First Assembly of God - Harrisonburg, Virginia: First Assembly of God Newsletter: October 2008

1310 Garber's Church Rd. | Harrisonburg, VA 22801 | 540.433.8687


First Assembly of God Newsletter October 2008
	I would like to invite you and your family to join us for a joyous celebration on Sunday, October 12th at 10 a.m. We will be celebrating our church's 40th Anniversary, and highlighting God's goodness to us as a church family. We've invited former pastors and their wives to come and share, as well as Ken Burtrem, our District Secretary/Treasurer to be our guest speaker. This should be a great time of reflection and celebration. The following is a brief history of our church: • First Assembly held it's first worship service on April 7, 1968 with 17 in attendance. Rev. Herb Coffey was the first pastor, and served two terms, 1968-1971, and 1972-1973.Under his leadership the congregation purchased property in 1970 at our present location, and began to save for a building. • In December of 1971, Rev. Ken Schloe was appointed pastor by the District. During his tenure a newly built modular facility was placed on the property. This now serves as our church's nursery and four Sunday School classrooms. • Rev. Coffey returned in the fall of 1972 and served as pastor until 1973. • In December of 1973, Rev. James Hendershot became the church's third pastor and served until 1976. • In September of 1976, Rev. David Brookman became the fourth pastor and served until April of 1988. During his tenure a second building program took place, that included a new sanctuary, fellowship hall, kitchen, and four new classrooms. The first service was held in the new facilities on September 7, 1980. • On July 1, 1988 Rev. Jeff Ferguson became the fifth and present pastor. The church continued to experience growth, and a new addition was completed in August of 2003. We have hired additional staff, and have a vision to plant other churches in the valley. Our mission is to train and equip individuals to become passionately devoted followers of Jesus Christ. I encourage you to invite friends and family that attended First Assembly over the years to join us for this day of celebration. Immediately following the service we will be going to Oakdale Park in Bridgewater for a picnic. The church will provide the meat and eating utensils, and we are asking that you bring two side dishes (enough for your family and a family the size of yours). We will not be having an evening service. Our prayer is that God will continue to use First Assembly to impact lives with the Gospel and minister to hurting people. — Pastor Jeff

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR NOTES	Unless you have been living in a cave you are probably well aware that our nation is in the midst of a hotly contested Presidential campaign. Numerous other state and local political offices are also being contested. As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization there are some stringent rules that a church needs to adhere to so as not to jeopardize its tax-exempt standing with the Internal Revenue Service. Under the IRS code, all 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. The prohibition applies to all campaigns at the local, state, and national level. Violations of this prohibition could result in the revocation of our tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes. It could also mean that your giving to the church would no longer be considered as a charitable contribution for income tax purposes. Examples of things churches are prohibited from doing include: endorsing, or opposing, a particular candidate from the pulpit; distributing political materials that favor a particular candidate; endorsing or opposing a candidate on their website, or through links to other websites; disseminating voter guides that favor a particular candidate; placing campaign signs on church property; allowing candidates to speak at church functions without providing equal time to all other candidates; making cash contributions to a political campaign. Some things we can do include: encouraging you to educate yourself on the candidate’s positions and to vote for those most closely aligned with your value system; distributing unbiased voter guides that include the positions of all candidates for a particular office; encouraging you to vote for, or against, certain initiatives that are not linked to a particular candidate or political party. We had an unfortunate incident a few years’ ago during a Sunday morning service when a candidate’s campaign workers came into our parking lot without permission and placed flyers on all the windshields. Please be assured that we do not endorse that type of activity. If it does happen again this year it will be without our permission. It is a real blessing to live in a society where we can freely exercise the privilege of voting for the candidates of our choice. Millions of brave men and women have sacrificed for their country to preserve that freedom for us. We strongly encourage all of you to prayerfully educate yourself on the positions of the candidates and vote for those that most closely represent your values. Please keep our country and the upcoming election in your prayers that those whom God has raised up for this time will be elected. — Steve Parsons

	Food for Thought G. K. Chesterton said ‘the problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried.’