Welcome from the Pastor and First Lady

My wife and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the website of Elect Temple Church of God in Christ. We also invite you to visit our facility at you earliest convenience. Here you will most assuredly experience the awesome presence of the Almighty. When you enter the doors the welcoming angels are there to usher you into the presence of God. We are fully convinced that you won’t “leave like you came in Jesus name”.

As pastor of the flock here in Benton, AR, I take my assignment seriously. According to I Peter 5:1-3, “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the suffering of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the over sight thereof, not by compulsion (constraint), but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples examples) to the flock.”

In order to carry out this mandate from God, our church motto says it all, “The Church That Ministers To The Whole Man”. We have a tri-fold mechanism, that is, we have a “ministry”, we have a “message” and we have a “method” – All this is from the “Triune” God-head, that is, the “Father”, the “Son”, and the “Holy Ghost” – Our target is “tri-parte” man, that is, the whole man, Spirit, Soul, and Body.

Our ministry parallels that of Jesus, that is, teaching, preaching, and healing (St. Matthew 4:23). Our message is life changing. The essence of which is stated in St. Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. (Send forth delivered those who once were bruised and crushed and broken down by calamity.)

Our Vision

An all new 15,000 sq. ft. facility that will seat three to five hundred persons opened this year.

Phase II will include a life fitness center to accommodate healthy body management. We also plan to extend our training facilities that presently provide a four-year course in the plumbing field, which culminates with a Journeyman plumbing license. Our new opportunities will provide for a pre-school day care, contract schooling for “high risk” students, faith-based initiatives that provide for recovery of substance abusers, and feeding the hungry. On the spiritual side we will offer religious training linked to Charles Harrison Mason Bible College. Obviously we can’t give you all of the particulars in this brief overview, but as the vision unfolds, the path will become clearer.

Our prayer is the prayer of Jabez found in I Chronicles 4:10.

Our request is the request of Moses to Hobab in Numbers 10:29, “...come thou with us, and we will do thee good...”

May God bless you all,

Elder Willie and Sister Dorothy J. Barnes

Copyright 2002-2005 Elect Temple Church of God In Christ All Rights Reserved. This website may not be copied or reproduced in whole or part for any reason without the written permission of Elect Temple Church Of God In Christ.