On the north side of Wichita Falls, just off Barnett Road, Evangel Church has spent decades building a reputation as a place where people from every background can walk in and feel at home. The congregation meets in a single sprawling campus that includes a sanctuary, a gym, an eCafe, and a children's wing, and it runs a weekly service schedule that combines Pentecostal worship with practical, wide-reaching community service. Senior Pastor Kile Bateman and Lead Pastor Patti Bateman have shaped the church for more than a quarter century, and the family-first culture they have built shows up in everything from baby dedications to a transitional living program for young adults who aged out of foster care.
A Family Under One Roof
The phrase "We Are Family" is more than a slogan at Evangel. The church anchors its identity in Psalm 68:6 - "God places the lonely in families" - and frames every ministry around that idea. Kile Bateman, who has served at Evangel for 26 years, leads as Senior Pastor. He is the founder of Phased In, a transitional living program for emancipated foster youth, and serves as director of Family First, a ministry of the North Texas District of the Assemblies of God that promotes adoption and foster care. He also sits as Vice-Chair of the Texas Nonprofit Council, advising the state on faith-based and community initiatives.
Patti Bateman serves as Lead Pastor, overseeing the ministry teams of the church. For the past 26 years she has directly led the worship ministry and the women's ministry, and her burden for world missions and disaster relief has sent serve teams across the globe. Kile and Patti have been married for 35 years, have two children - Luke and Naphtali - and six grandchildren.
The church organizes its values around three words from 1 Corinthians 13:13. Faith covers vision ("we dream big, believe big") and generosity ("we give the first and the best"). Hope covers outreach and excellence. Love covers honor and celebration. Those six values, listed on the church's own walls, are the grid for nearly every program the church runs.
Sunday Celebration and Wednesday Nights
Sunday is built around the 10:00 AM Celebration Service. The front, main doors open at 9:00 AM for corporate pre-service prayer in the sanctuary, and the side doors under the awnings open at 9:30. A Welcome Desk near the entrance offers a free gift, and the eCafe serves coffee before service. The service itself is livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube at 10:00 AM Central.
Wednesdays are the church's second weekly gathering. Doors at entrance #6 open at 6:30, and programming runs from 6:45 to 7:45 PM. The night is split into EKids for children, Engage for students, and Equip Groups for adults. On the first Wednesday of the month the format shifts: every age and ministry meets together in the gym for a unified time of worship, prayer, and communion (the church takes a break from this combined format in June and July).
Equip Groups are the small-group backbone of the church, running September through December each year. The current rotation includes Sermon Application, Grow (foundational Christian truths), Parenting, and Rooted & Resilient.
Children and Students
Children's ministry serves from birth through 5th grade. Volunteers are ready to receive kids beginning at 9:45 AM, and all children's programming starts at 10:00 AM. On Wednesdays, the children's area opens at 6:40 PM. Safety is a priority: families check children in online through KidCheck or on-site in the children's area foyer hallway. The curriculum walks children through the major stories of the Bible on a three-year cycle, using Bible stories, songs, crafts, and games.
Engage Student Ministry is the church's 6th through 12th grade ministry, gathering on Wednesdays for life-changing messages, intimate worship, and games. On the first Wednesday of the month, students join the whole-church gathering for worship, prayer, and communion in the sanctuary.
Parenthood is woven into the church calendar. Baby and child dedications are offered regularly - the next scheduled dedication is announced on the church calendar - and a dedicated page explains that dedication is a parent's public commitment to raise a child in the nurture and instruction of the Lord, with the pastors and church family standing with them in prayer and support. The back-to-school season brings another moment of ministry: a Sunday in August is set aside to pray over students, families, teachers, and administrators, with a promotion milestone for kindergartners moving into EKids and sixth graders moving into Engage.
Men, Women, Marriage, and Young Adults
The men's ministry gathers on the second Saturday of each month from 8:00 to 9:00 AM in the gym, with a devotional, prayer, and encouragement. The women's ministry is led by Patti Bateman and offers two monthly touchpoints: a 1st Tuesday evening potluck (with meal, prayer, and encouragement at entrance #4, resuming in the fall) and a 3rd Thursday midday gathering for seasoned women. The annual Girls Getaway, held in Wichita Falls, is the women's ministry's flagship event.
Marriage ministry focuses on building skill in caring for one's spouse, and Breaking Bread - an adults-only program for those 18 and older - intentionally pairs people for conversation over a shared meal. Groups meet for about an hour and coordinate through the GroupMe app. The marriage ministry runs premarital preparation as well, with a registration form available for engaged couples.
The young adults ministry's mission is: "Through deep personal connection and spiritual family, encountering God truly happens and becomes a way of life." The ministry connects into the wider Wednesday and Sunday rhythms of the church.
Outreach: Food, Disaster Relief, and Foster Youth
Outreach is a defining mark of Evangel Church. The signature program is a drive-thru food distribution that has run on the third Saturday of each month for more than 22 years, handing out roughly 80,000 pounds of food annually. Volunteers serve alongside the staff, and the church welcomes first-time servers through a separate sign-up.
Disaster relief is the other long-standing outreach arm. For more than 22 years the church has sent response teams to the front lines of tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, and storms around the world. The strategy is summarized in three words: Pray. Serve. Give. Financial gifts for relief can be made online or by texting a dollar amount and the words "disaster relief" to 940-251-0550.
Phased In, founded by Pastor Kile, is a transitional living program for young adults who have aged out of foster care without being adopted. The program provides housing, education, medical care, and life-skills training, partnering with the church, the local community, and the State of Texas to walk these young adults toward stability and self-sufficiency.
Royal Family Kids Camp extends the same foster-care mission to children ages 6 to 12 who are in foster care or have experienced relational trauma. The five-day camp uses the Trust-Based Relational Intervention modality, and the church operates a session each summer.
Beliefs, Baptism, and Recovery
Evangel belongs to the Assemblies of God and reflects that Pentecostal heritage in its worship style and its openness to the gifts of the Spirit. The church's statement of faith, drawn from its baptism study guide, centers on the person and work of Jesus Christ: that Jesus is God, that He became a man, that He lived a perfectly obedient life, that He died as a substitute for sinners, that He rose from the grave, and that He is the only way to salvation. Baptism is understood as an outward sign of an inward salvation - a public profession of faith, performed by immersion, that follows a personal decision to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The church accepts other methods of baptism when the believer accepted Christ before being baptized and understood it as a profession of faith.
A recovery ministry gathers people in a Christ-centered community to work through whatever issues they are facing, and a prayer ministry anchors the church's sense of dependence on God. Corporate prayer happens in the sanctuary every Sunday at 9:00 AM before the service, and a worship and prayer service takes the place of the regular Equip Groups on the first Wednesday of each month. Prayer requests can be submitted publicly, anonymously, or privately through the church's online form.
For anyone new to the church, the next step is a Connect Card, and the eCafe is open before the Sunday service with coffee and a free welcome gift at the desk. Giving is available online through the church's giving platform, and the church is active on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for those who want to follow along before walking through the doors.