Evangelical Friends Church - Mid America
Evangelical Friends Church - Mid America Yearly Meeting Website
Gerald and Deloras Mendenhall, pastors of Oasis Church in Dodge City, shared an article with us this week that was published in the December 2016 Dodge City Daily Paper. Excerpts of the article are included here:
Fred Utter Jr. is a relatively new resident of Dodge City and he’s happy despite the challenges he’s had in the past.
“After my last stint in jail, I came to Dodge City with nothing but the clothes on my back,” he said. “However, I got involved with a local church and some groups have helped me out and I have this job” (as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army).
“I enjoy every day ringing the bell. I’m free, clean and sober, the sun is out, people are friendly and I get to listen to holiday music. I enjoy every second of it.”
Oasis Church Pastor Gerald Mendenhall met and befriended Utter in 2013 – before he went back to jail – and was the first person Utter called upon arriving in Dodge City.
“The church and the Salvation Army are my family now,” Utter said. “I had a choice when I left jail as to where to go. I could’ve returned to Joplin, Missouri where I have some family, but they are still using, so that was a no. So, I figured I had a decent foundation in Dodge City and the people are nice, so I came here with nothing. Best thing I ever did.”
– Adapted from article originally published here: http://www.dodgeglobe.
Please see the following update about the ministry of Joel & Blanca Mayorga, the new pastors of Iglesia Amigos Emporia.
We give infinite thanks to God for allowing us to come minister to the church in Emporia. We arrived March 15, and have been staying in Wichita in a house provided by the Zortman family. We are so thankful for the ways God has been providing for our needs!
Our two main leaders at Iglesia Amigos Emporia are Yanira and Marleni, two women who have shown perseverance in their prayers and work on behalf of the Church and the Lord. They have met nearly every evening for the past two years to pray for God’s work to continue among Spanish-speakers in Emporia.
Even though we are living in Wichita, we have been very active in ministry on the weekends. In the past few months we’ve visited several members in their homes, held worship services on Sunday afternoons, helped to plan and run VBS in August and have been working alongside the people from both Iglesia Amigos Wichita and Iglesia Amigos Emporia to refurbish a mobile home where we hope to live as soon as mid-October.
We are giving thanks and praise to God for every person he has allowed us to minister to in the short time we have been here. At our last worship service, we had 25 in attendance! We are looking forward to see what God will do once we have moved to Emporia!
On a more personal note, we’ve enjoyed fellowship with Friends at Ministry Conference, in our Northeast Area gatherings, at Family Camp, and our brothers and sisters at Iglesia Amigos Wichita and Emporia Friends Church. We feel very loved! We’ve had a lot of firsts as we transition to a new culture and language, our first English language class taught by Charlene Littlefield,
and our first taste of waffles—which we love!
Here are some pictures so that you can share in our adventures!
– Joel and Blanca Mayorga, Pastors at Iglesia Amigos Emporia
How is your church investing in Leadership Development for the future? Do you have anything in place to encourage young people towards a life of ministry, service and calling? Kaleo (“to call”) Academy would like to come alongside your church in helping develop high school leaders for the Friends Church, and most importantly, for the Kingdom of God. Kaleo Academy is a National Friends Youth Training for students entering their sophomore, junior or senior year of high school in the fall of 2017 and is sponsored by Barclay College. The Academy is a 10 month program which includes: a week long Theology Camp on the campus of Barclay College (June 25 – July 1, 2017); a supervised Mentor Program to walk alongside the student and mentor from your local faith community; an Online Learning Community with students, mentors, and Friends teachers/leaders; and the Released Project directed towards 50 hours of student service learning.
Kaleo Academy Staff is interested in visiting your local church or your Yearly Meeting Region and presenting a workshop on how the program can take place in your congregation. If you are interested in more details, please contact Kaleo Academy Director, Brockie Follette at brockie.follette@barclaycollege.edu or 620-862-5252 ext. 26.
