2 3

THIS WEEK IN AG HISTORY BY DARRIN J. RODGERS Robert A. Brown, with his wife Marie, founded Glad Tidings Tabernacle in New York City, which for many years was the largest congregation in the Assemblies of God. However, Brown spent his youth far away from God. Born in Northern Ireland, Brown lived a worldly lifestyle. He decided to hear one of his cousins preach and was deeply impressed. The Holy Spirit grabbed hold of his heart and he surrendered his life to Christ. After immigrating to America in 1898, Brown studied for the ministry and was ordained by the Wesleyan Methodist Church. One day in 1907, he decided to attend a service held in a small Holiness mission in New York City.

Two young women ministers, Marie Burgess and Jessie Brown (not related to Robert), were fearlessly preaching the Pentecostal message. Brown was asked to preach at the church. He decided to preach on Acts 2:4 and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As he preached, he grew under great conviction that he needed to experience the Baptism. He received the experience a little while later, on January 11, 1908. Robert married Marie Burgess and they established what became Glad Tidings Tabernacle. He became an AG executive presbyter in 1915. Read the March 6, 1948, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel online at http://s2.ag.org/mar61948.

CONNECT WITH US ON

FACEBOOK TWITTER

RSS

AND OUR WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER.VISIT PENEWS.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION.

NEWS FOR, ABOUT, AND FROM THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD AVAILABLE 24/7

PENEWS.ORG

AG WOMEN WAGE WAR AGAINST SEX INDUSTRY

BGMC SETS ALL-TIME GIVING RECORDPAGE 3

THE WINDING ROAD OF DANNY FLORES PAGE 5 • UVF RECEIVES SCHOLARSHIP GIFT PAGE 5 • SOUTHERNMOST POINT IS DIVERSE

SPOT PAGE 7 • THIS WEEK IN AG HISTORY PAGE 8

CHURCH PLANT THRIVES AMONG THE DECHURCHEDPAGE 4

LARGELY HISPANIC CHURCH GROWS, ONE MAN AT A TIMEPAGE 6

PAGE 2

A COLLECTION OF THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES FROM PENEWS.ORG

SUNDAY,MARCH 8, 2015

4 5

Kevin T. Brown, senior pastor of the remote Naalehu Assembly of God in Hawaii, is grateful that the small congregation is representative of the community. Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, African-Americans, Africans, Filipinos, Japanese, and Hispanics are among the regular attendees. Brown says he isn’t an advocate of separating Christians by cultural or racial background. He believes the AG has progressed greatly since its early days of division between blacks and whites. “There is strength in diversity,” Brown says. “It makes our Fellowship more what heaven is like. No one should walk into an AG church and feel uncomfortable because of ethnicity. In our church, people can come in and connect with someone else who looks like they do.” Brown is a rarity as an African-American pastor in the Aloha State. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, blacks represent only 2.3 percent of Hawaii’s residents, compared to 13.2 percent nationally. Naalehu, with a population of only 866, is the southernmost town in the United States. Brown met his Filipino wife, Luzviminda, while both served in the Army stationed at Fort Wainwright in Alaska — the northernmost U.S. military post. Brown, who also leads worship at the church, has been at Naalehu AG since 2007. He is the longest-serving pastor in the church’s 68-year history.

God is raising up women leaders in the Assemblies of God to help minister to the mothers, daughters, sisters, and granddaughters involved in the sex and porn industry. “Their choices have been stolen from them,” says Donna Engvall, missionary candidate with Assemblies of God U.S. Missions. “Their destinies have been hijacked.” An ordained minister since 2006, Engvall is a member of All Nations Fellowship in New Orleans. In 2001, she founded Unashamed Love.Engvall and her team brought bagged lunches and performed acts of kindness to women on the streets, such as wrapping scarves around them on cold nights. The goal, Engvall says, was to build relationships and trust by showing them the love of Jesus Christ in the place of their suffering. Starting in New Orleans four years ago, she now ministers with a team of

volunteers on Bourbon Street. When God put the same call on Polly Bumgardner’s life, she says she struggled because she found it to be scary, dark, and unfamiliar. But she surrendered, and visited her first club in November 2013. A member of Life Church Assembly of God in Williston, North Dakota, Bumgardner’s mission field is nestled in the heart of the Bakken oil fields. Bumgardner and her team of 12 pray and bring food twice a month to a residence that houses some of the local dancers. She has established close relationships with six of the women and regularly meets them for coffee or lunch. “My role is to be God’s love to them in a way that maybe they haven’t experienced yet,” she says. Love is the primary ingredient necessary, according to Jeanie Turner, who began ministering to women in the

