NEO Weekly Update Nashville

Dear NEO family,

I am writing from Nashville where I have been attending the DS Leadership Development Program. It has been stimulating and refreshing. We head home later today.

My heart has been thrilled as I have read reports of how God is working throught NEO leaders and churches. See some of the reports below.

Elizabeth Johnson was deployed by the American Red Cross to serve on their SRT (Spiritual Response Team) in response to Hurricane Gustav. She is now serving as Disaster Relief Chaplain at a shelter in Baton Rogue, Louisiana.

Brad Farnsworth reports about Connection Church: This Sunday is the big event! Our GRAND OPENING!. After having 6 sneak previews (4 in August), we are ready to go. The Connection Café opens at 10:30 A.M. The Worship Service begins at 11:00 A.M. Connection City is open for the kids, birth through 5th grade, with Jupiter Jumps, fun activities and relevant teaching. Pastor Brad will be concluding his series on Full Court with a message about Reaching Out. You can log on to our website at www.connectionchurchwired.com for more information. We look forward to seeing you this Sunday at Rosa Parks Elementary School, just 1 mile north of the BA Expressway on 145th E Ave (N. Aspen). Bring your friends to this exciting Grand Opening service. Blessings on all on you. See you Sunday!

Doug Gunsalus reported several days ago about South County Community Church: Just wanted to let you know what an awesome day we had yesterday. In the morning, we had a closed service with just our people. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from that and one other cool thing happened. A lady just showed up. She decided to come here. Just walked in off the street! Things like that are soooo awesome! Then, last night we had over 100 people in attendance at our community cookout. It was awesome! There were kids everywhere and we had several prospects come and say that they were looking for a church. We were so excited and our team was amazing. Connections were made and even one couple told us that they wanted to become a part of the launch team (they also came to our sneak preview service). God has been so good to us so far. I can't wait to see what he will do next!

Work day at Faith Church: Sept. 6, 9am – 4pm. Contact Buddy Davis, buddy@familychurch.tv if you need more information or to volunteer.

In their monthly reports, pastors tell us many other things to Celebrate:

Harold Johnson, Cushing I want to celebrate…Last month our church partnered with Valley Hope to raise money for a burn victim who attends our church. We raised over $500. PTL!

Gerald James, Claremore I want to celebrate…God moved miraculously in the life of a nine year old girl named Breighanna. Her story is amazing. She was saved the day before having a very serious surgery done on her skull. They did not expect her to make it through the surgery. She is now back in school on half days and is recovering well. Her family is now attending our church. To God be the glory!! Fifteen people from the Claremore community joined our Financial Peace University class this time. There is a new sense of revival brewing in our teen group.

Alan McBroom, Davenport I want to celebrate...We had an infant baptized this month. It was a great opportunity to share in the church’s responsibility in raising a child up in the Lord, as well as ministry to many new people.We also served 30 families this month with our clothes ministry!

Jim Wilson, Barnsdall I want to celebrate...We have had Revival Services this month with Marcus Whitworth and some guest Preachers, and saw some new and old faces in the pews. We had a combined morning worship with Pawhuska on the 24th with an all church luncheon afterwards.

Jim Wilson, Pawhuska I want to celebrate… Revival services this month, a combined worship with Barnsdall, new visitors and old friends, and we had one member (Walt Bellamy) defeat cancer this month and get “promoted” to heaven.

Don Nichols, Tahlequah I want to celebrate… A great Planning Session for our Centennial Celebration. Thankful for a Church that has a Heart to reach out to our community during the centennial celebration. We will have a great time at our community wide celebration and the reenactment of the Pilot Point Business Meeting on October 4th

Randy Schuneman, Bartlesville I want to celebrate… Great revival with Stephen Manley. Best I have experienced in 30 years!

Angela Bentley, Bristow I want to celebrate… We had our very first youth rally/revival and it was a great success! One young person accepted Jesus as his personal Savior and several other young people were helped! A few of our Wednesday night youth have been in church every Sunday since the revival! We raised enough funds to pay all expenses, give the band and speakers a love offering, and the turnout was good.

John Whitsett, Tulsa Central I want to celebrate…A really good first installment of my D. Min. program. Our new Student Ministries Pastor, Justin Hedges, arrived and is off to a wonderful start. There is a sense of optimism in the air.

Gordon Smith, Dewey I want to celebrate…“We Care” projects”. Each Sunday School class was asked to come up with one project that they could do in the community for the sake of Christ. For the last several months our “Life Lessons” Sunday school class has been collecting clothes for donation to give away to those in need in our community. On August 10th, we went to a community park and allowed for those in need to come and take what they needed, and we also provided some hot dogs, and something to drink. We were able to touch lives for the sake of Christ Jesus! We tangibly touched so many lives and received the blessing of the Lord as it is states in Acts 20:35, “Remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” It was a joy to be the tangible hands of Christ to the community of Dewey. Church-Wide Jr. High Camping Trip. We put together a church-wide Jr. High camping trip. It was a lot of work and effort, but we were able to see many lives changed in the process, and despite the extreme heat that we experienced that week, we also experienced the graceful hand of God. We had a great time of fun and games, and we also had a great time of helping our young adults to mature in their faith, and to preach the gospel to those that no nothing of Christ Jesus! One young man, after talking to him about his relationship with the Lord, had already accepted Christ in heart, but he wanted to take another step of commitment in his relationship with Jesus and get baptized, which will happen this month. I also, want to celebrate a loving people here at Dewey. My two year review was this last month, and these fine folks have been kind enough to allow me to continue to serve them in the name of Christ Jesus, of which I am honored and humbled to do so. Our love as a church is continuing to soar, and, as Leo Tolstoy has written, “Where love is, there God is also.” I thank the Lord for what he has already done for our church, for what he is doing for our church, and for what he will do in our church and in our community for the sake of Christ!

Larry Morris, Broken Arrow I want to celebrate...Started training for starting 20 small groups to start in January. Recruited a launch team to develop a plan to start a worship service at the Manna house. Began a new comers class that introduces the ministries and doctrines of the church.

David Stevens, Vinita I want to celebrate...Reception of members Buddy, and Teresa Brown and their teenaged daughter. The family also includes a toddler and a 4-year-old. They have been attending for quite a while but finally wanted to commit. We also have had 6 different people who have come to ‘try the church’ and ended up coming back for several Sundays now. We have almost all of the insulation and sheet-rock back up in the Sunday School/Fellowship Hall annex. We were able to get the new ceiling finished in the hallway and fellowship hall and ceiling fan/lights installed just in time for our Missionary service with David Fraley. The church services have been blessed with the presence of the Lord and a closeness and love among the people. God is Good! Carol Stevens (pastor’s wife) continues to improve. She has been working at the school and using a walker to get around. For the last week she has been practicing with a 4-footed cane at home and at church. She drove her self to work this week. We thank God for all His help.

Gerald Burch, Coweta I want to celebrate… That our Father has supplied the resources for us to purchase an electronic piano, as well as a computer, video player, CD play, and projector, that will allow us to be creative in a variety of ways in different areas of ministry. Also that during a past Youth weekend event God stirred the hearts of our Youth. One young man, whose parents do not attend, has changed his work schedule so that he can regularly attend Sunday and Wednesday service.

NEO Leaders August 2008

S. S.
Drumright +23
Claremore +22
Tahlequah +17
Dewey +13
Broken Arrow +9
Owasso +9
Vinita +4

AM Worship
Owasso +30
Fuente de Vida +25
Claremore +25
Davenport +8
Tahlequah +6
Tulsa First +6
Coweta +2

God is at work. Great days are ahead!

Dave McKellips