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May/June 2011 | Volume 3 Issue 1

A Year for Unprecedented Opportunities

calendar

Year fo edente tunitie May

IA Conference speakers Gracia Burnham www.graciaburnham.org Danny Wegman www.pathwayoflife.org

Workshops topics Multimedia for churches Ministerial Ethics Women in Ministry The church and tax laws Christian leadership for today Biennial Business Meeting Tuesday, July 12 at 9:00 AM Ordination and Presbytery Meetings to follow.

Special fellowship after Monday night service for youth and youth leaders

july 11-13 • 2011

Interstate Fellowship Meeting Monday, May 9, 2011 Calvary Temple Churh Edmond, OK Rev. Dale Drain (405) 348-2334 May 21-28, 2011 IA Haiti Missions Trip

June

Interstate Fellowship Meeting Monday, June 13, 2011 Vassar Full Gospel Church Mulhall, OK Rev. Ralph Yost (405) 649-2327

July

National Ministers Conference July 11-13, 2011 Embassy Suites Norman, OK

►For more information about upcoming events visit our website at www.independentassemblies.org

www.independentassemblies.org 2 • connection

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May/June 2011

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Contents 2

Calendar

4

Reaching Your Oikos

5

Communicating with Parents

8

In the Presence of My Enemies

10

The Power of Love

11

Board Members

Independent Assemblies PO Box 1546 Ada, OK 74821 (580) 310-0222

Independent Assemblies PO Box 1546 Ada, OK 74821 (580) 310-0222 Produced by Layers Media, Inc. www.layersmedia.com

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oiko

reaching your oikos

by: Mickey Keith

Jesus commissioned us to reach the lost, and He both modeled and taught a strategic formula that would facilitate that great endeavor.

Throughout the New Testament, when God’s Spirit changed a life, a world-changer was born. Whether it was a demon-possessed man, a swindler named Zacchaeus, a royal official with a dying son, a tax collector named Matthew, a Centurion named Cornelius, a businesswoman named Lydia, or a recently unemployed Philippian jailor, they all were sent back home to their oikos.

Oikos, the Greek word for “extended family,” encompasses our relational worlds.

It will include anywhere from eight to fifteen people whom God has supernaturally and strategically placed in our spheres of influence.

Those relationships not only frame our primary evangelistic targets, but in reality they must frame our primary ministry strategies for the church.

Our mission is simple--not easy, but simple.

Christians who believe that it’s their job to witness to everybody usually don’t witness to anybody! But when believers, representing any generation or culture, come to understand their specific evangelistic assignment, oikos becomes the great equalizer in any church…the simplest, yet most important common denominator in any ministry.

It doesn’t matter how you’re good-looking or unattractive, tall or short you might be. You may have money or you may be broke. None of this matters when it comes to being used by God to evangelize and disciple your `oikos’. Your ethnicity, theological background, language, and age don’t matter either.

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We all have people whom God has supernaturally and strategically placed in our extended families, our relational worlds. We are all Christ’s partners in world-change.

The Oikos is not an evangelism program.

It is essentially a worldview, a paradigm through which a Christ-follower evaluates life, its purpose and events. Not only is the oikos formula not new to the Church, it’s not new to yours. The overwhelming majority of the people in any local church came to Christ through an oikos relationship.

Ask yourself: “What was the primary vehicle that God used to draw me to Himself, was it someone in your oikos?”

The profound conclusion to draw from this simple exercise is that the oikos paradigm is already alive and well in every ministry.

Embracing the oikos phenomenon is not about introducing a new idea to any local church; it’s about accelerating it through intentionality.

The Church’s purpose was settled before its birth; our job is to simply execute it.

Christ’s Church is the only one He promised to build. His is the only one that will overcome the gates of Hades. His is the only one worth serving.

We can never afford to think so highly of ourselves that we believe the Church is ours, or we run the risk of fulfilling the Great Nomission.

The parameters of our mission objectives were clearly articulated by our Commander-in Chief: We are here “to seek and to save those who are lost.” By definition, all Christ-followers have one thing in common; they actually follow Him!

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comm unica ting parents

When it comes to partnering with parents, as student ministries there are a number of ways we can end up wasting our time. We can waste our time in 1.) how we communicate and 2.) what we say to our parents. One of the things we’re learning is that information often gets tuned out, but strategy gets tuned in.

