CHAPTER 1
Dear Pastor:
We welcome the presence of you and your wife, your assistant pastor and his wife, and any young pastors in training and their wives, and whosoever will to this, our first national non-denominational, Gospel convention at the All Peoples Non-Denominational Church in Oklahoma City at 333 Gillespie Avenue. Plan on spending one full week hearing great preaching, having great fellowship, sharing the Gospel, getting refreshed and refueled to return to your “Jerusalem”to lead your people forward in this great fight of faith.
Date: August 20-26
Time: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Theme: Taking the Gospel to all People
Call: 777-777-7777 for more info and to pre-register
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Pastor Roland Gillespie, pastor of the prominent All Peoples Non-Denominational Church, was richly blessed of the Lord. His church occupied an area large enough to hold a public mall. It housed a bookstore, a children’s library, an adult library, an elementary school, a high school, a college, a ladies’ boutique, a health and fitness center, and a gym. Three shuttle buses transported people around the property to and from various points. God truly blessed him at a young age for his faithful and humble labor of love in the ministry, so much so that he was heard on radio and television world-wide. The envy of pastors across the nation, he was loved and highly respected. His advice was sought by many.
The meeting was well underway. The men were in one section of the buildings; the ladies were in their conference area, and the children were in a special section set aside for youth. Everyday at ten o’clock, the men went out to share Jesus with others in the community and returned with glowing reports of their experience. “If you want to experience true joy and at the same time lay up treasures in Heaven, then tell someone about Jesus,”Pastor Gillespie repeated throughout the week. “Tell them what God has done for you and what He can do for them. Tell them that all they have to do is believe on Jesus Christ and they will be saved from hell and they can have life everlasting with God.”
About midway through the conference, Pastor Gillespie sent for his wife. “For those of you who haven’t met my wife yet, I’ll introduce her to you in a few minutes. She’s coordinating the ladies’ meeting so give her some time to get over here.”Deacons Walsh and Wiley left to deliver the message to the first lady.
The ladies were doing their thing and were having a grand time. There were aerobic classes in the health and fitness center, classes on health and beauty with a free cosmetics give away, a daily shopping spree, and much more. Various female speakers were on schedule to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences throughout the week on how to be a happy woman, how to bargain shop, how to raise healthy children, how to handle your man, and much more.
The deacons arrived at the ladies’ conference area and delivered the pastor’s message to his wife. “All right,”Sis. Gillespie said but she made no move to carry out her husband’s request. “You can go on ahead,”she told the deacons who were waiting to escort her over to where the men were meeting. “I’ll come as soon as I can break away.”
Pastor Gillespie gave her time to make it over, but ended up sending the deacons back over with a second message. The deacons said, “Your husband said we are going to close our session soon and he wanted to introduce you to the audience before we close.”
With obvious irritation, Sis. Gillespie said, “Look, tell him I am super busy right now.”Ladies raised their heads and eyebrows at the sound of her voice as it echoed across the auditorium through her lapel mic. She was unaware that it was still on.
