connectionIndependent Assemblies

uniting ministries worldwide

July/Aug 2010 | Volume 2 Issue 2

thirstkingdom for india

hope

2 • connection

AugustInterstate Fellowship MeetingMonday, August 9, 2010Faith Community ChurchWhitefield, OKRev. Bill Fitzer(918) 799-5490

Southeast Texas District FellowshipSaturday, August 14, 2010Baytown, TXContact Rev. Herb Hawthorne(281) 723-2278

SeptemberInterstate Fellowship MeetingMonday, September 13, 2010Capitol Hill Full Gospel ChurchMoore, OKRev. Jim Robertson(405) 793-7727

Arkansas Fellowship MeetingTuesday, September 28, 2010Danville, ArkansasContact Rev. Charles Kendrick (501) 303-0831

JulyIA Annual Minister’s ConferenceMon-Wed, July 12-14, 2010Embassy Suites Hotel & Conference CenterNorman, OKSee page 6

Camp FireFri-Mon, July 23-26, 2010Camp Bond - Ages 12+Tishomingo, OKContact Nathan Isaacs(580) 925-3545

www.independentassemblies.org

cale

ndar

connection • 3

connectionJuly/August 2010

ContentsCalendar

Living Waters Church

Member Focus

Hope for India

Tools for Ministry

Board Members

2

4

5

8

10

11

Produced by Layers Media, Inc.www.layersmedia.com

Independent AssembliesPO Box 1546

Ada, OK 74821(580) 310-0222

moving?If you are planning on moving or just recently moved, please contact the offices of the Independent Assemblies so that we may update your contact information. Also, keep us up to date with your current email and phone number.

We want to make sure you receive your copy of the Connection Magazine and all other Independent Assemblies updates.

Independent AssembliesPO Box 1546Ada, OK 74821(580) 310-0222

4 • connection

Pastors Danny and Shirley Wright of Living Waters Church in New Mexico enjoy a flock that acts more like a family than a congregation. Teaching them to wait on the Lord and submit their lives in obedience to God produces a body of believers whose hearts burn to serve the Lord and reach out to the community.

Spend just a few moments with the Wrights and you’ll quickly get the message that hearing God’s voice is the key to living a victorious life in the will of God. Not that Danny Wright always wanted to do what God said. When the Lord called him into ministry, the ex-hippie wanted nothing to do with preaching but twenty years later, he’s never looked back.

He soon learned the blessing of obedience when they moved from Pruitt, Oklahoma to Lovington, New Mexico. After renting a Seventh Day Adventist Building on Sundays since it was only being used Saturdays, God later provided their first building and the help to fix it up. Then when they wanted to build a new church, God instructed them to buy instead. “We’re in a million dollar building for only $80,000” said Wright. “From the beginning when the Lord God visited me the night I got saved and through all these years I’ve followed that voice.”

The Wrights instill that same principle of waiting on the Lord and obedience as they nurture their congregation like

family. “We’re grandma and grandpa to all the kids,” said Danny. “We go to birthdays, family reunions, graduations and births. We’re a body so I believe we should be a family. That’s the main focus of our ministry but we teach them to hear God and do what He says. That makes our job a lot easier!” During summer months they rent the local pool and eat meals together frequently to build a strong family of faith.

The church also gets their hands in the community, participating in the multi-church outreach called Walk to Emmaus, they reach backslidden believers and wining people to Christ. They booked a local venue in front of the local court house for a Christian concert where people regularly attend a country and western concert. “They got them used to coming out there so now the band Cross Culture will have the same thing only God’s music,” said Danny. August 27-28th they will reach out to the youth by with a rally held in the public youth center. For now they’re looking forward to summer outreaches and their upcoming worship conference, featuring Christ for the Nations worship leader, Jonathan Lewis July 15-16th.

Their simple creed of following God’s voice in obedience and close relationships with believes models the surrendered life Christ called believers to live. Day in and day out, they strive to live the keys to true, abundant, victorious living.

Danny and Shirley Wright

by: Mindy Wood

Living Waters ChurCh

L o v i n g t o n , n e w m e x i c o

connection • 5

Focus by: Mindy Wood

Sometimes God eases new ministers in those early lessons of faith and trust but Pastors Bill and Mary Fitzer of Faith Community Church will tell you the Lord will sometimes plunge you in head first. The Fitzers entered ministry on the mission field and can see how those early days built a strong foundation for expecting big things from God.

The Fitzers attended Dale Mercer’s Anchor of Hope Church where they came to Christ in 1973. In 1975 they went to Mexico and served with Bob and Dorothy Blodget for five years. In the beginning they had almost no support. “Before we left for the mission field,” said Mary, “I was a hair dresser and Bill was a carpet layer and he often made $1,000 a week. We went from that to no support. We had to trust God for everything we needed to live.”

Those first months were tough but glorious. “We learned how to trust Him no matter what,” said Mary. “Eventually Bill found some work carpet laying and gained some support. We went into a lot of villages who’d never heard the gospel and many people were saved.”