When it comes to their kids, parents are constantly bombarded with information. School newsletters, basketball team schedules, band trip instructions, report cards, permission forms etc.

The mountain of information is overwhelming.

There is nothing compelling or inspiring about the information parents get and so generally, overwhelmed parents tend to tune out as much of the information as they can unless they have to pay attention.

So why in an attempt to partner with parents, do student ministries waste time by just adding to the mountain of information parents receive? More and more I’m talking to student ministry leaders who, in addition to a schedule, have created series outlines, podcasts, videos, and discussion questions on the current series, a newsletter, or a daily updated blog. The frustration we feel: the vast majority of parents never access this information. What we’re realizing is that this information often is not

utilized and, quite frankly, just gets tuned out (no matter how cool my new series is!).

Strategy, however, tends to get tuned in.

Talk to a parent about who their child could “be” and how you want to get them there and they’ll listen. Talk to a parent about how your church is dreaming about ways that parents can make a difference in the life of their child in easy ways and they will want to know more.

Too much information often discourages today’s parent because it is all about what they should know that they don’t, and what their child should be doing that they aren’t. Chances are they already feel like a bad parent. Now they feel worse. No matter what information you shared, it’s the feelings that stick.

Strategy, however, encourages people to dream about who their child could be and how they could get there with your help. Strategy is about a plan and a vision for their family.

Strategy is about what we’re doing together and a clear plan to get us there. Once the strategy is made clear and repeated often, the information becomes much more compelling.

Do you relate to anything said here? What ideas do you have around communicating a compelling strategy? Are you resonating with parents or getting tuned out? connection • 5

A Year for

Unprecedented Opportunities â–ź

2011

independentassembliesfellowship

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July 11-13, 2011

Gracia Burnham She and her husband Martin were missionaries to the Philippines, when they were taken hostage

by Muslim rebels. Over the next year, even while forced to live in horrible conditions in mountainous jungles, Martin and Gracia witnessed to their captors.

During a daring military rescue, Martin was killed, and Gracia severely wounded. Over the last several years, Gracia has been raising her family, traveling, and encouraging believers to serve in cross-cultural missions. Her incredible story is told in the book, “In the Presence of my Enemies”.

Her story will inspire and challenge you.

Danny Wegman Senior Pastor of Pathway of Life Church in the Dallas Metroplex. Pastor Danny travels extensively, ministering in churches and encouraging pastors.

He has appeared on TBN, Daystar and Promiseland Television Networks. Through his leadership, Pathway has become a leading multi ethnic congregation in the city, feeding hundreds weekly, reaching out to hurting people in every walk of life. Pastor Danny has a powerful preaching style, and his Pastoral gift enables him to encourage with sincerity and humility.

Monday, July 11th 3:00 PM 5:30-6:30 PM 7:00 PM TBA

Check-in Begins Managers Reception Service: Gracia Burnham Youth Meeting

Tuesday, July 12th 6:00-8:30 AM 9:00 AM 10:30 AM 12:00-1:30 PM 2:00-3:00 PM 7:00 PM

Breakfast Workshops I Workshops II Lunch Missions Update Service: Danny Wegman

Wednesday, July 13th

6:00-8:30 AM 9:00-10:00 AM 10:30-12:00 PM

Breakfast Biennial Business Meeting Worship, Ordination and Presbytery Service

WORKSHOPS: Gracia Burnham- “Women in Ministry” • Gary Eby - “Multimedia in the Church” Greg Bond - “Church & Tax Law” • Danny Wegman - “Church Leadership” • Jerry Edmon - “Ministerial Ethics” connection • 7

in the presence of my enemies by: Mindy Wood

When life is rosy and sunny, when things just keep getting better all the time, it’s easy to have faith. God’s love and favor seem obvious as we smile and say, ‘God is faithful.’ What do we say when the sky grows dark and the wind howls and the rain floods? When the unthinkable happens we find ourselves inevitably at the crossroads of faith and doubt, of joy and bitterness.

Gracia and Martin Burnham’s faith would be severely tested. In May 2001 the happy couple were celebrating eighteen years of marriage on a romantic resort in the Philippines. It was an unusual treat for the missionary couple.

For the past 14 years Martin flew in supplies for missionaries and helped with medical evacuations while Gracia manned the radio and home educated their three children. In the wee morning hours, men armed with M16’s burst into their hotel room and demanded they follow them.

