Bearing Fruit in the Spirit

Toledo Foursquare Church

I was born the youngest of seven children into a Pentecostal minister’s home. I was raised in church and raised with an understanding that I needed to serve the Lord.  My mother often told me that God had a plan for my life and encouraged me to seek Him for what that might be.  I strayed from the Lord miserably in High School and then rededicated my life to Him and was called into the ministry in my senior year.  Upon graduation from High School I went to Eugene Bible College and got my Bachelor’s degree in Pastoral ministry.  It was in Bible College that my wife Debbie was fortunate enough to meet me and we were married in our sophomore year.  We finished Bible College together and took our first pastorate in 1982 in Toledo Oregon.  The church grew and flourished.  Three years later I resigned and took a job as a Christian School administrator where my wife Debbie was teaching.  Again God blessed us considerably and the school grew and flourished.  So I resigned, bought a Kenworth and contracted myself to Mayflower as an independent mover.  Debbie went with me with our oldest daughter Ashly who was just two at the time.   Once again God blessed us considerably and we grew and flourished in that business.  We did this for five years and I returned home to work as an associate pastor with our Foursquare Church in Newport OR, just seven miles away from Toledo.   It was the desire of my pastor who was also at the time our divisional supervisor that I consider planting a Foursquare Church in Toledo Oregon.  For two years I resisted the idea and then God made it clear to me that this was His desire as well so I obeyed and Debbie and I planted Toledo Foursquare Church 17 years ago.  It has grown and flourished and I am still here.  We love it and have no desire to leave.  Debbie and I have gone to school together, worked together, lived on the road together and have now been married to each other for 31 years.  We have two children Ashly who is married and living on her own with her husband Matt and Charli who is 8 and living on her own with us her parents.
 
 I have since earned a Master’s degree in Community Counseling and also a Master’s degree in counseling psychology.  I am now an ordained minister with International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and am also advanced certified in human behavior.   I see myself as a discipler.  I love serving God and His people.  Beyond that I like to think of myself as an incurable nut and I believe it is my job to make people laugh all the way to heaven.   Serving Christ is everything to me, I am a firm believer in morality and don’t believe in compromise.   I have my devotions every day and then to me the greatest reason for seeking the Holy Spirit is finding Him.  He is great - what an experience.   God is truly the greatest person I could know. He is warm, charming, loving, intelligent, disciplined, patient, loyal, creative and marvelously funny.  I hope for your sake that you share in my love for Him. 
 
In Christ,
 
Charles
 

Copyright 2007 Toledo Foursquare Church, Toledo, Oregon