The Fitzers returned in obedience to Lord’s leading to start a church in Brooken, Oklahoma, Bill’s hometown. They began in their home. “We had twenty people our first Sunday and when those same people came back next week we decided to rent an old garage building in Whitefield.” Mary laughed and said, “It didn’t even have a bathroom. We made one out of a 55- gallon barrel like we did in Mexico.”

When the congregation grew, they rented a small church for year. The Lord gave them a plan to buy it and they put their faith to the test. “We had it paid for in three months.” In fact, during nearly all 23-years they’ve been pastoring Faith

Community Church, God faithfully kept them from long-term debt. “Ten years ago we built a new 500-seat sanctuary and only had to borrow $60,000. It was paid off in only one year. Now we are completely debt free and have been since that time.” They are now believing God for a Family Life Center.

Their passion in ministry is restoration. “Before we were saved, my husband and I had alcohol problems so our marriage was a mess,” said Mary. “Our church is about restoring people. He gives us not just one or two chances but multiple chances. That’s our heart, to see people with multiple problems made whole.” The Fitzers run two Sunday morning services and a Wednesday night service and are happy to see a growing youth group, currently around seventy, and a large bus ministry.

The Fitzers reflected on God’s faithfulness. “It’s amazing what God has done in our lives,” said Mary. “No words can describe the blessings we’ve experienced along the way.”

Bill and Mary Fitzer

6 • connection

Meet & Greet (Hotel Atrium)Service - Dr. Morris Sheats BreakfastMinistry Workshops - Speakers TBASpeaker - President Mickey KeithLunch Missions Update - Dr. Robert JohnsonService - Dr. Morris Sheats BreakfastWorship & OrdinationPresbytery Service

5:00-6:00 PM7:00 PM

6:00-8:00 AM

9:00 AM10:30 AM

12:00-2:00 PM2:00-3:00 PM

7:00 PM

6:00-8:00 AM9:00 AM

9:30-12:00 PM

Monday, July 12th

Tuesday, July 13th

Wednesday, July 14th

F e l l o w s h i p

Annual Minister’s Conference

J u l y 1 2 - 1 4

Embassy Suites • Norman, OK • www.norman.embassysuites.com

connection • 7

“And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

Esther 4:14

timethisfor such a

as

guESt SpEaKEr Dr. Morris sheatsDr. Morris Sheats has been in ministry for over 50 years. He

founded Trinity Church in Lubbock, Texas in 1964 and led the church to a membership of 4,000 before moving to Dallas, where he served as pastor of Beverly Hills Baptist church(membership 6,000). He is also the founding pastor of Hillcrest Church, which grew to a membership of 5,000 under Sheats’ leadership. He currently leads Heritage Church of Dallas, which he founded in 2006.

Since founding Leadership Institute in 1980, Dr. Sheats has taken his ministerial experience to tens of thousands of pastors and churches across America and 50 nations of the world. His passion is to reach and train young pastors in developing countries.

Understanding well the dynamics of human relationships, Pastor Sheats is a strong motivational teacher/preacher in high demand as a speaker at pastors’ conferences.

Pastor Sheats holds a B.A. degree from Texas Tech University, a Master of Divinity (M.Div.), and Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of four books: You Can Be Emotionally Healed, You Can Have A Happy Family, Courage to Lead, and Building Better Churches: Building Blocks that Matter.

8 • connection

K.C. and Sarah George are working hard, keeping one eye on the mission field in their beloved India and another on the dark clouds they see gathering across the globe. Their hearts burn with compassion on behalf of the Indian church as it faces difficult trials and with urgency they race against spiritual darkness to see the Gospel penetrate every village.

It’s the country that made Mother Theresa’s work famous in the last century but the misery of spiritual and physical poverty still ravage India’s hopeless and desperate people. The statistics in K.C. George’s book, The Good Samaritans in a Starving World are shattering. India is located in the 10/40 window of the world’s most densely populated and most unreached geographical area in the world. According to George of the 600,000 plus villages of the country, a great majority are still untouched by the Gospel of Christ. Starvation is everywhere with 50% of the country’s children malnourished while child labor robs them of any education and perpetuates the poverty cycle.

International Gospel Mission, Inc.

works to change that with Mercy Child Development Centers and IGM Bible School. They currently feed, educate and evangelize 130 children in two learning centers. For most, it is their only meal and as the light of Jesus shines in them, it impacts their parents. “Despair is changed to hope,” said K.C. George, as “whole families are evangelized.”

