Farm Bureau Awards Essay Winners

March 19, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

The Fifth Grade Essay Winners and their teacher were presented awards at the DeKalb Farm Bureau Board Meeting on March 5.

The subject for the essays was “Why is Agriculture Important?”

Pictured are Cathy Officer, Farm Bureau Women’s Chair who presented $50.00 to Kristy Lasser, teacher with the most entries, $50.00 to Cali Agee, First Place Essay, and $25.00 to McKenna Miller, Second Place Essay, and Mack Harney, DeKalb Farm Bureau President.  Cali’s Essay goes on to State for judging on April 27^th.

March 19, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

Local minister Chris Moore and his wife Holly have dedicated their lives to serving God and the community.

WJLE is spotlighting the Moore’s in our first “Preacher Feature” segment this week.

For the last three years, Chris has been the pastor of the Smithville Church of God. Chris and Holly came to the church as interns in 2005 and after that internship was completed they were hired as youth pastors where they served for a few years before moving to Kentucky to be involved in a youth ministry there. The Moore’s  returned to Smithville in 2010 and once again took on the roll of youth pastors until April of 2016 when Chris was appointed as lead pastor.

IMG_4949 from dwayne page on Vimeo.

An ordained Bishop in the Church of God, Chris worked in Teen Ministry for more than 12 years. He has  served in many other works in the church  including music, children, and outreach ministries.  Holly is also active with several church programs and activities and she sings in the choir.

Originally from Cookeville, the Moore’s life together began when they met and became sweethearts while attending Cookeville High School more than twenty years ago. It wasn’t long after that when Chris felt the call to go into the ministry. Chris and Holly have been married since March of 1998 and today have five children including two sets of twins.

“The Lord first blessed us with a set of twins 13 year old Samuel and Sadie Moore. About a year after they were born we were surprised with another one on the way and her name is Sara. She is now 11 years old. Then several years passed and we decided to try for one more child but we actually had two more so we were blessed with a set of twin girls, Saige and Skyla and they are 4 years old,” said Chris.

Chris said his thoughts toward the ministry began while still in school and he later decided to pursue his education in the church theology.

“I had felt the call to preach and minister even during the time when Holly and I were dating. In fact I was actually doing some preaching then. After furthering my education at Tennessee Tech, I went through the Church of God’s credentialing program to take classes in school theology at Cleveland, Tennessee. Once I finished that I became what we classify as an ordained Bishop in the Church of God,” said Chris.

While he has always had a passion for young people, Chris said the time came during his youth ministry when he felt impressed to do pastoral work and was honored and blessed when his home church here asked him to take the lead pastor position

“The Lord opened up the door. After serving as the youth and children’s pastors for about six years, the church voted us in as lead pastors in April 2016. We have been in ministry at this church now for nine years so we are no longer strangers to Smithville and DeKalb County,” said Chris.

Prior to becoming pastor, Chris taught at DeKalb Middle School for five years and still fills in as a substitute teacher. Holly teaches at DeKalb County High School and is a certified pharmacy technician, with a background in early childhood education.

Founded on September 17, 1949, the Smithville Church of God will soon be commemorating 70 years of service to this community. A special service and fellowship is planned for later this year and former pastors and members will be invited to join in the celebration.

The church was organized with eight charter members under the leadership of Reverend A.R. Parker as pastor and Reverend Harry O. Lutz as district overseer. The only original charter member still living is Mary Louse Bryant Knowles.

Today the church serves a membership of 250 with an average weekly attendance of 190.

As the church has grown, Chris said it has been able to update its facilities and infrastructure and offer more outreach opportunities to the community.

“The Lord has really blessed us. We have done some really incredible things over the last three years. We have done approximately $140,000 in renovations to our property and building but what I am even more proud of is even while those things were happening our church reached out to the community. We adopted DeKalb Middle School and did numerous projects for them. We have also done almost $43,000 in missions giving within the last few years just from this church alone. Three weeks ago we had a representative from Bangkok here and on that Sunday alone we gave him close to $7,000 to build an orphanage and a hub church in Bangkok. Of course we still do benevolence here at our church. I am on the Board of Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County and the Emergency Food and Shelter Board in DeKalb County. We work with a lot of home missions serving people in our community,” said Chris.

