For The LAST Time

Since July 2023, Karen and I have taken note of the “lasts” involved with this work as AGK Superintendent. The last months have flown by faster than normal. What a joy and honor to have walked together these many years AND to have lived aware of one another a bit more keenly due to knowing the transition all of us face.

None of us know for sure when we will do some activity or see some particular person for the last time. As humans, we can’t live at the peak of emotional awareness 24 hours a day. We ebb and flow. However, it seems like a wise exercise to remind ourselves occasionally that - if Jesus doesn’t hurry up and come back - we all will experience a “last” time to hear or preach a sermon, kiss our spouse, sing a worship song, hug a child, play a musical instrument, read a book, plan a party, write a special note… with all that in mind, I offer my LAST pastoral devotion as your superintendent.

Effective Pentecostal leaders do well to…

L - Listen.

When our daughter, Lacey, was about 4 years old, while I read a magazine article, she wanted to tell me something. Without lowering the magazine, I said, “I’m listening.” To which she replied, “Daddy, listen with your FACE!” So, the L means LISTEN with your face and your body language to those you love but listen ESPECIALLY to the Spirit. Rev. 2-3 “he that has an ear, let him hear…”

Effective Pentecostal leaders do well to…

A - Applaud.

When others across the AGK achieve something for and by God’s grace, applaud them. Applaud even if we aren’t accomplishing similar feats. Perhaps we should applaud ESPECIALLY WHEN we aren’t - and thereby kill any semblance of jealousy and comparison. Saul couldn’t rejoice in David’s victory and that refusal to applaud God using someone else impacted the sanity, effectiveness, and family of Saul. Ultimately - it led to his removal as a leader. Although it costs us nothing to applaud others, it shows we value our teammates across the AGK.
Applaud one another strongly, repeatedly, and sincerely.

Effective Pentecostal leaders do well to…

S - Strategize.
Through the years, Karen and I have said to this Network, “One of the best resources you will ever find are your peers in ministry.” Consider meeting with a nearby ministry leader that shares your Spirit-filled experience and dream about making your area of Kansas an easy place to experience the presence and forgiveness of Jesus! What actions, behaviors, priorities, and timelines would help make that vision a reality? Strategize fearlessly with each other.
Listen / Applaud / Strategize

Effective Pentecostal leaders do well to…

T - Trust.
Trust God, trust one another, and trust the new superintendent. The future belongs to those who will dream and act boldly - together! Dream new dreams and try new approaches. For a new day, we need a new way. Not ways that replace biblical principles but ways that produce more Kingdom fruit across this state and throughout the world. Trust God and work well together. Mark 16: 20… he worked with them.

Listen, Applaud, Strategize, Trust

You just read my last devotional exhortations for my last AGK BLAST. I have completed my last day as the ninth superintendent of this wonderful fellowship. In 1999, I read a book by a leadership guru named Warren Bennis. He stated: “The first job of a leader is to define reality. The last job of a leader is to say “thank you” to those who helped make things happen.

Therefore, with our hearts full of gratitude and everlasting love, thank you, dear AGK Family.

Former Superintendent Terry & Karen Yancey

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Preaching Sin as a Power
Rev. Cameron Combs

I’ve been preaching about sin for as long as I can remember. My first convert was my little brother. Every night as we settled into our bunk beds, I would ask if he had asked forgiveness for all the sins he committed that day. A few quiet seconds would pass and then–through a yawn–I’d usually hear, “Ok. I’m good.” My batting average as a preacher back then was nearly a thousand.

I was deadly serious in my “preaching” to my little brother. I had a deep-seated fear that drove me to force even a tired confession out of him. What if this night was actually judgment day? My theology of sin was as immature as I was.

It’s true, of course, that each of us has a list of sins we have committed, for which we must repent. But this is the second thing to say when preaching about sin. It isn’t the whole story of sin. Our preaching about sin has often been too small and this is itself a work of Sin.