IGM Bible School fulfills the vision to see each village hear the Gospel and establish churches by equipping laborers and sending them out. “IA Director of World Missions, Dr. Robert Johnson travels with me to India for the student’s Bible seminar. There is an expectation and excitement when he preaches and the effective way he preaches inspires long term commitment in our students.” Each graduate submits to a pastor and receives support for three years while they build churches. The average cost to build churches is five thousand dollars. The three year school has graduated over 1,200 students with hundreds more on a waiting list and they’ve seen 51 churches built in the last five years.

i N d i af O r

by: Mindy Wood

K.C. and Sarah George

connection • 9

As more Indians convert, their lives are changed “inside and outside” and George said there is a kind of jealousy among some religious sects. Converts have great joy, are enlightened, and treat each other with kindness and respect and eventually even prosper in life. “The difference between Christians and the worldly people is obvious. In India as in the old Nineveh, millions of people do not know their right hand from their left but when they get saved, everything about them changes. Parents love each other, children are more disciplined and they all have compassion for each other. They’re blessed.”

The growing church continues to experience persecution. While George attests that there is freedom of religion in India, there is continuous opposition to the Gospel. A culture of religious prejudice shuns conversion while extreme militant groups retaliate, resulting in riots and unrest. “They don’t mind if Christians work with Christians but they do not want to see evangelism.” Churches have been burned and ministers wounded or killed.

George remarked that persecution is happening all over the world and he is convinced that we are living in the last days. “As the work of God advances so does opposition. Freedom to spread the Gospel is less and less every day,” said George. “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. As believers we are called to fulfill the Great Commission, ‘go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ Christians need to unite, praying and working together. God is looking for obedient, dedicated workers with the compassion and passion of the good Samaritan.”

While they battle both poverty and opposition, God shows His faithfulness as the Gospel spreads throughout India. K.C. and Sarah George watch and pray as they raise awareness among God’s people about the need for worldwide missions and return to India often to see God’s Kingdom established one village at a time.

For more information please contact: K.C. George, P.O.Box 637, Bethany, OK 73008

Phone 405-210-4017. E-mail: igm4all@sbcglobal.net

10 • connection

101. People are illogical,

unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

3. If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

4. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

6. Big people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by small people with small ideas. Think big anyway.

7. People favor underdogs but only follow top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

9. People really need help, but may attack if you help them.Help them anyway.

10. Give the world your best and you may get kicked in the teeth. Give the world your best anyway.

5 Ways to Make Guests Feel Welcome

Commandments of Leadership

Making guests welcome at your church is seri-ous business. Church consultant Gary McIntosh knows the truth of that statement: after moving to Tulsa, Okla., and encountering a chilly reception in various congregations, his grandparents stopped going to church. They never regularly attended for the rest of their lives.

“We must get ready for company!” writes the Biola University professor in his book, Beyond the First Visit.” “Company’s coming to our church every Sunday, and what visitors perceive in our welcome will influence their feelings and response to church and the Lord for years to come.”

Five ways he recommends hosting your guests:

1. Arrive early to make sure everything is ready for their arrival.

2. Greet them warmly at the entrance, escort them to their seats and help them understand what is taking place.

3. Anticipate and answer as many questions as pos-sible in advance so they don’t have to ask.

4. Do something extra to make their visit special.

5. Walk them to the door and invite them back.

Don’t just make this a simple checklist, McIntosh says. He advises putting these statements on paper, with room beneath each one, and then noting ways your church accomplishes these objectives.

When finished, take a different colored pen and write a second list of additional ways you can fulfill each goal. Consider reviewing the lists with appro-priate groups in your church.

connection • 11

Southeast Oklahoma DistrictRev. Billy Hunter

Antlers, OK(580) 298-2740

Southwest Oklahoma DistrictRev. Donnie Miller

Cyril, OK(580) 464-2224(580) 512-3657

Northeast Oklahoma DistrictRev. Mac Blackwell Locust Grove, OK(918) 479-6057

North Central Texas DistrictRev. Dr. Daniel Sue

Kemp, TX(903) 498-4704

Southeast Texas DistrictRev. Herb Hawthorne

Baytown, TX(281) 723-2278

South Central Texas DistrictRev. Jerry Edmon

Elgin, TX(512) 281-5316

Midwest Regional DistrictRev. Mark Maynard

Granite City, IL(618) 931-4106

Arkansas DistrictRev. Charles Kendrick

Alexander, AR(501) 303-0831

Mickey Keith PresidentPO Box 1546 Ada, OK 74821 (580) 310-0222mickey.keith@gmail.comwww.life623.com

Ken Anderson Secretary/TreasurerPO Box 1120 Lexington, OK 73051(405) 527-6030 kda@valornet.comwww.libertygospelok.org

Robert JohnsonDirector of World MissionsPO Box 978 Blackwell, OK 74631 (580) 363-2734roj@clarionmissions.orgwww.clarionmissions.org

Jerry EdmonBoard MemberPO Box 862 Elgin, TX 78621 (512) 281-5316Jedmon1234@aol.comwww.fwcelgin.com

Dr. Ted Estes Vice PresidentPO Box 2248 Claremore, OK 74018 pastorted@lifechangerchurch.comwww.lifechangerchurch.com

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