04/26/2026
20 YEARS OF LOCAL CHURCH TESTIMONY
It is such a blessing to be back home and to be with the brethren this morning as we celebrate 20 years of local church ministry here in Catawba County, North Carolina. On September 6, 2006, a Wednesday, Jamie, Bethany (2 years old at the time), and I flew to India and Ladakh for the very first time, long before Team Yeshua was even a passing thought. We would not return home to the States for many months. Interestingly, that same evening, a gathering of believers that became New Testament Christian Fellowship met for the very first time in a home off Springs Road in Hickory. One of the men who dropped us off at the airport oversaw that meeting. He has since gone home to be with the Lord, and that after 17 years of faithful service to the local body he helped to plant. The other man who accompanied us to the airport is and remains a faithful member of our local body today. During that first official gathering, it was a teenage boy who suggested our church name. It stuck.
This year, 20 years later, September 6 falls on a Sunday, and we’ll assuredly do something special in honor of that first meeting. Today, however, we are celebrating those 20 years on a particular Sunday in April that is also very special to our local church history. You see, one of the things communicated during that first meeting was the importance of I Corinthians 14:40 in terms of the local church: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” It was determined, therefore, to put aside haste and obey this exhortation, doing things right before the Lord and under the Headship of Christ, even if it required patience and time. On a Sunday morning 32 months later (April 26, 2009), in that same home where the first gathering was held, New Testament Christian Fellowship formally ordained its first elders to biblical positions of leadership. I took part in that service, and it was preached by Dr. Terry Hall (my faithful pastor of many years, a faithful chairman of Full Proof Gospel Ministries’ Board of Trustees for many years, and a faithful friend of New Testament Christian Fellowship of many years). Brother Terry went home to be with the Lord back in 2022, just a few days before the hate crime done upon us in Madison County, Montana. We had walked right by his house in Eastern, NC way back at the start of . Two of the men who were ordained as NTCF elders that day continue to faithfully serve our local church in that capacity today. My dad, also ordained an elder that day, went home to be with the Lord about a year after Brother Terry Hall passed away. I found a copy of the bulletin from that special service that took place 17 years ago this very day. Brother Terry loved to design and print good ole’ Baptist bulletins. This photo of my dad and Brother Terry was snapped right after said service.
My place of leadership in this local body of believers took shape upon the occasion of my dad’s death. I had a small part in the planting of this church long ago by simply urging and encouraging it. Jamie and I watched with joy and gladness from the mission field much of those 20 years, offering our help and service whenever requested. And NTCF has always been such a faithful supporter of our mission work through Full Proof Gospel Ministries. I’ve lost count of the number of times this small body of believers gave of themselves (not just their finances) and sent teams to aid us on the field, oftentimes in the remotest of corners. Upon my dad’s death, we became formally joined NTCF with the blessing of our sending church, once pastored by Brother Terry Hall. It has been such an honor to serve since in the place of my dad and to watch this local body hold fast and stay the course in these dark days.
My role in today’s celebration is as a lesser leader among greater servants. One of our supported missionaries, a dear brother, will be exhorting us in the Word all the way from China. I asked Brother Shawn Holes to shake me up. I need it. We need it. And as we reflect upon the Lord’s goodness these past 20 years, remembering those of us who have since won the rest that remaineth for the people of God (Hebrews 6:9), I am reminded of the verse of an old hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation” :
“Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One, AND MYSTIC SWEET COMMUNION WITH THOSE WHOSE REST IS WON. O happy ones and holy, Lord give us grace that we, Like them, the meek and lowly, On high may dwell with Thee.”
Their rest is won. Let us press on to win ours, enduring, occupying, holding fast, and abiding in the same calling wherein we were called (I Corinthians 7:20).
As for the past 20 years, TO GOD BE THE GLORY FOR THE THINGS HE HATH DONE.
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).
-Jesse Boyd
