2 3

THIS WEEK IN AG HISTORYBY DARRIN J. RODGERS

John Wesley (1703-91), the founder of Methodism, helped to lay the foundation for large segments of the evangelical and Pentecostal movements. Despite living in the “Christian” nation of England, Wesley, an Anglican priest, recognized that most people did not have saving faith. He pioneered new evangelism and discipleship methods, which upset some of the religious leaders of his day. He appointed itinerant, unordained evangelists who traveled and preached the gospel. He also encouraged the formation of small groups of Christians for the purpose of discipleship, accountability, and Bible study. In many ways, early Pentecostals identified themselves in the tradition

of Wesley. The June 6, 1944, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel published an article that shared the “secret” of “Wesley’s power.” Wesley believed that the Bible was the standard for everything, and he prayerfully consulted it for guidance. He believed his sermons were given “by direct communication of the Spirit.” Wesley lived and preached “in the presence and power of the Holy Ghost.” His deep spirituality was formed by “living daily in the presence of God and by developing daily habits of prayer and song, fellowship and meditation, study and preaching.” Wesley and his followers became leaders in the abolition of slavery and prison reform.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF RETIREMENT

A SIGN IN THE ASHESPAGE 3

INSTILLING A NEW DEPENDENCY PAGE 5 • MEN’S GROUP FORMS BROTHERS OF VALOR PAGE 5 • ALL THE GOSPEL INTO ALL THE

WORLD PAGE 7 • THIS WEEK IN AG HISTORY PAGE 8

CHURCHES CAN HELP WOMEN LEAVING PRISONPAGE 4

CONGREGATION OVERSEES CITY FESTIVALPAGE 6

PAGE 2

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

SUNDAY,JUNE 5,2016

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

Check out the PE News app!Get Assemblies of God news, features, and video content on your mobile device

Available for iPhone and Android

4 5

Last week, thousands gathered at Allison Park Church in Pittsburgh to celebrate the realization of a dream. Pastor Jeff Leake was driven by a passion to bring the gospel to some of the most “unchurched” areas of the U.S. He made an audacious goal of planting 100 churches. The 100th church will become a reality later this year. Leake’s passion to urgently spread the gospel is a common passion in the AG. The moniker “All the Gospel to All the World” has long characterized the evangelical, Pentecostal mission of the Fellowship. This mission, it appears, has not lost traction. Statistics released this week by the AG show the Movement on a trend of continuous growth in U.S. adherents since 1989. The new 2015 statistics show growth in the AG (1.4 percent) at a higher rate than the general population growth (0.7 percent). Since 1989, the U.S. population has grown by 23.3 percent. In the same 26-year time span, the growth represented by the U.S. AG outpaced the population growth at 33 percent. Internationally, new statistics show that the AG throughout the world now accounts for 67,992,330 adherents in more than 365,000 churches. That’s a staggering 72.7 percent growth in worldwide adherents since 1989, making the Movement the world’s fourth largest Christian group. The trends of growth in the U.S. AG have challenged many cultural assumptions. In an increasingly polarized culture, the AG has become one of the nation’s most racially diverse faith groups. Now, 42.8 percent of AG adherents are non-white, ethnic minority. More than half (53.8 percent) of the AG’s U.S. adherents are under the age of 35.

When Bill Moll considered retiring, he envisioned doing volunteer work at the church he attended, Abundant Life Assembly of God, in Cupertino, California. He also contemplated using his considerable work experience as a volunteer in a Christian organization. Previously in his career, Moll had been senior vice president of merchandising at Macy’s West and executive vice president for Stein Mart. When Moll turned 59 and retired in 2010, however, he didn’t anticipate that God had plans for him to work in a slum known as the Tenderloin district. Moll had been content volunteering at the church, when in 2013 Senior Pastor Greg Wendschlag asked him to co-lead an urban mission trip, working with San Francisco City Impact, located in one of the nation’s poorest urban districts with the city’s highest crime rate. “That was the last thing in the world I wanted to do,” Moll says. Though his wife, Patty, had participated in street ministry, such a venture was way out of his comfort zone. But as

