The Alabama Messenger November/December 2022

KENNETH W. DRAUGHON, D.MIN. Network Superintendent ds@amnag.org

I CHOOSE TO BE THANKFUL!

We are entering the most amazing season of the year as we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas over the next two months. First, we pause to remember the Lord’s goodness to us. We choose whether we are thankful or thankless by our acBons. I choose to be THANKFUL! One of the most beauBful Psalms of thanksgiving is the 100th Psalm. Look at it: “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.” If this is your tesBmony then you will, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness conBnues through all generaBons.”

With all my heart, I believe we are a people and a naBon that has truly been blessed by God. Of all those who “give thanks to Him and praise His name” our name should be at the top of the list!

Thanksgiving Day is a disBncBve holiday. It doesn’t commemorate a baWle or anyone’s birthday or anniversary. It is simply a day set aside to express our naBon’s thanks to our naBon’s God.

In 1789, George Washington made this public proclamaBon.

“By the President of the United States of America. A proclamaBon: Whereas, it is the duty of all naBons to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protecBon and favor, and

“Whereas, Both Houses of Congress have by their joint commiWee requested me ‘to recommend to the people of the United States a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God...’

“Now, Therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be....”

This is the very first presidenBal proclamaBon. We have forgoWen that God favored this naBon with His grace and assistance. We need to remember, not as a naBon, but as an individual, that God has favored and assisted us. Look at the Psalm: Shout v.1 – Serve v.2 – Come v.2 – Know v.3 – Enter v.4 – Give v.4 – Bless v.4.

I must finish this arBcle, so let me focus on the beginning of this Psalm of thanksgiving. He wrote, “Shout!” God loves excitement. When you enter His presence with a “Shout of joy” for the Lord’s goodness, you exclaim your thankfulness.

I’ll close with my thankfulness for God sending us a Savior and I celebrate Christmas because of God’s great gid to us—Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to be given a gid that we can give away to others. The church must reengage with its primary assignment of sharing the gospel with its neighborhood. The greatest gid you can give God is to give away the gid he gave you.

The fall fesBvals and the Christmas programs are wonderful as long as they “keep the main thing the main thing.” We must share the gospel! The church’s default segng from its birth is to funcBon as an agent of God and carry the gospel to its community and make disciples. The New Testament Church understood the command to share this good news with anyone who needed it, and they obeyed Jesus when He told them to wait for the Spirit, who would clothe them “with power from on high” (Luke 24:49, NIV). This is who we are by default! God’s Christmas gid to your community is your church funcBoning as a New Testament church. Merry Christmas!

We are thankful for you as partners in the ministry of the Alabama Assemblies of God, and are so blessed to have you as part of our AG family. Our prayer is for God’s blessings to be abundant in your lives and ministry.

MICHAEL D. SHARP, D.MIN.

Network Secretary-Treasurer msharp@amnag.org

ONCE AGAIN: THE SEASON OF ADVENT – PREPARING FOR CHRIST’S COMING

Every year many American ChrisBans complain about the corrupBng busyness and materialism of Christmas. For decades Americans have redefined the “Christmas season” as beginning the Friday ader Thanksgiving (a modern American holiday) when our shopping frenzy begins. We equate Christmas Season with the Christmas shopping season. We’ve been corrupted by our materialisBc culture. The best anBdote for this has been around for over 1,600 years: The season of the ChrisBan Year that immediately precedes Christmas, the season known as Advent.

Advent comes from the LaBn word “adventus” or “coming.” Ancient ChrisBans knew that Christ’s redempBve work had changed everything, including how we mark Bme itself. Now God’s people would mark their year independently of secular calendars. In our ChrisBan Year we would celebrate the redeeming acts of Jesus Christ. This would guide our lives, our worship, our discipleship. Every year the foundaBonal doctrines of our Faith would be taught during, and by, these seasons. Throughout the year we would re-live the life of Jesus. Therefore, the year begins with Advent, preparing our hearts to celebrate Christ’s First Coming.

Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas Day and ends with Christmas Eve. During these four Sundays and the surrounding days, the preaching, teaching, and devoBons tell us of Christ’s First and Second Advents. Through God’s Word, our worship, and our meditaBons we remember God’s promises to Israel to come as Savior and deliver them from capBvity. We remember Christ’s promises to come again someday to deliver ChrisBans and judge the naBons. We prepare our hearts to celebrate Christ’s birth, and to meet him when he comes again. Advent is a Bme of remembrance, repentance, longing, and hope.

