View a compilation of three Sermonettes by Principle George Jeffreys.
On YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfGFOcMYiF4&videos=M6K2FXvC-kM
1 A Vital Question 2 The Foursquare Gospel 3Look Up! All are taken from 10” 78rpm Elim Records which have been digitally re-mastered.
Also look out for another YouTube Sermonette Never a man spoke like this man by Principle George Jeffreys.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Saturday, 27 March 2010
New DVD
I would like to commend a website to you
http://www.garywilkinson.eu/TheJeffreysBrothers/The%20JeffreysBrothers.html
Gary Wilkinson is an independent Christian television producer. He has a passion for bringing the Good News to people through the medium of television.
He has embarked on a project believing the importance of looking back at some of the lives and events that have impacted the church of Jesus in the earth today, to take encouragement from what others have achieved through faith and the empowering of the Holy Spirit to the establishing of the church of Jesus Christ.
On the DVD page of the website you will see a New DVD to be released in May 2010.
There is also a short film to view on YouTube
British Pentecostal Movement in the 20th Century.mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMyFjQE7ShE&feature=related
http://www.garywilkinson.eu/TheJeffreysBrothers/The%20JeffreysBrothers.html
Gary Wilkinson is an independent Christian television producer. He has a passion for bringing the Good News to people through the medium of television.
He has embarked on a project believing the importance of looking back at some of the lives and events that have impacted the church of Jesus in the earth today, to take encouragement from what others have achieved through faith and the empowering of the Holy Spirit to the establishing of the church of Jesus Christ.
On the DVD page of the website you will see a New DVD to be released in May 2010.
There is also a short film to view on YouTube
British Pentecostal Movement in the 20th Century.mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMyFjQE7ShE&feature=related
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
The First Elim Church
IRELAND
In 1914 – the year of the outbreak of the First World War – Christian Convention was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The organisers agreed to invite young George Jeffreys to attend. He was then 24 years of age.
At this convention were two leading men of Monaghan, named Alan Kerr and George Allen. Having heard of God’s blessing on the ministry of young George Jeffreys, and now having met him, they decided to invite him to their town to conduct a crusade. This was arranged for the next year – 1915
It was in Monaghan, in Jan 1915, that they discussed their plans, and make provision for the purchase of a marquee in which to hold their meetings. It was from this meeting that the Elim Four Square Gospel Alliance was birthed. The first church was purchased on Hunter Street in the Donegal Road area of Belfast, in June 1915. Through God's grace, the movement grew in number greatly in Northern Ireland, and the U.K. However, sadly its impact within the Republic took a little longer to bear fruit.
NORTHERN IRELAND
The work spread rapidly against great odds and personal hardships experienced by George Jeffreys and his evangelistic team. In some places persecution was fierce because of the direct message that was being preached. It came to be known as the Foursquare Gospel Campaign, because George Jeffreys concentrated his message on the four fundamental truths of the faith: Jesus Christ as the Saviour, Healer, Baptiser in the Holy Spirit, and Coming King.
As a result of all this, Elim was named the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance. Later it was to be known and the Elim Pentecostal Church. Throughout Northern Ireland some of the largest halls were used for very successful campaigns and in almost every instance an Elim Church was established.
THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
It was not until 1957 that Pastor Gordon Hills brought the movement to Dublin. It was in the building in Thomas Street that Elim roots in Dublin took root. It was also from Dublin that many of the other churches in the Republic were planted. The first of these was Westport. Westport is, as its name suggests the most westerly port in Europe. It was in this pictureesque village that the Gospel was preached by members of the Dublin church in the years of 1976-7. As a result of these outreaches a church was planted in 1977. Since 1977 the number of churches has grown, and there are now 10 churches in the Republic. These are located in Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, Limerick, Tipperary, Cavan, Monaghan, Meath, and Dublin (click on map for details).
