Thanksgiving

In this season of Thanksgiving, I realize anew how much I have to be thankful for. I am thankful for God’s amazing grace and love, for my incredible family, for friends to play and pray with on the journey. And I am grateful to be a part of the NEO Nazarene family. We are partners together in the ministry of Christ. We join hands and hearts in the most exciting thing happening on our planet! It is my joy to work and pray alongside you. Gloria and I deeply love and appreciate you! May God bless you with a wonderful season of Thanksgiving. Grace and peace,  Dave

Welcome New Staff

Diana Meuller (Muskogee First) Children's Pastor with husband, Bob and children Erica, Adam, Ian, Owen, Eli, Olivia, and Abigail

Arlin and Jeannie Tyler (Tulsa Central) Worship Arts Pastor

Todd and Holly Barker with son, Easton (Tulsa Central) Youth Pastor

David and Kay Rogers Leaving Mannford

After much prayer, listening and evaluation, Pastor David Rogers has resigned as pastor of the Mannford Church. Pastor David and Kay have served the church for 6 ½ years.  David’s last Sunday as pastor will be Dec. 25, 2011. Join us in expressing our love and appreciation to this fine couple!

SNU Board of Trustees Meeting Recap

Geoff Gunter, Bud Lauhon, Kevin Lewis and I represented NEO at our recent SNU Board Meeting. The meeting was one of the best I have participated in for two reasons: 1. We participated in several stimulating sessions regarding Good Governance led by Dr. Robert Andringa. He shared many “best practices” that challenged us to think how to be more effective in our role as Trustees. 2. The innovative initiative adopted by our Trustees to create a Nazarene College Consortium with MNU (See announcement below). This is a significant step toward greater collaboration among our Nazarene Universities. Other highlights include: 1. Lives continue to be transformed at SNU! We are blessed to have a university that values and seeks a Christ-centered community. 2. SNU had a balanced budget for the 22nd consecutive year. 3. New facilities were opened in Tulsa and Bethany Campuses. 4. Everything is progressing smoothly for SNU’s move from NAIA to NCAA, Division 2. 5. Financial giving is up this year in educational budget, SNU Fund, Endowed Giving, etc. 6. With a recent grant of $800,000 from the Mabee Foundation to the Science Initiative, we hope to break ground on the 26,000 sq. ft. laboratory addition early in 2012. Phase I is estimated to cost $5.5 million.

MNU and SNU agree to form Nazarene College Consortium

November 17, 2011 In separate meetings this week, the boards of trustees of Southern Nazarene University and Mid America Nazarene University voted unanimously to form the Nazarene College Consortium (NCC) for the purpose of collaborating to create stronger and growing delivery systems for Nazarene higher education for the North Central and South Central regions. This follows conversations that have taken place across the past six months between representatives of each board. The goals of this collaboration are to increase enrollment significantly among students from Nazarene congregations and to generate significant cost savings in several areas of operational structure, with those savings redeployed primarily toward generating the intended Nazarene enrollment growth. While development of the NCC has been spearheaded by trustees, the administration of each school will be deeply involved in further planning and implementation.   Joint processes and structures will be developed to ensure significant new collaborative initiatives are in place.  However, the trustees have stressed that each school will retain its own identity, educational region, governance, administration, and finances.  The intent has been described as “forging a new collaborative model that responds to trends in higher education while honoring our educational mission and history.” Following the NCC’s formation, the presidents and boards of each of the other six Nazarene universities in the U.S. were invited to participate in any way and at any time they see fit.  All expressed affirmation and support, and several have already indicated strong interest in getting involved with the NCC soon. Representatives from each of the two boards – and possibly representatives from other Nazarene schools – will meet in December.

