For one hundred years, Immanuel Baptist Church has been a beacon of truth and hope to the community of Shawnee and to the world. This book tells the story of the church for a century, its leaders, programs, accomplishments, and challenges, and how, amid a rapidly changing world, it never faltered in its faithfulness to God and His Word.
John Nichols has been a member of Immanuel Baptist Church since 1999. He is married to the lovely Edna Sizemore Nichols and has two grown children, Christopher and Cynthia. Christopher is an accounting professional in Shawnee, and Cynthia is a marketing and communications professional in New York City. John has a doctorate in mathematics and is a retired associate professor of mathematics from Oklahoma Baptist University. John also spent over twenty years doing software engineering and program management for NASA, the Department of Defense, and financial industry projects.
John has served Immanuel Baptist Church in many ways over the years. He has served on the Finance Committee and the Constitution and Bylaws Committee. He also teaches discipleship training classes for Immanuel Baptist Church. His classes cover a wide variety of topics, including Baptist history, the case for Christ, early church history, Luther and the Reformation, Mormonism, Islam, and the Passion of the Christ.
Through Immanuel and Oklahoma Baptist University, John has made two mission trips to China and one mission trip to Ecuador. For the first trip to China, John and his wife, Edna, led twelve Oklahoma Baptist University students on a six-week trip to teach English at Xinjiang Univeristy in Urumchi, China. For the second trip to China, John was part of a twenty-five-person team that taught English for two weeks at Shantou University in Shantou, China. In Ecuador, he participated in a ten-day trip and taught Baptist history and Baptist beliefs to pastors and lay leaders.
John is also a Gideon, having joined the Gideon Ministry in 2001. He is currently the west regional director for the Oklahoma State Gideons, having responsibility for all Gideon work to the west of and bordering on Interstate 35. He has served as the Oklahoma state editor for The Oklahoma Gideon, the Oklahoma State Secretary, the Oklahoma State Chaplain, and an area director. He has held most local offices. In summer 2017, John participated in a two-week international scripture blitz to Brazil. During that trip and in the preliminary and follow-on work, the team distributed 769,841 scriptures.
