Church and pastor both celebrate 30th anniversary in Mt. Vernon

When many young pastors are getting ready to lead a church for the first time, they will seek out an existing church in need of a preacher. Tony Wyatt, however, felt he was led to build his church from the ground up.
Pastor Tony Wyatt came to Mt. Vernon with his wife, Linda, and their then-four children (a fifth child was born to them later) from Cassville in 1989 to start the Apostolic New Testament Church.
“We came here as North American missionaries for the United Pentecostal Church, because there was no United Pentecostal Church in Mt. Vernon,” Wyatt said.
For Wyatt, answering the call to come to Mt. Vernon was a true leap of faith. At the time, he didn’t even know where Mt. Vernon was.
“We were at one of our organization’s conferences,” he said, “and I was just praying, and I (heard) the Lord, not in an audible voice, but it felt like the Lord spoke inside of me to go to Mt. Vernon, Mo. The first thing I did was, I had to find out where Mt. Vernon, Mo. was. I found it on the map, and I just knew that God was wanting us to come to this community to start this church here and that’s what brought us here. We just felt the calling of God to come to this particular community.”
Establishing the Apostolic New Testament Church in Mt. Vernon was no easy task. Wyatt worked full-time at EFCO in Monett for 14 years, often pulling overtime. On top of that, he was leading Bible studies. Between his work at EFCO and his ministry at the church, he often worked 80 hours a week, sometimes 100.
The Apostolic New Testament Church first met in what was then the Woods Building, at the site of the current Mid-Missouri Bank, and in the beginning, it was only Wyatt and his family. In time, however, his congregation grew, and the church moved two more times before coming to its present location at the intersection of Hazel and Cherry, in 2001. Today, Wyatt regularly has up to 140 people who attend services every week.
As a pastor, Wyatt strives to help people be “successful” in both the here-and-now and the hereafter.
“I tell everyone who comes … that I desire that they be successful in this life; that their homes be successful, their marriages be successful, and that they be successful in the life to come,” he said. “That’s our focus, just to touch people’s lives and help them become successful.”
The church recently celebrated Wyatt’s 30 years of ministry, as well as the church’s 30th anniversary, with special services on Saturday, Aug. 10 and Sunday, Aug. 11; the Sunday service was also followed by a picnic at Gary Ewing Park.
While many people who have achieved a 30-year career might feel the time has come to retire and spend time with their grandchildren (Wyatt and Linda have 11 of them), Wyatt is nowhere near finished with his ministry. He plans to continue to lead the church as they raise funds to build an extension onto their current building. When the new addition will be built will depend on when the funds are raised. At present, Wyatt said the hope is the new addition will be completed within two to three years.
“We’re in the process of (raising funds for) a building that will connect to this building, and turn this whole facility into an educational facility and then have a sanctuary connected west of the building here,” Wyatt said. “And we will probably sell (our) youth center downtown, but that’s our future. Of course, our future is just to keep reaching people, trying to help lives.”