Designated Giving Policy Needed

Dr. McKellips joins with Stewardship Ministries in  recommending  that every local church adopt a designated giving policy that discloses how you plan to use designated funds. The way you handle them is your decision, but should be disclosed up-front to potential donors. Whether you decide that a portion of all designated contributions will be used to support denomination-wide ministries, or that you will use 100% of designated funds for the purpose designated and will donate toward denominational and district giving goals solely with general operating funds. A sample policy may be found at www.fundingthemission.org. Saturday, November 19 @ Claremore District Children's Invitational Quiz #2 Coaches meeting @ 9:30. Quizzing will begin @ 10:00. Please RSVP pastorjan@bfcnaz.org with number of Red Level and Blue Level quizzers and how many lunches for adults and children from each church. Awards will follow lunch. Welcome New Pastors Dr. Russell Hosey will be installed as Lead Pastor at Bartlesville First on Sunday, Nov. 27. Russell began his pastoral ministry in NEO, serving the church in Tahlequah. We welcome Russell and Linda back to NEO! Rev. Ned McCarty will be installed as Lead Pastor at Cushing on December 4.  We welcome Ned and his wife, Janet, and daughters Heather and Lindsay to the District!  UPDATE With the resignation of our SDMI Chairperson, Rev. Angela Bentley, I have appointed Rev. Steven Lester,  Lead Pastor at Tulsa Central, to be the new SDMI Chairperson, effective immediately. In 2011 we have already had turnover in our Children's and Adult Directors. It may take us a few days to get our bearings, but I am confident in Rev. Lester and believe he will help us begin to regroup and serve our churches in our mission of "making Christlike disciples" in NEO. Grace and peace,   Dave Thanksgiving Offering November 20th More information

From NYI President Ryan Amey

I would like to express my appreciation to all of you that came out and joined us Sunday night, Nov. 6, at our Fall Event!  We had a great turn out and a great time of fellowship!  Thanks to Rev. Michelle Proctor and Ken Thomasson for their hard work in putting this event together.  We had 172 attendees!  It was great to get together and laugh and have a great time with my NEO Friends!  What a blessing all of you are!  Happy Anniversary Please join us Sunday, November 20, 2011, for our 80TH Anniversary Celebration. We will celebrate with music, memories and our mission. Following the service we will have a buffet luncheon. We hope that everyone will be able to join us as we mark this historic event in the history of Silver Creek Church of the Nazarene.

The 212° concept is powerful. If you are not familiar with it, here’s the idea: At 211 degrees...water is hot. At 212 degrees...it boils. And with boiling water, comes steam. And steam can power a locomotive.        And, it's that one extra degree that...   Makes all the difference. So many times, in church and in life, it's that one extra degree of effort that separates the good from the great.  Attention NEO District NYI, we will be meeting together February 3-5, 2012 at New Life Ranch for a Winter Retreat! This will serve as a time for us to grow spiritually, develop deeper relationships with our students, and to get away from the daily grind and have some fun! Speaking will be Craig Shepperd, a youth/young adult pastor from Norman, OK. Leading us in worship will be Robert Click, our district admissions rep from Southern Nazarene University. The cost for each student will $100, the cost for each sponsor will be $75. Checks can be made out to NEO NYI. The deadline to register is Sunday, January 22nd. Church youth leaders, you can return the filled out forms one of two ways: 1) scan and email the completed forms to kenb@banazarene.org 2) mail the completed forms to 401 W. New Orleans, Broken Arrow, OK 74011. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at the address above or call me on my cell at 918-971-8205. One last thing, please join me in praying for this event and those who will be in attendance as we retreat to hear from our creator and build relationships with one another! --Ken Behrens, Youth Pastor   Broken Arrow First Church of the Nazarene click here for download

Horn of Africa Famine Response

The District Advisory Board challenged every church to receive an offering to help our brothers and sisters in the Horn of Africa. We urged you to try to send $1 per member and the District would match it up to $5000. As of Nov. 2, nine churches have submitted their offerings totaling $5344.66! We thank you for this generous response and the District has already sent in our matching offering. Sapulpa and Horton Chapel are leading the way in money given per attendee with $2,987.35 and $500 respectively.