he considered how much Patty had sacrificed to follow him in his career, Moll agreed to go. When the volunteer group arrived at the ministry location, Moll hid out in the kitchen the first day. But God prodded him to go into the neighborhood. The next morning, he went into a building, knocked on doors, handed out food, and prayed with people. A knock on the second floor of an apartment building changed his life. The man who answered was a former IBM software engineer who had become entangled with drugs and lost everything. As Moll talked with the man, he sensed God whispering, You are where you are because of Me.At that moment, Moll knew where he would spend his retirement: in this inner-city neighborhood, building relationships and ministering to society’s forgotten and misunderstood. After that mission trip, he and Patty found themselves returning each week as part of City Impact’s Adopt a Building initiative. In September

2 7

ALL THE GOSPEL INTO ALL THE WORLDBY MARK FORRESTER

A DIFFERENT KIND OF RETIREMENTBY GINGER KOLBABA

6 7

A laity-led organization whose key leaders include two men from Assemblies of God churches in Salem, Oregon, will soon expand its outreach beyond the 28 men being mentored. Brothers of Valor (BOV) started two years ago, with key founders that included life insurance agent Sven Anderson, a member of Peoples Church, and Tim A. Davis, a former businessman who now serves as community pastor at Church on the Hill. “We felt God was saying, ‘You have influence in your businesses, churches, and families, but that’s not enough,’” says Davis of his longtime friendship with Anderson. Leaders of the ad hoc group decided they needed to focus their efforts on strengthening the spirituality of men. A series of meetings created various individual and small group mentoring relationships. “Men have a huge impact on society,” Anderson says. “When men are crummy, society gets dragged down.” “We expect 50 more mentors by the end of the year,” Davis says. “Mentoring is just another word for discipleship.” BOV leaders recently began mentoring 10 boys in the foster care system.

Caring Christians are committed to helping the record number of incarcerated American women make a successful transition back into society once they are free. Retired Assemblies of God Chaplain Pamela E. Moore is preparing to open a 10-bed transitional home for released women in Camden, New Jersey. “Housing is the number one need for women coming out of prison,” Moore says. “They have no place to go, so they go right back.” Gina Hanna, founder of the ministry Beauty for Ashes in Platte City, Missouri, says mature Christian women volunteers can teach recently released women about self-worth and erecting healthy boundaries in relationships with men. “So many of these women have never had a stable, Christ-centered marriage modeled to them,” Hanna says. “Unless they get a support system around them, they may end up using drugs, losing their kids, and

going back to prison.” Hanna advocates that churches should be the key component of that support system. She notes that many congregations already offer financial courses, parenting classes, single mom mentoring, job training, and addiction recovery groups for regular attendees. With a little tweaking, she says such instruction can be adapted for those coming out of prison. “There are needs for employment readiness, job skills training, substance abuse treatment, and parenting classes,” Hanna says. “The Church can step in and have a great impact upon re-entry.” Moore says explaining the available healing power of Christ is integral for women to truly change. “Many feel an abusive relationship is the norm,” Moore says. She notes that church members can offer low cost housing, free child care, and employment opportunities to women trying to get back on their feet.

54

CHURCHES HAVE UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP WOMEN LEAVING PRISONBY JOHN W. KENNEDY

Two Minnesota pastors with drug and alcohol counseling backgrounds and pasts with addictive substances are influencing others in their church and community to become dependent on God instead. Full-time Lead Pastor Zach McNeil’s past with drinking and work as a counselor for seven years have helped him connect with and relate to people beyond the walls of Goodland Community Church, which opened in 2011. Youth Pastor Brandon Torgerson has a decade of experience as a counselor and his prior drug use spurred a passion for reaching youth for Christ. He continues to work full time in the field as the chemical dependency treatment director at Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge in Duluth. McNeil initially determined to be relational as a pastor in the rural community. Word about McNeil’s counseling background quickly spread, and locals began calling him for advice. Now he regularly meets with half a dozen people who don’t attend the church to talk about issues they are facing. McNeil’s past with drinking and Torgerson’s history with drugs have helped both men show others they’re not alone in their struggles.

