Independent Assemblies Connection

connectionIndependent Assemblies

uniting ministries worldwide

March/April 2010 | Volume 1 Issue 6

thirstno manwhere

goes

2 • connection

First Ladies & Me Women’s ConferenceThursday-Saturday, March 11-13Embassy SuitesNorman, OKBrenda Mullins(405) 204-7788

ROAR Youth ExplosionThursday-Friday, March 18 & 19Evangelistic Center ChurchShawnee, OKRev. Thomas Buckley(405) 637-7817

AprilInterstate Fellowship MeetingMonday, April 12, 2010Lifechanger ChurchClaremore, OKRev. Ted Estes(918) 341-8344

MarchInterstate Fellowship MeetingMonday, March 8, 2010Life Community ChurchAda, OKRev. Mickey Keith(580) 427-6230

Midwest Region Minister’s MeetingMonday-Tuesday, March 8 & 9Calvary Life ChurchGranite City, IL Rev. Mark Maynard(618) 931-4106 or (618) 531-7645

www.independentassemblies.org

cale

ndar

connection • 3

connectionMarch/April 2010

ContentsCalendar

You are here

Member Focus

Tony Swillum

Where No Man Goes

Follow the Leader

Board Members

2

4

5

6

8

10

11

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

Independent AssembliesPO Box 1546

Ada, OK 74821(580) 310-0222 first ladies & me

womenmark your calendars

March 11-13

A time for women in ministry to refresh, rejuvenate, and refuel.

Contact Brenda Mullins at (405) [email protected]

4 • connection

by: David W. Binford

Humbled and Amazed, I can’t help but to fall to my knees. There’s so much that You’ve done, Words just can’t express. From what we think is the most insurmountable to what can be

considered the most insignificant in Your Greatest Design.

You are there in the still small voice, from the sunrise songs of the meadow lark, to the churning, crashing of the raging seas. You are there in the somber, quiet, stillness and in the seeming unruly, chaos of a hectic day. You are there orchestrating, arranging, rearranging

everything from the slightest effect of a butterfly in flight, to the rolls of thunder and flashes of lightening streaking across the sky during a summer thunderstorms.

You are HERE in the midst of the storm, You were here all along. You are HERE like footprints in the sand carrying me through all of life’s demands. You are HERE leading, teaching, guiding,

showing, calling, drawing me closer to You.

You are HERE with outstretched hands picking me up when I’ve fallen flat. You are HERE, the GOD of another chance. You are HERE, The Great I Am, You are HERE the Lion and the Lamb. You are HERE in the simplest of things and still infinitely bigger than the complexities

of the universe.

You reach down into my soul, precisely on time, letting me know You’re in control, Your master plan revealing Your will, mercy and grace for my excellence, bringing You Glory & Praise.

You are HERE!

You are Here

F e l l o w s h i p

Annual Minister’s Conference

J u l y 1 2 - 1 4Embassy Suites • Norman, OK

connection • 5

Focus by: Mindy Wood

When Herb and Jean Hawthorne decided to live a life of obedience to God, their decision thrust them into ministry to pastors, sinners and saints. The Hawthornes live on the go, answering God’s call to help wherever He leads. They have travelled as evangelists and professional singers, pastored a church and now serve as Regional Representatives for Independent Assemblies in southeast Texas.

Herb says their experience in ministry and the time they spent at the Dream Center in San Diego, California gave them a deep revelation and love of true evangelism. “We’ve distorted some biblical terms and one of them is evangelism. We’ve titled an evangelist as one who travels from church to church but really that’s a revivalist. A true evangelist is one who goes out to the sinners and reaches them for Christ.”

Their work at the Dream Center impressed a burden for the lost in their hearts and afforded practical insight for future outreaches while ministering on the streets and importing and training short term mission teams. “It was intense. We worked six days a week dealing with the homeless, gangs, prostitutes; you name it, we confronted it. We were there long enough to learn about that ministry and we’ve been able to help churches to start outreaches.”

After a year and a half, the Hawthornes returned to Texas where they continued to follow God’s plans. Herb got a job in the chemical industry and started reaching out to pastors and their congregations. “My passion for the pastor is to encourage them to get back to the passion and burning desire they had when God first called them and find that excitement and enthusiasm.” He has particular compassion for small town rural pastors and visits them often to offer encouragement.

As a Regional Representative, Herb seeks to create a place where pastors gather as family. “I want them to feel like they have brothers and sisters they can call on. We come together and love each other. We don’t know each other and I

see that’s the big problem. I want to bring tighter family unity.”

This year the Hawthornes will provide practical tools such as instruction on church and law, pastoral ethics and teaching to enrich their education. “I want pastors to be better equipped. We’ve got more educated congregations than ever, so we need to be better educated. That’s not a bad thing; we’re bringing that together with the Holy Spirit Who wants us to be our best.”

