Brownsville Church Needs a Revival — a Financial One

by Steve Eastman, Faith Issues

You probably remember the excitement from the mid to late 90s.  People drove all night and even several days to arrive at Brownsville Assembly of God at 7 AM and earlier, to wait in the hot Pensacola sun until the evening service.  Although he was pastor, John Kilpatrick left most of the public ministry to evangelist Stephen Hill.  Lindell Cooley, with his long flowing hair, led worship.  Salvations, healings and other miracles continued way past the time ordinary church-goers went to bed.

Kilpatrick, who resigned in 2003, says, “I never would have left if I knew the struggles it was going to have.”  Today the debt owed by the Florida congregation totals $6.5 million.  And like Kilpatrick, Hill and the record-breaking crowds are long gone.

Perhaps the first warning came when the revival was in high gear.  The five thousand worshippers a night were apparently not as generous as everyone assumed.   So the church took out loans to buy up residential property and turn it into parking lots.   At its peak Brownsville had 50 paid staff.

One of those staff members was Dr. Michael Brown.  He ran the church’s school of ministry, set up to carry the Pensacola Outpouring around the world.  But Brown was not a “company man.”  After Kilpatrick pressured him to submit to the Assemblies of God, Brown started a rival school across town, which has since relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Current pastor Evon Horton is hoping what he calls a dream from God will pay off the outstanding debt.  It sounds a lot like the recycling of a plan used by Jerry Falwell to construct Liberty University.  Even the sizes of the requested donations match.  Each donor of $1,000 can expect to see his name engraved in a walk of faith that will go around the old sanctuary.   Whatever happened to not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing?

Brownsville Assembly is making painful progress in paying off the debt.  At its peak the amount totaled $11.5 million.

© 2012 Faith Issues.com