WHERE WE'VE BEEN
Originally known as Verndale Assembly of God Tabernacle, our original facility on Farwell Street was built in 1939. Over the years many people gave their hearts to Christ and grew in their relationship with Christ and with other believers. We have a rich heritage of Pastor's and lay leaders who poured their all into sharing the Good News.
Original Verndale Assembly of God facility on Farwell Street.
In 2009 Verndale Assembly went through a hard time and voted to become a missions church under District supervision. Through leadership changes and a shift in the approach to ministry, the church was again able to get back on her own feet by 2011.
In 2011 the name of the church was officially changed to Family Life Church of the Assemblies of God. More commonly known as Verndale Family Life Church.
In November 2012 our church experienced a destructive fire which left our people without a building to meet in. Within a matter of months, while meeting in the Verndale school auditorium, the church unanimously voted to purchase the long empty Verndale Truss building. Over the next month we remodeled offices and then the sanctuary to begin meeting again in our own building by July 2013.
When you enter our main double doors to the church, take a look at the ground just before you come in. Exposed in the cement are 7 small stones. While praying over this facility the summer before the fire, we walked around the building and each time placed a stone on the office entrance threshold. After our fire, when we returned, the prayer stones were still on the threshold. We collected them and now every time people enter our facility they cross over our foundation of prayer.
In 2013 our new facility was able to accomidate a long envisioned specific need of the community. We were able to open the Verndale Area Food Shelf and partner with the community to help families in seasons of limited food resources.
In 2018 we were again able to expand community impact by opening Verndale Area Christian Academy within our facility. With the growing need for quality safe childcare, we have been able to accommodate and minister to many families.
By the grace of God, a destructive fire has actually been a blessing. Our previous building on Farwell street was two levels, 4800 square feet and only seated 110 people. Our new facility on Clark Drive is all on one level, 28,000 square feet and seats over 300 people. With a full gym, many classrooms, Kids ministry space and more, we are very excited to see where God brings us over the next years. We will continue to move "Forward in Faith".
HISTORY OF THE ASSEMBLY OF GOD
The Assemblies of God grew out of the Pentecostal revival, which began in the early 1900s in places such as Topeka, Kansas, and the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles. During times of prayer and Bible study, believers received spiritual experiences like those described in the book of Acts. Accompanied by “speaking in tongues,” their religious experiences were associated with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Acts 2), and participants in the movement were dubbed “Pentecostals.” The Pentecostal movement has grown from a handful of Bible school students in Topeka, Kansas, to an estimated 600 million in the world today.
Many participants who were baptized in the Holy Spirit during revivals and camp meetings in the early 1900s were not welcomed back to their former churches. These believers started many small churches throughout the country and communicated through publications that reported on the revivals. In 1913, a Pentecostal publication, the Word and Witness, called for the independent churches to band together for the purpose of fellowship and doctrinal unity. Other concerns for facilitating missionaries, chartering churches and forming a Bible training school were also on the agenda.
Some 300 Pentecostals met at an opera house in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914, and agreed to form a new fellowship of loosely knit independent churches. These churches were left with the needed autonomy to develop and govern their own local ministries, yet they were united in their message and efforts to reach the world for Christ. So began the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
Assemblies of God churches form a cooperative fellowship. As a result, the organization operates from the grass roots, allowing the local church to choose and develop ministries and facilities best suited for its local needs.