Only Advent embeds Christmas, and us, in the proper context. Advent provides the best possible means for preparing to celebrate Christ’s birth acceptably. Advent is a powerful anBdote to the busyness and greed that pollute the weeks leading up to Christmas. We take a long look back through the history of God’s People, examine our hearts, reflect on our desperate need for God’s intervenBon, repent of sin, long for Christ to come, and hope steadfastly. Finally, we rejoice with great joy at the birth of Jesus Christ. All of this rejects and resists what our culture acBvely promotes in the weeks leading to Christmas.

Advent requires us to look deeply into God’s Word, in both Testaments, and find there the glorious prophecies of all that God’s Messiah was to be and do in his First and Second Comings. Each year we cycle through different passages learning how central Jesus is to all of Scripture and all of redempBon history. Advent reminds us that we’re an ancient-future pilgrim people with an ancient-future faith, stretching back through Christ into Israel, and forward through Christ into the eternal New CreaBon. Advent hymns like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” join our longing with ancient Israel’s and with ChrisBans’ through the ages. Each week a new candle is lit in the Advent wreath reminding us that God’s Light once came, and is coming again, into this present darkness.

It is tragic that a few early evangelicals kept only Easter Sunday and Christmas Day and rejected the rest of the ChrisBan Year. Tearing these two days out of their contexts, out of the holy seasons surrounding them destroyed much of their power to form us as ChrisBans. The celebraBon of many American ChrisBans became shallow, rootless, and truncated. Christmas was cut off from deep Scripture and history, stripped of much beauty and power, defined by culture instead of by Christ. We lost a richness that can only be restored by marking Bme “in Christ” once more. Thankfully, many evangelicals are relearning the beauty of Advent itself, and the tremendous depth it adds to the celebraBon of the Christmas Season that follows from Christmas Day unBl Epiphany.

Stop legng non-ChrisBan ideas and pracBces push you around during these holy days! Don’t let your previous ignorance or this materialisBc culture replace the holy, repentant Season of Advent with the “christmas” shopping season. Enter fully into Advent and prepare your heart for the joy of meeBng Jesus!

It is our hope that you will be able to join us for the Gulf Coast Women’s Conference and the Life Rally in your section. Please contact the Women’s Department for more info!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

2022 Top Speed The Light

Youth Ministries

Group Offerings

RENEWAL SEASON IS NOW OPEN! DON’T DELAY! RENEW TODAY!

The Network Office would like to express our appreciation to you for stewarding your credentials well and renewing early. If you renew your credentials BY NOVEMBER 30 you will be eligible for a $500.00 gift card to be given to one of the ministers selected at random who entered by that date. If you renew BY DECEMBER 15 you will be eligible for a $250.00 gift card to be given in the same manner. Early renewal is a great blessing to the Network and National Offices and could be a blessing to you as well. Last year’s participation was excellent, and renewals were noticeably earlier! Please remember that your Network tithes and your General Council dues need to be current when you renew your credentials or your renewal cannot be processed.

When ministers holding credentials at the License level allow their credentials to lapse for more than three months, their required two year tenure for holding License credentials before upgrading to Ordained begins all over again at the time their License credentials are reinstated.

In other words, if you let your License credentials lapse for more than three months (past March 31) you lose all of the tenure time you’ve already accumulated since receiving License level credentials After you apply for reinstatement of your License credentials and the General Secretary’s office acts favorably to reinstate your credentials, the calculation of your two year License tenure begins all over again at the point in time that the General Secretary’s office actually reinstates your License credentials. Please remember this, and please help us to pass this information along to all Licensed ministers!

All credentialed ministers Certified, Licensed, and Ordained should also remember that lapsing will cost a minister more time, more work, and more money when reinstating. The renewal season begins on November 1 and ends on December 31. Since National and Network offices are closed the last week of the year, Springfield and this Network Office strongly encourages all renewals to be submitted by December 15. Failure to renew means that as of January 1 you have lapsed your credentials and you are no longer an Assemblies of God minister. After December 31 there IS A $50.00 late fee when you renew, and after January 15 you cannot renew: You must apply for reinstatement at a cost of $125.00. After March 31 a background and credit check must also be done for all reinstatement applications. Any background or credit issues that have arisen since the minister first obtained credentials will have to be addressed according to General Council guidelines before the minister can be reinstated. Finally, lapsing for more than seven years requires all of the above as well as taking and passing all three of the newest credential exams in order to be reinstated.

We hope that this information delivered proactively will be beneficial in your understanding of these particular General Council credentialing requirements

Michael D. Sharp, D.Min. Network Secretary Treasurer ALSOM Director

Beginning January 2023, we will be moving to a quarterly schedule instead of a month to month schedule. As a result of this change, we will not offer a December make up session this year. Our new schedule layout is below. ALSOM students may take any cou rses needed during each quarter.