Elim Ministries in Dublin
In 1991 Pastor John McEvoy recieived a word from the Lord that He was to return to Ballyfermot, after serving nearly 11 years as pastor in the fellowship in Westport. It took over a year for John to settle things in Westport. With the church, he purchased a building in Castlebar, but the Lord had told him he would never preach in it. Indeed, he never did because as the first meeting was taking place John, Vicky and the children were on their way back to Dublin. In 1992 John held six meetings in the West County Hotel, and the fellowship was born. After the initial Mettings in the West County, premises were sought in Ballyfermot. They came in the form of rooms above a florist. This was a less than auspicious beginning, but the Lord was with the church and it prospered.
In 1914 – the year of the outbreak of the First World War – Christian Convention was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The organisers agreed to invite young George Jeffreys to attend. He was then 24 years of age.
At this convention were two leading men of Monaghan, named Alan Kerr and George Allen. Having heard of God’s blessing on the ministry of young George Jeffreys, and now having met him, they decided to invite him to their town to conduct a crusade. This was arranged for the next year – 1915
It was in Monaghan, in Jan 1915, that they discussed their plans, and make provision for the purchase of a marquee in which to hold their meetings. It was from this meeting that the Elim Four Square Gospel Alliance was birthed. The first church was purchased on Hunter Street in the Donegal Road area of Belfast, in June 1915. Through God's grace, the movement grew in number greatly in Northern Ireland, and the U.K. However, sadly its impact within the Republic took a little longer to bear fruit.
NORTHERN IRELAND
The work spread rapidly against great odds and personal hardships experienced by George Jeffreys and his evangelistic team. In some places persecution was fierce because of the direct message that was being preached. It came to be known as the Foursquare Gospel Campaign, because George Jeffreys concentrated his message on the four fundamental truths of the faith: Jesus Christ as the Saviour, Healer, Baptiser in the Holy Spirit, and Coming King.
As a result of all this, Elim was named the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance. Later it was to be known and the Elim Pentecostal Church. Throughout Northern Ireland some of the largest halls were used for very successful campaigns and in almost every instance an Elim Church was established.
THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
It was not until 1957 that Pastor Gordon Hills brought the movement to Dublin. It was in the building in Thomas Street that Elim roots in Dublin took root. It was also from Dublin that many of the other churches in the Republic were planted. The first of these was Westport. Westport is, as its name suggests the most westerly port in Europe. It was in this pictureesque village that the Gospel was preached by members of the Dublin church in the years of 1976-7. As a result of these outreaches a church was planted in 1977. Since 1977 the number of churches has grown, and there are now 10 churches in the Republic. These are located in Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, Limerick, Tipperary, Cavan, Monaghan, Meath, and Dublin (click on map for details).
Elim Ministries in Dublin
In 1991 Pastor John McEvoy recieived a word from the Lord that He was to return to Ballyfermot, after serving nearly 11 years as pastor in the fellowship in Westport. It took over a year for John to settle things in Westport. With the church, he purchased a building in Castlebar, but the Lord had told him he would never preach in it. Indeed, he never did because as the first meeting was taking place John, Vicky and the children were on their way back to Dublin. In 1992 John held six meetings in the West County Hotel, and the fellowship was born. After the initial Mettings in the West County, premises were sought in Ballyfermot. They came in the form of rooms above a florist. This was a less than auspicious beginning, but the Lord was with the church and it prospered.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
History of Elim in Ireland
by Pastor Stephen Hilliard
Elim had its beginnings in the town of Monaghan, now in the Republic of Ireland, and grew indirectly out of the Welsh Revival at the start of the twentieth century.
During that Revival, a young Welshman called George Jeffreys was converted and, shortly afterwards, experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. He began to preach, at first in small places near his home and then, as his reputation grew, further and further afield.
While preaching in Sunderland, he was heard by two young brothers from Belfast, George and William Gillespie. They were so impressed that, on their return home, they wrote inviting him to speak at meetings they were organising in Bangor. They thoughtfully enclosed the fare - three ten shilling notes - and George Jeffreys duly arrived in Northern Ireland. Whilst there, he was asked to meet with a group of young men from Monaghan who shared his passion for evangelism and his belief in the power of the Holy Spirit.
