HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

NFBPC was founded in 1990, under the patronage of Honourable Balaki Kirya (RIP), then minister in the government of Uganda. As the only openly Pentecostal government minister then, Hon. Kirya became a strategic support and defense to the seemingly disoriented but energetic and passionate Pentecostal church leaders who were working under very strenuous conditions, with no material or financial support bases, and often harassed ( albeit unconstitutionally) by religiously zealous government operatives, who as members of the mainline denominations, were scared of the rate of the spread of the “new sects” (Pentecostal churches).

As a strategy to enable him lobby more effectively for the Pentecostal movement before his government colleagues and other stakeholders, who generally regarded Pentecostals to be a bunch of uncoordinated, unprincipled and insignificant minority who could not be taken seriously, Hon. Kirya invited 300 Pentecostal church leaders and advised them to form a national network that would have the credibility to present itself to government and the public as a voice for all Pentecostal churches in the country and as a way for Born Again Pentecostal Churches to unite. The outcome was National Fellowship of Born Again Pentecostal Churches.

However, from 1990 to 2000, NFBPC operated far below the stated expectations of its founders. Some key Pentecostal church leaders seemed not to appreciate the need for networking while a few actually tried to bring down the unity. Neither did all the elected leaders of the Fellowship show commitment to what NFBPC stood for. The result was that the Fellowship remained unregistered with government, had no address or office and no specific programs for the first 14 years of its existence, and certainly no funds.

On the 17h of March 2000, a cultic sect affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church massacred over 1000 of its adherents in Kanungu district in South Western Uganda. Suddenly, Pentecostal Christians, churches and organizations found themselves being falsely and illegally accused of being cohorts with the Kanungu cult, simply because they were not part of the mainline religions( Catholics, Protestants, and Moslems). Churches were shut down and pastors in different parts of the country were harassed. In the wake of this unlawful and unjust treatment of God’s people, the NFBPC leadership was awakened to come out and speak in defense of the Church. Press statements were released disassociating the Kanungu cult from Pentecostalism, and government was lobbied at various levels against the unconstitutional harassment of law-abiding Ugandans simply because they worshiped differently from what were known to be the norms . To reinforce the Fellowship’s muscles, fresh elections were held and leadership structures were created at all levels, and thus the National fellowship of Born Again Pentecostal Churches was birthed.