Belief series: Four Square Assembly of God

Note: Have you ever wondered what different faiths and beliefs are all about? Or exactly what it is your neighbor believes or how he/she worships on Sundays? Have you ever wondered how your Pastor or Father became a leader of a church? This is the first article in a series about the many different beliefs and strong faiths of Sidney residents. I have great respect and sincere gratitude for all the Pastors and Fathers who took the time to sit down and talk to me about your faith.

Pastor Jim Gerhold is the leader of the Christian Life Center, a former Foursquare congregate with parents who were ministers in the church.

Though his strong religious background would have naturally pointed towards Gerhold being a minister himself, he admittedly struggled with his faith for a time in his teens when his parents divorced.

“At youth camp I rededicated my heart to God. While I was praying I felt a real strong calling to ministry. I didn’t want ministry, because of my mom and dad’s divorce. I always attributed their divorce to ministry, even though it really had nothing to do with it. As a kid you don’t separate issues but as an adult you can,” Pastor Gerhold said.

The reason he kept within the Assembly beliefs was due to the a Pastor from his youth that did not give up on him, no matter what he did or said, according to Gerhold.

When his breakthrough came and he dedicated himself to the church he told the Pastor, “It is all or nothing for me I can’t make that walk and be half way.”

He recalled how emotional that time of his life was and attributes that moment in time to his life’s path.

In his early adult years, his wife Kathy by his side, he traveled for the church in a singing group called “Vessels” until the church asked him to stop traveling and become a part of the staff.

“We were traveling part time I was a foreman for a big company. During the week we ran their plant and during the weekends we went out on ministry. My boss was a wonderful Christian man and he let me off to go travel. I made up time and he didn’t care.”

When asked about his use of we Pastor Gerhold said, “Kathy and I are a team. We probably break the mold of most pastors, we are almost inseparable. She doesn’t preach, but we do everything together. She is a designer.”

Mrs. Gerhold designs many different things for the Christian Life Center, from bulletins to banners.

It wasn’t long after the church asked the Gerholds to take a position on staff within the church that the two were full time ministering.

Gerhold said the two have been in the majority of the southwest, as well as being a part of a children’s ministry with a television show in Dallas, Texas.

“We are very media minded people, I love media. I use a lot of media in my sermons. I love to use video clips and things that zoom in on a theme or topic.”

Something he has carried over into the way he teaches his congregation here in Sidney.

The Gerholds ended up in Sidney when a friend of Jim’s came to the Christian Life Center for a revival.

“We had never been a lead Pastor,” Gerhold said. “I had really felt like God had spoken to our heart about the lead pastor position, even if it was just to see what a lead pastor goes through, so I would better understand as a staff.

“We came out here to try things out, but the church said, ‘No, you’re here we want you to try it out, then you can go home and decide if you want to come or not’ and that is what we did. The church voted on us and it was almost 100 percent that wanted us, so we took two weeks went home and decided if this is what we wanted or not. We felt like God was directing us this way.”

The church where Pastor Gerhold works is slightly different from the kind of church he grew up with, though both are Pentecostal.

“We are very strong in what I call Acts two church. We are not Pentecostal or charismatic, we are in the middle of the road. Under the category of Pentecostal there is extreme Pentecostal and the opposite is the charismatic movement. We are kind of spirit filled, right in the middle, we believe in the moving of the spirit and we believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not necessarily the way to get to Heaven it is knowing Jesus Christ.”

The Pastor uses a couple books to lead his sermons and teachings; he said he uses the ‘NIV’ and ‘The Message.’

He said it is due to the more modern words used within the pages as opposed to the many “thees and thous” within the King James version of the bible.

“I like King James to research because they have used a lot of the Greek words that came from the original Greek and Hebrew and the translation. But I don’t preach with it because I feel like it is kind of old school, in a sense of nobody talks in King James.”

He said he feels the books he does use allows him to carry on a more conversation like preaching than if he were to go only by the King James Bible.

The contemporary aspect of his teaching practices is due to the need to reach everyone and to focus more on what I am allowed than what is not allowed, Pastor Gerhold said.

“We have what we call our 16 fundamental doctrines. But the big four of the 16 is, we believe in salvation, the gift of God through eternal life through Jesus Christ dying on the cross. We are very strong in that. We believe secondary the Holy Spirit is a gift to us, part of the trinity. We believe father, son, Holy Spirit is the trinity. We believe that Jesus Christ was more than just a good man but he was the son of God. We believe in the blessed hope the second coming of Christ and he is going to come, heaven is our eternal reward that in salvation.”

Another aspect that Pastor Gerhold said was important to him was to bring unity to the Christian beliefs.

“I don’t think when we get to Heaven you are going to see divisions there; you’re not going to see Baptist in one corner, the Lutherans over here and the Assembly in that corner. The main thing, in my opinion, is salvation through Jesus Christ.”

The Pastor said in his beliefs, a cornerstone of the Christian Life Center’s doctrine, if a person thinks there are many ways to get to Heaven, and not just through Jesus Christ then they are in trouble eternally.

“I doesn’t really matter what denomination sign hangs on your door the only matters is what is in your heart. God doesn’t recognize denomination, he recognizes what is in your heart.”