“I know there have been at least 10 men’s ministries over the years in various churches that have started because men came here, got on fire, and then went and started ministries in their churches,” Haro says. Haro follows a three-pronged approach to men’s ministries: connecting men to one another through meaningful friendships; leading them to a growing relationship

with Christ; and challenging them to become godly role models in their church, families, and community. “We’re seeing men going from indifferent and complacent to men who are involved, on fire for the Lord, and ready to be leaders,” Haro says. “That’s why I do men’s ministry: because of the lives that are ultimately changed. It is transforming not only families, but this community.”

2 7

AG WOMEN WAGE WAR AGAINST SEX INDUSTRY EXPLOITATIONBY SHANNON M. NASS

SOUTHERNMOST POINT IS DIVERSE SPOTBY JOHN W. KENNEDY

6 7

The University of Valley Forge (UVF) in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, recently received a generous donation for a scholarship fund from the Assemblies of God Spanish Eastern District. The district’s donation established a scholarship in honor of the late Adolfo Carrión Sr. “This gift will support scholarships for deserving students at the university for generations to come,” said UVF Executive Vice President Dan Mortensen. He expressed gratitude for the leadership of Manuel Alvarez, Virginia Maldonado, and Noreen Burmudez for helping to make the $25,000 gift a reality. The Adolfo Carrión Sr. Endowment Fund is named after one of the most influential leaders in the Fellowship, who died Sept. 5, 2014, at the age of 79. Carrión was a leader in the Spanish Eastern District for nearly 40 years. During his tenure, the Spanish Eastern District grew from 47 congregations in New York to more than 360 congregations in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Carrión also served as Spanish Eastern District superintendent. He came up with the idea of Camp Mahanaim, a 120-acre campground in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

When Danny Flores immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1999, he didn’t know the Lord and he didn’t know how to speak English. Today, he is quite familiar with both. Flores, 33, is the passionate district youth director (DYD) of the Assemblies of God Midwest Latin American District. He accepted the Lord at an AG youth convention, where he says he also received a calling to the ministry. He learned English by listening to sermons, watching television, and reading magazines. He now speaks without a trace of a Mexican accent. In 2010, his mentor Wilfredo “Choco” De Jesús convinced Flores to plant a church in Camden, New Jersey. Two years later, De Jesús asked Flores to oversee the new Spanish-language campus of New Life Covenant Church in Chicago, the largest congregation in the U.S. Assemblies of God. In addition to his DYD duties, Flores, as New Life Covenant Spanish campus pastor, preaches to a combined 550 adherents in three Sunday services. On Sundays, Flores preaches in Spanish to first- and second-generation immigrant crowds that are almost exclusively Spanish speaking. “I want to focus on raising up a generation of young men and women who have the potential to plant churches,” Flores says.

LIFEchurch in North Liberty, Iowa, holds three services every Sunday morning at a renovated Wonder Bread store with 39 parking spaces. Even then, it’s a tight squeeze for a congregation 500 strong and growing. Senior Pastor Rich G. Greene doesn’t mind. Over the years, churches have had a hard time surviving in the suburbs of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa. But with a strategic mission to reach the spiritually needy community outside its walls, the nine-year-old church plant is bucking the statistical trend. Greene and his wife, Christi, spent nine years in Bangladesh as Assemblies of God world missionaries before moving to Iowa with the vision of planting a church. As he looked at the demographic of his area, Greene realized many of the people were “dechurched” — people who had tried

Christianity at one point but walked away from the faith. To appeal to the likely skeptical people walking through the doors, Greene decided to gear his messages toward those who are disconnected from God. “Jesus didn’t walk this planet looking like an alien,” Greene says. “He looked like a Jew with a beard and wore robes and sandals like everybody else. There was an identification that He had with humans, and we try to do the same thing.” LIFEchurch conducts an annual back-to-school outreach, where the congregation provides school supplies, haircuts, and other services to local families. Each year, the church also provides Thanksgiving dinners to low-income areas in the community. Soon, LIFEchurch will move to a larger venue in nearby Coralville.

