connectionIndependent Assemblies

uniting ministries worldwide

November/December 2009 | Volume 1 Issue 4

thirstin church today

preparing church for new families

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DecemberInterstate Fellowship MeetingMonday, December 7, 2009Mending Hearts ChurchNewalla, OKRev. David Tompkins(405) 386-4351

JanuaryInterstate Fellowship MeetingMonday, January 11, 2010Rev. John Sokolis(918) 687-7469

NovemberInterstate Fellowship MeetingMonday, November 2, 2009Cyril Full Gospel ChurchCyril, OKRev. Donnie Miller(580) 464-2224

North Central Texas Planning MeetingMonday, November 16, 2009Contact Rev. Dr. Daniel Sue (903) 498-4704

Midwest Fellowship Meeting (Ohio)Friday, November 6, 2009Rev. Ken and Jennifer Winter(937) 372-9128

www.independentassemblies.org

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by: Mindy Wood

Parents are concerned about the well-being of their children. According to realtors, many families determine where the best schools are located prior to

their moving into a new community. They then purchase a home in those school districts. Parents will often give up a house they want so they can live in a particular school district. In the same way, parents are seeking a church that will benefit their children. They will search until they find a church with quality children’s programs, even if it means giving up something else they prefer. A well-planned, quality children’s ministry will attract new families.

Keeping New FamiliesFirst impressions are important. Families

looking for a new church home usually visit a church only once. Your church gets one Sunday to make a favorable impression.

When parents visit your church and the children’s area, they notice whether the workers are loving and caring. They look to see if the hallways, bathrooms, and classrooms are clean, neat, and child friendly or if they are cluttered, antiquated, and in disrepair.

Parents with newborns visit the church nursery. When they take their baby to a church nursery, they’re expecting it to be clean and modern. A nursery full of old hand-me-downs does not impress them.

Children love personal attention, so each week “thanks for visiting” letters are sent to visiting children and parents. Teachers are trained to follow up on their visitors as well as children who were absent.

Developing a Quality Children’s Ministry in your Church

First, invest in leadership. If your church is large enough, hire a children’s pastor to oversee your children’s ministry. Choose the best person you can. Train him/her. As your children’s program grows, add other paid staff, such as an early childhood pastor, or an assistant children’s pastor. The more staff, the more care that ministry will receive.

Second, staff your ministries with volunteers. The senior pastor must emphasize that the church will only be as successful as each person in the church is doing God’s work each week. If each person in the congregation does one ministry job, every children’s ministry vacancy will be filled, and every other ministry in the church will have adequate staff. No matter how excellent your paid staff members are, a church stagnates if the laity doesn’t get involved reaching, teaching, and caring for others.

Third, support your children’s ministry financially. Regularly evaluate your facilities. Do they appeal to new parents and children? Are your facilities inviting to children who attend? Is there adequate money to supply the many needs in the children’s areas?

There are many ministries within the church that help the church to grow. If your target is young families, remember, they are concerned about the children’s department. When churches make a whole-hearted effort to care for children and reach them with the gospel, they become churches that attract young families.

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Focusby: Mindy Wood

Billy and Brenda Hunter, pastors of Christian Family Fellowship in Antlers, Oklahoma are fighting the battle to keep families together. In a day when the divorce rate in the church equals that outside her doors, the Hunters are focused on reaching the next generation through evangelism and teaching focused toward the entire family.

“If our families are not reinforced and strengthened with a new desire to overcome and have a successful home life, the only other option is the enemy having his way instead of God having His,” said Pastor Hunter. “Our vision is to build strong families now for future generations.”

Pastor Hunter acknowledges we live in a time when people want an instant cure for their problems; but, believers need the soundness of God’s Word to show them the solutions to these problems. “By giving them teaching of sound scriptural principles, we’re equipping people to live a life that is pleasing to God and each other. We’ve got some things backwards. Every one wants their opinion to be the one recognized and adhered to when in reality the Scripture says we’re supposed to prefer our brother. God’s promises and principles always work when we apply them to our lives.”

