Winter 2010 Rapport—Our DNA: Exploring the core values embraced by the AGTS community

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Empowered Ministry

The Pentecostal distinctive is central to everything we do at AGTS. We seek the Spirit’s anointing as we learn, worship, minister and fellowship, relying on the Spirit to lead us to the places where God is already at work. We expect the Spirit to play a vital role in personal spiritual formation—a natural and necessary part of preparation for effective ministry. Each faculty member and administrator is committed to equipping Pentecostal leaders to minister within the Pentecostal context.

So, what does this Spirit-led experience look like in the day-to-day operations of AGTS? You see it in the chapel when tired students offer their hearts in worship and linger at the altar, leaving with the strength to take one more exam. You see it as you pass two friends in the hallway, one praying earnestly for the other. You see it in the prayer chapel on Fridays at noon as the president leads a band of staff and faculty in intercession for students and alumni. You see it in the office of Jay Taylor, director of spiritual formation, during a required spiritual formation meeting with a first-year student who has made it six months without giving in to an addiction that has pummeled him for years. You see it in the classroom as a professor leads the class in prayer over a worried student’s sick child. You see it in the library as one more student, pouring over research materials, experiences a revelation about God that changes the way he relates to his heavenly Father for the rest of his life. You see it in the middle of the night as another student awakens to a new dimension of Christ’s calling on her life and to her own potential through the Spirit’s empowerment. You see it in the fabric of the curriculum, in chapel sermons and in anointed class lectures. Most importantly, you see it in the lives of alumni whose ministries are marked by souls saved and lives transformed.

Biblical Answers

In a world where questions abound and truth goes unrecognized, we believe that the truth of God’s Word endures forever. And we believe in the power of the Spirit to illuminate that truth to those who seek it. AGTS is committed to preparing ministers to skillfully interpret, apply and communicate the Scriptures in response to these questions. The integration of academic excellence with spiritual passion and ministerial skill is key to this effort.

AGTS’s commitment to illuminating God’s Word is not only exemplified in the classroom and chapel, where the level of teaching and preaching is unsurpassed at any institution, but also in the seminary’s rich history of publishing. Former and current faculty members like Stanley Horton, Melvin Hodges, Gary McGee, Earl Creps, Deborah Gill and President Byron Klaus, as well as alumni like Craig Keener, have helped and are helping to make the body of work associated with AGTS an integral source for Pentecostal theology and ministry. AGTS has chosen to highlight faculty works by framing and displaying their covers prominently throughout the building. Explore this ever-growing collection of titles at www.agts.edu/books261, where you can also choose to sponsor a framed book cover by making a donation that will help AGTS continue this proud tradition. Contact the Development Office at 417-268-1012.

Global Impact

AGTS desires nothing less than to provide the finest possible learning experiences that yield leaders who preach with the anointing of the Spirit and who maintain a missionary commitment to the greatest evangelism the world has ever seen.

AGTS does this by training leaders who come to us from all over the world and go back to win their nations for Christ, like Jean Pawentaore Ouedraogo. Some students, like Daisuke (M.Div. 2009) and Yoriko (M.A. 1999) Yabuki (above, left), stay and reach Americans shrouded by curtains of unfamiliar culture and religion. The Yabukis are the first AG missionaries from Japan to the United States and have seen many people saved through an international ministry here in Springfield. AGTS trains new missionaries like Greg Aikens, a blind student who had pledged never to be pigeonholed into ministry to others with disabilities and who answered a new call while at AGTS to that very group in the restrictive nations of Central Asia. Or Coalson Lacey (above, right), a veterinarian from Texas with nine short-term missions experiences under his belt. He now envisions an unprecedented ministry that would bring veterinary missions into third-world countries, caring for the economic backbone of local communities while offering the life-changing message of the gospel. AGTS also adds to the training of experienced missionaries through the Doctor of Missiology and Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies programs. AGTS also extends its global impact by sending out its own faculty and administration. DeLonn Rance, Mark Hausfeld, Beth Grant, President Byron Klaus, Edgar Lee, Johan Mostert, Ray Gannon, Warren and Annette Newberry, and Jay and Cheryl Taylor all have thriving ministries overseas.

Updated: Thursday, March 11, 2010 1:41 PM