My Testimony By Alan Keith Taylor

Details

Category: Testimonies

Published on Friday, 03 April 2009 05:35

Written by Alan Keith Taylor

MY TESTIMONY

By Alan Keith Taylor

I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour in July 1961 at a Billy Graham crusade at Main Road Football Stadium in Manchester.

I had little connection with the church in my younger days. My mother and father were nominally Anglican and although we went as a family at times such as Easter, Christmas, etc., the rest of the year there was never any thought of the church or of Jesus. When I was in my early years the local Brethren Church had a Sunday School crusade and I began to attend, but the talks and the choruses meant little to me. So often Sunday School can just leave the youngsters with nice little stories about Bible characters, but they are no more real than the fairy stories and fables they hear from their parents at bedtime. Such was the effect of Sunday School on me.

It was in my years at Secondary School that I began to hear about Jesus Christ. A friend I made in those years, named David Leeming, often witnessed to me about Jesus Christ and invited me to attend Urmston Gospel Mission, where he and his mother worshipped. I persistently refused however as "church" had no real interest to me. David, however, was not putt off, and persisted with me in witness and invitations. In 1961 the evangelist, Billy Graham*, made a visit to Britain and a crusade was arranged at Manchester City Football Ground in Main Road, Manchester. The Urmston Gospel Mission arranged a series of coaches to take any interested parties to the crusade. David asked me to come along, and I said yes - on false pretences really, as there was a girl who I was interested in who I knew had accepted an invitation and so I accepted also!

I don't remember too much regarding the message that Billy Graham gave. I remember the bright music and choruses - not like the "church" I remember from my Anglican visits. I remember a part of the message, where Billy Graham said that if the claims of Jesus were true, then it would do no harm to investigate these claims, and this appealed to my intellect, and so when the appeal was made, I went forward. The counsellor explained to me more of the claims of Christ and placed before me a challenge - that if I invited Jesus Christ to come into my life, if all that I had been told was untrue, there would be no effect. If however the claims of Christ were real I would then know.

With that challenge I prayed and invited Jesus to come into my life and prove Himself real to me. The next day there was little evidence, but as the days went past, I found that there was a real change in my life. I no longer had a desire to do some of the things I used to do. My swearing stopped overnight, and with no conscious effort on my part. Whereas I once had no desire to attend church, when David asked me to accompany him the following Sunday to Urmston Gospel Mission, I accepted, and I really enjoyed the meetings there, and for the next five years this was my Spiritual "home". My mother noticed the change in my life and it was not too long after this that she came along with me to the Mission Hall and gave her life to the Lord also. My mother was a keen and active member of this church until she became house bound.

In late 1965 I began to read a book, "The Cross and the Switchblade" by David Wilkerson. Also, one of the members of the Mission had a friend who attended the Assembly of God church in Liverpool, and the church youth group were invited to take the youth meeting at the Mission. This was the first time I heard "speaking in tongues", which I had only read about in the "Cross and the Switchblade" book. These young Liverpudlians very much impressed me, and I resolved that I would like to have what they had in their lives. In 1966 a friend took me to hear David Wilkerson at Bethshan Tabernacle in Manchester, and when David Wilkerson gave an invitation to come forward to receive the Baptism in the Holy Ghost, I went forward for prayer. I was a little disappointed that nothing seemed to happen in the meeting, but in my prayers that evening in my bedroom I began to utter words that I did not understand. I went on from there, learning to develop this tongue and it was not long after this time that I had to leave the Mission as they were not in favour of the Holy Ghost Baptism. I joined an AoG. Church in Cadishead, Manchester, where the late Pastor Tom Morgan took me under his wing, and encouraged me in the things of the Spirit, and to launch out into ministry which calling was a growing conviction in my life.