October District Leaders

I Want to Celebrate. . . Gerald Burch, Coweta Point of Grace. . . Purchase of property across the street from the church for future growth – paid in full. New sign should be up in November. David Stevens, Vinita. . . October is one of those months that is low in attendance at Vinita. However, our service yesterday (last Sunday of October) was one of the best services we’ve ever had. God’s presence was so powerfully evident that I am humbled by His faithfulness. People are growing in grace and faith. It is an honor to serve the Lord. Brad Farnsworth, BA Connection. . . Record attendance of 210 on Grand Opening date! Casey Hollingsworth, Miami New Life. . . God's continued outpouring of His Shekinah Glory in our midst!  Where His Glory dwells, life change has to happen.  And we are seeing it in our people.  It's all about Him and His Glory! Joel Heid, Dewey. . . I want to celebrate... That prayer continues to be our focus.  Not prayer in and of itself, but prayer that is Biblical, lead of the Spirit of God, emphasizing faith and seeking the mind and will of God.  We are finishing with Daniel Henderson’s “Fresh Encounter’s” seminar and it is helping us to discover what is in the heart of God about genuine prayer, and it is helping us to be positive and dream about all God’s possibilities among us.  We know we must persevere in this, and resolve to keep asking, seeking, and knocking.   Also, we appreciate the Pastor’s Discovery weekend and the helpful focus that our Disitrct and denomination have taken in equipping and encouraging pastors in ministry. Steve Davis, Sapulpa. . . 10 attended Prayer Conference in Fort Worth Repeat new attendees finding a home here Greater unity in the body Three new adult small group studies Great fall children’s outreach Moving of God’s Holy Spirit in our services Monty Nichols, Muskogee. . . A successful Trunk or Treat!  Lots of our people came and set up and filled our parking lot, and we saw over 500 children, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends come through the event.  What an awesome experience to ‘give a piece of candy in Jesus’ Name!  Thanks to our people who came to volunteer their time and ‘trunk’ for this awesome event!  And Kudos to Diana Mueller, our Children’s Director who coordinated the event. Dan Hazelton, Pryor. . . We had over 300 children at our Trunk or Treat. Drive Thru Prayer has allowed us to pray with people that have never entered our church and one person was saved and is attending church regularly. James Wilson, Pawhuska. . . Gave Aid to 4 families this month, including a mother and infant coming out of a domestic violence situation. Have had an average of 16 children in children’s church this month, most of whom come from unchurched homes. Giving is up and we are making pleasing progress on our budgets. Scottie Behm, Chelsea. . . Our church celebrated Pastor appreciation by hosting a surprise dinner to coincide with the 1-year anniversary of our being called to the church.  What a wonderful group of people we have in this congregation; Sarah and I are so blessed to have the opportunity to share God’s love together with them. Jim Thornton, Tulsa Hills. . . The Bridge with SOCO seems to be going well.  Doug and I will evaluate it more this month. SUNDAY, NOV. 6 5:00 - 8:00 PM FIREY TRAILS IN SAND SPRINGS COST: $8 - BONFIRE, HOT DOGS, SMORES, HAY RIDES, GAMES, MUSIC, AND MORE. . .  Check out www.fireytrails.com for directions and site information  "Unwanted"

Did you see the article about in the Tulsa World about more than 200 East Indian girls whose names mean "unwanted" in Hindi choosing new names for a fresh start in life? The 285 girls - wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair - lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets from Satara district officials in Maharashtra state. One 15 year old who chose a name meaning "prosperity, beautiful and good" said, "Now in school, my classmates and friends will be calling me this new name, and that makes me very happy."

Aren't you glad that as a believer in Christ you get a new name? Your name used to be "unwanted", "unlovable" or "failure". Before you could chose Him, the God of the universe  sought you, loved you, redeemed you and claimed you as His own. Our your new name can be "adopted, loved, accepted, beautiful, good and righteous". A new name, a new identity, a new lifestyle and a new hope is our through Christ! And we have the joy of helping others receive a new name through Christ. What could be more fulfilling and gratifying!

Praise be to God!

Grace and peace,

  Dave

Coweta Point of Grace Homecoming

November 6

10:45 AM Service with Gary Nagle / Luncheon

6 PM Concert with Donnie Sumner 

Anniversaries

November 13th

Central Church

75th Anniversary

November 20th

Owasso Silver Creek

80th Anniversary

New Arrivals!

Carson Paul & Natalie Grace Clark

Grandparents Lowell & Marilyn Clark celebrated twin grandbabies on October 28. Carson weighed in at 6 lbs, 1 oz and Natalie at 5 lbs, 8 oz.

Sunnie Marie Isaacs

Parents Jason & Chrissy Isaacs welcomed their daughter on October 28. She weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz.

Gage Douglas Gunsalus

Parents Doug & Lecia Gunsalus welcomed their son on November 2.  He weighed 6 lbs., 13 oz., 19" long, and "is perfect" according to Doug!

Congratulations to all!

Date Change

Please adjust your calendar for the dates of our NYI Winter Retreat. It will be held Feb. 3-5, 2012 at New Life Ranch