NEO District Assembly                         June 23-24 Leadership and Preaching Provided by General Superintendent, Dr. David Graves Friday, June 23 1:30-5:00pm – Team Reports, Business and Celebration; National Teacher of the Year, Rebecka Peterson 7:00pm – Assembly Worship Service; special awards and recognition Saturday, June 24 8:00am – Continental Breakfast Hosted by SNU and Dr. Keith Newman 9:00am – Team Reports, Business and Celebration 11:00am – Ordination Service with reception following   Register Children for Assembly Kids Assembly Kids (Pre-K thru 5th grade) activities will be only during the Friday evening service. Kids are welcome to join their parents in the Convention and Assembly. Register Children for Nursery  ...

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Congratulations Parsonage Family Graduates Pastor Austin Troyer, Tahlequah, Doctor of Ministry, Nazarene Theological Seminary Anna Victoria Ruiz, Tulsa Regency Park, Masters in Instructional and Academic Curriculum in Biomedical Education, University of Oklahoma Brooke Ferring, Tulsa Audacity, Bixby High School We are excited to announce that Open House for Pathways of Hope, our NEO Immigration Center, is this Saturday, May 6th, 12pm-3pm with a short presentation at 1:30pm. Kaleo Church, 525 N. Oxford, is hosting the Immigration Center.       District Assembly 2023’s theme is “Vision Reset” Tulsa Regency Park   /   June 23-24 We will focus on the four elements of this cycle in the reports of the Pastors’ and District Superintendent. You won’t want to miss this time of reporting victories and casting vision!!  ...

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Dear NEO Family, I love hearing how God is at work. Below are reports from a few of our pastors who are celebrating a great Easter and Holy Week: Pastor Drew Dinnel, Muskogee Church. We had had 132+ in attendance, 2 baptisms and a glow in the dark Easter egg hunt and experience. We are also looking at taking in 15 members: 11 new and 4 by transfer in the next few weeks. Pastor David Stevens, Vinita. We had 30 in attendance. A wonderful sense of the presence of God. Johnny Borgstrom sang a beautiful special song about the Blood. As we get close to the end of the year we will be celebrating all that God has done in our Annual Celebration of Ministries on April 23. Pastor Steve Spangenberg, Bartlesville. We have been blessed to be able to carry some incredible momentum into our Easter weekend this year. God truly anointed our......

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Dear NEO Family, I love this season of year. Of course, I love the beautiful Spring days, the flowers blooming, the trees budding and the grass turning green. But I especially love Holy Week and the chance to focus on the key acts of redemption history. I pray this will be a time for every NEO participant to experience anew the amazing privilege we have of being children of God and walking free of guilt and condemnation, made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus! Let’s exalt his name together! Here are a few more reasons to celebrate: Scott Moore, Broken Arrow – We have changed our name to Broken Arrow Connect Church of the Nazarene and have renovated the outside of our building. We are seeing growth spiritually and numerically as well. God is moving in Connect Church. Brad Farnsworth, Broken Arrow Core – We are celebrating the launch......

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Exponential 2023 Nineteen members of the NEO Family attended Exponential 2023 in Orlando last week with our New Start Coordinator, Ronnie Baker. They joined close to 400 other Nazarenes and 3500 participants in times of worship, prayer and teaching. The focus of Exponential every year is on the church multiplying through church planting. This year’s emphasis was on a renewal of evangelism and disciple making. We pray that those who participated will come home with new vision, new passion and new insights for helping us reach the lost and make disciples in NEO! God is at work in our world. Our desire is to join Him in what he is doing. For that reason we are taking seriously the call to prayer from Easter to Pentecost. How appropriate that that takes us into the month of General Assembly and NEO District Assembly. Our District Assembly theme will be “Mission......

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Church Camps are Life Transforming Church Leaders caught up with Toby Mac on the red carpet of the Dove Awards, where he shared that he wouldn’t be a Christian today if it wasn’t for a youth pastor inviting him to a summer camp. “I just want to say to all the church leaders out there that I would not be a Christian if a youth pastor did not reach out to me and love on me and invite me to a camp one summer,” he said. “He invited me, and it’s why I’m a Christian, and it’s why I make music that talks about the King.” NEO Summer Camps are only a few months away: Youth Camp, Completed Grades 7-12, May 30-June 2, New Life Ranch Primary Kids Camp, Completed Grades 1-3, July 14-17, Camp Bond Junior Kids Camp, Completed Grades 4-6, July 18-22, Camp Bond You can find......

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Exchanged Life Prayer Years ago, Mainstay Ministries introduced me to “The Exchanged Life Prayer”. As a part of a 50-Day Spiritual Adventure, participants were encouraged to pray these words at least daily for 50 Days. I found the practice extremely practical and helpful and have returned to the prayer over the years. Probably around a decade ago, we used this prayer across the district as a part of our Radical Together 40 day emphasis. I am pulling the prayer out to use personally during the month of January. I would encourage you to join me in using it to offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice to use as God desires, in awe of what the prayer affirms at the conclusion, “that the Creator/Lord of the universe now chooses to accomplish much of his work through people like me. Indwelling Christ– I consciously present my body to you to......

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Sunday I saw this “We are better TOGETHER” sign on the platform of our Hominy Church. But even better, I saw evidence of the truth of this as I visited three of our churches that day! It started at the 9am service at Tulsa Audacity Church. Pastor Ronnie Baker didn’t know I would be there, but he shared a video about Abba Ministries, one of the District Compassionate Ministry Centers, in the service. He highlighted the church’s giving to others, including Abba, World Evangelism Fund, Pensions and Benefits, Southern Nazarene University, and NEO District. He told of the church’s goal to give more than 20% of all they take in to others in the year ahead! Aren’t you thankful that our newer churches understand the importance of our connection! We are better together. It continued as I surprised Pastor Carl Brown and the Hominy Church by joining them for......

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5 Prescriptions for Building Thriving Churches By Kevin Harney, August 25, 2022 How we can bring life and health to our church and community I do not consider myself a prophet or a futurist. I am a local church pastor who longs to see the good news of Jesus permeate the church and transform our world from this day until Jesus comes again. As I focus on the future of the church, I write with humility and hope. These five reflections are not meant to be predictive but optimistically prescriptive. I have a suspicion that our changing world needs a church that will look both the same and very different from the church of the past. My prayer is that these reflections help you dream and work toward a future where the spread of the gospel actually increases and expands in the church and the community around us. READ MORE New Arrival......

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