New Testament Church
Merrill WI

For all of our members, it is so important to know who The New Testament Church is. We all must be able to identify with our vision, beliefs, ministry and leadership, as the Apostle Paul told the Church at Corinth, “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” – Corinthians 1:10. This not only gives us more confidence in what the Lord is accomplishing through His Church, but also in your life and family.

 

https://ntcministries.net/  

 

“His Hands Extended Food Program”:

The very first outreach ministry that the Lord would give us as a congregation was our “His Hands Extended Food Program”. So in October of 1986, in one accord, the small congregation of just 32 people obeyed the Lord and held our first food distribution day. There was a 100% turnout from our congregation on that Saturday afternoon, and over 30 families lined up to receive a helping hand. The success of not only helping the less unfortunate, but of having many great opportunities to share Jesus with people, was far beyond what anyone had expected. Even though we have received very little outside aid for any of our food distribution, the growth of our giving has blessed many and has increased to now, on a monthly basis, assisting over 500 people, and distributing to them well over 150,000 lbs of groceries per year. Each year we are privileged to see an increase in our congregation by those who have been ministered to in “His Hands Extended Food Program”.  

In The Beginning

In the spring of 1981 while Dr. Hohman was driving home to Merriman, Michigan from ministering at a family camp in Marinette, Wisconsin, the Lord told him to pull the borrowed truck he was driving over to the side of the road and prophecy. At the time he was in Norway, Michigan which only had four blocks of downtown parking spaces. So obedient to the Lord, Dr. Hohman pulled the truck into one of the angle parking spaces and stepped out into the vacant spot which was next to him. The exact timing of the prophecy, was not yet known, but the purpose of the prophecy was perfectly clear. The Lord was going to prepare a work that would be built for a mighty revival in the northern most portion of the United States. In this prophecy was laid out in detail a ministry that would:

reach out to all that are without hope in this world by every possible act of love and good will, while holding our faith in God to bring them into the Kingdom of Heaven. be available as a center of activity for all to see the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven. be a place that would train God’s children to worship the Lord with an excitement and a continued heart of thankfulness. be a resource center for the purpose of educating people as leaders in this world with a Christ centered motive and character. be an established church that people would know that the doors would be open to them for aid and assistance spiritually, emotionally, and physically. be stable in the teaching of grace and faith so that each man and woman would have the opportunity to find their God given destiny and then see it fulfilled. be a home base for ministers (both men and women) to receive proper training for their calling, find support for the fulfillment of their dreams and be a place of rest and refreshment for the undergirding needed in battle. be a center that would spawn ministers to aid and assist other churches and ministries in this end time, and grow into a strong network of ministry partners.

A Thirty Year Progress Report

Job 8:7 “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.” In November of 1985 the Lord laid a little town in Wisconsin on Dr. Hohman’s heart. This was not unusual because as a traveling evangelist often times the Lord would put a town on his heart and he and his wife Pam would lift the town up daily in their prayers. By doing this they would see the Lord establish a new church in the town or move by His Spirit in an already established church. But this would not be the case with Merrill, Wisconsin. The burden for Merrill seemed to grow beyond just a need for intercession, and early on the morning of Friday, January 10th 1986, Pam was stirred by the Spirit of God to wake up Dr. Hohman and encourage him to go to Merrill that day and evangelize. So after breakfast he phoned brother Gordon Jeager take a trip to Merrill because he knew that Gordon had been born and raised in Merrill, and in the mid morning Dr. Hohman and Gordon were off to Wisconsin. Having a background in street preaching Dr. Hohman thought that that would be the plan for the day, but on a cold January day in Merrill, Wisconsin he found that there was only an echo on the streets. So he and Gordon went into the stores and Dr. Hohman would share his testimony with any who would listen. After having found three people who would pray and except Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, he and Gordon organized a Bible study for the new believers in Christ at Marcella Geiss’s home in Little Florida Trailer Park. During that evenings Bible study the Lord spoke to Dr. Hohman to commit to meeting for a Bible study every Thursday night. After leaving while driving out of town heading back to Michigan the Lord spoke to Dr. Hohman a second time, this time telling him that he was going to pastor a church in Merrill. When Dr. Hohman heard this his response was, “I’m willing Lord, but you are going to have to tell my wife because I won’t touch that with a ten foot pole”. The Bible study went on for several months with a great success and by April, 27 people came to know the Lord as the Savior, but Dr. Hohman would not speak to anyone of the conversation that he had with the Lord of pasturing the newly founded congregation. On the morning of Thursday April 24th, Dr. Hohman’s wife, Pam, again woke him early, this time saying that the Lord had been speaking to her. She said, “You know that we are to move to Merrill and pastor that church, don’t you”. When he responded, “Yes” she said, “Well,I will put a for sale sign on our house, you can tell the people tonight that we will obey the Lord and move.” When Dr. Hohman got to the Bible study that evening and told the people of their plan, all attending shouted for joy because they had been fasting and praying for two weeks, asking the Lord to move on William and Pam’s heart to come to Merrill and pastor them.

During the three and a half month period while Dr. Hohman was waiting for pastor Pam to talk things over with the Lord, Jesus gave him the Bible verses that he was to found the church upon: Philippians 1:27-28 “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.”

How little did Dr.Hohman know that the meditation of these scriptures would be a constant way of life for him as he would go through many years of constant battle, fighting the “good fight of faith”.​