A MEETING IN MONAGHAN
Those young men had a deep concern for the spiritual welfare of their native land and had been meeting to pray for revival in an old loft over the bottling store of a public house. On 7th January 1915, they met with George Jeffreys in Knox's Temperance Hotel to discuss how they might reach Ireland with the message of the Full Gospel.
They resolved that night that they would band together, under George Jeffreys' direction, to establish a permanent evangelistic work in Ireland, and would begin by holding a Gospel mission in the town. This they did, in a tent erected at North Street.
Though no church was established in Monaghan at that time, George Jeffreys considered those meetings to be the origins of the Elim Movement. He wrote later, "I regard Monaghan ... as being the birth place of this work." It was there that he first engaged in evangelism with the men and women who were to become his co-workers in Elim.
BUILDING IN BELFAST
After the Monaghan mission, the focus of the work shifted to Belfast. Meetings were held in a disused laundry in Hunter Street, and a congregation was formed, with George Jeffreys as pastor. The building was old and decrepit. There was hardly an unbroken pane of glass, and many of the holes were blocked with rags to keep out the wind and rain, as new glass was too expensive for the meagre resources of the evangelists. The street itself had an unsavoury reputation. Frederick Farlow, one of the young men from Monaghan, wrote, "The surroundings are anything but beautiful, in fact it is situated in one of the worst streets in the city, the name of which has had to be changed several times owing to the sinfulness of its inhabitants."
In 1917, George Jeffreys was officially ordained by a visiting Welsh Congregational minister, Rev. Moelfryn Morgan. Shortly afterwards, a church constitution was drawn up giving the newly formed fellowship the name Elim Christ Church.
Meanwhile, Elim was reaching into other parts of Northern Ireland. In February 1916, George Jeffreys began meetings in a tent in Ballymena. Over a period of five weeks, 120 people were saved and many were baptised in the Holy Spirit. During their time in Ballymena, George Jeffreys and his fellow workers first called themselves The Elim Evangelistic Band.
In July 1919, a disused church building in Melbourne Street at the bottom of Belfast's Shankill Road was acquired and refurbished. George Jeffreys and many of the Hunter Street congregation moved to this new and larger location and the Melbourne Street Church was recognised for years as the mother church of Elim.
THE SPREADING FLAME
Although it had not originally been George Jeffreys' intention to establish a denomination, the Elim Movement grew rapidly and was soon established as a legally recognised charity under the name 'Elim Pentecostal Alliance.'
Meanwhile, the work was extending to other parts of the Province and beyond. By the close of 1920, there were over twenty churches, including those in Armagh, Ballymena, Bangor, Belfast, Cullybackey, Lurgan, Moneyslane and Portadown. In 1919, the first issue of a new magazine, The Elim Evangel, appeared, to spread the news of what God was doing. Those early magazines were basic in format but the contents were exciting - a record of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of ordinary men and women. The pages read like extracts from the Acts of the Apostles. New Testament Christianity was alive and well in Ireland.
The issue for December 1920 lists the Elim workers of the day. In Ireland, there were twenty in total, six recognised as pastors, including George Jeffreys himself, twelve described as evangelists, and two deaconesses. In addition, there were three workers in Wales and three missionaries in the Congo. By the close of 1922 the number of workers exceeded thirty, including seven ladies. In a letter written at that time, George Jeffreys commented, "No salary is paid to any pastor or evangelist. Each one has to trust God individually."
Elim's founders knew their work was only part of the new, rapidly expanding Pentecostal movement that was sweeping across the world. God was doing something remarkable of which Elim was a small but significant part. Looking back, we can see how that tiny seed has developed to become the world-wide Pentecostal movement of today, the fastest growing section of Christianity. There are now over 550 million Spirit-filled believers across the world - almost 30% of all Christians.
CROSSING THE IRISH SEA
In the early 1920s, the decision was made to extend across the Irish Sea to England. This was a big step for the leaders of the newly formed Elim Movement. Some feared that England would provide a less favourable environment for their message. However, George Jeffreys readily accepted the new challenge.
