Dear Pastor/Friends, 

I trust you are enjoying the excitement of the changing of seasons and all of the corresponding activity in our churches. It’s been a wonderful summer on the district…and now we are turning the page as our families return from vacation season, school is back in session, and our churches initiate new ministries. I know many of you will be attending the 2024 Ministers’ Forum at SNU on September 16-17.  CLICK here to see a helpful promotional video regarding the Forum and Childrens Ministry.

Thank you for your participation in the annual offering for Arrowhead Camp and Retreat Center, our district camp. It’s not too late to participate in this two-Sunday emphasis. Please see the promotional below for more information.

Everyone interested in church planting is encouraged to attend the upcoming church-planting seminar with Dr. Mark Bane, which will be held at Fort Worth Northside Church on September 20-21. See the promo below, and use the QR code for registration information.

Congratulations to Pastor Ted Taylor and his wife, Evelyn, for his outstanding 4-year review, which I had the privilege of conducting when I was there on August 18. Ted has been the lead pastor there for 32 years! His board gave him an enthusiastic and unanimous review.

By the way, the Hereford church board and their spouses shared a delicious meal after the service. Since Hereford is known as the “beef capital,” they treated me to a delicious Delmonico steak! It was awesome!

Below, please take note of the “Treasurer’s Chest” resources provided by our district finance officer, Connie Lincecum. Pastor Connie is developing outstanding resources that should be passed along by our pastors to their church treasurers. Also, Connie is making herself available to work with specific pastors, church boards, and congregations to help get a handle on the financial challenges facing our churches.

This past Sunday, Susan and I had the privilege of visiting our Dalhart church and joining with Pastor Rick Calvert as they dedicated their beautifully renovated building to the Lord.

The congregation presented Rick and Julie with a beautiful, handmade quilt to commemorate the occasion.

Finally, I want to wish a sincere farewell to Pastors Gavin and Jill Fothergill, our pastors at Amarillo Valleyview, who have recently accepted a call to the Shawnee church on the Kansas City District. They have been in Amarillo for four years and have done a great job. I met with the Valleyview board a couple of weeks ago, and I know the Fothergills will be missed…but their ministry is deeply appreciated. District-assigned interim pastor, Dave Menefee, will be serving as the Valleyview interim pastor/pulpit supply.



Thank you so much for granting me the privilege of serving this great district!

For you and with you,

Pastor David Downs

Oh, how we loved springtime in Korea! Winters brought harsh, cold weather…and, back in our days there, at least, public buildings didn’t have central heat. David’s classrooms at Nazarene Theological College had a coal-burning stove in the middle of the room, so those who sat nearby were toasty but everyone else froze.

Yet, after a long, dark, cold winter, the rebirth of earth burst forth in a dazzling array of vivid color and warm sun. We all tried to get outside as often and for as long as we possibly could when spring rolled around. It was on one such glorious spring day that David invited our then-kindergarten-age daughter, Kimberly, to ride the city bus with him on a shopping adventure to Tool Street in downtown Daejeon. (This city of 1.5 million people divided the streets of its shopping district according to what items they had for sale—Vegetable Street, Meat Street, Fabric Street, and on and on.)

All went according to plan until their return trip home. The bus came to a stop several blocks from our home, then the driver indicated that he would go no farther. He insisted that passengers deboard. As David and Kimberly exited the bus and it pulled away, turning in the direction opposite its usual route, David quickly realized the reason for the unwelcome detour. 

You see, springtime in Korea not only brought beautiful weather, it also brought a rite of passage for university students—the Student-Demonstration season. Initially, these demonstrations began to commemorate an uprising among the Korean population on March 1, 1919. On this day, protests sprang up denouncing Japan’s colonial rule over their country, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. One Korean estimate claimed 7,509 deaths and 46,948 arrests resulted from these protests. The university students continued this tradition, year after year, to bravely rebel against their occupiers, until, decades later, student demonstrations had become an expected practice for them to protest the injustices of their day—proclaiming any number of grievances against their federal government, the presence of the foreign military personnel in their country, or for somewhat lesser complaints against their school’s governance and leadership. The students from this particular Methodist university in Daejeon had gone so far as to burn down the school’s chapel in their protests.

It was into one of these violent clashes that David stepped, clutching Kimberly’s hand. Police in full riot gear and armed with tear-gas-propelling tanks, shields, and battering rams faced off against lines of students hurling Molotov cocktails, rocks, broken bottles, and whatever other weapons they could contrive. This was no place for a kindergartener and her pale-faced dad, but in order to reach our home, David would have to force his way through the angry mob. Sending an urgent prayer heavenward, he walked down the middle of this line of demarcation—students on one side, police on the other. Miraculously, as he crept forward with a firm hold on Kimberly, the students and police paused their fighting and, like the parting of the Red Sea, they made a way for them to pass. Once the pair reached the far side of the street, the fighting resumed in full force. (One of our sons actually brought an unexploded tear-gas canister, left over from the fray, into our home…but that is another story for another day!)

