Evangelists Work to Revive Jal Assembly
By John Earp
This week, two evangelists have been working together along with believers from Eunice and Andrews with a view to reviving the Jal Assembly of God, which has been closed for the past several years. Evangelist Chris Klock, originally from Tucson, Arizona, has been in full-time ministry since 1980. He graduated from Nelson University in Waxahachie, Texas (formerly Southwestern Assemblies of God University). Klock served as a youth pastor in Brownsville Texas at a Spanish Assembly of God, and then pastored Victory Assembly of God in Brownsville Texas for 2-1/2 years. Following this, Klock spent several years preaching as a missionary in Mexico. He says, “I have been on the field for around 40 years, preaching throughout the United States of America. I see many people saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost and healed.”
A revival of the Christian faith has been classically defined as a return of professing believers to wholehearted obedient faith, with repentance from all known sin, and a renewal of the precious infilling of the Spirit of God in the lives of the people of God, with the congregation/church being built up and revitalized in their spiritual lives by the grace and power of almighty God.
Klock’s co-laborer in the revival effort in Jal is Bro. John Burrows. The two have known each other for about 30 years, Burrows said. “I got saved in 1996 and was radically changed. I have been in the ministry for about 25 years. I pastored a church for about 8 years, and built a church. I was a youth pastor for a few years. I just want to see revival come to Jal and the people be transformed by the blood of Jesus. I just want the people to know that Jesus loves them and He died on the cross for them. The vision that I have is to see people saved, filled with the spirit and healed, and to see revival. I believe God wants to restore people in this city of Jal, to give them hope, and that they can have a greater walk with the Lord. Burrows is the grandson of the oldest living resident of Jal, Mrs. Edna Branin. Branin was one of the charter members of Jal Assembly of God decades ago, and of course, hopes to see her beloved church see a revival, that it might bear much fruit for the kingdom of God.
The Assemblies of God is a classical Pentecostal denomination founded in 1914 as a voluntary cooperative fellowship of like-minded ministers and churches, most of whom had been profoundly impacted by the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles from 1906-1909. The congregation of Jal Church of God (which is also a classical Pentecostal denomination) has supported the revival efforts at Jal Assembly, with the hope being that in sowing into this revival, both congregations will be divinely blessed and revived.
The Pentecostal movement, which exploded onto the world scene in the early part of the 20th century was marked by a wholehearted emphasis on Jesus Christ as Savior, Healer, Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and Soon-Coming King. The term “Pentecostal” is derived from the account in the New Testament Book of Acts, chapter 2, in which the early church received the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses for the Lord into all the world as they obey the Great Commission Jesus gave His original disciples, to make disciples of all people everywhere, “and then shall the end come.”
For Pentecostals, the truth is not just a doctrine to be believed (which it of course is) but is meant to be a genuinely life-changing experience, in which the believer not only knows the forgiveness of sins experientially, but also experiences the person and work of the Holy Spirit abiding in, on, and through the believer, taking sinners and making them holy and empowered to speak and live for Jesus everywhere they go.
The first two nights of the revival services have been characterized by energetic singing and preaching on themes of revival, repentance, and restoring Pentecostal power to church. Services will continue at least through Friday of this week, with the possibility of extending the revival efforts as the Lord leads.