Harvest Baptist embraces change

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July 18, 2011 - 12:00 AM

(Editor’s note: This is another in an occasional series about churches in Iola.)

 

When it comes to celebrating God’s gift of salvation, members of Harvest Baptist Church aren’t adverse to having a 
good time.
They’re planning a baptism service July 31 at the home of Barry and Jennifer Lamb near Mildred — in the Lambs’ swimming pool. At other times, baptisms, which members view as an outward physical expression of a person’s salvation, have been in a hot tub and once, on request, in the Neosho River in January.
“We may have barbecue along with the (July 31) baptism,” said David Shelby, now associate minister of the church. He turned over senior pastoral reins to Tony Godfrey April 1.
Shelby had pastored the church since 2004. Godfrey joined the ministry team when he returned to Iola, with wife Kara and their children, Kayton, 9, and Kale 4, in 2009.
The exchange of leadership was purely amicable, both said emphatically Sunday afternoon.
“It’s more like what Nehemiah did,” Shelby said, when he repaired the broken walls of Jerusalem.
Harvest Baptist, founded about 25 years ago with initial services in Mike’s Carpet World, had had some problems. Shelby said he saw his role as repairing the church.
“By last year the church was repaired physically,” he said. The congregation relocated to 401 S. Walnut, where previously Grace Lutheran Church held services before it built a new church on Miller Road.
“We’re also moving forward spiritually,” Shelby said.
Just as Nehemiah took a public service position as the king’s cup bearer after fixing Jerusalem’s walls, Shelby also went to work as an Iola police officer, “after all had fallen into place.”
That opened the path for Godfrey to assume the main leadership role in the church.
It didn’t happen overnight.
The congregation was alerted in January and plans were laid out for the change to occur over the next four months. Godfrey officially became senior pastor on April 1.
Shelby continues to be closely involved with the church’s ministry, particularly in music. He also is available for the pulpit.
“Tony’s heart is in the ministry and he has really grown in the past two years,” Shelby said.
Godfrey is also involved in public service as Iola’s assistant code enforcement officer.

GODFREY HAS SPENT most of the past 21 years in Iola after growing up in Sycamore in southwestern Kansas. He came to Iola when his mother, Sharon Godfrey, took a job with Allen County Hospital.
“I was saved in 1993 at Hope Chapel (between Moran and Bronson),” he said.
Soon after, he felt a call to the ministry and did four years of correspondence courses with Shepherd School of Ministry in Kansas City.
“The day after I graduated, we were on our way to pastor a church in Whitehouse,” he said, a town about the size of Iola in east Texas.
After five years he and his wife, who grew up as Kara Sutterby in Iola, were eager to return to Iola, which was made possible by the associate minister’s position at Harvest Baptist, coupled with the day job with the city. More recently Kara joined city staff as 
administrative assistant in the city administrator’s office.
Shelby, a Kansas City native, found salvation as a teen at Kansas City Baptist Temple and immediately immersed himself in its activities.
“The church had a proactive way of involving people in its ministry,” Shelby said.
He worked with inner city youth, playing basketball on Thursday nights and conducting Bible study with them on Tuesday nights. He also worked into a role in the church’s police ministry, which led him to security work at the church, as well as private security roles, all of which enhanced his opportunity to join Iola’s police force two years ago.
His first ministerial job was as associate pastor of Wellspring Bible Church in Denver in 1999, before moving to Iola and into the pastor’s role at Harvest Baptist in 2004.
All fell into place within the past few months as Godfrey and Shelby switched roles in the Iola church’s leadership.
“It was time for me to step down from the senior position and I knew it was time for Tony to step up,” Shelby said. “It was God-directed.”

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