NEO Southern Nazarene University Sunday – April 18 Celebrate at your local church: We would ask every church to use one of the inspiring SNU videos (under the “SNU Sunday” dropdown menu at https://snu.edu/church-relations/) in your morning service and include the University, President Newman, administrators, faculty, staff and students in your prayer. It would be a good time to thank your church for their faithful giving to support the mission of SNU. Celebrate with your District family: Sunday evening, April 18 at 5pm, we will have a District-wide service at Tulsa Central with University Singers, the SNU worship group Truth, and Rev. Dr. Lena Crouso speaking. Dr. Crouso serves as the Chief Diversity Officer in the Office of Intercultural Learning and Engagement, and she is also an ordained Elder in the Church of the Nazarene. Dr. Crouso is the daughter of Asian-Indian immigrants and has an amazing testimony of her journey from Hinduism to Christ. Welcome......

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Dear NEO family, We are in the season of Lent and a few days from Holy Week. I pray that it will be a time of renewed faith and hope in your life and in the life of the NEO churches. One of my favorite hymns, “And Can It Be”, tells the story of Good Friday and Easter: Read More   Praying for New Start Churches Will you join us in praying for God to guide us as we seek to start new churches in Cushing, Grove and Glenpool in the coming church year? We need God to provide the pastors, leadership team, finances and timing. 2021 Calendar Changes District Assembly & NMI Convention – July 30-31 at Tulsa Central Church! NYI Extravaganza at SNU – May 27-29 Youth Camp – June 1-5 Kids Camp – July 23-26 Please put this on your church and personal calendars. NEO Southern......

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Dear NEO Family, I have been so proud of our TEAM again this month. Let me tell just a few of the reasons: Pastors and leaders are crying out to God and are reporting a sweet sense of God’s presence in our worship times. The NEO Team came together and conducted a major makeover of the Skiatook Parsonage the last couple of months. Led by Jerry Wilburg, hundreds and hundreds of volunteer hours were given. Pastors Danial and Carly Karnes moved into the parsonage on Feb. 27, although we still have a few projects left to complete. Your Board of Ministry (24 elders) interviewed 27 Ministers in Training this week. This was the first (and maybe the only) time we conducted our interviews by Zoom. Thanks to Jim Thornton, our District Secretary, and Marla Shepherd, our Office Administrative Assistant, the day went very smoothly. It was inspiring to hear the......

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Dear NEO District family, What a year we have had! Almost a year ago we began to hear about this new virus in China. We had no idea how much our world would be impacted. Add to that racial unrest, political turmoil, hurricanes, forest fires and now the ice and cold. It has been quite a ride! But the church has been resilient. We have adapted. We have learned new skills. We have leaned into the Word of God and the Spirit of God to find direction, hope and peace. We have found new ways to care for one another and to reach out in compassion to our communities. I know it has been incredibly discouraging at times, but you have persevered. I am so grateful for the faithful pastors and laity of the NEO District! Reasons to Celebrate Church/Pastor Reviews. Three of our churches had extremely positive church/pastor......

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2021 Calendar Changes District Assembly & NMI Convention – July 30-31 at Tulsa Central Church! NYI Extravaganza at SNU – May 28-29 Youth Camp – June 1-5 Kids Camp – July 23-26 Please put this on your church and personal calendars. Think Little to Make a Big Impact by Lisa Lewis, Valley Church In the summer of 1940, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers found themselves trapped on Dunkirk, a beach in Northern France. They were cut off by the German military and it seemed inevitable that they’d all be killed or captured. Military destroyers were too big to get to the beach for a troop evacuation. And without these troops, Britain was left unbelievably vulnerable to Nazi invasion. Some feared this might cost them the War. But a creative, almost unthinkable plan was hatched – Read More.     NYI Leadership Training March 1-2 NEO will be joining together......

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Comparing Pastors Thom S. Rainer January 11, 2021 Comparisons of pastors have been around since we’ve had pastors. Paul wrote about it in 1 Corinthians 1:12: “Some of you are saying, ‘I am a follower of Paul.’ Others are saying, ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Peter,’ or ‘I follow only Christ.’” In the first part of the twentieth century, local church pastors were compared to well-known radio pastors. In the latter part of the twentieth century, they were compared to television pastors. Beginning in the twenty-first century, the comparisons were to podcast pastors. Read more Bristow’s New Pastor Pastor Biddle reports, “At Fellowship COTN, I have taken the approach that no one has ever heard of this church. Believing that Kingdom building is all about relationship, we have approached where we are in a two-pronged approach; internally and externally. Internally, we have restarted an adult Sunday school class,......

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NEO Family, It’s been a challenging week. Between continued stress and devastation caused by the pandemic and this week’s political unrest, our nation is hurting. How timely that our denomination’s leaders—the Board of General Superintendents—have called upon us to join with our Christian brothers and sisters around the world for a week of prayer and fasting for our hurting nation and world. I would love for every one of you to join me this week. Their full message and a prayer focus for each day are below. I saw a quote last week that I remember like this: All the darkness of the world cannot extinguish the light of one candle. Many of us held a candle in the darkness a few weeks ago as we celebrated the truth that Jesus, the light of the world, has come. The world cannot extinguish his light! And God’s plan is for......

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Opportunities for the Church in a Post-election Season Scott Sauls, author of “A Gentle Answer: Our Secret Weapon in an Age of Us Against Them” says: “I think it’s wonderful that whenever we have a presidential election, the next season we go into is a season of Advent, which emphasizes that the government will be on Jesus’ shoulders and of the increase of his reign in government there will be no end. He is the one that’s not voted out. He is the one that’s not dethroned. He is the one that doesn’t have a term limit. Read More Report on Abba Ministries God is continuing to change lives through Celebrate Recovery, Abba Homes and Manna House. Watch this short video and rejoice in the God’s work through your Compassionate Ministries Center. WATCH VIDEO Manna House is still distributing food using a drive-thru format. They are serving over 120......

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Be Strong and Courageous! Eight months of dealing with Covid-19 has taken a toll on us emotionally, physically, relationally, financially and spiritually. The suffering and uncertainly are real. We have had our share of personal anxiety and interpersonal quarreling. I have been reading in the book of Joshua this week and have been reminded that having our lives turned upside down is not unique to people who live in 2020! The children of Israel had left Egypt with an amazing act of deliverance, but then they wandered in the desert for 40 years (8 months of Covid-19 is hard enough!). During these 40 years they often grew angry at their leaders and questioned God’s ability to provide. As the book of Joshua begins, the children of Israel are told to take another bold step – to cross the Jordan River, trusting God to give them victory over the fortressed......

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