The group that formed around George Fox and started the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) were known as the Valiant Sixty. Those early Quakers were young and passionate in telling people about Jesus, the One who can speak to every person’s condition. We are looking for the new Valiant Sixty; young people who are ready to answer the call and help lead the Friends Church into the future!
Visit our website for more information and to apply: http://www.barclaycollege.edu/kaleo/ Applications are being accepted now through January 1, 2017.
– Brockie Follette, Kaleo Academy Director
Most transformational organizations, religious or otherwise, are launched with a certain ethos and energy that starts with a seminal vision/idea and swells like a wave to impact society around it. Take the Celtic Christians, the Moravians, early Pentecostalism, and closer to our time, the Vineyard, for examples of dynamic movements that have had global impact. It is perfectly true to say that most groups that have impact on either a local, national, or international level almost always begin with a form that sociologists call a movement. That is, there are some common characteristics that mark off the early phase of dynamic social movements that are distinct from the social structures of the later institutions that arise from them. This is as true for ecclesial, para-church, and mission agencies, as it is for corporations, community projects, political parties, and many other secular organizations.
However, in the midst of the rapid change and hyper-growth of almost everything around us, we as the Church have almost lost our voice to impact the culture. Now more than ever, what is “new and improved” becomes “old and worn out” in just a fraction of the ti
me. This dramatically impacts the mission of the church. As leaders responsible for our generation, we simply cannot expect significantly different outcomes using outmoded understandings of the church and culture. If churches are not prepared for what is here today, how will they respond to what lies ahead? So the good news is that we can become the church as it was always meant to be – a rapidly spreading, high impact, movement. We need not settle merely for striving in this rapidly changing world; Jesus’ people can actually thrive in it, and God willing, even redirect it. But if we are to do so, we will have to change. Our Heavenly Father has given us everything we need to get the job done.1
Church multiplication matters! First of all, because the church is the bride of Christ, but also the church is God’s intended vehicle to advance the gospel and grow believers into the image of Jesus. New churches matter because they are the most effective of all churches in reaching the lost around us. New church planting is no longer on the fringes of church life. It is now an anticipated and even preferred destination for new church leaders. It must be a priority for denominations, networks, and local churches. In our Friends Church movement our response to this challenge is a new non-profit organization that we have chosen to call, Multiplication Catalyst Ministries, or MCM Associates, which is easier to say! Persons wiser than I have rightly recognized, that a committee or a board sometimes paralyzes the movement of God’s Holy Spirit. Although you see, we are not planting churches so much as we are planting a movement; the movement of the Friends Church! We will identify, train, empower and champion any ready churches and Friends regions in North America over the next few years. Our mission is to reanimate a church movement by deeply embedding “a go with Jesus!” challenge into our local ministry culture.
With momentum coming out of our 2016 National Friends Church Multiplication Conference, my task along with our EFC-MAYM Home Missions Team, is continuing to oversee our new church planting projects, and also working with MCM Associates to complete the not-for-profit ministry incorporation, and raising future funding support, while actively recruiting regional point catalysts’ from each geographical entity across America. Once incorporated here in the state of Kansas, with Barclay College as the formal address, the core team of active apostolic leaders including Jim LeShana, Vice-President at Barclay College; David Byrne, Executive Director of Coalition of Hispanic Ministries; Mike Dennis, Pastor of Riverbend Friends in Tecumseh MI, and an EFC-ER Multiplication leader; Tom Palmer, former new church planter and leader in Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends; Thayne Thompson will bring his experience, enthusiasm, and business background in as Treasurer; and I will be leading this new
vision. Please pray with us, and also as God leads, challenge your local congregation to make a monthly financial commitment to this ministry. Make these pledges payable to MCM, and send them directly to Thayne Thompson at 807 N Timberleaf Dr. in Derby, KS 67037. Reap the blessings!
– Randy Littlefield, Associate Superintendent of Multiplication Ministries