The First World War had brought dramatic changes to life in Britain. Many of the old certainties and values had gone forever. Thousands of men had died in the trenches leaving penniless widows and fatherless children at home. Demobilised troops, many disabled in body or mind, came home, not to the 'land fit for heroes' they had been promised, but to unemployment and grinding poverty. The darkness deepened as western society moved into the period of economic chaos known as 'The Great Depression.'
The historic churches and their clergy could offer no satisfactory answers. Many of the latter were unbelieving liberals, denying the fundamentals of the faith, and were seen by ordinary people as no more than an arm of a discredited and uncaring establishment. Church-going, once an integral part of the British way of life, plummeted.
Into this vacuum stepped George Jeffreys and the Elim Movement. They proclaimed a clear message in days of confusion. Unlike the liberal clerics who paraded their unbelief before their dwindling and disillusioned congregations, they preached the Gospel with conviction. They offered a warm, vibrant style of worship that appealed to people alienated from the traditional forms of orthodox religion. They demonstrated the reality of the message they preached by praying for the sick and seeing them healed.
Ordinary men and women could see and feel that the Gospel was relevant to them and they flocked to Elim meetings in their thousands. The early years of that Elim 'invasion' of England were marked by outstanding growth and blessing, and some of the greatest evangelistic meetings Britain has ever seen. During the 1920s and 30s George Jeffreys and his Revival Party filled the largest public halls across the nation, often in the face of opposition from existing Christian bodies.
Frequently, they would arrive in a town without any advance publicity, with no known supporters there, and begin preaching to a tiny handful of the casually curious who drifted in. As miracles of healing took place and the Gospel was preached in power, word would get round and, within days, hundreds would be queuing for admission. This pattern was repeated in many towns and cities.
Elim had its beginnings in the town of Monaghan, now in the Republic of Ireland, and grew indirectly out of the Welsh Revival at the start of the twentieth century.
During that Revival, a young Welshman called George Jeffreys was converted and, shortly afterwards, experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. He began to preach, at first in small places near his home and then, as his reputation grew, further and further afield.
While preaching in Sunderland, he was heard by two young brothers from Belfast, George and William Gillespie. They were so impressed that, on their return home, they wrote inviting him to speak at meetings they were organising in Bangor. They thoughtfully enclosed the fare - three ten shilling notes - and George Jeffreys duly arrived in Northern Ireland. Whilst there, he was asked to meet with a group of young men from Monaghan who shared his passion for evangelism and his belief in the power of the Holy Spirit.
A MEETING IN MONAGHAN
Those young men had a deep concern for the spiritual welfare of their native land and had been meeting to pray for revival in an old loft over the bottling store of a public house. On 7th January 1915, they met with George Jeffreys in Knox's Temperance Hotel to discuss how they might reach Ireland with the message of the Full Gospel.
They resolved that night that they would band together, under George Jeffreys' direction, to establish a permanent evangelistic work in Ireland, and would begin by holding a Gospel mission in the town. This they did, in a tent erected at North Street.
Though no church was established in Monaghan at that time, George Jeffreys considered those meetings to be the origins of the Elim Movement. He wrote later, "I regard Monaghan ... as being the birth place of this work." It was there that he first engaged in evangelism with the men and women who were to become his co-workers in Elim.
BUILDING IN BELFAST
After the Monaghan mission, the focus of the work shifted to Belfast. Meetings were held in a disused laundry in Hunter Street, and a congregation was formed, with George Jeffreys as pastor. The building was old and decrepit. There was hardly an unbroken pane of glass, and many of the holes were blocked with rags to keep out the wind and rain, as new glass was too expensive for the meagre resources of the evangelists. The street itself had an unsavoury reputation. Frederick Farlow, one of the young men from Monaghan, wrote, "The surroundings are anything but beautiful, in fact it is situated in one of the worst streets in the city, the name of which has had to be changed several times owing to the sinfulness of its inhabitants."
In 1917, George Jeffreys was officially ordained by a visiting Welsh Congregational minister, Rev. Moelfryn Morgan. Shortly afterwards, a church constitution was drawn up giving the newly formed fellowship the name Elim Christ Church.
