June 15, 2022
Dear Pastor/Friends,
 
The most importance events that take place on our district each year are youth and children’s camps. Many, many young people have committed their lives to Christ during these great events over the years. Our youth camp is underway right now with a full house of over 400 teenagers. I was on the grounds yesterday for the NYI elections and was so pleased to see the wonderful week that the kids are enjoying. The altars have been filled every service as speakers Rob McCorkle and Jeremiah Bolich present the Word to our precious teenagers. Especially, I want to thank all of the youth pastors and adult sponsors who are working so hard, and sacrificially, to make this week possible.
Congratulations, also, to Michael Preston who was elected NYI District President and to Rebecca Aleman who was elected NYI Vice President. They are pictured here with the rest of the new council. They are in our prayers as they lead the outstanding youth ministries of the West Texas District.
We are all still very grateful for last week’s awesome family camp. Speaker Susie Shellenberger was beautifully anointed of the Lord. There was such a great sense of unity and encouragement throughout. We are grateful for all of the workers who helped make the event such a success. This includes musicians, sound-booth workers, the security team, children and teen ministry leaders…and many others.
Special thanks and admiration are particularly due to Sandra and Terry Porter, Camp Arrowhead directors. They’ve done a wonderful job leading through the pandemic. The campgrounds were awesome again this year!
Susan and I were tremendously surprised by the special recognition and reception celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on Thursday evening. It was a rare occasion when I was actually speechless. We are so very, very grateful for your generosity and for the love and support we enjoy among our district family!
I’m very thankful for the good statistics that we shared at the District Assembly. Particularly, I’m grateful for the large number of people who gave their hearts to the Lord in our churches this past year as well as our churches' great record of giving to others. However, I am concerned about our local church membership.
Understandably, a number of our churches took the opportunity presented by the pandemic to update their membership rolls and hundreds of people who are no longer a part of our churches (some of them are in heaven) were dropped from our membership rolls. In the meantime, a relatively small number of members were received by churches over the past two years. Our membership has actually dropped below 10,000 people.

Local church membership is an important part of our denominational and local church polity. Also, it is a tremendous opportunity for our pastors to train laity and to encourage spiritual growth, commitment, and congregational participation.
Pastors, this responsibility lies squarely on our shoulders. I believe it would not be unrealistic for us to plan to take in as many as 1000 new members this coming year. I’d like each of our churches to make an effort in this direction.
Pictured below is the new membership class at Fort Worth Northside Church under the leadership of Pastor Lynn Nichols. We welcome them to our church family! Pastors, please take photos of your membership classes and send them to me so we can all rejoice with you this coming year.
 
For you and with you,
 
Pastor David Downs
Dear Pastors and Children’s Ministry Leaders,

The Board of General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene has made a formal statement regarding our policy regarding sexual misconduct. “The Church of the Nazarene has adopted a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with minors. All workers, leaders, and pastoral staff are to be above reproach in their conduct and to act in the best interest of others. This requires not only that they themselves refrain from engaging in any abusive or suspicious behavior involving minors; they will also be required to report without delay to the proper authorities anyone seen engaging in such behavior.” The Board of General Superintendents (statement from M11 conference in Louisville)

The West Texas Children and Youth Ministries partner with MinistrySafe for our online sexual abuse training. MinistrySafe is a tool to help churches begin the process of protecting the children and youth in their ministries. The West Texas Ministry Safe Training Team (MST) will be working with each church on the district that ministers to children to begin (or update) this process at their local church.

We will be taking the following approach.
Step 1 – Every Senior/Lead Pastor communicates with the West Texas Ministry Safe Training Team (MST) a list of pastoral staff, leaders, or volunteers who minister with children or youth (18 years of age or younger). All Senior/Lead Pastors are required to complete the training regardless if they directly minister to children/youth or not.
  • Provide First/Last Name, working email, preferred language, and identify if Sexual Abuse Awareness Training (AWT) or Skillful Screening Training (SS) is required.
  • Please note, Skillful Screening is required for all senior/lead pastors and anyone who screens/hires/fires staff or volunteers who will be ministering to children/youth.

Step 2 – The MST will send a training email to each person’s email provided from Step 1. This email will include a link for each individual to complete the training. If there are individuals who do not have a working email, the senior pastor (or delegate) can contact the MST to discuss an alternative approach for training.

Step 3 – Each individual will open the link provided (open the link only once). They are to watch all seven videos and then complete the online quiz. This will take approximately one hour to complete the entire process for Sexual Abuse Awareness Training. (Senior Pastors are provided a separate link to complete the Skillful Screening Training).

Step 4 – The MinistrySafe system will notify the MST that the training is completed. The Team will update records and notify West Texas Kids Treasurer to initiate payment from local churches.

Step 5 – West Texas Kids Treasurer, Candace Clem (txclem1@gmail.com), will coordinate with each local church to pay for the training. (Training costs $5 per MinistrySafe Awareness Training; $50 for Skillful Screening Training).

The MST is prepared to work with you as you conduct this process on the local level. See team contact information:

Mary Brewer - 817-915-5034 mzolabird@gmail.com Zones: Fort Worth, Lamesa, Metro Mid-Cities, Wichita Falls

Connie Lincecum - 817-240-4474 clincecum@fwfnca.org Zones: Abilene, Amarillo, Arrowhead, Denton, High Plains, Lubbock

Jennifer Sommers – 817-919-8078 jsommers@fwf.org
 
Regards,
Jennifer Sommers
West Texas District Children’s Director
Our district bookkeeper, Griselda Sierra, has prepared the West Texas District 2022-2023 "Funding The Mission" report as of June 14, 2022. Pastors, please pay close attention to your church's contributions so far this year. Please make every effort to encourage your people to faithfully maintain their giving for others. 

Click here to download the report.
KIDS MINISTRY
Want a camp shirt? Make sure you are registered by July 3rd. This is for ALL campers, sponsors, staff and CREW.
More details coming to your inboxes soon!
Special thanks to all those that came out to help with Family Camp this past week and the leaders that helped us get the volunteers there! We appreciate your service to the children and families of West Texas.  
NDI
ARROWHEAD CAMP
DISTRICT RESOURCES
[806 Airport Fwy., Suite 206, Hurst, TX 76054 ]  [817-479-8611]  [westexnaz.org]