In addition to the weekly worship services on Sundays and Wednesday nights  the church provides other programs and activities for people of all ages from the young to the young at heart including the “N2 Mom’s Night Out”, “Empty Nest’ers”, and the Young at Heart” groups.

Holly said moms who are looking for something to do will find the Mom’s Night Out group an enjoyable experience.

“That is so needed for a lot of moms and its for ladies of any age even if your kids are grown. If moms want to participate in an activity we’re doing that evening you are invited to join. We have been involved in everything from knotted twine to the Art Jam in Cookeville, going to the movies, painting , trying out new recipes together, and much more,” she said.

The N2 Empty Nest’ers is another popular activity for those who have young adult children who have flown out of the nest on their own. This group gets together for fun and fellowship. The church also has a serving group to help people with small projects.

“Our Christmas project was something we were really proud of at the church. Our serving group was behind that and we ministered to about 10 different families at Christmas time and delivered over $7,000 in gifts and groceries,” said Chris.

The next big event planned by the church  for the community is “Easter in the Park” at Greenbrook Park.

“We have some great things coming up including our Easter in the Park service on Sunday, April 21 starting with registration at 10 a.m. followed by the worship at 11 a.m. and then there will be an Easter egg hunt at 12:30 p.m. for children up to 5^th grade. Its for the whole community and door prizes will be given. Everything is free. We will have food, bingo, blow-ups, face painting, and LIVE music,” said Chris.

If you are in search of a place to worship Chris invites you to visit the Smithville Church of God.

The services times are as follows:

Sunday Mornings

Sunday school – 10:00AM

Sunday Worship – 10:45 AM

Children’s Church – 10:45

Sunday Nights – 6:00PM

Wednesday Nights – 7:00PM

Learn more by visiting http://www.smithvillecog.com.

“Our main focus here is that we are about love, acceptance, and truth. Our main purpose is to demonstrate love to everybody. Anybody who attends here we accept you wherever you may be in your walk in life at this time. We will also tell you about the truth of the Gospel here because it is all about Jesus Christ. He is the way. He is the truth and He is the life,” said Chris.

March 19, 2019
By:

Relentless Student Ministries from the Smithville First Assembly of God has won 9 state titles and is headed to Nationals in Orlando Florida!

“Relentless has worked so hard this season to not only bring competition dramas to Tennessee Fine ARTS festival but to bring pieces that mean something. Last year we won nationals in Readers Theater on a piece about abortion.” Says Youth Pastor Josh Issac. Relentless took 10 group and solo pieces to Trevecca College in Nashville Tennessee over the weekend and won 5 state Titles and qualified in all 9. “ To qualify you have to receive at least a score of 36 out of 40. This isn’t easy to do but this just shows how talented and anointed these teens are.” Says Josh Issac. The following is the titles they won:

Tennessee State Winners:
Drama Ensemble Large : The Dark Room
Brass Solo: Josh Moon
Flash Fiction Writing: Kenzie France
Drama Solo: Haidyn Hale
Short sermon College: Omar Aldino

Superior Rating With invitation:
Readers Theater: All In
Female solo: Kennedy Agee
Male solo- Desmond Nokes
Short Sermon: Gabriel Angeles

Fine Arts has a variety of categories that fits the passion of every teen. Relentless from Smithville AG will now be fundraising and getting ready for Nationals in Orlando Florida which will be in July.

Pictured:
Front: Omar Aldino
Middle: Josh Issac , Adyen Jones, Ellie Dillard, Dasia Gurley, Brooklyn Wilson, Haidyn Hale, Landon Crips.
Back Row: Gabriel Angeles, Kenzie France, Kennedy Agee, Josh Moon, Desmond Nokes, Pastor Iain & Kassy Swisher.