Introducing the “AND” Campaign

This year, Easter Sunday falls on April 17, and Pentecost Sunday on June 5. What could happen during this period if your church attendees were given opportunities both to hear about the Holy Spirit and to experience Him personally? “Being a Pentecostal is not a matter of a shared label, a common expression of worship, or even an agreed-upon doctrine,” explains AG General Superintendent Doug Clay. “It is found in having an active relationship with the third member of the Godhead who enables us to advance the kingdom of God with great effectiveness.” The Assemblies of God has created the AND Campaign to help ministers and congregations grow in that relationship, no matter a church’s size or the number of its worship services. The AND Campaign is built around four emphases: • The Holy Spirit and Prayer • The Holy Spirit and Evangelism • The Holy Spirit and Water Baptism • The Holy Spirit and Spirit Baptism In addition to resources for Sunday morning services, the campaign offers resources for children’s and youth ministries as well as adult small groups. All these resources include time for individuals to experience the Holy Spirt. Church leaders can modify these resources to customize the campaign for their congregations. They can add prayer, water baptism, and testimony services, as well as use their own materials for a week on an additional topic, such as The Holy Spirit and Divine Healing. The campaign also includes brief video messages by gifted AG ministers who walk church leaders through what they need to know to lead the campaign. “For The Holy Spirit and Prayer we have Al and Chrissy Toledo of Chicago Tabernacle doing a video for pastors and leaders on how to start, restart, or invigorate a prayer meeting,” says Tim Enloe, the general presbyter representing AG evangelists, who spearheads the AND Campaign nationally. “Gary Grogan of Stone Creek Church, Urbana, Illinois, and Levi Lutz of Together in the Harvest, each have inspiring video messages for the Holy Spirit and Evangelism.” Shane Wilson of Christian Life Assembly, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, offers insight to bringing water baptism back into a church’s culture while Nate Ruch of Emmanuel Christian Center in Minneapolis discusses implementing Spirit baptism in church culture. Enloe himself created a video that walks leaders through the steps of how to pray with someone to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Along with videos for leaders comes those for laity that ministers can use in church and on social media. These three-minute testimonies include a video by evangelist Johnny Jernigan on how to win someone to Christ. And Sammy Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Leadership Conference, shares about the difference Holy Spirit baptism made in his life and ministry. “Currently, many of our Pentecostal churches no longer have encounter time in their Sunday morning services, but in the AND Campaign we intentionally facilitate encounter time, which is a part of our ethos,” Enloe states. “Encounter time is what built the modern Pentecostal Movement. The fastest growing churches in the world still have and champion encounter time. It’s in the opportunity to press in and seek the Lord where all of the good stuff happens.” And “the good stuff” isn’t reserved just for adults. Well-known and highly regarded AG children’s minister Dick Gruber has put together special messages just for kids, while Terry Parkman, NextGen pastor of River Valley Church in Minneapolis, wrote the youth lessons. The materials explain the Holy Spirit and His power in ways that children and youth can comprehend, seek, and receive Him into their own lives. Other materials provided in the campaign are sermon outlines, small group curriculum, and three free downloadable and customizable graphics packages. The packages range from traditional to contemporary design, and include logos, bulletin covers, presentation slides, and email headers. “It will be amazing to see what even a temporary schedule change can do to help people experience what they’ve been learning,” Enloe says. “The spiritual potential is limitless!” “The challenges we face as a nation and as a Church require us to equip the next generation,” Clay concludes. “The AND Campaign helps Pentecostal leaders to equip and disciple the next generation in the things of the Spirit.” For information on the AND Campaign, visit AND.AG.org.