Meet Your Team
To serve the children, teens, college students, and adults of Willard, we have assembled a highly qualified team.
David & Kathy Arnett, Lead Pastors
For over 28 years, David Arnett and his wife, Kathy, served churches in Missouri, New Mexico, Illinois, and Wisconsin. He filled the roles of senior pastor, youth pastor, minister of Christian education, and Christian school administrator. While serving as senior pastor, he helped establish six new churches. Carpenter's House of Willard will be number seven.
For ten years, David served as senior pastor for Marshfield Assembly of God and as administrator for Assembly Christian Academy (a traditionally taught K-12 school). He also planned and launched Word of Life Assembly of God in Medford, Wisconsin.
During his tenure as senior pastor for Evangel Assembly of God in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, David and his wife, Kathy, founded Good Hope Christian Academy and laid the foundation for LifeChurch in Germantown.
Currently, Rev. Dr. David Arnett is the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Homiletics, Pastoral Ministries, Theology, and Bible at Central Bible College.
In 2004, while serving as professor, David and Kathy recruited a church planting team. Using a dilapidated building in rural Rogersville, Missouri, the team went to work cleaning, painting, and repairing. When the congregation outgrew the old facilities, they moved into leased space in a shopping center. The church eventually purchased the shopping center in which they were meeting.
In 2006, the church rented additional store units and opened Graceland Early Childhood Development Center. Under Kathy's leadership, the daycare and preschool grew to 70 children.
In 2007, Dr. Arnett and a team of Central Bible College students started a second church in Fordland.
The Arnett's and their children (all university students) own and operate the Book Castle--an antiquated and gently used bookstore located in south Springfield.
April Benedict
April Benedict graduated in May from Central Bible College with a degree in youth ministries. She has been involved in youth ministry at the local church level for the past five years. She has interned with three youth pastors, and been exposed to the realities of ministry to this generation. She has a heart for church planting and reaching this generation in a relevant way with the word of God by introducing them to a life changing relationship with God.
Denise Chester
Denise is a student at Central Bible College and a graduate of the Youth Challenge Program of Newport News, Virginia. Denise directs the Nursery Ministries.
Dean Hartsell
From Atlanta, Texas, Dean is a student at Central Bible College. He says, "I try to keep busy. I take classes, read, work out, and hang out with friends."
Derek Henson
Derek Henson is a graduate of Fair Grove high school class of 2003, after high school Derek served in the United States Navy as a military police officer for 5 years. While Derek was at his first command in Italy, he was called into the ministry. Unsure of where exactly to serve he felt the call to go into Youth Ministry. While in Texas he knew that God wanted him to complete college and go back to the Navy as a Chaplain. Derek is currently a security officer at St. Johns hospital in Springfield, as well as a full time college student at Central Bible College. Derek should be done at CBC in December of 2009 and plans to enroll at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary pursuing a Masters of Divinity. Derek is excited to be here at Carpenters house church and really excited about where God will lead him and this new church.
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson will be directing our ministries to children. Originally from Alabama, Emily's homtown is Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She attends Central Bible College. Her favorite quote: "Once you get the dust of Africa on your feet, you can never get it off." She writes, "African children are my heart. I love to sing and cook."
Joe & Linda Mayne
Joe is a credentialed minister with years of pastoral experience. He is employed by Evangel University. Linda is the administrative assistant to the District Superintendent for the Southern Missouri District of the Assemblies of God.
Jonathan & Jaime Ragsdale
Jonathan graduated from the Assemblies of
God Theological Seminary with an M.Div. degree.
He is a credentialed minister. Jaime is a
graduate of Central Bible College. These
newly-weds are both employed at A/G Financial
Solutions.
Robert & Connie Weddle
Robert is a long-term banker and will serve
as the treasurer for the new church. Connie
is the administrative assistant to the District
Secretary/Treasurer for the Southern
Missouri District of the Assemblies of God.
Jeffrey & Erin Wooden
Jeff was born in New Jersey. He attended a Bible Institute in upper New York State before moving to Missouri to attend Central Bible College where he met his wife, Erin. They married in the summer of 1994. They purchased their first home in Willard in 2003. Jeff has been involved in all kinds of pastoral ministry, including youth ministry, and the senior pastor of Cave Springs Assembly for about 2 ½ years. He was ordained in the Spring of 2007.
Erin writes, “At age 16, I was arrested and put in jail. While awaiting sentencing, a man came to visit me in jail. He was an Assemblies of God minister. He told me about a place called Teen Challenge and asked if I would be interested in going there [rather than] a detention facility for juvenile female offenders. I said, ‘yes.’ Teen Challenge changed my life. I was saved while there and filled with the Holy Spirit.” Erin is now an alumnus of Central Bible College and the administrative assistant to the Dean of Global University's Graduate School of Theology.
