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History
Seeking to establish a sound congregation in Elk City, Oklahoma, nine persons met for the first time in a converted duplex on West Avenue B on the first Lord's Day in September, 1997. The building had been purchased that summer by two families who worked to convert it into a suitable meeting place.
The congregation met there until December, 1997 when it rented a building from the defunct Calvary Baptist Church on West Avenue A. In that building, the congregation conducted its first gospel meeting January 12-18, 1998, with Ron Cosby of Disney, Oklahoma preaching.
In February, 1998, the congregation was visited by the man from whom the building was rented and he objected to the sign we had erected that said, "The church of Christ Meets Here" because it covered up the Baptists' sign. We were renting the building and felt we had a right to erect our own sign since we certainly were not a "Baptist Church" (a name that can be nowhere found in the Scriptures). But, rather than arguing the point, we moved from there and back into the converted duplex on West Avenue B and continued to meet there.
From the beginning of our existence, we were determined to publicly preach the gospel and ran a weekly article in the local newspaper, in addition to conducting gospel meetings and lectureship. The city code in Elk City prohibited us from advertising our location since we were in a residential area, which made it difficult to let people know where the church building was. The U. S. Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state religion, and further says "the free exercise thereof" shall not be prohibited, but that's what the city code does. For a few years, we also conducted a weekly radio program on the local station. We also published a monthly eight-page tabloid paper, filled with sound gospel articles, and distributed it every house in Elk City.
In April, 1998, we purchased our present building at the corner of East Avenue C and North Locust on the Northeast side of Elk City. It was the former church building of the Eastside church of Christ and was ideal as a meeting place. Pews were obtained, along with a lectern for the pulpit, but the building was in a state of disrepair. New carpeting was later installed, as was a new air conditioning and heating system, ceiling fans were donated by sister Virginia Church and the interior was repaired and painted, and thanks to a generous gift from a brother in South Carolina, our mortgage was retired. That allowed us to do even more preaching in the local community.
In the summer of 1998, we conducted our first lectureship, renting a conference room at a local motel to accommodate the attendees. Speakers in that first lectureship were Roelf Ruffner, Lyndal Werner, Wayne Price, Ron Cosby, Robin Haley, Marion Fox, and Pat Craig. Lectureships were conducted each summer for a number of years
In 2011, one of our members traveled to Kenya for two weeks in a gospel effort there and we became acquainted with brother Benard Kagaga who preaches for the Kalamindi church at Ndhiwa, Kenya. That was the beginning of our overseas work of evangelism. With the aid of faithful brethren across the country, we raised enough funds for the preacher to go to Kenya in 2012, where he taught for three weeks in a preacher training school, conducted by brother Kagaga, and preached during Kalamindi's annual gospel meeting during the first week of December.
Upon the preacher's return, he began an effort to send sound books and other printed materials to the Kenya preachers. Since that time, hundreds of books such as Hardeman's Tabernacle Sermons, lectureship books from the Bellview church of Christ in Pensacola, Florida, the Annual Denton Lectureship, Nichols' and Whiteside's Sound Doctrine, Bibles, and many other have been mailed to Kenya and are in use there. Northeast also supports the work at Muhuru Bay, Kenya, and another Kenya preacher, as well as two destitute widows at Kalamindi.
In August and September, 2014, the local preacher, a sister from Northeast, one from Lexington, Oklahoma, and one from Charleston, Arkansas went to Kenya where they stayed with brother Kagaga's family. One of the ladies conducted Bible classes for the women at Kalamindi, the preacher taught a week-long class on the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and the other two ladies, who are both nurses, worked to provide medical care for local residents at Kalamindi, using their own money to purchase necessary medicine. Northeast's work in Kenya is now continuing with the support of eleven men who will preach in gospel meetings throughout the year in Western Kenya.
Men who have preached for the Northeast congregation since 1997 are Jerry Brewer, Nathan Brewer, Patrick King and Earl Reed.
The Lord gave us a charge to, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15) and Northeast takes that charge very seriously. We are preaching the gospel in Elk City, across the world through our website, and by our efforts and support in Africa, and we will continue to do so with the Lord's help.
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