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Mission Norman History The Spirit of God is transforming communities across central Oklahoma. Poverty and crime are retreating from His presence. People are meeting Jesus Christ. By God’s grace, Mission Norman provides spiritual and physical help to thousands of Oklahomans every year, but the need is still great. He has given us a vision to plant and equip a Body of Believers in every apartment complex, mobile home park and multi-housing community in central Oklahoma. He has called us to better provide for the poor and homeless in our midst. It is a large task, but God is able. We trust the One who has brought us so far. The Call God tends to call the unqualified. Saul was zealously persecuting Christians when Christ confronted him on the road to Damascus. Moses was a fugitive tending sheep when God beckoned from the burning bush. Gene Barnes was a loyal AT&T employee with no formal Christian education when God placed a heavy burden on his heart for the un-churched peoples of central Oklahoma. No voice thundered from heaven. The call first came as a mild request from Jack Sappenfield, church planting director for the Union Baptist Association of Norman, Oklahoma. Sappenfield asked Gene to attend the multi-housing seminar at a 1992 home missions conference in Glorietta, N.M. The seminar bored Gene. It was mostly statistics. But some of the numbers stuck. Forty percent of all U.S. residents live in multi-housing communities – apartment complexes, mobile home parks, town homes, etc. Of that demographic, 96 percent are completely un-churched. That translates to a chunk of people comprising almost half of the American public with less than 5 percent gospel penetration. The stats reveal that a massive cross-section of the U.S. population is culturally cut-off from the message of Jesus Christ. The mission-minded tend to call that an “un-reached people group.” Gene felt the need behind the numbers. Multi-housing residents were not attending the local churches. To reach these people, the church needed to go to them. He felt the need – someone needed to do something – but he was busy. He had a career and a family. He was Sunday school director at a local church. He was a deacon. He made visitations. Business at church kept him busy “within the four walls,” as he likes to put it. Gene had spent most of his life believing his place of service was within those four walls. He thought mission work was for those with seminary degrees. But in 1996, God began changing his ideas. Gene went on an evangelistic mission trip to Moldova, and God used him. Not long after he went to Brazil. Again, God moved. Gene began to catch God’s vision for the peoples of all nations. But God wouldn’t let him forget Norman. “God had never shook me loose from multi-housing ministry,” he said. Then, at a routine church meeting in 1997, came the unexpected announcement: Olivet Baptist Church released Gene from all of his responsibilities at the church so that he and his wife Linda could devote themselves to their passion for apartment ministry. Growing Pains Gene and Linda prayed and selected their first apartment complex. They rented the complex’s clubhouse for a service every Sunday morning, which they announced in the apartment newsletter. The first Sunday came around, and nobody showed up. Discouraged but still undaunted, the Barnes decided to send a mail-out to every apartment. But, inexplicably, the management had a change of heart. They intercepted and confiscated the letters – a federal offense – and booted the Barnes from the premises. After years of anticipation, the abrupt failure was a heavy blow. But the Barnes picked themselves up and moved on to site number two. This time they rented an apartment for a weekly Bible study. Management was extremely supportive. “They wanted us there,” Gene said. “And next thing we knew they talked to the owner. And then the owner talked to the city.” And then things got complicated. City officials said the Barnes would have to buy 51 percent of the complex and ask permission of every neighbor within 300 feet before they could start a church on the premises. Rejection No. 2. Gene was baffled, but God directed him to an acquaintance who was serving as assistant city manager. The man told him to go to a new complex, rent an apartment, sleep there a couple of nights a month, and see what happens. He said one person might get saved before the ministry was shut down. Gene approached Allen Edson, who was serving as minister of music at Olivet Baptist church, about the possibility of moving in to Parkwood Apartments to help start a new church there. Allen jumped on the opportunity. Transformation On Easter Sunday, 1998, Parkwood Apartment Church held its first service. This time people came. Allen and the Barneses hosted a community meal at Thanksgiving. They took the children bowling. Alan organized a Christmas pageant that December, and about 50 residents showed up. They exchanged gifts, and people came to know Christ. Before long, the ministry became an integral part of the community, and the community began to separate from the statistical norms. Parkwood Apartments was no longer isolated from the gospel. Management noticed behavior problems dying down. Jesus was moving. Encouraged by the success, Gene and Linda decided to look for the community with the worst crime in Norman for their second work. Castle Bay Apartments fit the bill. A block party jumpstarted the new church. While a local band played worship music and the Barneses served hot dogs and ice cream, police escorted a pack of handcuffed residents off the premises in squad cars. About three weeks later, they started a regular Sunday afternoon Bible study, which was frequently interrupted by sirens, not to mention helicopters and swat teams on the roof. Before long, the community began to change. “We’d see ambulances and police cars, and in about six months they started disappearing,” Gene said. “It started making a difference fairly quick.”
The difference was dramatic enough to inspire the apartment’s manager to write the Barnes a letter of appreciation. “Words alone cannot describe the impact that this organization has had on our community,” he wrote. “The effects of the Bible studies are deep rooted in the hearts of many of our residents. I am certain that the seeds planted into the souls of many of our resident children will continue to blossom throughout their adult lives.” The ministry began to gain momentum. The third, fourth and fifth Bible studies sprouted up. As the ministry grew, the physical needs of the community became apparent. The Barnes started a food pantry and a clothing closet to help provide for families in the churches who were often one paycheck away from homelessness. They distributed toys at Christmas and turkeys at Thanksgiving. Then came church No. 6. Then 7, 8 and 9. By 2003, the ministry had expanded to include about 20 apartment, mobile home and house churches that met weekly. In 5 years, over 300 individuals had professed to accept Jesus Christ. A Growing Vision In 2002, God began to open Gene’s eyes to the growing problems of poverty and homelessness in Norman. He saw the need for free medical and dental clinics. He saw the need for a transitional housing facility that would provide counseling, job training and spiritual guidance for those living on the street. He saw the need for an interdenominational cooperation of churches. Out of this vision arose Mission Norman, a non-denominational faith-based organization with the single purpose of spreading Christ’s love in central Oklahoma. Mission Norman’s goal is to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ among the un-churched. By God’s grace, we labor on – still unqualified, but very much called.
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