Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International
| Founded | 1951 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Demos Shakarian |
| Type | Christian Interdenominational |
| Location |
|
|
Area served
|
World |
|
President
|
Richard Shakarian |
| Website | fgbmfi.org |
The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI) is a fellowship of lay businessmen. Its main purpose is to bring interest to the Christian gospel. Theologically, the organization has its roots in Pentecostalism. The headquarters is in Irvine, California, USA.
FGBMFI was founded in 1951 in Los Angeles by Demos Shakarian, a California rancher. Following a difficult start (for a year nothing happened to the original group that met weekly), then a donation of $1000 was given to start a small publication titled Full Gospel Business Men's VOICE, it grew steadily, the second chapter was in Phoenix, Arizona, and after a few years chapters were set up throughout the world. In 1972, the membership is 300,000. In 1988, there are 3,000 chapters in 90 countries.
After Demos Shakarian died in 1993, his son Richard Shakarian assumed the organization's leadership. The legitimacy of Richard's claim to leadership was disputed by some directors of the FGBMFI leadership, despite the mentoring he had received by Demos Shakarian before his death. There had been previous leadership disputes in FGBMFI's history.
One of those early groups that split encouraged other Chapters to leave and formed "IFCB". After Demos' death, several FGBMFI leaders who objected to Richard's leadership seceded and formed Business Mens Fellowship (BMF), which received its first financial contribution ($1,000) from Rose Shakarian, Demos Shakarian's widow. BMF was initially led by an attorney, who sued Richard. Steve Shakarian, Demos' son, later became one of the directors of BMF. In the mid-1990s, some major FGBMFI National Offices in Asia, namely Singapore and Hong Kong, withdrew from FGBMFI and allied themselves with the BMF.
Despite these successes, in the mid-2000s, there was another leadership split. Instead of starting a new organization with a different name (as both IFCB and BMF had done), the new group named itself "Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship in America", or "FGBMFA", borrowing heavily from the FGBMFI's official history in marketing. In the UK, the elected leadership agreed to dissociate from the international office of FGBMFI and later adopted the name of Full Gospel Businessmen (FGB). FGB UK & Ireland is associated with a growing network of FGB, FGBMFI and BMF national organisations through the Full Gospel Global Forum.
FGBMFI is active in several countries. As of 1995[update], it has local chapters in some 140 countries and has tens of thousands of members. The gospel is preached to millions of people annually. In some countries, it uses a version of its name translated in the local language. In Germany, e.g., (“Christians in professional life”), in Finland (STELK), in several Spanish-speaking countries (FIHNEC), in Poland Miedzynarodowa Spolecznosc Biznesmenow Pelnej Ewangelii - Chrzescijanie w Biznesie.
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