When I married in 1973, I moved from Manchester to Dartford, North Kent, and I attended with my wife, Christine, the local Pentecostal church. I began to have a growing concern about the lack of witness in the villages in the area, and though various contacts, was invited to minister in a few of the village chapels of various denominations. This was met with some opposition at the AoG church I attended, as their philosophy at that time was to create a large church in Dartford and to bus the people into the town from the surrounding villages - a concept which does not appeal to me. I was also beginning to get involved with the ministry of Evangelist Peter Scothern, as I had helped to organise a crusade with 'Brother Peter' for a little Free Church in the village of Longfield, near. Dartford. That contact grew to the point that Peter Scothern and I became quite close, and he asked me to become the Honorary General Secretary to his then infant conception of a fellowship of ministers and churches. This was to connect many of the churches and ministers that had come into being through his then 30+ years of ministry, both in the UK and overseas. I brought this to fruition as the New Testament Fellowship. It was this latter move which led me to part from the AoG to fellowship at the little church in Longfield.

I officially took on the role as Hon. Gen. Secretary of the "New Testament Fellowship" in the latter part of the 1970's and was acting as such when I entered Bible training college, a part time evening college run by the Foursquare ministers, Elmer and Jean Darnall, in London. In my final year I was 'student pastor'. I graduated in 1981.

In 1980, together with a retired missionary from India and his wife, we reopened an independent Full Gospel Church in the village of Horton Kirby, and I was leading elder of this church for 5 years, until my wife, Christine, was diagnosed as having a brain tumour. Rev Peter Scothern ordained me as leader of the church, and this was later ratified by credentials from International Gospel Outreach fellowship of ministers (my credentials with IGO expired on 31^st October 1995. I do still carry full ministerial status with the New Testament Fellowship however.). I had a full time secular job as Branch Manager of a large London Post Office Counter, as well as having three young children, and so it was agreed by the church that Ralph, the other elder (the retired missionary) would take over sole responsibility for the church when Christine became ill. Peter Scothern also agreed to accept my standing down as secretary of the New Testament Fellowship.

I did take the pastorate of the (then) independent Springfield Pentecostal Church, Northfleet for a short time after the AoG had closed it down, but with Christine's declining heath, I had to relinquish this after only six months, but handed the work over to the Elim Pentecostal Church under the oversight of my elder, the late Bill Coveney, who was later appointed as Pastor by Elim.

Sadly, Christine passed away after a long battle with cancer in 1985. This however never moved me from absolute faith in God's Word which tells us that "by His stripes we were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). Our apparent failures are not God's failures, but a lack of understanding and revelation on our part of the ways of God.

I remarried in 1986 to Carol and we now have a fourth child, Andrew James, born 1990. We later found out that Andrew has a disabling condition called Marfan’s Syndrome.

Although I have not had the oversight of a church since Christine died, I have maintained an active ministry, preaching in chapels and churches across the South of England, mainly to the small fellowships - ever mindful of the Lord's calling on my life to pastor and teach God' flock. Many people have said that I have had a prophetic ministry to the fellowships I have ministered in during this time. Sadly most of these smaller fellowships, mostly non-Pentecostal, have closed down in recent years (not because of my preaching I trust) because of falling congregations and lack of flexibility by the leaders to ensure a future for the members and the buildings.

I was medically retired from my job as Post Office Manager in 1991, as my health had not been 100% since I lost my first wife. We moved from Dartford to Broadstairs in April 1992 because of my health, trusting the sea air would be of benefit. The Lord has opened many doors for ministry in this area in the months we have been in East Kent in the way of Bible Teaching ministry.

We also applied to the Cheltenham H.Q. for an of the Elim Pentecostal Church, and attended an interview with the Ministerial Selection and Training Board. We were accepted for the position as an Honorary Pastor, subject to appointment to a suitable church. Retirement from work after suffering from M.E. had prevented further pursuit of this avenue, and I have been informed that this option has since been closed due to reorganisation within the Elim Church.

I currently do some administration work for the British Conference of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, holding ministerial licence with them.

Currently we are looking to the Lord for 100% recovery for my health, and also that a door may be open for us for future service. I help look after our 9-year-old son, Andrew.

* Brother Hicks' Note: It is interesting to note that many people have gotten saved under Billy Graham's ministry even if the teaching is questionable at best. If the word of God goes forth it will accomplish that which it was sent to accomplish (Isaiah 55:11), and this proves nothing about the spiritual state of the one giving forth the word. I got saved under Jack Van Impe's ministry and he currently is backslidden from the faith and exalts the Pope to the denying of the word of the living God..

• < Prev
• Next >