Welcome Darrell Adcock
Just a few weeks ago, at the CityChurch Network Flourishing Dinner, we celebrated how Central Arkansas churches are working together to share the light and love of Christ more brightly in our communities. As we shared strategic plans for the coming year, one announcement prompted spontaneous applause. Since not everyone could attend the dinner, we want to share the news with you.
On behalf of the CityChurch Network Board and Leadership Team, we are excited to announce that Darrel Adcock has joined the CityChurch Network staff to serve as our Executive Team Leader. I’ve had the privilege of working with Darrell since he came to Little Rock and know him well. His experience, spiritual maturity, and unique combination of gifts for leading prayer and worship and for building teams will help us reach a new level of serving churches in our network. I could say much more, but I would rather let you hear his story in his words.
Darrell, welcome aboard!
Ray Williams
President – CityChurch Network of Arkansas
“Train up a child in the way he should go…” (Proverbs 22:6) is a proverb, not a promise. But for me, the trajectory of my life is forever shaped by the loving faith community that is the Church.
“We serve at the pleasure of the King” is a hallmark in the Adcock family that has guided our steps and built our faith. My wife and I have been blessed to be part of amazing stories of redemption as well as the heartache that often accompanies ministry. And this latest chapter in our story has been the most surprising and rewarding for us.
Making disciples and experiencing simpler forms of the Church have revolutionized my faith and ministry. While I treasure every experience God has given me, the rest of my life will be given to making disciples and fostering a united Church that brings to life Jesus’ prayer for unity among His followers.
Early Life
I was raised with a love for God and His Church. My earliest memories are of sitting on a wooden piano bench, watching Mom play the piano while Dad rehearsed with the choir for Sunday worship. Hearing the powerful sound of the church organ fill the sanctuary as Granny played—which she did faithfully for 51 years at the Pittsburg Baptist Church in Northern California, where I was raised—set a context and a course for my life.
The oldest of three boys, I grew up to serve the church through worship and leadership. There is nothing like hearing believers worship and pray together as a faith community. Being taught, affirmed, and loved by godly parents who surrounded me with God’s people led me to a saving knowledge of Jesus at age 8.
My dad came off the platform during the invitation of a summer revival to pray with me. He did the same when I was fourteen and felt called to full-time ministry at Jenness Park, a summer camp my dad led for the California Baptist Convention. I traveled with him often as he trained and equipped leaders to have greater kingdom impact in churches and families.
Seeing God’s Faithfulness
After high school, I took the money I received from graduation gifts and purchased a ‘65 Ford Fairlane. With the help of my great-uncle, I painted light blue between the pecan trees on our small orchard in Clovis. Sure, she was old, but she was fast!
At the end of summer that year, I packed up everything I owned and set out for Nashville to study music at Belmont University. As amazing as my education was, I learned the most from College Minister Dan Jones and Minister of Music Mark Edwards, who led worship and the choir at First Baptist Church in Nashville. Watching the power of 125 singers (nearly half of them had music degrees!) sing with excellence and a love for Christ exposed me to a world of music I had never known.
During college, a cute brunette named Tracy Polk caught my eye, and that changed everything. We married in December of our senior year and graduated in May of 1988. (Just an FYI to you worship leaders out there: right before Christmas probably isn’t the best time for your anniversary). Grad school took us to Louisville, Kentucky, and Southeast Christian Church, where I became Music Director. There we saw the power of God at work, with baptisms at every weekend and midweek service during our 4 years there.
Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of serving in six dynamic churches. From church plants and megachurches to churches in homes, spanning from Las Vegas (Canyon Ridge Christian Church) and Indiana (Northside Christian Church) to Little Rock (Fellowship Bible Church and South City Church). In each place, we have seen God’s faithfulness through His people.
The Next Chapter
I began volunteering for CityChurch Network soon after we moved to Little Rock. Ray Williams painted a picture of a united Church working together for the good of our cities. That was something I’ve prayed for, believing that, together, we can be the answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17:23: “that (we) may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
God has moved powerfully in this movement. Praying with pastors. Hearing Bill Elliff and other kingdom leaders’ tender hearts toward the Lord in seeking revival. The many nights leading worship as churches gather to pray in and for our city. Uniting racially diverse congregations for citywide prayer gatherings such as OneChurch. We are better together!
Bill Hybels once said, “The local church is the hope of the world,” and that is true. But Jesus is the hope of the Church. When you surrender to Him, serve His Bride, share your faith, and live as salt and light in this world as a “family of families,” you give His hope to others. A recent study by the Barna Group, titled Reviving Evangelism: Current Realities that Demand a New Vision for Sharing Faith, reveals that one of the main factors that would generate interest in Christianity among various groups is “if they saw various churches in their community working together more.”
Interested in your church working more collaboratively? I’d love to connect with you and hear more of your story