For the flock, his goal is to inspire them to live the same passion that provokes the lost to jealousy. Sinners aren’t exactly beating down church doors. “Until we change and bring a passion about who we are, we’re not going to provoke anyone to jealousy. Without that, we’re just going through a routine like a social club and that’s religion.”

In addition to the home front, the Hawthornes also minister overseas in several countries and continue going wherever and whenever God calls them. They attend Trinity Tabernacle Assembly of God in Baytown, Texas when they are not ministering elsewhere.

Herb and Jean Hawthorne

6 • connection

When Tony Swillum was a youth pastor with the Assemblies of God, his passion for lost and broken souls built the second largest youth ministry of its day. As pastor of Freedom Christian Center, his focus on the down-and-out hasn’t changed one bit.

Snatching people out of darkness isn’t just his passion but it’s also the heartbeat of his church. Members are driven soul winners, trained in discipleship. Seventy percent of FCC’s 700 hundred members were saved there and with the love and forgiveness they received, compel the lost to join them. “Our church has two types of people in it: those who need help and those who want to help,” said Swillum.

With all the outreaches at FCC, there’s plenty of opportunity for both. The ten year old church grew to establish Freedom Dream Center, based on the Dream Center in L.A. founded by Tommy Barnett. It’s a one year program for men and women trapped in substance abuse.

“God laid it on my heart that if I was going to pastor a church, it would have to be a place where we could meet the needs of the people who came to the altars. Anyone can get people saved, but it was ‘what do we do with them now’ that became our focus,” said Pastor Swillum. “Everything we do revolves around the dream center.”

Another outreach FCC holds is a Christian rodeo. Families flock to Freedom Arena, located in the heart of cowboy country where they hear the Gospel. “It’s always cool when a cowboy gets saved because all the rest walk up with them.” Former calf roping champion Roy

Creed started coming to the rodeos. “We built a relationship with him. He got saved and was diagnosed with throat cancer. God healed him and now he’s one of our most faithful guys.”

FCC’s foundation is prayer and the Word of God. They offer a one year, intense Bible college at almost no cost and focus their men’s, women’s and teen’s ministry in the Word of God. Each ministry holds their own prayer meetings, in addition to corporate prayer held weekly and before Sunday morning service. The results are powerful services with new converts.

Strong emphasis is put on discipleship and mentoring. “When someone gets saved, I assign that person to somebody who begins personal discipleship. That means they build a personal relationship with them, going to their homes, meeting them for lunch or making a phone call.”

Pastor Swillum believes reaching the lost depends on a congregation catching the vision. “Everyone wants a great church without doing great things. If you want a great church you’re going to have to do great things. If you want to see souls saved, you have to bring them. If you want to see the sick healed and demons cast out, you have to bring in sick, oppressed people.”

Their vision sums up what Freedom Christian Center is all about. “Our vision is to be a great soul winning church. We want to help people and that’s what our ministries are about.”

Tony Swillum and Family

TONYby: Mindy Wood

Pastor Tony Swillum’s church is located in Aurora, MO. www.freedomville.org

connection • 7

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

8 • connection

Whether it’s revolutionary or visionary, Leadership Training International seeks to defy limits to the Gospel and stay one step ahead of opposition. When Mary Ann Cassidy and her late husband Bud founded the ministry, their goal to teach and train leaders for the growing Body of Christ and entrust nationals with the work was an unheard of idea. Today the vision continues, taking the gospel where no missionary can go, not even the locals. Their efforts are concentrated in Ghana, Nigeria, and India.

With experience as pastors and bible college administrators, they landed in Ghana in 1979 and quickly experienced their own limits to advance the Word of God. Although most speak English, the vocabulary and idioms are different. With innumerable customs and a culture so different, there was only one solution. “The nationals are more effective because they know the languages. Even with English speaking people we still had to have three interpreters. We could live there forever and never learn everything. We discovered they never flap their wings and fly as long as the white man is there because their culture teaches them to respect their elders. The only way they would learn to minister effectively was for us to leave.”

They provided teaching and mentoring to aspiring ministers among the people and boldly challenged them to look God for everything, even as the Cassidy’s lived by faith. “Bud told them, ‘no, I’m not going to pay you. I have to live by faith and you have to live by faith. God is the God of America and the God of Ghana, Nigeria, and India.’” In so doing, the people learned that God answers their prayers and not just the missionary’s. The Cassidy’s taught them to tithe and to be a steward of money. The result was great faith. “We watched them get things they had no way of getting, with no way to pay for it.”

For more than thirty years the Cassidy’s witnessed God’s provision for the ministry as they travelled back and forth to provide additional teaching and impartation. Today Mary Ann and her family carry on to take things a step further, a radio station that will broadcast to Muslim dominant countries. Before Bud’s death in 2006, God gave him a vision to carry the Gospel through communications.

Where No MaN GoesLeadership Training International

by: Mindy Wood

connection • 9

Their ministry is focused in perhaps the most spiritually strategic location for Africa: Jos, Nigeria. It’s a widely traveled city between northern and southern Africa and on the dividing line of the “10/40 window,” a term which refers to the most unreached and densely populated region in the world. While southern Africa is evangelized, northern Africa is nearly 90% Muslim. They hope to change that with radio.

