plan, Everett proceeded cautiously. Over the coming months, however, it became undeniable that, while Everett had never thought anywhere near this big, God most certainly had! While American pastors still showed very little interest in FLS, the fellowship grew exponentially among African pastors. Fellowship of Lone Shepherds was not to be an American ministry that might someday go international; it was to be an international ministry that might someday return to America.