In Romans 5:21 Paul says that “Sin reigned in death.” Paul often attributes a sort of active agency to sin. Sin is an evil slave-master, a hostile power, that has the whole world held captive in its grip. Think of Sin like the Pharaoh in Exodus. God’s will is that his people be free to worship him. To accomplish this, though, he will have to liberate them from their bondage to Pharaoh. God will have to part the Red Sea so that the Hebrew children enter the waters as slaves but exit as children, drowning the slave-master Pharaoh in the process.

This is what baptism is enacting in the life of each believer. And when it comes to sin the first thing that must be said is that every human being is someone who has been enslaved by an evil taskmaster who has “reigned” over us. The reason we each have a list of sins (things we have done and left undone) is because of our predicament as slaves to Sin.

When we preach about sin as though it is only an individual fault or guilt that can be reversed by a decision to repent, we are not appreciating the depth of Sin’s grip on our world. We are reducing sin to something over which we have control. The story–as we often tell it–only has two characters in it: God and us (as we try to manage our sin). But according to Scripture there aren’t two actors in the drama of the world, but three: God, humanity, and the evil powers of Sin, Death, and Satan.

The gospel proclamation is a cosmic proclamation of liberty to the captives (Lk 4:18): Christ has died and risen to defeat Sin and set us free from Sin’s tyrannical hold on us.

This should drastically change the way we preach about Sin.

First, preachers should recognize the immense power that Sin asserts over peoples’ lives. We are all slaves to Sin until the gospel proclamation liberates us. It is not within a slave's power to liberate themselves. They need a liberator outside of themselves to set them free from their oppressive situation.

This should change the way we view every person we meet. Those in our family, the people in our congregations, and even our enemies are trapped at the hands of Sin. But the deepest truth about them is that Christ has made a way for them where there seems to be no way.

Second, focusing on sin as individual guilt cements a notion of God as a judge who relates to us as criminals rather than as a Father to a child.

The courtroom illustration is used often by preachers. God is the judge on the bench and we are on trial. But is this the type of judgment God has? When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray he does not teach them to pray “Our Judge, who art in heaven” but “Our Father…”

There are many different forms of judgment. There is a type of disinterested judgment that comes from an impartial judge, but then there is the judgment of a loving father. This isn’t to lessen the judgment of God; it actually heightens it. A loving father instructs and guides his children regarding their every word and action precisely because of his love and care for them.

The Exodus narrative is, again, a helpful guide. God first adopts the people of Israel and makes them his son (Exod. 4:22). Then, inside this covenantal relationship that he has established he gives them the law at Sinai so that his Son can flourish.

When Sin is first seen as an enslaving power that the Father has liberated us from, our congregations will grasp a deeper and truer image of their relationship to God. He is our loving Father who has “rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Col. 1:13).

He has set us free by adoption into his Son. The family room is deepest because love is deepest.

Third, understanding Sin as a power should keep us preachers from weaponizing guilt and shame to coerce people with our preaching. The gospel message is a liberating message that removes the burden of slavery so that we can freely respond to the love God has given to us in his Son.

The great evangelist and theologian John Wesley once gave this advice to preachers: “Do not drive anyone into holiness, only draw them.”

Preachers can have the best of intentions in trying to “drive” people towards Christ. There’s a kind of misplaced fear that is a love for our neighbors, but at the end of the day it is a failure to trust in the work of Christ to draw all human beings to himself (Jn. 12:32).

When we “drive” people towards Christ in our preaching, we will always end up submitting them again to “a new yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). But the work of “drawing” humanity towards Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit in preaching. The Spirit is a liberator and “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom” (Lk 4:18). The Spirit gives us the freedom to speak and to hear the promise of the gospel.

Regarding the liberating power of the Spirit Paul writes, “You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to mute idols. Therefore, I want you to understand that…no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:2–3).

