{"id":13,"date":"2013-07-13T01:50:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stjohncmeok.org\/stjohnwp\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2013-12-12T19:07:27","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T19:07:27","slug":"our-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/?page_id=13","title":{"rendered":"Church History"},"content":{"rendered":"

[slideshow ]<\/p>\n

[slide title=”History 1<\/b>“]<\/p>\n

\"First<\/p>\n

St John was established in 1944<\/b> and originally located in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Parker.\u00a0 Eventually, the Parker\u2019s donated the property on 4400 N.\u00a0 Diana Street (a few blocks north east from its current location) as a place to hold worship service.\u00a0 In the beginning, there was no building established, just a brush harbor (a temporary structure made of small tree limbs and branches to provide shelter for outdoor church services).\u00a0 In 1946<\/b>, a small, white structure that we still affectionately call \u201cOld St John\u201d was built complete with a small outhouse.\u00a0 Over many years, various pastors were assigned to lead our little country church and membership fluctuated back and forth until 1959<\/b> when Rev. Curtiss L. Long became pastor.\u00a0 \u00a0The determined visionary evangelized and recruited his own brother\u2019s and sister\u2019s and several other large families from the Spencer community into the church.\u00a0 They prayed, tithe, led successful fundraising efforts and dreamed of building a \u201cnew-fangled \u201cchurch.\u00a0 In fact, several of those families and\/or their descendants remain faithful lay members and auxiliary leaders to this day.<\/p>\n

[\/slide]<\/p>\n

[slide title=”History 2<\/b>“]<\/p>\n

\"st<\/p>\n

Over the next few years, the late Rev. Tommy White, Tommy White, Jr., and the beloved Rev. HM and Mrs. Burnett were assigned to pastor St John.\u00a0\u00a0 Finally, in 1976<\/b>, after numerous years of raising money through the building fund, construction of a brand new church began at 10413 N.E. 36th<\/sup> street under the stern leadership of Rev. Luverda Hamilton.\u00a0 This modest structure was white brick on the outside with a bigger sanctuary and a pastor\u2019s study inside along with a modest fellowship hall, a small kitchen, and best of all, indoor bathrooms.\u00a0 The membership felt very blessed! \u00a0The building met their needs for over two decades under the new direction of the belated and adored Rev. J.B. Moore and it grew spiritually and <\/i>in member numbers.<\/p>\n

[\/slide]<\/p>\n

[slide title=”St John Phase 2<\/b>“]<\/p>\n

\"st<\/p>\n

However, by the early 1990\u2019s<\/b> when the cheery and lively Rev. Johnny Nubine was assigned pastor, the membership grew even more (especially among children & youth), so there began talk of a need for expansion.\u00a0 The call was answered in 1996<\/b> when the Adolph Long Fellowship Hall (named after our faithful and always reliable Steward Board Chairman) was built complete with a new kitchen, 3 new bathrooms, a finance room, three classrooms and a new pastor study.\u00a0 Also, a children\u2019s playground, baptismal pool, audio booth and garage\/storage facility and marquee was added.<\/p>\n

[\/slide]<\/p>\n

[slide title=”Our History continued\u2026<\/span><\/b>“]<\/p>\n

The church continued to grow and develop at a steady pace.\u00a0 All the praise went to God when St John burned the mortgage for the new addition much earlier than anticipated.\u00a0 Therefore, the fiscally responsible leadership, foreseeing further expansion in the future, decided to increase the amount that was going into the church\u2019s savings account.\u00a0 In\u00a02010<\/b>, that decision paid off when our current pastor, the giving and loving, Rev. Anthony L. Walker, the stewards, trustees and board members gathered together to discuss the possibility of building a new sanctuary.\u00a0 After much prayer and planning, later in that year, another groundbreaking event took place and a beautiful, technology-savvy sanctuary\u00a0was built that has the capacity to hold 300-plus members.\u00a0 Also included were donated pews, a new pastor\u2019s study, conference room, finance and stewardess room, choir room\u00a0 and new robes, stewardess room, finance room, 4 additional bathrooms, new baptismal pool, media area, conference room, new marquee and expanded parking lot.<\/p>\n

\"slide_03\"<\/p>\n

Lastly, earlier this year, the men of St John blessed our beloved church with several ongoing projects for the back area including but not limited to a renovated kitchen.\u00a0 They also converted the pulpit & choir stand in the old sanctuary into a fine wood-stained stage complete with track lighting.\u00a0 Plans are in the work to expand the old choir room into a newly-renovated youth room with many additions to come.\u00a0 We continue to grow and continue to use His church to spread the gospel and save souls.\u00a0 Glory to God for He is Worthy!<\/p>\n

[\/slide]<\/p>\n

[\/slideshow]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[slideshow ] [slide title=”History 1“] St John was established in 1944 and originally located in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Parker.\u00a0 Eventually, the Parker\u2019s donated the property on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohncmeok.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}