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THE FIRSTTHE FIRSTTHE FIRSTTHE FIRST QUARTER OF A CENTURYQUARTER OF A CENTURYQUARTER OF A CENTURYQUARTER OF A CENTURY ++++

In the mid-to-late 1970s a Sunday morning worship

service began for the staff and students of The Agape Force

ministry in Garden Valley, Texas, and soon, other area

residents began to attend. Agape Force’s founder, Tony

Salerno, was leading the meetings at the Agape Force

campus but he wasn’t called to be a pastor so he delegated

that role to others in their ministry, including Gordon

(“Gordy”) Peterson and Gabriel Arosemena.

Keith Green and Last Days Ministries arrived in

Garden Valley in September 1979, and many of their staff

began attending the Sunday morning meetings. In 1981, the

singing group 2nd Chapter of Acts moved into the area and

some of them began attending the meetings as well.

By 1982 the Agape Force cafeteria (now Mercy Ships’

Oasis) was outgrown, so the predominantly Agape Force

congregation moved to the gymnasium at Youth With A

Mission to make it more of a community church. Wayne

Snyder, a pastor from Montana who had YWAM training,

was the acting pastor at that time, and the small group

went by the name “Garden Valley Community Church.”

Wayne became terminally ill and soon resigned as pastor,

dying shortly thereafter in March 1984. Around that time

Garden Valley Community Church fragmented. Some of

the group started a congregation at Kaleo Lodge, and others

met at David Wilkerson’s gathering at World Challenge.

Also at that time many of the people started meeting again

in the Agape Force cafeteria with Gabriel Arosemena as the

pastor. On occasion, Winkie Pratney, Leonard Ravenhill

and other preachers would deliver messages on Sunday

mornings.

On March 15, 1984, the “Agape Force – Lindale”

church was officially incorporated, using the name

“Community Christian Fellowship,” with the initial board

of directors being Gabriel Arosemena, Conley Brown Jr.,

and Kenneth Turley, all members of Agape Force. The

Articles of Incorporation were filed with the State of Texas

on March 28, 1984.

On May 4, 1984, CCF purchased our current

property—nine acres and a 14,000 square ft. building—from

The Agape Force for a quarter of a million dollars. The

metal building was built by Agape Force in 1975, the year

they had arrived in Garden Valley. It had been used as a

warehouse, dormitory, office & school facility.

On July 1, 1984, Gabriel Arosemena resigned as CCF’s

first official pastor, and the board of directors selected

Dallas native Don Crum (formerly with Agape Force) to fill

that role. Don led the newly incorporated church as an

anointed preacher and along with Sonny Jaynes and others

also led worship. In those early days the meeting room was

much smaller and the chairs were all facing north where

Pastor Don stood to preach. For a time during Don’s

pastorate, praise & worship singer/songwriter John Sellers

was CCF’s worship leader. The congregation at that time

was under 200 people, and the church elders were Sonny

Jaynes, Tracy Hansen, Ron Garrison and Bracy Greer.

In 1976, the year after The Agape Force arrived in

Garden Valley, a private Christian school was established

for the children of ministry & local community families.

The school was first known as “Agape Force Prep School”

but in February 1985 the name was changed to “Garden

Valley School.” The school held classes in what is now the

CCF sanctuary which was divided up into classrooms and

a cafeteria. The first principal was Will Fields. Conley

Brown served as principal for three and a half years through

August 1985, and later Robert & Dana Rhodes ran the

school through the late 1980s.

Don Crum served as pastor of CCF for three and a half

years from July 1, 1984 to January 30, 1988. In July 1988, Don,

Cheri and their two children moved to the foreign mission

field in Nigeria where they served faithfully for seven years

under the ministry name Africa Missions.

In January 1988, CCF’s elders called on Albie Pearson

to serve as pastor. In his younger years, Albie Pearson had

been a professional baseball player for the California

Angels. He and his wife, Helen, had moved to Garden

Valley from southern California in 1987 to minister to some

of the Contemporary Christian Musicians in the area.

Albie functioned as a pastor to the musicians and staff in

2nd Chapter of Acts, Dallas Holm & Praise, Harvest, etc.,

leading a weeknight Bible study for them every week. Pastor

Albie was a relaxed, soft-spoken teacher—not a preacher—

and rather than standing behind a pulpit he sat on a stool

and ministered the love of the Father. During Albie’s tenure

as pastor, CCF’s elders were Sonny Jaynes, Tracy Hansen,

Ron Garrison, Steve Aubuchon, Charlie Moore and

Bill Cooke.

