Pastor Al's Bio

My earliest memory takes me back to a log cabin at Jenning’s Lodge on the Willamette River outside Portland, Oregon where my father attended Western Evangelical Seminary following completion of four years of college during WWII. There he met and married the lady with whom he spent 59 years in faithful marriage—my mother. Not many can say they were brought directly from the hospital to his father’s church to hear his first sermon. I am almost certain the title that Sunday was, “Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me.” (Well, almost.)

Throughout those years Dad pastored churches across America. I was a P.K. (preacher’s kid), and the fifty’s placed a pastor’s wife and children under undue pressure to maintain what can only be described as a “Leave It To Beaver Family” example— pretty tough for a kid with two older brother’s whose love for adventure provided numerous illustrations for dad’s sermons.

One of the defining moments of my early years was my father’s confrontation with several church members in a tobacco growing community outside Greensboro, North Carolina. The year was 1952, and I often accompanied my father as he made his rounds visiting members of his flock. Vivid recollections of black field-hands harvesting tobacco in the summer’s heat; others sitting at the back of buses; separate facilities in restaurants and rest rooms; and the absence of blacks in our church etched images of injustice upon a boy’s heart.

The South’s deep racial bigotry was an intolerable condition that grated against everything my father believed—intolerable to a man called to preach Truth regardless the cost to person or reputation. After three years of faithful pastoral care, the evil of bigotry would be exposed in a Sunday sermon entitled “The White Papers”—a sermon decrying the condition of hearts—white on the outside; dark on the inside. The poor Quaker preacher, with wife and four small boys at his side, stood before his congregation to unload the burden of his heart with these words spoken by the Apostle Paul:

"But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another...” Col. 3:8-16

The events during those formative years, ending with my father’s climatic resignation, wove fibers of conscience that remain to this day. I remain acutely aware that my greatest failure is when I fail to love—”...above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.”

In 1968, I graduated from the same college where my father and mother met—Cascade College in Portland, Oregon. A season at King’s Garden’s Miracle Ranch in Bremerton, Washington provided the setting where I was baptized in Lost Lake by the camps founder and dear friend, Jack Geer. There, in my Sophomore year, God buried my life in Lost Lake and thus began my greatest adventure under the Lordship of Christ.

In 1968, after graduation, I enlisted in the Army on the west coast; returned home for the summer to help my father build a new church in Illinois, and then returned to Ft. Lewis for basic training. Few have had their dog tags stamped “Quaker”, and it is perhaps because of this that I was shipped to Korea instead of Viet Nam. In due time, I was transferred to the Chaplaincy to compose a history of the Army chapels that were built following the Korean War. This allowed travels throughout Korea and initiated an interest in publication design.
After my service, sensing a call into the ministry, I returned to the Midwest to work in the publications department at The Oriental Missionary Society in Indiana. But God’s plan included a precious lady—and she could not be found in Indiana. I returned to Oregon and there, while sharing the Gospel with a fellow employee at Blue Cross, that young lady overhead me talking to a fellow employee about Jesus. Her curiosity caused her to inquire if I were a Christian, and the result of that conversation radically changed the direction of my entire life (not that I
actually had a clear direction).

Her name was Sherie, and her love for Christ and deep commitment to God’s choices above her own (besides her beauty, of course) set my sails—and the winds were favorable. We were married just three months following our first encounter.

It was during these months in 1971 that I pressed hard ”...to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering.” And as I studied God’s Word I began to see Christ in a different light—as sin-bearer; healer not only of body, but of the soul; and Christ, baptizer of the Holy Spirit. Alone in our apartment in the Fall of 1971, Jesus baptized me with His Spirit. The presence of God poured in upon my spirit and praise and worship filled my upper room in an unknown tongue.

Space is limited here, but God’s unlimited mercy and matchless grace has followed us throughout our years. Together, Sherie and I have been blessed with six children who are a testimony of God’s saving grace; and soon we will be blessed with nine grandchildren. Add to these those that we call our spiritual children!

Time and time again, doors have been opened when no sign of a door existed:
• A simple question, “How is your soul?” Initiated events which resulted in the conversion of a woman whose daughters would become our own upon her premature death.
• A woman, captive to fear and prostitution, was marvelously saved when the voice of God spoke a simple command, “Go back!”
• Another door opened for two years in weekly ministry to captives at the Clair Argo Women’s prison during Portland’s campaign to clean up prostitution.
• The life of a young drug addict named Chico was brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. Early the following morning, I watched as Chico’s body was carried from his home in a body-bag. Several speculated that he was murdered.
• A desire to minister to my eight year old son, Nathan, encouraged me to join the Royal Ranger Boy’s Ministry. It was during one of our camping adventures in the Tillamook Forests that I saw my son walking beside a man in buckskins who would become God’s precious gift to me—a friend named “Little Bear”.
• Another door (a literal one) required hanging during a church work day. It was the end of the new construction of Portland Foursquare Church (we had attended our first service the Sunday before). Little did we know, that we would have the joy of serving as teachers; lay-pastor overseeing home groups; and five years on the church council serving two thousand faithful. It was God’s marvelous way of instruction in a school of “higher” learning under the mentoring and tutelage of a pastor of pastors, Dr. Allan Hamilton and the incredible men with whom I was privileged to serve.

These and many other doors opened and closed in the 70’s and 80’s. Since then, others have invited entry:
• Bible School, 1971-’73
• New Life Foundation, A substance abuse ministry
• Inter-city Youth Ministry in North Portand’s federal housing district
• River of Life Television
• A two-year season of prayer at Portland Four (weekdays, 5-7am). Rarely were any of the up to thirty-plus men absent; and each who began the prayer meeting entered ministries full-time.
• Multnomah Press
• The Teaching Home Magazine
• Pastoral staff, Harvest Fellowship
• Pastoral Advisory Board, Church On The Way, San Antonio
• Men’s Ministry Director and Mission’s Board, First Assembly of God
• Author: The Highest Gave His Voice
• Living Water Fellowship, co-founding pastor