Living Word Adventist Fellowship was organized as a company (a step in the process of becoming an official church) on Sabbath, February 9, in Butler, Missouri. Robert Wagley, executive secretary for the Iowa-Missouri Conference, delivered the message and officiated over the signing of the charter.

The company began as a Branch Sabbath School in 2012 under the umbrella of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nevada, Missouri. There were several families in the Bates County area that had to drive as much as an hour to attend church, and others couldn’t attend at all due to transportation issues. Living so far from a home church made it difficult to witness and serve in their own community.

The group began meeting in the conference room of a local funeral home but soon found a storefront building to rent on the town square. Their focus has been on community service and participating in local events to create public awareness. They meet for Bible study and worship beginning at 10:30 am each Sabbath morning, and they look forward to being a light of hope and truth to a county that has had no Adventist presence for many decades.