Fellowship Church History

I've finished the text of my new book, Forever Cry. It's a Historical Fiction inspired by my grandmother who grew up during the end of the Civil War and the Reconstruction. I've got changes to make, editing, etc. so it will not be out for a while. In the meantime, I thought you might find the history of Fellowship Church of Arkadelphia interesting - It's somewhat unique, to say the least. Pat

     In 1999, my wife Barbara and I returned to our home in Arkadelphia after traveling about America

  in an RV  for a year. We were looking for a church. We heard a new church was being organized in town, Fellowship Bible Church, with ties to Fellowship Bible Church Northwest in Springdale. A large industry, Rohwer-BF Goodrich was just getting started up in Arkadelphia. In fact, we had leased our home out to them while we traveled, to use for a hotel for their executives who came into town to train new employees. Some of the employees were transferred in from Fayetteville, and a number of them wound up in the new church. Michael and Shirlene Holloway were a part of that group. They were among the founders of the new church.

     One thing that attracted Barbara and I was the fact that they were pretty well like Baptists in their core beliefs, but they organized differently. The main attraction for us was the fact that the church was led by the “leadership team,” similar to the elder system.

     Lifelong Baptists, we had belonged to a string of three Baptist churches that had split, or become torn apart, by a seemingly insignificant disagreements between a member and the pastor, or between two prominent members, and this grew quickly. People started taking sides, and this eventually came down to a vote among the congregation, resulting with the pastors, whom we believed were good, Godly men, being dismissed. We were discouraged by the fact that many hurtful things were said between members on both sides of the question, and often the deciding margin in the voting came down to which side could bring in the most “members” to vote on the issue who were not really active, but they were there on vote day with bells on.

     There had to be a better way, I reasoned, but we were Baptists, and that's the way most Baptist churches handled these matters.

      Barbara and I attended the first corporate service of the new church. This was at the Wesley Foundation building at HSU, the first of many sites the church rented to hold services. We also met in homes, in small groups, which we then called “Community groups,” usually on Sunday night as we do today. Michael and Shirlene Holloway were our first group leaders, and they were wonderful. We were surprised to find that Michael had lived in our house for several months while we were traveling. Michael was the strongest lay outreach person I have ever been around. He talked to everyone he was around about our church, and many of his co-workers joined us through his efforts.

     One of the three founders was a preacher, but he was soon called to a pastorate in another city, so a guest speaker taught us each Sunday for a long time. On one occasion, a guest pastor was saying at the beginning of his message, “We should never be obsessed with numbers in our services---” and three of us leaders in the back quickly sat down. We were all up, counting heads!

     The congregation was very healthy, as we are now. Many wonderful, Christian people. We were growing quickly. But about the time we started searching for a pastor in earnest, and had enough money to pay one, trouble started cropping up among the leadership team. Pride and ego, once again.

We needed a wise pastor to lead us. I often confided in my son, Corey, about our problems and our pastor search. Years before, while he still lived here, he was a deacon at Richwoods Baptist Church and was on the search team that hired a great young pastor, Scott Jackson, to lead them. When I talked of our situation, he invariably said, “You need to hire someone like Scott Jackson. He is the very best at handling a growing church and conflict matters.”. I too, knew Scott, and I agreed. But he was now a seasoned, experienced pastor in Texas. We were still a small church with little to offer a pastor of Scott's caliber. But I also knew God could make it happen, if it was his will. I  called him a time or twobut his work there was not finished. I kept his number handy.

     The church soon outgrew Wesley Foundation, and we rented a larger space at what is now Turtle Point Golf Course.

     We eventually hired a great young man, John Sowers, who had never been a pastor before, but he had a huge heart for disadvantaged youth, and was known for his work at Hot Springs in that area. I knew in my heart that it was an extremely difficult position to put an inexperienced young man in, and we prayed he could help us overcome the problems that festered on the leadership team, Yet the problems  persisted. He was a great young preacher, though, and his services were wonderful.

     One of our leaders, Lynn Kershner, was deeply involved in the Kyros Prison Ministry. He and other Kyros team members would go into the prison periodically to train a selected group of prisoners in Christianity. Before each trip, he asked the church members to bake 100 dozen cookies for him to take.  He bagged these up, and personally delivered a package to each prisoner. He recruited several of us to go to the prison and conduct church services. John did a great job at this. He always prayed for hours prior to these services. Any prisoner who wished to could come to these services. I noticed no guards were ever present, and I found out that the Chapel Director, a prisoner, was the “baddest dude” in the prison, and other prisoners had no wish to make him angry.

     Two inmates who were in my small group one night got into a little game of trying to stump each other. One named a verse in the Bible, the other then must quote it. They always could do it. I asked how they could do that, and they told me, “The Bible is the only book we are allowed to take with us when we are put in the “Hole,” and we have lots of time.”

     We were told many times by the prisoners, “You could be anywhere in the world right now. Thank you for choosing to come here.”

      At the end of each three day training period, a “graduation” service was held. They sang many hymns, but the one they really showered down on was “I'll Fly Away.” Gave a fellow chill bumps. As they started filing out one night, I hugged each of the ones I knew as they passed by. Suddenly, I remembered. The prison speaker had said right before that, “If any of you touch a free-world person on the way out, I'll put you in the hole.” I sure hope I didn't cause that!

     Gobinathan, “Gobi,” was the first person baptized by the church. He attended HSU. Two months before graduating with a Masters Degree, he was diagnosed with cancer. Members of the church took turns taking him to Hot Springs for chemotherapy. When many weeks of treatment proved insufficient, Barbara stood up in our tiny church one Sunday and said, “Gobi needs to go to Houston for radiation treatment. I need $2000 by Friday.” She got it, along with an airplane ticket, and paid motel reservations.

      Gobi is now a healthy professor in his home country. He has become a strong Christian voice in a land of few Christians. He has a wife and daughter. A few days ago, our daughter wrote a sweet note on facebook about her parent's love. Immediately, a comment popped up from a world away. “I know all about your parent's love. It saved my life.” Barbara and I cried.

CONTINUED IN FOUR DAYS - THANKS FOR READING!