In 1988 & 1989 Pastor Albie & Tracy Hansen led the

congregation in praise and worship during the Sunday

morning services. Kim (Garrett) Denson, member of the

singing group Silverwind, played keyboard and

occasionally led worship herself, as did Ed Kerr of the

singing group Harvest. In November of 1988, Christian

singer Kelly Willard and her family moved to Garden

Valley to be with Last Days Ministries. Musicians, Paul

and Rita Baloche, who had toured with Kelly, followed her

and her family to Garden Valley and began attending

CCF. They too began participating with the worship team.

On December 3, 1989, after serving as pastor of CCF

for just under two years, Albie Pearson resigned as pastor,

and he and Helen moved back to California. At that time

Tracy Hansen took over where Albie left off. Tracy was not

only gifted as a preacher, but also in carpentry as well as the

arts. When not doing his pastoral duties, he could often be

found swinging a hammer as the church expanded its

facilities. From time to time Tracy would perform a skit

during his sermons, putting into practice his gift of drama.

Just prior to Albie Pearson leaving, he and Tracy were

talking with Paul and Rita Baloche in his office. Paul and

Rita were considering serving as youth pastors, but Tracy

felt that Paul should be CCF’s worship leader, and Albie

whole-heartedly concurred. Considering himself only a

guitar player, Paul resisted at first, but before long he was

leading worship, with Ed Kerr accompanying on keyboard.

Soon Ed and Paul began writing songs together, having

both signed contracts with Hosanna! Integrity. On June 26,

1992 Paul recorded his first of many live worship albums—

this one in Dallas—and many CCFers participated.

In 1993 Cindy Ward, formerly with Agape Force, began

directing the newly established children’s ministry and

Sunday School. She served faithfully for five years and then

YWAMer Sue Haines took over as director, beginning in

the Fall of 1998.

By the mid-1990s CCF’s congregation continued to

grow, and Sunday morning services were becoming crowded.

Further expansions were soon undertaken by removing

classrooms along the outer western walls. A smaller, core

group of CCFers were also meeting for midweek services on

Wednesday evenings. There were also Care Groups in

homes at different times during the 1990s.

By September 1996 CCF’s elders consisted of Sonny

Jaynes, Charlie Moore, Ron Garrison and Burt Forney. On

August 30, 1997, Tracy Hansen submitted his letter of

resignation, effective at the end of November. After having

served as pastor for eight years, Tracy and Connie soon

moved back to Idaho to care for Tracy’s aging mother.

After much prayer and fasting, CCF’s elders selected

Longview native, David Hickey to take Tracy’s place as

pastor. David officially became CCF’s pastor on Sunday,

December 8, 1997. David, LuAnn and their five children had

been attending CCF for several years, although because of

his overnight job, David himself was unable to attend very

often. He had served as pastor of several Baptist churches

in the past, but after he and LuAnn experienced a fresh

baptism of the Holy Spirit, a sabbatical ensued. Leading up

to being asked to pastor CCF, David Hickey pastored a

small home church, and held overnight jobs as a stocker at

Wal-Mart and a truck driver driving to and from Dallas,

delivering newspapers.

During the first decade of David’s tenure as pastor,

CCF began to steadily grow again. David’s history of solid

Bible training equipped him for practical, down-to-earth and

to-the-point sermons. And where there had previously only

been Sunday School classes for children, adult classes were

established. Our massive mortgage and other debt began to

be whittled down, and finally, in the spring of 2002, the debt

was completely paid off, culminating with a Mortgage

Burning celebration on May 19th of that year, held in Mercy

Ships’ cafeteria.

During the 2000s, CCF’s congregation continued to

grow, requiring more expansion and building projects. Due

to the crowded conditions in our sanctuary, CCF began

having two Sunday morning services on March 12, 2006.

During that year a large, two-story addition with a

fellowship hall, industrial kitchen and lots of classroom &

office space was built onto the west side of the existing

building, all done without going into debt, thanks to the

generosity and faithfulness of the CCF church body. In

November 2006, a large modular building was donated

which was renovated and used as a High School youth

facility. Further expansions of the sanctuary took place in

2008 to make room for our growing church family.

By the spring of 2011 the men serving as elders were

Steve Miller, Herb Haines, Burt Forney, Ben Davis,

Russell Bailiff, Kevin Karrenbrock and Randy Willmon,

Ron Garrison having gone to be with Jesus on July 22, 2010.

Community Christian Fellowship has experienced the

faithfulness of God in many ways throughout the past

quarter of a century. We serve a wonderful Father who

deserves our whole-hearted praise, worship & devotion. As

our church motto states, we want to keep Reaching Up to

know the Father’s heart, Reaching In to build Godly lives

and healthy relationships, and Reaching Out to our local

community and beyond with the hopeful message of Jesus.

Written by Roland Heddins (revised April 2011)