Our Accountability and Oversight Team

In accordance with our Leadership Handbook, three spiritual advisers unaffiliated with DOVE International have been appointed by unanimous decision of the DOVE International Apostolic Council and by the general affirmation of the Regional Apostolic Councils. These spiritual advisers provide advice, counsel, and accountability for the international director and for the other members on the DOVE International Apostolic Council.

We are so grateful to the Lord for the wise and faithful spiritual advisers the Lord has placed in our lives for accountability and for spiritual oversight. We meet together with them individually as needed at various times throughout the year, and we meet with them as a team each September for a day of discernment and prayer together.

In cases of moral failure, irreconcilable disputes, disorderly conduct, apostasy, or other faults on the part of any member of the DOVE International Apostolic Council, two or more of the recognized spiritual advisers will work closely as a team with the DOVE International Apostolic Council to bring mediation and/or possible suspension or removal of the member at fault. In cases of unresolved conflict between the international director and the DOVE International Apostolic Council, a team of two or more recognized spiritual advisers will serve as outside mediators and facilitate the resolution of disputes.

Following is an introduction of our three spiritual advisers Keith Yoder and both Tony and Marilyn Fitzgerald, who are a married couple.

Keith Yoder 

Keith Yoder, Ed.D., Educational Leadership, has served as professional educator, congregational and ministry leader. He is the founder of Teaching the Word Ministries. His personal mission is to help others identify their unique identity in Christ and empower them to fulfill their role in God’s Kingdom. He enjoys sharing God’s wisdom through mentoring, teaching, writing, and counseling leaders throughout the United States and in areas such as Africa, the Americas, India, and Myanmar. Keith ministers as an adviser to congregations, ministries and networks. Having served for fifteen years as leader of Regional Church of Lancaster County (Pennsylvania), he continues to consult with other leaders in cooperative partnerships to promote transformation in their regions. With a half century of marriage, Keith and Marian serve others from the overflow of their partnership.

Tony and Marilyn Fitzgerald

Tony and Marilyn are founders and apostolic team leaders of Church of the Nations. COTN is an international family of apostolic clusters of churches and kingdom ministries related through love and commitment to see the kingdom of God established on earth. Brought up in Christian homes, in Tasmania, Australia, Tony and Marilyn’s lives took an unexpected turn. At 18, Tony was diagnosed with cancer. After months of hospitalization and recovery for Tony, the couple committed their lives completely to God’s purposes. They were married in 1970 and entered into denominational ministry training. In 1975, they moved to England and began a journey that has taken them to the four corners of the earth. In 1978 the Lord gave Tony the vision of resource bases serving networks of churches; and in 1979, the seed of what was to become COTN was planted. Today COTN has established kingdom influence in more than fifty countries. Tony and Marilyn see the church as a safe house, a covenant family of believers who are fathered, discipled and mentored to fulfill their kingdom destiny. “Church” only finds its true meaning in the context of the “gospel of the kingdom.”