You can spot an idol by its inability to speak. And Scripture is clear that we become like the idols that enslave us (Ps. 115:8). Sin enslaves us by muzzling us, making us mute. By contrast, the true God is talkative. Psalm 50:3 says, “Our God comes and does not keep silent.” When the true God comes, he comes in the power of his Word, which is Jesus Christ. This is what preachers are tasked with: to proclaim liberty to slaves through the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

When the liberating Spirit comes to those long held in slavery to Sin he removes the muzzle that the mute idols have put on us. We are given a voice; a voice that has been freed by the Spirit to say, “Jesus is Lord.”

On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. We Pentecostals know this well. For what is speaking in tongues except the Spirit freeing our tongues so that we can proclaim the glories of God in Jesus Christ?

This is the liberating Word God has called us preachers to preach. 

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Summer Outreach

In the midst of summer, we tend to look for ways to get people to come to us and engage with our church building. We’ll do big summer events or preaching series centered around inviting coworkers, friends, and family who don’t know Jesus to church. All these things are great, but I want to give you an alternative way of living out the life of Jesus this summer. Matthew 9 has a familiar story that should challenge us. Jesus invited Matthew to be his disciple then he got in trouble with the Pharisees for it.

10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

This question should haunt us. Not because the Pharisees are right, but because we can be guilty of making the same assessment of the people who Jesus loves. In reality, we should be asking ourselves the opposite question, “Why don’t we eat with the people Jesus eats with?” Our God is, “the way, the truth, and the life.” Resist the temptation to rationalize the life of Jesus as something that worked for him, but it won’t work for us.

This summer, instead of just inviting people into the church building, go out into your town and engage with people on their turf. There’s an endless supply of opportunities to be like Jesus at bowling alleys, art walks, little league games, community centers, homeless shelters, and a myriad of local and regional festivals. Let these words of Jesus challenge you.

12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

The summer outreach strategy I’m submitting to you is to be like Jesus and eat with people, “who know they are sinners.” There is no substitute for living the life of Jesus in this world. Paul tells us this in Galatians 2:20.

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

Christ lives in you, so go eat with some sinners.

Josh Peoples
Adult Ministries Director

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Illuminate began in 2022 as an AGK Kid Min tool generating financial support for BGMC projects. In 2023, the program grew, providing fundraising opportunities for multiple AGK Churches. Expansions continues this year, as we begin our third year of partnership with Bellino Fireworks.

Two years ago, over $27,000 was raised from just one tent in Haysville, Ks.

Last year, two new tents were added in Hutchison and Lincoln, Nebraska. Combined, we raised over $40,000.

This summer, Illuminate will expand to seven locations and expects to raise over $80,000 for ministry!

2024 Locations

·      Andover (2 locations)

·      Augusta

·      Haysville

·      Hutchison

·      Liberal

·      Newton

·      Wichita

Illuminate leadership includes Don Starnes (Freedom Challenge), Chris and Sarah Geeseka (Church Mobilization), Cy Ricker (Pastor, New Life Assembly of God , Newton), Cody Berntsen (Children’s Pastor, New Beginnings Church, Liberal), Marc and Aimee Marcelo (AGK Ministry Network Office), and Jason and Danica Geesaman (Hope Fostered).

Additional volunteers are needed at all of these locations, as we want to support more ministries and projects. 

Ministry scholarships for AGK events are available, especially for PKs, MKs, and those who have worked with KS Children’s Ministry.  Contact Marc Marcelo at marc@agkansas.com.  Please include a description of the project or ministry opportunity and which tent you sign up to volunteer at. Below is a partial list of beneficiaries of Illuminate fundraising dollars:

·       Ministries Supported

o   BGMC

o   Freedom Challenge

o   Church Mobilization

o   Project Rescue

o   World Serve

·       Ongoing Monthly Support

o   Kansas Chi Alpha Missionaries

o   Kansas World Missionaries

o   Kansas Teen Challenge

o   Hope Fostered – Huggage

·       AGK Ministries Supported

o   Children’s Ministry: Junior Bible Quiz

o   Girl’s Ministry

o   Intermission

·       Scholarships for individuals on missions, ministry trips, and internships

o   Ethiopia

o   Brazil

o   El Salvador

o   Chicago

o   Arizona

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