Oklahoma church planted to ‘take the Kingdom across I-35’

Harold Shank, an elder of the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Edmond, Okla., speaks to members of the Church of Christ at Oakdale during Oct. 3 services at the Memorial Road church. (Photo by Erik Tryggestad)

Blogging live from Edmond, Okla.
Members of the Memorial Road Church of Christ sent off about 100 of their brothers and sisters with encouragement and prayers during worship services today.
On Oct. 10, about 25 families from the 2,200-member congregation will meet together as the Church of Christ at Oakdale. The newly planted church will assemble at Oakdale School, about 10 minutes southeast of Memorial Road’s building.

Harold Shank gives a charge to Darrel Sears, minister for the Church of Christ at Oakdale. (Photo by Erik Tryggestad)

“Today we are experiencing a moment of biblical proportions — straight out of Scripture,” said Mark Taylor, Memorial Road’s pulpit minister. He cited the church planting done by Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13 and said that “men and women of faith are willing to take spiritual risks … to step out and do what God is calling them to do.”
The new church will “take the Kingdom across I-35,” Taylor said. The new church will serve the Oakdale community, a growing Oklahoma City suburb east of Interstate 35.
“We’re going to rejoice when we hear about families baptizing families that live right next door to them,” Taylor said.
Darrel Sears will serve as the new church’s minister. He and his wife, Beth, came to the Oklahoma City area from the East Point Church of Christ in Wichita, Kan. (Darrel, a die-hard Kansas Jayhawks fan, jokingly lamented moving to Oklahoma Sooners territory. He equally lamented the Jayhawks’ 55-7 loss to Baylor University on Saturday.)
“We’re going to be close, sister congregations,” Darrel Sears told members of both churches. “May we be Christ- and Spirit-led. … May we always strive to be the church of Christ … wherever we may be.”
More information about the church plant from Memorial Road’s bulletin:

Initially, the new congregation will conduct Bible classes and worship services at the Oakdale School located near the intersection of Sooner and Hefner Roads in northeast Oklahoma City. Back in July, 2009, Oakdale purchased five acres of vacant land at Air Depot and Hefner Road for future use.
After years of planning and prayer, a group began meeting for worship and adult class in The Summit (a building on Memorial Road’s campus) in March, 2010. Various Memorial Road members provided preaching and teaching for the growing group. A commitment time in June helped solidify the core membership.
Oakdale’s core vision says “We will exist primarily to share the Good News with those around us. This will be each believer’s task.” Oakdale’s aims are “loving God and loving our neighbors.” The congregation will help Christians grow and mature in their relationship with God and seek to connect their neighbors to the Church so they can begin or renew a relationship with God.
We launch Oakdale with our blessing and our prayers. We believe God can and will do great things through this new congregation.

Members of the Church of Christ at Oakdale and supporters gather onstage as members of the Memorial Road Church of Christ crowd close to them for a prayer at the conclusion of Memorial Road’s Sunday worship. (Photo by Erik Tryggestad)

• Feedback
  We are praying for your new church start! What a wonderful opportunity. We have visited your group twice as you prepared to call your pastor and then we got to hear him. (We are family of Jonathan and DeShawn Heusel and live in Midland, TX).
  Blessings, Jane and Don Samples

  Jane Samples

  October, 4 2010

  Our prayers are with you and your effort to spread God’s word, may He richly bless you each and everyday.
  God Bless
  Russell & Fran Dodson | Weatherford, OK

  Fran Dodson

  October, 9 2010