Please join us in thanking Pastor Mark and Mary Alice Hoover for their 40 years of ministry at NewSpring Church.

Thank you for the amazing opportunity to be party of the Newspring family. After my wife passed and my sister visited from NY and took us to Newspring we have been blessed. Many blessings and love from the Brace Family.

Dear Pastor Mark and Mary Alice,

I thank God for the gift of you both — in my life and that of our family, in the life of our community, across our nation, and even into the furthest reaches of the world.

I am humbly grateful for all you have done throughout your ministry — especially all I have witnessed during the eight years since Brett and I moved to Kansas, joined NewSpring, and became your next-door neighbors.

The blessing of both of you is indeed profound — and experienced in the most beautiful, caring, and heartfelt ways as well as in the most compelling, impactful, and life-changing of ways possible.

I celebrate your faithfulness, leadership, obedience, vision, spiritual guidance, scriptural teachings, creativity, integrity, candor, wisdom, humor, compassion, grit, authenticity, determination, and so much more.

I also deeply cherish your prayers, grace, generosity, compassion, and actions throughout Brett’s illness and in support of the celebration of his life here at NewSpring and his military funeral at the U.S. Naval Academy. — As well as the fact his service may have been the first time NewSpring ever played a Led Zeppelin song! Thank you for your blessing!

Moreover, I cherish God’s purposeful bringing of us four together through His various Creator-Ordained Incidences — aka coincidences. In the early 2000s, He ordained that we attend an Anita Renfroe show in California’s Antelope Valley. In 2017, He ordained that we U.S. Navy folks move to land-locked Wichita after Brett’s retirement, attend NewSpring, buy the house next door to you, and then later recognize that you were our neighbors and that Austin is Anita’s son. In 2024, He ordained there would be no military Chaplain available on the date of Brett’s USNA funeral, thereby opening the door for you to preach on the very same pulpit from which Dr. Peter Marshall had preached December 7, 1941. And, last — but most definitely not least — the celebration of your anniversary is on Brett’s birthday, June 29th.

How wonderful that God brought us together for a time such as this.

Happy 40th NewSpring Anniversary!

With heartfelt gratitude,

Sylvia Pierson

I do not know you personally but occasionally am able to attend a service but usually watch from home. You are an example of the kind of pastor and wife who ministered to their church as a team in the church I grew up in. Your sermons are inspired of God. Thank you for your calling and commitment. God bless your family.

Thank you both for your sacrificial and tireless leadership. We love our worship team, your biblical messages and your commitment to follow what the Bible teaches. We especially love your commitment to our children and youth programs. Our grandkids love it and they love to learn about Jesus. May God bless you and provide you both with strength and courage, as you continue to minister to our community and people around the world. You are making a difference and you are loved!

Pastor Mark and Mary Alice
What a delightful couple and leaders of the best church sermons I have come across, which are broadcast on TV. I admire your church and wish I were closer to attend the services in Wichita. I’m retired, 83 years old, and on a very tight budget, so I can’t travel the 60 – 120 round-trip miles, but I try to catch your services on TV.
God Bless your family and the work you do at New Spring Church. Mark, you are a special Pastor with down-to-earth sermons and messages that you deliver, reaching out to people; they are inspiring and meaningful. Your messages that relate to the bible and Jesus’ teachings hit home. I’m grateful to you and your family for your work at New Spring. There should be many more churches like the one you have built. The special way you deliver your messages is very unique and heartwarming. I have been trying to catch every service, but it is not always possible.
May God always continue to Bless you and your family! Forty Years!
May God continue to Bless the New Spring Church!

Jim Sadey

I have not known you for 40 years but I am so touched by God and Jesus Christ through your ministry. When my husband Chris and I moved here from Liberal, KS in July 2020 one of our first priorities was to find “the right” church home. Of course right in the middle of shut down and Covid, it wasn’t a prime condition for finding that church home. Due to my husband’s declining health, church hunting provided a number of challenges for us. That’s when I came across NewSpring online. It was more than a God wink that this was to be our new church home!!! Chris’s legal first name was Mark, we had just left an excellent pastor named Mark, and of course Mark Hoover was the lead pastor of this church. The warmth that was felt in our living room during the livestream services was “HOME” for us. Such an answer to prayer that Chris could participate in a stress-free fashion in a “live” church service, even with his physical and health restrictions… Even communion!!! Thank you!!!

Fast forward to now, you have been and continue to be my church. Chris unexpectedly and quickly went home to be with our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ, Feb. 2, 2023. Before that time we had been blessed by some of your staff (Rob Winslow and DJ Breathett) visiting Chris in the many times he was hospitalized. Noah’s Window became part of our devotional time together. Chris commented, “Mary Alice really knows how to give a message!!!” A lovely bouquet even arrived to the hospital during his 2-month stay. NewSpring went way out of its way to welcome us and draw us in to our new church family!!!

Once again, when my two adult children and I were able to think about a Celebration of Life service in memory of Chris “Perk” Perkins, NewSpring answered the call. In May 23, 2023 we were honored by the church’s open arms to provide guidance, a location, and the best message provided by Mark, as well as providing a livestream of the service to the many former students, friends, and family unable to attend. We are forever grateful for the love, compassion, support and guidance your church has provided to us these last 5 years.

Looking forward to continuing to follow NewSpring’s ministry, praying for you and your entire family. I have been truly blessed, and have been in God’s Word more in the last 5 years than ever before due to both you and your many ministries. Thank you, for being such great teachers of the Word and of life. You have been a total Godsend that has kept me moving forward to my final home with Jesus Christ, and my loved ones who have gone before me. Blessings and Love, Pam

I have been in church my entire life, and believed on Jesus as my savior at 8 yrs of age. And I’m not young! Wish it had been much earlier, but I’m so thankful that we found NewSpring 14 yrs ago – a fellowship of believers who are fully engaged and focused in on Jesus’ command to reach the lost and teach the flock. Volunteering and working here has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. Thank you both for your dedication, hard work, and allowing God to take leadership of all we do here at NewSpring. The fruits of your labor and love investment is miraculous and unmeasurable! Congratulations and may God bless you daily for 40 years of commitment to us!

Congratulations on being at New Spring for 40 years. Keep it up the good work and let’s make it big 50

We watch you every week and thoroughly enjoy your teaching. We live in Houston but have friends that attend New Springs. Wish we lived closer so we could attend in person. Congrats on 40 years of some of the best preaching we have ever heard.

Hey Mark and Mary Alice,

I just wanted to say how much I enjoy watching your service on YouTube. I live about 60 miles from Wichita, but I had the joy of visiting in person on Maundy Thursday this year!

I’m truly grateful for you, the worship team, and everyone who makes it possible for people like me to experience your church from afar. It’s a blessing—thank you!

Who knows…maybe God will plant me in Wichita sometime soon!

Warmly,
Jo Nelson-McPherson

I have been so blessed by having you and Mary Alice for 30 years. I can’t began to tell you how your messages have taught me so much understanding of the scripture and I look forward each week to hearing your message. Love you and Mary Alice!

Thank you Pastor Mark and Mary Alice for your faithful leadership. God has given you such incredible gifts! How blessed we are to sit under your teaching each week. You have great ability (through the power of the Holy Spirit) to preach a message that both reaches someone far from God while being convicting to mature Christians. With the massive reach Newspring has in the country and world, you hold firm to the Word of God and refuse to bend to the demands of the sinful culture. Thank you for preaching the Word with both grace and truth. We love you and pray for safety, great health, and many blessings in your life!

P.S. no need to apologize for going into overtime–we all love when you do!! 🙂