OUR HISTORY
Bearden First Assembly of God began in July 1921. It had its beginning in the fire of Pentecost in tent revivals and brush arbor meetings. The first pastor was Rev. Zack Launius.
W.N. Riggs donated six lots on which to build the church and parsonage and donated $1,000.00. Brother Kilgore also gave $1,000.00. Fred Quarles and Clyde Johnson cleared the land. Garland Anthony donated lumber and nails to start the building. The Cottonbelt Lumber Co. also gave lumber. Some of the men who worked there donated money.
Ladies from the church went out and received donations from others in town. It has grown through the years as God has led and blessed it and it is still a great church.
PREVIOUS PASTORS
Zack Launius 1921-1923
F.L. Fitzgerald 1923-1926
Charles Caraway 1926-1928
Lee Starton 1928-1930
Elmer Barnes 1930-1933
Emery Callaway 1933-1935
George Ward 1935-1939
Jess Bowens 1939-1943,45-46,53-55
Floyd Perry 1943-1945
O.R. Ball 1946-1949
Reace Dickenson 1949-1953
George Hatton 1955-1958
Charles Mattox 1958-1960
Harold Cobb 1960-1963
George Clay 1963-1967
Hubert Greer 1967-1970
D.L. Rousey 1970-1974
Billy Martin 1974-1976
Michael L. Guynn 1976-1977
Frank J. Woolf 1977-1983
Thomas Stoker 1983-1987
Charles Taylor 1987-2001
Wayne McGuire 2002-
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.
