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Living Word Ministries |
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 In the mid 70's, on a Sunday afternoon, a group of people met at the Log Cabin in Burkesville City Park with the thought of starting a Pentecostal work in Cumberland County. Van Russell Taylor, who pastored the Assembly of God Church in Glasgow, felt led to pioneer a church in Burkesville and this is how we started. The church that Bro. Taylor was pastoring in Glasgow was planted by the Assembly of God Church in Bowling Green, which was pastored by Bro. Rodney Dukes, so Bro. Dukes helped a lot in the forming of this church that we now call Living Word Ministries. A young man, Robert Isbell was faithful to come with Bro. Taylor and help in the work here.
This church was formed around a small group that had been seeking God and some had begun to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and some were being healed. There was a definite need for a place that was open to the Full Gospel, where the gifts of the Spirit could operate and where miracles, signs and wonders could be seen….a place where people could worship the Lord freely. In addition to this small group, that first Sunday, some from other churches in the county came as support for the new work. There were 60 there that day. We continued to meet in the Log Cabin for a while and then moved on to the old Hotel Building on the square. By now we had our first pastor, Loren Kohl. Pastor Kohl's parents were on the mission field so we heard first hand about what God was doing throughout the world.
From the beginning, also there was opposition, not openly, but an undercurrent always from those who did not understand, always from the religious community. We were definitely not socially accepted, but as God moved in our midst, people had to take note. It took a brave person to come to our services in the early times of our church. While in the Hotel Building, we had visitors from another state and there was tongues and interpretation and the word to the church in essence was, "As you walk with Me, I will guide you, do not run ahead...do not lag behind...be led by My spirit. As you walk with Me I will be with you." Soon we also began to hear words that spoke of God sending out from this church to the far corners of the earth. We began to realize that what God was trying to do here, through these people, in this little town, was far greater than we had thought in the beginning. It was in this building that a young, Jewish woman from California, who was visiting us, and out of respect, went to Sunday night service with us. She took her prayer book to read so she would not be listening to the gospel but God had other designs. As soon as the praise and worship was over and Pastor Kohl had read the scripture the lights went out. We were in the dark but Bro. Kohl preached the gospel anyway. I thought it was neat that this Jewish girl was hearing the gospel and did not realize what was really happening until Bro. Kohl prayed at the end and the lights immediately came back on. No one ever knew what made the lights go out or what made the lights come on again, but a Jewish girl heard the gospel.
Soon plans were being made to build a church and we went looking for land. Bro. Tim felt it would be on Hwy 90 E but as we looked we found nothing. We did find land on Hwy 90 W and were able to get it and we began work on a building, the men doing much of the work themselves. We remember the day that building was finished and we were getting ready to move in. Some of the ladies were cleaning the house before we left it and here is what God brought to our remembrance: when we left the Log Cabin and went to the Hotel, we were so thankful...it was nicer and easier. When we left the Hotel and went to the house it was very nice and convenient. We were so thankful. When we left the house and moved into a new church building that God had provided, we were elated. God spoke to our hearts, "This is not the end, just the beginning. Do not settle in the 'thinking' that you have arrived. There is
There was another large group who came to Living Word, The Continentials. One of the young men hurt his eye and had to go to the local doctor. When the doctor heard their story and the many places they had ministered he said, "You all need to sing to the whole county," so he offered to get them set up at the ball park and they agreed and so the next service was down at the ball park for everyone! A few years later Betty Webb (who was with us from the beginning) and her son Holland went to the Philippines as missionaries. According to the vision God has given, this is just the first of many. Then a few years later, when Bro. Loise Moses was pastor, Living Word planted a church in Albany, Kentucky, which is now called Faith Tabernacle. In the new building, after Tim Hall, we had as pastors Paul Reed, Charles Walker, Michael Boatman, James Stephens, Tim Byrd and Loise Moses and then Gary Stommel came from Wisconsin by way of California and he has been here 10 years. Bro. Gary has been able to cast the vision God gave him for this church and the church began to grow. As we outgrew the church on Hwy 90W we wanted to buy more land there and enlarge our building but finding that impossible, we began to look for land elsewhere. It should not be a big surprise that the land we found is in the area that Bro. Tim Hall began looking for land in the beginning.. God is faithful. After a year of building and preparing we are in our new Church on Hwy 90E. People are being saved, needs are being met, true praise and worship is going up before God and we rejoice but we really believe that we cannot allow ourselves to "settle down" and be satisfied with what we see happening here. There is more, much more and we cannot be satisfied at any point as long as there are people who do not know the Lord and God is opening doors! This has not been easy but it has been very rewarding. All along the way there have been challenges, and even now there are challenges, but nothing that God, who has called us, cannot handle! |
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Even from the beginning, there was an excitement as we shared testimonies of what God was doing. In the Hotel Building we had good services and God was so faithful to meet the needs of the people. We had an evangelist / missionary, Jean Isbell (Robert Isbell's mother) who came for a week and we saw miracles and the gifts of the Spirit in operation and this stirred up even more hunger among an even wider scope of people, as visitors came to see what was going on. 
We found a house on North Main Street that we could rent to meet in so we moved from the Hotel Building. There was plenty of room for church downstairs with a basement for Sunday School and the pastor family could live upstairs. Our Pastor by this time was Tim and Debbie Hall. Tim had a vision that more matched the call of God on this church than we had. He knew God was trying to do far greater than we knew and he was not afraid to step out in faith. 
Pastor Tim and his family knew many groups and ministries and were able to bring them to Burkesville. We had Living Sound, led by Terry Law, which was a large group who had ministered in other countries, especially behind the Iron Curtain. This group filled up the whole front of our new church on Hwy 90. | Pastor's Paragraph | Service Schedule | Online Newsletter | Calendar | History | Home |
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