Leadership team
nICOLE cOTTON
Nicole cotton | lEAD Pastor
Feeling called to ministry at a very young age, I began pursing my call in 2007. My husband Beau and I (married in 2007) began serving in youth ministry together in 2009 at our home church in Beebe, AR. I moved to my first staffed youth pastor position in 2012 (Vilonia, AR) and served there until 2018. In 2018, I was ordained and shortly thereafter stepped into my first lead-pastor position, where my calling felt more fulfilled than ever (Sherwood, AR). Beau is district licensed and is on track to be ordained in just a few years and we are passionate about serving in ministry together.
In my spare time, I enjoy drinking coffee and watching a good movie or show. When time permits, I enjoy photography and outside activities with my family.
beau cotton
beau cotton | associate pastor
Beau wears many hats (figuratively, I have not seen him physically wear a hat…). By day he is our community and discipleship pastor, by night when he’s not hanging out with his family he rocks out on the drums. He uses this special skill to bless our praise team during worship on Sundays, has been a major contributor towards the community garden, and serves in our Youth Ministry. When he’s not playing drums he can often be found serving in the sound booth and helps manage equipment and other technical-type thingies.
He is district licensed in the Nazarene church and has a Bachelor's degree in Pastoral Leadership from Nazarene Bible College. He is in the process of obtaining ordination.
In case you were wondering -Yes! He is Pastor Nicole’s husband. They met at a young age and needless to say, he was smitten. They both grew up in central Arkansas and have two kids, Nora and Jonah.
Nikki Whitney
Nikki whitney | Worship Leader / MArketing manager
Nikki has been singing in church since she was a kid and is a third generation worship leader in her family. She taught herself to play piano around the age of 12 and started leading worship in a youth group her freshman year in college. She felt a call to ministry and left college to participate in various ministry training programs through local churches before enrolling at the Nazarene Bible College. She graduated with honors with a degree in Bible and Theology. She has worked in marketing and social media management for over ten years.
Nikki now holds a local district minister's license and can occasionally be found in the pulpit at BFCN. She considers herself an official "Bible nerd" and hopes to inspire an infectious love of God's word in others through her teaching ministry.
Nikki has been married since 2011 to her best friend, Gabe. They live in Mascoutah in an almost tiny house with a plethora of cats and make wholesome all-ages comics. She loves animals (mostly cats), webcomics, old movies, and all kinds of asian food. She enjoys heavy metal and electronic music (surprise!) But most of all she desires to bring glory to King Jesus, whom she dearly loves.
Karen Dissett
Dawn franklin | admin assistant
Dawn is a life-long Nazarene and started attending BFCN in 2017 and officially transferred her membership in the fall of 2020. She has been actively serving in Children’s ministry as a toddler room teacher since the early days of attending the church, and then she re-started the Kid City Ministry after the covid shut down and has been working as a volunteer in that area ever since. She loves children and has always felt called to work with children in some capacity. That calling led her to leading her own in-home childcare for many years, until 2024 when she officially “retired” from that setting. Before child-care, Dawn worked in retail, banking, and doing administrative work for her previous pastor’s business.
Dawn and her husband Adam have been married since 2007 and have beautiful twin daughters, Emma and Bella. She loves her family with everything she has and loves to spend as much time with them as she can, while also leaving time for her friends, whom she loves dearly as well. She also loves traveling, going to The Fox and The Muny, and taking her kids anywhere that provides excitement and memories. She is very excited to join the BFCN Staff and take on this new opportunity as Administrative Assistant and can’t wait to see how the Lord works in her life and in her servanthood here at BFCN.
BFCN Church Board Members
Phil christensen (NmI)
Connie Griffin
Greg Parcell
Cathy dothager
Burl hand
Bryan Skelton
Adam Franklin
Stu leach (NYI)
Larry Wankel (NDI)
At Belleville First we are blessed with a great leadership team
who are committed to the Kingdom and serving you.