Practical wisdom is a need that the Hunters also see as their church’s responsibility. “I’ve been disheartened to see parents who didn’t know how to balance their checkbooks, or go grocery shopping or plan meals,” said Pastor Hunter who believes practical teaching helps alleviate the things that stress marriages.

Christian Family Fellowship reaches out to the next generation with youth and children’s

programs, with their bus ministry bringing in children. “The youth and children’s ministry has been one of our strongest in the history of our church,” said Pastor Hunter.

Billy Hunter is an ordained minister through Independent Assemblies, and currently serves as Southeast Oklahoma District Regional Representative. He has worked as a youth pastor, elder and finally senior pastor at CFF since 1999. He and his wife have four children and three grandchildren. “Our goal is that our lives of service to God will leave a legacy for future generations to come; to have a powerful visible and spiritual presence in our community.”

Billy and Brenda Hunter

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When Bill and Twyla Guthrie decided it was time to retire nearly twenty years ago, they found themselves on

the mission field instead of the front porch. In 1990 they founded World Harvest Ministries and never looked back. They have been building churches, digging water wells, offering free medical clinics, and preaching the gospel in more than 100 countries.

Bill Guthrie entered ministry first as an evangelist for eight years before pioneering four churches. While pastors in Edmond, Oklahoma, Bill and Twyla welcomed a minister from Nigeria to speak at their church. Since Bill went on a mission trip to Nigeria in 1961, they hit it off and accepted the man’s invitation

to return. Soon after, they accepted another invitation to visit the mission field from a woman in the Philippines who spoke at their church. The Guthries could not ignore the passion God ignited in their hearts and decided to pursue mission work. “My wife was offered retirement from Southwestern Bell and we took it, resigned from the church, went into missions and we’ve been doing it ever since.” Since then the Guthries have ministered in nations such as Nepal, China, Thailand, the Amazon Basin, Peru, the Philippines and several countries in Africa, including South Africa where they are currently working.

While the Guthries provide humanitarian aid as a means of reaching out to lost souls,

W by: Mindy WoodWorld Harvest Ministries

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they have a unique approach to evangelism. “When we go in, we live with the people, living as they live, sleeping in their houses and eating the way they eat. It’s very primitive,” said Bill, who admits the villages are very similar to what readers see in a National Geographic magazine.

Living with the people impacts both those with whom they live and themselves. “They respond very well. They love you like family and you love them. When you’re in a place long enough, you forget that you’re white. You sort of adapt, it’s a strange thing,” said Bill.

Their relationships in the Philippines are no different. “We were there the first time several years ago, built some churches and did free clinics. The last time we were there I told this

man it was the last time we would be able to come; he just stood there and cried. He wept and just clung to me.”

While people differ in culture from one continent to the next, the need for Christ and missionaries remain the same no matter where they travel. People of every race thirst for the gospel and are ready to accept Christ. Bill said their age makes no difference either. One elderly man attended a free medical clinic they offered in Kenya and spoke with Bill through an interpreter. He accepted Christ willingly. “He was as old as I am. Older people just don’t do that.” A woman who came to see them where they were staying in the mountains waited three hours to speak with him. “She was 84 years old. I asked somebody what she wanted and they said she wanted to get saved. Salvation is not a problem; it’s getting the message to them.”

Although their age is catching up to them, they see no end in sight. “We’ve learned that we’ve got to be a little wiser and we can’t be as active but there’s ways to do it without exerting yourself physically,” said Bill. “As long as we have breath in our body and are able to go, we don’t have any idea of stopping unless physical conditions impair us. There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done.”

When asked what they hope to accomplish before their work is finished, Bill Guthrie replied, “One more soul...just one more soul. The people are poor, they have nothing, they’re hungry…but that’s not the worst thing. These people are going to spend eternity somewhere and if they are, who’s going to tell them?” One thing is certain. The Guthries will carry their message to the ends of the earth until the end of their lives. With tenacity and determination, love and passion, they are running their race to win.

For more information about the Guthries and World Harvest Ministries contact them at 405-396-8882.

Bill & Twyla GuthrieMissionaries

World Harvest Ministries

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