Senior Pastor Jerald & Dixie Freeman in Skiatook, Oklahoma founded Ascension Church in January of 1989.  During the summer of 1990, the Lord spoke to Pastor Jerald to have a revival meeting in his barn.  Having been in the quarter horse business for many years prior to starting the church, he had a large indoor riding arena.  The church body agreed with the idea of a revival in the barn, which was located across the street from an Indian housing addition.  The church members saturated this area with prayer.

 

God further instructed Pastor Jerald to get an old friend, James Reed, to preach the meeting.  James had been a pastor of a church and had recently gone into evangelism. The meeting began the Sunday after Labor Day and was to end on Wednesday. The revival was such a success and the new converts were so excited, it was agreed to continue the meeting for the entire week.  At the final Sunday evening service 26 people were baptized in a horse trough and 38 conversions were recorded.  Most of the people attending were from the prayed-for housing addition adjacent to the barn.  The church membership doubled and was moved to the present location, 741 W Rogers in Skiatook.  Therefore, the annual “Barn Revival” has become a local event similar to an old fashioned camp meeting since 1990.

 

Somewhat prior to the time the first revival, the Freemans heard Francis Frangipane’s teaching on the “City Church” concept.  The concept is that it takes a citywide church to defeat a citywide devil.  Pastor Freeman grasped this God idea into his heart and it has been an important mission for him to get city pastors to pray together for the town of Skiatook.  The pastors now meet together for prayer. They also meet once a month for prayer with the Town Council to pray over the business needs of Skiatook.  Sponsored by the Skiatook Ministerial Fellowship with Pastor Freeman as President, the churches of Skiatook have had three large prayer rallies that were held at the football stadium. These rallies were birthed from Pastor’s vision for a prophetic, apostolic citywide church to break dividing walls.  The Freemans have traveled to many churches to encourage and unite the Body of Christ by experiencing the Father’s heart.  The apostolic and prophetic are welcomed into their meetings.