About the Pastor

I was born on December 18,1958 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was immediately given up for adoption to two loving parents. I was raised in a blue-collar family who taught me that hard work never hurt anyone. My parents, though not followers of Jesus, taught my adopted brother and me good morals and to be honest in all our dealings. I remember going to church every so often up until I was around eight years old. From then on, we slowly became the “two times a year” family. Due to this type of up-bringing, I never knew what the Gospel of Jesus Christ was, much less what it meant. My dad was a good dad who took his family camping every weekend in the summer time and took my brother and me hunting in the fall. We were raised in the country and even rodeoed as young boys growing up.

I was an athlete all through Junior High and High School. I threw the discus in track and also played basketball through those years. After graduation I played basketball at Claremore College and then on to Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  I had a fulfilling athletic career of which I will always cherish.

On September 23, 1980, I gave my life to Jesus Christ. I was a senior at Northeastern State University when I heard the entire Gospel of Jesus for the first time. I knew that’s what I wanted to do and was soon baptized at First Baptist Church in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. A little less than a year later I married Tonya Scarbrough on August 15, 1981 in Owasso, Oklahoma. At that time, both of us were in our last year of college and lived in married housing on the campus of Northeastern State University. Both of us graduated in 1982 and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to begin our careers.

One goal we set as newlyweds was to have Tonya home once we began to have children so that she would be home to raise our children. Two months before our first child in February of 1985, God provided me with a job which paid enough money for Tonya to quit her job and come home.  I had been in sales in the secular work place for 10 years at the time I entered seminary, 7 of the 10 in sales management. I also had a small delivery business with a partner within our first 3 years for almost a year before we closed it due to under capitalization.  That was our life until we left for seminary in May of 1992.

Upon graduation from seminary in August of 1994, my wife and I went to Montana as church planters and were there for 7 years.  God planted a very successful church which continues to do very well to this day.  We then came to Fort Gibson in September of 2001 where we pastored for 4 1/2 years.  It was a very good work which again, God did a great job.  Tonya and I felt God tugging our hearts to leave another successful work to begin another new work.  However, this time, the new work was to target the 18-30 year old group of adults.  It was June 2006 that we began meeting with a core group of people that wanted to be a part of the new work.  Great days are in store for the new work we call Fusion Church.

Jesus Christ is the most significant person in my life because He is my personal Lord and Savior. My utmost goal is to please Him and serve Him according to His Will for my life. The next most significant person in my life is my wife Tonya. She is my partner in life, my counselor, and my right-hand in our ministry. Because we put Jesus at the center of our marriage from the beginning, we have been able to overcome the obstacles that life and the world has thrown our way. My goal is to please her to the best of my ability, though I fail more than what I would like to admit.

According to God’s command, our number one priority in life is to love Him. Our second priority in life is to love one another as Jesus loves us. If we do not know how Jesus loves us, how can we love one another?  I want people to know that Jesus loves them no matter what they have done in their life, and He wants them to follow Him. This is what I’m all about.

Keeping the Faith – Dwayne