Our History
The vision for our church was born in the heart of God long ago, but began to be born in the hearts of founding Pastor, Rev. H.T. Walker, in 1938. While working as a United States Postmaster in Florida, Rev. Walker felt led by the Lord to start an Assembly of God church in Georgetown, South Carolina. He had never heard of Georgetown and didn’t really know where the city was located, but in February of that year, Rev. Walker boarded a train and headed to Georgetown, SC. He must have wondered where the Lord was calling him when he found out that the train on which he was riding didn’t come directly into Georgetown. In those days, the train backed into Georgetown from Andrews. Upon arriving in Georgetown, Rev. Walker met with Mrs. Leo Pratt, a former A/G member from Mississippi, who had moved to Georgetown with her husband, and Georgetown First Assembly (GFA) was born.
The church started meeting in a tent on Front Street. In 1940, property was purchased across the street from the present site. The church continued to worship and grow at that location until 1965 when Pastor David Flanagan led the congregation in a building program that built a sanctuary on the present site. There were numerous building programs over the years that including building a larger fellowship hall, Sunday school complex and a gym. In 1998, under the leadership of Rev. Clifford Coursey, our present sanctuary was built. It was finished and dedicated in September 1999. In 2001, with the leadership of Pastor Brad Morris, the congregation was able to re-purchase the property across the street where our youth activities are now held.
In May of 2009, Pastor David Hoskins and his wife Julie answered the call of God to become the pastor of GFA. Over the course of many years, God has been laying a foundation for what He wants to accomplish through His church. A new emphasis on living the mission of God has resulted in new outreaches into the community. There is a growing awareness of the fact that God has planted each of us where He wants us to be in order to help the people around us find Jesus. God’s future for GFA is exciting as we continue to pursue Him as our prize!
The Assemblies of God grew out of the Pentecostal revival, which began in the early 1900s in places such as Topeka, Kansas, and the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles. During times of prayer and Bible study, believers received spiritual experiences like those described in the book of Acts. Accompanied by “speaking in tongues,” their religious experiences were associated with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Acts 2), and participants in the movement were dubbed “Pentecostals.” The Pentecostal movement has grown from a handful of Bible school students in Topeka, Kansas, to an estimated 600 million in the world today.
Many participants who were baptized in the Holy Spirit during revivals and camp meetings in the early 1900s were not welcomed back to their former churches. These believers started many small churches throughout the country and communicated through publications that reported on the revivals. In 1913, a Pentecostal publication, the Word and Witness, called for the independent churches to band together for the purpose of fellowship and doctrinal unity. Other concerns for facilitating missionaries, chartering churches and forming a Bible training school were also on the agenda.
Some 300 Pentecostals met at an opera house in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914, and agreed to form a new fellowship of loosely knit independent churches. These churches were left with the needed autonomy to develop and govern their own local ministries, yet they were united in their message and efforts to reach the world for Christ. So began the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
Assemblies of God churches form a cooperative fellowship. As a result, the organization operates from the grass roots, allowing the local church to choose and develop ministries and facilities best suited for its local needs.