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Life as they knew it would never be the same.

They soon learned their captors were the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group with ties to a madman all Americans would soon know, Osama Bin Laden.

They declared holy war, capturing twenty people.

Many of them died in the first few months, either by beheading or crossfire. They were “pawns in the dark drama of a desperate face off.”

Their captors led them into one violent gun confrontation with would be rescuers after another. “For the next year, we lived with the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Basilan – running from the military, sleeping out in the open, starving, bathing in rivers, watching the atrocities that this group of men inflicted on others, all the while wondering if we would ever see our homes and families again,” said Gracia.

As the days turned into months, the torture of the unknown was almost maddening. “I think

that’s the hardest part of a trial,” said Gracia.

“You don’t know when it will be over or if you have the strength to endure it. Several times during that year I decided I’d had enough.

They could kill me if they wanted to but I was finished! Martin would ever so gently encourage me. ‘Gracia, what would the kids say if you could pick up the phone and talk to them right now? They would say, ‘Keep going today, Mom, cause tomorrow you might get to go home’. God only knows what I would have done without Martin’s encouragement.”

The hostages encouraged each other, shared what little food they could find, and told stories to pass the time but Gracia was dealing with her own heart. “There were times I hated them. I saw a me that I didn’t like. I always thought I was a good person. I was a missionary, I’d given up the American Dream but I saw a me that shocked me. I saw the ugliness in me, all the sin floating to the top. I saw a covetous Gracia.

When we were starving and I saw someone with food, I would covet what they had. I saw a despairing Gracia when I would think, ‘Nobody cares about us anymore. This has gone on for so long that everyone has forgotten us!’ I saw a faithless Gracia when I wrote on a scrap of paper, ‘God is pleased to have me suffer and I’m tired of it!’”

Although they knew mighty prayers from friends and families where being offered, her doubt railed against her faith in God’s word.

“I remember that verse in Psalms when David said, ‘I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.’ We had just begged for food that day and I thought ‘how does that verse fit in with my life?’ We felt abandoned by God but we decided it was true or it wouldn’t be there. Even now when I feel discouraged and lonely, I know I can’t live my life based on how I feel but on God’s Word because that’s the only eternal thing to hold onto.”

Slowly her heart began to turn in spite of the roller coaster of emotions she experienced. “I remember one day I was very angry at Musab, he was the supposed spiritual leader of the group and I didn’t like him from the beginning.

He’d given us an extra load to carry up the mountain and I was so angry with him but all

of a sudden the verse from Hebrews, ‘let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us.’ The weight wasn’t the extra stuff that we carried but it was anger, the sin I carried.

‘Run with patience the race that God sets before you.’ The race that day was getting up and down the mountains, looking unto Jesus who for the joy set before him endured the cross and shame.

He carried a heavy load up a mountain for me and if He carried a burden He had no business carrying for me because He loved me then I can get this weight up this mountain and put my anger aside.”

As Gracia saw her own need for God’s grace, she saw her captors in a different light. “We came to realize they were lost, hurting boys. They were sinners in need of grace like me and slowly love began to grow in my heart as God taught me grace again.”

Her greatest trial would come just after their 19th anniversary. After miraculously surviving sixteen gun battles, the last one hit with fatal consequence. A bullet sliced through Gracia’s leg as she hit the ground and searched for Martin.

“He was bleeding from the chest,” she said.

“We’d begged God to let one of us survive so our children wouldn’t be orphaned but as I lay there watching Martin die, I remember thinking it wasn’t the ending I would have written that day. Somehow I knew everything was going to be okay and that God was good.”

Gracia was freed and returned to Kansas where God began opening doors to tell her story.

Her book, In the Presence of My Enemies” hit the New York Times bestseller list and she wrote another, To Fly Again. She appears on national news, television and talk shows, in schools and hospitals in addition to speaking all over the world. She opened the Martin and Gracia Burnham Foundation, dedicated to assisting missionaries to unreached people groups.

“My heart is still on the mission field and I would count it a privilege to be able to return there someday. Until then, I take the opportunities I am given to challenge people to make their lives count for God’s glory. And I do it with joy!”

For more information visit www. graciaburnham.org or you can hear her speak at the IA conference in July. connection • 9

The Power of

by: Mindy Wood

R.L. and Billie Smith are in love. You can see the magic in the way they look at each other, how they act together, and the tenderness in their eyes as they exchange glances. Married 32 years, you’d never know to look at them that they once lived the misery of an unhappy, unloving marriage.