“If I meet a Muslim on the street and I try to witness to him, he will run from me. If I give him a piece of Christian literature, he will throw it down so every Muslim sees him do it. If you knock on the door, the minute they see who you are they slam the door in your face because if anyone sees them talking to you, their lives are in danger and so is yours. Radio waves can go through doors that cannot be opened to us,” said Mary Ann.

When the station is complete with transmitters, they will have the potential to reach 126,268,892 people. They must do so carefully. Muslims do not intend to hear the Gospel. “We have to reach them in a way they will listen. We will have an educational license and talk about health, hygiene, crop growth, feature music and twice a day broadcast a live host with guests who will share how God healed their sick child, saved their business, helped their marriage, and more.”

With evangelism virtually halted, their vision gives them hope. “They can put headphones on and listen in their homes, in their cars and nobody knows. Even nomadic tribes and the little boys in the field herding cattle each have a small radio. It has no boundary except where there is no transmitter. We need $200,000 and it’s all we need to get started.”

Bud and Mary Ann Cassidy saw the need for more effective evangelism thirty years ago and allowed God to show them a better way. Today their family is birthing a vision to take the Gospel even further in perhaps some of the most difficult to reach places on earth. For more information, contact Mary Ann Cassidy for an informational DVD or subscribe to their newsletter, In Focus. (352) 732-3165 • [email protected]

Mary Ann Cassidy

10 • connection

I’ve read and heard that everything rises and falls on leadership. That without a visionary, strong, and committed leader things will inevitably fall apart. I agree, but some leaders have it harder than others. In fact, I’m willing to say that though it’s true that the individual organization will succeed primarily because of great leaders, I believe that organizations as a whole in the 21st century are suffering not simply because we have poor leaders, but because we have poor followers. A good friend told me once, what you sow in your life is what you get, unless of course it’s bad soil. This is true in any team, organization, relationship, even marriage - you harvest what you put in, unless the ground you put it in was no good in the first place.

It’s true that we need leaders (that’s why there are rows and rows of books trying to teach you how to lead and “release your leadership potential”.) But what if it’s not our turn to lead? What if this time we are supposed to follow? Who’s showing us how to be good followers?

It seems that we are always trying to get ahead. Even in studying leadership, we have pursued it to get ahead. It’s become an international disease, and it will be this reluctance (that has become a disability), that will bring every institution, even the well-meaning ones, down to its knees. As we invest in our capacity to lead, we have neglected (or avoided) the capacity for the other side of the “see-saw”. In fact, in recognition of our great need for good leaders, we have grown obsessed. And this obsession has sparked such a movement of building good leaders, that we are now finding ourselves without good people to follow.

The demand on leadership is higher than ever before. Strangely enough, it’s not because we’ve just all of a sudden found out that leadership is important, but because it’s getting harder to

lead teams that have grown more and more self-centered. You remember the old saying, “too many chiefs, not enough Indians”? Such as is our gigantic modern American problem. How do we lead a nation that doesn’t know how to follow?

I believe that every issue of disunity of a group has its roots in self-centeredness. Whether it be in the part of the leader, who does not put the needs of the group ahead of his own, or in the part of the individual group members, who want their way above everyone else including the current leader. More companies, churches, marriages, bands, and team in general split because of the inability to follow than any other reason. Today’s organizations consist of individuals chomping at the bit to get ahead, be recognized, and make a profit, and the only reason why they tolerate the team environment where they are presently following is because they believe that their current state is just a steppingstone for them to accomplish their personal agendas.

I am not trying to take the responsibility and accountability away from leaders. Leaders are supremely responsible for everything that happens while they hold the position, and sometimes even long after their posts have been relinquished. My goal is to shift the view of “team” from one extreme to the middle ground, where there is an equal sense of the ownership of responsibility and shared roles within the organization. Where the leaders are not off the hook, but neither is the rest of the group. All are accountable for their positions, titles, contributions, and expectations. It means that the boss does everything he needs to do to serve, protect, lead, mold, strengthen, and direct his people, but the team also does what they have to do to support, follow, submit, embrace the mission and vision of the leader.

follow

leaderthe

by: March Villareal

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) [email protected]

Ken Anderson Secretary/TreasurerPO Box 1120 Lexington, OK 73051(405) 527-6030 [email protected]

Robert JohnsonDirector of World MissionsPO Box 978 Blackwell, OK 74631 (580) [email protected]

Jerry EdmonBoard MemberPO Box 862 Elgin, TX 78621 (512) [email protected]

Dr. Ted Estes Vice PresidentPO Box 2248 Claremore, OK 74018 [email protected]

ExecutiveBoard

Regional Representatives

Inde

pend

ent

Ass

embl

ies

P.O

. Box

154

6A

da, O

K 7

4821

Independent Assemblies Connection

Documents

Transcript of Independent Assemblies Connection