New Book – “Preacher Paulk”

Available in Hardcover and Softcover from Amazon.

Earl Pearly Paulk was a pioneering Pentecostal leader whose ministry spanned five decades, serving the Church of God as an evangelist, pastor, state overseer, and denominational executive He was renowned as one of the finest Pentecostal preachers in the movement. As a scholar of the Holy Scriptures, he influenced the doctrine of the Church of God and was a leading apologist for Pentecostalism. He was among the best of his generation, and a hero to the next generation. If one wishes to understand the development of Pentecostalism, then one needs to know Earl Pearly Paulk.

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Quest to Restore God’s House – A Review

Quest to Restore God’s House: A Theological History of the Church of God. Wade H. Phillips. Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2015.

questFor years Charles W. Conn’s Like a Mighty Army has been the definitive history of the Church of God. Conn’s book offers an excellent telling from the perspective of an officially sanctioned publication. Mickey Crews’ The Church of God: A Social History offers a more critical telling of the early years of the Church of God movement. But neither can compare to the exhaustive volume produced by Wade H. Phillips – Quest to Restore God’s House: A Theological History of the Church of God.

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Encountering God at the Altar

Encountering God at the Altar: The Sacraments in Pentecostal Worship

In the 2002-2003 United States Congregational Life Survey administered by the Center for Pentecostal Leadership and Care, Church of God pastors rated “participation in footwashing, baptism, or the Lord’s Supper” as the pastoral task they were least competent to perform. Yet the significant place these formational worship experiences have in Christian life and commitment and in relation to core Pentecostal theological teaching suggests the need for pastoral guidance in their observance. Pentecostal congregations need pastors capable of leading them in meaningful and Spirit-led participation in these biblically based spiritual practices.

This volume in the Center for Pentecostal Leadership and Care Pentecostal Leadership Series is intended to address this need in pastoral ministry. Dan Tomberlin takes seriously the ecclesial (within the church) context of the sacraments of footwashing, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. He emphasizes the communal nature of their celebration as compared to more individualistic approaches. That is, Tomberlin sees these sacraments as formative and transformative rites of the church rather than mere personal religious experiences. He affirms the reality and importance of the personal dimension of faith but finds the fuller meaning of the sacrament in the relationship between the individual and the community of faith.

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