RENOVATED CHURCH PLANT THRIVES IN DECHURCHED IOWA SUBURBBY IAN RICHARDSON

4 5

UVF RECEIVES SCHOLARSHIP GIFTBY SARAH CUSHING

THE WINDING ROAD OF DANNY FLORESBY JOHN W. KENNEDY

8 9

streets shortly after she was saved 18 years ago. A member of First Assembly of God in Fort Myers, Florida, Turner and a group of four go into four local clubs once a month with a gift, a gospel message, and an invitation to attend a Bible study. A credentialed minister, Turner started One Way Out and has established three homes and a one-year program for those who want to exit the industry. The program is designed to meet practical needs of the women, including spiritual and financial guidance, life skills training, tutoring, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and counseling.

Four women graduated in February, and Turner hopes 16 more will graduate this year. Though not everyone is called to go into clubs, Charissa Bowar, internship director for F.R.E.E. International, says all Christians can engage in prayer. This month, the organization will launch a prayer initiative. Based on Psalm 141:1, individuals can enter into a 41-day prayer journey for a woman working in the sex industry and receive weekly emails and updates. With its connections to brothels, strip club ministries, search and rescue ministries and safe houses across the country, the organization has the names of 70 women who need prayer.

What does it take to raise millions of dollars to help missionaries? According to David Boyd, national Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge (BGMC) director, the answer is kids and kids’ leaders with a passion to help missionaries reach people for Christ. BGMC had its biggest year ever in 2014, raising $6,368,178.07 for missions. Since BGMC started in 1949, $126,560,766.32 has been given by kids all across America. “It is absolutely amazing that year after year BGMC keeps hitting records,” Boyd says. “Kids are listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and they are developing a heart of compassion for the world and it shows in their giving.”

“BGMC is the AG program that supplies our missionaries with whatever they need to spread the gospel and to help people,” says Mary Boyd, national BGMC coordinator. “This includes helping with water wells, orphanages, disaster relief, and lots more!” Last year, a Florida boy set the record for a child’s giving to BGMC. Nine-year-old Carson Rudy, who attends Impact Church in Lake Wales, Florida, raised more than $17,000. Sunday, March 8, is National BGMC Day in the AG. “We want kids to know that with God’s help, they can make a difference in this world by praying, giving, and being willing to go!” David Boys says.

BGMC SETS ALL-TIME GIVING RECORDBY PE NEWS

LARGELY HISPANIC CHURCH GROWS, ONE MAN AT A TIME IN CALIFORNIABY CHRISTINA QUICK The Worship Centre in Fowler, California, started as a church plant with 22 people. A dozen years later, the largely Hispanic congregation numbers 1,200. Lead Pastor Rod Haro attributes the church’s remarkable growth to a commitment to reach men. With 20 years of experience leading men’s ministries, Haro says he has long believed that a strong outreach to men is the key to transforming entire communities. “Every time men’s ministries grows, the church grows as well,” Haro says. “Most men who get saved influence their families to come to church, hear the gospel, and, in many cases, become Christians. We know men’s ministry is vitally important — not only to the growing of a church, but, more importantly, to the family.” Situated in California’s agriculturally

fertile Central Valley, Fowler is a diverse community of farmers, entrepreneurs, and executives, many of whom have no church background. The Worship Centre, located in a former casino, hosts a men’s dinner and church service every Monday evening. “We have worship, teaching, and an altar call,” says Haro, who leads the weekly gathering. “It is essentially a Sunday morning worship service on Monday nights for men. Some men won’t come on a Sunday morning because they get this mental image of what church is about. But they’ll come to have dinner and hang out with a bunch of guys.” About a third of the 200 weekly participants are from other churches. As a result, Haro says, the ministry positively impacts the faith community as a whole.

36