Weeks later, we received a letter from a member of one of our LINKS churches. She told of being awakened at a certain time in the middle of the night (mid-afternoon Korea time) with a pressing sense that she was to pray specifically for our family. Yes, as it turned out, she had been prompted to pray at the same time David and Kimberly climbed from the bus that spring afternoon.

Your prayers make a difference! Even though we may not always learn of the specific, miraculous ways God answers our prayers this side of eternity, He hears, and He answers!

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.” (1 Peter 3: 12a, NIV) 

Picture: The Downs Girls enjoying springtime in Korea!

A guide to open the riches of finance best practices.



We are continuing our conversations about our Annual Pastor’s Report (APR) with a desired outcome of ensuring our financial records are maintained and reported in alignment with the requirements of the APR so that our year-end process will be much smoother. As we defined Income as the basis of all our goals calculations, the first step is calculating Adjusted Income to determine our budget goals.  In the one-page Manual Calculation attached, we see Adjusted YTD Income defined.

We addressed Mission Specials in our last newsletter, but there are additional Missions Giving that fall into this category not paid through the General Treasurer. For example, contributions that are sent directly to a Compassionate Ministry Center, such as Cactus and Rescue Hill Compassionate Ministry Centers, are Missions Specials that are subtracted from Reported Income to derive the Adjusted YTD Income basis. 

These contributions must be captured in FTM using Point-To-Point Giving. Instructions for how to record this type of giving are provided in the FTM landing page https://www.nazarene.org/funding-the-mission/resources and also attached PDF.  These contributions are normally captured in Reported Income and then subtracted to derive Adjusted YTD Income when reported as Point-to-Point Giving.

If you need assistance, please contact me and I will guide you through the Point-To-Point Giving process. My hope is that our church financial processes and controls run seamlessly and allow for more focus on Kingdom work in our communities.

Trusting in His grace,

Connie Lincecum District Treasurer

(cell) 817-240-4474

connie@westexnaz.org

WTX KidMin Journey 

We are restarting our virtual small group for KidMin leaders on the district. This small group uses Facebook Messenger and Marco Polo to communicate. This fall we will be reading through the Resilient Child Discipleship by Valerie Bell. 

Children's Council Meeting - Saturday, September 14th 

We will be meeting in person at Generations Church and via Zoom. WTX Children's Council leaders are encouraged to attend. Any other children's pastors, directors or church leaders are welcome to attend as well. Only council members will be able to vote. Meeting begins at 8:30am. Zoom link will be emailed out that week. Please contact Jennifer Sommers if you need a link - jsommers@gen-church.org 

Meeting location:

Generations Church

2001 E Main St.

Crowley, TX 76036 

MinistrySafe Update -

We need to work toward ALL of our WTX District Churches renewing their MinSafe training for anyone who serves in youth or children ministries. If you serve with kids 18 years old or younger your MinSafe training must be updated every two years. We had a district wide push for this in 2022 so it's that time again to get this all taken care of. Below is an updated MinistrySafe explanation letter for you to review.

• MinSafe team update - Jen Sommers is now serving the following zones: Abilene, Amarillo, Arrowhead, Denton, High Plains and Lubbock. Mary Brewer is continuing to serve the Fort Worth, Lamesa, Metro Mid-Cities and Wichita Falls zones.
• MinSafe new invoicing - church leaders requesting MinSafe training links will be invoiced when training links are sent. MinSafe now charges us when we send out links instead of when links are used. Please try to get these invoices paid as soon as you can. These payments come out of our WTX children's ministry budget that we use to run our events (BLAST, quizzing, Kids Camp, etc.) We want to respect our ministry budget and continue to use it in the manner it is intended for.

Bible Quizzing kicks off for the 2024-2025 school year! 

I'm asking every church to complete the following steps on the pdf below, even if you have quizzed before. 

Please remember that quizzing is designed for 1-6 grade students but kindergarten students may participate through the district (BLAST) level but will not advance to regional or world quizzes. If you plan to participate in the zone quiz, you should plan to complete ALL 20 studies by early February. If you have questions please let me know.

Chriss Burke

WTX Children's Quiz Director

thecburkes@att.net

817-584-0245

Because Jesus loves Kids!

Jen Sommers

WTX Kids Director

jsommers@gen-church.org

Join us for an important informational meeting about the new USCIS 'Keeping Families Together' program! Learn how it can help your family, find out who can apply, and get your questions answered by Immigration DOJ representatives. Don't miss this chance to keep your family close. Tell a friend!