Nowata, Oklahoma

              As I look back in time to my teen years, I think of going to a small congregation of about 

fifteen to twenty-five people.  Yet it was from that church that I was heavily affected.  It was there 

that my concern for the size of the church became so strong.  It was there that I learned that the average 

adults attention span was fifteen to twenty minutes long not thirty or more for a lesson.

              My concern for church growth grew.  I was in the wrong area, and by the time I was in the 

correct area none would work with me.  They were either afraid of me due to the fact that I spent time

in the south or were unsure of my ideas.  I often wonder if we will let the dead run our lives today,

or work with the living that we have with us.

               I strongly believe that a church can live longer than seventy years if they but try.  A human 

being might not live more than seventy-five years, but a church is made up of people of both young and 

old.  It will only die if allowed to by the Holy Spirit.

               In the final days of  the small congregation that met in Nowata it existed because people came 

there from other towns.  This happened with all the churches in Nowata.  Whether I made a difference 

in the small congregation I went to in Nowata I could not tell you.  The one thing I can tell you is that 

they made a difference in my life.

Paul D. Eccles