April Fools Day, 2002

 

In a surprise move, Pastor Stone Leeking of Fort Lauderdale, Louisiana has drafted a proposed new amendment to the UPCI Articles of Faith concerning animals and eternal salvation. According to the amendment, to be voted on at the 2002 General Conference, animals have eternal souls, and like humans, will spend eternity in an animal version of heaven or hell.

By Lee Ann Alexander
March 18, 2002

 

For 27 years, music enthusiasts from across the country have journeyed to Mississippi’s capital every year to enjoy talented, power-packed music at the annual National Music Ministry Conference presented by Jackson College of Ministries (JCM).  With a week-long anointing in both the daily clinics and the nightly music services culminating in a fervent finale on Friday, March 8, 2002, many attendants are agreeing that this year’s conference could be the most incredible explosion of praise and power in JCM history.

By Phillip Hampton
February 18, 2002

When Jason Biggs struck the first notes of the National Anthem on his electric guitar to begin Nashville’s Youth Praise Gathering (YPG) 2002, you just knew this was going to be no ordinary event.   If you were a young Apostolic within a few hours’ drive of Nashville on February 8, 2002 the YPG was the hottest ticket around.  This year’s event, sponsored annually by the Nashville First United Pentecostal Church youth department,  was the largest such gathering to date.  There were at least 100 or more people who simply turned around in the church parking lot and left once it was apparent there was no way they could squeeze into the building.  A massive throng of young people and a few brave chaperone-types packed into every conceivable space in the sanctuary and lobby of the church to catch all the goings-on up on the stage. 

By Joy Williams, Rachael Ingram, Danan Benson and Shirley McDonald
February 4, 2002

Sixty-three years ago, Pastor J. W. Magee of the First Pentecostal Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana, began a two-week “Bible School” in January to teach basic Pentecostal doctrines, especially to ministers.  Having continued uninterrupted since then (making it the oldest uninterrupted conference of the United Pentecostal Church International), this annual “Bible School” has evolved into a one-week Bible conference that has become a major Apostolic event in southeast Louisiana.  Conference attendees throughout the years have been blessed with anointed messages by Apostolic greats such as C. L. Dees, S. G. Norris, J. T. Pugh, T. F. Tenney, Marvin Treece, and Billy Cole.

By Naoko Ishibashi
December 31, 2001

 

I needed a break--I was struggling spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Struggling so much that I was even willing to fly from Japan to attend the 2001 “Simply … Jesus” Singles Conference at Christian Life Center (CLC) in Gaithersburg, Maryland on November 22-24.

By Alyson Pamer
December 3, 2001

 

I was thirteen years old when Youth President Robert Martin presided over his first Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ (ALJC) National Youth Convention.  Since that time, I have seen the conference graduate to bigger sites and bigger crowds while retaining the faithful group with which it started.  After thirteen years of Thanksgiving banquets, Gong shows and conference choirs, Bro. Martin has retired from the Youth President’s office.   This is a monumental change in the lives of aging Apostolic Crusaders because for us, Robert Martin is National Youth Convention.  From my first Youth Conference staying away from my parents until I graduated from college, he was always there, encouraging us to attend the yearly district events and discouraging us from throwing ice in the hotel hallways.  Just as my generation has grown and changed, so must our leader, making National Youth Convention 2001 Bro. Martin’s final address as Youth President. 

 

By Scott Guinn
December 3, 2001

 

Last Tuesday, November 27, 2001 I had a wonderful experience!

I went to preach at one of our Indian churches and meet with some of the Indian pastors from the Tzentale tribe. Three men arrived during the service and afterwards asked me to come with them to pray for their pastor.  He was a Seventh Day Adventist who had received a Bible study from one of our Apostolic pastors and was baptized in Jesus name with three of the leaders from the church just two weeks earlier.

By Chad L. R. Faubert
November 19, 2001

 

(Cincinnati, November 2-3, 2001) Friday, November 2 was the dawning of a new spiritual era for me: an era of deeper commitment to our Lord and a greater passion to spread His truth to a corrupt and perverse world. 

 

By Tiffini Smelser
November 19, 2001

 

Detonation - if you weren’t there you missed out!  On November 9, 2001 at New Life Center in Bridgeton, Missouri, a different experience awaited everyone.  Inspired by Michigan’s successful Inferno, Missouri offered their own version of the reinvented youth rally.

An in-depth look by Chad L. R. Faubert 

 

Hundreds of quizzers, coaches, officials and observers flooded into the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky for the annual North American Bible Quiz Tournament (NABQT) held  October 6-12, 2001.