Quarter 1

January – March Courses Open for Purchase: January 1

Last Day to Purchase: March 10th

Tests Must be Submitted by March 31st

Quarter 2

April – June Courses Open for Purchase: April 1

Last Day to Purchase: June 10th

Tests Must be Submitted by June 30th

Quarter 3

July – September Courses Open for Purchase: July 1

Last Day to Purchase: September 10 th

Tests Must be Submitted by September 30 th

Quarter 4

October – December Courses Open for Purchase: October 1

Last Day to Purchase: December 10th

Tests Must be Submitted by December 31 st

Each quarter, we will post our entire ALSOM catalog for purchase. The courses required for each level of credentialing are listed below.

Level One (Certified)

BIB 214 Old Testament Survey

BIB 212 New Testament Survey

BIB 121 Introduction to Hermeneutics: How to Interpret the Bible

BIB 114 Christ in the Synoptic Gospels

THE 211 Introduction to Theology

THE 114 Introduction to Pentecostal Doctrine

THE 152 Assemblies of God History, Missions, and Governance

MIN 171 A Spirit Empowered Church: An Acts 2 Ministry Model

MIN 181 Relationships and Ethics in Ministry

MIN 191 Beginning Ministerial Internship

Level Two (Licensed)

BIB 115 Acts: The Holy Spirit at Work in Believers

BIB 117 Prison Epistles

BIB 215 Romans: Justification by Faith

THE 245 Eschatology: A Study of Things to Come

MIN 123 The Local Church in Evangelism

MIN 223 Introduction to Homiletics

MIN 251 Effective Leadership

MIN 261 Introduction to Assemblies of God Missions

MIN 281 Conflict Management for Church Leaders

MIN 291 Intermediate Ministerial Internship

Level Three (Ordained)

THE 311 Prayer and Worship

BIB 313 The Corinthian Correspondence

BIB 318 The Pentateuch

BIB 322 The Poetic Books

MIN 325 Preaching in the Contemporary World

MIN 327 Church Administration, Finance, and Law

MIN 381 Pastoral Ministry

MIN 391 Advanced Ministerial Internship

To enroll in an ALSOM course, please visit https://alsom.edvance360.com/. Across the top of the page, you will see several tabs. Click on “Store” to purchase a course. Once you add a course to your cart and proceed to check out, you will be prompted to login. If you are a first time user, you will be asked to enter your email information. After you complete your purchase, an email will be sent to you to create a username and password. When you purchas e the course, you will receive access to the course. To access the course, click on the tab “Courses.” This is where you will do all the work for your course. Each course has a pdf textbook. Some courses have additional content such as video lectures, P owerPoint presentations, and additional reading. Your test will come from content from all sources.

SOUTHWEST REGION (9-27-21): Andalusia, Baldwin, Demopolis, Monroeville, and Mobile Sections

SOUTHEAST REGION (9-28-21): Dothan, Enterprise, Montgomery, Phenix City, and Sylacauga Sections

NORTH REGION (9-30-21): Anniston, Birmingham, Cullman, Tennessee Valley, and Tuscaloosa Sections

MORNING SESSION WILL INCLUDE: -DEVO FROM PASTOR KEN DRAUGHON -SECTIONAL BUSINESS -MESSAGE FROM PASTOR RICK DUBOSE

BREAK FOR LUNCH

AFTERNOON SESSION WILL INCLUDE: -TEACHING FROM PASTOR RICK DUBOSE

(Jay) and MaW PaWon (Megan); her grandchildren, Jon, Carrie BeWs, Mya and Hazel Sue PaWon; and her siblings, Phillip Eiland and AnneWe Reeves.

VisitaBon was held on Sunday, September 11th 2022 at 1:00 PM at the Trace Church (601 The Mall Way, Jasper, AL 35504). A celebraBon of life was held on Sunday, September 11th 2022 at 2:00 PM at the same locaBon.

In lieu of flowers, Cynthia and her family request that donaBons be made to one of the following organizaBons: The Link of Cullman County c/o Melissa BeWs, 708 9th Street SE, Cullman, AL 35055 or hWp://www.linkingcullman.org or Abundant Grace Outreach which Cynthia founded for her own ministry work to her neighbors.

Cynthia PaWon

Pastoral Changes: Jeffrey Linholm – New Hope AG, Clanton New/Upgraded CredenNals: Jason Paul Willis (L)

Zachary W Spader (C)

John C Robinson (L) Lawanda S Worthington (L) ChrisBan S Stanley (L) William R Janes Jr (L) Kara L Wallis (C)