Officers
Pastor Jonathan Watson
Chief Financial Officer / Director
Pastor Jonathan has a tremendous heritage in ministry. His maternal grandparents C.C. and Ruth Harris are lifelong missionaries and pastors. They were pioneer missionaries in Malawi, Tanzania, and South Africa. Between missionary assignments Papa Harris would pastor churches in Oklahoma. He is currently continuing to do missions work in his 80’s by planting new churches and building tabernacle churches in Niger and Burkina Faso. He is now raising funds to construct a radio ministry connected to a church in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso which is pastored by an indigenous pastor who was discipled by him. Pastor Jonathan’s parents Dr. David and Becky Watson have served as pastors of growing churches for over 20 years and as bible college professors for over 10. Dr Watson is highly regarded as a tremendous pastor and teacher, especially in the area of personal discipleship, and they have met with ministerial success everywhere they’ve served. Pastor Jonathan has lived in great blessing because of his willingness to walk in their footsteps and live as they have lived.
Giving away is a very difficult discipline in this world of covetousness but because of the goodness of God, and the influence of a great ministry team God led Pastor to facilitate the start a new church in a neighboring community. Pastor Jonathan led a cooperative effort of 5 local churches to establish a new church in the growing community of Centerton. Bella Vista Assembly of God gave $60,000 in financial support and eventually gave almost 40 people to establish the work. Newsong Assembly has grown quickly under the leadership of Jim and Lynn Severn. Jim and Jonathan became acquainted and the Holy Spirit led the journey. After only one year the new church has well over 100 constituents weekly, and is financially independent. They should begin a phase one building project soon as the Arkansas District of the Assemblies of God decided to purchase 5 acres of land for the church because of their obvious successfulness and bright future.
Pastor Jonathan has been involved in expanding God-consciousness in many ways and views the LIFE and the Bible ministry as an opportunity to continue that effort and broaden the reach. He has been an outstanding leader at Bella Vista Assembly of God and promises to do the same at LIFE and the Bible.
After graduating from Central Bible College where he met his wife Jennifer, they served as Youth Pastors for four years in Sallisaw, OK. They came to
Responsibilities
· Serve as the LIFE and the Bible icon, nameplate and corporate spokesperson
· Manage corporate finances
Pastor Paul Bellmore
Chief Operations Officer / Director
Pastor Paul Bellmore was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in a small town called Quinnesec. He started his education at Michigan Tech University in the field of Biomedical Engineering, but after one year he felt lead to leave the engineering field to pursue an education in Ministry. He went on to graduate from Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri and completed his Master’s degree in Christian Ministries, with an emphasis in church organizational leadership from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.
Prior to his appointment as Associate Pastor at Bella Vista Assembly of God, Paul Bellmore served as the church’s Youth Pastor for five years. He has been a Missionary Associate in the Philippines where he worked with missionaries Ty and Cina Silva, directors of Asia Pacific Campus Challenge and Book of Hope International. He has led multiple short term mission trips for college students and youth groups as well because of his heart for missions.
Paul is a passionate worship leader, having led the young adult group at Central Assembly in Springfield, Missouri in worship as well as BVAG’s youth group and adult congregation. Paul is very enthusiastic about leading a young generation of believers to know Christ. His studies and experiences have helped him to recognize the need to adapt the ways that traditional church is done in order to reach a generation of people that feel that they do not relate to church.
Paul has been responsible for the production success of the LIFE and the Bible commercial radio series, personally producing over 260 ninety-second radio commercials that helped create the LIFE and the Bible ministry. He is a multi-talent who brings exceptional creative and technical skills to the ministry. He is also a musician and singer.
Wife Natalie and Paul met while attending seminary. Natalie has a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish and an M.A. in Counseling. She is a talented teacher and has a heart for mentoring. On January 1, 2009 after 5 years of marriage they welcomed Aubrey Anna into the family. Paul and Natalie are excited about their future in ministry together and know that God has great things for the two of them.
Responsibilities
· Manage broadcast production and internet communications
· Direct day to day operations
· Direct the LIFE and the Bible ministry serving children and youth
Pastor Mark Kelley
Vice President, Community Relations / Director
Mark is a graduate of Arkansas Tech in Russellville Arkansas with a B.A. in History and Political Science and has continuing education from the Assemblies of God seminary in Springfield Missouri.
He is actively involved at Bella Vista Assembly of God church in Northwest, Arkansas where he has served as the Discipleship Pastor for three years and has been active in lay leadership for many years. He facilitates a discipleship group during the week and leads an adult bible fellowship on Sunday mornings in addition to an individual discipleship ministry.
Mark has a special passion for local churches and communities that follow hard after Christ. “My Mayberry” is one of his favorite expressions when referring to Bella Vista and his church family. He believes a Christian community benefits greatly from people who have what he calls character changing faith; and that that should be part of what drives and challenges its local churches. His personal desire is to advance a focus on Christian discipleship rather than local agendas.
Mark is a leukemia survivor; he received a bone marrow transplant in 1994 after being diagnosed in 1991. He has had complete remission since, but experiences chronic rejection challenges. These challenges have resulted in multiple joint replacement surgeries and other complications. He was given a three-year prognosis for survival early on, which tends to color his perspective on life and his ministry to the ill. He is a proponent of “the ministry of presence.”
He is married to Tami who works at the Wal-mart corporate offices and has one son Landon, who is a college student at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. Their family passion is music; Mark plays base, Tami is a gifted singer and Landon is a talented drummer.
Responsibilities
· Serve as counsel for grants and fund-raising
· Manage the LIFE prayer ministry
· Direct the ministry to the infirm and elderly
Dr. David Watson
David Watson’s story should not be told without the inclusion of his wife Becky. They call their love story a happy union of opposites: East meets Midwest; North meets South; conservative meets progressive; think-and-plan meets spur-of-the-moment; meat-and-potatoes meets curry-and-rice. David grew up in Pennsylvania, the youngest in a tightly-knit family. Becky, eldest of four siblings, lived in Oklahoma when she wasn't on the mission field in East Africa with her parents.
David and Becky met as freshman at Central Bible College, Springfield, MO, and were married in 1970 between their junior and senior years. God had called them both into the ministry as young children. From vastly different backgrounds, He perfectly fitted them together for His service. David continued his education at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, receiving his master's degree from there.
They moved to northwest Pennsylvania in 1974 to pastor Bethel Assembly of God in Girard for 16 years. As the church grew, God also blessed them with three children: Jonathan David, 1975; Jennifer Lynne, 1977; and Debra Joy, 1981. During this time David also earned his doctorate from Drew University in 1984.
David was called to teach at their Alma Mater in 1990. Just five years later he was elected as pastor of Central Assembly of God in Springfield, MO. They pastored there for seven years. During those seven years (October 1995 to March 2003) they produced a television show broadcast on the NBC affiliate station to the region of SW Missouri and NW Arkansas. It was a 4-minute long daily devotional that aired at 8:25 a.m. Monday through Friday during the Today Show. Becky did the research and writing, David did the final copy and delivery on camera.
Many of those stories have been converted to 90-second radio commercials used to launch the Life and the Bible ministry and are also represented in the ministry’s Christian gift book, “The Little Red Christmas Book”. Other stories from the Watson library will be used as content for future gift books on the subjects that make up the LIFE acronym; Love, Inspiration, Faith and Eternity.