They married young, Billie a tender seventeen and R.L. a confident 21, living his dream of being a macho cop. Though not a Christian himself, R. L. wanted a godly wife like the devout grandmother who made a lasting impression on him as child. He found Billie at a Baptist church. “I posed as a Christian and like most men with a lot of issues I was looking for a good woman to fix me.”

The results were disastrous. “I grew up in a volatile household. I was molested at age five and all those issues surfaced. I became physically and emotionally abusive and I was an adulterer.” By God’s grace Billie stuck it out.

“I don’t know why I stayed but even though neither of us had the best examples growing up, both our parents instilled into us that you never get a divorce. I made a commitment to him before God, a covenant and I wasn’t going to break it,” she said.

Billie, their son and daughter kept praying for R.L. He returned to church, got to know the pastor, but his issues this time threatened his career on the police force. He was desperate for change and after assuring the pastor he needed salvation, R.L. surrendered to Christ late 1997.

Their lives completely changed. Three years later they were ministering and the marriage was on the mend but R.L. was keeping a dark secret. “You’d be surprised how many pastors told me that my adultery was forgiven and I didn’t need to tell her.” It continued to haunt him until one night Billie felt the Lord prompt to her ask the big question. R.L. had asked God for a way to tell her so he pleaded with God for 10 • connection

R.L. and Billie Smith

strength as Christ’s words echoed: the truth shall set you free.

The news of his multiple affairs devastated Billie. “The truth will set you free but I was a captive because for over nineteen years the marriage was a lie.” Her health plummeted as she bore the painful burden. First depression and suicidal thoughts and then Crohn’s disease. “I was physically, mentally, and emotionally sick.”

The cure would be forgiveness. “I really thought I forgave him but I hadn’t. The Holy Spirit gave me a choice of either divorce or forgiveness and I knew I had to forgive him as God had forgiven me. Did I want to be bitter? I stopped holding it against him and that day I finally knew peace.”

A year later, all of Billie’s symptoms vanished as God resurrected love and trust.

They attended marriage conferences and gained extensive education, knowing they had a story to tell. They founded their ministry, “The Marriage Connection” which they take to churches and ministry groups all over the United States. The plans that Satan meant to harm them became his greatest nightmare as they boldly and humbly tell their stories.

“Our mission statement is ‘Investing in marriages, changing future generations,’ and we do that with interactive, fun workshops but also by telling our story,” said R.L. “No one wants a bad marriage but you have to work at it. A plumber gets six months training for his work but you can marry anyone off the street tomorrow. We need training too.”

To find out how to strengthen your marriage or to book them for ministry to couples in your congregation, visit www. themarriageconnection.net

Executive Board Mickey Keith

President PO Box 1546 Ada, OK 74821 (580) 310-0222 mickey.keith@gmail.com www.life623.com

Dr. Ted Estes

Vice President PO Box 2248 Claremore, OK 74018 (918) 341-8344 pastorted@lifechangerchurch.com www.lifechangerchurch.com

Ken Anderson

Secretary/Treasurer PO Box 1120 Lexington, OK 73051 (405) 527-6030 kda@valornet.com www.libertygospelok.org

Robert Johnson

Director of World Missions PO Box 978 Blackwell, OK 74631 (580) 363-2734 roj@clarionmissions.org www.clarionmissions.org

Jerry Edmon

Regional Representatives Southeast Oklahoma District Rev. Billy Hunter Antlers, OK (580) 298-2740 Southwest Oklahoma District Rev. Donnie Miller Cyril, OK (580) 464-2224 (580) 512-3657 Northeast Oklahoma District Rev. Mac Blackwell Locust Grove, OK (918) 479-6057 Southeast Texas District Rev. Herb Hawthorne Baytown, TX (281) 723-2278 South Central Texas District Rev. Jerry Edmon Elgin, TX (512) 281-5316 Midwest Regional District Rev. Mark Maynard Granite City, IL (618) 931-4106 Arkansas District Rev. Charles Kendrick Alexander, AR (501) 303-0831

Board Member PO Box 862 Elgin, TX 78621 (512) 281-5316 Jedmon1234@aol.com www.fwcelgin.com

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www.independentassemblies.org

Independent Assemblies P.O. Box 1546 Ada, OK 74821