Young Pastor of Rural Church Expands Facilities Following Intentional Outreach and Divine Growth

Tucked away in the remote Arkansas Delta, Star City First Assembly of God is a thriving gospel model impacting the local culture.

“We are not afraid to go outside to the people,” says Justin Holt, 37, lead pastor. “Jesus is for everybody.”

Star City is a small community of 2,300 residents in Lincoln County where agriculture (cotton, soy beans, rice, and corn) drives the local economy. Its 19.5% poverty rate carries additional social problems; drugs and alcohol abuse, single parent households with children, and low-income housing needs.

Holt grew up in Rose Bud, Arkansas. He attended Rose Bud Assembly of God where the call of God stirred his heart.

In 2015 he moved to Star City with his wife Emily and three children to join First Assembly (SCFA) as youth pastor. Naysayers warned that the church was too isolated with limited growth prospects, and a revolving door of pastors. Yet Holt chose to tough it out and honor God’s calling.

He received AG ministerial credentials in 2017. Two years later the deacon board nominated him for voting by the congregation to serve as lead pastor. The previous pastor had resigned.

At 32 in 2019, Holt admits, “I thought that accepting the lead pastor’s position would be way over my head, and I didn’t feel ready for it.”

Uncertain, he petitioned God to prompt a long-time deacon known for Godly wisdom, along with two mature church members, to encourage him to accept the post. God granted his request within several weeks.

“God sent my deacon brother in Christ to speak into my life to bring me confirmation,” Holt says.

Aware of the congregation stabilizing at 75-80 people for a lengthy time, Holt launched a series of novel outreaches to attract those from outlying communities.

For example, every spring hundreds show up for SCFA’s Catfish & Crawfish Boil in a local park. Crawfish are purged and boiled in a crawfish cooker with spices, potatoes, corn, and sausage links.

Holt and his son Carter caught and filleted 80 pounds of fresh catfish for frying this year. Besides the food, the event featured Christian music, devotions, prayer, and games such as horseshoes, football and volley ball.

Every August on the Saturday before schools open, the church celebrates Bull Dog Day recognizing the high school mascot. It distributes socks, shoes, backpacks, groceries, and household goods. This year 325 students and their families showed up. The church offered information about services and programs, and members offered prayers.

In 2023 SCFA launched Celebrate Recovery (CR), a substance abuse ministry that has enriched the church. Held on Thursday evenings, about 50 people attend a dinner, worship service with testimonies, and classes teaching scriptural recovery principles.

Steven Kesterson, 44, runs the successful CR program. He was delivered from drugs and alcohol abuse after giving his heart to Christ at SCFA and baptized.

“The Lord showed me to obey his Word and have a servant’s heart,” he says.

Whitney Hall, 34, has attended SCFA since 2023 and is active in the Celebrate Recovery program. Addicted to crystal meth (methamphetamine) for eight years, she gave her heart to Christ at a faith-based rehab program, Daughters of the Other Side, in Searcy, Arkansas.

“First Assembly people have trusted and welcomed me with open arms,” she says. “Jesus has delivered me and uses me to help women struggling with addictions. What indescribable evidence of his grace.”

SCFA’s outreaches, worship services and prayers have yielded salvations, healings, and new congregants.

Audrey Echlin and her family learned that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, found in the Book of Acts, are for today and did not cease with the first century church.

“I grew up in churches opposed to the gifts of the Spirit,” Echlin, 39, admits.

Her son Porter experienced two divine healings that changed her mind.

In 2020 when Porter was four years old, he fell off his father’s golf cart, fracturing his skull which caused three brain hemorrhages. While he was rushed to a pediatric ICU, where he remained unconscious for 14 hours, Echlin reached out to the church for prayer.

The next morning, Porter suddenly woke up totally normal asking, “Can we go home?”

Even though Echlin knew deep down that God had intervened, she still doubted. Then two years later God intervened again, healing Porter's serious collar bone displacement. 

“From that moment our lives completely changed,” she explains. “We learned that the gift of the Holy Spirit is so beautiful and real.”

Star City First Assembly continues growing and recently added outreaches such as Grief Share and Senior Saints (50+).

The church added a 4,000 square-foot sanctuary in 2021, seating up to 325 people. It has also expanded nursery, children’s church, and youth group facilities. The current nursery, packed with 24 babies on Sundays, means more growth ahead.

Justin Holt’s ministry continues relying on the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit as he exemplifies the message of 1 Timothy 4:12 – “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”

Peter K. Johnson

Peter K. Johnson is a freelance writer living in Saranac Lake, New York. More than 500 of his articles and short stories have appeared in Christian and mainstream magazines and newspapers, including the Pentecostal Evangel,Charisma, the Saturday Evening Post, Guideposts, and Decision. He also serves as a consultant and contributing editor to a scientific journal.