Spiritually Growing up… Joe’s dad was a doctor; his mom was his dad’s nurse and secretary. Together they served a rural, medical practice in southeast Arkansas and raised three sons.  As a young boy growing up in a Baptist church, he placed his faith in Jesus Christ as his forever, personal Savior, but it was not until his freshman year in college when his faith and walk with Christ really began to mature. Following in his father’s footsteps, Joe began college as a pre-med student, majoring in chemistry. One spring afternoon and struggling to make the straight A’s he felt he needed to get into medical school, Joe finally threw himself onto his bunk and gave himself completely over to God–no more being a 90% Christian. God had Joe completely.

Seminary Studies… After graduating from the University of Arkansas with a degree in chemistry, but having felt called by God to pursue a different life track, Joe decided NOT to study medicine, and instead, applied to, was accepted at and eventually received his four-year masters of theology degree, majoring in New Testament Greek, from Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, TX.

Marriage and Family… Between undergraduate and graduate studies, Joe met, befriended, laughed and sang musicals on a park bench with and, eventually, felt called by God to ask a beautiful Christian friend and sister named Rhonda to be his wife. Miraculously (no kidding when you hear the entire story), she accepted. And yet, despite some early struggles (neither of us knew much about love, marriage, communication and selflessness) and with the help of some incredible, accountable friends (from within our own church family), over 35 years later, Rhonda is still Joe’s best friend and, for all practical purposes, day-to-day therapist. In addition to having been blessed with so many great brothers and sisters, both at Fellowship and within the larger family of God, three of Joe and Rhonda’s best friends, are their adult children–their son, Jordan; his wife, April, and their daughter, Amanda. 

Building a Spiritual Church Lab of His Own… Thus, after having studied at DTS for four years, in late 1985, when Joe was first called to Branson MO., to pastor, he began to construct his own Spiritual lab–what eventually became Fellowship Bible Church of Branson (at Cross Creek)–and has served as its senior pastor for almost three decades now. It has been quite a Spiritual journey, with Joe learning tons about the Spirit of God, himself, people, sinful human nature and how to pastor or love–including the importance of listening, asking questions, communicating with, counseling, praying and serving others, including families, parents, husbands and wives, youth and children.

Tag and his wife Alexa make a great team. Besides playing the drums on the worship team, you can usually find Tag either picking one the teens or being picked on by them. He not only has a great big heart for today’s youth but a passion to serve the Lord and always with a big smile on his face.

April is a 3rd grade teacher at Branson Middle School and so serving as Fellowship’s Leaning Center Coordinator fits right in to her gifts. She & her husband Mike have four kids of their own. This lady, no doubt, has a heart and passion for kids & teaching them about the love of Christ.

Shelly has lived in the Branson area for more than 16 years. After sending her last kid off to college, Shelly chose to give her energies to serve as Joe’s Ministry Assistant about 5 years ago. She loves serving the Lord and the Pastoral staff and so you will usually find her buzzing around Fellowship somewhere.

Cindy’s many years of experience in the local banking industry provides the expertise to serve as Treasure, as well as  her servant’s heart to lead the Deaconess ministry. She and her husband David have long been an active part of the Fellowship family and we are grateful to have her devotion to use her gifts for the ministry.