Of course you do. We all do. I pastor at one of the larger congregations by COG standards. No, we are not a megachurch , but we are large enough that we don’t attend church growth conferences anymore. Let me preface my remarks by saying from the outset that I have pastored several churches
And both of these people have ten times more integrity than the administrator of this page.
Charles, you left out the part where Jonathan was on campus as the guest of a musical act performing there. He was in the Green Room backstage when he was approached by Campus Police. Falwell had Jonathan booted for disagreeing with his marked and unexplainable love of Trump.
I proudly support our President of the United States of America, I pray for Donald Trump very often.
Martin was attempting to host a prayer meeting on Liberty’s campus. I’m having a hard time understanding why that is problematic. Are only conservatives allowed to pray?
Drenda Butler Martin had some very harsh things to say about the leader of the university. They are on his timeline as of last night. They were angry and retaliated. Martin is very political no one disagrees about that. Then he showed up to pray and Liberty wasn’t buying that. I personally believe Martin was upset about Falwell and university’s support of Trump and went to pray and we all know how that turned out.
it was not a prayer meeting but an anti-Trump protest designed to appear as a prayer meeting. Jerry Falwell, Jr. is an avid Trump supporter and Falwell was made the focus of the anti-Trump meeting.
Statement from Liberty University administration
“Members of the Liberty University community are always welcome to engage in peaceful debate, intellectual inquiry and protest, but for public safety reasons, organized events by outside groups require advance notice and participating in the appropriate application process. Liberty University learned via social media of an attempt by Jonathan Martin to schedule an event on its private campus without any prior authorization or consultation. Mr. Martin is not a student, faculty member or employee of Liberty University. There are facility use protocols for those who are not members of the University community to schedule events on the campus. Those protocols take into account safety and security, as well as schedule conflicts and costs. Absent such pre-planning and authorization, an event promoted to the general public on social media has the potential to be a security risk. Given the late hour of the notice, the only effective way to prevent the unauthorized event from happening this morning was to issue a trespass warning to its organizer, Mr. Martin, last evening. This was done in a professional and matter of fact manner by Liberty University Police Department.
In light of the climate of protests associated with campuses across the country, Liberty University takes seriously its obligation to preserve and maintain campus safety and security. While University community members can freely make arrangements for their events, those who are not members of the University community have a higher burden to be granted access to Liberty University’s facilities for their private purposes. Even so, from time to time the University has made places available for outside groups to stage protests. Typically, however, those groups are directed off campus, especially where there are no tie-ins with a student organization or other member of the University community.
It may be possible that Jonathan Martin knew his unauthorized event would ultimately not be permitted to occur on the private property of Liberty University but he simply hoped to garner more attention to his cause by having his efforts stopped. So be it. The judgment was made that it was safer to stop the event before it started than to attempt to turn away an unknown number of people who traveled to Liberty’s campus. Either option likely gives Mr. Martin’s cause the publicity he apparently seeks. The University cannot be concerned with whether its actions provide additional oxygen to either side of a debate but rather must be concerned about safety and security of its campus.”
They kept refering to him as Mr. Martin does he still have credentials with COG?
Charles, Thank you for sharing this with us.
my brother-in-law did the first sermon, Roland Sharp (by his first wife, Linda)
Solid team.
I knew all of them. All great men
E C Thomas was the outgoing General Overseer.
E.C. Thomas, that’s right. Couldn’t think of who it was.
Cecil Knight was my wife’s pastor in Birmingham when she was growing up.
I’d like to share some pleasant experiences I’ve had with each of the men in the photo. I was invited to a meal with some other ministers and Raymond Crowley (who was the General Overseer at the time) sat at one end of the table. Since I was seated to the right of him, I jokingly asked Bro. Crowley if I could be his right-hand-man? He smiled really big and said, “Yes!” Ha! When I was attending Lee College and sitting in the auditorium for a chapel service, there was one vacant seat to my right, by the isle. A man walked up, leaned over to me, and asked if it would be alright if he sat there? To my surprise, it was Ray H. Hughes (the President of Lee College at the time)! I’ll let you guess what my answer was! Ha! Cecil B. Knight was the evening speaker at the first Church of God camp meeting I attended. It was in Kansas, and I was tremendously blessed by Bro. Knight’s ministry! Years later, I had the opportunity to serve in the Missionary Evangelism program, conducting revivals in mission states. Bro. Knight was the General Evangelism Director I worked with one of the years I served. Many years ago when my wife and I first heard R. Lamar Vest preach at an Oklahoma camp meeting, we knew that he was headed toward higher positions of leadership in the Church of God — which has certainly come to pass! He was the State Youth and Christian Education Director of Oklahoma at the time. My wife and I first met Johnny Nichols when we were evangelizing in Iowa many years ago. He was the evening speaker at the Iowa State Camp Meeting. We appreciated his ministry and enjoyed the personal fellowship we had with him at the camp meeting and have been blessed to be with him at other times since then!