Church Spotlight: Word Alive
In continuing with our Church Spotlight feature (you can see the two previous spotlights Cornerstone Church and The River), today I’d like to introduce you to Word Alive Church in Oxford, Alabama, and pastor Kent and Beverly Mattox.
TONY: Who are you?
Kent and Beverly Mattox
KENT: I met my future wife, Beverly, in the early 1980’s. She was a drug dealer and I was a drug addict. While on a date, Bev told me of a vision she had many months earlier while driving down the interstate on a drug run. She said the skies opened up and she saw a man with her that looked like me standing on a platform preaching to thousands of people. She told God “I think you’ve got the wrong person,” and she heard God chuckle and say “I’ll see about that.” As she recounted this vision to me, Beverly told me I was supposed to be a preacher. At that mention, I was the one laughing!
Shortly after that, my life took a downward spiral resulting in a drug overdose that nearly cost me my life. We moved to Orlando, Florida to work with my dad in order to help us get our lives back together. It was during this time in Orlando, Florida that my wife and I were delivered from a lifestyle of drug addiction in 1986. The Lord radically changed our lives and we started ministering the Gospel. I served as an Associate Pastor in Orlando, FL, for ten years before launching Kent Mattox Ministries. After almost two years of traveling the world preaching the Gospel, the Lord called us to start Word Alive International Outreach.
TONY: When did your church launch?
KENT: We launched Word Alive in December 2000. After almost two years of world-wide missions work, my wife and I felt the Lord calling us to start a local church. My parents provided us the land to build upon. Two days before the construction was completed and we were given the keys to the building, my father passed away. His funeral was the first service ever held at Word Alive drawing hundreds to our church and essentially launching us into ministry.
TONY: Where are you located?
KENT: Oxford, Alabama
TONY: Tell us something unique about your church.
KENT: We feed over 2,000 families a month through our Isaiah 58 Food Ministry, we don’t take up offerings in services, and we shut down the church in the month of July and encourage our congregation to Sabbath and enjoy time with their families.
TONY: Any ministry highlights from recent months?
KENT: We gathered over 12,000 members of the community for an Easter Service at the local high school this past spring and we celebrated the church’s 10 year anniversary earlier this month.
TONY: What’s your latest leadership learning?
KENT: Over the years, I’ve learned that if you’re not careful as a leader, you can lose perspective and neglect your relationship with the Lord by focusing so much on the body and not paying attention to the head, Jesus Christ.
To learn more about Kent and the ministries of Word Alive church, you can visit their website or connect with them on Facebook.
AWESOME TESTIMONY !!!! Pastor Kent is awesome! You can feel the spirit of the Lord upon him. It’s Amazing!
I go to Word ALive and it is the most awesome place to be. It is the most loving and accepting church. This is the church that I was saved and water baptised in. We have Sabbath the month of July and my family goes out and visits other churches some good and some not so good so when August 1st rolls around we are so excited to be back home! Pastor Kent is real and tells it like it is no candy coating and anyone can understand what he is teaching. The praise and worship are radical and the Holy Spirit is very present during our praise. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!!
Word Alive Church is an awesome church and I encourage everyone on facebook to come a visit us, we have services 9, 11, 6 p.m. every Sunday, unless it snows….we also have an awesome children’s ministry. Come and visit us and find out for yourselves.
In 2003 I was as far from God as anybody could be. My life was in ruins and I was hopeless. I was in a recovery program for drugs and alcohol for the 1st time, trying to get fixed to go back doing it like normal people. I went to Word Alive just to see what was going on and since that day I gave my life to Jesus, Jesus changed me into what He intended me to be.Since that day I have not had the desire for a mind-altering chemical. Through the Leadership of Word Alive, Life Groups and everything they have to offer to connect me to Jesus, I have since open a recovery program and have Minister the Word of God and as an instrument of God have and are helping men change their lives. I am eternally grateful to Kent and Beverly Mattox for answering the High Calling of God !! Come On Jesus !!!
This church is the most awesome Jesus church I’ve ever been to in my life. There is freedom, love and joy there! Kent and Bev are AWESOME! Come and visit – you may never leave!
I have no doubt that Kent hears the Almighty God speak to him. One of many things is God loves you just the way you are but to much to leave you this way. Through the blood of Jesus we are set free and Word Alive applies FREEDOM as its focal point in ministry. Jesus is ALIVE.