MEN’S GROUP FORMS BROTHERS OF VALORBY KEN WALKER

INSTILLING A NEW DEPENDENCYBY JENNIFER M. NELSON

Gina Hanna, second from left

8 936

Tragedy struck when an apartment building near Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, caught fire. Although no one died, the building was destroyed. One tenant, July, was a visiting Chinese scholar who had become friends with Linda Seiler, a Chi Alpha Campus Ministries missionary. Seiler met July at a Chi Alpha dinner and invited her to have coffee. July began asking questions about Jesus and eventually started attending the weekly life group. She did not have a religious background and had never read the Bible. Seiler gave her a Chinese New Testament as well as a

parallel Chinese/English translation of the New Testament, provided by Light for the Lost. A few months later, the fire destroyed July’s apartment building. Several days after the fire, July went back to the site to dig through the rubble to see if there was anything that could be salvaged. For three hours, she dug. Later that morning, she called Seiler, ecstatic, saying, ”Linda, it’s a sign!” While digging through the rubble, she found only two items saved from the flames: the two Bibles Seiler gave to her, the pages still immaculately white and readable!

2015, their work drew the attention of Christian Huang, the ministry’s executive director. Huang asked Moll to commit to adopting all 305 buildings in the Tenderloin before Moll died. Two days later, Moll responded with a resounding yes. He and Patty agreed to lead the Adopt a Building initiative and started two months later. The Molls drive 45 minutes from their home in Woodside, California, one of the richest neighborhoods in the nation, to work in the Tenderloin, one of the poorest and roughest. Twice a week, the Molls gather and mobilize volunteers to go into their “adopted” buildings and build relationships. They greet the residents, help meet their needs, feed them, and

pray for them. “We give them a connection to people who care, and that can lead them to the Lord,” Moll says. Moll loves his revised version of retirement. “These people know us now,” he says. “We’re a Caucasian couple who don’t exactly ‘fit in.’ But we walk those streets and look people in the eyes — we can give them dignity.” Although this isn’t how Moll initially pictured retirement, now he can’t envision being anywhere else. “My life before was cutthroat, dog-eat-dog,” Moll recalls. “Now I don’t worry about power struggles and corporate politics. I just get to love people — right where they are.”

AN AMAZING SIGN IN THE ASHES

For decades, Elton Days signaled an annual reunion for natives of the Wisconsin town. But last year, the town of 125 didn’t have enough volunteers to make the event happen. Nearby Four Corners Assembly of God, with an average attendance of 92, stepped in to save the day. “We only had five weeks to put the whole thing together,” recalls Marvin Kindle, pastor of the church for 18 years. Yet more than 20 people from the church responded as volunteers, and the church took over the event. Because of the church’s reputation, town officials agreed to Kindle’s request that alcohol not be served and that the event could raise funds for Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge. The event became a gospel music festival and was an overwhelming success. “We had barbeque, brats, and beverages along with booths, gift-basket raffles, and plenty of gospel music,” Kindle says. Kindle says people who don’t even attend Four Corners put coins in plastic

BGMC Buddy Barrel missions banks and sent filled barrels with friends who attend the church. Although Elton Days will return to its normal routine this year, Kindle says the church is already planning to put on another gospel music festival on different weekend (Aug. 13), due to how well it was received last year. Proceeds will once again benefit BGMC. “Missions is at the heart of all we do,” says Jan Mabry, Four Corners BGMC co-coordinator with her husband, Larry. “Whether it’s reaching out to our community or raising money for missionaries through BGMC, helping to fulfill the Great Commission is our calling.” Last year, Four Corners AG raised $15,500 for BGMC (and over $42,000 for all missions giving), leading all AG churches with average attendance between 51 and 100. “I’ve lived by the belief that if we take care of God’s business, God will take care of us,” Kindle says.

CHURCH OVERSEES CITY FESTIVALBY DAN VAN VEEN