Meanwhile, Elim was reaching into other parts of Northern Ireland. In February 1916, George Jeffreys began meetings in a tent in Ballymena. Over a period of five weeks, 120 people were saved and many were baptised in the Holy Spirit. During their time in Ballymena, George Jeffreys and his fellow workers first called themselves The Elim Evangelistic Band.
In July 1919, a disused church building in Melbourne Street at the bottom of Belfast's Shankill Road was acquired and refurbished. George Jeffreys and many of the Hunter Street congregation moved to this new and larger location and the Melbourne Street Church was recognised for years as the mother church of Elim.
THE SPREADING FLAME
Although it had not originally been George Jeffreys' intention to establish a denomination, the Elim Movement grew rapidly and was soon established as a legally recognised charity under the name 'Elim Pentecostal Alliance.'
Meanwhile, the work was extending to other parts of the Province and beyond. By the close of 1920, there were over twenty churches, including those in Armagh, Ballymena, Bangor, Belfast, Cullybackey, Lurgan, Moneyslane and Portadown. In 1919, the first issue of a new magazine, The Elim Evangel, appeared, to spread the news of what God was doing. Those early magazines were basic in format but the contents were exciting - a record of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of ordinary men and women. The pages read like extracts from the Acts of the Apostles. New Testament Christianity was alive and well in Ireland.
The issue for December 1920 lists the Elim workers of the day. In Ireland, there were twenty in total, six recognised as pastors, including George Jeffreys himself, twelve described as evangelists, and two deaconesses. In addition, there were three workers in Wales and three missionaries in the Congo. By the close of 1922 the number of workers exceeded thirty, including seven ladies. In a letter written at that time, George Jeffreys commented, "No salary is paid to any pastor or evangelist. Each one has to trust God individually."
Elim's founders knew their work was only part of the new, rapidly expanding Pentecostal movement that was sweeping across the world. God was doing something remarkable of which Elim was a small but significant part. Looking back, we can see how that tiny seed has developed to become the world-wide Pentecostal movement of today, the fastest growing section of Christianity. There are now over 550 million Spirit-filled believers across the world - almost 30% of all Christians.
CROSSING THE IRISH SEA
In the early 1920s, the decision was made to extend across the Irish Sea to England. This was a big step for the leaders of the newly formed Elim Movement. Some feared that England would provide a less favourable environment for their message. However, George Jeffreys readily accepted the new challenge.
The First World War had brought dramatic changes to life in Britain. Many of the old certainties and values had gone forever. Thousands of men had died in the trenches leaving penniless widows and fatherless children at home. Demobilised troops, many disabled in body or mind, came home, not to the 'land fit for heroes' they had been promised, but to unemployment and grinding poverty. The darkness deepened as western society moved into the period of economic chaos known as 'The Great Depression.'
The historic churches and their clergy could offer no satisfactory answers. Many of the latter were unbelieving liberals, denying the fundamentals of the faith, and were seen by ordinary people as no more than an arm of a discredited and uncaring establishment. Church-going, once an integral part of the British way of life, plummeted.
Into this vacuum stepped George Jeffreys and the Elim Movement. They proclaimed a clear message in days of confusion. Unlike the liberal clerics who paraded their unbelief before their dwindling and disillusioned congregations, they preached the Gospel with conviction. They offered a warm, vibrant style of worship that appealed to people alienated from the traditional forms of orthodox religion. They demonstrated the reality of the message they preached by praying for the sick and seeing them healed.
Ordinary men and women could see and feel that the Gospel was relevant to them and they flocked to Elim meetings in their thousands. The early years of that Elim 'invasion' of England were marked by outstanding growth and blessing, and some of the greatest evangelistic meetings Britain has ever seen. During the 1920s and 30s George Jeffreys and his Revival Party filled the largest public halls across the nation, often in the face of opposition from existing Christian bodies.
Frequently, they would arrive in a town without any advance publicity, with no known supporters there, and begin preaching to a tiny handful of the casually curious who drifted in. As miracles of healing took place and the Gospel was preached in power, word would get round and, within days, hundreds would be queuing for admission. This pattern was repeated in many towns and cities.
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