New Life Fellowship

                      Pastors Carl and Dottie Mayes,

 

 

 

 

In 1977 God reached into our lives and pulled us out of the mire of a partying, hippie lifestyle in Austin, Texas. This lifestyle had all but destroyed our lives and our marriage. He put us on the solid rock, Jesus, and our lives have never been the same.

 

In 1986 we began our grand Arkansas adventure with our children, ages five, three and one. We were looking for a lifestyle change and were convinced that God had a purpose and a plan for us in Leslie. We bought a café in town and immediately fell in love with the people and the natural beauty of the area. We visited many churches, just expecting to roll up our sleeves and work in the established church that God had for us. Yet we never found the one that we felt like we were supposed to commit to. We did however meet many beautiful Christians in the churches we visited.

 

We started having meetings in our home for our own spiritual survival and to reach out to the people that we were meeting through our business. We never had a desire to pastor a church. We never really felt adequate, but God had other ideas. God began to knit our hearts and lives together with Wayne and Carol Witcher, who are now our worship leaders, and together He gave us a vision for a church plant.

 

We started meeting in an old filling station. I still remember our sign, “Filled with the Spirit and all kinds of people.” Boy, was that true. Our ministry reached a whole different type of people: bikers, druggies, ex-convicts, and others who had just been hurt by religion. With our background we could really relate to them.

 

In 1995 we moved from the filling station in the country and bought two old buildings on Main Street in Leslie. We began to renovate them, and the church began to bloom.

 

God has been bringing an awesome group of people with leadership abilities and is raising up a different kind of church with team ministry. We can look back and see God’s faithfulness. We believe that He chose us because we knew that we didn’t have all the gifts, therefore He could do something different and unique in our community.

 

The church is continuing to grow, and the diversity in our leadership team allows us to minister to all kinds of people. We are so glad to be a part of what God is doing, and we continue to stand amazed as we see Him build this church.

 

The worship is an awesome experience in itself. We are blazing new trails as we follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. We believe the sky is the limit in what God wants to do here if we stay humble, realize it’s not all about us, and continue to love people as Jesus loved them.

 

This is not church as usual. We would love for you to come visit and experience what God is doing in Leslie, Arkansas.