This was the first issue of Our Life Together. We had a church newsletter before this, but it was only for members of First Baptist Church Chula Vista. The first thing to catch my eye was that I had just returned from a tour of duty in the Western Pacific (a WestPac Cruise). Later in the issue it states that I have returned from North Viet Nam. If you know your history, this is a little strange. All of the fighting during the Viet Nam War was in South Viet Nam. We were protecting the government and people of the Republic of Viet Nam (South Viet Nam) from an insurgency powered by North Viet Nam (if you aren't aware, North Viet Nam won). Well, what was I doing in North Viet Nam?
This was 1973 and the US was really trying to disengage from the war. There was a lot of division here in the states and there was a general feeling that we need to get out. One of the problems was that North Viet Nam was holding a number of Prisoners of War (including John McCain). We wanted them to come home. One of the things that North Viet Nam wanted was for their harbor of Haiphong to be cleared of the mines that we had sown over the last few years. I was the logistics officer for the admiral in charge of the surface warfare ships in this operation; Endsweep.
I wont tell a lot of war stories, but I will say that this was a very trying operation. We were clearing their harbor, but they continually shot at our helos. We were there at their behest (they even had observers aboard some of our ships), yet they would make unannounced torpedo runs on our ships -- trying to provoke us. The mission was successful and we saved a Presidential Candidate. At some time I'll tell more. For the purposes of this post, I just wanted to say that this first issue of OLT brought back a lot of memories to me.
I joined the First Baptist Church of Chula Vista in April, 1967. At that time, I had no idea that I would become the Pastor of the church (in 1980) or that there was anything of "special" about the church. I was in the Navy at the time and actually figured that Linda and I would be moving on in a couple of years. How wrong I was -- on all counts.
First of all, we didn't move on. Because of the Navy and the Viet Nam war, I moved on (always to the Far East), but my family stayed in Chula Vista. When I was in town, I got more active in the church. I even became the choir director; there were three of us who were Naval Officers that traded off as choir directors, depending on who was not at sea.
Secondly, the church became very significant for two reasons. The first was the Charismatic Movement which started in the early 60's. Those of us who were a part of the Charismatic Movement believed that the miraculous events of the New Testament were still in operation today; this includes such gifts as healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues. The avenue toward appropriating these gifts was through the Baptism of the Spirit. Essentially this just means that we submitted ourselves to God in such a way that we were open to any manifestation that He wanted to exhibit through us. Ken Pagard, our pastor was one of the leaders of this movement among Baptists. He really was the force behind and the leader of the American Baptist Charismatic Fellowship. The second thing that made our ministry significant is that there was a large "revival" among young "hippies" called the Jesus People movement. Our church became a center for these young people who came to believe in Jesus. They came with a lot of energy as well as a lot of problems, such as drug addiction. To help combat this, our church members started taking young people in to live with them. Soon, we had a number of communal households.
Both of these issues made us very well known in certain circles. People from all over the world came to visit us. Of course people from all of the States came, but also people from England, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Zaire. Why these countries? Rev Pagard spoke in all of these places.
The major unifying force for this ministry was our church newsletter, "Our Life Together". This was published from 1973-1982. The circulation was close to 5,000 copies at it's peak. Most of the years it was published weekly. Each issue was usually 8-12 pages. There aren't many complete sets still in existence, but, I have one of those sets on loan. The Editor has loaned his set to me. I am in the process of scanning it onto my computer. I intend to use them to give some of the history of the movements that it celebrates. I will try to upload some of the copies and provide commentary. It reports on an exciting time to be a part of this church.
.jpg)
